New computer builder, Looking for imput on my rig.

[Pyrocreation]

Have been playing on a 6 year old Dell XPS Gen 2 for quite a while and although it has served me well I believe now is the time to build a desktop. I am just looking for thoughts on this, only real part I have yet to fully decide on is the monitor and keyboard.

Processor -Intell core i7-930 bloomfield 2.8 Ghz LGA 1366 130w quad-core bx80601930
Mother Board-Asus p6x58d premium lga 1366 intel x58 sata 6bg/s usb 3.0 atx intel motherboard
Memory - 6gb (3X2gb) G.Skill ripjaws series 240-pin ddr3 sdram ddr3 1600 (pcs 128000)
HardDrive - Western digital caviar black wd1002faex 1tb 7200 rpm sata 6.0gb/s 3.5" internal hard drive- bare drive
Optical drive - Lite-ON 24x DVD writer black sata model ihas424-98
Case- Cooler Master HAF X full tower
Power supply - XFX black edition p1-750b-cag9 750w atx12 v2.2/esp12v v2.91 sli ready crossfire ready
OS- windows 7 professional (since I own many older games that would benefit from the compatability from professional vs home)
CPU cooler - Thermaltake Frio overlocking-ready intel core i7 compatible 5 8mm heatpipes with dual 120 mm fans
Video Card - XFX HD-587x-znfc Radeon HD 5870 1gb 256-bit ddr5 pci express 2.1X 16 HDCP ready crossfireX

Keyboard - I am trying to decide between the Logitech G510 or logitech G15 2-tone keyboards. I am leaning towards the G15 though because it is cheaper and am unsure how much an upgraded screen will benefit me.

Monitor - Wow, I am really lost on this one. Was going to go for an ASUS VW246H which as 2ms and HDMI but I seriously unsure of what is good. I do want around a 24inch monitor that is around or under 300 bucks.


I plan on playing games like World of Warcraft as well as StarCraft 2 with some growth towards things like Civ5 when my pocketbook recovers .

I live and plan to order parts from within the United States. Also, I have never done any overclocking nor do I know how but I believe I will do some mild overclocking with this build. possibly to a 3ghz from the default 2.8.

 

[MisterDonut]

1366 is unnecessary for gaming. You're paying a premium for almost no beneficial options compared to 1156.

Go with an i5-760 + Gigabyte P55 (USB/SATA 3 is up to you, but pick the cheapest board with all the options you want) + 4GB (2x2) G.Skill DDR3-1333 + GTX460 1GB + Antec 500W + Samsung F3 1TB + Optical drive. If you're only going to do mild overclocking, leave the HSF stock (or get a Hyper 212+) and let TurboBoost do it for you.

As for a case, I like the 690II for first time builders, or the Antec 300 for a budget builder.
As for keyboard, I find the Saitek Eclipse incredibly nice.

If you have room, you can throw in an SSD (Corsair Force 60GB or an OCZ Vertex 2/Agility 2 or the Intel X-25M is a good deal right now on the Egg).

By the way, the 5870 might be overkill depending on your resolution. If you end up with a 1080p monitor, get the GTX460 and save money for when 69xx replaces the current 58xx cards. Honestly, even if you do end up with a 1920x1200 monitor, get the GTX460 cause it'll do what games you play right now, and save for new-gen cards.

 

[Pyrocreation]

I am trying to get a decent amount of power to last for 3-4 years. I am basically getting this computer free of charge (won the pool for parts) so I am trying to get more power than is necessary in order to insulate it from future requirements for games.

Is the monitor that i linked good in your mind? Should I look for something with 5ms response rather than 2ms? or 1920X1200? I am fairly lost with monitors

 

[Campy]

I have this monitor. Works fine for all my gaming(which is a lot). Good response time looks good etc.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ung%20p245

 

[Pyrocreation]

Nice Campy, too bad it is out of stock, apparently has been for a little while.
Still wondering if I should try to find a 1200 monitor rather than a 1080...

Still was thinking of http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...scrollFullInfo

for those of you wondering what the monitor i mentioned was.

 

[fffblackmage]

What's your budget?

There's literally no point in going with LGA1366 unless you want SLI/xfire. I'd much rather go with an LGA1156 setup and pick up an SSD.

Also, if you're thinking of playing games on XP mode in Win7 Pro, you can't. (Unless there's something else I don't know about the compatibility in Win7 Pro versus Home?)

 

[Pyrocreation]

fffblackmage,

I plan on doing a crossfire later on down the line as the price of this particular card drops down to around the 250ish range and/or when i pick up a soundcard/ more ram as the technical needs for games goes up. Could of sworn I put that in when i originally posted, my apologies for not doing so, I know it makes a large difference.

I was told by a friend of mine that the pro would allow me to play some old games much easier than on the home version of windows 7 because it was more flexible with older software. I get a large discount on OS from the local university shop so if the price isnt too bad I will still probably get pro over home just incase.

My budget is around 2200. anything over that and I have to put my own cash into it. Kinda why I want a monitor under 300 or so bucks but I am really looking for a quality one that isn't gonna give me problems.

 

[CurseTheSky]

I was told by a friend of mine that the pro would allow me to play some old games much easier than on the home version of windows 7 because it was more flexible with older software. I get a large discount on OS from the local university shop so if the price isnt too bad I will still probably get pro over home just incase.

Windows 7 Professional includes "Xp Mode," which will allow you to run Windows Xp as a virtual machine INSIDE of Windows 7. It MAY help with a few games, but you're most likely going to be able to run anything in Windows 7 that would normally run in Windows Xp.

For really old games, DosBox is what you want. You could also always try to pick up an older copy of Windows (2000, 98 SE, etc.) and run that as a virtual machine.

 

[MisterDonut]

fffblackmage,

I plan on doing a crossfire later on down the line as the price of this particular card drops down to around the 250ish range and/or when i pick up a soundcard/ more ram as the technical needs for games goes up. Could of sworn I put that in when i originally posted, my apologies for not doing so, I know it makes a large difference.

I was told by a friend of mine that the pro would allow me to play some old games much easier than on the home version of windows 7 because it was more flexible with older software. I get a large discount on OS from the local university shop so if the price isnt too bad I will still probably get pro over home just incase.

My budget is around 2200. anything over that and I have to put my own cash into it. Kinda why I want a monitor under 300 or so bucks but I am really looking for a quality one that isn't gonna give me problems.

Crossfire/SLI is already a little iffy, so the best solution, IMO, is still a single-card setup. Besides, no game right now really warrants the use of multiple GPU's. 4GB of RAM is already plenty. No gamer should ever need more right now. If you want a faster processor, the i7-860 is still miles better than 1366 if you don't overclock to its full potential.

 

[Pyrocreation]

What would you recommend over clocking it to misterdonut? I have never done it before, therefore, I am more than a little apprehensive about it. I know there are guides on how to, but I am still concerned with stability and longevity of the parts.

 

[fffblackmage]

What would you recommend over clocking it to misterdonut? I have never done it before, therefore, I am more than a little apprehensive about it. I know there are guides on how to, but I am still concerned with stability and longevity of the parts.

It's not necessary to overclock. Both the i7-860 (LGA1156) and i7-930 (LGA1366) have Turbo Boost, but the i7-860's Turbo Boost has a greater effect. If you run a program that is primarily single-threaded (requiring only one of the four cores), Turbo Boost bumps the i7-860's clock frequency up to 3.46GHz, while the i7-930 gets bumped up to 3.06 GHz. If you don't overclock, you benefit more from the i7-860. That's what MisterDonut meant.

I also don't recommend xfire/SLI. Buying another video card down the road just isn't the best reason for doing xfire/SLI, but the option should be still available on LGA1156 anyways - without significant penalty to gaming performance either, if any.

 

[muskie32]

Here are some interesting combos:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...t=Combo.513316
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...t=Combo.476024

 

[mfenn]

What's your budget?

There's literally no point in going with LGA1366 unless you want SLI/xfire. I'd much rather go with an LGA1156 setup and pick up an SSD.

Also, if you're thinking of playing games on XP mode in Win7 Pro, you can't. (Unless there's something else I don't know about the compatibility in Win7 Pro versus Home?)

It's not necessary to overclock. Both the i7-860 (LGA1156) and i7-930 (LGA1366) have Turbo Boost, but the i7-860's Turbo Boost has a greater effect. If you run a program that is primarily single-threaded (requiring only one of the four cores), Turbo Boost bumps the i7-860's clock frequency up to 3.46GHz, while the i7-930 gets bumped up to 3.06 GHz. If you don't overclock, you benefit more from the i7-860. That's what MisterDonut meant.

I also don't recommend xfire/SLI. Buying another video card down the road just isn't the best reason for doing xfire/SLI, but the option should be still available on LGA1156 anyways - without significant penalty to gaming performance either, if any.

OP, listen to this guy. He's giving you some really good advice.

Grab an i5 760 + MSI P55A-GD55. The 760 is really BETTER than the 930 for gaming because HT doesn't get you anything and the 760 turbos higher.

 

[Pyrocreation]

Thank you guys for all the advice! Ordering the parts today or tommorrow, depending on how busy today gets.

Just the issue of the OS and monitor remain unchecked for me. I believe I will take the advice and just get a full retail copy of win7 home rather than paying for the professional edition.

 

[fffblackmage]

I didn't really notice it before, but the i5-760 and i7-860 are identical except for the HT, isn't it? On newegg, the price difference is about $70, which is kind of crazy.

@OP If you have microcenter nearby, they have the i7-870 for $230. The i5-760 is $209 at newegg. +$21 doesn't seem too bad for a small clock frequency bump and HT, though who knows if HT will do much. But hmmm... might look cool once you open task manager.

If you don't have a microcenter nearby, well, you're not losing out on much at all anyways.

 

[mfenn]

I didn't really notice it before, but the i5-760 and i7-860 are identical except for the HT, isn't it? On newegg, the price difference is about $70, which is kind of crazy.

Yep, they are identical except for the HT.

<Intel Marketing>But you're getting twice the (logical) cores! $70 is a steal!</Intel Marketing>

Needless to say, that is BS. HT isn't worth the premium IMHO.

 

[Davidh373]

HT on a quad core is only valuable if the application used can take advantage of 5+ threads, which only .5&#37; of aplications can do... and none of them are games...

i5/4GB Ram/USB3.0/SATAIII/GTX470 would be my Intel gaming build.

 

[MisterDonut]

Pokerstars seems to enjoy HT . I'm getting some good hands with my 930......

Only reason anybody I knew ever went 1366 is because of Microcenter...

 

[Davidh373]

Only reason anybody I knew ever went 1366 is because of Microcenter...

For games, yes, for 3D rendering, no. I got mine for the latter.