Tom's Hardware: Topic Newbie Build with $3000 Budget. Conflict/Suggestions needed!
Tom's Hardware > Forum > Homebuilt Systems > New System Build > Newbie Build with $3000 Budget. Conflict/Suggestions needed!
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Monitor: Dell 3007 WFP 30” Widescreen 2560 X 1600 Native Resolution (Already Purchased)
Case: Antec 190
Power Supply: 1000 Watt Thermaltake Quad
Processor: QX9650
Processor Cooling: Thermalright IXF-14 with Scythe SY1225SL12M fans
Motherboard:EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLI Motherboard
Memory: DDR3 Corsair 4096MB PC12800 DDR3 1600MHz
Video Card: EVGA GTX208 FTW Edition
Hard Drive: 500 GB Serial ATA-II 7200 RPM 16M Cache, 2xWestern Digital VR150 300GB Velociraptor 10,000 RPM. A RAID 0,configuration?
Optical Drive: LG GGC-H20L Blu-ray & HD DVD ROM Drive, 16X DVD ROM
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-FI Titanium FATAL1TY
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit, Service Pack 1
Keyboard: Logitech G15 Keyboard(Already Purchased)
Mouse: Logitech G5 Laser Mouse(Already Purchased)
Any advice for this build would be greatly appreciated. I held off purchasing until the GTX 280 came out as I heard the 9800 series wasnt all that hot at ultra high resolutions. And since I bought my monitor for those types of resolution, Im not waiting any longer.
My goal is for an upgradable, low-maintenance gaming rig, probably aiming for 8GIG Mem and SLI gtx 280's in the future(2009), so a good motherboard with the future in mind is key. Any advice would be extremely valuable as this is my first rig and im dropping hard earned cash into it.
P.S. I hate console gaming, but probably because i suck so hard at it. Ever since I played Doom on my 14.4 Modem I have been addicted to PC gaming. Calling my buddy and hoping his parents didnt pick up the phone and ruin the connection, then splattering his pixelated brains all over the wall with the double barrel shotgun, or blowing my own all over the ceiling with the suicidal-at-close-range bazooka!
Anyway, there is my uneccesary rant, hope for some help!
Those components will work fine. But with that kind of budget, you might want to consider something like an octo core dual cpu machine instead. "Extreme" cpus are not worth their price.
A Skulltrial chipset motherboard is one of the best overclocking boards in existance, support both sli and crossfire, including quad sli/cf, and run on dual cpus. It'll cost you $600 though.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813121330
You can use two 45nm Harpertown Xeon quads. They are high performance server counterpart to 45nm Yorkfield quads, and overclock just as easily.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] rder=PRICE
Octo core Nehalem is arriving at the end of the year, barring any delays. Dual quad is your best bet at matching that kind of raw power. Despite what many old people say, multithreading the the furture of computing, including gaming. Old dual core cpus don't stand a chance against 8 core Nehalem.
Reply to dagger
trust me using a nforce 790 wont be a low maintenance gaming rig. i would recommend doing 2 4870 in cross fire because the intel boards have alot less problems and 4870's are cheaper and way better then one gtx 280. ive built two sli gaming rigs and there is so many stability issues were i never want to use a nforce board again.
am not positive but i think 4870 can handle higher resolutions then the gtx280
r
Message edited by cal8949 on 06-29-2008 at 05:31:51 PM
| dagger wrote : Those components will work fine. But with that kind of budget, you might want to consider something like an octo core dual cpu machine instead. "Extreme" cpus are not worth their price.
|
that's an horrible. those processors are not made to run games and the memory on the skull trail board is such a bottle neck. skull trail isn't made for games. i would just get a quad core
Cal, can you back that up with some articles/reviews? [sarcasm]Skulltrail being such a bad platform for gaming and all. [/sarcasm]
Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by halcyon on 06-29-2008 at 05:47:27 PM
Message edited by halcyon on 06-29-2008 at 05:47:27 PM
Reply to halcyon
4870 smacks GTX280 around in some benchmarks and stays right with it in others.
If I had $3000 laying around I would building the following.
CPU: Q9450
Motherboard: Asus Rampage Formula X48
RAM: 4GB G.Skill 4-4-4-12 (2x 2GB)
Hard Drive: 1 VelociRaptor for OS and Programs 1 Seagate 500GB 32MB cache for everything else
Video: 2x Powercooler HD4870 in Crossfire
Sound: Onboard
Optical Drive: LG Combo you picked
Monitor: Dell 3007 WFP 30”
Case: Antec P182
Power Supply: Corsair 1kW
OS: Vista Home Prem
Cooling: Xigamtek Rifle 120mm cooler and Bracket
Total $2459.42 without the monitor which you already have.
Message edited by shadowduck on 06-29-2008 at 05:53:04 PM
Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."-John Wooden
Reply to shadowduck
| cal8949 wrote : that's an horrible. those processors are not made to run games and the memory on the skull trail board is such a bottle neck. skull trail isn't made for games. i would just get a quad core |
The Skulltrial is based on Bonetrail (x38/48) and designed specifically for gaming. It's not a server board, and will not run well in server environment. The memory on skulltrail is not bottlenecked, just more expensive. The Harpertown quads use the exact same architecture as Yorkfield, and runs games just fine. I cited them only because it's better bang for the buck. You can always use the QX9775, which was released along with Skulltrail as a complete set for ultra-high end gaming rig. That cpu will wipe the floor with anything else in existance. I just can't recommend it because it cost $1.5k each. The Harpertowns are much better value.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115044
Reply to dagger
| halcyon wrote : Cal, can you back that up with some articles/reviews? [sarcasm]Skulltrail being such a bad platform for gaming and all. [/sarcasm] |
Have a look at this:
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/arti [...] VzaWFzdA==
Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."-John Wooden
Reply to shadowduck
| dagger wrote : The Skulltrial is based on Bonetrail (x38/48) and designed specifically for gaming. It's not a server board, and will not run well in server environment. The memory on skulltrail is not bottlenecked, just more expensive. The Harpertown quads use the exact same architecture as Yorkfield, and runs games just fine. I cited them only because it's better bang for the buck. You can always use the QX9775, which was released along with Skulltrail as a complete set for ultra-high end gaming rig. That cpu will wipe the floor with anything else in existance. I just can't recommend it because it cost $1.5k each. The Harpertowns are much better value.
|
The biggest problem is the same problem the Mac Pro has when gaming. FB-DIMMs bottleneck the system. FB-DIMMs are made for stability not outright throughput. In the article I linked you the Skulltrail is even with 780i system which costs 40% less. It is not a terrible platform, but its overpriced for the performance.
Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."-John Wooden
Reply to shadowduck
i would do the sound card. i hate on board sound and in games if you have a xfi card it seams like you can hear so much more. but i do like shadow ducks build. i would go with the 9450 processor then just oc it and you will save a lot of money
from my point of view raid is not worth it because you'll have a lot of problems for a little more performance
and now for skull trail
http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 70-25.html
and imagine if you put even slower processors on it
Message edited by cal8949 on 06-29-2008 at 06:17:43 PM
| shadowduck wrote : Have a look at this: http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/arti [...] VzaWFzdA== |
Who runs games at 640x480 on low quality? You're supposed to run quad sli or quad crossfire on it. Skulltrial supports both.
Besides, it overclock far better than 780i.
Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by dagger on 06-29-2008 at 06:05:19 PM
Message edited by dagger on 06-29-2008 at 06:05:19 PM
Reply to dagger
| dagger wrote : Who runs games at 640x480 on low quality? You're supposed to run quad sli or quad crossfire on it. Skulltrial supports both. |
This is true, but the point they are attempting to make is the RAM is an issue. But hell if you have the cash- go for it. Skulltrail is a great platform for the high end user where money is no object.
Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."-John Wooden
Reply to shadowduck
Also, that benchmark is done on older games that don't use more than 2 or 4 cores. So dual cpu is wasted. With the coming of octo core Nehalem, things will likely change.
Reply to dagger
http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 70-25.html
and imagine putting even slower cpu's on it
excuse my ignorance, but does the Asus Rampage Formula X48 offer sli/xfire? i was under the impression it didnt.
| dagger wrote : Also, that benchmark is done on older games that don't use more than 2 or 4 cores. So dual cpu is wasted. With the coming of octo core Nehalem, things will likely change. |
Really? How many games can utilize a quad core right now? One or two?
Gaming coding hasn't been able to keep up with multi-core CPU's.
| BadMannerKorea wrote : excuse my ignorance, but does the Asus Rampage Formula X48 offer sli/xfire? i was under the impression it didnt. |
no just crossfire
| BadMannerKorea wrote : excuse my ignorance, but does the Asus Rampage Formula X48 offer sli/xfire? i was under the impression it didnt. |
It supports Crossfire like all Intel chipset x38/x48 boards do.
Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."-John Wooden
Reply to shadowduck
| Noya wrote : Really? How many games can utilize a quad core right now? One or two? Gaming coding hasn't been able to keep up with multi-core CPU's. |
Supreme Commander, Lost Planet...etc. Starcraft 2 and Crysis 2 will be quad optimized, not sure about octo.
And even in non-quad optimized games, quad sytem perform better at similar clock rates due to background processes being moved to spare cores.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/c [...] 600_8.html
Also, some rendering engines that aren't officially quad optimized do benefit from more cores due to limited multi-threading. Unreal 3 engine is one example. It's also the most widely use of all rendering engines.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] i=3127&p=4
Reply to dagger
read again
http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 70-25.html
Message edited by cal8949 on 06-29-2008 at 06:31:44 PM
| BadMannerKorea wrote : excuse my ignorance, but does the Asus Rampage Formula X48 offer sli/xfire? i was under the impression it didnt. |
Not quad card in cf, since Rampage Formula doesn't have the 4 pciex16 slots. But few people ever go that far.
And it doesn't support sli. So ATI cards only.
Reply to dagger
Thanks for all your advice guys, Im mulling over the crossfire 4870 rather than SLI 280's, but if Nvidia fixes its drivers and gets SLI to match Crossfire, the SLI 280's will be tough to beat. Since im not buying the second 280 for another year, and a single 280 can certainly handle all games at high resolution if not Ultra, Im leaning to keep the 280. As for the new processors coming up, well thats Moore's Law in effect, and as long as I can get a Motherboard that can handle the next Gen, I will be happy!
Thanks for all the help!
i think the next generation of cpu are supposed to be a different socket
| newbie45 wrote : Thanks for all your advice guys, Im mulling over the crossfire 4870 rather than SLI 280's, but if Nvidia fixes its drivers and gets SLI to match Crossfire, the SLI 280's will be tough to beat. Since im not buying the second 280 for another year, and a single 280 can certainly handle all games at high resolution if not Ultra, Im leaning to keep the 280. As for the new processors coming up, well thats Moore's Law in effect, and as long as I can get a Motherboard that can handle the next Gen, I will be happy! Thanks for all the help! |
Next Gen=Nehalem (100% different architecture then the mobo you got now)
Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by liljone on 06-29-2008 at 10:35:05 PM
Message edited by liljone on 06-29-2008 at 10:35:05 PM
Memory: 4GB (PC2 6400)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT OC 512mb (565MHz/1430MHz)
Audio: SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio
Reply to liljone
$3000 and 2560x1600 is just ridiculous. Look at a 1920x1200 monitor and 4870 with X38/X48 motherboard, then look at CF. BTW, 4870 can hold its own at 2560x1600, but at that resolution, you really want to use SLi or CF.
Message edited by pcgamer12 on 06-29-2008 at 10:44:37 PM
OTCO?
I'm on my thrid RMA with a Nividia 780i, I know people who are on their 6th or 7th. When I go to the support forum for my manufacture all I see is loads of 790i problems posts.
I think intel's x38/x48 is probably better can any one comment on this?
| eofu wrote : OTCO? I'm on my thrid RMA with a Nividia 780i, I know people who are on their 6th or 7th. When I go to the support forum for my manufacture all I see is loads of 790i problems posts. I think intel's x38/x48 is probably better can any one comment on this? |
I use x38. It certainly overclocks better, more stable and has less ram compatibility problems. Most of those people complaining about nvidia chipset problems didn't actually get a defective board, but rather just got components, like ram, that don't play well with the chipset.
Reply to dagger
Honestly, get an X38 or X48 and use CF.
crossfire is the way to go
| liljone wrote : Next Gen=Nehalem (100% different architecture then the mobo you got now) |
Yep that correct. So OP it does not matter what you buy- it won't work with next Gen.
Crossfire >>>> SLI. Search the boards for the loads of nVidia chipset issues.
Like dagger I am using X38 (Asus P5E)
Message edited by shadowduck on 06-30-2008 at 05:12:35 AM
Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."-John Wooden
Reply to shadowduck
Yeah, the Skulltrail has power.
But it's still garbage.
2x EVGA 8800GT 512mb OC'd, OCZ DDR2 1066MHz 4gb
OCZ 850W PSU, Seagate 750GB HDD SATA 32mb cache CM Stacker 830 SE
Sound setup: FireFace 800, JBL 4328 speakers
Reply to resonance451
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