Please Rate my PC - Will this rig last 2-5 years?

[famciclovirrr]

Hello everyone,

Please rate my PC rig (at the bottom) and if you think a certain part should be changed, please say which part i should change and explain why.

This is my first time building a new PC and i'm really excited. :lol:

Money: I have around $1500 - $2500 to spend.

Goal: My main goal is to build a PC that is capable of playing games like Crysis, Crysis Warhead, Crysis 2, GTA IV, Resident Evil 5, Mass Effect 2 and Modern Warfare 2.

I also would like my PC to last around 2-5 years before i have to upgrade my motherboard, CPU and GPU. Furthermore i prefer performance and value for the money over the high end parts. If i had to choose a part that is high end, the value and performance has to be worth it in the long run.

Monitor: 22" (capable of maxing out 22") or maybe 24" (capable of playing)

My PC rig so far:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 or Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 Extreme

Case: CM HAF RC-932

Motherboard: S775 EVGA 790i SLI FTW or S775 ASUS P5Q-EM or S775 ASUS P5Q Deluxe or S775 ASUS P5Q SE2 or S775 Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P

GPU: 9600 GT 1GB Sparkle or 9800GT 1GB Sparkle or GTX 260 896MB Sparkle or GTX 260+ 1792 Sparkle or GTX 285 1GB Sparkle

RAM: DDR2 4GB Kit 800MHz Patriot C4 or DDR2 4GB Kit 1066MB GSkill C5 or DDR3 4GB Kit 1600MHz Patriot or DDR3 4GB Kit 1333 Patriot C9 or DDR3 2GB Kit 2000MHz Patriot

Hard Drive: 2x3.5" Sata 160GB Western Digital (for the operating system and install programs), 1 or 2x3.5" Sata 1.5TB Samsung

DVD Drive: DVD-RW Asus DRW-20B1LT

Monitor: 22" WS LCD ASUS VW224U or 22" WS LCD ASUS VK222H or 22" WS LCD AOC 2230FM or 24" WS LCD ASUS VW246H

Power Supply Unit: Corsair TX-750 750W or 1500W XIGMATEK NRP or 1000W XIGMATEK NRP or 1500w Thermaltake W02171 or 850W Seasonic M12

I would like to thank you in advance

 

[famciclovirrr]

Sorry to double post,

1. When should i consider buying a i7 series CPU and Motherboard?
2. In 2 years time, will developers most likely to make games for i7 series? And the old Dual Core CPU needs to be upgraded?

 

[computersss]

for this money you must go i7,do you need keyboard,mouse ?

edit:are u going to overclock?will you need a blu-ray?

 

[gkay09]

*How To Ask For New Build Advice*---> Will be helpful for us to suggest the best for you...

 

[goony20]

Is there any particular reason you are looking to get 2x160gb drives for os and other programs? With that 1.5 tb, you should just partition sections for these programs. Most people only buy the extra drive for os if they go the SSD route and take advantage of the great read speeds (write speeds as of yet, aren't nothing to write home about).

 

[famciclovirrr]

for this money you must go i7,do you need keyboard,mouse ?

edit:are u going to overclock?will you need a blu-ray?

overclock: yes when i learn how to overclock i will do it.

keyboard and mouse: yes off course i would need it, but i have already a good gaming keyboard and mouse.

i7: the reason why i did not choose i7 cpu and i7 series motherboard is at the moment the i7 series motherboard is around $600 (australian) and a good i7 cpu is around $1899

blu-ray: yes when the price of the blu-ray writer goes down

 

[goony20]

+1 for I7
With that budget, you should definitely drop the extra HDDs and go I7 and the gtx285.

 

[famciclovirrr]

Is there any particular reason you are looking to get 2x160gb drives for os and other programs? With that 1.5 tb, you should just partition sections for these programs. Most people only buy the extra drive for os if they go the SSD route and take advantage of the great read speeds (write speeds as of yet, aren't nothing to write home about).

What i mean by lasting 2-5 years is will the PC last 2-5 years so i can play high end games on a 22" or 24" monitor.
And future wise i still can play PC games on a 22" at least.


Now with having 2x160GB for the operating system, my friend told me that you should have two cheap hard drives that's the same and put them together and use that for the operating system and loading and have your larger hard drive like the 1.5TB for files, mp3, videos, etc......

So basically he said by having two hard drives together your loading times should be really fast compared to having your main hard drive.

Well, that's what he said but i don't know which is best.

 

[gkay09]

@famciclovirrr check this website...
It is a famous AUS store...
http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/PARTS.pdf
Core i7 920 - AUD 397
Mobo P6T - AUD 338
6GB kit 1600MHz GSkillz - AUD 165
So you must be able to get an i7 PC for that budget...

 

[gkay09]

And about the hard drives, what your friend meant was RAID 0 - Havng 2 similar drives in that config would boost the performance of the drive...and make sure you store your data in another seperate 3rd drive as the RAID 0 has comparatively higher failure rate...

 

[famciclovirrr]

And about the hard drives, what your friend meant was RAID 0 - Havng 2 similar drives in that config would boost the performance of the drive...and make sure you store your data in another seperate 3rd drive as the RAID 0 has comparatively higher failure rate...

yeah that's what he mean, raid 0.

so you would recommend having raid 0?

also with i7 920 or something, how much performance can i get from that compared to q9550?

what about power consumption?

 

[gkay09]

As for RAID 0, get the newer hard drives...the performance is worth the risk and anyways you would store the data on the 3rd drive...

The performance difference between an i7 and Q9550 varies based on what it is used for...In CPU intensive tasks, the i7 would easily outperform the Q9550 by a good margin but in games, there would be less difference...

And a point though...the LGA775 socket(Q9550) will be dead in few months and intel has already stopped the release of new CPUs for that socket...So if you don't want to loose out on performance and as well as keep upgradeability in mind, then you can check out the AMD Phenom II...

 

[micky_lund]

www.umart.com.au
great site, and good prices, much easier to navigate their webpage too
GPU: go with the gtx 260, and SLi in future if u want.. they're the best performance/$$$ in aus atm

 

[veryhappyyes]

www.umart.com.au
great site, and good prices, much easier to navigate their webpage too
GPU: go with the gtx 260, and SLi in future if u want.. they're the best performance/$$$ in aus atm

that store is pretty good, but there's mwave, pcsuperstore

 

[micky_lund]

mwave is great at customer service, shipping, returns etc. , but u can get cheaper prices elsewhere (umart )
BTW: does msy ship? and if so where to?

 

[famciclovirrr]

thank you everyone for all your help

please tell how my rig is,

case: cm haf 932 or antex twelve hundred
cpu: i7 core 940
video card: 2xgtx 275 or maybe 2x9800gt 1gb sparkle or a single gtx 285
motherboard: asus p6t deluxe
ram: 6gb ddr3 kit 1600 patriot c8
cooling products: cpu-c noctua, ram cooler patriot vortex
optical drive: blu-ray rw sony
monitor: 24" ws lcd asus
power supply: cooler master real power m1000 modular
hard drive: 2x160gb wd (raid 0) 2x1.5tb samsung 7200rpm sata
audio: built in in my motherboard


also this might sound very weird but can i install a radeon graphic card on my asus p6t deluxe motherboard?

 

[Helloworld_98]

^ yes.

but on that list, switch the 940 for a 920 which will save you a lot of money and overclock further or wait a few days for the 950 to come in as it runs another 133mhz faster and has lower temps.

that PSU is overkill, the CM 700w Silent pro will power all of those.

the HAF 932 will have more space since it is a true full tower but it's your call.

 

[famciclovirrr]

^ yes.

but on that list, switch the 940 for a 920 which will save you a lot of money and overclock further or wait a few days for the 950 to come in as it runs another 133mhz faster and has lower temps.

that PSU is overkill, the CM 700w Silent pro will power all of those.

the HAF 932 will have more space since it is a true full tower but it's your call.

1000w is a overkill? i thought having 6 hard drives and 2 graphics card need a power of 1000w. anyway if i buy a 1000w power supply and find out that i don't need that much power, will my 1000w supply waste more power or will it conserve because it doesn't need to use that much power?

 

[Helloworld_98]

^ didn't see you had 6 hdd's, even then an 850w will do for your setup as the 700w version will power your build minus 5 HDD's.

but look at efficiency for 75-85% load on 1000w PSU's or 90-100% load for 850w PSU's and then decide as this is how much energy it pulls from the socket so say a PSU can output 850w and it is an 85% efficient PSU, this means it takes 1000w from the socket but can only output 850w to power the components.

 

[micky_lund]

id reckon a good quality 850W would do the trick (yes, anyone?)

and go with the i7 920, so much cheaper, and OC's around the same... and even without OC, its still awesome

 

[goony20]

The performance difference between an i7 and Q9550 varies based on what it is used for...In CPU intensive tasks, the i7 would easily outperform the Q9550 by a good margin but in games, there would be less difference...

^+1 for 920.
The same differences apply really. You may notice the difference in cpu intensive tasks, but the performance in gaming will be a negligible difference.

 

[famciclovirrr]

how long can we see the i7 series stay in the market for?

like its timeframe

 

[Helloworld_98]

^ a bit, but the 1366 entry and mid end quads will be discontinued very soon to make way for the 1156 entry and mid end quads along with the 1366 top end 6 cores while the 1366 top end quads get a price cut.

 

[knightmirror]

^ a bit, but the 1366 entry and mid end quads will be discontinued very soon to make way for the 1156 entry and mid end quads along with the 1366 top end 6 cores while the 1366 top end quads get a price cut.

Correct you are, they will be nice.... and in a few years when the gentleman who started this post has another urge for some new gear he can get it then. My next target socket; however, will be 1366.

 

[matthewh133]

WWW.PCCASEGEAR.COM (Australian site)

Memory: OCZ DDR3 PC3-10666 Platinum 3x2GB - $165.00
GPU: Sapphire Radeon 4890HD - $289
PSU: Corsair TX-750 750W Power Supply - $205
CPU Heatsink: CoolerMaster V8 CPU Cooler - $89
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB - $90

MSY

CPU: Intel Core i7 920 1366pin-series - $390
Motherboard: G-B EX58-UD4P - $324
Case: CoolerMaster HAF 932 Case - $209
Optical Drive: SATA SONY - $39

My build atm mate. All Australian prices. Adds up to $1800 on the dot and will be a great machine. Only thing i'll need to be upgrading within the next 2 years is a direct X 11 compatible GPU.