Help me build an Intel system

[vitalious]

Hey guys,

My b-day is coming up and my girlfriend has decided to help me out with a new desktop system.
I'm kind of out of touch with the current technologies and need some advice. I read alot of reviews and benchmarks and pretty much looking for a good bang for the buck. I'm torn between the 1136 and the 1366 really.

Here are the 2 systems I specced out.

System 1:
Video Card Asus EAH4870 DK/HTDI/1GB GDDR5 ATI Radeon HD 4870 $185.99
CPU Intel Core i5 750 Quad-Core Socket LGA1156 $239.99
Motherboard Asus ASUS P7P55D PRO $194.99
Memory OCZExtreme XMP DDR3 6GB (3 x 2GB) PC3-12800 $139.99
HD Western Digital Caviar Green (WD10EAVS) 1000GB (1TB) SATA 3 Gb/s 8MB (OEM) $83.99
Case Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Ultimate Gamer Tower Computer Ca $119.99
PSU Cooler Master Extreme Power 650W ATX $79.99
CD LG GSA-H55L IDE 20x DVD-Writer(10x Dual Layer) w/SecurDisc LightScibe $34.99

Total $1,079.92



System 2:
Video Card Asus EAH4870 DK/HTDI/1GB GDDR5 ATI Radeon HD 4870 $185.99
CPU I7 920 LGA1366 $325.99
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-EX58-DS4 Socket 1366 $271.99
Memory OCZExtreme XMP DDR3 6GB (3 x 2GB) PC3-12800 $139.99
HD Western Digital Caviar Green (WD10EAVS) 1000GB (1TB) SATA 3 Gb/s 8MB (OEM) $83.99
Case Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Ultimate Gamer Tower Computer Case $119.99
PSU Cooler Master Extreme Power 650W ATX $79.99
CD LG GSA-H55L IDE 20x DVD-Writer(10x Dual Layer) w/SecurDisc LightScibe $34.99

Total $1,242.92

This is all in CDN dollars btw.

Is system 1 worth the extra $160? Both CPUs are 2.66GHZ really.
Should I stick with the LGA1156, or go with the 1366 to take make future upgrading easier?

All and any advice appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[jay2tall]

Triple channel memory is nice, and the 920 does out do the i5... but honestly it's not worth the $160 unless you want to spend it. The i5 will OC very well if you are into that.

 

[smokinu]

Hey Happy Pre B-Day.

First I would ask you if you were going to be OverClocking at all? If you do not plan on heavy Overclocking then I would say get 6g of OCZ or similiar memory for cheapest you can. No real need to go over anything past 1600mhz memory.

See about getting the new 5850 instead of the 4870. It has lower power consumption and will be better for the long-term as far as games are concerned. they can be found on newegg for near the 250 dollar mark.

I just built a system with the i7 920, Foxxconn Bloodrage mobo, and Mushkin redline Memory and was able to Overclock to 4.2ghz on air with not too much hassle. But then you need to worry about more quality parts for heavy OC'ing.

The HAF case is really nice looking. I personally have the Cosmos S black which is pretty darn big case. But I really enjoy the room it has and the case material is higher end thean the HAF I believe. It just does not have that industrial look to it.

I would say to look into getting the Prolimatech series of CPU cooler as this is the best air cooler that is available and is not that expensive.

What site do you prefer to order from? If you want to list it here I woul dbe more than happy to see what I can come up with in the Canadian Dollar ammount for a recommendation.

Oh and you cant go wrong with a Corsair Power Supply- I believe they are the best on the market for the money.

Whats your budget btw? what do you really want to do with the computer? Are you trying to build a gaming system or just a home office type of work horse?

 

[vitalious]

Hey, thanks for the reply.

Something I forgot to mention is that I'm mostly bound to order from
http://www.jumbocomputers.ca/

This is all of course sans keyboard/mouse/monitor, etc.

They have a poor choice of coolers, so I'm gonna get it from another store.

I will be overclocking, and the computer will be mostly used for gaming and watching movies on my projector.

 

[smokinu]

have you looked into newegg.ca ? The prices on that jumbocomputer site are too high.

 

[vitalious]

I have store credit there.

 

[smokinu]

well with what they have available I think you have done a very good job on picking the parts. The only thing that I would consider for both of the builds is upgrading the power supply. 650 is good but do you plan on going with a crossfire or sli configuration in the future? Or do you like to have just a single Graphics card? If you are planning on more than 1 I would say jump up to a 850w PS. While parts are getting more efficient they are also getting more powerful. By buying a power supply that has a little more wattage then you wont have to worry about purchasing another one the next time you decide to upgrade. Although given the choice you have on that site I'm not sure what to do about it.

If the store credit you have will not cover everything then I would think about getting what you can from that site and then what you may still need then just going with newegg.ca

I hope I helped you out a little but it seems given your situation I think you picked the right parts.

Between the two systems I would go with the 1366 platform myself. This would be primarily for the availabiltiy of future upgrade to the 6 core CPU. But I am a hardware junky so take it for what it s worth. The 1136 platform will suit your needs just fine if you want to save a few bucks.

 

[dndhatcher]

What is the system for? If its computation then the i7 is a better idea. If its gaming then get the cheaper i5 and upgrade the graphic card to a 5850 or 5870.

Dont you already have another identical thread or am I having deja vu?

 

[smokinu]

What is the system for? If its computation then the i7 is a better idea. If its gaming then get the cheaper i5 and upgrade the graphic card to a 5850 or 5870.

Dont you already have another identical thread or am I having deja vu?

I think he mentioned that the thread double posted and this was the correct one. The place he has to order from becuase of a store credit issue does not have any 5800 series available so he is pretty much stuck with choosing a DX10 card.

 

[dndhatcher]

I think he mentioned that the thread double posted and this was the correct one. The place he has to order from becuase of a store credit issue does not have any 5800 series available so he is pretty much stuck with choosing a DX10 card.

Or waiting a couple weeks (one would hope).

 

[geofelt]

Both systems will perform the same, unless you can make use of more than 4 threads, in case which the i7-920 will serve you better. I like the more aggressive turbo mode of the i5-750.

The i5 asus motherboard has 4 ram slots, making a 6gb configuration difficult, get 4gb or 8gb.
I do like 6gb as a total amount of ram which favors the i7 option. But, a 4gb kit will save you some $.

Any oem cooler will do the job, see if one of your options is in the top ten of this review:
http://www.frozencpu.com/resource/r24/Best_CPU_Cooler_Performance_LGA1366_-_Q1_2009.html?id=JqPuITTJ
Overclocking is limited by the cpu heat, so you want something better than the stock cooler.

Look at the WD caviar black hard drive, I think it is a better performer than the green.

If you want to save some money to be spent elsewhere, consider the Antec 300 or 200 cases. They will cool just as well and still hold all your parts.

If you are a student, look for some really cheap windows-7 deals.

 

[vitalious]

Given all the feedback, here are the 2 systems I'm left to choose between:


System 1:
Video Card Asus EAH4870 DK/HTDI/1GB GDDR5 ATI Radeon HD 4870 $185.99
CPU Intel Core i5 750 Quad-Core Socket LGA1156 $239.99
Motherboard Asus ASUS P7P55D PRO $194.99
Memory OCZExtreme XMP DDR3 6GB (3 x 2GB) PC3-12800 $139.99
HD Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATAII NCQ 3.0Gb/s 32MB Cache (OEM) - ST31000528AS $90.99
Case Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Ultimate Gamer Tower Computer Case $119.99
PSU ANTEC CP-850 850W CP PS ATX 12V $165.98
CD LG GH22NS50 (Black) 22x SATA DVD Writer OEM $30.99

Total $1,168.91



System 2:
Video Card Asus EAH4870 DK/HTDI/1GB GDDR5 ATI Radeon HD 4870 $185.99
CPU I7 920 LGA1366 $325.99
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-EX58-DS4 Socket 1366 $271.99
Memory OCZExtreme XMP DDR3 6GB (3 x 2GB) PC3-12800 $139.99
HD Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATAII NCQ 3.0Gb/s 32MB Cache (OEM) - ST31000528AS $90.99
Case Antec Three Hundred Gaming Case ATX $74.99
PSU ANTEC CP-850 850W CP PS ATX 12V $165.98
CD LG GH22NS50 (Black) 22x SATA DVD Writer OEM $30.99

Total $1,286.91

 

[dndhatcher]

If you want gaming, take the i5 but upgrade the graphics card to a Sapphire HD 4890.
http://www.jumbocomputers.ca/index.php?do=Product&cmd=pd&pid=003458&cid=812.685.342

You only want to install 2 of those 3 RAM stick in the i5. Sell the other on ebay or something.


If you want computing power take the i7.

Is that antec 300 the "illusion" model with two front fans included? If not you will want to buy at least one 120mm front fan for it (should cost ~$15US for the antec LED fan or you can use any 120mmx25mm case fan).

 

[blackhawk1928]

Happy B-Day, before buying your build and choosing your parts, please specify what type of applications you will be running besides games that will be of importance to you. what are your expectations for performance in your games and movies and what type of games, if you play call of duty 1 then a cheap onboard videocard and a Pentium 1 500mhz processor with 256mb ram will do everything you need, but if you play cod5 or crysis then you thats a different story, also specify what kind of upgrades you plan on doing. Tell me all or most the applications you will run. Because lets get real here you build your computer to satisfy your software<thats the main rule so specify it.
-As a side note, if you get the i7 on the 1366 you are taking intels high end route and upgrades will be more expensive, parts will also be more expensive. If you take the i5 1156 route, upgrades will be cheaper and so will parts since its intel's mainstream route.

 

[vitalious]

Gaming.
WoW, Company of heroes, gta 4, crysis, far cry 2, and whatever else is fun.

If I was an excel dork (i am actualy...) I wouldn't spend that kind of money on a system. So it's obviously for gaming.

 

[era86]

i5... for gaming, gpu is all that matters right now

 

[blackhawk1928]

^era86, don't misinform people, CPU is very important. Infact most high-end GPU's require a powerful CPU in order to not be bottlenecked...do some research please.

-And vitalious, an i5 should be enough for you. Also you don't need to spend that money for ram, for your socket and CPU, dual channel ram is what your requirement, if you went i7920 then you would want triple channel. Save some money with that.

-I am not saying anything about your PSU, but make sure it is well rated and reliable because the PSU is something that you don't want to save money on, becuase if its cheap, it can go down and drag half your system along with it.

 

[era86]

^era86, don't misinform people, CPU is very important. Infact most high-end GPU's require a powerful CPU in order to not be bottlenecked...do some research please.

-And vitalious, an i5 should be enough for you. Also you don't need to spend that money for ram, for your socket and CPU, dual channel ram is what your requirement, if you went i7920 then you would want triple channel. Save some money with that.

-I am not saying anything about your PSU, but make sure it is well rated and reliable because the PSU is something that you don't want to save money on, becuase if its cheap, it can go down and drag half your system along with it.

Well maybe I should have been more clear. For most games, the GPU is more important than the CPU right now. Most of the time the bottlenecks in games turns out to be the GPU, so I would invest more in that rather than spend more on CPU performance you probably don't need right now, thus the i5 would be a better choice.

 

[blackhawk1928]

^Good. Thats a better statement and I agree with you that GPU is more important than CPU however CPU is also a role and high end-GPU's require more powerful CPU's the further up the chain you go. A GTX295 or a Radeon 5870 will require something more powerful then a GTS250 or something like that because once you get higher up the chain of GPU's your CPU can be a bottleneck.

 

[dndhatcher]

^Good. Thats a better statement and I agree with you that GPU is more important than CPU however CPU is also a role and high end-GPU's require more powerful CPU's the further up the chain you go. A GTX295 or a Radeon 5870 will require something more powerful then a GTS250 or something like that because once you get higher up the chain of GPU's your CPU can be a bottleneck.

Thats not a horribly meaningful point in a thread choosing between an i5 and an i7 920. In a budget scenario or talking about a GPU upgrade for an older system it would be alot more relevant.