I have to make a choice between two builds at approximately the same price and figured I'd get some feedback from you guys here at TomsHardware.... so if you had the choice which build would you choose?
Notes
- Processor and video card are the same
- only difference between hard drives is Build B is larger (1TB vs 640 GB)
This PSU (definitely not the OCZ)
Antec TruePower New TP-750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817371025
This PSU (definitely not the OCZ)
Antec TruePower New TP-750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817371025
If you have any questions about my suggestions, feel free to ask.
hey jbaker, appreciate the suggestions. couple of questions though
any specific reasons for picking the asus P6T SE over the other two mobos i provided? i've looked into the P6T SE vs the EX58-UD3R and had the impression that the UD3R was overall better with the price being essentially the same
whats the difference/benefits between the Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower over the regular Antec Three Hundred Tower Gaming Case
The antec 300 illusions comes with 2 antec tricool blue LED fans up front, they go for about $15 on newegg and the price difference between the cases are 15 so it saves you $15 and gives you better airflow
The main reason I prefer the P6T over the UD3R is that the latter only has four RAM slots, which just bothers me. Edit: Didn't see hunter's post (forgot to refresh). I, like hunter, would opt for the 1156 over the 1366 in almost all cases.
Message edited by jbakerlent on 10-25-2009 at 12:13:19 AM
i appreciate the suggestions for 1156, and there are compelling benefits for goin that route but for a few reasons i need to stick to 1366
one reason being that I'm not purchasing on Newegg, but instead from a local store here in Canada and there is hardly any cost reductions for going with 1156
please just choose from one of the two builds above and feel free to suggest changes to those. cheers
Message edited by StevenLS on 10-25-2009 at 01:22:56 AM
1) 1366 has 2x the PCIe bandwidth (2x PCIe x16 v2.0). Not an issue for most but future graphics cards may be bottlenecked on the 1156 (2x HD5870 is NOT bottlnecked on 1156)
2) 1366 is slightly more expensive
3) 1366 uses more power (roughly 15% more in Idle for the system)
4) 1366 will get the 6-core, 12Thread CPU in 2010 (but it will be ridiculously expensive)
The 1156, i7-860, 4GB of DDR3, and 2x HD5850 1GB is a truly amazing system which should kick ass for several years. Quite frankly, it's really not worth upgrading. It will take several years to see full usage of 4Cores/8Threads on the CPU (the 6-core will likely see the same performance in most applications and games).
Personally, I'd build around the above system, start with a single HD5850 or whatever NVidia offers and add a SECOND one for Crossfire/SLI as necessary.
(It'll be interesting to see if there will be value in a Larrabee card which can serve both CPU and Graphics tasks.)
Other:
Check out the reviews for LucidLogix' chip when it comes out soon in the MSI motherboard. It does away with Crossfire/SLI and doesn't require identical cards. It sounds REALLY promising.
Here's a simple explanation of why I prefer 1156/P55:
1. 860's frequency is higher
2. 860's turbo mode is far greater
3. 860's TDP is far lower
4. 860's intel specified supported ram frequency is higher
5. 860's overall price is lower
6. Initial very high price of gulftown cpus
7. Lack of compelling need for 16x/16x crossfire
8. Limited benefit of triple channel ram