POLL: Major dilemma - Choose between two gaming builds

[StevenLS]

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)

BUILD A

Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 5850 725MHZ 1GB GDDR5 4.0GHZ
CPU: Intel Core i7 920
Motherboard: Gigabyte EX58-UD3R
Memory: OCZ Platinum 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 CL 7-7-7-24
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB 7200RPM
Power Supply: OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W ATX 20/24PIN SLI Ready Modular Cables 135mm Fan 80PLUS Power Supply
Case: Thermaltake M9 Black Mid ATX Tower
CPU Heatsink: Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus

OR

BUILD B

Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 5850 725MHZ 1GB GDDR5 4.0GHZ
CPU: Intel Core i7 920
Motherboard: MSI X58 PRO-E X58 ATX LGA1366
Memory: Kingston HyperX KHX12800D3K3/6GX 6GB 3X2GB 1600MHZ CL9-9-9-27
Storage: Western Digital WD1001FALS Caviar Black 1TB SATA2 7200RPM 4.2MS 32MB Dual Proc Hard Drive
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider ST85F 850W SLI Ready ATX12V 24PIN Modular Power Supply Active PFC 8PIN PCI-E
Case: Antec Three Hundred Tower Gaming Case 300 ATX 3X5.25 6X3.5INT
CPU Heatsink: Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme 1366RT Heatpipe Cooler LGA1366 120MM Fan
Extras: CORSAIR CMXAF1 Ram Fan

Reasons for your choice or any other information would be appreciated... cheers!

 

[jbakerlent]

Welcome to the forum.

I would modify both a little...

This mobo
ASUS P6T SE LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131386

The OCZ RAM

This HDD or the 1tb WD
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

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/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371025

this case
Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066&cm_re=antec_300-_-11-129-066-_-Product

and the Hyper+

If you have any questions about my suggestions, feel free to ask.

 

[obsidian86]

just switch out to the 7-7-7 ram and asrock extreme x58 board on the second build

 

[redgarl]

Go LGA1156 and core i5. No need for a 300$ motherboard oriented on server services.

 

[StevenLS]

Welcome to the forum.

I would modify both a little...

This mobo
ASUS P6T SE LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131386

this case
Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066&cm_re=antec_300-_-11-129-066-_-Product

and the Hyper+

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

cheers

 

[hunter315]

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

Im going to be the oddball and suggest an LGA 1156 build as it will save you about $90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.276272

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231279&cm_re=ripjaws-_-20-231-279-_-Product

And if you are buying soon you can combo the case and PSU and save a bit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.265978

And i stick with his HDD suggestion, the F3 was recently added to the charts section here, and has the best average read and write rates.

 

[jbakerlent]

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.

 

[StevenLS]

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

 

[photonboy]

1366 vs 1156

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.

 

[jbakerlent]

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