Help me build a system

[tightplay123]

i'm looking to build the best machine i can for about 1000-1200. (without monitor). i assume i can do a lot better for this budget than going to DELL.

i want to run windows 7 pro 64bit

the machine will primarily be used for multi-tabling online poker, with a few games here and there (maybe starcraft 2)

other than this im not sure what else, im a complete noob to this but ive installed components such as hard drives, ram and graphics cards in my dells before without any trouble.

 

[MadAdmiral]

Refer to the thread in my signature. You'll get more response if you format it by the guidelines.

Off the top of my head, I've got this (just search Newegg for the items):

CPU: i5-750 $195

Mobo: Asus P7P55D-E Pro $190. It's got USB 3.0/SATA 6 GBps ports, so it's future proof. It also allows for Crossfiring in the future.

RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws 2x2 GB 1333 mhz CAS Latency 7 $100

HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500 GB $55 or 1 TB for $85

GPU: Radeon HD 5850 $310

PSU: OCZ StealthXStream 700W $50 (after rebate)

Case: HAF 922 $80 (after rebate)

Optical: Samsung 22x DVD Burner $27

Total: $1,007 before shipping, taxes, combos.

If you need an OS, Windows 7 will cost you $100, leaving you well within budget.

 

[Silvune]

You will be wasting your money buying Win 7 Pro, as none of your stated uses suggests you needing anything other than Home Premium to me.
And the Asus P7P55D"-E" Pro is the motherboard that MadAd meant.

 

[tightplay123]

only 4gig of ram? could i get 6gb or would i have to go straight to 8gb?

also what about hard drive speed, i heard they have 10,000 rpm hard drives now...i want the fastest hard drive i can get since poker databases are sometimes a million hands.

 

[MadAdmiral]

You should add RAM in sticks of two to match the dual channel motherboard. I've heard this isn't necessary, but you will lose some performance. Also, you probably won't need more than 4 GB anyway.

That is the fastest one available. The 10K RPM drives are old tech and are being destroyed by the F3 at 1/3 of the price. The only other option is a SSD, which will cost you upwards of $300 for a 60-80 GB one.

 

[tightplay123]

i see, im using 2 250gb RAID 0 setup now, i think they are connected together to act as one hard drive?? something like this heh

is the F3 faster than this raid setup? sorry for all the noob questions...i normally just buy dells

 

[Pilk]

You will be wasting your money buying Win 7 Pro, as none of your stated uses suggests you needing anything other than Home Premium to me.
And the Asus P7P55D"-E" Pro is the motherboard that MadAd meant.

This true in saying, but for the diffrence in cost and refrence rather pay the extra and get the domain controller configurations included, unless of course you really wanting to have then Windows Media Centre, which has come a long way from the windows vista version......

 

[tightplay123]

i got win 7 pro because im a student for 29.99

 

[MadAdmiral]

Yes, that's what RAID 0 does. RAID will speed up any harddrive, so if you stick a drive that's already faster into a RAID, it will only get faster. The F3s in RAID will be faster than VRs in RAID because an F3 outside of RAID is faster than a VR outside of RAID.

 

[tightplay123]

i see, sweet so can i get 2 500gb drives and make them a raid? what would i need to do that?

 

[MadAdmiral]

The motherboard.

 

[tightplay123]

can the Asus P7P55D-E Pro $190

do raid?

 

[MadAdmiral]

Yes. It can do RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10. All of these are different versions of RAID.

0 is stripping, which speeds up the drives, but has no redundancy.

1 is mirroring, so data is automatically backed up, but the amount of space is equal only to the size of one drive.

5 is a combination of 0 and 1, where instead of being backed up on one drive, the data is backed up across several. Three drives are required.

10 (or 1+0) is a stipped array that is then backed up on another stripped array. 4 drives are needed, but gives the performance of RAID 0 with the redundancy of RAID 1.

 

[tightplay123]

im using raid 0 right now, so i just hook up 2 HDs to the motherboard and select raid 0 in the bios or something?

 

[MadAdmiral]

There may be some drivers you need. Also, you'll need to plug them into certain SATA ports on the motherboard. At this point, how you set it up becomes rather motherboard specific. The motherboards manual should have more about it, or you find more specific info online.

Generally, the process is to plug in the HDDs, change a setting in BIOS, and then you have to install some drivers (they'll either be on the motherboard's CD or you have to find them online on a different computer). To get any more specific than that, I'd have to dig up the actual instructions for that motherboard.