Help with 2500 i5 Eyefinity build

a4mula

Distinguished
Feb 3, 2009
973
0
19,160
APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Jan 12th, 2010

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: gaming

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: replacing all parts

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Any site with free shipping, best price

PARTS PREFERENCES: Intel/ATI

OVERCLOCKING: Yes SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Crossfire when 5870 Eyefinity Six Edition hits

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x3600

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

Well, it's been a long month of research. I started off with a vision in my head of a WC'd i7 920 setup. I ended up here. I know the benefits/disadvantages of p55, so no need to beat that horse again.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Processor: i5 750
183.99 Tiger Direct after Bing 8pct cash back

Mobo: Asus P7P55D-E Pro
183.99 Tiger Direct after Bing 8pct cash back

RAM: 2x2gb G.Skill 1600 9-9-9-24
95.99 Newegg

PSU: Corsair 750w TX
105.79 Tiger Direct after 8pct Bing cashback.

Case: Antec Nine Hundred Two
107.48 The Great Guys after Bing 5pct cash back

GPU: Sapphire 5870
402.99 Provantage

Monitor 1: Dell 2408wfp
425.27 Buy.com after 4pct Bing cashback

Monitor 2, 3: HP lp2465
369.98 (For two) Find em on your own!

HSF: Prolimatech Megahalems Rev.B
64.99 Newegg

Speakers: M-Audio AV 40
139.99 Newegg

SSD: Intel x25-m 80gb
216.60 The Great Guys after 5pct Bing cashback

HDD: Samsung Spintpoint f1 1tb
84.99 Newegg

KB: Steel Series Merc Stealth
89.99 Newegg

Mouse: Microsoft Sidewinder x8
67.10 The Great Guys after 5pct Bing cashback

_____________________________________________________________________________

Well a DVD Burner, AS5 and 2x Scythe Gentle Typhoons wrap up the build for a grand total of:

2578.35

That's before minimal shipping fees (newegg only).

That's alot of cash, but keep in mind that this is with 3x Non-TN monitors, the 2nd best gpu on the market today, premium kb, mouse, and speakers. Every part is quality. Yeah I could have done a 1k budget build, heck probably a 600$ budget build. Or I could have gone the other way and dropped 4.5k on a i7 920 WC build. In the end this was as much ground as I was willing to give. I personally think it's a great blend of value and performance, especially for a 24" Eyefinity setup.

Let me know what you think.
 
Mobo is not that great. For $3 more (Newegg), you can have an ASUS P7P55D-3 Pro that has USB 3/SATA 6 GBps support.

RAM stinks. For $4 more, you can have 1333 mhz CAS Latency 7 Ripjaws (with free shipping) from Newegg.

That HS is really expensive. Get a Coolermaster Hyper 212 for $30 from Newegg. it's one of the best.

Right now, Newegg has a HAF 922 and OCZ StealthXStream 700W combo for $100 after rebate. Both your PSU and case are good, but this combo really can't be beat right now.

A side note, but TigerDirect is still more expensive on almost all of those parts, even after the 8% cashback.
 

banthracis

Distinguished
Go with mad's suggestions.

Those looking for the Monitor Deal
HP lp2465 369.98 (For two)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824176144&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Monitors+-+LCD+Flat+Panel-_-Hewlett-Packard-_-24176144

speakers are also overpriced and bad.

2.1 you're better of with these Altec Lnasing for $144
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121122

5.1 this is a great set for $89
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121006

Mouse/Keyboard is personal choice, but the Saitek PZ30 series and MX518 mouse are much cheaper and more highly regarded alternatives.
 

a4mula

Distinguished
Feb 3, 2009
973
0
19,160
It's the Mad Admiral!

Appreciate your input. Here's my thoughts concerning it though:

That's the mobo I have selected, it's an -e designation.

Ripjaws aren't vendor qualified. The set I have selected are overclocked to 1600 hence higher timings. Underclocked to 1333 @ 1.5 they should fall right back to 7-7-7-21. Ripjaws, Trident... pfft at the end of the day memory is the last thing to worry about.

You get what you pay for in cooling. I've seen the benchmarks that show the cm 212 pulling within 2-3 degrees of the megahalems, but the further you oc the further that gap is going to go. Don't get me wrong, at half the price it's a heck of a value buy, but bang for buck wasn't my number one concern in this build.

I'd prefer to stick with a single 12v rail. I was really looking at the 932 originally, but it's lack of dust filters turned me off. The 922 addressed that issue, but did so at a pretty big hit to it's cooling effeciency. Nine Hundred Two gives me top notch cooling, dust filters, and as a bonus a painted interior. It's not as large as I'd like, and it's ugly as hell, but this was a performance build.

You're more than welcome to price Tiger Direct against Newegg, but don't get too disappointed. If you can link me better prices on any of these parts, I'll gladly do my shopping there, assuming it considers shipping/taxes.

Ideally I'd have a Fry's and Microcenter down the road, but alas it's not the case.
 

a4mula

Distinguished
Feb 3, 2009
973
0
19,160


Hey, thanks for the time.

The M-Audios are more about quality over quantity. I have to admit though it's the first time I've ever heard someone use the term 'bad' when speaking of them. I have no need for a 2.1 or 5.1 setup. You should give a quality 2 speaker setup a shot sometime, you'd be impressed as how much clearer sound is when it's not being muddled through a 10" sub.

Well, I'm using a logitech g11 and g8 now. They're both great. I actually came across the wired version of the sidewinder last time I was browsing at Bestbuy and instantly fell in love with it. The size, weight, but mostly the 2 verticle side buttons. From what I've read the g15 and g19 are both kind of downgrades from the g11, and I like the prospect of the fps pad that the steelseries has.


 
The mobo that you linked to wasn't the one it linked to earlier, or it least it wasn't what I thought it was.

They work even if they're not specified as working. And you should still be concerned with getting the best parts you can, regardless of what aspect of the build. BTW, G.Skill recently won 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th place in a 10 place RAM competition. So for them to be as cheap as that is awesome. And for $4, that's one of the most noticeable upgrades.

I do like the 902, after all it's the case I'm using. HOWEVER, you're crazy for not wanting the HAF at that price. Shoot, if you get the combo and the Corsair, you get 2 PSUs out of it for $10 less. How is that not a deal? And the HAF is about the best damn case out there. You can paint an interior if its that big of a deal.

As for prices, price for price, Newegg is going to be the same. It's the combos (and rebates) that save you money.

And if you're not going for bang-for-your-buck, why ask for opinions? If money didn't matter, I could build you a $10,000 PC that will blow everything away until next week.
 

a4mula

Distinguished
Feb 3, 2009
973
0
19,160


I agree to an extent. And you're absolutely correct about newegg combo deals. The only catch with that is you can't wishlist the combos, so it's something that until I'm ready to start punching in CC numbers is out.

The Ram I have selected is G.Skill, it's just the Qualified Vendor difference. Again it's rated at 1600, so of course the timings will be a little higher than 1333. Depending on my blck that's going to slide in either direction. They work even if they aren't listed, unless they don't. At that point you have to arm wrestle for a RMA. At least that's been my experience with G.Skill and Gigabyte in the past. At least with QV Ram I don't have to worry about it. =)

Is paying 40 extra dollars worth a 2-3 degree performance difference? I guess that's a matter of relativity. Considering that my 4.5k i7 build had 800 dollars worth of Water cooling to gain 8-10 degrees, then I'd say yeah 40 bucks is a steal.

The same with the case. The 922 is a great case, but it's not in the same league for air cooling as the 932 or 902. Load temps @ gpu are going to be 5-6 degrees hotter. Pair that with the hsf and you're talking about a 10 degree shift. That's the difference between a 3.6 oc and a 4.0 oc.

Now we have to ask if 100 bucks is worth that difference in overclocking. To me it is. At the end of the day I still feel like I'm saving 700$ in WC, to reach temps that will rival it.

None of the links have changed. I did add the -E to it for clarity sake, but the link remained the same.

As far as asking for opinions, to improve of course. Everything suggested so far have been great suggestions. They just weren't suggestions that I felt improved the build I am personally going for. The 212, the 5.1 speakers, the case combo. Those are all spectacular suggestions. I took the time to go back and look at the CM 212 again, the 922 again. Just to refresh my memory and remember why I had decided the way I did.

Over the past month I've looked at hundreds, if not thousands of different pc parts. I've wracked my brains for optimal water cooling builds, and cases for both wc and air. I've looked at silly things like oil submersion and fought for weeks over p55 vs x58.

I'm close now. Within a few days I'll be shelling out a ton of money (for me at least), I want to make sure that I've spent it in a way that I'll be happy with. I've done the bang for the buck builds all my life. This time I wanted to splurge a little, just reasonably so, and with good intentions behind each and every purchase.