Please critique my new build

Camelion

January 24, 2010 8:36:35 PM

Hi Everyone
Here is the parts for my new computer build.
Please go over them to see it all the parts will fit together and perform well together.
I will be using the computer for some video editing, multitasking, light gaming, and general use.
I live in Canada, so will be buying the parts from newegg.ca.

Here it is, from newegg.ca
Processor
Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor - Retail $219.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681...

MotherBoard: GIGABYTE GA-P55-UD3R LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $150. http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681...

Memory: Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT25664BA1339 $110.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1682...

Graphics Card: XFX HD-577X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card $180.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681...

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive. $100
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1682...

Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner . $33.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1682...

Case & PSU: Antec Sonata III 500 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply. $110.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681...

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM $120.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1683...

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

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a4mula

January 25, 2010 9:58:12 AM

Samsung Spinpoint F3 over WD
Get a HSF. CM212 can be had for 30 bucks and it does a fine job.

Gigabytes lowend boards are kinda trashy imo. They're rebranded Foxconns. For 10$ more you could pick up the Asus p7p55d Pro which adds crossfire/sli support for future upgrades.

There is also a OCZ 700w psu combo floating around that I'm sure you could find a case to match with that would be close in price to your current selection. I'm not a advocate of this particular psu, but for the price it seems to be a decent selection.

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szymek

January 25, 2010 11:35:45 AM

F3 over caviar black? If he doesnt mind the noise, if he doesnt mind the price then wd is better. Although transfers are lower, lower seek times and real performance makes quite a difference. You might want a better psu, 600w will be engough even if you will want to cf this gpu which is quite good and if youre not planning to overclock your cpu, stock cooling will do ok for you.

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ewood

January 25, 2010 11:41:35 AM

for the same price you can get this mobo. I know, its a biostar, but i put together a build for my brother using it and its great, especially for the price. Tons of bios options and very stable. the placement of fan, usb and sata headers was great too. It supports crossfire so you can add another 5770 in the future.
heres the mobo:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681...

also try this ram instead:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1682...

it is the same speed, but the latencies are much tighter which helps quite a bit on i5/i7 builds. Its onlu 8.00 more

other than that looks good.

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a4mula

January 25, 2010 12:29:45 PM

szymek said:

F3 over caviar black? If he doesnt mind the noise, if he doesnt mind the price then wd is better. Although transfers are lower, lower seek times and real performance makes quite a difference. You might want a better psu, 600w will be engough even if you will want to cf this gpu which is quite good and if youre not planning to overclock your cpu, stock cooling will do ok for you.

1tb Caviar Black doesn't even come close, it's not even a comparison. 2tb competes, if you're willing to drop 300 bucks. Of course at that price I can think of a few SSD's that crush it. Mainly the x25-m, or 2x ocz vertexes.

Short random accesses are what we have indexing for. Seek times are neglible. Transfer times are what determines how fast games are going to load. How fast windows is going to boot. So when you talk about "Real Performance" The Spinpoint is currently in a class of its own (Ok, I regress the 7200.12 rival it).

WD transfer times = 60MB/s
F3 transfer times = 130MB/s

I fail to see how it compares.

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MadAdmiral

January 25, 2010 12:42:41 PM

I'm with a4mula. The F3 is currently destroying WD. Not only do the benchmarks show that it's faster, it's also quieter. The 500 GB platters used by the F3 (instead of the 250 GB platters in the WD) mean fewer moving parts. That means less noise and less heat. Here are the benchmarks to prove it.

Here's some even better sticks of RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws 1600 mhz CAS Latency 7. They're the same price as ewood's, but faster.

Agree that you don't need an aftermarket heatsink if you're not going to overclock, but if you decide to, the Coolermaster Hyper 212 is one of the best.

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shortstuff_mt

January 25, 2010 2:08:43 PM

I agree with going with the F3 drive, but I have to clear up some misinformation. The WD Black 1TB drive uses two 333GB platters, not 250GB platters. I've seen this misinformation posted before, but had to say something this time. The 640GB WD drives use two 320GB platters.

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MadAdmiral

January 25, 2010 2:29:11 PM

How does a 1 TB drive only use 2 333 GB platters? Did you mean 3?

I apoligize for any error, as I thought we were talking about the 500 GB drives. What size does WD use for those?

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shortstuff_mt

January 25, 2010 2:34:03 PM

Yes, I meant 3 333GB platters. The 500GB WD drives do use 250GB platters, which is why nobody's suggested them since the 640GB and 1TB WD drives were released.

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