I'm ready to order, please critique my build

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Stadius

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APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: As soon as I can get two EVGA 480GTX
BUDGET RANGE: 4000-4500 Before Rebates
SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, 3DSMAX, ZBrush, CATIA, surfing the internet, watching movies
PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Keyboard, mouse, speakers
PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: ncix.ca
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Canada
PARTS PREFERENCES: EVGA for GPU, I am going to have a triple montior setup and already have 1 Samsung 2443BW-HAS.
OVERCLOCKING: Maybe .
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Yes

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1200 Triple monitor (Of course I can turn the resolution down if a game can't handle it. Or use one monitor if a game does not support surround gaming.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I'm sure this setup will do what I want. In the future when I'm not getting the frame rates I need I suppose I would implement water cooling and overclock everything. Is it possible to add third party water cooling to the EVGA 480 GTX in the future?
I would like to get this assembled rather than having to assemble it myself. So NCIX was a great choice.

I am most concerned about the compatibility of the motherboard , ram and harddrives


1 x Intel Core i7 960 Quad Core Processor LGA1366 3.2GHZ Bloomfield 8MB LGA1366 4.8GT/S Retail Box
1 x Noctua NH-U12P SE2 LGA775/1156/1366 AM2/AM3 I7/I5/PHENOM Heatpipe Cooler W/ 2XNH-P12 120MM Fans
1 x ASUS P6X58D Premium X58 ATX LGA1366 3PCI-E16 PCI-E1 2PCI CrossFire SLI USB3.0 SATA 6GB/S Motherboard
1 x OCZ Platinum OCZ3P1600LV6GK 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 CL 7-7-7-24 Triple Channel Memory Kit
2 x Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache 3.5IN Dual Proc Hard Drive OEM
1 x Western Digital WD SiliconEdge 64GB SATA 2.5IN SSD Solid State Flash Disk Drive

2 x GeForce GTX 480 700MHZ 1536MB GDDR5 3.696GHZ PCI-E Dual DVI-I Mini HDMI
1 x Cooler Master Haf 932 Full Tower Black EATX Case 6X5.25 1X3.5 5X3.5INT No PSU USB eSATA 1394 Audio
1 x Corsair HX1000W CMPSU-1000HX 1000W ATX 20/24PIN ATX 80A 12V Afc Modular Power Supply W/ 140MM Fan
2 x Samsung 2443BW-HAS 24IN Widescreen LCD Monitor Black 1920X1200 20000:1DC 5ms VGA DVI HDCP Pivot HAS
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Edition 64BIT DVD OEM
1 x Power Cord for Computer / Monitor 6FT NEMA5-15P to C13
1 x ASUS DRW-24B1LT 24X SATA DVD Writer OEM Black
1 x nGear Flash Card Reader 3.5IN Internal USB Black CF/SM/SDHC/MMC/MS/XD 18IN Cable
1 x Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-FI Titanium 7.1 Channel 24-BIT PCI-E Sound Card Retail
1 x Please Use The Onboard Network Ethernet Card Integrated On My Motherboard

Thank you all for your help
 
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jonnyboyC

jonnyboyC

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I would personally recommend against the OCZ as well i got a pair and it was kinda of a pain and didn't run at it's rated 7-7-7

and as for sound cards IMO i feel it's hard to justify, the added expensive for the almost nonexistent different in quality.

I also feel that if you willing to learn overclocking, then anything over a 930 is hard to recommend either, My 920 was the first chip i overclocked, and never had before. And i can tell you it's not difficult if your willing to spend some time on it. IMO i feel those few hours are worth the severl hundred dollar difference between the chips
 
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tecmo34

tecmo34

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^+1... RAM

Get the Core i7 930 over the i7 960. Don't waste your money on i7 960 when the i7 930 will reach 3.8Hhz with little issues.

Don't get the WD SSD drive! With the savings on the CPU, upgrade your SSD to the OCZ Vertex LE 100GB, which is one of the fastest SSD's you can buy!
 
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Stadius

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AlvinSmith i have never heard of that ram supplier. is it triple channel? is it reliable?

I may be willing to overclock in the future. my plan is to overclock and water cool when im not getting the framerates that i want. hopefully a few years in the future. I assume the 960 is overclockable. is this true?

the only reason for the SSD is for the operating system and home folder. that is why i think 64 is big enough. any thoughts?
 
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tecmo34

tecmo34

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G.SKILL is outstanding RAM, so don't be afraid of getting that RAM choice. It is the better RAM at less money...

64GB is plenty big enough for a boot drive. I recommended against the WD, as they are no as good as the others. At a min, I would get an Intel X25-M G2 80GB SSD. I said the OCZ Vertex LE 100GB because they are the fastest and with savings from going with the i7 930, you can get the better SSD.
 
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Stadius

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thanks temco.

i will be switching out the ram for the G.SKILL
I see there is an OCZ Vertex LE 50GB. would this be large enough for the OS and home drive? I think it would, just need your opinion.
 
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tecmo34

tecmo34

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Yes, it will work but 50GB will be tight in space. I have the Intel X25M G2 80GB and with just the OS and a few apps (no games), about half the drive is full, which for you would leave about 15GB of space. You want to try and keep at least 10% of the drive empty for the TRIM support if you can. I would stick with 64GB+ on SSD. The Intel X24M G2 is your best option or pick up a Kingston V series at 64GB.
 
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Alvin Smith

Alvin Smith

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Yeah .. +1 ... But I would like to add that I carried a Kingston around in my cart (@newegg) for a month and defended it most ardently, here on these threads, for that entire time ... In the end, I finally switched to the X25-M/G2 ... I WILL also say that if the 40GB version becomes available, I will find a way to make that work.

Last time the 40GB INTELs became available on newegg, they sold out in something like 4 hours!

I have a 70GB Raptor as my current boot drive ... I have XP-Pro(SP3) and the Full Avid-XP suite ... the full uLead Media Studio Pro suite ... VEGAS ... ACID ... Cubase-LE ... and hosts of tools and utilities and I am still just under half full. (So is my 300GB Seagate media/content/archive drive).

So ... I would see 64GB as pretty much ideal BUT the Kingstons (while quiet and dependable), are not "shockingly fast".

I expect the main core of this, my latest build, to last for at least 5 years, so I think the cost of a modestly sized INTEL SSD is justified (finally) at this point.

I would just like to see the INTEL 40GB G2 drives become available, once again ....
... If INTEL were to come out with a 64GB for $200 ... Hey, I would jump all over that. ... Some day.

Meanwhile ... I am stuck in "twilight-limbo", here on BoM/THG/NSB ... eerie music fades up ... picture fades to black.

= Al =
 
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Stadius

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Well you convinced me. I am switching to the:
1x Intel X25-M 80GB 34NM Postville 2.5IN SSD SATA Solid State Disk Flash Drive

1x G.SKILL F3-12800CL6T-6GBPI Pi Series 6GB 3X2GB DDR3-1600 CL6-8-6-20 240PIN Triple Channel Memory Kit

im still not sure if i will get a blue-ray burner. maybe later
 
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Alvin Smith

Alvin Smith

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DO NOT get a blu-ray burner ... unless you are distributing BR content or unless you just want to stare at the bezel.

Not only are they over-priced ... just LOOK at how low DVD burners went $22 !
Fact is, if you go read all the reviews and cruise these forums ... you will realize that, for viewing blu-ray, you'd be better off with a dedicated (stand alone) player from Wal-Mart.

I'm not going to give "onboard" BR another thought (hopefully) until 1st quarter of next year.

AND BTW ... Takes 6 min for avg joe to install optical drive and update drivers.

AND BBTTWW ... There ain't much (if any) good sw apps for br, yet .. a unanimous complaint!

= Al =
 
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Stadius

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Well, NCIX.com just price matched every single item that I requested. I think that is pretty good.

NCIX said that the ram i selected was not available and hard to get:
G.SKILL F3-12800CL6T-6GBPI Pi Series 6GB 3X2GB DDR3-1600 CL6-8-6-20 240PIN Triple Channel Memory Kit

What do you suggest as equal or greater ram?
 
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Alvin Smith

Alvin Smith

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Well ... I just read a memory scalings article, here, and was left with the impression that moving from Cas9 to Cas7 will give about the same performance advantage of moving from 1333 to 1600 (all else equal).

BUT, the main conclusion reinforced an anonymous quote that I often reference ...

"More RAM will make your system faster than "faster RAM".

You are only likely to notice the difference between 1333c9 and 1600c7 during long transcodes and renders. May shave a half hour off a 7 hour render (at best).

Triple channel is a larger advantage over dual channel.

I have also had users come in here complaining of a sudden percieved lag in performance and it seems the culprit was a bad module had forced single channel mode ... so ... I'm still guessing there would be a very marked difference between, say, 1066c9 DDR2 in single ch mode and 2000c6 in triple channel ... I often wonder just how much use Win7-64 would make of 8GB vs. 4GB ... just in a standard, native, general usage environment.

= Al =

= Al =
 
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Stadius

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Alvin Smith, i appreciate your help, i really do but i have no idea what your talking about...lol
I just want to make sure i have the best ram i can get for my system for the money. The link above was for $280 ram on for $200. since i was looking at the G.SKILL for about $215 but it wasnt available i thought this might be a good solution.

from some of the previous posts i know im looking for triple channel ram... thats about all i know.

please advise, peace.
 
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brennon7

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Don't buy those monitors.....They are only 60hz and will be useless for the 3d surround!! The main thing Nvidia has over ATI is the 3D. You need 120hz monitors. Unless you intended to spend that kind of cash and not get 3d surround.
 
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jonnyboyC

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at $80 off i would jump on that now. Dominators are usually way overpriced. It's great ram, but at it's normal price i would look elsewhere, but with the $80 i would potentially order before the deals off

also as brennon 7 said 120 hz monitors would be ideal if you plan on 3d ever
 
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Stadius

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ok, i just ordered that ram. the guy said it wasnt as good as the G.SKILL i had specified but it was very popular ram at a very good price. and it was triple channel and good for overclocking (if i choose to)

you have to watch out for these price match deals. their site says free shipping and my cart had free games in it that were combo deals with the processor and such. apparently if they do price match then ALL promotional deals are void!

they wouldnt budge on the shipping, so it will cost me $80. As for the games, I said "Man, I'm dropping over 4K on a computer at your site, the least you can do is include the games that come free with the hardware."

they will :)
 
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Stadius

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Thanks for all the help guys, not sure how to give you points.
here is my final build:

2x Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache 3.5IN Dual Proc Hard Drive OEM
1x Intel Core i7 960 Quad Core Processor LGA1366 3.2GHZ Bloomfield 8MB LGA1366 4.8GT/S Retail Box
1x ASUS P6X58D Premium X58 ATX LGA1366 3PCI-E16 PCI-E1 2PCI CrossFire SLI USB3.0 SATA 6GB/S Motherboard
1x Noctua NH-U12P SE2 LGA775/1156/1366 AM2/AM3 I7/I5/PHENOM Heatpipe Cooler W/ 2XNH-P12 120MM Fans
1x Cooler Master Haf 932 Full Tower Black EATX Case 6X5.25 1X3.5 5X3.5INT No PSU USB eSATA 1394 Audio
1x Corsair HX1000W CMPSU-1000HX 1000W ATX 20/24PIN ATX 80A 12V Afc Modular Power Supply W/ 140MM Fan
1x Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Edition 64BIT DVD OEM
1x Power Cord for Computer / Monitor 6FT NEMA5-15P to C13
1x Intel X25-M 80GB 34NM Postville 2.5IN SSD SATA Solid State Disk Flash Drive
1x ASUS DRW-24B1LT 24X SATA DVD Writer OEM Black
1x nGear Flash Card Reader 3.5IN Internal USB Black CF/SM/SDHC/MMC/MS/XD 18IN Cable
1x Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-FI Titanium 7.1 Channel 24-BIT PCI-E Sound Card Retail
1x PC Assembly and Testing with 1 Year Limited NCIX System Warranty (PRE-CONFIG WIN. OS If Purchased)
2x EVGA GeForce GTX 480 Fermi 700MHZ 1536MB GDDR5 2XDVI MINI-HDMI PCI-E Video Card
2x Samsung 2443BW-HAS 24IN Widescreen LCD Monitor Black 1920X1200 20000:1DC 5ms VGA DVI HDCP Pivot HAS
1x Corsair XMS3 Dominator TR3X6G1600C8D 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1600 CL 8-8-8-24 Core i7 Memory Kit

I think this is a solid build. :bounce:

 
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