[Solved] ~$1000 Performance Build

I'm aware that you said you prefer Intel/nVidia, but if you can get over that preference, than you can avoid their price premiums and get with a more graphically powerful and overclockable AMD platform...



I'm fairly sure that build supports dual CFX... correct me if I'm wrong... and if the 955 is as similar to the 965 as people are saying, then it has some major OC headroom. I'm running a 965 stable right now at 4ghz.

Oh, and note that the 5850 supports DX11...

I left out a CPU cooler, though. I'd suggest the Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer for you... it's relatively cheap, it outperforms the Ultra 212 on my system, and can fit in the CM 690 II case. They even give you a free tube of TX2 grease with it.

Any thoughts, or do you still want to stick with Intel?

Hmm, very nice, I'll probably go with that actually. Are you sure the extra 2 or 4 gigs or RAM won't help? Also, I just stumbled upon http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6883227230 do you think that is worth buying? If I build I will most likely go with what you set up there, thanks very much!

As long as you are not doing lots of complex rendering and transcoding (of video or very large RAW files) then 4GB RAM should be AMPLE.

That VERY SAME RAM KIT that I spec'd out on my first reply will work in ANY AM3 socket mobo (as well as all INTEL socket 1156 boards) and is the fastest stable RAM speed that you are likely to achieve, without major effort. Also a much better value than other premium ram @ $120 ... BUT ... Kingston Value Ram 1333cas9 would prolly do ya just fine, for $105 ... Those are your two best picks (mine, anyway).

=

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Photo editing, 3D rendering, gaming, internet surfing.

Your most important decision, here, is the video card. If you are truly going to spend more time gaming, then do a Radeon 5770, 5850, 5870 ...

... BUT ... *IF* you are seriously commited to using a broad range of "Pro" level graphics industry sw tools ... then ... nVidia OpenGL 3.x (3.2) is the ONLY way to go.

... Gaming at hi-rez? ... DirectX-11 ... 2xmon at hi rez? ... 5870 (xfire in 18~24 months)

Corsair 750Watt PSU ... will take care of your future.

= Al =

Great board ... MSI is a decent maker ... Good review stats ...

Pretty sure that it does not come "Hex-Core ready", right out of the box but IS MOST LIKELY FLASHABLE FOR HEX CORE.

Does not have SATA3 or USB3 but SFW ?! (so, ef what?!)

= Al =

Yeah! ... AM3 955 w/ 2x250GTS SLI would be an all-around solid rig !

Just verify OpenGL 3.0~3.2 support ... only SOME very specific cards do have 3.x.

... Some apps will not even open without it.

Strangely ... Tho ALL newer Radeons DO sport OpenGL 3.2, the pro graphics industry clearly certifies nVidia's implementation as "most viable" ... I have been looking for a "real" answer to this riddle for 3 years, now ... I do have some answers but mostly to do with technical and marketing relationships.

= Al =

Thanks, Al... I do my best...
I'm aware that pretty much all Radeon HD 5xxx cards support everything up through 3.x, but as you said, marketing really screws things up here.

Well, I'll keep an eye on this thread for more responses... going to grab something to eat right now... keep up the good work, Al...

EDIT:

Yeah, I can...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814133266

ABSOLUTELY the 5850 AND the 250 cards both support 2x monitors (from a single GPU card).

Also ... ALL Radeon 5770(plus)~5970 cards do support Ati Eyefinity multi-monitor support.

Also ... nVidia drivers have LONG TIME automatically "find" all Quadro and GeForce products and allow you to gang CUDA and multi monitor support ... even odd models ... So you could mix any Quadros and any/either/or Geforce cards for up to 2 Hi-Rez monitors (active) per card.

Also ... Ati has still not figured out how to do ^THIS^ ... but they are "working on it, really hard!" ... Eyefinity CAN do many monitors, but they ALL work off the SINGLE primary GPU card (even if/when/while xFired).

... Just some interesting quirks in the current landscape.

= Al =

Wow I really just confused myself by reading three threads at once, I hardly changed anything, sorry xD

Well, that's good except for the RAM and the Motherboard. If you want to use the two 250's, then you'll need an nForce board with that processor. The one I listed above is probably the best you'll get for your setup. The board you found only supports DDR3-1066 RAM, too, so I'd steer clear of it if I were you.

Secondly, with ANY AM3 board out there right now, you'll only install RAM 2 modules at a time. The RAM you found IS really fast, but is also extremely expensive. It comes in a 3 module kit, though, which is [i]only[i] used for Intel LGA1366 setups. You'll end up with a spare stick of RAM and nothing to do with it other than put it in a display case and look at it.

Thirdly, the guys at my local computer shop actually refuse to stock the Antec 300 at their shop unless it's a special order, just because of how bad the cable management is on it. I've never a system using one before, but I don't really want to after hearing them tell me that. Just some words of advice... it's your PC, though.

If you want more RAM, then your best bet would to just buy a second kit of the A-Data RAM I posted above. It's faster than a lot of other DDR3 kits, will work in pretty much anything, and is relatively cheap for what you're getting.

EDIT

Oh, lol, I just read the first post, then realized you put something after it saying you didn't really change anything...

Open Mouth. Insert Foot.

To be honest, I'm wondering about that too... I'm going to go do some research on it, though, so I'll tell you here in a few minutes.

Well, the only thing I see is that it lacks some of the features the 790fx-gd70 has such as the "easy oc" dial, "cmos reset" button, and some other things. It doesn't support 4gb DIMMs of memory, either, but that won't be a problem for you, as they're still something like $200 each...

I don't want to go over $1,300 and I don't think I need to

As usual, it depends on what you're using the computer for. It has a massive processor, but is rather lacking in the graphics area, and doesn't support nVidia OpenGL 3.x which is used by many professional rendering programs. If you want more RAM, it would be better to add another kit to the build I listed above. It would have a lot more graphics power than the other thread you found, and would OC exceptionally well. It would be in the same budget range, too.

Here, I'll pull together a final build for you. It should fill everything you're looking for...

Did you need both windows and a monitor?

alright then... I'll hurry up and get a screenshot of this for you.

Looks really good. I think I should post this as a new thread to get some more go-aheads before ordering it all. Do you mind if I link to this picture on your Photobucket account?

Also, do I need to buy the DVI cables separately or do those usually come with the GPU?

No problem. I think they should come with the GPU or Monitor, too...

That Photobucket account is pretty much just the one I let people use if they want to put something on the internet, so go ahead... There's a little bit of everything in it right now...

That's probably a good idea... make a new topic to be sure everything works.

SATA's are for pretty much everything... your DVD Burner and HDD's both use SATA Cables to be more specific.

Best answer selected by sathoro.

2 drives are necessary for HDV/AVCHD edit workflow ... some notebooks do it on one drive ... isn't pretty, tho.

= Al =

no ... those are just two good cheap really fast media streaming Hard Drives ...

Take your pick of these two drives ... for boot and apps ... The faster 1TB drive is to be the "media streamer" ... Create a 250GB primary partition on the 1TB drive, for active edit projects (fastest zone is outer 3rd of platter(s)) ... So ... one drive is "workin the app" while the other streams the media files (at higher rate). The bright side is that you won't need RAID-0 for Compressed HD.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] -_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] -_-Product

Forget the SSD, for now ... it is not worth stretching your budget aand may add undue complexity to your sw config process. But ... if you are truly interested ... I'll discuss the landscape.

Not quite right.

AMD & Intel 1156 work with dual-channel RAM. This means that in order to get the best performance, you add RAM in sets of 2 sticks. 2, 4, 6, 8, etc. Ideally, this is 4 or 8 GB for most builds (4 being enough for gaming), but you could still get dual-channel performance with just 6 GB if you went 2+2+1+1. Most people, however, are just going to get 4x 2 GB sticks and go up to 8 GB.

Intel 1366 uses triple-channel RAM. This means that for best performance, you add RAM in sets of 3 sticks. 3, 6, 9, etc.

In all cases, you don't have to stick with the recommended pairings, but you will lose a little bit of performance by doing so.

In case you missed it, the build he just ordered is here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] rder-build

Only with a GTX 470 instead of two 250's, an extra cable, and some thermal grease.