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Tweaking build for sub-$1600 USD

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UPDATED

CPU
Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Model BX80601930
+
RAM
OCZ 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model OCZ3X1600R2LV6GK
--> http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...

CPU HEATSINK
COOLER MASTER Intel Core i7 compatible Hyper N 520 RR-920-N520-GP 92mm Sleeve CPU Cooler
--> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

MOTHERBOARD
GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
+
PSU
Antec CP-1000 1000W Continuous ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
--> http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...

HDD
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
--> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

CASE
Rosewill DESTROYER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case ,comes with Three Fans-1x Front Blue LED 120mm Fan, 1x Top 120mm Fan, 1x Rear 120mm Fan, option Fans-2x Side 120mm Fan,1x Top 120mm Fan,1x Bottom Fan
--> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

VIDEO CARD:
GIGABYTE GV-N480D5-15I-B GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
--> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Resolution: ~1680x1050 to 1920x1080

I'll add information as requested

(Thanks so much! I never realized building one's own computer required so much research :p )

More about : tweaking build 1600 usd

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You'll need a triple channel set for the CPU and mobo.

If you're looking only into gaming, you'd be better of with just an AMD PII or i5-750 build. The i7s provide minimal gain in games while costing about 200 dollars more.

but would i7's be better future proofing? because i have the usb 3.0 and sata 6.0 mobo already so when upgrading comes around i'll be set

Also I was thinking of overclocking the i7 920 to about 3.0 something

REVISED

CPU:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2004...*S?&GUID=e27840f21280a02653141b94ff83911f&itemid=200471932858&ff4=263602_263622

Phenom II X6 1055T $170. As fast as an i7 for most tasks, will need to be overclocked to game well but when you do it will game just as well as an i5 or i7.

Mobo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Asus 750a $100. A good motherboard.

Heatsink:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...


Kignwin 1264 $25. It is a rebranded Xigmatek HDT-s1284 which is one of the top performing heatsinks.

Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

HAF 922 $90. It will cool anything.

Memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Good RAM $100.

HDD:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Samsung Spinpoint F3 $55. Its fast and well priced.

GPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

2x GTX 470s. $700

PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Kingwin Mach 1 1KW. $165

Total: $1405

That is a monster!
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Quote:
Intel Setup :

Core I7 930 : 289.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Hyper 212+ : 29.99 - For some reason it's 59.99 on newegg.. WTF NEWEGG
http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-RR-B10-212P-G1-Univ...

EVGA X58 : 179.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

OCZ 850W : 99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

G.Skill 6GB DDR3 1600 : 164.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

640GB Western Digital Black : 74.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

EVGA GTX 480 : 502.99 - I like EVGA because of the Lifetime warranty
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Total : 1342.93

Amd Option :

Phenom II X6 1090T : 295.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Biostar 890FX : 139.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Hyper 212+ : 29.99 - For some reason it's 59.99 on newegg.. WTF NEWEGG
http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-RR-B10-212P-G1-Univ...

G.Skill 4GB DDR3 1600 : 109.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

OCZ 850W : 99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

640GB Western Digital Black : 74.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

EVGA GTX 480 : 502.99 - I like EVGA because of the Lifetime warranty
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Total : 1253.94

Both systems are very comparable and would perform about the same. The X6 and 930 should both overclock past 4Ghz quite easily. The X6 likes 4.2Ghz on air and the 930 has gone from 4.2 to 4.4Ghz on air. It's all about how much Vcore you wanna run.

If you have any questions please post them or PM me as i have owned both a 930 and now an X6


Why the insistence on such expensive CPUs? An i5 750 will hang with both of those easily.

No case? Umm...

Wow $170 for the 1055T is a great deal.

That said it is the i7 930 and the $180 X58 motherboard that I am not a fan of. If he can squeeze out 2 GTX 470s, he is going to have a real monster.

That said, I'm tempted to revise mine with that 1055T and an SLI motherboard.

Actually I am.

MY ABOVE RECOMMENDATION HAS BEEN REVISED!

Is a core i7 1366 necessary for gaming though? someone up there said i5 750 is enough and its 80 bucks cheaper which inevitably makes the mobo cheaper aswell

also im a bit wary on the SLI stuff with Fermi's keep in mind i want a mid tower and sli fermi's would probably melt it :p 

Quote:
The 750 is a good processor BUT Socket 1156 is a dead platform meaning it's being replaced by 1155 and sandy bridge in about 6 months. Thats why i don't recommend it.


And unless he wants to upgrade his CPU in less than two years, it won't matter. CPUs aren't nearly as important as they once were, hardware is far ahead of software at this point. There is no reason for him to upgrade his CPU to an LGA 1155 processor.

Quote:

If you want to save money just keep the GTX+ and add another for SLI.


Take it from me 2 9800 GTX+'s aren't that compelling... :( 

If you are going to keep it that long then get the 1055T, the six cores will become more beneficial with time.

If I put my 8800 GTS 512mbs to 9800 GTX+ speeds I get a GPU score of 14k on vantage Psycho. A single GTX 480 gets 20k stock...

The 1055T can be found for $170 on ebay in the above link (Here it is again: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2004...*S?&GUID=e27840f21280a02653141b94ff83911f&itemid=200471932858&ff4=263602_263622 )

Really the 1055T is the best processor for your uses.

As for the PSU and motherboard combo, the PSU is a good one but that mobo is overpriced and you should be looking at an AM3 mobo anyway.

As for RAM 4GB is plenty, the speed doesn't really matter and it won't make much of a difference. For instance there is no performance difference between a good kit of DDR2 and a good kit of DDR3, we just don't need that much RAM speed right now.

I don't think I should be spending on USB 3.0 and SATA 6.0 Gbps right now but i'm kinda leaning towards psycho's intel setup :|

rephrase: should i be spending on usb 3.0 and sata 6? because those features bump the mobo price kinda alot however i found really good deal on it

razercultmember1 said:
I don't think I should be spending on USB 3.0 and SATA 6.0 Gbps right now but i'm kinda leaning towards psycho's intel setup :|

rephrase: should i be spending on usb 3.0 and sata 6? because those features bump the mobo price kinda alot however i found really good deal on it


No offense to Psycho, you won't notice ANY difference in performance going with that i7 920/930 and an X58 motherboard over a much cheaper LGA 1156 i5 750 or X3440 centered build.

So...500 left?

Go with a 5870 or 480.

ATI = cooler, slightly better value
nVidia = slightly better performance (10% or so?) for $100 more

Best HDD choice would be a 500 GB platter drive:
Samsung Spinpoint F3 500 GB or 1 TB
Seagate 7200.12 500 GB or 1 TB
WD Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1 TB

Quote:
If he goes with the X3440 build it'll be close. If he goes with the 750 there will be a difference because of HT BUT there's no point in going 1156 because the price is almost the same.

Go with the 930 build.


What are you talking about? The i5 750 is $80 cheaper and the motherboards are also cheaper. Also, he will never see the difference between having Hyper threading and not. Hyper threading is only beneficial when using multiple CPU intensive programs, like photoshop, video encoding, and unRARing at the same time, something almost no one does on a regular basis.

This is the cheapest board that supports dual cards without being in x16/x4 and supports SLI as well as Crossfire:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

So you save $80 on the processor and $30 on the motherboard.

Again OP, go with the LGA 1156 build, don't waste your money.

I'll go with pyscho's since i dont need THAT much space a terabyte even 500 gb is alot for me :p 

So im hankering for:

5000 series
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Fermi
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Suggestions on brands? Also I'm willing to go to 5850 or GTX 470 etc

Thanks to all who helped me :) 

razercultmember1 said:
I'll go with pyscho's since i dont need THAT much space a terabyte even 500 gb is alot for me :p 

So im hankering for:

5000 series
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Fermi
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Suggestions on brands? Also I'm willing to go to 5850 or GTX 470 etc

Thanks to all who helped me :) 


Get TWO of these for SLI: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Two of those in SLI will be about half again as fast as a single GTX 480, and twice as fast as a single 5870.

so the first post is my current order and it totals to about 1611 i was wondering if i should skimp the 10 dollars on the gigabyte and get the EVGA x58 sli le one. the gigabyte does have SATA 6.0 and USB 3.0...

feel free to tweak the build as i have some leeway now 1429

i think its fine but the PSU im not sure if i would want more power to go sli with the 480s in the future but granted im only gaming at 1680 or 1920 i dont think its necessary

Alright I'm confused.

You are getting a 750w now? Or you found a 1000w for a good price, if so can you give use a link?

Are you still going with the dual GTX 470s?

Are you going with the i7 LGA 1366 build? If so I guess I can't convince you otherwise.

The Rosewill Destroyer is a great case, but you need to buy a few fans with it, one for the side and another for the top.

That is true, but I see no reason to waste money on CPU power he will never use when he can have more GPU power. A GTX 470 and a GTX 480 are very similar and tend to clock at about the same speeds, so I can't see there ever being a big difference between them.

That said, a single GTX 480 IS plenty, but so is an i5 750 or a 1055T.

Also the GTX 465s unlocked still are not full GTX 470s, the memory and memory bandwidth can't be changed.

Microstuttering is more of a myth than anything. It comes from the frames being rendered at different rates. There are a lot of checks and balances in the drivers to stop that, and it is quite rare. I've had two dual card setups and I've built plenty of PCs with or for my friends with dual card setups and I've never been bothered by any microstuttering. It likely is there, but it is so rare that it is a non-issue, I couldn't name one time when I noticed it.

That said if you are really worried about it, it is easily fixed. Back in the early days of SLI and CF it was more present. Simply turning the clocks up a bit on the lagging card will completely erase it. That is if you ever experience it, which is doubtful.

Best solution

You're already spending nearly $300 on the processor, $10 for a .14 GHz improvement is totally worth it.

I mean, if you really can't afford that $10, then don't do it, but if that's the case, you might want to look into an AMD X4 or an i5-750 build instead, as you won't really notice the difference in gaming.
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