Souped up AMD or naked intc 980x system

[bennyblanco911]

Hey all,

So ive been agonizing over the these two builds and trying to see which one get more bang for the buck. The build will be mostly for work (trading) and occasional poker, where 30 -40 boxes (application windows) are running . Streaming news, charts, firefox, poker tables... all at the same time.

PROJECT X :
M/B-- ASUS P6X58D-E, LGA1366, Intel® X58, 6400 MT/s QPI, DDR3-2000
Processor-- INTEL Core™ i7-980X Extreme Six-Core, 3.33GHz
Memory-- CRUCIAL 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600MHz
GPU-- 2X Radeon™ HD 5670 775MHz
HD-- INTEL 40GB X25-V,
SEAGATE 500GB Barracuda® 7200 (RAID 0)
Power-- OCZ StealthXStream Power Supply, 700W, 24-pin ATX EPS12V

PROJECT Y :
M/B-- ASUS M4A89GTD PRO, AM3, AMD® 890GX, DDR3-2000
Processor-- AMD Phenom™ II X6 1090T Six-Core 3.2GHz
Memory-- CORSAIR 8GB (4 x 2GB) XMS3 PC3-10666 DDR3 1333MHz CL9
GPU-- 2X SAPPHIRE Radeon™ HD 5770 850MHz
HD-- CRUCIAL 128GB RealSSD™ C300 SSD,
SEAGATE 500GB Barracuda® 7200 (RAID 0)
Power-- THERMALTAKE TR2 RX 750W

Price difference is roughly 350$ and that about caps my budget (2600)
No rush/real time frame to build so two months max should be good.
Initial choice was the AMD setup but for $350 more ...i7 980x??... i dunno..
any thoughts/suggestions??

 

[Lamiel]

I'd say that for the tasks you've described you're looking to buy WAY more graphics muscle than you need. Onboard video would easily handle everything you're planning on doing with this rig. In the same respect, you certainly won't need the additional processing power of the i7 for those tasks. Go AMD with a motherboard that includes the HD 4200 IGP and you should be good to go.

 

[bennyblanco911]

did see a few cheaper ones that were able to support 6 monitors.....
i could knock off some cost on that ($50x2)

 

[lowriderflow]

Both of these systems are overkill for what you're using... No reason for two video cards... I use my computer the same as you described, outputting to a 32" primary monitor and a 22" secondary.

you just need one ATI 5830 eyefinity version video card. I'd definately reccomend the Phenom II x6, it will handle your tasks just fine. I'd recomend 12gb ram tho!
Newegg has 4x3gb kit's of OCZ on sale for a little over $300 after rebates!

 

[bennyblanco911]

saw the options on the Ati's and the only one that supports 6 monitors (5870) is pricier and more cumbersome. One of the reasons for the new build is for the multiple monitor capability

 

[buzznut]

Yes, this is overkill unless you want to play the latest 3D games maxed out at uber-high resolutions. I wish I had your budget..

The 1090T is well suited to multitasking as you suggest, but you could get a AMD 955BE for $155 that will outperform the 1090T in certain situations. Where are you getting the i7 980X for less than $1000? Add the 1366 mobo and your talking about $1300 right there...

I would stay away from the TR2 for a crossfire config. Considering the power requirements, I would invest in a quality PSU. Corsair TX and HX 650 and 750 are solid options. The stealth extreme is ok, but not terribly efficient. If you need modular, Antec offers some solid supplies in the 700 watt range.

It would be nice to know your monitor setup.

I would go for the larger SSD. I have the 40GB intel drive, and it is ok but the larger SSD's are faster and it would be nice to be able to put more apps on the boot drive. Those larger SSD's have come down quite a bit since my purchase in Jan. I would be inclined to go for the Intel 80GB drive at this time.

Also I don't know why you're doing raid 0 on your data drives. That's not safe, and you'll want data drives that are reliable for holding data, backups, etc. You could raid 1 for some redundancy, but I would get a 1 TB or larger drive with a five year warranty. Considering your budget, probably a 2 TB drive.

 

[bennyblanco911]

the prices and spec were from avadirect.com
I had a feeling i was skimping on PSU....
as for the monitor setup.... 4 22" and one 27 in the middle..
and i thought the raid 0 set up might speed up things.,
saw all my raid options and not even sure i need the raid setup...
speed vs reliability or both...but just speed is unsafe huh...
...all the info i gathered to build the two was from informational sites like this

 

[bennyblanco911]

Best answer selected by bennyblanco911.