Pre built or Build my own?

[carnedude]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: ASAP

BUDGET RANGE: 2500 tops

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming and some 3d modeling.

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Don't need a Monitor

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: I like Newegg

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA

PARTS PREFERENCES: I like Intel chip sets, and corsair ram and cases, also I prefer Nvidia gpu

OVERCLOCKING: Yes

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Yes

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: As far as overclocking and sli I have never had a system with either but I am told that you can safely overclock now days without harm. Is this true? Also I have been told that you need a certain set up for alot of games to make use of SLI?
I don't care if it is air or water cooled just what ever works the best. One last thing i was wondering about is if it was worth it to go for the new unlocked Intel chips?

 

[banthracis]

Build your own.

What 3d modeling software?

Yes OC is easy and pretty safe.

Err most games benefit from sli/xfire. You just meed a xfire/sli mobo and the PSU capable of powering everything.

No, the unlocked chips are not worth the money. Same OC headroom, higher price.

 

[hunter315]

Put together this one for someone else last night

i7 930 and ASUS P6X58D-E Motherboard combo $495
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.434526

G.SKILL PI Series 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600MHz CL7 $170
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231335

HAF X/Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit combo $290
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.437504.11-119-225

ASUS GTX480 $480
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121373

XFX 850W PSU $150-$20 MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207001

Samsung F3 1TB $75
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185&Tpk=F3%201tb

Plextor DVD Drive $40
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827249051&cm_re=plextor-_-27-249-051-_-Product

Thermaltake Frio $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106150&Tpk=frio

Comes out to 1760 before shipping or mail in rebate, and has room for SLI upgrades in the future.

The Frio will keep things cool if you decide to OC down the line, you will also need to get some thermal grease to go with it like arctic silver.

 

[carnedude]

Mostly Cad like solidworks but maybe a little maya too? As far as the parts That looks good but I am leaning on 12gb of ram so and definitely want to run sli so should i just double up on them?. This will be my first build so apart from some arctic silver will i need anything else that won't come with the parts? Also I have heard of Nvidia's new card coming out this month. Should I wait?
Edit: Looked around and I know its alot more but I wondered if this is worth the extra dough, meaning can i get away with over clocking the cpu to the same specs and are I know evga are good components never had anything asus? http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.439916

 

[banthracis]

So you are gonna utilize CUDA then. Ok, then yes go with Nvidia.

No, the Nvidia card coming out is a low end part.

Mobo choice has minimal impact of overclock headroom. In fact, there's pretty much zero difference as long as there enough phase power.


Hunter's above build is decent.

Changes I'd make.
Grab a GTX 470 instead. Much more worth the money. $300 after $20 MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125320&cm_re=gtx_470-_-14-125-320-_-Product


Case- Swap to a HAF 922. Much cheaper and everything you'll need. $180
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.437504.11-119-197

PSU
Corsair 850TX $130 w/ $10 MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009&Tpk=850tx

Better PSU, and lower price.

Optical
Cheaper $20
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151193

HSF
Change to a Hyper 212 Plus for bang for buck
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002G1YPH0/ref=s9_simh_gw_p23_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1BM2Z5A2THWQZR9ZGV0N&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

If you want best, Noctua NH-D14, Megahalem or Tuniq 120 extreme. It's 2-3x the price for like a 6 degree temp difference though.

 

[hunter315]

The 850TX isnt a better PSU, check out the jonnyguru review of the XFX 850W unit vs their review of the 850TX, the extra $20 gets you 80+ Silver and modular cables.

The reasoning behind some of the more expensive parts was i was showing a build to compete against a $3k alienware build so i figured the HAF X and the nicer plextor drive were justified in the budget, and i have that plextor drive and have found it to be quite a bit nicer than my cheaper and slightly older lite-on drive, and its a lot quieter too.

 

[banthracis]

Ratings are 0.1 apart, but for a $10 difference I guess you can say it's worth it.

Optical and case though really aren't.
I've used my optical about 2x in the last year. Not worth doubling the price for something that's rarely used.

The HAFx is over 2x the price of the 922, $200 vs $90.

The point here is that w/ $110 in case, $20 in optical, $30 in HSF, $10 in PSU, $160 in GPU change, that's $330, or enough for him to get a second GTX 470, w/ $30 to spare.

That'll be a huge performance gain for less overall money.

 

[carnedude]

K looks good as far as the case I am looking for something pretty and its not going to any lan party's. I was looking at this one and wondered what you thought?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133178

Alsofound a different cooler.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103057

and will I gain much if I use this CPU? or is overclocking gonna get me there?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115211

One last question. Are SSD's worth it right now?

Oh yeah an Edit. I don't need a optical i will just yank it out of my old one.
Might jump to a blue ray someday?

 

[carnedude]

Oh yeah is a 850w psu gonna be enough to run 2 470s?

 

[banthracis]

yes

 

[banthracis]

Case, V isn't worth the money over the G really.

Overclocking can easily put you past the i7-950.

SSD are about to drop a ton in price in fall, so hold off a few months.

BLue ray isn't really useful. Doesn't do anything an external HD doesn't.

HSF- more expensive for worse performance than the 212 plus per frostytech
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2419&page=5

 

[carnedude]

Cool makes sense about the fan, But kinda leaning on the V for the extra room
gonna post a full build list soon and will be ordering in a week or two.
As long and my psu cables are long enough (they should be) and besides thermal compound will I need to buy any sort of cables or mounting hardware? Or is that all included with the parts?

 

[banthracis]

included.

 

[carnedude]

I have been reading around and the MOBO seams kinda iffy. Like not being able to use the pci slot if you are using sli so that means not sound card and some people said it melted! Is there another board you can recommend and I don't mind paying a little more. Right now i have 200 dollars of wiggle room.

 

[hunter315]

The nature of how the slots are lined up means that you wouldnt be able to use the PCI slots if you are using two dual slot PCI-E slots, but there are many PCI-E sound cards these days, most of the good ones are, and the onboard sound will be pretty good so you probably wont need one so the lack of PCI port slikely wont cause an issue.

Not sure about the melting issue, but that would definitely be covered under warranty and ASUS customer service is pretty good. I wouldnt pay too much attention to newegg reviews, most of the people who give it bad review tend to have done something stupid. The melting was probably caused by 2 480s in a poorly ventilated case.

 

[carnedude]

K here is everything

Mobo- ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard 240$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131641

or
EVGA E758-A1 3-Way SLI (x16/x16/x8) LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard (same price after rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188039

CPU- Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80601930 290$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115225

PSU- CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply 119$ after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009

GPU- EVGA 012-P3-1472-AR GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) SuperClocked 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card 2of them for a total of 660$ afte rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130549

Ram- G.SKILL PI Series 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7T-6GBPI 2 sets for 340$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231335

Case- Thermaltake Element V Black Edition VL200K1W2Z Black SECC / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case 155$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133178

HSF- COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7 compatible RR-B10-212P-G1 120mm "heatpipe direct contact" Long life sleeve CPU Cooler 50$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

HDD- SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive 75$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

OS-Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM
I will get this in a combo with the mobo so it will be cheaper but current link says 160$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116760

Thermal paste- I am not sure if I should use arctic silver 5 or be safer cause I am a noob and use Arctic Silver Ceramique?

for a total of 2150$

Is this every thing I should need to build my 1st pc and thanks so much everyone. I am up in the air about the mobo but kinda leaning towards the evga let me know?

 

[hunter315]

Dont get windows 7 ultimate, it costs a lot more for only a couple extra features which very few people need. Get home premium, it will save you $60 and have all the features you need.

 

[carnedude]

Ok thanks alot for all the help. I will be ordering this in a week or two and most likely will be asking a billion more questions.

 

[carnedude]

Best answer selected by carnedude.