FINAL BUILD please confirm, buying in a few hours!

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immortalduck

immortalduck

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APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Some time this month. Waiting on first time home buyers credit!!!

BUDGET RANGE: $1,500 MAX, wouldn't complain if cheaper!

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming (WoW, CoD 2, SC II, and DIABLO 3!!!!!), Raiding and watching Hulu, listening to Pandora and surfing the Interwebs at the same time.

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: G15 Keyboard, Razor Mouse, 2X ASUS Black 21.5" 5ms HDMI Widescreen 16:9 Full HD 1080P LCD Monitor, Plantronics Headphones, Western Digital Black 1TB 7200 RPM, and a random CD player (only 3 years old.)

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg.com, Anywhere parts are cheaper.

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Michigan, US.

PARTS PREFERENCES: I'm not a fanboi of any one brand. Talk me into your favorites! I do not want junk though.

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe. I've never done this before. I'm sure there are plenty of good posts on here to walk my ignorant self though it.

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe. I would like have the option for an upgrade in the future.

MONITOR RESOLUTION: Uhhh. Good? Whatever my monitor supports. Listed in the parts not needed section.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Ok. I'm not going to bore you with the story, unless you want to hear it, but my old computer literally exploded. It was an IBuyPower computer about 3 years old and I've decided this is a good time to just start from scratch. I have another post in the Windows forums regarding installing the old hard drive with Vista on it and putting Win7 on this one. So I am including an OS.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CASE:
COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Blue RC-932-KKN3-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
COMBO
Memory:
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7D-4GBRM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.469415

Video Card:
XFX HD-587X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5870 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
COMBO
Power Supply:
XFX Black Edition P1-750B-CAG9 750W ATX12V v2.2 / ESP12V v2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.469309&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=3463938&SID=

Motherboard:
ASUS P7P55D-E Pro LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
COMBO
Operating System:
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.441471.13-131-621

Processor: (Changed from i7)
Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80605I5760
COMBO
CPU Cooler
ZALMAN CNPS9900ALED 120mm 2 Ball Low-noise Blue LED CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.459421


NEW PRICE: $1,225.91, $31.60 Shipping, $20 in rebates. :bounce:
 
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Mr Pizza

Mr Pizza

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immortalduck

immortalduck

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Thanks for the super fast reply Mr. Pizza! Can you explain why you made these suggestions? I'm not afraid of doing a little light reading if you want to send me to reviews or any other links.

Why will the I7 not help me, and why not the motherboard I chose? Honestly, I chose the motherboard because it had "Tom's Hardware 2010 Recommended Buy" attached to it :)
 
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Mr Pizza

Mr Pizza

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see, games can't take advantage of hyper threading, and they only use 1-3 cores (most of the time, for example BAD COMPANY 2 and GTA4 uses more than 3 cores) so it won't make a difference

ADVANTAGE FOR GPU,
3DMarkVantageGPU.png
 
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Mr Pizza

Mr Pizza

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Um, possibly, but its no ones guess whats gonna be out in 3 years ;) i7 is good for video editing and encoding
 
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coldsleep

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Looks decent, though the i7 is overkill for just gaming. The i7 has hyperthreading which is useful for video editing, 3D rendering, and other processor intensive tasks, but it doesn't help at all in games. You could easily get an i5-750 ($150-200 less) or AMD Phenom II X4 955 ($225-300 less) system and have pretty much the same gaming experience.

You can get an XFX 5870 with the same 750W PSU for $40 less with this combo.

If you have time to read through the very recent Tom's Balanced Gaming Computer (part 4), you'll see that at higher resolutions (such as 1920x1080, which your monitor runs at), the processor doesn't matter a whole lot, as long as you've got a modern quad-core or greater.

Whether you get a Phenom II or an i5-750, you will want dual-channel RAM (not triple-channel, as that's what the socket 1366 i7s run). 1333 MHz or 1600 MHz CL7 RAM is generally considered the best value, as it offers good timings but isn't usually significantly more expensive than other RAM in that range. The G.Skill ECO series and G.Skill Ripjaws are pretty popular around here for being relatively low cost and having a good reputation for running at their rated speed & voltage. You could also get some Mushkin sticks with pretty much the same ratings for a few dollars less.

For an i5-750 system, I'd get the Asus P7P55D-E Pro motherboard ($160), as it can SLI/CrossFire and it has USB 3.0 & SATA 6.0 Gb/s support.

For a Phenom II X4 955 system, I'd look at getting either the Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H or the Asus M4A89GTD PRO/USB3. They both CrossFire and support USB 3.0 and SATA 6.0 Gb/s.

EDIT: For a good HSF, I'd look at Frostytech's top "5" HSFs and see what matches your budget and desired performance & noise levels.
 
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immortalduck

immortalduck

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Coldsleep can you explain or talk about your RAM choice more please, dual vs triple channel? Also, why did you drop me to 4 gigs now and only 2 sicks from 6 gigs with 3 sticks? How do I know how many sticks/slots my motherboard can take?
 
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coldsleep

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All of the RAM linked is DDR3. As mentioned, 1600 MHz CL7 (which all of those kits run at) is generally the best price/performance (sometimes 1333 MHz if the 1600 MHz sticks prices are up).

4 GB is all that is needed for gaming these days, as virtually all games are coded to be 32-bit with 64-bit compatibility. I don't expect games to be exclusively 64-bit until a much higher percentage of home users have switched over to 64-bit OSes.

But the reason why the i5-750 and the Phenom II X4 builds are typically 4 GB of RAM is that those motherboards (all of the socket 1156 and AM3 motherboards, not just the individual ones linked) run dual-channel RAM. This means that you should add sticks in groups of 2 for best performance. You can put 3 sticks in, but then it will fall back to single-channel, which isn't a huge performance hit, but since there's little need for 6 GB for your purposes, there's no reason to pay more in order to get reduced performance. If you look at the specs for the motherboards linked, you'll see that they have 4 memory slots, further suggesting that you should add RAM in groups of 2 sticks.

Triple-channel kits (the 6 GB kits) are pretty much exclusively for i7 builds (socket 1366), as that chip/mobo combination allows triple-channel memory.
 
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immortalduck

immortalduck

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With the i5-750 Lynnfield, I've noticed there is also a i5-760 Lynnfield. Is this one factory overclocked or something? There is a $15 difference as well as a 0.14GHz difference. Is getting the i5-760 worth it, and would the factory cooler still work here?
 
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coldsleep

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Yeah, the factory cooler will work, otherwise they wouldn't sell it with it. :)

For $15, I'd say it's probably worth it. The premium Intel charges for the unlocked processors mostly isn't worth it, but for an increase in speed at less than $20, it's worth it, especially if you don't end up overclocking.
 
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