Building a Computer with a High Price/performance Ratio

[kangarooking]

Sorry for the long post in advance but everyone here is very knowledgeable and I believe in providing as much information as possible so I can make sure my build is the best it can be. It will be used for gaming, browsing, htpc duties etc... I have been pricing things out and attempting to hit a sweet spot where I am getting top quality components that are best in their class without spending excessive amounts of money for things that will not offer a corresponding real world performance gain. (An example of this would be getting a 980x as opposed to an i930). I will explain below what I am looking for out of each component then list my top contender for the category. Please feel free to suggest replacements or correct me If I do not seem to understand anything properly.

What I am looking for

Mainboard - high quality components, excellent overclocking capabilities, plenty of room for future upgrades (I am not in the habbit a new computer every few years)

ASUS Rampage III Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard



Video card - Very high performance single gpu card (I don't feel sli/crossfire to be a very good investment because top end single gpu cards can handle ANY game I have seen at their highest settings and by the time they become outdated the extra few hundred dollars I spend now will buy me a much better card in the future. If I am mistaken in my understanding please enlighten me)


ZOTAC AMP! ZT-40102-10P GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card



Memory - Triple Channel ddr3 ( Here is where I have a low level of knowledge regarding timings and what makes some memory twice the pricer than others when capacity and clock speed are near equal)

CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C8D



Processor - I prefer intel but if there is a good case for amd at this point please enlighten me. Regarding price/performance/overclockability to me the i7 930 seems like a no brainer.


Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80601930



Cooling - For processor cooling I will spare no expense but again I want to spend my money wisely. Getting a $500 water cooling system to drop temps 5*C is not worth it. I will probably want to stick with air cooling because to my understanding watercooling only becomes relevent when trying to obtain high overclocks and I will be sticking around 4-4.2ghz MAX, and probably slightly lower depending on the temperatures. I also understand water cooling requires high maintenence and can be a much bigger risk to the rest of your system should something go kaboom.

Prolimatech Megahalems Rev.B CPU Cooler


Hard Disk drives - I feel this is a big bottleneck in most peoples machines and I want to make my computer as fast as possible while opening programs, web surfing, and pretty much anything else effected by the boot drives. I feel raid 0 sata 3 ssd's are the best way to go about this. I understand this will impede my ability to use trim functionality but I am not sure if I should be concerned with this or not. For secondary storage speed is not really an issue as I am more concerned with capacity and reliability.


Boot - Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive X2 RAID 0

Storage - SAMSUNG EcoGreen F3 HD203WI 2TB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive



Power Supply - Obviously this can make or break your system so I want HIGH reliability, clean power and efficiency, and enough juice to handle my current rig and handle anything else I may ever want to add to the system without a hiccup. Also one compatibe with the mainboard and video card I chose obviously.


COOLER MASTER Silent Pro Gold Series RSC00-80GAD3-US 1200W ATX 12V v2.3 / EPS 12V v2.92 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS ...



Case - BIG, durable, cool looking, good airflow since I will probably be air cooling. Size is not a concern I would much rather have way too much room than not enough. Weight is also of no concern to me, the day I cant lift any computer that doesn't start with the word "Super" will be a cold day in hell.......


COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case




Well thats my build please help with comments, suggestions, advice, anything helps. I will be buying this in the next few months and just want a little input on the final build since I am by no means an expert. Also if anyone could clarify if those two drives will perform in RAID 0 properly using the onboard controller for the rampage or if I should really spring for an external Raid controller or better drives I would appreciate it

 

[kangarooking]

Sorry for the long post in advance but everyone here is very knowledgeable and I believe in providing as much information as possible so I can make sure my build is the best it can be. It will be used for gaming, browsing, htpc duties etc... I have been pricing things out and attempting to hit a sweet spot where I am getting top quality components that are best in their class without spending excessive amounts of money for things that will not offer a corresponding real world performance gain. (An example of this would be getting a 980x as opposed to an i930). I will explain below what I am looking for out of each component then list my top contender for the category. Please feel free to suggest replacements or correct me If I do not seem to understand anything properly.

What I am looking for

Mainboard - high quality components, excellent overclocking capabilities, plenty of room for future upgrades (I am not in the habbit a new computer every few years)

ASUS Rampage III Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard



Video card - Very high performance single gpu card (I don't feel sli/crossfire to be a very good investment because top end single gpu cards can handle ANY game I have seen at their highest settings and by the time they become outdated the extra few hundred dollars I spend now will buy me a much better card in the future. If I am mistaken in my understanding please enlighten me)


ZOTAC AMP! ZT-40102-10P GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card



Memory - Triple Channel ddr3 ( Here is where I have a low level of knowledge regarding timings and what makes some memory twice the pricer than others when capacity and clock speed are near equal)

CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C8D



Processor - I prefer intel but if there is a good case for amd at this point please enlighten me. Regarding price/performance/overclockability to me the i7 930 seems like a no brainer.


Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80601930



Cooling - For processor cooling I will spare no expense but again I want to spend my money wisely. Getting a $500 water cooling system to drop temps 5*C is not worth it. I will probably want to stick with air cooling because to my understanding watercooling only becomes relevent when trying to obtain high overclocks and I will be sticking around 4-4.2ghz MAX, and probably slightly lower depending on the temperatures. I also understand water cooling requires high maintenence and can be a much bigger risk to the rest of your system should something go kaboom.

Prolimatech Megahalems Rev.B CPU Cooler


Hard Disk drives - I feel this is a big bottleneck in most peoples machines and I want to make my computer as fast as possible while opening programs, web surfing, and pretty much anything else effected by the boot drives. I feel raid 0 sata 3 ssd's are the best way to go about this. I understand this will impede my ability to use trim functionality but I am not sure if I should be concerned with this or not. For secondary storage speed is not really an issue as I am more concerned with capacity and reliability.


Boot - Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive X2 RAID 0

Storage - SAMSUNG EcoGreen F3 HD203WI 2TB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive



Power Supply - Obviously this can make or break your system so I want HIGH reliability, clean power and efficiency, and enough juice to handle my current rig and handle anything else I may ever want to add to the system without a hiccup. Also one compatibe with the mainboard and video card I chose obviously.


COOLER MASTER Silent Pro Gold Series RSC00-80GAD3-US 1200W ATX 12V v2.3 / EPS 12V v2.92 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS ...



Case - BIG, durable, cool looking, good airflow since I will probably be air cooling. Size is not a concern I would much rather have way too much room than not enough. Weight is also of no concern to me, the day I cant lift any computer that doesn't start with the word "Super" will be a cold day in hell.......


COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case




Well thats my build please help with comments, suggestions, advice, anything helps. I will be buying this in the next few months and just want a little input on the final build since I am by no means an expert. Also if anyone could clarify if those two drives will perform in RAID 0 properly using the onboard controller for the rampage or if I should really spring for an external Raid controller or better drives I would appreciate it

EDIT Sorry I am an idiot the monitor will be a 40 inch 1080p sony television I already have so gaming and blue ray playback will be in 1080p. Also getting a blu ray drive 8x

 

[sp12]

High price/performance? And a i7, GTX 480, Corsair gold 1200 PSU, raid SSDs.

No.

i5-750 OR i7-870
P55 mobo ~100-140$
4GB G.skill ram
GTX 470 for 270$ (Newegg, sort by lowest price).
XFX black edition 750w PSU or Seasonic 750 gold. PSU efficiency ratings only apply to loads equal to or greater than 20% of the stated max. For the 1200 that's 240 watts, which is more than your system would pull at desktop, even with two 480s. 750 is enough to run an OC'd i7+dual 480s fine, while netting you better efficiency and a lower price.
Single larger RealSSD

Could potentially go with an AMD 1055t+mobo instead of the i5/i7+P55 mobo to save a bit, depending on how long you plan to keep this system.

 

[kangarooking]

Let me clarify, I want this to be a monster not really trying to save money since I do this MAYBE once every 4-5 years....However I don't want to waste money to be on the "bleeding edge". Like my example with the 930 vs 980x. I can overclock the 930 much higher than a stock 980x and yes the 980x has a higher thoretical maximum and would perform better but it is NOT worth the $700 worth. I also want to stick with 1366 because I feel this has a better upgrade path and I want to be able to add significant upgrades down the road.

 

[kangarooking]

your post about the power supply is interesting I understand the gold and silver dont mean much beyond power savings....but if I want to future proof this and maybe throw in raid controller, capture card, and several more drives at a future date wouldn't the 1200w be worth it for the price difference? I dont want to have to buy a whol new psu because I get to the point where I maybe do sli in the future and throw in 6 or 7 drives.

 

[batuchka]

gaming, browsing, htpc duties

Frankly i dun even see the need for a quad with no render/encode @@

Rana 440 + under volt
880G (mATX) or 870 (ATX)
shoebox or ATX mid tower
GTX 460/HD 5850
80+ 550-650w

U did mention "Computer with a High Price/performance Ratio" so i matched with needs hehe

 

[kangarooking]

I know I could do what I want to do for $1000 bucks less or more....But at the same time I am shooting for maximum performance within reason. SSd's are totally worth it to me for the speed increase they offer...The power supply I am getting may be overkill but I want to keep it for years. I would of course get cheaper components if they offered the same level of performance or were significantly cheaper for a small loss...but I want this thing to scream. Plus I will be adding multiple drives and cards in the future.

 

[guanyu210379]

I gonna emphesize something once again :
The title of your thread and the components you want are in contradiction.
What you are aiming belongs in best performance system, but the title said best buys.
1366 systems are not best buys, those are top performance, not to mention the SSD.
About the future upgradability :
if new proc types come, you will have to swap also the mobos, this happends by Intel all the time. Remember 478,775, 1156, 1155, 1366, on the other hands, look at AMD..AM2, AM2+, AM3. Example : AM3 procs can run on AM2+ (with some limitation of course).
The term upgrade is not suitable for Intel.

 

[sp12]

It'd be smarter to get a price/performance system once now and use the money saved again in two years, possibly saving some components.

 

[Scott2010au]

Pairing a 5400 RPM HDD with SSD's in RAID-0 strikes me as more than a little bit weird.

You might want to research the chipsets a little bit more as the X58 is going to get phased out soon. (Which may make it an even better buy, it depends what you want).