Building sub $1500.00 rig, advice appreciated.

bac0n

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Hello all,

It has been about 3.5-4 years since I built a new system. Old one is still running nice (good old GA-P965-DS3) but it is time for something a bit faster.

I need to do this less than $1500.00 and less than that even if I can. I really want to be able to play Starcraft 2 and be able to stream out to USTEAM or LIVESTREAM at the same time. I can play SC2 'ok' on my current rig but if I try to encode and stream at the same time it gets ugly. Aside from SC2 I play WoW occaisonally and work from home sometmes (Cisco soft phone, Citrix, etc.). Working from home is no problem on current rig so not worried about that.

I am striving for a nice speed increase over my current rig which is a GA-P965-DS3, Intel E6400, 2 gig ram, GTX 260 768mb.

I may try to overclock a bit, if I can get to 3.5ghz I would be ecstatic.

So here is what I came up with, commentary\suggestions would be appreciated (this is $1204.00 shipped):

Case:
Antec 300: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042

Power Supply:
Corsair 620W: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139002

Motherboard:
ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131641

Processor:
Intel i7-950: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115211

CPU Cooler:
Cooler Master V6: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103088

RAM:
Gskill 3x2gb Triple Channel: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231225

Video:
MSI GTX 460: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127510

Hard Drive:
WD Black 1.5 TB, 64mb cache: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136592

DVD:
Cheap ASUS Burner: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Thanks,
Bac0n




 

vindictive

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1. That hard drive has some bad reviews (read the ones even on the link you posted). I'd recommend the Spinpoint F3 1TB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185 which is $50 right now with 15% off promo code. (hell, get two if you want for $100 and 2TB.)

2. You could switch to an i5 760 and EASILY OC to 3.8 or 4.0 saving money while doing so!

goodluck ask if you want anymore details :D
 

bac0n

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Thank you for the feedback, appreciated. I wonder how much a difference 32 instead of 64mb cache make in the hard drive. Although I would think 2 in a RAID 0/1 would be fatser regardless.

I am also thinking about going with a 6970 instead of the GTX 460. I have always owned only nVidia and loved them, so not too sure about the move to ATI\AMD.

Thanks,
Bac0n
 

vindictive

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The spinpoint has very high read/write speeds. I'm going to do a $1600 build at the end of the month and I will be adding 1 into my build. Although, instead of 2 of those, you could get one F3 then get a SSD to put the OS system on for $80 more than a 2nd F3.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226151&cm_re=callisto-_-20-226-151-_-Product&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=3463938&SID= Will increase boot time and overall performance :D. Could put a few of your most used apps on it as well.

As for the video card I'm right there with you, I was going to use dual GTX 460's, but now I'm thinking of using dual 6950's in crossfire. I'm going to wait a few weeks for more reviews and benchmarks to come out. (the AMD 6950's are also cheaper than gtx 460's.)
 

bac0n

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Yes, I meant the 6870. The GTX 460 I am looking at is under $200 as well, I think the heatsink just looks cool. I was seeming to think from what i was reading that the 6870 was crushing the GTX 460. For about $50 I thought it would be worth it. Am I wrong in the comparison?

Thanks,
Bac0n
 

vindictive

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6870vsGTX460GB-300x163.jpg

6870 vs GTX 460 from overclockers.com review.
6870 is red; gtx is green.
official full review http://www.overclockers.com/official-amd-radeon-hd-68506870-performance-specs-released/
 

eloric

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Watch out Bac0n, the graph above is misleading - AMD chopped off 8/10ths of the bottom of each bar in a classic innumeracy ploy. If you look at the article, the title below it says "Moderate performance improvements, competitive pricing"

Well, not surprisingly, nVidia's response was to cut the price of thier 1GB GTX 460 to the same as the 6850 for 3 weeks, thus negating at least temporarily, the competitive pricing.

Take a look at Tom's comparison between 6870 and 460 for Starcraft II, and you'll notice a 0 to 5 fps difference, which is definitely less performance, but not as much as Vindictive's graph would indicate.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a fanboi of nVidia. In fact I own 3 AMD cards, and think ATI has a great product. It looks like right now, the GTX 1GB 460 is better value.

 

bac0n

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Thank you for the feedback. I decided to go with the GTX 460 which is slighly OC by MSI and it is sub $200. I think with the MB\CPU I bought those should be good for at least 2-3 years (I hope) and I will likely look to pull the GTX 460 in about 1.5 years and go with an SLI\Crossfire setup at that time. This motherboard can do either so I will see who is king of the hill at at that time.

Thanks,
Bac0n