Gaming build ~2000USD

[kalistarius]

Approximate Purchase Date: asap before Xmas

Budget Range: ~2000USD

System Usage : gaming, some 2d/3d work (zbrush, 3dsmax, photoshop)

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: NA - I wont be ordering online

Country of Origin: Hong Kong

Parts Preferences: intel CPU

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Monitor Resolution: 2x 1920x1080

Additional Comments: I wish to keep this pc for the next 2-3 years and be able to run the latest apps and games.

Parts I've selected so far :

Intel Core i7 950

Asus Saber Tooth X58

Corsair DDR-III 1600Mhz 2GB x 3pcs

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA-III 1002FAEX
either 1x 1TB or 2x 500GB Raid0 HDD

OCZ Vertex 2 E 120GB
I'll use this SSD as a boot drive so 120GB might be overkill, may be ~80GB should be more than enough ?
Or may be even the OCZ Vertex 2 60 GB ...

Geforce GTX580 1536MB GDDR-5
I was planning on using 2x GTX480 from the "Eloric build" but the reviews are scaring me a bit with the sounds / heat problems so I've selected this card instead. I'm still open to SLI / Crossfire solutions

Corsair TX950

Cooler Master HAF922

Cooler Master Hyper 212

Windows 7 home [strike](or pro)[/strike] 64bit

What do you guys think of this build ?
Thanks ^__^

 

[Somebody_007]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=20-227-590&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=(keywords)&Page=1#scrollFullInfo cheaper ssd because it's larger. For all intends and purposes in a desktop it will be exactly the same as the other one.

2 500gb drives in raid0 are definately faster than a single 1tb drive.

opt for a modular power supply like the xfx 850.

As for the sound card you need to test it yourself. Some people die without a sound card other people hardly notice a difference.

Pro offers some intresting features over home premium http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/compare if you don't know what they mean you don't need them.

As for the GPUs the 580s competition is coming soon. I'd hold out a little longer and see what ati has to offer.

 

[kalistarius]

Thx Somebody_007

Raid0 sounds interesting

What's the advantage of the xfx 850 vs the Corsair TX950 ? just curious

Ok, I'll keep the soundcard as extra then ... may be buy it later if needed

Thx for the Win7 info, I'll stick to the Home version

I just wish ATI had released their new card already .... >__< not sure I can wait much longer

Thanks

 

[Atotalnoob]

Or may be even the OCZ Vertex 2 60 GB ...

do not put ssds in raid it gets rid of all the nifty items 2nd generation SSDs have, and they don't last as long....

I wish to keep this pc for the next 2-3 years and be able to run the latest apps and games.

Then I'd wait for Sandy Bridge to launch on Jan. 5th...

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA-III 1002FAEX

get Spinpoint F3 1 TB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185&cm_re=spintpoint_F3-_-22-152-185-_-Product ~ 69.99 or if you want to do RAID 0, Spinpoint F3 500 Gigs http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181&Tpk=spinpoint%20F3%20500 ~ 54.99

Corsair DDR-III 1600Mhz 2GB x 3pcs

Get G.skill ram it is better... G.skill 6 gigs http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231247 ~ 129.99


PS. I know you said above you weren't going to buy online... but links are useful =p

 

[kalistarius]

Thanks for your reply atotalnoob

Sounds like SSD are not very durable at all ... is it even worth using as a boot drive ?
In general SSD are faster but less stable/durable than HDD ? that doesnt sound very good >__<

I wish to keep this pc for the next 2-3 years and be able to run the latest apps and games.
Then I'd wait for Sandy Bridge to launch on Jan. 5th...

I'm not sure I get your meaning do you mean it's not a realistic wish ?
I'm not expecting the latest games to run on the highest settings in 3 years on this comp. but at least play with decent medium settings.

I'll ask the shop if they have the G.skill ram you mentioned, it's not always easy to find the same brands as in the US or Europe
The shop told me that they can't get the Spinpoint F3 1 TB or even the Western Digital Caviar Black 1.5TB (WD1501FASS) ... not sure why :-( they proposed me the Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA-III 1002FAEX.
I'll try to check other shops for the Spinpoint F3, I may be able to buy it separately from the rest of the comp.

 

[Somebody_007]

Just curious why would SSDs not be durable? In terms of data protection they are far less likely to fail than HDDs, in terms of shock resistance they beat the crap out of HDDs. WHy would they not be durable?

Sandy bridge is a new line of CPUs/Chipsets and seeing as the current set is already a bit old it may be better to wait for sandy bridge if you want a good upgrade path. Although no-one can really tell for sure the benefits of p67 over x58 until it's released(from the info at hand it seems like a 200usd sandy bridge cpu beats an i7 950.

Just to make things clear: the 1002faex is the fastest traditional(7.2k rpm) hard drive. No matter which way you toss the dice in everyday benchmarks it's say a good 10% faster than a spinpoint f3. Both get beaten by a raid0 setup though.

As for the ram G.skill isn't "better" than the corsairs. Corsairs makes quality products which are ussually quite underclocked. They are definately very fast sticks if you consider overclocking, but then the question is to which point is ram speed usefull? IMO get the cheapest name brand ram(keep it at a reasonable speed like 1600 though)

 

[Atotalnoob]

Sounds like SSD are not very durable at all ... is it even worth using as a boot drive ?
In general SSD are faster but less stable/durable than HDD ? that doesnt sound very good >__<

Nonono they are more durable, just putting them in RAID wears them out faster.... soo don't do that...

Just curious why would SSDs not be durable? In terms of data protection they are far less likely to fail than HDDs, in terms of shock resistance they beat the crap out of HDDs. WHy would they not be durable?

No doubt you can beat them with a baseball bat... lol.... They are definitly more durable, I said they don't LAST as long.... It wears out the sectors faster, since it doesn't have Trim....

I'm not sure I get your meaning do you mean it's not a realistic wish ?
I'm not expecting the latest games to run on the highest settings in 3 years on this comp. but at least play with decent medium settings.

For you budget, you would want to wait until the "latest greatest" line of cores launches, which is sandy bridge... it launches on January 5th..... =D

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA-III 1002FAEX

the link given is a 20 pack... 0.o 1800$! just a FYI....

Just to make things clear: the 1002faex is the fastest traditional(7.2k rpm) hard drive. No matter which way you toss the dice in everyday benchmarks it's say a good 10% faster than a spinpoint f3. Both get beaten by a raid0 setup though.

*demands benchmarks* I don't believe it...

 

[Somebody_007]

Sounds like SSD are not very durable at all ... is it even worth using as a boot drive ?
In general SSD are faster but less stable/durable than HDD ? that doesnt sound very good >__<

Nonono they are more durable, just putting them in RAID wears them out faster.... soo don't do that...

Just curious why would SSDs not be durable? In terms of data protection they are far less likely to fail than HDDs, in terms of shock resistance they beat the crap out of HDDs. WHy would they not be durable?

No doubt you can beat them with a baseball bat... lol.... They are definitly more durable, I said they don't LAST as long.... It wears out the sectors faster, since it doesn't have Trim....

I'm not sure I get your meaning do you mean it's not a realistic wish ?
I'm not expecting the latest games to run on the highest settings in 3 years on this comp. but at least play with decent medium settings.

For you budget, you would want to wait until the "latest greatest" line of cores launches, which is sandy bridge... it launches on January 5th..... =D

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA-III 1002FAEX

the link given is a 20 pack... 0.o 1800$! just a FYI....

Just to make things clear: the 1002faex is the fastest traditional(7.2k rpm) hard drive. No matter which way you toss the dice in everyday benchmarks it's say a good 10% faster than a spinpoint f3. Both get beaten by a raid0 setup though.

*demands benchmarks* I don't believe it...

do you mean because it doesn't support trim? Ifso manufacturers like OCZ don't allow trim on some of their extreme solutions. So I doubt it's that important. Besides from what I understand a full format removes any decrease in speed caused by lack of trim. And if you really want to start the benchmark game. Can you show any benchmarks proving raid0 setups wearing out?

About the caviar black:

Caviar blacks have very fast random reads which is bassically all that matters in everyday use. There's no point in having this discussion really because the differences are small but the caviar black is faster nonetheless. here's a benchmark but as you can see the load times are the same because this are long term operations and acces times play a smaller role there(btw the old 2tb black used there is similar in speed to the new 1tb. http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/storage/2009/10/06/samsung-spinpoint-f3-1tb-review/6

All I can do is show you that the real pros(and if you don't find that then you really shouldn't be on this forum) confirm that blacks really are the best. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/HDD-6Gbit,2528-12.html

I qoute " However, enthusiasts should definitely go either for Western Digital’s Caviar Black drive or the new Seagate Barracuda XT at 2TB. WD is slightly faster" and this is talking about the old 1tb black the new one is a bit faster still.

I'm not blaming you for reccomending the f3 it's a very good drive, but the caviar black really is faster.

 

[Atotalnoob]

All I can do is show you that the real pros(and if you don't find that then you really shouldn't be on this forum) confirm that blacks really are the best. http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 28-12.html

I qoute " However, enthusiasts should definitely go either for Western Digital’s Caviar Black drive or the new Seagate Barracuda XT at 2TB. WD is slightly faster" and this is talking about the old 1tb black the new one is a bit faster still.

Please quote the WHOLE passage....

Users searching for a pure storage drive can select almost any 1TB or higher hard drive, as long as there are no special requirements. However, enthusiasts should definitely go either for Western Digital’s Caviar Black drive or the new Seagate Barracuda XT at 2TB. WD is slightly faster, while Seagate offers better efficiency and the SATA 6 Gb/s interface, although we recommend not overemphasizing the latter.

=D shows that WD is best for larger then a TB....

If you’re looking for the best bang for the buck without the need to go for the 2TB capacity ceiling, Samsung’s Spinpoint F3 is probably the best choice. We’ve already seen prices at the level of other 1TB hard drives, but none of the others would get anywhere close to the F3’s impressive throughput, low power consumption, and temperature results.

=D... I win....
To address your first review, 2TB version is different, gimme reviews for the drive we are discussing....

do you mean because it doesn't support trim?

Yes that is what I meant... and the other htings new in 2nd gen SSDs....

Ifso manufacturers like OCZ don't allow trim on some of their extreme solutions. So I doubt it's that important. Besides from what I understand a full format removes any decrease in speed caused by lack of trim. And if you really want to start the benchmark game. Can you show any benchmarks proving raid0 setups wearing out?

No, I can't, there are only a few reviews testing this, they all show increased activity, and the lack of TRIM means the cells erase in BLOCKs, not as needed, so it increases wear and tear...There is no decrease in speed.... it is a decrease in lifetime, and increases the chances of errors.... basically it reverts it to 1st gen SSD so if that is fine, then go for it..... hmm, I wish Squirrel was on this thread, he knows more about the SSDs in Raid

 

[kalistarius]

Just curious why would SSDs not be durable? In terms of data protection they are far less likely to fail than HDDs, in terms of shock resistance they beat the crap out of HDDs. WHy would they not be durable?

I just guessed by reading the bad reviews on Newegg and also atotalnoob's comment that I misunderstood ... also I've had a lot of bad luck in the past with HDD so I'm just being paranoid with new drive tech
Anyway, thx for clearing that up.

Sandy bridge is a new line of CPUs/Chipsets

lol ok that make sense now :-D
I don't think I'll be able to wait that long >__< but I'll keep that in mind, thx for the info !

So for the HDD, WD is better if >1TB and Samsung is better for smaller disks ?

Thx a lot for your help guys !

 

[Atotalnoob]

So for the HDD, WD is better if >1TB and Samsung is better for smaller disks ?

yes, but only because the 2TB samsung drive is 5400RPM....

 

[Somebody_007]

The 1tb caviar black is still a faster drive no matter which way you look at it it may not be worth the premium over the f3, but it's definatley faster.(the new 1tb has around the same speed as the 2tb used in the review)

I never argued that the f3 wasn't perfectly good choice, but it surely is not faster than the caviar black as many many people claim.

It's not that big a deal really both will work well.

 

[kalistarius]

It's not that big a deal really both will work well.

yes I'm sure both HDD you guys proposed are the best so it'll just be up to what is available
this comp will rock

 

[Atotalnoob]

The 1tb caviar black is still a faster drive no matter which way you look at it it may not be worth the premium over the f3, but it's definatley faster.(the new 1tb has around the same speed as the 2tb used in the review)

I never argued that the f3 wasn't perfectly good choice, but it surely is not faster than the caviar black as many many people claim.

You've never substanciated this claim.... =D.