mikenicoll87

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Dec 18, 2010
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Hello TH,

With Xmas coming up I need to put a few things on the list! All I really need this year is underwear, socks and clothes, so I thought what better thing to ask for than components to upgrade my computer. This will end up cutting down on the overall build cost if I can get a few items for Xmas.

This will be my second build that I have done. I am very new to overclocking but I am also a very fast learner and follow instructions very well. My goal for this build was to improve on cable management, price-performance buying and overclocking.
Budget Range: $1500-$2000+ (Really depends on how much I get for Xmas, then consider out of pocket)
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Video Editing/Rendering, Movies, Downloading
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: NCIX.com
Country of Origin: Ontario, Canada
Parts Preferences: XFX, EVGA (Not overly picky just want quality construction with good DOA/Warranties)
Overclocking: Yes (As much as I can teach myself to do)

Here are my current system specs:

systemspecs.jpg


It isn't anything amazing but I built it when I was about 13 and it was my first time. I didn't have a job at the time so most of the parts aren't super amazing. However, if any of you have an opinion on parts I should re-use in the build below please let me know.

Here is my future build I am working on:

CPU: Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor (Retail - $288.50)

Motherboard: Need Suggestion (Moderate overclocking, I am not too advanced but don't mind spending a bit here. Maybe Rampage?)

Graphics Card: 2x EVGA GeForce GTX 470 Superclocked 625MHZ Fermi 1280MB 3.4GHZ GDDR5 (Retail - $499.99)
Graphics Card: 1x EVGA GeForce GTX 580 Superclocked 797MHZ Fermi 1536MB 4.0GHZ GDDR5 (Retail - $525.00)
Graphics Card: 1x EVGA GeForce GTX 570 Superclocked 797MHZ Fermi 1280MB 3.9GHZ GDDR5 (Retail - $377.30)

Memory: Need Suggestion (I am garbage at picking out memory)

Hard Drive: Need Suggestion (Ideally I would like a couple SSDs in Raid0 – I don't use much space at all, I am currently using 100gb out of a 1.06TB *2WD Caviar Black 640gb Setup* However, I don't want to cut it close so I guess the 200gb area would be safe)

Optical/Blue Ray Drives: Need Suggestion (Do I need to buy 3 different ones for CDs DVDs and BlueRay?)

Power Supply: Corsair Pro Series Gold CMPSU-1200AX 1200W ATX 80PLUS Gold Power Supply (Retail - $271.22)
Power Supply: Corsair Pro Series Gold AX850 CMPSU-850AX 850W ATX Fully Modular 80PLUS Gold Power Supply (Retail - $179.99)

Display: ASUS VW246H Glossy Black 24" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Wide LCD Monitor (Retail - $197.99)
Display: ASUS VE276Q Black 27" 1920X1080 2ms Full HD HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor (Retail - $319.99)

Case: Corsair 600T Mid Tower Case (Retail - $149.99 or $124.99 after MiR)

Sound Card: Need Suggestion (Maybe upgrading this and getting a new USB headset would be a good idea?)

Headphones: Razer Carcharias Headset (Already Purchased)

Mouse:
Logitech G5 Laser Mouse Blue Edition (Already Purchased)

Keyboard: Logitech G15 Keyboard 2nd Gen (Already Purchased)

Mouse Pad:
Razer Goliathus Fragged Alpha Control Edition (Retail - $19.42)

Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit (Already Purchased)

CPU Cooling:
Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H70 High Performance CPU Cooler System (Retail - $92.38)

Memory Cooling: Need Suggestion (I assume some kits have coolers with them)

Case Fans:
Need Suggestion (Exterior airflow is fairly low so something that pushes a lot of air and is fairly silent)

Desk: Need Suggestion (Current desk is falling a part. Can't be multi-directional has to be just a straight cut desk)

Router: Need Suggestion (Currently have DLINK DIR-625. It is decent but I would like a faster connection of possible)
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As you can see there are quite a few components I need some advice on. I definitely don't want to cheap out on anything which is why I am looking for high end cost effective parts. I would appreciate any input from an experienced builder that stays up to date with benchmarks, costs, sales etc

When I am done the build I will post pictures so everyone can comment on my cable management and overall build quality! Also since I won't be buying all parts in one purchase it would be cool to have a priority system of things to buy. Such as buy this PSU now while you wait for "X Processor" to come out. That way I can work towards my build but wait for stuff that might be coming soon.

Thanks,

Michael
 
Solution
I'd wait till january for the release of the new intel processors. If your spending that much money you might wanna wait a little for the new cpu's. If your gonna stick with the 950 though get the sabertooth x58 mobo, for the gpu id grab the duel 470's as its probably the best bang for your buck right now. For memory grab a 6gb kit 1600mhz cas 7. For your hdd's id keep your old ones for storage and buy a small ocz vertex 2 ssd maybe 90gb or so as you boot drive. You dont need to buy 3 odd's. If you get a blueray burner it should be able to burn cds and dvds too. just make sure and check, you could always reuse your old ones. You can also reuse your old case if you wanna save some money. As for the psu id go for something like the...

bavman

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May 19, 2010
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I'd wait till january for the release of the new intel processors. If your spending that much money you might wanna wait a little for the new cpu's. If your gonna stick with the 950 though get the sabertooth x58 mobo, for the gpu id grab the duel 470's as its probably the best bang for your buck right now. For memory grab a 6gb kit 1600mhz cas 7. For your hdd's id keep your old ones for storage and buy a small ocz vertex 2 ssd maybe 90gb or so as you boot drive. You dont need to buy 3 odd's. If you get a blueray burner it should be able to burn cds and dvds too. just make sure and check, you could always reuse your old ones. You can also reuse your old case if you wanna save some money. As for the psu id go for something like the corsair 950tx since it'll give you room for the sli and some overclocking. As for your display its whatever you want. If your gonna stay in the 23'' range dont spend more than $180 on a 1080p monitor. Looks like the asus one you found is pretty good. For the sound card theres no need for one since you have one built in your mobo, unless you have some high def audio components speaks, headset. In that case its probably better to seek help out on some audio forums as they'll point you in the right direction for a card for your specific speakers/headset. For your cpu cooling theres no reason to spend that much on a cooler thats not true water cooling. going with something like a hyper 212+ for $30 will give you the same cooling performance. No need for memory cooling either unless you plan to do some hardcore oc'ing. Again id really wait for the new cpu's to come out. If you want to get somethign for christmas, ask for the ssd or psu or a case if you want a new one, you can usually find some really nice deals around the holidays. Enjoy.
 
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mikenicoll87

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Dec 18, 2010
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Thanks for the reply.

After reading a few others posts in the process I have decided it is worth waiting for the new Sandy Force processors so that will be one of the last things I buy.

Would that totally change my selections for Mobo/Ram? Don't know what socket it uses.

I think I might ask for the PSU/Monitor/Case for Xmas since they are things that won't really evolve too much while I am gathering parts.

Also, what was wrong with the Corsair PSUs I picked out? I thought they would be better than the 950tx.

Would a 27" monitor be a better buy than a 24"? I don't want anything too big in front of my eyes!

This is the monitor I was looking at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236049

This was the PSU I was hoping to get. Would it support 2 video cards easily?

http://www.ncixus.com/products/53719/CMPSU-850AX%20A/Corsair/

Would 2x 6870 video cards out perform 2x 470s?

Sorry for so many questions lol
 

bavman

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Mobo will definitely change because its a completely difference socket then what p55/x58 boards have now. Im not sure about ram actually. Nothing wrong with the ones you picked out, but the 1200w is a little overkill so you could save some money by dropping down the watts. The 850 one should be able to handle it but i recommended the 950 because itll give you a little more headroom should you decide to overclock the cpu and cards. You might be pushing the 850 with everything overclocked. The ones you picked out are a little more energy efficient than the 950tx and well as modular. If you want a modular psu id go with the 1000hx for $210.
 

mikenicoll87

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Dec 18, 2010
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What do you guys think of this stuff? I think I may just upgrade now and shrug off the extra performance of waiting for new parts. For the things I am using it for its not a big deal and I will just upgrade when need be again. Thanks for all the advice so far!

CPU: Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor (Retail - $288.50)
Motherboard: Asus MB SABERTOOTH X58 Core i7 LGA1366 DDR3 PCIE SATA 6Gb s USB3.0 ATX Retail ($193.54)
Case: Corsair 600T Mid Tower Case (Retail - $124.99)
Power Supply: Corsair Pro Series Gold AX850 CMPSU-850AX 850W ATX Fully Modular 80PLUS Gold Power Supply (Retail - $179.99)
Optical Drives: ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS (Retail – $16.99)
CPU Cooling: Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H70 High Performance CPU Cooler System (Retail - $92.38)
Display: Asus VE248H 24" Full HD HDMI LED Backlight LCD Monitor w/Speakers ($219.99)

Still Not Sure on these below:


Memory: I assume I would want triple channel. In that case would I benefit more from a 12gb kit or a 6gb kit?

Hard Drive/SSDs: My problem is I use about 100gb of space. The SSDs are around 60gb so that would only leave me 20gb of extra space. Then the 256s are very expensive!

Graphics Card: I am so ******* confused about what GFX card I should get. Different sites show different results. At the moment its between these:

Graphics Card: 2x EVGA GeForce GTX 470 Superclocked 625MHZ Fermi 1280MB 3.4GHZ GDDR5 (Retail - $499.99)
Graphics Card: 1x EVGA GeForce GTX 580 Superclocked 797MHZ Fermi 1536MB 4.0GHZ GDDR5 (Retail - $525.00)
Graphics Card: 1x EVGA GeForce GTX 570 Superclocked 797MHZ Fermi 1280MB 3.9GHZ GDDR5 (Retail - $377.30)
Graphics Card: 2x EVGA GeForce GTX 460 Superclocked 720MHZ Fermi 1000MB 3.6GHZ GDDR5 (Retail - $399.99)

Case Fans: I need something with good air flow and fairly quiet. I bought some Scythe 3000RPM fans and because I didn't have a fan controller I had to take them out. Sounded like a wind tunnel.

PSU: If I get 2 Graphics cards would I need the 1200w? Would the 850w be ideal for 2 video cards? What about 1?
 

mikenicoll87

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Dec 18, 2010
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How does this look? Any room for improvement?

CPU:

Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz Quad-Core Processor

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115211&cm_re=i7_950-_-19-115-211-_-Product

Motherboard:

Asus SABERTOOTH X58 Core i7 LGA1366

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&cm_re=Asus_Sabertooth-_-13-131-665-_-Product

Graphics Card:

1x EVGA GTX 580 Graphics Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...587&cm_re=evga_gtx_580-_-14-130-587-_-Product

Memory:

CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Model CMP6GX3M3A1600C7

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...1600_(PC3_12800)_Model-_-20-145-289-_-Product

Solid State Drive:

Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1CCA 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148362&cm_re=c300-_-20-148-362-_-Product

Hard Drive:

2x Western Digital Caviar Black 640gb in Raid0

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...tal_Caviar_Black_640gb-_-22-136-319-_-Product

(I own these hard drives but should I buy different ones for better performance?)

Optical Drives:

ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...US_DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS-_-27-135-204-_-Product

Power Supply:

Corsair Pro Series Gold AX850 CMPSU-850AX 850W ATX Fully Modular 80PLUS Gold Power Supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139015&Tpk=ax850

Display:

SAMSUNG BX2431 Glossy Black 24" 1920x1080 2ms LED BackLight LCD Monitor Slim Design 250cd/m2 DCR 1,000,000:1 (1,000:1)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...msung BX2431

Case:

Corsair 600T Mid Tower Case

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139003&Tpk=600t case

CPU Cooling:

Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H70 High Performance CPU Cooler System

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181013&Tpk=Corsair H70

Case Fans:

Scythe GentleTyphoon D1225C12B4AP-14 120mm Case Fan

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=35-185-091&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=4&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=%28keywords%29#scrollFullInfo