I7 980x Build

[packerbacker28]

Approximate Purchase Date: March 20 2011

Budget Range: 800

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Music, Movies, Burning Dvd's

Parts Not Required: Cpu (i7 980x 6 core Extreme)

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg ,TigerDirect canadian versions

Country of Origin: Canada

Parts Preferences: None

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080


Additional Comments: I am new to the whole online forum thing so bear with me. I got lucky and had a i7 980x fall into my hands at a measly $300 bucks. It has about 2 months use. It came with the stock cooler and a ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 motherboard that it was running on (flashed to allow the chip to be used). I also got 12gb of G Skill DDR-3 2000mhz ram (3x4gb) with it and a VisionTek Radeon HD 5750 new in box. The former owner was planning on a new build for video editing and due to a divorce he had to unload it.

The question I have is what should I do with the mobo, ram, and video card? When I picked it up he told me to upgrade the mobo since the mobo was 2 years old and everything else about 2 months old and new motherboards had come out that took better advantage of the Cpu. I am planning on using these parts to replace my old Q6600 gamer. I also have no problems selling them to buy different parts.

I am also interested in any ideas on what other parts to use with it to maximize its gaming performance.

 

[WR2]

Hello PaCkErBaCkEr28;
What kind of budget are you working with?
What monitor resolution do you use?

 

[packerbacker28]

Well I have about $700 to play with. I might have more if I unload any of the current parts. I was using a Samsung 226BW 22 lcd monitor at 1680x1050.

 

[WR2]

Well I have about $700 to play with. I might have more if I unload any of the current parts. I was using a Samsung 226BW 22 lcd monitor at 1680x1050.

$700 is doable. Was using a 1680x1050 monitor? As in you're upgrading that too? We try and size the video card to match the monitor resolution for gaming.

 

[packerbacker28]

Well I still have the Samsung. I was planning on using it but If my upgrade path leads me away from it I am more than okay buying new one (kinda like the new led ones). For the GTX 260 I used to have it looked great.

 

[WR2]

Gotcha; We can work it two ways, keeping the 22" and upgrading to a 1920x1080 monitor with appropriate video card.

Your Core i7-980X CPU
ASUS Sabertooth X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Motherboard $200
Your 12GB G Skill DDR-3 2000mhz
OCZ Agility 2 OCZSSD2-2AGTE60G 2.5" 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $130 $20 rebate
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB 7200 RPM $40
Asus 24x DVD Burner $18
Your HD 5750 monitor and 1680x1080 monitor
XFX Black Edition 750W 80 PLUS SILVER Modular Power Supply $130 $30 rebate sized for a future dual GPU setup.
Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $60
~$578 before $50 in rebates

 

[WR2]

With selling the HD 5750 and 22" monitor for $125 that leaves about $297 for new monitor and video card.

XFX HD 6850 Radeon HD 6850 1GB Video Card $180 $20 rebate
ASUS VH236H Black 23" 1920x1080 LCD Monitor $180 $20 rebate

~$360 and $40 rebates about $720 total assuming the sale of the 22"/HD 5750 bring in $125

A bit over your budget but not terrible considering we slipped an optional SSD into the build.

An alternative (and a very good one) would be skipping the SSD and getting a HD 6950 2GB video card instead.
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6950 2GB Video Card $277 and $20 rebate
This would bring the cost down under $700 after playing the rebate game.

 

[packerbacker28]

A got a few questions.

1) Is the stock cooler I got with the 980x sticking around for this build?
2) Is the SSD going to help performance wise?
3) If I get the Sabertooth, Im assuming I sell my old Mobo. Is the Saber better?

I know I can get at least $100 for the monitor, $60 for the card, and probably another $60 for the old mobo. I will up my budget to $800 just to make it easier.

 

[WR2]

1. If you don't plan to overclock (only only slightly) the stock CPU cooler is quite good.
2. Apart from the CPU and video card upgrades the SSD will get the largest improvement in performance. Boot time, program load times & program responsiveness/game level loadtimes will just feel faster to you. But you can also have an excellent performing system without it. It won't run programs or games faster that aren't making use of disk IO on the SSD.
3. In that it has USB 3.0 and SATA 6GB/s support yes. It most other aspects it's quite similar.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4484418

 

[WR2]

Here is a review of the stock cooler with a few others from a few months ago.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/6-coolers

 

[packerbacker28]

I like your Idea about the SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6950 2GB. Ive heard good things about it. Would it be a better idea to drop the ssd and go for two of these in crossfire? Or is that just plain overkill since this card is kinda a beast?

 

[WR2]

I like the idea of CrossfireX being for a dual or triple monitor setup. When you have graphics resolutions above 1920x1080. Or a game that a single card won't handle well.
unlock the Radeon HD 6950; Radeon HD 6950 to HD 6970 Mod
You'd need to drop the SSD and toss in an extra $120 or so to get a 2nd 6950. Do you have any games that won't run exceptionally well with a HD 6950 (6970) on a 1920x1080 monitor? Like Crysis or Metro 2033?

THG: Best PCIe Card: $275 To $400 A good option would be to run 2x 6850 in CrossfireX

 

[mortonww]

I wonder if it makes sense to sell the i7 980x for ~$750 or so and then buy a $300 i7 950 for your current motherboard, adding $450 to your $700 budget. Then you could get a 120 GB Vertex 2 SSD ($200), a gtx 580 (~$480), a $180 ish 1080p monitor, a new psu ($120) (maybe a tx 850), and a HAF 932 ($120).

EDIT: nevermind, that's not right.

 

[brpeden82]

just out of curiosity what does it take to run crysis and metro 2033 execpatonal well on a 1920x1080

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Upgrading MoBo and RAM won't really do anything. With $860 ($800 + $60 for selling the GFX card), I'd buy:

Two 560 Ti's - $500 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604
6850's are an option but cost more and while 1 6850 edges 1 560, twin 560's beats twin 6850's

Mid Tower Option ($190)
XFX Black Edition 750 watt PSU - $100 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207003
CM HAF-922 - $90 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197

HF - $70 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148433

OS - $110 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754

90 GB SSD - $155 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227601

 

[packerbacker28]

I was checking out a site about the bios flash (something to that nature) and the author mentioned that it can be risky and void the warranty. I currently have these games in my game stable

Crysis
Crysis Warhead
Cod MW1 &2
Cod BlackOps
Fallout 3/ New Vegas
Prototype
Cities XL
Battlefield BC2
Left 4 Dead 1&2
Half Life (4 games)
GTA4

I like the two monitor idea as well but its probably gonna take me another month for the scratch to pay for it.

 

[packerbacker28]

I wonder if it makes sense to sell the i7 980x for ~$750 or so and then buy a $300 i7 950 for your current motherboard, adding $450 to your $700 budget. Then you could get a 120 GB Vertex 2 SSD ($200), a gtx 580 (~$480), a $180 ish 1080p monitor, a new psu ($120) (maybe a tx 850), and a HAF 932 ($120).

EDIT: nevermind, that's not right.

I got the 980x for $300. I dont know how much anyone would pay for it. I thought about it but since he couldnt find a buyer other than me (I even lowballed him) I dont know who would buy it when SandyBridge Cpu's seem to be all the rage.

I got the Mobo and the G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 12GB (3 x 4GB) for only an extra $100. I seen the ram going for over $200 alone. Im probably gonna keep the ram at least.

 

[WR2]

Crysis / Warhead, and of course future games are where a dual GPU setup makes the most sense.
On the other hand a lot of people can be VERY happy playing on a single strong video card.

You are leaving yourself the option of a 2nd card in the future, along with 2nd single monitor.

I'd say anything you can add later... add later when you really have a good idea how that system actually runs.

 

[packerbacker28]

Upgrading MoBo and RAM won't really do anything. With $860 ($800 + $60 for selling the GFX card), I'd buy:

Two 560 Ti's - $500 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604
6850's are an option but cost more and while 1 6850 edges 1 560, twin 560's beats twin 6850's

Mid Tower Option ($190)
XFX Black Edition 750 watt PSU - $100 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207003
CM HAF-922 - $90 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197

HF - $70 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148433

OS - $110 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754

90 GB SSD - $155 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227601

Twin 560's beat the 6850's? Okay that might change things. But I still would like to know about the unlock on the 6850 to a 6870. Would the resulting card pwn both dual setups?

As for the HAF case, I have a friend selling his Antec 1200 case with 3 months use for $100. Should I consider that?

 

[mortonww]

Yeah, my bad. Ignore me.

 

[packerbacker28]

Crysis / Warhead, and of course future games are where a dual GPU setup makes the most sense.
On the other hand a lot of people can be VERY happy playing on a single strong video card.

You are leaving yourself the option of a 2nd card in the future, along with 2nd single monitor.

I'd say anything you can add later... add later when you really have a good idea how that system actually runs.

Sounds about right to me.

 

[WR2]

It's the 6950 2GB version that has the BIOS flash option.

Antec 1200 @ 100 is a good bargain. Both are great cases. It's a toss up to which one you like best.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Twin 560's beat the 6850's? Okay that might change things. But I still would like to know about the unlock on the 6850 to a 6870. Would the resulting card pwn both dual setups?

AFAIK, the unlock is from 6950 to 6979

http://www.guru3d.com/news/transform-your-radeon-6950-into-a-6970/
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=335318

As for the relative performance, start here:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-560-ti-sli-review/4

Personally, I'd drop the SSD and think about two 570's. Other than halving your boot up time, you really won't see much difference from your HD

As for the HAF case, I have a friend selling his Antec 1200 case with 3 months use for $100. Should I consider that?

The 1200 is a great case, certainly a step up from the 922. Even better would be a DF-85 but that adds another $60. With the $1200 though, I'd change my PSU recommendation to the CP-850. Newegg Canada just deactivated it but it is still available on the US site:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371024

100 more watts, unbelievable quiet, a 10.0 performance rating from jonnyguru.com

Amazon Canada has tho

http://www.amazon.ca/850w-Form-Atx12v-Layout-Connectors/dp/B001RTPLWK/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1298495685&sr=8-11

here's the choice then:

$500 Twin 560's
$100 XFX Black Edition 750 watt PSU
$90 CM HAF-922
$70 Seagate 72001.12
$110 Win 7 Home Prem. 64 bit

$870 ..... $10 more than ya have at the moment

$100 Antec 1200
$160 Antec CP-850 (search other canadian sites, that's $40 more than newegg.ca has it last week)
$70 Hard Drive
$110 - OS
$310 - GTX 570

$750 .... leaves yu $110 ... then add 2nd 570 come XMas .....

I'd go the 2nd option

here's a fps summary of the following games from Guru3D

COD-MW, Bad Company 2, Dirt 2, Far Cry 2, Metro 2033, Dawn of Discovery, Crysis Warhead

6850 - 371
6850 X-fire - 634

560 - 444
560 SLI - 792

6950 - 479
6950 X-fire - 751

6970 - 526
6970 X-fire - 825

570 - 524
570 SLI - 873

580 - 616
580 SLI - 953

 

[WR2]

The add later strategy can also get you access to a next gen GPU where selling a current card lets you hop up into a more powerful replacement card.

 

[WR2]

I know it's apples to oranges but a few charts won't hurt.