My New Build

Gimlaba

Distinguished
Oct 16, 2011
19
0
18,510
Approximate Purchase Date: November to December (Most likely late Nov, to the beginnings of Dec)

Budget Range: $1000-$1500
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Video Recording/Rendering/Editing, Surfing the Web, Schoolwork, & Small Movie Watching

Parts Not Required: Keyboard, Mouse, & Headset

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Any trusted site with reasonable prices

Country of Origin:United States of America

Parts Preferences: Futureproof Parts :D

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: Yes (Going to go from Dual to Triple SLI Gradually)

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: Not sure whether or not 900W will be enough for 3-Way SLI 560 ti..

_________________________________________________________

MoBo: GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128514

CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition Thuban 3.3GHz, 3.7GHz Turbo 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103913

Graphics Card: MSI N560GTX-Ti Hawk GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127578&Tpk=nvidia%20gtx%20560%20ti%20hawk

RAM: G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231416

Hard Drive: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185&Tpk=samsung%20f3&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=10a0mdpo4u8wz

DVD Burner: ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

PSU: LEPA G900-MA 900W SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817194083&Tpk=900w%20psu%20lepa

Case: APEVIA X-TROOPER Series X-TRP-BL Black / Blue Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811144268

OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

Monitor: Asus VE248H Black 24" 1920X1080 2ms Full HD HDMI LED Backlight LCD Monitor w/Speakers 250 cd/m2 10,000,000:1 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236102

Wi-Fi: Amped Wireless UA150C High Power Wireless-150N Compact Adapter IEEE 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Up to 150Mbps Wireless Data Rates WEP, WPA, WPA2, WPA Mixed, WPS - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833281001
 

Cinci555

Distinguished
Oct 17, 2011
57
0
18,630
Personal preference, but an i5-2500k is a much better processor for your functions, gaming, etc.

Make sure if you switch to intel you get a 1155 board with ivy bridge support and also pciE 3.0 support as that is true future proof.
 

Cinci555

Distinguished
Oct 17, 2011
57
0
18,630


Heatsinks on memory are completely pointless if you have decent air cooling in your case. There is no difference in the timings or voltage between x series and not, personally I'd get a lower profile memory as it is easier to handle aftermarket coolers if you decide to put one in.
 

Cinci555

Distinguished
Oct 17, 2011
57
0
18,630
Video Recording/Rendering/Editing.
Say no more...
PCIE 3.0 will be a gimmick for a good while as nothing saturates 2.0 yet.

Upgrade to the i7-2600k it still blows any AMD out of the water, and with black friday sales and whatnot the price will drop.

If you live near a Microcenter they're $279 but if you buy one you get 60 dollars off a mother board in addition to the discounted price of the CPU.

Edit: Thought I agree with your PSU recommendation. Seasonic, or Corsair are the only two manufacturers I trust, anything that has Seasonic guts works too such as PC Power and Cooling.
 

Cinci555

Distinguished
Oct 17, 2011
57
0
18,630
Don't have microcentres in UK ;)

He's in USA.

Edit: Yes PciE 3.0 will be a gimmick but ivy bridge won't. Sandy Bridge is still far and away better than Bulldozer at top of range, i5, i7. And Ivy Bridge will just build upon that lead. In two years if you are more into video rendering, you are going to want the best processor available, which I guarantee will be Ivy Bridge based.
 

Gimlaba

Distinguished
Oct 16, 2011
19
0
18,510
Not heard of that psu.
A Silverstone strider 850 is what i recommend.
My friend is using this PSU, and says it's been working great for him so far. (A good 5 months or so). Plus, all the reviews seem to be legit. I'll take a chance on it.
 

Gimlaba

Distinguished
Oct 16, 2011
19
0
18,510

If prices really go low enough, I'll swap over to this:

MoBo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157250

CPU: Intel i7 2600k

But for now, I'm sticking with the AMD choice.
 

Cinci555

Distinguished
Oct 17, 2011
57
0
18,630


I imagine you will see them for between $185-200 which is a good deal. Just remember you aren't the only person looking to grab one for cheaper than normal.

My recommended build for you would be:

i5-2500k $200
1155 motherboard $150
corsair or seasonic psu $125-150
Radeon 6950 like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125385one: $250
Any decent 1600 Mhz memory for $50-60
HD: This really pains me, as one month ago you could get a terabyte for $60 now it's $120.
DVD Drive: At most $30
Windows: $100
Monitor: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-S23A3...5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1320201233&sr=1-5 $250.

Edit: linked wrong monitor.
 

Cash091

Distinguished
Jul 29, 2009
209
0
18,690
I have an AMD build now, but I bought this mobo three years ago when the i7's were SUPER pricey. Now, I'd snag an i7 2500k for a CPU! Think about it... looking at the charts on THIS site, for gaming it performs almost identically to the 2600 and with the k series you can OC this thing! It's only about $200, which is $100 LESS then the 2600.... NO BRAINER!!! When it comes to gaming this thing beats out AMD at nearly every turn, even the new BD chips! I have been AMD FOR EVER and these are so amazing they have ME sold...so thats saying something!

GPU wise, go with the 560ti for now with a MOBO that supports SLi for later upgrades. PCI 3.0 as well if you can. I SLi'd some 460 earlier this year and they are ROCK SOLID! The 560's are even better! You CANNOT Tri-SLi this card, someone already said that, but unless you are spending tons of cash on a monitor that games in rez's +1080P, SLi'd 570 and higher would be a waste of cash! The human eye cannot tell the difference in frame rates higher than 60fps. Plus, you would want VSYNC on locking the fps cap at 60 anyway to prevent screen tearing.

A little HDD tip too, if you want more speed out of your system do a RAID 0 setup. You can grab 2 - 500GB drives instead of one 1TB and stripe them together fairly easily. You can dramatically increase your startup times and such...

Case tip NUMBER 1: Don't buy a case for looks alone!!! I did that when I got my first gaming case and it actually turned out to be a POS!!! What matters to you in a case?
Cable Management, Large fans, side window, lights?!!? To me, cable management is a MUST! The cables being out of the way creates better airflow in the case and makes your hardware run cooler! I just picked up the NZXT Phantom. It's HUGE but it looks nice, has tons of room for added fans, large GPU's/aftermarket coolers, and the cable management is IMO rivaled only by Corsair, whose cases run around 200 bucks. Looking at the case you chose, it has a lot of nice features that the NZXT has, I think I narrowed that out of my choices once before because it looked kinda cheap... and let's be honest, you want your $1500 to look like it is worth $1500!!!

Anyways...these are a few of my tips, take what you will... I can be very opinionated when it comes to my hardware sometimes....
 

Cash091

Distinguished
Jul 29, 2009
209
0
18,690
Im surprised you dont hear more people reccomending a RAID 0 setup for HDD?!? Two heads are better than one right? Downsides, if one drive fails you lose everything, but if you have only one drive and it fails...um...yeah... thats what backups are for!! I do RAID 0 and Win7 starts up in less than a minute. I have a PhenomII 965 too. Not a slow CPU, but def not the fastest!
 

Cinci555

Distinguished
Oct 17, 2011
57
0
18,630


Raid 0 is definitely nice I agree. Always should have an external back up of anything that is vital anyway, it's the safest and most secure.
 

Cash091

Distinguished
Jul 29, 2009
209
0
18,690

You could also RAID 0+1.. or RAID 5?! I forget exactly but a third drive for fault tolerance. RAID is just under used in consumer setups.
 

Cinci555

Distinguished
Oct 17, 2011
57
0
18,630


Raid 0+1 would take 4 Terabyte drives and make 2TB that are backed up.
Raid 5 would take same drives make 3TB with parity striping, meaning they have a back up that can be utilized in the event a drive fails to successfully recover the lost date.

Raid 0+1 takes at least 4 HDDs, Raid 5 only takes at least 3 HDDs. Meaning 3 TB drives gives you approx 2TB of space with essentially a back up, though it is not a true back up.

Edit: Also if you decide to go RAID, get a hardware RAID controller for a few bucks, it speeds the time of reading and writing and is more efficient than using possible on-board Raid support.
 

Gimlaba

Distinguished
Oct 16, 2011
19
0
18,510

Yeah, I only really picked out that case for the looks and the low cost. If I were to get a different case I would pick out the NZXT Phantom Black (like you recommended). I have no idea what a Raid 0 setup is, so I'm going to look into that and see how much I like that idea.