$4000/£2600 Budget for build - Help!

[Slipperss]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Gonna get it all bought when i got all the parts in order, which is probably within a few weeks.

BUDGET RANGE: Max budget is gonna be at arround 2600£ or $4000.

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gonna be a full blood gaming rig i'm aiming for.

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: OS, PSU, CPU, Mobo, HDD, speakers, and that basic stuff like microphone and keyboard.

PREFERRED WEBSITE FOR PARTS: www.newegg.com or (Some UK website)

OVERCLOCKING: Yes, the cpu will get OCed to 4ghz.

CROSSFIRE: Yes.

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 2560x1600

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

I got a few questions i really hope you could help me with
My current build is like so:

Mobo - ASUS P6T Deluxe V2

PSU - Corsair 1000w

Watercooling - ???????

RAM - ???????

Case - Cooler Master HAF 932

CPU - Intel Core I7-920

HDD - 1TB 7200rpm 32mb cache

GPU - ???????

SSD - ???????

What ram would be best with the I7-920?

I'm gonna run at 2560x1600 resolution, is there some GPU i should wait for, or just go for the 2x5970's?

I'm gonna focus my money on hardware that increases my FPS in games.

I'm gonna overclock the 920 to 4ghz, what would be good and relatively cheap cooling device?

Advice and suggestions are highly appreciated.

 

[MadAdmiral]

Have you already bouth those parts, or you've just got your minde set? If you've just got your mind set on them, I'm going to try to convince you otherwise, so take a look at the full build below:

CPU/Mobo: i7-930 and Asus P6X58D Premium $580. The i7-930 is an updated 920, and is generally about the same price. This Asus board is much more future proof than the P6T as it has USB 3/SATA III support. It would be insane to buy a high end board without these future proofing aspects.
RAM: Mushkin Enahnced Redline 3x2 GB 1600 mhz CAS Latency 6 $250. The fastest sticks on the market. They might not be available outside of the US, so look for these if you can't find the Mushkins: G.Skill Pi 3x2 GB 1600 mhz CAS Latency 7.
GPU: HD 5970 $700. A single 5970 is more than sufficient for any resolution right now.
SSD: Corsair Nova 128 GB $369
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB $90. This could be the one your looking at, but the other good option is the Seagate 7200.12 1 TB. The Western Digital Caviar Blacks are either slower or much more expensive in the 1 TB size.
PSU: OCZ Z Series 850W 80+ Gold $190 after rebate. A 1000W unit is absolute overkill for everything. You could easily get three 5970s on that, which wouldn't do anything for you.
Case: HAF 922 $80 after rebate. The 932 is good, but the 922 is a better choice because it added several nice features (the ability to turn off the LEDs, dust filters and better cable management) and it's not much smaller.
HSF: Prolimatech Megahalems Rev.B $85 (with 2 fans). This is easily the best air cooler out there. Water cooling is not a good idea, especially if you're trying to do it cheap. You can easily get to 4.0 GHz with this HS. It's massive.

Total: $2,344. Frankly, I wouldn't spend any more than this right now. You won't need to add any duplicates (i.e. a second 5970, more RAM, another SSD or HDD) right now, and if you did, you'd be paying a huge premium for them. It would be better to wait until you need them (or think you need them, as you will never ACTUALLY need any upgrades) and get the parts for cheaper.

 

[Silvune]

No point ordering from newegg as even if they did ship to the UK it would cost a fortunate. Check out scan.co.uk, ebuyer, and overclockers.co.uk.
Would you mind clarifying what you already have and how much you have left to spend?

A good aircooler can get you close to 4ghz, but a good, cheap CPU watercooler is the Corsair H50 £62. Be warned that the noise of the pump will be unimpeded in a case such as the HAF 932.
If you don't already have the i7-920, get the i7-930 instead; it has replaced the i7-920, it is slightly faster and it overclocks better.

This is probably the best RAM to get: TR3X6G1600C7 - 6GB (3x2GB) Corsair XMS3 Classic, DDR3 1600mhz (7-7-7-20) 1.65V £200

I would just go for the 5970s. The only thing that Nvidia have is the GTX 480 and it is not as fast as a 5970. SLI and crossfire scaling is another question tho, which I am not able to answer.

If you want to be able to install games onto the SSD, then you would want a good combination of fast, large and reliable, so I'd get the Intel X-25-M 160GB OEM (£352) drive, with an adapter to fit it into a 3.5" bay. If you just want quick booting and maybe one or two of your favourite games for quick level loading, then I'd suggest the 80GB version (£180) or either of these: Crucial M225 64GB £141
Kingston SSDNow V+ 64GB £154

I agree with pretty much everything MadAdmiral said, but specifically the case and harddrive. Normally I wouldn't recommend a kilawatt PSU, but for a large overclock and two power hungry cards like the 5970 I'm having doubts about an 850W PSU.

 

[Slipperss]

I got over 2 billion questions, and its driving me nuts.. Everyone got different ideas of what i should buy and etc :S

I really appreciate you all are helping me

I'm getting the 1kw psu for future upgrades and such.

I don't understand the ram system much. I would like to get some opinions about which is better and why:

CL7-7-7-20 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145242&Tpk=TR3X6G1600C7

CL6-8-6-24 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226121
--------------
I don't know if im getting a SSD, need some pros and cons.

I decided to get the I7-930 you suggested, seems worth it.

As i said several times, i am gonna oc the cpu to 4ghz, and i will need a prober cooling device, need people to confirm that the coolers that was mentioned in the previous posts are good enough to get the cpu at safe temps (even at peak temp)

 

[MadAdmiral]

The CL 6 sticks are better because they have tighter timings. That means faster speeds. The Corsairs are just overpriced, as usual.

SSDs are just HDDs without moving parts. They're lightening fast, and with your budget, you would be making a mistake in not including one. They are the absolute best storage device out there. The problems with SSDs are that they don't like to be near full capacity to operate as fast as possible. They typically operate best with 20% free space. Also, they slow down as they're used. They'll never be as slow as a standard HDD. Finally, SSDs don't like to be rewriting data a lot. This causes them to wear out faster and slow down sooner. So it's generally advised to install only your OS and frequently used applications/games on the SSD and keep a HDD for the data.

The HSF I mentioned is the absolute best air cooler you can get. It will easily allow you to reach 4.0 GHz. The H50 mentioned by Silvune is a cheap water cooling option. I don't particularly like it, as it's known to be louder the best air coolers. I also don't think people should cut corners, especially with water cooling. Cutting corners is a great way to screw something up.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Case / PSU - Cooler Master HAF 932 w/ Corsair HX850. At this budget anything less than a 10.0 jonnyguru rating doesn't figure. Alternate choice Antec 1200 w/ CP-850. Other PSU choices Antec SG-850 or XFX 850W Black Edition.

MoBo - P6X58D

CPU - Intel Core I7-930

RAM - At this budget, no reason not to go DDR3-1600 CAS 6. Top choice are the liquid cooled Mushkin 998692 w/ 6-7-6-18 timings .... it's sister modules (w/o the Ascent coolers) are the Model No. 998691's Both come and go in the supply channel and you may have to settle for the 998805 modules w/ 6-8-6-24 timings.

HDD - Check out the performance charts and pick whatever 500 GB per platter drive performs best under your usage patterns. The 2 TB WD Black and XT from Seagate are good choice but at smaller capacities, you are limited to the Seagate 7200.12 or the Spinpoint F3. The 7200.12 excels in gaming, multimedia and pictures whereas the F3 wins at music and movie maker. See the comparisons here (copy past link in manually, link won't work in forum):

(http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2009-3.5-desktop-hard-drive-charts/compare,1006.html?prod[2371]=on&prod[2770]=on)

Look at the tests that reflect your usage and choose accordingly.

SSD - Intel G2 is the hot one everyone wants ... many cheaper alternatives if budget becomes an issue
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167024

Heat Sink & Fans - For performance and ease of installation, the Prolimatech Megahalems fits both criteria. Here's what I'm putting in new builds Mega w/ IC Diamond TIM and twin Scythe PWMfans (make sure ya MoBo can handle the fan wattage). ($65 for the HS, $7 for TIM, $11 each for two PWM fans and $7 for a Y cable splitter).
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8807/cpu-pro-01/Prolimatech_Megahalems_Rev_B_Intel_CPU_Heatsink_LGA_775_1156_1366_AM2_AM2_AM3_Hot_Item.html
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/7038/thr-41/Innovation_Cooling_Diamond_7_Carat_Thermal_Compound_-_15_Grams.html?id=BZWnrfIC
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/10026/fan-639/Scythe_Slip_Stream_120mm_x_25mm_PWM_Fan_-_SY1225SL12LM-P.html?tl=g36c365s936
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8418/cab-150/FrozenCPU_PMW_Y_Splitter_Cable.html

The Prolimatech web site will link you to resellers in your area.....just provided these as I have the links ready for cut / paste and you can see what it all about.

Optical - Your budget allows so why not go witha Blue Ray Player / DVD Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827249055

GFX Cards - Could spend an hour here. On principal, I refuse to pay $100+ over MSRP so I can't in good conscience recommend the 5970 until it gets down close to the MSRP. With your selected case and PSU, the heat and power issues of the nVidia cards are a non factor unless they bother you on a personal level.

I have two sons planning builds ....looks like one is going with the 5970 and the other is going with twin 470's. Considering what they do with their machines, to my mind, they both made the right choices.

BTW, as to the Megahalems, one of those sons has an Antec 1200 w/ the Mushkin 998692's and the Prolimatech Cooler .... his 920 has an "everyday" OC profile at 3.7 Ghz w/ core temps in low to mid 50's.....his "gaming" OC profiles run at 4.2 and 4.4 GHz and the cores are in very low 70's

 

[Silvune]

For RAM you want the Cas Latency and Timings to be as low as possible, 7 is about as low as you can get, certainly in the UK. You also want the voltage to be 1.65V or below, again lower the better. So the mushkin you linked is better, but you can't get that in the UK.

SSDs Pros: Much faster than mechanical HDDs, silent, run very cool, use less power.
Cons: Cost per GB is high, un-reliable.
Personally I'm not going to get an SSD until 2011 at the earliest. That is as much to do with cost as anything else, which doesnt seem to be as much or an issue for you.

 

[spentshells]

SSD's do not save power

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-hdd-battery,1955.html

 

[Silvune]

That article is from 2008, talking about drives that aren't mainstream today.

 

[coldsleep]

Cons: Cost per GB is high, un-reliable.

In what way do you find SSDs unreliable?

 

[Silvune]

In the way that some of them 'fail' after a shorter amount of time compared to a HDD.

 

[spentshells]

In the way that some of them 'fail' after a shorter amount of time compared to a HDD.

that sounds about right...





and if your going to say new SSD's use \less power I would love to see the actual proof
not that I don't believe it just backing info....because im a lil interested

 

[coldsleep]

I'd still rather have an SSD "fail" than an HDD fail. Going read-only is a pain, but it's not as catastrophic as what happens when a traditional drive fails. I don't think there's enough real-world data yet to figure out how long they're going to last for the average user, but this article does a little bit of math on it. (I admit I haven't read the whole article through yet, but it's on my list for later today.)

As far as power, how about this THG article that was just posted a few days ago? Or this anandtech article (later page from the article linked previously)?

They're clearly not right for all budgets, but if you're considering dropping that much money, they should be at least considered.

 

[spentshells]

yeah if I had the cash I would buy one as well
thanks for the link ill have a read

 

[Silvune]

I'd still rather have an SSD "fail" than an HDD fail. Going read-only is a pain, but it's not as catastrophic as what happens when a traditional drive fails.

Yea that is/will be a major plus, certainly when they become large enough to be used as a storage drive.

Is that the pros and cons of SSDs covered?