$3k Budget - Good Performance PC - Recommend Pls

[markbensona]

Hey Hi guys n gurlz

I have $3k budget and I want to build a good performance based PC, I am not into gaming but I tend to have a lot of applications running, few firefox windows and some other applications in the background.

I pretty much never play any game. I want to build a pc that will load things faster and handle good amount of multi-tasking with heavy software in the background like --

Firefox's
Photoshop
Few CAD stuff


If you could help that would be great. I wouldn't mind a decent sound card and a decent GFX Card, but I am not much into gaming, but I want the best parts out there. And I want to buy i7 920 not interested in other ones.

I want to build it ASAP.

Thank you

 

[rockyjohn]

Here is my suggestion:

Intel Core i7-920 $289 free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202

Motherboard & Memory Combo Deal $464
Mobo - GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5 LGA
Memory - CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.290866

Heat Sink/Fan
XIGMATEK Intel Core i7 compatible Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler - Retail $45
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029

Case
SILVERSTONE FT01-B Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Uni-body Computer Case $230
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163120

Power Supply
CORSAIR CMPSU-750HX 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply – Retail $160 AR free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010

Video Card
BFG Tech BFGEGTX260MC896OC2DE GeForce GTX 260 OC2 MAXCORE 55 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card – Retail $194
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143198

Sound Card
Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio 70SB104000000 7.1 Channels PCI Express x1 Interface Sound Card – Retail $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102017&cm_re=sound_cards_-_pci_express-_-29-102-017-_-Product

Hard Drives – one for operating system and applications and one for data
Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2M080G2R5 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid state disk (SSD) – with installation kit Retail $299
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167023
eagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148433

Optical Drives – Blu-Ray reader and DVD RW
Pioneer Black 5X BD-ROM 12X DVD-ROM 32X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-Ray Combo Model BDC-202BK - OEM $98
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029
Pioneer Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 40X CD-R 32X CD-RW 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner LabelFlash Support - OEM $35
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129045
OKGEAR 18" SATA II Cable Model GC18AKM – Retail $4 for two
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812123160


Total Price $2,055 not including operating system, shipping (where not free) , and taxes

That is a Cadillac and there are a lot of ways to reduce the cost without significantly affecting basic performance.

Case – you can get a good steel case for about $100 – savings $130
There are a lot of steel cases that will provide good airflow and relatively silent operation for less. The one above is aluminum. In addition, cases are also a matter of style.

Power Supply – this is the modular PSU – you only put inside the cables you need and don’t have extras stuck in there. You can get its non-modular brother for about $60 less. Also note that it is sized to support two graphics cards. If you are sure you will never want those, the PSU could be dropped down to about 500w with additional savings. I just hate to put a smaller on in a system of this caliber. As it is - if you ever want another video card - you can just insert it.

Video card – this card is midrange. If you really don’t think you want to game, you can get a serviceable card for about $100 less.

Sound card – the motherboard provides on-board 8 channel audio and is all that most use. But you mentioned it so I included it. You could go without and save $60 – maybe try the on-onboard first to see if you really need more and add it later.

Hard drives – I included a fast solid state drive for the operating system and applications. Don’t know if you know about them – they are good but expensive. You could do without it entirely and just use the other drive – at 1 TB it should take you awhile to fill it. Note that this is the one change that would affect basic performance. Potential savings $299

Optical drives – included a Blu-Ray reader. Don’t know if you need it. Can eliminate it and save $98. Of for about $100 more instead get a Blu-Ray reader and writer.

Total potential savings - $747. Net after savings - $1308.

I tried to give you a starting point – something to work from.
What is your pleasure?

 

[rockyjohn]

Some additional thoughts.
Regarding cases: I suggest you look at some pictures on newegg.com – or better yet in a store – and pick out one you like. I or others here can tell you if it is good techinically and, if not, recommend something that matches your style. For instance, do you prefer a front door over the drives. Lights?

Regarding your uses, all but the “few CAD stuff” can be done with a basic computer costing about $800 or even less. The higher price is all do to your request for the i7-920 and a top flight system.

Regarding the video card, I chose an nVidia card because it has the best processes to use the video card to support certain parallel process calculations – to offload some from the CPU. It requires applications that support it. There are not many right now, but more are writing programs for it. Do you know if any of your CAD software takes advantage of it?

 

[markbensona]

Thank you so very much for the recommendation, I would like to see some more builds. I am concerned about RAM, and MOBO I was thinking to go for one of the good mobos that will last at least 2 years and ram that will be good enuf for say next 2 years how about 12 gig ram?

 

[rockyjohn]

The GA-EX58 –UD5P is not a good mobo – it is a GREAT one. Here is a detailed review:

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/14406-gigabyte-ga-ex58-ud5-x58-motherboard-review.html

There is on step up in the Gigabyte family to the Extreme, which the review above notes “is largely differentiated from the EXTREME model by its lack of the elaborate Hybrid Silent-Pipe 2 cooling system. The omission of the more impressive cooling system doesn't seem to have diminished interest in this motherboard, since this is the model that consumers are buying in spades and it is easy to see why”.

If you would like to pay more for that cooling system, then get the Extreme, although it is hard to find and not listed at newegg.com

Here is the THG review of “Intel X58 Roundup: Six $300+ Platforms Compared” that includes, among others, the ASUS Rampage II Extreme and the Gigabyte GA-EX58-Extreme.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/x58-motherboard-i7,2164.html

Here is a comparison of the specifications for three Gigabyte EX-58 boards – the Extreme, the UD5P recommended, and the UD4P.

http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/Motherboard/Products_ComparisonSheet.aspx?ProductID=2957,2958,2986


The 6 GB of RAM should be good enough for the next two or three years. You might want to read this THG article “Do You Really Need More Than 6 GB Of RAM?”.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-module-upgrade,2264.html

But if you want 6 more gigs just add another set of the recommended memory for $240. You can add it now or later since the mobo has 6 memory slots.

 

[markbensona]

Hey Rocky
can you show me some more cases that where the mobo and all will fit nicely but with good airflow money is not an issue. I want to make sure I can get something that will handle anything I throw at it..

thank you again

 

[geofelt]

Hey Hi guys n gurlz

I have $3k budget and I want to build a good performance based PC, I am not into gaming but I tend to have a lot of applications running, few firefox windows and some other applications in the background.

I pretty much never play any game. I want to build a pc that will load things faster and handle good amount of multi-tasking with heavy software in the background like --

Firefox's
Photoshop
Few CAD stuff


If you could help that would be great. I wouldn't mind a decent sound card and a decent GFX Card, but I am not much into gaming, but I want the best parts out there. And I want to buy i7 920 not interested in other ones.

I want to build it ASAP.

Thank you

If you are doing lots of multitasking, then start with a monitor setup that can display lots of open apps. I would suggest either dual 1920 x 1200 monitors, likely in 24 to 27" size. That will take about $1000 of your budget. Alternatively, you could use a 2560 x 1600 30" monitor which would cost about the same.

To drive either configuration, does not take a great gaming card. Perhaps something like a GT220: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150446 Anything supporting 2560 x1600 and aero would be ok.

Any X58 motherboard will be just about as good in performance as another. Don't pay extra for enthusiast features that you will not use. The X58 chipset is what determined performance. Any such boards will give you an easy overclock to 3.2 which is about the power of a i7-975. Pick by your comfort level with the motherboard vendor. Asus, INTEL, EVGA, and Gigabyte are good; there are others.

Don't bother with a separate sound card. Onboard 7.1 HD sound is very good, and you can always add a separate card later.

Get lots of ram. 6gb at a minimum, and consider 12gb. Do not spend much extra on faster speeds or better timings. Synthetic benchmarks show well with faster ram, but it will make very little difference in the execution speed of your applications.

For good performance, I recommend you spend on a good SSD for the OS and as much active data that you can put on it. I would suggest the Intel X25-m 160gb drive, be certain that it is gen2 which will get the TRIM command. The market is confusing, and the products are changing weekly. Synthetic metrics, particularly of new(vs. filled up) drives can be misleading. The Intel is a safe choice today. If you need more space, add a 1tb WD caviar black or two for storage.

A case is a personal thing, but without a heat generating vga card, you have lots of options. You only need one large enough to hold all your parts. A favorite case of mine is the Antec Solo which can hold 4/5 hard drives and is particularly quiet.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129018
It includes washable intake air filters.

I would get a oem cpu cooler up front. It will keep your cpu cooler and be quieter than the stock intel cooler. Overclocking the i7-920 is easy and safe. It is the temperature that limits what you can do, so a decent cooler is helpful. Most of them are ok. Look at the Xigmatek dark night for starters.

---good luck---

 

[rockyjohn]

Be happy to help - but the range on cases is very large. Please provide some more information on preferences:

Front cover door?
Side view window?
Lights?
Racey or conventional/professional?

Then to further get a better idea on style - look at some pictures of the cases on newegg. If for starters you limit yourself to the cases costing over $200 you will find 48 cases to quickly browse through just by scolling down the windows. If one looks promising, click on the case and most if not all will have more views to look at.

Also what size are you looking for? Most "full size computers" use mid-tower cases. That is what I use and what is listed above and provides all the space most need - you can read the spec lists and see the number of HD and 5.25 optical drives it accommodates. Some prefer the slightly larger full tower cases with room for even more drives and a few cases are even larger.

Once knowing what interests you we can determine if it is good technically or try to offer a style match that is better technically.

Regarding "anything you can throw at it"
1. Again the question on memory is what CAD applications you might be using. I believe some CAD applications can use a little more memory but I am not sure how much. This assumes you will be getting Windows 64-bit.
2. Does this apply to gaming? If so you need a faster graphics card. The one suggested will play most games but not with all the high settings to make it look better. Although one thing to keep in mind is that the mobo supports RAID and SLI so at any time you can add a second and even third video card. Two 260s will give you considerable power, but if you really want to future proof I would go with a faster one now and still be able to add later. What are your thoughts on this? Also, I generally favor nVidia cards because they have a much better process for allowing the CPU to download work to the video card. It is relatively new so no many applications take advantage of it but more are coming online. Do you know if any of your CAD apps use it? If not for this, then I would go with AMD cards if purchasing at the moment because they have the latest release which at the moment - have a slight advantage in gaming. This could change at any time when nVidia does their next release - but if you want to add a second card later it must match the first. Also monitor size makes a difference so what size do you use?

It does not sound like you are very interested in gaming at the moment, but just for a general background you might want to browse the recent THG article that shows how the mix of CPU and video card affect game performance. The article is a milestone - or at least I have seen nothing else similar in years - and it just came out 2 days ago. It might also give you some idea of the range of card to pick if you really want to have the power for gaming.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-balanced-platform,2469.html

 

[markbensona]

Hey Rocky

Can you recommend some more heatsinks. This $45 one looks way too cheap and the quality might not be good. I really do run my pc 24/7 and I live in Canada and room temperature is always high.

 

[rockyjohn]

That is a top flight heat sink, used by overclocking gamers, many whom I am sure keep there computers on 24/7. Overclocking substantially increases the heat and cooling needs a system. This will handle as much OC as any "air" option - after that you are in to the cost and complications of water cooling which I don't think you need or want.

Here are two reviews

http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2333

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1757/xigmatek_dark_knight_s1283_h_d_t_cpu_cooler/index.html

But if you want to spend more money for marginal improvement, just pick one higher up on the long list on page five of the first link. The Dark Night S1283 is only 4th highest on list of about 120 HSF (many of which cost considerably more) so there are three above it you can select from, one of which is another verson of the Xigamatec S1283 HSF - probably with some little tweak since it achieves 1 degree cooler temperatures at high load. Note that the second review is actually for this other S1283 - but they are essentially the same. The V on the end of the model number simple indicates it has fittings for the i7 socket mobo and your CPU.

 

[markbensona]

Hey Rocky
THanks for quick reply.

So will that be your final build, you wouldn't want to add anything?

 

[rockyjohn]

I am really surprised that no one else has come forward with some alternative ideas.

You might want to look at this thread that has some model builds included a $2,300 Enthusiast Extreme build that has some similarities and some differences to my recommendation and a few lower cost models.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/269162-31-recommended-builds-usage

Also just browse the this section of the forum looking for similar listings - or maybe you have already done so.

Here is a link to a THG system builder marathon $2,500 build using an AMD processor - they used AMD simply because that was the plan at the start, but some of the other components might interest you.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/performance-gaming-amd,2415.html

$4,340 PC from ExtremeTech
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2344020,00.asp

 

[rockyjohn]

Like add what?
Do you need any of those other devices for the 5.25 drive bay? Card reader?

If you want some bling there are temperature monitors and fan controllers. I never have used them though so I don't know a whole lot about them - but they look snazzy.

Oh - you will need some thermal compound for attaching the HSF:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007&cm_re=arctic_silver_5-_-35-100-007-_-Product

And if you want I think you can add some interior neon lights - but I don't know anything about those either.

 

[markbensona]

Hey Rocky
Thank you so very much for detailed replies.
I will go with your build.

Thanks again

 

[rockyjohn]

Your welcome and I am sure you will have one powerful computer.

I did grab a couple of case reviews for you so you could look at a few alternatives. There are still all in the conventional/professional area.

I like the style of the Lian LI PC-B25 Black the best, but it only has 3 5.25 drives - for me I consider 4 minimum since I also use a tape drive, but it might be OK for you - depending on plans. It is also a little larger.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/mid-tower-case-roundup,2055-26.html

The Cooler Master Cosmos S is larger and has some unique styling I like.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pc-case-roundup,1951-8.html

And these are two other good alternatives
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/mid-tower-case-roundup,2055-11.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-case-review,2420-3.html

There are many good cases available, the key is finding the one that fits and reflects your style.

 

[markbensona]

Thanks again.
I will do the order later tonight and thank you again dear.
I just might add more ram to be secure lol.

About GFX card, do you think it will give me good quality to watch movies and other stuff beside gaming?

Thanks again..

ps - any keyboard recommendations? I like Alienware/Dell laptop keyboard style do u know any as such?

thanks again..

 

[rockyjohn]

Yes - watching movies only requires a very basic card so this should be more than adequate - It will easily hand large monitors for PC - have no idea if you are talking huge monitors though.

I use a very different keyboard - MS Natural Ergonomic 4000 - and really like it because you don't have to srunch your wrists together to use it. And I like it so much I bought a second to use later in case they stop selling them. Frankly I can't understand why more people don't use them because they are so much more "natural" and comfortable. One negative - some of the letters are wearing off the keys - especially right under the home set and the E R O and I - it started in a little more than a year after I got it. Some like the Q Z X P are still in great shape. Hmmm. Interesting. While getting you the link I discovered 2 listings for the what seems to be the same keyboard with the same model number and apearance. One says it is certified for Vista and has 107 keys with a detachable palm rest and the other lists only the earlier versions of Windows, not Vista, and has 108 key and an integrated palm rest. I wonder what key they cut? And why they did not change the model number? And will my keyboard work when I switch it to Vista? I am linking to the Vista version - sorry you lost a key.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823109049

There also appears to be a wireless version that I know nothing about but that also includes a mouse not found in the former:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823109038

I think with keyboards that feel is very important so I would suggest checking keyboards at a local store.

 

[geofelt]

Good advice ^ from rockyjohn.

I would second the natural ergonomic 4000 keyboard. I particularly like the zoom, back/fwd keys and programmable function keys. For what it is worth, MS has good support on these keyboards. I had a stuck "Q" key, called them, and they sent out a replacement for no charge.

My keys do not show signs of wear.
Perhaps rockyjohn is searching for EROtica too much.

Again, OP(markbensona), what monitors do you have in mind, and are they to be included in your $3000 budget?

 

[markbensona]

I am not buying monitor I bought one recently for 340 or something and it is reasonably good my concern is more on PC performance, thank you again Rocky, I shall order the package and hopefully it will be a good one for at least 2 years.

 

[rockyjohn]

I should hope at least 3, and with a simple CPU upgrade and and maybe a second graphics card, another 3.

Btw - these forums , off course, are excellent to use if you run into a build issues. In the memory forum, I have seen a Crucial memory representative prowling around. For mobo issues, if any, this forum is good but Gigabyte has its official forum at Tweaktown.com. For some reason they don't seem to publish this but everyone with one of their products should be aware.

http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/

 

[daggs]

how does that gpu scales against the ati4890 or the ati5770? they cost almost the same

 

[rockyjohn]

The GTX 260 fits in between the 4870 and 4890. So the 4890 is going to be a little faster but I traded that off for CUDA - if he is doing CAD, I believe that is going to be a bigger advantage as more CAD and other applications are designed for it. And Mark does CAD now but no gaming.

 

[rockyjohn]

Perhaps rockyjohn is searching for EROtica too much.

Who's he?

 

[markbensona]

Rocky sorry for bugging you again, but you 100% positive I should go for that cheap heatsink you mentioned? I am just worrying that it might not keep cpu that cool. I can spend some cash to go for a better one if u have any..

 

[geofelt]

Read this excellent review of some of the top cpu coolers; Xigmatek included:
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=285&Itemid=62

Any of the top ten is much better than the stock cooler and will be fine unless you are after maximum overclocking.

Since you already have one monitor, consider adding a second duplicate. I find it incredibly useful, particularly if you have lots of stuff going on.