Looking for some review of my new system build

[khamer]

Looking to order new components in the next 24hours, want to spend between 600$ and 800$ total (this is a little over.) If I was going to tune anything down, I'd drop the i7-870 for a i5-750 (for 200$ off of Newegg.)

I'd love some thoughts guys, and I appreciate it.

Pretty format: http://toysthat.kevin.wantsforchristmas.com/

Intel Core i7-870 Lynnfield 2.93GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor BX80605I7870
Now: $279.99

ASUS P7P55D-E LX LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Now: $129.99

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL
Now: $109.99

SPARKLE SXX460768D5UNM GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 768MB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
Now: $159.99

Western Digital Caviar Black WD6402AAEX 640GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Now: $69.99

OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply compatible with core i7
Now: $69.99

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Ditch the WD HDD and get a Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB or 1TB ( either are the faster 500GB per platter design ).

Sparkle to me is one of the lower quality manufacturers. Asus, EVGA, Gigabyte or MSI would be better choices.

Not sure about that OCZ PSU. You can get a Corsair 550w for the same price that I do know is high quality.

Why do you need 8GB of RAM? 4 is fine for anything unless you are doing photo/video work. I would go with the lower cas latency stuff as well.

 

[khamer]

Ditch the WD HDD and get a Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB or 1TB ( either are the faster 500GB per platter design ).

Sparkle to me is one of the lower quality manufacturers. Asus, EVGA, Gigabyte or MSI would be better choices.

Not sure about that OCZ PSU. You can get a Corsair 550w for the same price that I do know is high quality.

Why do you need 8GB of RAM? 4 is fine for anything unless you are doing photo/video work. I would go with the lower cas latency stuff as well.

I have dual monitors and tend to run a lot of memory intense applications (like World of Warcraft, Mumble/Ventrilo, Chrome, and something like GIMP or a streaming video application or such.

The Sparkle video card got great reviews in the articles here, and was the recommendation for their 500$ PC I believe, so I figured it wasn't a bad choice for the price point.

I did try to lookup lower CAS latency memory, I could bump it down to 7-8-7-24 timings for 50$ more: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7D-8GBRH which might be worth the extra 50$.

They're out of stock of the 500GB Samsung Spinpoint F3s, but its the same price for a 1TB so I might as well. Also switched to a comparable Corsair.

Any thoughts on going with an i5-750 instead of the i7-870 to save 80$?

 

[Deleted member 217926]

The i5 750 has been Tom's best bang bang for your buck gaming processor for months and months. I would go with it.

I still think you only need 4GB of RAM. 8GB has got to be pretty cheap though and those cas 7 sticks look good. DDR3 prices just keep dropping.

You may want to look at the 1GB version of that card. The 768MB would be fine for resolutions under 1600x 900. Above that the 1GB version will serve you better.

Still not a fan of Sparkle but I have never owned one so who knows. But I have had 5 EVGA cards in a row with no problems. The Asus and MSI cards have got great reviews for having excellent cooling.

 

[khamer]

The i5 750 has been Tom's best bang bang for your buck gaming processor for months and months. I would go with it.

I still think you only need 4GB of RAM. 8GB has got to be pretty cheap though and those cas 7 sticks look good. DDR3 prices just keep dropping.

You may want to look at the 1GB version of that card. The 768MB would be fine for resolutions under 1600x 900. Above that the 1GB version will serve you better.

Still not a fan of Sparkle but I have never owned one so who knows. But I have had 5 EVGA cards in a row with no problems. The Asus and MSI cards have got great reviews for having excellent cooling.

So I'll probably switch down the processor and perhaps the memory. If I degrade the memory, my gut tells me I'll get better performance out of 32bit windows than 64bit. I realize that some of the 4GB will we unreachable, but I figured the benefit of having memory addresses all half length would outweigh that. If I'm going to switch to 64bit, then I'd probably want to have the 8GB to take advantage of that.

I plan to run dual 1920x1080, so I'll poke around and see if I can't find as version with more memory. My current card has a 1GB, I don't know why I would have decreased it for a newer version. Granted, my current setup can pretty much manage 1920x1080 TF2 alongside 1080i video playback, so it can't be that underpowered.

 

[khamer]

Best answer selected by khamer.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

I have been running 64bit Windows with 4GB of RAM for close to 2 years now and had no problems. 64 bit is actually more efficient in how it addresses memory so go with a 64bit OS.

The 1GB GTX460 has a higher memory bandwidth that allows for better performance at higher resolutions as well as the extra RAM. At 1920 x 1080 a 1GB version is needed to max most games.

If you do go with 4GB of RAM this kit is hard to beat: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231351

VERY low timings for DDR3 1600 = very fast memory. I am not against the 8GB of cas 7 but you will never use it all unless you run Video and Photo editing software and work with HUGE files.

 

[khamer]

I have been running 64bit Windows with 4GB of RAM for close to 2 years now and had no problems. 64 bit is actually more efficient in how it addresses memory so go with a 64bit OS.

The 1GB GTX460 has a higher memory bandwidth that allows for better performance at higher resolutions as well as the extra RAM. At 1920 x 1080 a 1GB version is needed to max most games.

If you do go with 4GB of RAM this kit is hard to beat: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231351

VERY low timings for DDR3 1600 = very fast memory. I am not against the 8GB of cas 7 but you will never use it all unless you run Video and Photo editing software and work with HUGE files.

More changes http://toysthat.kevin.wantsforchristmas.com/ (also below):

ASUS P7P55D-E LX LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Now: $129.99
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Now: $69.99
CORSAIR Builder Series CMPSU-600CX 600W ATX12V v2.3 Active PFC Power Supply
Now: $64.99
G.SKILL PI 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL6D-4GBPI
Now: $89.99
Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80605I5760
Now: $199.99
MSI N460GTX CYCLONE 1GD5/OC GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
Now: $209.99

The MSI seems to get the best reviews in that class, and a lot people like that its quiet, which I think I'd really appreciate too.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Looking like a great build. Not sure I would change a thing.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey