My projected $2000 i7 gaming build so far (need help)

[unoeye]

Please tell me what you think of this build. I plan to purchase in 1 month. Monitor resolution 1920x1200. I plan on over clocking to 3.8-9 and need a lil help with making sure i get the proper stuff to make it happen. This will be a gaming rig.

COOLER MASTER HAF 932 and COOLER MASTER RS-700-AMBA-D3 700W ATX12V V2.3 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified ( might have to take it to 850)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.208777

i7-920 and ASUS P6T LGA (please help with a better OC option if possible)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131359

Scythe MUGEN-2 SCMG-2000 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185093&Tpk=mugen%202

OCZ XMP Ready Series 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Voltage Desktop
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227388

Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136320

BFG Tech BFGEGTX275896OC2E GeForce GTX 275 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 (plan on getting another also)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143199

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-bit (should i just get the basic?)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116678

ASUS VK266H Black 25.5" 2ms
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236046

Grand Total: $1,729.48

Any suggestions, recomendations or thoughts would be sweet.

 

[kufan64]

The P6T Deluxe comes with improved heatsinks on the various chips for better cooling which is a bonus for overclockers. Just FYI.

For as nice as this setup is, you really should have more than 1 HDD. I'm thinking three; one for the OS('s), and two in RAID 0 to install games on. Your selection for a HDD is top notch, though WD makes higher capacity versions which will give you more space and will also increase performance.

I'd also drop to Vista Home Premium. Ultimate is fine, but unnecessary for most everyone.

As a last note... if you have a Microcenter in your area, the i7 is only $200 there. I'd also try to nab a D0 stepping version for cooler operation and higher overclock potential.

 

[unoeye]

I will check out the deluxe for sure. And i dont need much space i have a tb external and i know nothing of raid . Its been a while since i built a rig and i have been doing some research over the past couple days and this is what i have put together so far.

Oh yeah, how would the larger HD increase performance im all about that

I live about 45 minutes from a microcenter and will probly pick up the d0 stepping i7-920. I just put the newegg link so people could get a general idea on price.

thanks for vista help i will take your advice.

Is the ram, case and psu as well as the cpu cooler a good choice?

 

[IzzyCraft]

1920 x 1200

Personally i would take out the 275 and do dual 260's or dual 4870's w.e i could find cheapest

Also would have just gone
home premium rout.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116677

unless you would use the extra goodies you get with ultimate like their visualization software etc that you could dl.

Ah good you're going to pick up some things on the cheap cuz some of the combo deals with the mobo are half decent...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.216036
40 dollar off set makes the mobo cost the same as the Pt6
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.213960
This is just for fun

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.216037

 

[unoeye]

Thanks for the input.

I plan on getting another 275 buy atleast mid september thats why i chose the 275 over the 260 if i had the cash i would just get x2 260's hope fully some prices will drop in another month.

In the next couple days i will be ordering my case, psu and cooler to get that out of the way and then the rest in about a month and again hopefully some prices will go down

 

[itadakimasu]

my current build :

i7 920 $200+tax from microcenter
MOBO + RAM TBA
300GB WD Velociraptor - $125 (180 - ebay bucks - cashback )
Sapphire HD4870 Vapor-x 2GB $192 - newegg
Xclio case - $40 (craigslist! zomg! ) only used part i have, it's' like new though.
585w Sigma Shark PSU $40 (newegg shell shocker)

I'm having trouble deciding on a motherboard since they're all basically $200+ I want to get a 12gb memory kit though for sure, and probably going to get a zalman cooler for the 920.

The above parts are $597. I'm going to assume around $450 for motherboard + ram and another $100 for OS which brings it to $1147,

I also have a Dell S2903W to go w\ it ($172.50)

 

[kufan64]

I'm with you on the space thing. I have a hard time filling up 200GB over the lifetime of a computer, but I'll get to the reasons why I suggested what I did...

Having your OS on a seperate drive ensures that if your OS needs to be reinstalled, or if it stops working at some point, you won't lose anything else, have to reinstall your games, and lose your valuable data since it's not on the same drive. You will technically have to reinstall your games, but that's just to write to Window's registry. It usually only takes a couple of seconds and your good to go.

RAID 0 is like SLI/Crossfire for HDD's. When they read/write, they do it together and split the load so it takes half as long.

I have to assume you know how a HDD works for my explanation on why bigger drives are faster: Bigger capacity drives usually have more data platters, and/or better data compression to fit more data in the same amount of space. Either solution increases performance because the heads have to move around less to read/write so there's less seek time.
As far as noticable difference goes, that's up for debate. I haven't ran benchmarks myself, and for some reason most people seem to not care much about HDD's. I don't understand it myself, HDD's are a MAJOR component of the system, so I put a lot of research into unlocking their mysteries.

Your RAM looks great.

Your case looks great (though a little boring IMO... The performance and cooling is fantastic, but I personally wanted something different. I bought an Antec P182 and for the most part, love it.)

Your PSU looks great, but I always recommend the Corsair 650, 750, and 850 TX line. That's just me though, the one you selected looks like a solid performer, though 700W may be a little light if you want to overclock and use SLI. I picked up the Corsair 850TX and have a similar setup.

There are better CPU coolers out there, though some are a lot harder to find. Everyone has their own opinions, but that one looks solid. Personally, I wouldn't buy it straight away, and when you get everything else, I'd take some measurements and ensure that the thing will fit in your case without incident.

 

[unoeye]

Thank for taking the time to give me a detailed expanation on the HDD. If you could possibly give me some recomendations on what you would do assuming i went your route.

I was up in the air with corsair and the coolmaster but i think i will bump her up to the corsair tx 850 i think i can find it in a newegg combo.

with the psu coolers i heard good things about the mugen and for the price it was sweet deal i thought.

I am kinda worried about how everything will fit in the case so thats why i chose the haf, im still worried a little but i think i will be fine and yes i know its boring I dont want my freinds knowing i spent this much on a rig and if make it all bling bling they will just assume i payed alot lol

Also would getting the mushkin ddr3 make a noticble differance?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226058

Thanks again

uno

 

[kufan64]

Your welcome uno. Trust me, I have nothing better to do at work most of the time. :lol:

Well like I said, you've got yourself a very nice setup here, and HDD's (being the slowest PC component BY FAR) work best with others. Setting up a RAID is pretty straight-forward and simple. You can find walkthroughs and explanations all over the internet, so I won't include any more information about it.

You've got a couple hundred $ left in your budget, so if I were in your shoes I'd get 3 HDD's.

500GB's are $70
640GB's are $75
750GB's are $80
[strike]1TB's are... $110!?[/strike] Not sure why the price jumps so much at the 1TB level, but that makes these not cost effective.

1x 500GB WD Caviar Black for the OS. Nothing else should go on this drive but Windows and your drivers.

2x 750GB WD Caviar Black (in RAID 0) for everything else. Install your games and applications here. you will have to remember to go into the advanced options when installing anything and redirect to install to your RAID drive. I'd also put your paging file on this drive. (Google it if necessary )

I am kinda worried about how everything will fit in the case so thats why i chose the haf, im still worried a little but i think i will be fine and yes i know its boring I dont want my freinds knowing i spent this much on a rig and if make it all bling bling they will just assume i payed alot lol

Lol I hear you. I didn't want a bunch of LED's and a 200mm jet intake looking thing in my case. I just wanted something simple, quiet, and easy to work in. In hindsight, I think I would have preferred a full tower case though. My mid tower had some trouble with the gigantic GTX 275, and I had to move my HDD's to the lower chamber like most others did.

That RAM you linked probably would be faster, but $140 faster? Not on your life. :lol:

 

[unoeye]

Sweet thanks man, I will do that seems like it will fit nice in my budget and i will just pick one HD up a week with my extra cash to get the ball rolling.

If you were to get a full size tower in the price range of the haf is there any you would recomend?

And thats what i thought u would say about the RAM i put that in my initial build but quickly took it out lol.

Random question do you think prices will change much in a month on the cpu,mobo,gpu and ram?

 

[kufan64]

Antec makes some very good cases. I think the 1200 is a full tower case that a lot of gamers use.

Prices and technology in general are always changing constantly. It's not worth driving yourself insane trying to plan too far ahead. Save up some money, and then go for it. [strike]Sometimes[/strike] Most of the time you'll have at least a little buyer's remorse, but as long as you make educated decisions, you'll still be thrilled with the end result. In retrospect I would change a few things about my build, but you do what you can at the time, and learn from your experiences.

Sorry if I got a little too deep just now.

 

[unoeye]

i will check out the antec i have heard good things but if i remember i think i priced it out to be almost 70 more then the haf.

I am already driving myself crazy lol, i got some tax money comming back i held off on doing them and im glad i did . I think if i buy my case,psu,cpu cooler, Hd's and vista first it will be the smart way to go i dont think those pieces will go down much if at all. And when i get the rest of my money drop it all on the guts at once.

What do you think about my monitor suggestion? Its the one piece i am really excited about for pc/console gaming.

 

[hellraiser06]

ummmm kufan, why cant you buy a HDD and create at least two partitions- one to hold the OS (say 50 GB) and drivers and one to hold games (If not going by the RAID route) or any other data (if going by the RAID route)? That way you end up utilizing the space that the oS does not occupy and you still get ALL the benefits that you mentioned??
In addition to that, if the OP still wants to buy other HDDs he can do that, but at the same time he would be able to utilize the remaining space on the primary drive.

See, I have a WD Caviar green 1TB. I have created like 6 partitions on it. 1st partition is 30GB for OS and drivers and rest all are for games, movies, music etc. I have even moved my documents folder out of the OS partition. That way, if I have to reinstall the OS I dont lose any data, not even my documents folder.

And to the OP, are you referring to the del monitor that itadakimasu mentioned? Well, its good, but maybe you wanna take a look at the samsung 24 inches too... I have a samsung 2233SW. ITs awesome..... mine is 22" though, full HD

 

[unoeye]

thanks for the response hellraiser. I was talking about this monitor.

ASUS VK266H Black 25.5" 2ms
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236046

i like the 2ms and the size and the price and i have read good things about it.

 

[unoeye]

Im torn between video cards now can anyone recomend the best setup for $400 give or take..2 cards 1 dual gpu...im lost need some advice..

 

[notrace]

Your welcome uno. Trust me, I have nothing better to do at work most of the time. :lol:

Well like I said, you've got yourself a very nice setup here, and HDD's (being the slowest PC component BY FAR) work best with others. Setting up a RAID is pretty straight-forward and simple. You can find walkthroughs and explanations all over the internet, so I won't include any more information about it.

You've got a couple hundred $ left in your budget, so if I were in your shoes I'd get 3 HDD's.

500GB's are $70
640GB's are $75
750GB's are $80
[strike]1TB's are... $110!?[/strike] Not sure why the price jumps so much at the 1TB level, but that makes these not cost effective.

1x 500GB WD Caviar Black for the OS. Nothing else should go on this drive but Windows and your drivers.

2x 750GB WD Caviar Black (in RAID 0) for everything else. Install your games and applications here. you will have to remember to go into the advanced options when installing anything and redirect to install to your RAID drive. I'd also put your paging file on this drive. (Google it if necessary )

I am kinda worried about how everything will fit in the case so thats why i chose the haf, im still worried a little but i think i will be fine and yes i know its boring I dont want my freinds knowing i spent this much on a rig and if make it all bling bling they will just assume i payed alot lol

Lol I hear you. I didn't want a bunch of LED's and a 200mm jet intake looking thing in my case. I just wanted something simple, quiet, and easy to work in. In hindsight, I think I would have preferred a full tower case though. My mid tower had some trouble with the gigantic GTX 275, and I had to move my HDD's to the lower chamber like most others did.

That RAM you linked probably would be faster, but $140 faster? Not on your life. :lol:

I was looking to do something similar with my new build,

Do you think its a good idea to have two 640GB in RAID0 for all my random crap, and then a 150GB Velociraptor for my OS and such so it can keep up with the HDD's in RAID0? Or does it not really make a difference? Maybe i can have my OS's on a SSD?

 

[Helloworld_98]

Just a note, by the time you'll need another GTX 275, it will be obsolete, and will have been for a good few months since the first DX11 cards come out in September.

 

[tastelikecrab]

XFX HD 4870x2 2GB should be plenty .. it's $359 after the rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150349

and double lifetime warranty

i'd go for win 7 rc till its out, and preorder in the meantime; or use vista Home premium with the Win 7 upgrade option.... unless u have a very specific reason to spend extra on vista ultimate.

and tbh, if i was buying this for myself with a $2000 budget, i'd get a single GTX 275 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150387) and get the Samsung 2233rz because 120Hz refresh is just awesome for gaming, even if u dont use the cool 3D glasses... but i'd get the 3D glasses too, cos there's only so much u can get out of a flat 2d screen.... and once u go 120hz u wont go back. the 3D is an added bonus of pure awesomeness.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001311&Tpk=2233rz

so the display/graphics end of things will come to about $800, leaving $1200 for everything else.. anyway thats just me.for ur 1920x1200 monitor i think the Radeon 4870x2 is probably a good buy cos it should handle anything at that resolution.

 

[unoeye]

Thank you i have been looking at that card also. Do you think they will ever release a patch that will help ati run better in crysis?

 

[tastelikecrab]

yeah u cud go with GTX 275 imo... i'm not a big fan of Radeons either cos in the games i play, its a lot slower than NVidia, but according to this benchmark, the 4870x2 outperforms even the GTX 280 SLI in crysis (not warhead)
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-295,2123-4.html


the gtx 275 should be very similiar to the gtx 280 in performance

 

[kufan64]

i will check out the antec i have heard good things but if i remember i think i priced it out to be almost 70 more then the haf.

I am already driving myself crazy lol, i got some tax money comming back i held off on doing them and im glad i did . I think if i buy my case,psu,cpu cooler, Hd's and vista first it will be the smart way to go i dont think those pieces will go down much if at all. And when i get the rest of my money drop it all on the guts at once.

What do you think about my monitor suggestion? Its the one piece i am really excited about for pc/console gaming.

I looked at that monitor, and I really liked it. It looks like it's pretty darn solid all around. That buying strategy sounds pretty good as well.

ummmm kufan, why cant you buy a HDD and create at least two partitions- one to hold the OS (say 50 GB) and drivers and one to hold games (If not going by the RAID route) or any other data (if going by the RAID route)? That way you end up utilizing the space that the oS does not occupy and you still get ALL the benefits that you mentioned??
In addition to that, if the OP still wants to buy other HDDs he can do that, but at the same time he would be able to utilize the remaining space on the primary drive.

See, I have a WD Caviar green 1TB. I have created like 6 partitions on it. 1st partition is 30GB for OS and drivers and rest all are for games, movies, music etc. I have even moved my documents folder out of the OS partition. That way, if I have to reinstall the OS I dont lose any data, not even my documents folder.

And to the OP, are you referring to the del monitor that itadakimasu mentioned? Well, its good, but maybe you wanna take a look at the samsung 24 inches too... I have a samsung 2233SW. ITs awesome..... mine is 22" though, full HD

Allow me to explain: Creating two partitions on the same drive WILL allow you to format the windows partition without losing anything else, but that's the only real benefit.

It'd be pointless to put your paging file on a different partition on the same physical drive. Putting it on a different drive allows it to use both at the same time, as opposed to waiting for the one drive to switch back and forth. It also doesn't increase speed in any way, because it's on the same physical drive.

I mainly only use multiple partitions on the same physical drive when the budget doesn't allow for multiple drives, or when I am multi-booting more than one operating system. (a fantastic option for compatibility with some of your older games... anyone else still enjoy playing Commander Keen? Never mind...)

I was looking to do something similar with my new build,

Do you think its a good idea to have two 640GB in RAID0 for all my random crap, and then a 150GB Velociraptor for my OS and such so it can keep up with the HDD's in RAID0? Or does it not really make a difference? Maybe i can have my OS's on a SSD?

Both Velociraptors and SSD's are overpriced IMO. They'll both give you increased performance, but you're paying way more for less space. You'll end up paying something like 10-25 times as much per GB of space for those choices. It's worth it to some people, but I'm waiting for SSD to mature and lower in price before I invest, though I am really excited about the technology.

SSD's are very young tech and haven't been around that long at all. They've still got bugs and problems, and in some cases are actually slower than HDD's... sometimes by a lot. They seem to have particular trouble reading/writing large amounts of data at once. As an OS drive though, I've heard that generally they will perform better than any HDD.
Velociraptors... They're a waste of money IMO. They're barely faster than the WD Caviar Blacks, they hold a fraction as much data, and they're very expensive.

 

[notrace]

Well if i were to have two HDD's in RAID0 for storage and another HDD of the same type for my OS's, would my OS be able to keep up with my RAID, if im making any sense? I mean shouldn't i have my OS on a drive that's just as fast as the RAID? Or does it not matter?

 

[kufan64]

Well if i were to have two HDD's in RAID0 for storage and another HDD of the same type for my OS's, would my OS be able to keep up with my RAID, if im making any sense? I mean shouldn't i have my OS on a drive that's just as fast as the RAID? Or does it not matter?

I asked that exact same question when I first looked into the setup. Great minds think alike I guess.

The OS drive, and your RAID operate completely independent of each other. If you had a slow drive that was a member of the RAID with another faster drive, the faster drive would have to slow down to the speed of the slower drive. However if you had a slower drive that held the OS, and 2 identical faster drives in a RAID for storage, all drives would be working to their full potential. If you don't need a great deal of storage, (though it seems like a bit of a waste) you can put 2 drives in RAID 0 for your OS and a solitary drive for data. This would make the OS really fast, but a lot of that space would go to waste.

I think what hellraiser06 may have been getting at earlier was: Why not put all the drives in RAID 0, and put the OS in it's own separate partition? This is another great setup. You will basically have the equivalent of one giant drive that spins at over 20,000 RPM. You lose a few of the benefits of having the OS on a solitary drive, and it will slow down the OS as more things get written to the RAID, but it's another solution that works well.

Please note that 32-bit operating systems will not boot from a partition that is larger than 2TB. It's unlikely that anyone would have this problem, but its just FYI.

 

[notrace]

I see...

So would it work like this?

If i had two 640GB Caviar Black's in RAID0, that would equal them running at `14400 RPM correct?

So if i used another 500GB Caviar Black for the OS, it would be running at half speed of 7200, so wouldn't that be a bad thing? Since it cant keep up with the RAID 0 configuration? That's why i would figure you would use a Raptor drive so its 10000RPM could match up with the RAID, or even an SSD drive to house your OS. I mean, data can only show up as fast as the OS can process it right? I might be completely wrong but its my theory feel free to prove me wrong.

 

[kufan64]

I see what your saying, and I'm quite interested.

As far as I understand it, since the OS's physical drive and the RAID's logical drive can operate at the same time and perform independent tasks, the speed of the execution of say launching a video game would be limited by by the slower of the two drives, in this case: the OS drive which is working at approximately 1/2 speed of the RAID.

I don't know if it makes a difference though. Since they can work at the same time and independently of one another... Though HDD's are obviously the slowest part of any computer, and they would be where a bottleneck occurs when launching that game. I feel that I would need to know a lot more about communication between various hardware components before I could disprove your theory without coming across as a little kid who always has to be right.

You've certainly made me rethink the way I have my HDD's set up. (and the meaning of life in general) Assuming that you are correct in your theory, what would you propose for the fastest operation? A SDD for the OS? OS and data drives in the same RAID on separate partitions? I would really like to hear your opinion.