Guess it's time for new pc

S

Superfly3176

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Feb 17, 2005
Messages
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PC is 4 years old pretty much built it 1/12/08 so I guess I'll be moving on.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
1200-1400, tax and shipping included

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
US, 17801

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Everything except for speakers, keyboard, mouse & monitor, and a storage hard drive (750gb sata)

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
None

6) Will you be overclocking?
Maybe, but it's not a selling point for me.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
23"/1920x1080

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within a month

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.
I'd like USB 3.0

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
No I'd like to get windows 7 64-bit home. I currently have vista

I honestly think I want to go 8 core zambezi w/ 16gb of ram and probably a 2gb 6950. But I can be sold on almost anything I currently have a q6600 intel, and a 8800gt, but most of my builds have been AMD in the past so I'd like to get back there.

I'm also curious as to how worth it an SSD drive would be.
 
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Superfly3176 said:
I honestly think I want to go 8 core zambezi w/ 16gb of ram and probably a 2gb 6950. But I can be sold on almost anything I currently have a q6600 intel, and a 8800gt, but most of my builds have been AMD in the past so I'd like to get back there.
Click to expand...
Yeah you're gonna be on Intel again: above the $100 price mark, AMD is not a good choice in general these days for a gaming PC unless you're an absolute die-hard AMD fan who loves to spend money for significantly lower performance.

Superfly3176 said:
I'm also curious as to how worth it an SSD drive would be.
Click to expand...
Totally worth it.

Quick and dirty build:
$225 - Intel Core i5-2500K CPU
$120 - Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard
$35 - G.Skill Value Series F3-10600CL9D-8GBNT 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$280 - XFX HD-695X-CDFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB PCI-E Video Card
$210 - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SSD
$90 - SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W Modular PSU
---
Total: $960 plus tax and shipping.

Choose your own case. I recommend the following cases:
$70 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58 ATX Case
$70 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56 ATX Case
$80 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58W ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$98 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$100 - Corsair Carbide Series 400R ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$120 - Lian Li PC-9F ATX Case
$120 - Fractal Design Define R3 Arctic White ATX Case
$130 - Fractal Design Define R3 Black Pearl ATX Case
$120 - Fractal Design Define R3 Silver Arrow ATX Case
$133 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Full Tower ATX Case
$137 - Antec P280 ATX Case
$140 - Antec Performance One Series P183 V3 ATX Case
$143 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$144 - Silverstone RV03B-W ATX case
$150 - Corsair Graphite Series 600TM ATX Case
$160 - Silverstone RV02B-W ATX case
$164 - Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$178 - Silverstone RV02B-EW ATX case
$190 - Corsair Obsidian Series 650D ATX Case
$230 - Silverstone FT02B ATX Case
$270 - Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW Full Tower ATX Case
 
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Any opinions on the Antec Lanboy air? It seems neat. Also I think I'm going to hold off a tiny bit for 7900 radeons I understand they'll be out in january. I waited this long whats a few more weeks. Also think I'm going to go 16gb ram just to future proof and ram is so cheap for ddr3 right now.
 
I actually do have thoughts on the Antec Lanboy Air right here.

Still have it actually.
 
Oooh i like that NZXT Phantom case. What case do you think is best in terms of cooling?
 
Hmm... That rv02 is awesome looking too. It's a bit more then I usually throw down for a case though.
 
True. Hence why I also listed cheaper cases :)

Yes that NZXT Phantom is a good case. Otherwise, it would not be in my list.
 
Yeah my problem is I see a case and then 5 days later I see another case I like, it's a vicious cycle!
 
Yeah that's true I think when I build I'm just gonna end up pulling the trigger on something
 
I biased toward the CM690 Adv II. I own it. :D Great air flow. Good cable management. Plenty of space inside. I really like the Sata Dock on top of it for hot plugging a bare HD.
 
The 2500k is the new series of i5 right? I know I just built a computer for my cousin a couple months ago with help from you I believe Danny I appreciate it :)

I used a 2500k in that and it seems smooth as butter.

I don't really care for that CM690, it's nice but not my cup of tea.
 
So this will run at correct speeds with 1333 ram? Everything else is just overhead? Like if I went to 1600 ram I might do better OC'ing if I wanted to do that?

There any aftermarket HS/F you'd recommend for overclocking. Not interested in Liquid cooling at this juncture.
 
Superfly3176 said:
So this will run at correct speeds with 1333 ram? Everything else is just overhead? Like if I went to 1600 ram I might do better OC'ing if I wanted to do that?
Click to expand...
With the Sandy Bridge platform, higher speed RAM doesn't provide a real noticeable performance improvement. As such, even if you had DDR3 2400 RAM, it would still perform similar as DDR3 1333 RAM in most real world applications. As for overclocking, the SB platform doesn't touch the RAM at all when overclocking. So you could OC to 5GHz and still be fine with DDR3 1333 RAM.

Superfly3176 said:
There any aftermarket HS/F you'd recommend for overclocking. Not interested in Liquid cooling at this juncture.
Click to expand...
I recommend this:
$30 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156
 
Oh wow that's news to me regarding overclocking. Man PC's have changed alot I haven't kept up as well as I used too. Long gone are the days of my Athlon XP 2800+ and PC3200 ram. 620Watts doesn't seem like a lot either, my current pc has an abs tagan with 700 watts. I guess that computers just use less wattage now too? Of course mine did have 2 video cards before one of them died.
 
Superfly3176 said:
Oh wow that's news to me regarding overclocking. Man PC's have changed alot I haven't kept up as well as I used too. Long gone are the days of my Athlon XP 2800+ and PC3200 ram. 620Watts doesn't seem like a lot either, my current pc has an abs tagan with 700 watts. I guess that computers just use less wattage now too? Of course mine did have 2 video cards before one of them died.
Click to expand...

Here is the deal with power supply units (PSUs):

Back in the old days, most PSUs could not handle their full wattage rating at anywhere near their realistic internal operating temperatures. For such a lower end, older and slower-performing system, we often needed much higher wattage than those old components actually drew because most PSUs that existed at the time were so crappy they barely handled even half their stated wattage under realistic conditions. The typical "700W" PSU could barely handle even 500W under the best of conditions.

Sadly, ABS/Tagan now no longer receive Topower PSUs. In fact, Topower is now no longer a manufacturer of PSUs - but instead is now resorting to selling rebadged PSUs made by someone else (in this case, Andyson).
 
If you go raven 2, I'd suggest the evolution model (with E in the part name) the fans are upgraded to ap181s and are a lot better
 
Stupid_Newbie said:
If you go raven 2, I'd suggest the evolution model (with E in the part name) the fans are upgraded to ap181s and are a lot better
Click to expand...

Eh, think that's a bit more then I want to spend on a case. I'll probably go with the Phantom.

E4g1e said:
Here is the deal with power supply units (PSUs):

Back in the old days, most PSUs could not handle their full wattage rating at anywhere near their realistic internal operating temperatures. For such a lower end, older and slower-performing system, we often needed much higher wattage than those old components actually drew because most PSUs that existed at the time were so crappy they barely handled even half their stated wattage under realistic conditions. The typical "700W" PSU could barely handle even 500W under the best of conditions.

Sadly, ABS/Tagan now no longer receive Topower PSUs. In fact, Topower is now no longer a manufacturer of PSUs - but instead is now resorting to selling rebadged PSUs made by someone else (in this case, Andyson).
Click to expand...

Ahhh that explains a lot.
 
Curious as to what would be a good surge protector? What are your suggestions? I don't even have one now I guess I've been lucky nothing took a dump with how many power surges we get in the summer...

Is LGA2011 going to be intels new mainstream enthusiast socket?

Guess not, on further thought I'd like a board that's Ivy Bridge + PCI-e 3 ready. Any opinion on this one? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271

I remember ASRock Mobo's used to be terrible but I hear they've really improved. Sorry for the thousand questions, just that I don't buy PCs very often I want to make sure I get everything I want.
 
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Superfly3176 said:
Curious as to what would be a good surge protector? What are your suggestions? I don't even have one now I guess I've been lucky nothing took a dump with how many power surges we get in the summer...
Click to expand...
Best ask taht question over in the Power Supply subforum. Though you should be looking at an UPS rather than a surge protector if you really want protection

Superfly3176 said:
Is LGA2011 going to be intels new mainstream enthusiast socket?
Click to expand...
It is technically Intel's high-end/performance socket at the moment. However for a gaming only setup, it's not worth getting unless it's for the epeen.
Superfly3176 said:
Guess not, on further thought I'd like a board that's Ivy Bridge + PCI-e 3 ready. Any opinion on this one? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271

I remember ASRock Mobo's used to be terrible but I hear they've really improved. Sorry for the thousand questions, just that I don't buy PCs very often I want to make sure I get everything I want.
Click to expand...

I don't recommend AsRock mobos for two reasons:
1) AsRock only has a 1 to 2 year warranty on their mobos when similarily featured/priced Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte mobos have three year warranties.
2) The AsRock Z68 mobos haven't faired too well in HardOCP reviews:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/12/07/asrock_z68_pro3_lga_1155_motherboard_review/
http://hardocp.com/article/2011/11/09/asrock_z68_extreme4_gen3_motherboard_review/

So all in all, I generally don't recommend AsRock.
 
Is there any LGA1155 board Ivy Bridge ready with PCI-e 3.0 compatibility that you'd recommend?
 
Superfly3176 said:
Is there any LGA1155 board Ivy Bridge ready with PCI-e 3.0 compatibility that you'd recommend?
Click to expand...

None really. That's because there are currently no PCI-e 3.0 compliant cards on the market right now. Plus, the Gen3 (PCI-e 3.0-ready and SLI-capable) versions of selected Asus and MSI Z68 mobos are somewhat more expensive than their non-Gen3 model mates right now.

As for ASRock, the only line that's warrantied for the same three years as the competition is the Extreme7 series - but those boards cost far more money than most enthusiasts want to spend on a board that uses such a mainstream CPU.
 
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Superfly3176 said:
Is there any LGA1155 board Ivy Bridge ready with PCI-e 3.0 compatibility that you'd recommend?
Click to expand...

In addition to what E4g1e said, in order to get PCI-E 3.0 capability, you must have an Ivy Bridge CPU. However, there's a chance that even with mobos that say they have PCI-E 3.0 capability that you'll only get PCI-E 2.0 level performance. Not to mention that it will be years before PCI-E 3.0 will be needed unless there's a sudden massive shift in the GPU landscape. Then again, it took close to 8 years for us to even come close to the saturating the original PCI-E 1.1 revision that came out in 2003.

With that said, if you still want PCI-E 3.0 capability and want to spend the extra cash, I recommend these mobos:
$185 - Asus P8Z68-V/GEN3 Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard
$215 - Asus P8Z68-V Pro/GEN3 Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard
 
So you think that overall even if the ati 7900s are hitting the pci-e 3.0 it won't be worth it for years down the road? Hmmm...
 
Superfly3176 said:
So you think that overall even if the ati 7900s are hitting the pci-e 3.0 it won't be worth it for years down the road? Hmmm...
Click to expand...
Yes, judging from current rate of GPU performance over the past several years

Early rumors from what I've read are showing that the cards will be using the PCI-E 3.0 interface.That doesn't necessarily mean that they need PCI-E 3.0 for full performance however as the past has shown how many early PCI-E 2.0 cards still performed roughly the same whether they were on a mobo with PCI-E 2.0 or PCI-E 1.1.
 
Yeah, I know my 8800gt is running on PCI-E 1.1 and I've never felt it to be "slow". So maybe I will just get a regular sandybridge board. I could always buy a somewhat cheap ivybridge + ivybridge board in the future. There's not going to be a jump from DDR3 to like DDR4 anytime soon right?
 
At the current RAM usage rates, when honestly no mainstream program comes even close to utilizing even 12 gigs of RAM, I doubt RAM upgrades will be a concern anytime soon even if they do release DDR4. There's plenty of systems out there with DDR2 RAM that are still limited by CPU/GPU instead.
 
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