Requesting advice and suggestions

T

Terpfen

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Oct 29, 2004
Messages
6,079
Hey, all. I recently received a bit of a money windfall, and I've decided it's time to buy a new gaming PC which will replace the PC detailed in my signature. By replace, I mean completely--I can't even bring over my hard drives, as they're old IDE models. (My Audigy 2 sound card is probably transferable, however, it's my understanding that EAX is no longer relevant to gaming and therefore I can get by just fine with onboard sound.) However, I haven't paid attention to the market in some time, so I have quite a few questions. I would appreciate any help I can get.

General information:
  • My budget is about $800, but I'm willing to go up to around $1000 if I can get good bang for the buck.
  • I will attach the PC to a Samsung LN32A550 32'' 1080p HDTV via an HDMI port, meaning I want to game at 1920x1080 if at all possible (and which also means I don't need a monitor.) On that note, I generally play FPS games and Steam-based games: Half-Life 2 Episodes, Team Fortress 2, Armed Assault, etc.
  • I have headphones, so I don't need speakers. (But I do have a set of Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 speakers in the event I decide to go that route, so again, I'm not in the market for new speakers.)
  • The PC will be placed in a room that's generally a couple of degrees hotter than the rest of the house, so cooling is important--which also means fan noise is important as well.
  • Finally, I want this PC to last as long as possible. I bought my current PC in 2003, and only upgraded it once, so I consider it a successful machine. I'm willing to go slightly above budget if it means significantly longer lifespan.

So, my questions:

  1. CPUs. I understand that dual core is the way to go, and I'm currently looking at a Core 2 Duo CPU. However, what's the price/performance benefit by going to a Core 2 Quad, or even a Core i7? As I understand it, the Core i7 doesn't offer significant gaming performance benefits over the Core 2 Quad, but is the Core 2 Quad a better buy than the Core 2 Duo? What should I target?
  2. GPUs. I tend to buy ATi cards, so I'm looking at the Radeon HD4870. Is there a significant difference between each brand's offerings? Since I want to game at high resolutions, is it worth it to consider an X2 setup? If yes, will that require a special type of motherboard?
  3. Cases. I want something compact and relatively inexpensive, as I can't recycle my current case. (Actually, it's more a case of refusing to recycle this case: it's VERY poorly designed and has no airflow to speak of, yet it's somehow extremely loud.) While I understand that going with a larger case means more room for air flow and more mounting space for fans, does it really make a difference considering my budget?
  4. Power supplies. I understand that modern video cards are VERY power-hungry. Is a 1000W PSU a good idea, or still a luxury?
  5. Hard drives: My final question. My understanding is that the Velociraptor drive is extremely fast, but that WD also makes a standard drive with nearly the same access speed, but much less cost. What is this drive? And is it better just to splurge and get the Velociraptor?

Thanks in advance.
 
Answering these first will help us help you.


1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
3) Where do you live?
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
6) Will you be overclocking?
7) What size monitor do you have or plan to have?
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
 
xdivenx said:
Answering these first will help us help you.


1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
3) Where do you live?
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
6) Will you be overclocking?
7) What size monitor do you have or plan to have?
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Click to expand...

I answered 1, 2, 4, 5, and 7, and partially answered 9, in the text of my post.

3: I live in Florida.
6: Probably not, as I need the system to last as long as possible. (But if OCing doesn't severely damage system lifetime, and I can save a decent amount of money, then sure, I'll overclock.)
8: Preferably within a month, but I'm willing to wait a few extra weeks if it means better parts at the same or cheaper price.
9: If I get advice that Crossfire would offer significant benefits within my budget, then I'll get a motherboard with Crossfire support. I don't need RAID or Firewire or SCSI or anything like that.

fromeo85 said:
CPU: Intel Q6600
GPU: MSI GTX260
RAM: G.Skill DDR2-1066 (2x2GB)
CASE: CoolerMaster HAF932
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W
HDD: WD 640GB AAKS
MOBO: Asus P5Q Pro

Sub-Total: $929.93

it could probably be cheaper but I just threw it together real quick
Click to expand...

Thanks. But I'd like to know the reasoning behind your recommendations, too.
 
You have a number of different paths you can take, although each tend to be single choice points for each option due the budget and what you're planning to use the system for.



Intel E8400 Core 2 Duo____________________ $165 w/free shipping
Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad___________________$190 w/free shipping

The E8400 (which I have in my own box) runs at 3.0 Ghz out of the box but only on two cores. It's normally an overclocking champ especially with a good aftermarket cooler (see recommendations below). 3.6 GHz on air is fairly common with the stock cooler and the forums are practically brimming with folks hitting 4.0GHz on air. You share one of my concerns, namely longevity. My previous system build (not counting incremental upgrades) was also in 2003 and I want a 3-year horizon for anything I'm spending $1G on. To that end I picked up a good CPU cooler, overclocked a bit (to 3.6 GHz) but undervolted the CPU to the point where I'm now running cooler at 3.6GHz than I was out of the box. (see my original build thread here and my testing thread here)

The Q6600 runs at 2.4GHz but has four cores. Those extra cores can make things hotter, especially if you're overclocking. However, this isn't something a good quality cooler can't handle. Go this route if you're concerned about true multi-threading usage down the road. You can find lots of arguments on this forum (and others) with some folks claiming dual cores are better for gaming while quad cores are better for applications that do encoding and such. To each his own... My opinion is that dual cores are better for gaming today and likely will at least be equal with quad cores for the next couple of years. At that point I suspect gaming engines will become more optimized for more cores but i7 will be so entrenched it's hard to say where C2D and C2Q will fall in.


HIS (or similar manufacturer) H487F1GP Radeon HD 4870 1GB______ $240
EVGA 896-P3-1265-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB__________$250

Another of those "to each his own" areas although there is a bit of good argument out there about NVidia working tightly with game developers through their "The Way Its Meant to be Played" program. Essentially it seems to boil down to NVidia drivers working better on Day One of a game and ATI drivers taking a little bit to catch up. That balances out a bit if you consider ATI updates their drivers way more often than NVidia. Since I rarely if ever buy a game before the first developer patch comes out I followed my personal preference and picked up an HD4870. It was also discounted $20 on purchase day which helped a lot :D Keep in mind if you want to double up on video cards (CrossFire or SLI) this will limit your motherboard choices...


ASUS P5Q Pro motherboard_______________________________$130

After studying Core2 boards for a month I couldn't find one better than the ASUS. Some folks argue for the GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P which is a fine board but I just couldn't handle the Day Glo look. This will handle CrossFire if you want to do that down the road.


G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2 6400 _________________________$32 w/free shipping

Hard to argue with this one... I have Corsair in my box but G.Skill has a good rep and the price can't be beat. You may want to look at DDR2-1066 as posted earlier in case you want to take a C2D CPU over 3.6GHz... that way you can leave the CPU/RAM ratio at 1:1 and have your RAM clocks matching up nicely with the FSB.


CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W power supply________________$99 w/free shipping

This is a killer power supply at a heck of a discount and free shipping too boot. I think the 750 would be overkill unless you know you are going to through another HD4870 or GTX260 in and a bunch of drives. I run a 750 and have those intentions (hopes :)) one day... it's probably still overkill but I got it for only $10 more than the 650 on my purchase day


Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB____________$75 w/free shipping

Awesome drive and currently at the sweet spot between ridiculously large (1.5TB) and expensive or cheap but too small. Two of these would make a sweet RAID array.


As for the case, you mentioned you want it to be small... how small? That HD4870 or GTX 260 isn't going to fit well in a mini case.

I'm partial to this one:

Antec Nine Hundred____________________________________$110

but this one is an excellent case with nice cable management and much cheaper:

COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP_____________________$80


As for coolers:

XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 with Retention Bracket _________________$46

or

ZeroTherm FZ120 Zen_______________________________$44



I was originally planning to buy the Xigmatek but they were out of mounting brackets so I did research for another day and came up with the ZeroTherm. I've been really happy with it... with my undervolted E8400 I'm posting temps of 46ºC running IntelBurnTest which is really low.



<EDIT: Forgot to include CPU coolers.. corrected>





About $870 on the low end but I haven't had a chance to look for combo deals or at other vendors (Amazon, etc) as you can catch some awesome deals if you shop around a bit.
 
Heh, go figure... there really aren't many good combo deals on the parts listed above. Guess NewEgg knows those are the popular ones lately :p
 
fromeo85's build is a good start, since it uses a lot of parts that are often recommended here, but it's overkill in a few areas.

CPU: The Q6600 is a good choice, as it's an easily overclockable quad core processor. The four CPU cores help with multitasking or running multiple programs simultaneously, and it can be overclocked to speeds beyond 3GHz with DDR2 800 RAM. (With a good air cooler, you won't kill a processor's lifespan by overclocking it. One commonly recommended CPU cooler is the Xigmatek HDT-S1283.) More games and programs are starting to become optimized for multi-core use, making the Q6600 a good yet inexpensive long-term option.

MOBO: The Asus P5Q Pro is a proven motherboard, with PCI Express 2.0 support, dual x8 CrossFire, and onboard RAID, among other features. Though CrossFire is a nice option to have, if you don't plan on using multiple video cards, you don't need it. The Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L is a cheaper option with good overclocking features and PCI Express 2.0 support. However, it doesn't come with CrossFire.

RAM: At the prices DDR2 RAM have been, you can easily go with 4GB. However, you don't need DDR2 1066 RAM for the Q6600. Go with the G.Skill 2x2GB DDR2 800 kit, as it's available for $40 with free shipping.

HDD: The WD6400AAKS is one of the best bang-for-buck hard drives available. It's been known to perform as well as a last-gen Raptor X hard drive. (Personally, I don't think that the VelociRaptor is worth its price premium.)

GPU: The GeForce GTX 260 or the Radeon HD4870 are the minimum we recommend for gaming (at medium visual settings) at a 1920x1080 or greater resolution. However, the options get more expensive. fromeo85 chose for you the GTX 260 with 192 shader processors (aka, Core 192); it's fine for Team Fortress 2, but not for Crysis. From a performance standpoint, here are your options (from the best, Tier 1, downwards):

Tier 1: GTX 295, GTX 280, HD4870X2, HD4850X2 (recommended for high settings)
Tier 2: GTX 260 (Core 216 model), HD4870 (1GB model) (recommended for medium/high settings)
Tier 3: GTX 260 (Core 192 model), HD4870 (512MB model) (recommended for low/medium settings)
Tier 4: 9800GTX+, HD4850 (only recommended for those with tight budgets)

Basically, the card that you should get depends on how high you want the visual settings to be. You'll generally see little performance difference between the cards at each tier, so I recommend getting cards from manufacturers with good CS records (like, EVGA, BFG, XFX, and VisionTek) and/or price.

CrossFire would benefit you only if you want maxed-out visual settings on nearly every game that you play, plus AA and AF. But it carries a huge price premium, and many games won't perform well on a Radeon HD quad-GPU CrossFire configuration.

PSU: The Corsair TX750 is so good that it's almost an "automatic" recommendation. But it's more than enough power for your needs. I recommend something a bit cheaper, like the BFG Tech LS-680... it's still more power than you need (though you should always get a little bit of extra headroom for future upgrades), but it's also on sale.

CASE: Cases are a matter of personal taste, so ultimately, the choice is up to you. I believe (but I'm not entirely certain) that fromeo85 picked the HAF932 due to the amount of available space (it's an ATX full tower case). But good mid-tower cases are also available, like the Antec Three Hundred and the Cooler Master Centurion 590/690 models.

Adjusting things a bit:

$57 - Cooler Master Centurion 690 (from Provantage)
$7 - Two Yate Loon D12SL-12 120mm case fans (from Jab-Tech; for Centurion 690)
$78 - BFG Tech LS-680 680W PSU (from Buy.com; free shipping)
$120 - Asus P5Q Pro
$190 - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (free shipping)
$46 - Xigmatek HDT-S1283 CPU cooler & ACK-I7751 retention bracket (free shipping on retention bracket)
$40 - G.Skill 2x2GB DDR2 800 kit (free shipping)
$75 - Western Digital WD6400AAKS 640GB SATA HDD (free shipping)
$26 - Samsung SH-S223F SATA DVD burner
$240 - Sapphire 100259-1GL HD4870 1GB (free shipping)
=====
$879 - Subtotal (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)
 
jctazzy, tiraides, those are excellent and helpful replies, thank you. Just responding to some of your points and questions:

I would prefer to be able to play 1920x1080 at high settings, as going forward this will mean stepping down to medium settings (or even lower resolutions) as the months and years pass. With that in mind, is it worth getting a second video card? I'm under the impression that a second video card is basically double the price for less than 50% performance increase, which is not a budget-friendly proposition. But considering my TV's resolution and need for performance going forward, is doubling up a necessary evil?

Regarding cases, my current case is about 20 inches both tall and deep. The depth bothers me more than the height, as I'd like the case to not stick out from its intended place next to an entertainment center stand that's only about 16 inches deep (it's one of those flat yet wide table stands.) But good airflow (and preferably quiet airflow at that!) is more important to me than precise case fit.

With the video cards, I don't have a preference between ATi or Nvidia, just whichever card is the better of the two in the highest price tier I can afford--probably in the $200 to $250 range. That is, unless there's a good long-term benefit to doubling up on the video cards, in which case I'll shell out.

I'm tilting toward overclocking the Q6600, as that appears to be the best bang for buck option.

Right now my Newegg basket contains: the 4GB G.Skill RAM recommended, the 640GB WD HD recommended, the Q6600, Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste (though I may just pay a local shop to assemble the PC for me, so I may not get this), the Xigamex CPU cooler plus retention bracket, the 750W Corsiar PSU, and a Lite-on SATA DVD burner. Current basket total is $500.42, which gives me about $300 left, including shipping, for a case, motherboard, and GPU. Looks like I might be going over my $800 budget, but it should hopefully be worth it.

My choice here comes down to the GPU, since the motherboard is dependent on that. At 1920x1080, is there an immediate and long-term benefit to going SLI/Crossfire? For consideration, future games I plan to buy include Operation Flashpoint 2, HL2 Episode 3, and Portal 2. I'd like to play BioShock, Call of Duty 4, maybe some Far Cry 2, and other similar games.
 
If you're not willing to pay the money for the second card (or for a dual-GPU card, which the GTX 295, the HD4870X2, and the HD4850X2 are), then SLI/CrossFire is not worth the benefit. The problem is that with your budget, you really can't afford anything more than (realistically) either the HD4870 or the GTX 260. (You could get the HD4850X2, or two separate HD4850 cards, but you would then have to cut corners elsewhere.) Our general rule of thumb here is that if you aren't willing to utilize SLI/CrossFire right away, don't worry about it at all. (The reasoning is that by the time you're considering using SLI/CrossFire, historically, there has often been at least one new card that could outperform your SLI/CrossFire setup on its own.)

If you decide to get the HD4870 or the GTX 260, get one of the newer models (that I listed earlier as Tier 2).

The Centurion cases that I've mentioned earlier both have good airflow -- each case can support at least six 120mm case fans. They both have similar specs, which, unfortunately, include a depth of about 20".
 
In that case, I'll stick with the single card. Is there a particular brand of manufacturer for the HD4870 that's preferable? Is an aftermarket cooler worth the trouble?

Actually, now that I look at it, the MSI GTX260 that fromeo85 recommended is an SLI configuration for the same price as a Radeon 4870 1GB card, and it's currently $200 at Newegg.

If some of these Anandtech benchmarks are right, then the 260GTX in SLI at $200 is a serious value. Or am I misreading the benchmarks, and this card is only one half of an SLI configuration?
 
You can also look at something like this if you want more performance over a Radeon HD4870 1gig card. You will spend more though but, still under $1,000 budget.

Case - Coolermaster Centurion 590 for $49.76
http://www.provantage.com/cooler-master-rc-590-kkn1-gp~7COOL04F.htm

PSU - Bfg LS-680 for $78.24 w/free shipping
http://www.buy.com/prod/bfg-tech-68...-eps12v-power-supply/q/loc/101/208292268.html

Fans - Yate Loon D12SL-12 for $3.60/each
http://www.jab-tech.com/YATE-LOON-120mm-Case-Fan-D12SL-12-pr-3009.html

Mobo - GIGABYTE GA-EP43-DS3L for $85 w/free shipping
http://www.buy.com/prod/giga-byte-s...rd-intel-p43-express/q/loc/101/208344187.html

Cpu - Intel Core 2 quad Q6600 for $190 w/fee shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017

Ram - 4gig G. Skills DDR2 800 for $40 w/free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

Video Card - Sapphire Radeon HD 4850x2 for $330 w/free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102809

Review of Sapphire Radeon HD 4850x2

HDD - WD 6400AAKS 640gig for $75 w/free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136218

Optical - Samsung 22X Sata DVD Burner for $26
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151171

Heatsink - XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle for $37
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003

Retention Bracket - XIGMATEK ACK-I7751 for $8.49
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233019

Total: $926.69
 
You're misreading things, as an SLI setup requires two cards. Additionally, the 512MB Radeon HD4870 and the GeForce GTX 260 card with 192 stream processors are the $200 cards. The 1GB HD4870 and the GTX 260 Core 216 cost between $240 and $300.
 
tiraides said:
You're misreading things, as an SLI setup requires two cards. Additionally, the 512MB Radeon HD4870 and the GeForce GTX 260 card with 192 stream processors are the $200 cards. The 1GB HD4870 and the GTX 260 Core 216 cost between $240 and $300.
Click to expand...

It was nice while it lasted. :p

HardwareGuru, the 4850 X2 is pretty intriguing. Those L4D benchmarks are compelling, particularly because I play Team Fortress 2 a lot, so I'm guessing TF2 performance would be relatively similar thanks to the shared Source engine. I'm going to seriously consider that option.

I am thanking whatever deities exist for free shipping right now.

Regarding cases. A buddy of mine says he may know of a local shop that sells the Antec 900 for around $60, but needs to verify. If true, is that worth picking up?

Also, if I get the 4850 X2, does that require a motherboard with Crossfire support, or will I be fine with the previously recommended Gigabyte?
 
$60 for that Antec 900 case is a good deal. As far as the 4850x2 on the Gigabyte board, it will run just fine. It does not require a mobo with SLI or Crossfire to run.
 
Sounds good to me then. I'm going to find out about the Antec 900 and hopefully chop a few bucks off the price of this build.

Thank you all for your help. I think I know what I want and where to buy it from.
 
Well, let us know what you end up buying.

Don't forget pics of the completed build.
 
I commend your guys' attention spans. :p

OP, looks like you're all covered. $60 for a $100 case is a good deal, but only if you like the case. Personally, I hate that case and wouldn't buy it for any price unless it would make me a nice profit. :p
 
Any reason you're still going with the CMPSU-750? I re-read the thread just to see if I missed anything and agree with other posters it would be overkill for what you're building. Then I checked prices again and saw the CMPSU-750 is $120 w/free shipping. Tack on a MIR from Corsair (who are usually pretty good about those things) and you can get one when all is said and done for $100. While the CMPSU-750 isn't "the last power supply you'll ever need" it's certainly one of the best and $100 is an excellent price.

Having said that, if you're still looking to trim a little bit do some looking into the BFG unit mentioned by HardwareGuru and tiraides. It's an excellent PS, will run everything you have and still give you some overhead down the road and will cost you $42 less on purchase day. That cancels out the cost of a nice CPU cooler or a couple of optical drives.
 
If the smaller PSU can run that 4850 X2 and everything else with room to spare, then I'll go with that.

But will the BFG handle a future video upgrade?
 
enginurd said:
I commend your guys' attention spans. :p

OP, looks like you're all covered. $60 for a $100 case is a good deal, but only if you like the case. Personally, I hate that case and wouldn't buy it for any price unless it would make me a nice profit. :p
Click to expand...

What's wrong with the 900? Keep in mind that I could wind up getting it for free.
 
Nothing. It's just his opinion on it. The one thing I dislike about that case is installing the harddrives in that drive cage thing. Also, since the PSU is mounted at the bottom of the case, the power cords on some PSU may not reach the optical drive mounted at the top of the case.
 
I just built my new rig in an Antec 900... I didn't run into any space issues but cable management in the 900 is a bear. There's really no clean way to get cables from the PSU to various spots in the case without a lot of time spent or some surgery. And with that window on the side of the 900 you know you want you case to look clean.


However, for free? Heh, RECOMMENDED.
 
Isn't it possible to buy an extension cable for the power plugs? (I honestly have no idea.)

As for being free, it's not the case itself, it's that I know someone who owes me and therefore I could pretty much pick up any case within reason, as long as he can find it near him. If the 900 has power cable issues, what else should I be on the lookout for?
 
As HG said, its just my personal taste. Cases are subjective, so get what you like. What I, personally, didn't like, was its build quality. It felt flimsy to me, esp. for its pricetag. I went for the now discontinued P180B for $40AR instead.

jctazzy said:
However, for free? Heh, RECOMMENDED.
Click to expand...

indeed, lol. Even I would take one for free. :p
 
You can get extension cables. It's not a big deal. There are some PSU that have shorter power cords and therefore may not reach. The BFG LS-680 with 51 Amps is alot of power and is a decent amount of power for future upgrades. Here's a Review of that PSU.
 
So the LS-680 is the consensus PSU? I'll go with that, then. I'll have to find some extension cables on Newegg just in case.

Thanks again, everyone. I may hold off a week or two to see if video card prices go down as a result of the GTX295's launch, but it looks like I'll end the month with a new build regardless.
 
Also, the cables on the TX750 is very long. You may not even need extension cables.
 
I don't trust mail-in rebates at all. I'll probably go with the 680W PSU and buy the cables somewhere locally if I need them. I'm sure Worst Buy, Shortcut City, or CompUSSR has 'em somewhere.
 
Shortcut Shitty it is, then! :p

One last thing while I have this thread's relative attention: is there a version of that Gigabyte board with eSATA? I have an external drive with an eSATA connection, and I figure I might as well get a motherboard with one.
 
Asus it is.

I'm going to wait a week and see how video prices handle the introduction of the GTX295, but most everything else I can order almost immediately.

Thanks again for your help!
 
I have a CMPSU-750 in my Antec 900. The main ATX cable is actually long enough to route it through the hole left over when they punched out the power supply retention bracket, around behind the motherboard "tray" and then back in through the holes near the hard drive cages. If you look at the inside of my rig you can see some sleeved cables leaving the split tubing and running "behind" the power supply. Those are the ones I ran through the hole (look at this NewEgg pic, bottom-left corner there is a square hole) around the back and through the top-right hole (covered by dangling cables in the NewEgg pic) which matched up really well with my ASUS P5Q Pro.
 
jctazzy said:
I have a CMPSU-750 in my Antec 900. The main ATX cable is actually long enough to route it through the hole left over when they punched out the power supply retention bracket, around behind the motherboard "tray" and then back in through the holes near the hard drive cages. If you look at the inside of my rig you can see some sleeved cables leaving the split tubing and running "behind" the power supply. Those are the ones I ran through the hole (look at this NewEgg pic, bottom-left corner there is a square hole) around the back and through the top-right hole (covered by dangling cables in the NewEgg pic) which matched up really well with my ASUS P5Q Pro.
Click to expand...

That's not a bad cable layout at all. Question is, would it also work with the Gigabyte? If I can just get an eSATA plug for 5 bucks (see post below yours) then what features does the PQ5 offer over the Gigabyte? More reliable overclocking, better BIOS firmware, what?

enginurd said:
You can turn any internal SATA port into an eSATA port with a simple bracket.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812226003
Click to expand...

This is a Godsend and may save me a few bucks depending on the differences between the Asus and Gigabyte. Thank you.
 
jctazzy said:
It isn't Day Glo? :p

Seriously folks...

Which one? GIGABYTE GA-EP43-DS3L or GA-EP45T-DS3R? Both are listed in the thread, can't tell which one you're wanting to compare to the P5Q Pro.
Click to expand...

I was referencing the EP43--I think I missed the EP45T recommendation earlier, or just lost it in the shuffle. The EP45T to my eyes looks like a halfway point between the PQ5 and the EP43, but with the highest price tag. Surely I'm missing something.
 
The EP45T is a DDR3 board, as indicated by the T suffix, hence the higher price.

@Terpfen, this is a better PSU choice compared to the LS680. Better build quality and a little more power on the +12V rails for only ~$2 more than the LS680, including shipping. That is, if you haven't already bought the BFG PSU.
 
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