2500$ budget.. gaming/dvd burning rig needed..

[snapdragion]

Hello all,

Its been several years sense i have done any major PC building and its about that time for a new rig. But i am finding it EXCEEDINGLY hard to figure out what i want to put on the system. Its very difficult to seperate reasonable judgements about certain items (most noticeably CPUS) from fanboys hellbound to support their product.

So heres a few questions and thoughts.

1) PC is primarily for gaming and DVD burning.

2) Budget is approx 2500$

3) I keep seeing stuff about stepping inregards to intel cpus, whats that all about?

4) Very interested in the Water Cooling methods, is it considered REASONABLY safe? (ie, is it only a matter of time before the leaking starts?)

4a) are there Any PRE BUILT cases that have the water cooling system already attached that are well thought of?

5) The Raid System. Whats the primary purpose here? Data Backup or speed? I am told Raid 0 provides great speed at the cost of system stability (ie, high chance of crashing)

6) Any websites EXCEPT alienware (their name alone is gonna add 50% markup), known for Quality choose-it-yourself configurations that have high reliability for product and delivery?

7) the super fast 10K RPM raptor drives, do you put system OS AND games on this drive or just the games?

8) FSB, Front side bus, assuming that faster is better, how important is this overall?

9) I do not mind Buying something TOO strong as of now as long as price stays in the 2500$ area, i am mainly concerned that the rig will hold up REASONABLY well for say 2 years (ie, mobos that can be upgraded to run better cpus, etc)

10) is there a standard power supply size nowadays? I am assuming my old 350W wont cut it anymore, guessing that power supply should be based on components, what are the higher end pc running in regards to power?

11) I am probably going to try overclocking if at all possible, so thats one issue, another is that my preliminary searches have been turning up that vista loves 4GB of ram. Any thoughts of this? Wasteful or just right?

12) any thoughts on this KILLER network card? or is it just a pretty looking, overhyped NIC? I have a standard cable line.

13) any other thoughts on stuff i left out? please add them on.


Well thats about it, any ideas and comments are welcome. Thank you for your time.

 

[undeclared]

A few answers:

There are pre-built water cooling cases, however none of them are the "best of the best" performance.

There are many raid modes (raid 0, 1, 5, combined modes ex 5+0), read up at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

10k raptor drives are faster. You would generally put your OS and Games on it, whilst get for example a 500gb hard drive for storage of songs and videos, etc..

FSB doesn't seriously impact system performance if you're talking persay.. a core 2 duo with 333mhz fsb vs 533fsb.. However, what it does impact is overclocking with CPUs that do not have an "unlocked multiplier".

I suggest the cooler master 810 if you are looking for a LOT of dvd burners (I think it has 11 slots)

Grab a brand name power supply, something decent. That's really all you need to know. There is a power supply calculator (google for it) if you want specifics.

the Killer NIC lowers your ping. I suppose it must work, but do you already get 30 pings from a lot of places? I know I do.

Stepping is like "the make" of something.. It's a CPU with stepping A1, or A2.. A1 overclocks better and is generally cooler, whereas A2 is the opposite, for example.

My suggestion is just buy the parts off sites like ZipZoomFly or Newegg, read a do-it-yourselfer guide on this stuff, or pay someone who does know how.

For CPU choices, I think right now the universal answer right now is the Intel Core 2 Quad 6600, because it is at a very low price point ($290ish) and offers you 4 cores for little money.

It also overclocks I believe to about ~3ghz.

Last but not least, I must mention that you can get something top of the line for that budget, I believe.

 

[snapdragion]

thank you xtwells for your time. I was really curious about that FSB part, your explanation was right on the money.

Any other comments out there?

 

[ForumMaster]

Originally posted by: snapdragion
Hello all,

Its been several years sense i have done any major PC building and its about that time for a new rig. But i am finding it EXCEEDINGLY hard to figure out what i want to put on the system. Its very difficult to seperate reasonable judgements about certain items (most noticeably CPUS) from fanboys hellbound to support their product.

So heres a few questions and thoughts.

1) PC is primarily for gaming and DVD burning.

2) Budget is approx 2500$

3) I keep seeing stuff about stepping inregards to intel cpus, whats that all about?

there were certain versions (depending on when or where the chip was produced) that could affect overclocking. not really that important.

4) Very interested in the Water Cooling methods, is it considered REASONABLY safe? (ie, is it only a matter of time before the leaking starts?)

are you planning on overclocking? Water Cooling is safe, but it requires maintenance. you're going to need to replace the water and so on.

4a) are there Any PRE BUILT cases that have the water cooling system already attached that are well thought of?

i know that CoolerMaster has cases that have openings for the water tubes to come out and in. i am not aware of a case that has a built in water cooling system.

5) The Raid System. Whats the primary purpose here? Data Backup or speed? I am told Raid 0 provides great speed at the cost of system stability (ie, high chance of crashing)

that is incorrect.

RAID 0 - striping. the system writes half the data on one drive and half the data on the other drive. this increases speed, but if you lose on drive, you lose everything.
RAID 1 - mirror. the system writes the same thing on two drives. this will save your data if one drive dies.

6) Any websites EXCEPT alienware (their name alone is gonna add 50% markup), known for Quality choose-it-yourself configurations that have high reliability for product and delivery?

7) the super fast 10K RPM raptor drives, do you put system OS AND games on this drive or just the games?

the 10k Raptor drive is very fast and so most people put the OS and games on it for fast loading times, and the data on a seperate drive.

8) FSB, Front side bus, assuming that faster is better, how important is this overall?

depends. here is a link that shows the difference between a 1066mhz and a 1333mhz cpu.
lower FSB on certain processors can allow you to overclock further.

9) I do not mind Buying something TOO strong as of now as long as price stays in the 2500$ area, i am mainly concerned that the rig will hold up REASONABLY well for say 2 years (ie, mobos that can be upgraded to run better cpus, etc)

$2500 is a lot of money. it might be a better idea to buy an average system and upgrade later on. DDR is now old. DDR2 is now mainstream and DDR3 is the future. you could go with a DDR3 mobo like the Asus P5K3 Premium and you'd be set for a while.

10) is there a standard power supply size nowadays? I am assuming my old 350W wont cut it anymore, guessing that power supply should be based on components, what are the higher end pc running in regards to power?

a 350W won't cut it if you plan on having multiple DVD drives, harddrives and maybe a quad core CPU. i suggest you get this PSU.

11) I am probably going to try overclocking if at all possible, so thats one issue, another is that my preliminary searches have been turning up that vista loves 4GB of ram. Any thoughts of this? Wasteful or just right?

vista loves RAM. period. but only the 64 bit version of Vista can address all that ram. you can get 4GB, but know that in order to utilize it, you'll need the 64bit version of vista which is incompatible with a lot of drivers and some software.

12) any thoughts on this KILLER network card? or is it just a pretty looking, overhyped NIC? I have a standard cable line.
yup. a overhyped NIC that doesn't do much. not worth your money.

13) any other thoughts on stuff i left out? please add them on. does this need to include a screen?

since this a DVD burning rig, i'd go with the case that xtwells suggested.
Well thats about it, any ideas and comments are welcome. Thank you for your time.

CPU - Intel Quad Core Q6600 - $266
Mobo - ASUS PK3 - $247
RAM - Super Taletnt 2GB 2x1Gb DDR3 1333 set. $460
Case - CoolerMaster Stacker 810 - $170
Video Card - evga nvidia 8800gtx 768mb - $516
Sound Card - Xi-Fi xtreme audio - $65
PSU - corsaid 620w - $170
HDD- 150GB 10k Raptor is $200 and a 500GB seagate is around $110
Input: G15 Logitech Keyboard for $64 and a G7 for $72
cooling - Thermallight Ultra 120 extreme - $65
dvd - dvd burners are about $35. get as many as you want.

that comes out to be around 2500 with 3 dvd drives and i admit no screen. expensive i know but the main reason is the RAM. i built you a future proof system with DDR3 ram. it is expensive right now. if you need a screen too, i'd suggest you back down from DDR3, accept that you'll eventually need to upgrade again in the future, and go with cheap DDR2 ram.

 

[undeclared]

The case is fine
The ram is a waste of money IMO

The reason I say this..

DDR3-1333 is slower than ddr2-1066 right now, because of cas 7 latency and what not.

It's also a lot more expensive, one could get 8gb ddr2-800 for the same price (with no performance difference at all)

that's right. 8 gigs.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231112 ($229.99)
2 * 229.99 = 8 gigs of ram

The board is good because it _ACCEPTS_ ddr3 memory and 1333 FSB.

But DDR3 is not worth getting at all right now.

The mobo isn't really good for SLI, but will you go SLI anyway?

 

[snapdragion]

wow guys thanks.. that really kicks butt.

I am thinking i will just print this out and go shopping for these items.. I was seriously having a meltdown trying to figure out what to get. The number of options nowadays is horribly daunting to people who dont keep track of whats going on.

As for SLI.. is that where you have 2 of the same video cards hooked together?

I was really wanting to avoid buying 2 500$ video cards heh