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3000 CAD build help and suggestions

F

FIRE_STORM

Junior Member
Hello,

I am planning to buy a PC (either home build or alienware) I have a budget limit of 3000 Canadian Dollars but I don't have to spend it all on upgrades I won't really care about

This is what I have so far

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=5215 [...] cture=ASUS
http://ncix.com/products/index.php [...] omoid=1021
http://ncix.com/products/index.php [...] omoid=1021 or http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=51240&vpn=BX80601960&manufacture=Intel
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=46609&vpn=AX5970 2GBD5-MD&manufacture=PowerColor
http://ncix.com/products/index.php [...] omoid=1021
http://ncix.com/products/index.php [...] re=Corsair
http://ncix.com/products/index.php [...] OLERMASTER
http://ncix.com/products/index.php [...] re=Samsung
http://ncix.com/products/index.php [...] re=Western Digital WD

or simply go with an Alienware Area 51 with the same specs
http://configure.dell.com/dellstor [...] are-area51 (needs a little configuring)

any suggestions?

Note : Newegg.ca has some hidden costs for Canadian buyers so I would like to avoid using it..

I am willing to go up to 3000 CAD if the parts are worth it

I will not do any overclocking

---------

sorry for not reading the sticky

1. Gaming and Movies
2. 3000 CAD maximum
3. Canada
4. Intel, WD, Corsair, Asus or Gigabyte
5. TV 1080P 40' 200HZ sony TV
6. I did get help from NCIX.com
7. No Overclocking or very mild
8. 1080P
9. In a week or 2
10. Please do give your opinion
 
Last edited:
You won't need that much to run CAD. If you are a student get something more suited to multipurpose around $1500 (i7 920/930, Geforce 470/480, 6GB RAM, 1TB Caviar Black, possibly an SSD or Velociraptor for OS). With that setup all you need is a 700W PSU at MAXIMUM.

I've been running autodesk products for many years. I mostly have experience with animation and Sculpting software like Maya, 3DS Max, XSI, and ZBrush. I have vast experience in video and photo editing suits like Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, ect.

If you are a pro making actual money buy the Xeon Bloomfield (i7 made with higher quality materials), 6-12GB RAM, a QuadroFX card (not a consumer card) and a 700W PSU.

Geforce has CUDA support which assists in rendering so the Quadro or 9800 will use that, but no Radeon "ATI Stream" (The attempted equivalent to Geforce's CUDA) technology is supported by CAD, or any other 3D app for that matter.

You'll want a stable system. Processor clock speed and RAM speed doesn't matter as much as you might think. Overclocking and "Extreme" gaming processors are a no-no, as is overclocking. Higher speed and temps cause instability and can and WILL crash your system, sometimes causing you to lose a good 2 hour's work... trust me, i've been there...

I'd recommend these:

Silverstone Case
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16811163091

Coolermaster PSU
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-037-_-Product

Intel Xeon 5650
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...1CVF-_-Product

ASUS 1366 socket Xeon motherboard
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-379-_-Product

GSkill 12GB DDR3 1333
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-260-_-Product

PNY Geforce Quadro FX 3800 1GB
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-271-_-Product

Samsung Blu-Ray
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-199-_-Product

Western Digital Velociraptor 300GB OS
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-322-_-Product

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB Storage (Get a few of these)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-284-_-Product

If you would like to spend the full 5k, then get the quadro 5800 instead, but I hardly find it necessary...
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...=quadro%205800

I noticed you were on a Canadian site, so I figured you are in Canada. If that site was in Canada, but was the only site you could find to say... ship to France, let me know and I will track down the parts there.
 
Last edited:
lol! I just realized you were talking about the currency, not what you were using it for. I'm SOOOO Sorry... it's really late here...

Replace the appropriate parts above with these

i7 980x Processor
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-223-_-Product

EVGA 3-Way SLI
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-046-_-Product

12GB DDR3 1600 RAM
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-235-_-Product

Silverstone Case
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16811163091

Antec 750W PSU
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-069-_-Product

Geforce GTX480
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-551-_-Product

Western Digital Velociraptor 300GB OS
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-322-_-Product

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB Storage (Get 2 of these)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-284-_-Product

Samsung Blu-Ray
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-199-_-Product

Total with the Case, the OS drive, The Blu-Ray drive, and Two 1TB storage drives from the other build I recommended is a little under $2800. If you'd like get two more of the 1TB drives. I don't think you'll be needing that though... Just forget the build above. I pasted all the parts in this post. Sorry if there was confusion...
 
Davidh373 said:
lol! I just realized you were talking about the currency, not what you were using it for. I'm SOOOO Sorry... it's really late here...

Replace the appropriate parts above with these

i7 980x Processor
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-223-_-Product

EVGA 3-Way SLI
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-046-_-Product

12GB DDR3 1600 RAM
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-235-_-Product

Silverstone Case
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16811163091

Antec 750W PSU
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-069-_-Product

Geforce GTX480
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-551-_-Product

Western Digital Velociraptor 300GB OS
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-322-_-Product

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB Storage (Get 2 of these)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-284-_-Product

Samsung Blu-Ray
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-199-_-Product

Total with the Case, the OS drive, The Blu-Ray drive, and Two 1TB storage drives from the other build I recommended is a little under $2800. If you'd like get two more of the 1TB drives. I don't think you'll be needing that though... Just forget the build above. I pasted all the parts in this post. Sorry if there was confusion...
Click to expand...

thanks for the help

I just noticed CAD could be misleading lol

newegg.ca shows lower listed prices but they charge more for shipping to canada/taxes/import fees etc still I could use them for price matching

some questions I have, is a hex core CPU really worth the price? Wouldn't a faster 4 core CPU be better (if there are any)

Why EVGA 3 way SLI? I looked and it doesn't even have SATA 3 and USB 3, I assume hose will come in handy in the future

Is there any game that uses 12 Gb?

The GPU is the hardest part for me to chose, after a long struggle I decided to go with 5970 but I am still hesitant, is there anything that puts the 480 in front of the 5970?
 
$223.99 CAD - Gigabyte X58A-UD3R ATX LGA1366 X58 DDR3 4PCI-E SATA3 USB3.0 Sound GLAN CrossFireX SLI Motherboard
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...cture=Gigabyte

$294.99 CAD - Intel Core i7 930 Quad Core Processor LGA1366 2.8GHZ 8MB L3 Cache 130W 45NM Retail Box
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...l&promoid=1021

$29.36 CAD - Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink AM2 AM3 LGA1366 LGA775 LGA1156 120MM
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...e=COOLERMASTER

$154.99 CAD - G.SKILL F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1600 CL 9-9-9-24 Triple Channel Memory Kit
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...Specifications

$189.99 CAD ($179.99 CAD after MIR) - Corsair TX950W 950W CMPSU-950TX 12V 78A 24PIN ATX Active PFC 140M Fan Power Supply
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...acture=Corsair

2x $519.99 CAD (all the GTX 480s are overpriced geez) - MSI GeForce GTX 480 Fermi 700MHZ 1536MB 3696MHZ GDDR5 PCI-E 2XDVI HDMI Video Card
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=51...=MSI/MicroStar

$341.54 CAD - G.SKILL Phoenix Pro 120GB Sandforce 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD *2 Year MFR Wrnty*
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...Specifications

$96.79 CAD - Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache 3.5IN Dual Proc Hard Drive OEM
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...20Digital%20WD

$19.99 CAD - LG 16X DVD-ROM Optical Drive SATA Black OEM
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...%20Electronics

$9.99 CAD - Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound Paste NON-ELECTRICAL Conductive 4 Gram
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=26...ctic%20Cooling

Case is up to your preference. You gotta take the i7 930 to 3.6 ghz at or near stock voltage at least.
 
Thanks for all the help

So this is what I got for now including the budget cuts for the system

I would be grateful is someone helped me chose the parts I am unsure of (Mother board, PSU and GPU)

Intel Core i7 930 http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=50...l&promoid=1021

ASUS P6X58D-E or Gigabyte X58A-UD3R http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...nufacture=ASUS
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=49016

Zotac GeForce GTX 480 AMP http://ncix.com/products/?sku=54105&...ufacture=Zotac
EVGA GeForce GTX 480 http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...nufacture=eVGA
is the AMP woth extra 60 $? Future SLI possibility

G.SKILL F3-12800CL9T http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=34719

Coolermaster Silent Pro 1000W or XFX 850W Black Edition http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...X&promoid=1021
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...e=COOLERMASTER

Coolermaster Haf 922 Mid Tower http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=38...e=COOLERMASTER I will be traveling back to Dubai and would like to take this with me as luggage, I doubt I can take a full tower with me so a mid tower will have to do

Coolermaster RR-920-N520-GP Hyper

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3
 
Looks pretty good. I would not bother with the AMP and would go with the 850W PSU. The GTX 480 "only" has a TDP of 250W, so even with two, you would have 350W left over for the rest of the system. That's more than enough when you consider the 930 + X58 only draws about 150W fully-loaded.
 
mfenn said:
Looks pretty good. I would not bother with the AMP and would go with the 850W PSU. The GTX 480 "only" has a TDP of 250W, so even with two, you would have 350W left over for the rest of the system. That's more than enough when you consider the 930 + X58 only draws about 150W fully-loaded.
Click to expand...

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/power_supply/xfx_black_edition_850w_atx_psu/5
I would avoid it after reading this review, I am willing to pay 15$ more for a better investment
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/...ster_real_power_pro_m1000_1000w_modular_psu/5

as for the AMP 480 GTX or EVGA, I am still not sure, I will see what I feel like tomorrow morning 😀

thanks for the help!
 
FIRE_STORM said:
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/power_supply/xfx_black_edition_850w_atx_psu/5
I would avoid it after reading this review, I am willing to pay 15$ more for a better investment
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/...ster_real_power_pro_m1000_1000w_modular_psu/5

as for the AMP 480 GTX or EVGA, I am still not sure, I will see what I feel like tomorrow morning 😀

thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

Erm, jonny liked the XFX just fine (he gave it a 9.6 which is ridiculously high for him), everybody has failures from time to time. The Cooler Master fared much, much worse. Better to have an excellent 850W than a so-so 1000W (not to mention that the 1000W is going to get crap efficiency when you're not gaming).

IMHO, only a fool would pay $60 for an overclocked GTX 480 when you could do the same thing yourself for free with the EVGA (and still have a better warranty).
 
mfenn said:
Erm, jonny liked the XFX just fine (he gave it a 9.6 which is ridiculously high for him), everybody has failures from time to time. The Cooler Master fared much, much worse. Better to have an excellent 850W than a so-so 1000W (not to mention that the 1000W is going to get crap efficiency when you're not gaming).

IMHO, only a fool would pay $60 for an overclocked GTX 480 when you could do the same thing yourself for free with the EVGA (and still have a better warranty).
Click to expand...

Zotac has a life time warranty it seems

For our retail Graphics Processing Unit and Mainboard products that carry a limited lifetime warranty, and were purchased on or after January 1st, 2008, ZOTAC will provide a limited lifetime warranty to the original purchaser of each retail product. This will secure that the product will not experience defects, in material or workmanship that will adversely affect its performance. This limited lifetime warranty is valid for the life of the retail product, so long as the original purchaser owns the product

The zotac cooler is much quieter though, I heard the stock 480 sounds horrible ..
 
FIRE_STORM said:
thanks for the help

I just noticed CAD could be misleading lol

newegg.ca shows lower listed prices but they charge more for shipping to canada/taxes/import fees etc still I could use them for price matching

some questions I have, is a hex core CPU really worth the price? Wouldn't a faster 4 core CPU be better (if there are any)

Why EVGA 3 way SLI? I looked and it doesn't even have SATA 3 and USB 3, I assume hose will come in handy in the future

Is there any game that uses 12 Gb?

The GPU is the hardest part for me to chose, after a long struggle I decided to go with 5970 but I am still hesitant, is there anything that puts the 480 in front of the 5970?
Click to expand...

No, Quad Core i7 920 on that same board. If you want SATA 3 and USB 3 are nice, but aren't really necessary at this stage. I suppose you could get this instead:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-413-_-Product

You just said $3000 so I figured you would want to be close to that budget. If you are getting a Quad and shooting for a lower budget I'd get 6GB Ram instead of the 12 and maybe get some more HD capacity or whatnot. You'll probably want to look at a more reasonable mid-tower like an Element G Here:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-086-_-Product

I have 6GB and haven't used it to the fullest with ANY game.
My Quad Core i7 920 running @ 2.66Ghz is used to the max by Battlefield Bad Company 2 and GTA IV but those are optimized for multi-core rendering so by default I think that is meant to happen.
 
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Athadeus said:
$223.99 CAD - Gigabyte X58A-UD3R ATX LGA1366 X58 DDR3 4PCI-E SATA3 USB3.0 Sound GLAN CrossFireX SLI Motherboard
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...cture=Gigabyte

$294.99 CAD - Intel Core i7 930 Quad Core Processor LGA1366 2.8GHZ 8MB L3 Cache 130W 45NM Retail Box
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...l&promoid=1021

$29.36 CAD - Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink AM2 AM3 LGA1366 LGA775 LGA1156 120MM
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...e=COOLERMASTER

$154.99 CAD - G.SKILL F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1600 CL 9-9-9-24 Triple Channel Memory Kit
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...Specifications

$189.99 CAD ($179.99 CAD after MIR) - Corsair TX950W 950W CMPSU-950TX 12V 78A 24PIN ATX Active PFC 140M Fan Power Supply
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...acture=Corsair

2x $519.99 CAD (all the GTX 480s are overpriced geez) - MSI GeForce GTX 480 Fermi 700MHZ 1536MB 3696MHZ GDDR5 PCI-E 2XDVI HDMI Video Card
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=51...=MSI/MicroStar

$341.54 CAD - G.SKILL Phoenix Pro 120GB Sandforce 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD *2 Year MFR Wrnty*
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...Specifications

$96.79 CAD - Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache 3.5IN Dual Proc Hard Drive OEM
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...20Digital%20WD

$19.99 CAD - LG 16X DVD-ROM Optical Drive SATA Black OEM
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...%20Electronics

$9.99 CAD - Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound Paste NON-ELECTRICAL Conductive 4 Gram
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=26...ctic%20Cooling

Case is up to your preference. You gotta take the i7 930 to 3.6 ghz at or near stock voltage at least.
Click to expand...

Why do you have him getting 2 480's?! That's ludicrous!!! There is nowhere NEAR a need for one yet alone 2. I just gave him one in my ridiculously unnecessarily powerful build. I think if he's going for the more modest build a 470 at MOST on it's own, unless he said he was going to run 4 1536p monitors that is entirely overkill. 1 G-card at most, multi-Card for any monitor count over 2.

Then if he isn't going SLI with two of the most ridiculously powerful G-cards on the market lets bring him down to a 650W for god's sake! He doesn't want to spend $1000 a month on his energy bill man! lol.
 
Last edited:
FIRE_STORM said:
Zotac has a life time warranty it seems

For our retail Graphics Processing Unit and Mainboard products that carry a limited lifetime warranty, and were purchased on or after January 1st, 2008, ZOTAC will provide a limited lifetime warranty to the original purchaser of each retail product. This will secure that the product will not experience defects, in material or workmanship that will adversely affect its performance. This limited lifetime warranty is valid for the life of the retail product, so long as the original purchaser owns the product

The zotac cooler is much quieter though, I heard the stock 480 sounds horrible ..
Click to expand...

Yes, but Zotac's CS is crap whereas EVGA's is excellent.
 
Davidh373 said:
Why do you have him getting 2 480's?! That's ludicrous!!! There is nowhere NEAR a need for one yet alone 2. I just gave him one in my ridiculously unnecessarily powerful build. I think if he's going for the more modest build a 470 at MOST on it's own, unless he said he was going to run 4 1536p monitors that is entirely overkill. 1 G-card at most, multi-Card for any monitor count over 2.

Then if he isn't going SLI with two of the most ridiculously powerful G-cards on the market lets bring him down to a 650W for god's sake! He doesn't want to spend $1000 a month on his energy bill man! lol.
Click to expand...

Davidh373 said:
You just said $3000 so I figured you would want to be close to that budget.
Click to expand...

Most games will see more of an advantage at 1920x1080 from 2 GTX 480s in SLI and a mildly overclocked i7 930 than one GTX 480 and a mildly overclocked i7 980x.

We all know that any $3k system is overkill for the resolution and use except in rare circumstances (some parts of Crysis, and maxed Metro 2033).
 
Well I have a 4890 from a year ago that runs on a non-overclocked 920 (2.66Ghz) which runs everything at at least 60 fps. BF Bad Company 2 is the most resource intensive game around and it runs at a stable 60 at full graphics at 1920 x 1080, plus it's running an extra 1080p monitor usually playing a 1080p video file. If I don't need it running dual monitors, he doesn't need it running a single monitor. Sure, he might see his framerate go from an already unnecessary 60 to an extremely unnecessary 120 fps. I'm sorry if you got BSed into wasting an extra $500, but that doesn't mean he has to also.

I run 3DS Max at these resolutions with 200 million poly scene files. Games are weak in comparison to the actual work I do.

If he wants to spend his full $3000 budget, then he can get his dual graphics and 12GB ram, but it seems he knows that he can get just as good of performance out of less money.

By The way, for reference, my 9800 from 3 years ago runs crysis on 1440 x 900 on a core 2 duo @ 2.4Ghz with 2GB RAM... when you say you use except in rare circumstances and reference Crysis, I think you mean you never use except... unless you are talking about your framerate dropping from 900 to 100.

As long as your framerate doesn't drop below 24 (usually good to maintain 30) your eye cant even notice a difference. Dual graphics cards are for professional multi-monitor setups ONLY. The companies like ATI and NVidia only market it to people like you so they can fund research to make stuff for people like me. He barely needs what I have to run games at full graphics at full resolution. He doesn't need two cards more advanced than my card I have for a more prosumer machine to power a consumer product. Enough said.

Can you lend me a hand her Mfenn? I'm getting fed up with this joker... You with your 1,800+ posts might have a tad more pull here...
 
Last edited:
So I revised the list and budget again taking into consideration the recommendations here

Intel Core i7 930 http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=50...l&promoid=1021 295$

EVGA 470 GTX http://ncix.com/products/?sku=51902&...nufacture=eVGA 390$

Coolermaster Haf 922 Mid Tower http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=38...e=COOLERMASTER 130$

SKILL F3-12800CL9T http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=34719 155$

XFX 850W Black Edition http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...X&promoid=1021 150$


Coolermaster RR-920-N520-GP Hyper 35$

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 100 $


ASUS P6X58D-E or Gigabyte X58A-UD3R http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...nufacture=ASUS
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=49016 250~ $

any opinion on the mother board? I like the USB 3 power features on the gigabyte but I heard it has a lot of RAM and compatibility issues...

Can someone recommend me an LCD screen that would work on my PS3 and PC, something around 250$

is this worth the price? http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=32994&vpn=WD1500HLFS&manufacture=Western Digital WD
 
Last edited:
FIRE_STORM said:
So I revised the list and budget again taking into consideration the recommendations here

Intel Core i7 930 http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=50...l&promoid=1021 295$

EVGA 470 GTX http://ncix.com/products/?sku=51902&...nufacture=eVGA 390$

Coolermaster Haf 922 Mid Tower http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=38...e=COOLERMASTER 130$

SKILL F3-12800CL9T http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=34719 155$

XFX 850W Black Edition http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...X&promoid=1021 150$


Coolermaster RR-920-N520-GP Hyper 35$

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 100 $


ASUS P6X58D-E or Gigabyte X58A-UD3R http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...nufacture=ASUS
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=49016 250~ $

any opinion on the mother board? I like the USB 3 power features on the gigabyte but I heard it has a lot of RAM and compatibility issues...

Can someone recommend me an LCD screen that would work on my PS3 and PC, something around 250$

is this worth the price? http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...20Digital%20WD
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, much better build :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

I would go with the Gigabyte because it's comparable feature-wise, cheaper, and Gigabyte is just as good quality as ASUS.

I would say that the Raptor is not worth the price when a good SSD is only a few bucks more.
 
$227.99 CAD - Intel Core i5 750 Quad Core Processor Lynnfield LGA1156 2.66GHZ 8MB Cache Retail Box
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...ufacture=Intel

$147.99 CAD - Gigabyte P55A-UD3 ATX LGA1156 P55 DDR3 2PCI-E 2PCI RAID GBLAN CrossFireX USB3.0 SATA3 Motherboard
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...cture=Gigabyte

$29.36 CAD - Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink AM2 AM3 LGA1366 LGA775 LGA1156 120MM
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...Specifications

$9.99 CAD - Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound Paste NON-ELECTRICAL Conductive 4 Gram
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=26...ctic%20Cooling

$250.17 CAD - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 Fermi 715MHZ 1GB GDDR5 2XDVI Mini-HDMI PCI-E DX11 Video Card
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...cture=Gigabyte

$99.99 CAD - G.SKILL F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL Ripjaws PC3-12800 4GB 2X2GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24 Core i5 1.5V Memory Kit
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...l&promoid=1021

$129.99 CAD - Coolermaster Haf 922 Mid Tower ATX Case Black 5X5.25 5X3.5INT Front Audio USB eSATA No PSU
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=38996

$184.44 CAD ($164.44 CAD after MIR) - OCZ Agility 2 Extended 60GB 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD (mfenn's find, and more appropriate for this price range than the G.Skill I suggested before)
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=53184

$96.79 CAD - Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache 3.5IN Dual Proc Hard Drive OEM
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...20Digital%20WD

$89.99 CAD ($69.99 CAD after MIR) - Corsair TX650W 650W ATX 12V 52A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 120MM Fan
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...R&promoid=1021


$19.99 CAD - LG 16X DVD-ROM Optical Drive SATA Black OEM
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...%20Electronics
or
$69.32 CAD - Liteon IHOS104 4X BLU-RAY Reader BD-ROM Drive SATA Black OEM (fairly sure it comes with CyberLink PowerDVD 10 for Blu-ray playback)
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...facture=Liteon
or
$119.99 CAD - LG CH10LS20 Bluray Reader & DVD Writer Combo Drive 10X BD-ROM 16X DVD-RW Lightscribe SATA Retail Box (am sure it comes with the software)
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...%20Electronics



Reviews showing that the N520 does not perform as well as the Hyper 212+
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2390&page=5
http://www.guru3d.com/article/cooler-master-hyper-n520-review/5

If the price range has drastically changed, then you might as well set it up like this, for $1,288 - $1,388 CAD (depending on the optical drive) + maybe a couple more fans.

You know David, I corrected the tone of my last post so as not to sound offensive. Perhaps the way I quoted you made it sound like I was anyways, and I am sorry for that. Just because it is ironic (and not to antagonize you), my current system is this (for $1,300 total) -

All from Sept 06 except the video card:
e6300 @ 2.4ghz stock voltage
D975XBX rev.1
2x 1Gb DDR2 800mhz 5-5-5-12 Corsair
HD4770 512mb (upgrade from X1800XT)
250Gb WD HDD
550w Enermax Liberty modular
Zalman CNPS9500
Gigabyte Triton case

I won't even install any FPS game more recent than Left 4 Dead on it, mostly because of a bad personal tendency to only like playing FPSs when they can be run with the best IQ and very smooth framerates (even at 1680x1050).

Metro 2033 maxed (with AA, tesselation, physx, and DoF (perhaps even 120hz for 3D) all on) is the most taxing game period. Anybody that wanted to play it that way would realize significant framerate benefits with 2 480s over any lower setup.
 
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