Advise for new PC

[raz1ell]

Hello, I am about to order in 2-3 days the parts for my new PC. I could use ur advices on a Intel I7 based system with Ati HD 4890 VC and a very good sound card.

What YOUR PC will be used for.
Considerable amount of gaming - new games and a lot of Lineage 2. Also movies,music and surfing

What YOUR budget is.
1000-1200 USD, the price is only for the components i dont need a new monitor.

What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
USA - newegg.com

IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture.

I would go with Intel and Ati, I still dont know about the sound card - Creative or m-audio.

If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
The PC is going to be build from scratch.

IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
so far only dedicated reviews on different VC\CPUs

IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Very high possibility of overclocking, but nothing extreme.

WHEN do you plan to build it?
in 2-3 days.

 

[Blain]

If you're going to me recording music from live sources, get a Delta 1010LT.

 

[Lunyone]

$280 i7 920
$208 - $15 MIR = $193 Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R mobo
$100 - $20 MIR = $80 Corsair 650tx
~$95 Cooler Master 690 case
$55 WD Caviar AAKS 320gb HD for OS
$90 WD Caviar Green 1 TB HD for storage and games
$95 G.Skill (3x2gb) CAS7 1333mHz RAM running at stock voltage (1.5v)
$220 - $20 MIR = $200 Sapphire 4890 1gb GPU
~$30 Pioneer SATA DVD burner, not sure where the other have gone. This was the cheapest SATA DVD Burner!
$100 Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit

Total ~$1273 - $55 MIR's = $1218!!! Not too bad for an i7 build!! Obviously you can drop the extra HD and save either $55 or $90, depending on which one you drop.

 

[raz1ell]

I searched the net and I came up with this soundcard- Creative x-fi titanium - $100, I would not use the computer for recording, I just need good sound performance for the money, will this do the job? BTW i have Creative Gigaworks S750 soundsystem

 

[zerogear]

Should be fine, assuming that you won't have crackling problems that plague the Creative line of products.

 

[JTsyo]

I find that most current motherboards have good enough integrated sound. I would first check what the integrated sound on your motherboard is and if you're getting much of an improvement for the upgrade.

 

[raz1ell]

On my last two rigs i used the onboard audio, but since a friend of mine borrowed me his x-fi for few days i totally changed the way i listen to music, the bass was deeper and in general the sound much clearer, thats why i doubt that the stock audio will satisfy me now.

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: raz1ell
On my last two rigs i used the onboard audio, but since a friend of mine borrowed me his x-fi for few days i totally changed the way i listen to music, the bass was deeper and in general the sound much clearer, thats why i doubt that the stock audio will satisfy me now.

If you really want it then sure but onboard is great now-a-days. There have been many problems with Creative cards as of late. Driver issues and the cracking that was explained above. I had an Audigy 2 and it died and using the onboard Realtek HD Audio and it's great and doesn't have the horribly bloated Creative drivers either.

 

[Lunyone]

Originally posted by: zerocool84

Originally posted by: raz1ell
On my last two rigs i used the onboard audio, but since a friend of mine borrowed me his x-fi for few days i totally changed the way i listen to music, the bass was deeper and in general the sound much clearer, thats why i doubt that the stock audio will satisfy me now.

If you really want it then sure but onboard is great now-a-days. There have been many problems with Creative cards as of late. Driver issues and the cracking that was explained above. I had an Audigy 2 and it died and using the onboard Realtek HD Audio and it's great and doesn't have the horribly bloated Creative drivers either.

I remember reading somewhere that there was a guy that was writing Creative drivers on his own, since the ones supplied by Creative were basically sh$t. I think Creative heard word of it and was trying to stop this, but I don't have a link to it.