well i didnt really change that much i went with a better name in power supply and dropped the wattage because im gonna go with a single gpu...and i switched the mother board to a p35 because there isnt any real advantage in goin with 780i because by the time i want a new system in a couple years there is gonna be a new cpu socket and with the money i saved on the mobo im putting it into a sound hard so i think its a good move... my budget is 950 PLEASE if you think my build is a joke please create a wishlist on new egg in that price range and show me what your talkign about because i dont think there is a better value/ performace ratio then the outlines of what im goging with in my revision
id liek to hit around 4ghz and the comp is gonan be used for gaming shooting for like a decent 3dmark score above 12,000 and i need to be able to run cod4 MAX'd at 1600x1050
- Sep 28, 2005
- 21,079
- 3,581
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im not saying its a joke. Just let me tell you what you did.
Your original pick was the 780i. Considered an upper enthusiest board. Then you swaped to a ASUS P5K-E. Which is considered the middle level board from ASUS. This didnt add up.
To make things short i have that board. People who look at the board also look at that board also look at the MAXIMUS, and also at the DFI X38-T2R (also have this). Your basically looking at a Benz SL550, and saying i'll go with a honda prelude.
Also, the PSU recomendation i would follow. However i like monster PSUs. They provide cleaner power, and also less noise/ripple.
You said your budget is 950. Is this system only? or everything like mouse keyboard Monitor.
And is 950 what you wish to spend? Or do you ideally want to spend lower. The more honest you are with us, the better system we can plan out.
Also there are much better sound cards. You should ask for recomendation, creative is the most known, but not the best.
RussianSensation
Elite Member
- Sep 5, 2003
- 19,458
- 765
- 126
Aigo I strongly side with your recommendation for a better quality PSU. However, I disrespectfully disagree on the motherboard choice. High end motherboards do not really bring any potential benefits outside of: (1) more features which a user might not want (2) extreme overclocking potential (such as ability to remain stable with phase change and extreme FSB) which doesn't constitute a 4.0ghz E8400 on air cooling.
Even then, if the top of the line boards were able to provide a stable 4.4ghz overclock on air for the E8400 (10% higher over 4.0ghz), the outlay would be about $100+ more for that 10%. I don't really consider that worthwhile. Having said that, we are enthusiasts and some want every extra they can get But it's important to know what the $ is being spent on when the budget is limited. For instance, getting 4GB of ram over 2GB is arguably a better "investment" for fraction of the cost relative to upgrading to a higher end board. And in OP's case trying to save $ on a PSU is an even bigger issue imo over what board to get.
Even then, if the top of the line boards were able to provide a stable 4.4ghz overclock on air for the E8400 (10% higher over 4.0ghz), the outlay would be about $100+ more for that 10%. I don't really consider that worthwhile. Having said that, we are enthusiasts and some want every extra they can get
But it's important to know what the $ is being spent on when the budget is limited. For instance, getting 4GB of ram over 2GB is arguably a better "investment" for fraction of the cost relative to upgrading to a higher end board. And in OP's case trying to save $ on a PSU is an even bigger issue imo over what board to get.Originally posted by: aigomorla
im not saying its a joke. Just let me tell you what you did.
Your original pick was the 780i. Considered an upper enthusiest board. Then you swaped to a ASUS P5K-E. Which is considered the middle level board from ASUS. This didnt add up.
To make things short i have that board. People who look at the board also look at that board also look at the MAXIMUS, and also at the DFI X38-T2R (also have this). Your basically looking at a Benz SL550, and saying i'll go with a honda prelude.
Also, the PSU recomendation i would follow. However i like monster PSUs. They provide cleaner power, and also less noise/ripple.
You said your budget is 950. Is this system only? or everything like mouse keyboard Monitor.
And is 950 what you wish to spend? Or do you ideally want to spend lower. The more honest you are with us, the better system we can plan out.
Also there are much better sound cards. You should ask for recomendation, creative is the most known, but not the best.
my debit card JUST got here in the mail and im like freaking out im using all my self control to keep from ordering my not as well planned rig RIGHT NOW..950 is MAX i can spend.. and im doing an upgrade so i already have the basics .. case, dvd burner, monitor, mouse ext
WHAT I NEED
CPU -decided e8400
mobo
GPU-that runs cod 4 maxed and decent crysis
PSU
RAM
Soundcard
cooler- that can handel 4ghz
for 950 shipped
but if i could cut corners and free up 70 bucks and get another hard drive i would be happy
- Sep 28, 2005
- 21,079
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On some occations i can agree with you, on others i cant.
Ive owned most of the high end boards out on the market. Ive had my share with the low ball ones too.
The amount of stress a high end board can take is more significant in aspect to a low end board. Just look at the additional cooling requirements that come stock on a higher end board.
Also look at the motherboard layout of the higher end board with respect to the one your getting. How does the layout look? Is it missing any mosfet's or capacitors. Are they placed differently.
Now with that said, to this day, i have yet to see a board more stable then gigabyte P35-DQ6. Ask mark, and other DQ6 owners, that board was made to take punishment and laugh at it.
Anyhow with that being said, the biggest allocation to your budget should be videocard. I would recomend you getting a HD3870 X2 and building your system around that. It makes no sense to buy a G92, and then upgrade a few months later. If thats your objective, dont bother getting a G92, and wait patiently for the G98's to roll around.
Also im hearing that PCI-E 2.0 is a MUST on newer end GFX cards. Thats why i said HOLD IT on your P5K-E recomendation. (this is the main reason russian
) Memebers are reporting having issues with some PCI-E 2.0 cards.. IE ASUS 8800GT series. So i recomend you getting a PCI-E 2.0 board off bat to begin with which limits your choices.
So i recomend you allocating the largest amount of your budget, around 40-50% of it, on the GPU sector, and then planning around that.
ALso at the 4.4ghz air comment. ROFL... im having problems pushing this cpu past 4.3ghz @ 1.57Vcore (NOT SAFE). But its prime95 stable. I would love to see a 4.4ghz prime stable E8400. Im afraid to push the chip higher then 1.6vcore and its under water /w accelerators.
PSU: SilverStone Zeus 850W
Board: DFI X38-T2R <--- not a newbie overclocker friendly board!
Ram: Crucial Tracers PC1066 <--- yeah if you stress it too much be prepared for an RMA every 2-3 months :T But i need the FSB blanket.
Cooling:
Bah.. need i continue.. its near top tier h2o. This is on a bench system, no case just bench case. Maybe i should take pictures, but its oooogly how its setup.
Just a note, I know 4GHz sounds like a great "hill" to conquer, but given the purposes for your computer, I doubt you would be able to tell the difference between 3.6 GHz and 4.0 GHz, especially in a game like Crysis with any decent settings. 4.0 GHz seems to be very doable from what I've been reading, but it requires a bit more effort and expense and not everyone gets there. Here's my rec for your budget that I think will give you all the performance you can ask for in this price range.
CPU: $240 E8400
Cooler: $46 ($36 AMIR) ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120
MB: $90 GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L
--or if you're considering Raid you can upgrade to:
--MB2: $125 GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3R
GPU: $220 ($200 AMIR) MSI NX8800GT 512M OC GeForce 8800GT 512MB
PSU: $100 ($80 AMIR) CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX
RAM: $100 ($65 AMIR) Patriot DDR2-800 2x2GB CAS5
or if you really want to push the overclock:
RAM2: $128 ($98 AMIR) Patriot DDR2-800 2x2GB CAS4
These were shown to hit 1066 MHz at 4-4-4-12 timings, which should be plenty for you.
Audio: ~$75
--I'll let others reccommend audio since I'm no audiophile.
That comes to $871 (with the DS3L) before rebates and $786 after rebates. I didn't factor in shipping but I think this is the ballpark you want and still leaves some room for flexibility. I also think this system should easily get you to 3.6 GHz (only requires 400 MHz FSB on the E8400 for a 1:1 ratio) and you can play to see how much higher you can go.
CPU: $240 E8400
Cooler: $46 ($36 AMIR) ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120
MB: $90 GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L
--or if you're considering Raid you can upgrade to:
--MB2: $125 GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3R
GPU: $220 ($200 AMIR) MSI NX8800GT 512M OC GeForce 8800GT 512MB
PSU: $100 ($80 AMIR) CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX
RAM: $100 ($65 AMIR) Patriot DDR2-800 2x2GB CAS5
or if you really want to push the overclock:
RAM2: $128 ($98 AMIR) Patriot DDR2-800 2x2GB CAS4
These were shown to hit 1066 MHz at 4-4-4-12 timings, which should be plenty for you.
Audio: ~$75
--I'll let others reccommend audio since I'm no audiophile.
That comes to $871 (with the DS3L) before rebates and $786 after rebates. I didn't factor in shipping but I think this is the ballpark you want and still leaves some room for flexibility. I also think this system should easily get you to 3.6 GHz (only requires 400 MHz FSB on the E8400 for a 1:1 ratio) and you can play to see how much higher you can go.
Just and Idea on soundcard I have and HT Omega Claro and like it alot and the striker is a good card also
I would get X38 or P35. PCIe 1.0 is going to be around for a few years to come, because 2.0 doesn't offer a significant improvement over it.
Maybe some good 750i boards will be released soon, but I haven't seen any yet that beat P35, let alone X38. If you get X38, then you should buy it for the DDR3, because other than PCIe 2.0 slots, it has no real advantage over P35 as far as OCing or performance go.
I notice you mention wanting to play games like COD4 and crysis on high settings, In my personal experience with the XFX 8800GT 512MB, Processors seem to bottleneck the 8800GT at or around 3.0Ghz, I notice no real difference playing these games between 3.0Ghz, 3.2Ghz and up, since I don't benchmark if I had an e8400 there would be little need to even overclock it for that GPU.
though you may see a benefit going with something like the 3870x2
I play COD4 maxed at 1440x900 native res,
and Crysis with xp very high tweaks at the same res, no AA/AF on avg 40FPS
(as a side note I realize I'm comparing a quad to a dual, but I'm banking on the fact that most games are barely written to utilize the duals let alone the quads.)
I would take the suggestion to put more money on your GPU
though you may see a benefit going with something like the 3870x2
I play COD4 maxed at 1440x900 native res,
and Crysis with xp very high tweaks at the same res, no AA/AF on avg 40FPS
(as a side note I realize I'm comparing a quad to a dual, but I'm banking on the fact that most games are barely written to utilize the duals let alone the quads.)
I would take the suggestion to put more money on your GPU
Denithor
Diamond Member
- Apr 11, 2004
- 6,298
- 23
- 81
Just a comment on the soundcard: listen to your onboard sound before spending the money for a separate card. The HD audio has gotten quite good these days and I personally haven't even bothered to install my X-Fi card in my current rig because I found I just didn't need it.
very very good point.
and know if you have a sound card and mess with the PCI bus .... bye bye sound quality nothing but rice crispies... snap krackle and pop.. at least for me
taltamir
Lifer
- Mar 21, 2004
- 13,576
- 6
- 76
I concur, and creatives atrocious drivers are nothing to sneeze at either. I would not put any creative crap in my system again. I have had enough troubles with them over the years (and still do with clients who insist on using them).
Also.. you should spend a MINIMUM of 200$ on speakers (who are less then a year old) before spending ANY money on a sound card... and then spend extra money on speakers and sound card at a ratio of 1:2... so a 100$ sound card should be paired with 400$ speakers, 200$ sound card with 600$ speakers...
Thats just a rough estimate of course, but its a very good rule of thumb... 90% of your audio quality is speakers, not sound card.
You should pickup the Xeon 3110 currently on sale for $199 at buy.com. It's the same cpu as the E8400.
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2156903&enterthread=y
I picked up the Xeon 3110 and the Gigabyte EP35-DS3R today.
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2156903&enterthread=y
I picked up the Xeon 3110 and the Gigabyte EP35-DS3R today.
That's a good point, but I think you're comparing apples to oranges. You're recommending 2x1GB for $100 while I'm recommending 2x2GB for $100 to $130. I've heard great things about Ballistix, but I'm just wondering if this budget-minded buyer should invest an extra $100 to go to 4x1GB at 4-4-4-8 and 1077MHz (if you got that with 4x1 or 2x1 I'm not sure) from 2x2GB at 4-4-4-12 and 1066MHz. Is there any real world difference between these two besides costing nearly twice as much? I guess I would only see it as a better option if you only wanted 2GB.
On a side note, I've always wondered which hurts OC more: 2x2GB chips or 4x1GB chips. You always hear that either scenario will hurt OC compared to 2x1GB, but I've never heard which 4GB solution is preferable.
I've heard this is generally true as well, but don't forget that this also depends on the resolutions you play at. The higher the resolution, the less important your CPU speed becomes. But I have heard that for typical gamers right now, 3.0 GHz is about the magic number.
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