Gaming Build - ~$1500 i7 base

[busydude]

Well it seems the Hyper 212+ is back in stock, so as long as I can get ahold of it when I order (~July 10th), I'll pick that up. I see a lot of people are having problems fitting it in their case so does anyone know from experience if it would fit just fine in an antec 900 or any other concerns I should have?


I though my build was looking good but I have taken about 3-4 changes from you guys so far and am really looking forward to this purchase/build!

At $60 that cooler is not a good value at all. Tuniq tower extreme is a much better cooler instead.

 

[leatherface7]

At $60 that cooler is not a good value at all. Tuniq tower extreme is a much better cooler instead.

Let it be known that I would prefer a good cooler just around $30. I don't want anything cheap perse, but I'm not an extreme overclocker or anything by any means. I basically just wanted something better than stock. From my build and future upgrades (2 GPU's more RAM), and just slight overclocking, you can see what I'm working with. Keep the comments coming

 

[mfenn]

At $60 that cooler is not a good value at all. Tuniq tower extreme is a much better cooler instead.

Yeah, it was a great value @ $25, not so much at $60. There is always the old standby AC Freezer 7 Pro.

 

[leatherface7]

Yeah, it was a great value @ $25, not so much at $60. There is always the old standby AC Freezer 7 Pro.

Whatever is a good bang for my buck, with my buck only being as high as it needs to be! I would think $30 is plenty for my needs, or thereabout!

 

[mfenn]

Whatever is a good bang for my buck, with my buck only being as high as it needs to be! I would think $30 is plenty for my needs, or thereabout!

I would go with the AF Freezer 7 then. You really need an aftermarket cooler with the 860 because the Intel one is just pathetic (you'll see what I mean when you get the part!).

 

[leatherface7]

Ok, here is an update to my new'er' build!


Processor Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz $280

Cooling ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro $ 40

Video GIGABYTE GV-R587UD-1GD Radeon HD 5870 1GB $400

Motherboard ASRock P55 DELUXE3 $170

Memory G.Skill Ripjaws 4GB DDR3-1600 $110

Hard Drive SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB $70

Optical Drive LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW $25

Case Antec 900 $100

Power Supply CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W SLI Ready $110

Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium $100

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Total $1404

By the end of the year I also want to make the following upgrades:

Another G.Skill Ripjaws 4GB DDR3-1600

and dual GIGABYTE GV-R587UD-1GD Radeon HD 5870 1GB

hopefully by the those prices go down as well.

I am pretty happy with how this is turning out. I already bought the speakers so I have removed them from the build list. Note that all prices are from newegg, so I haven't shopped around much. I am pretty confident I can save some money on the PSU and a few bucks here or there on other parts.

Any more suggestions/questions/comments are still appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Meghan54]

Honestly, I don't know what sort of vehicle you have or the gas mileage you get, but it's starting to look like a road trip to Philly may be something to consider.


First, you'll save around $50 at MicroCenter on your cpu.

Second, the Philly MC has the Hyper 212+ in stock for $25.

Third, you can put hands-on their cases. I've found actually putting your hands on a case, removing the side, actually having it in front of you can really help in choosing a case.....and the Philly MC has the Antec Nine Hundred Two in stock.

Also, MC has your power supply for $110, after a $20 MIR.

MC also has your motherboard for $160, $150 after a $10 MIR.

Memory.....MC doesn't have RipJaws, unfortunately. Corsair, a ton of, just no G. Skill.


So, you can get your motherboard and power supply for the same price, a little less after rebates, cpu for substantial savings, and your cooler for a very good price, not to mention a DVD+/-RW drive for $25 or so (Samsung) and MC always has some decent hard drive on sale. Then you can get a case you have handled, touched, and are not going to be surprised about.

Now you're down to video card and memory from Newegg.


Just a suggestion. But I've driven almost as far for the same....and made a day trip out of it---doing more than just a MC visit.

 

[leatherface7]

Honestly, I don't know what sort of vehicle you have or the gas mileage you get, but it's starting to look like a road trip to Philly may be something to consider.


First, you'll save around $50 at MicroCenter on your cpu.

Second, the Philly MC has the Hyper 212+ in stock for $25.

Third, you can put hands-on their cases. I've found actually putting your hands on a case, removing the side, actually having it in front of you can really help in choosing a case.....and the Philly MC has the Antec Nine Hundred Two in stock.

Also, MC has your power supply for $110, after a $20 MIR.

MC also has your motherboard for $160, $150 after a $10 MIR.

Memory.....MC doesn't have RipJaws, unfortunately. Corsair, a ton of, just no G. Skill.


So, you can get your motherboard and power supply for the same price, a little less after rebates, cpu for substantial savings, and your cooler for a very good price, not to mention a DVD+/-RW drive for $25 or so (Samsung) and MC always has some decent hard drive on sale. Then you can get a case you have handled, touched, and are not going to be surprised about.

Now you're down to video card and memory from Newegg.


Just a suggestion. But I've driven almost as far for the same....and made a day trip out of it---doing more than just a MC visit.

I'll keep this in mind and when the time comes to buy (about 4 weeks), I may just do that! I think I would come out of that place spending way more than I wanted though because I would probably buy everything As for now, I have everything priced out with combo deals and such for $1375(including shipping), but still working on bringing that down by shopping around online later!

 

[busydude]

Yeah, it was a great value @ $25, not so much at $60. There is always the old standby AC Freezer 7 Pro.

Damn, there are no good heat sinks under $40 for 1156/1366 sockets. AC freezer pro, although better than the stock heat sink, is at best an average performer especially if the CPU has 3 cores or more. The only thing I could find was cogage true spirit for under $40 and the reviews are not good to say the least.

I find it real surprising that other than hyper 212+, we have no good recommendations to make. :hmm:

 

[leatherface7]

Damn, there are no good heat sinks under $40 for 1156/1366 sockets. AC freezer pro, although better than the stock heat sink, is at best an average performer especially if the CPU has 3 cores or more. The only thing I could find was cogage true spirit for under $40 and the reviews are not good to say the least.

I find it real surprising that other than hyper 212+, we have no good recommendations to make. :hmm:

. Hopefully something changes in the next few weeks!

 

[modestninja]

Damn, there are no good heat sinks under $40 for 1156/1366 sockets. AC freezer pro, although better than the stock heat sink, is at best an average performer especially if the CPU has 3 cores or more. The only thing I could find was cogage true spirit for under $40 and the reviews are not good to say the least.

I find it real surprising that other than hyper 212+, we have no good recommendations to make. :hmm:

As I've said before the Scythe Mugen 2 can be had for under $40 and performs almost on par with the top air coolers out there. A couple others that are generally considered better coolers than the AC Freezer Pro would be:

-Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer
-Xigamtek S1283
-Xigmatek Dark Knight (pretty much the same as the one above)
-Zalman Performa

 

[busydude]

As I've said before the Scythe Mugen 2 can be had for under $40 and performs almost on par with the top air coolers out there. A couple others that are generally considered better coolers than the AC Freezer Pro would be: -Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer -Xigamtek S1283 -Xigmatek Dark Knight (pretty much the same as the one above) -Zalman Performa

Yeah mugen 2 is a beast of a cooler. My vote goes for that too. OP should also keep in mind that this cooler does not support LGA 1156 socket out of the box. Scythe will mail those brackets separately once you email or call them.

The same goes for Sunbeam and Xigmatek S1283.

 

[leatherface7]

Yeah mugen 2 is a beast of a cooler. My vote goes for that too. OP should also keep in mind that this cooler does not support LGA 1156 socket out of the box. Scythe will mail those brackets separately once you email or call them.

The same goes for Sunbeam and Xigmatek S1283.

I'm sure its not a big deal at all, but I'd rather not even have any additional hassles. Again I would take more concern if I was actually going to be OC'ing much or something.

Also, I am unable to find this scythe mugen 2 on newegg or tigerdirect??

I'll take a look at the coolers that were just posted though and go from there!

 

[Meghan54]

I'll keep this in mind and when the time comes to buy (about 4 weeks), I may just do that! I think I would come out of that place spending way more than I wanted though because I would probably buy everything As for now, I have everything priced out with combo deals and such for $1375(including shipping), but still working on bringing that down by shopping around online later!

And that's the downside to MicroCenter. They literally have almost anything and everything you'd need. Tought not to buy more than you intend....been there, done that.

But, MC does have a huge selection of fans, cables, hd's, ps's, optical drives, just name it. Only place(s) it's weak on is video cards and sometimes cases.

If you do plan on doing the MC road trip, shop their website the day before, buy it online (most of their product can be purchased online and picked up in store within 48 hours), then just go pick up your stuff at the customer service desk.....don't even have to tempt yourself by going into the store. LOL! But I dare you to resist the temptation.

Also, by cruising the web the day or so before, you can spot some sales that are only good for a few days and in-store only......bought one of the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2 for $15 on sale. True, not the best performing cooler out there, but easy to install and went on an i5 750 and is doing a credible job on it with a very mild overclock.

 

[leatherface7]

Yeah mugen 2 is a beast of a cooler. My vote goes for that too. OP should also keep in mind that this cooler does not support LGA 1156 socket out of the box. Scythe will mail those brackets separately once you email or call them.

The same goes for Sunbeam and Xigmatek S1283.

The newer Rev b mugens do support 1156 out of box though correct?

Also, how does this Ultra LSP 750 watt look? Good price so might pick that up instead.

 

[busydude]

The newer Rev b mugens do support 1156 out of box though correct?

Yes, they do.

Also, how does this Ultra LSP 750 watt [\URL] look? Good price so might pick that up instead.

A big no no to Ultra PSU's. Sti...oduct/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371025"]this instead(antec TP 750). I have the same unit and its $90 after rebates and I got the rebate check pretty quick.

 

[leatherface7]

Yes, they do.



A big no no to Ultra PSU's.

Stick with corsair.

If you need other opinions, go for this instead(antec TP 750). I have the same unit and its $90 after rebates and I got the rebate check pretty quick.

Thanks for the fast response. I'll stay away from Ultra, but how come? Do their PSU's tend to die quickly or whats the problem?

Also, I noticed that modular PSU's aren't too much more expensive (30-40 bucks maybe); what are your thoughts on those? I mean if I didn't even need many cables, that would clearly clear up most of them and give the case a lot more room for better airflow, but is it really that big of a deal? As well, are there any other big reasons to go modular? Just curious!

 

[busydude]

Thanks for the fast response. I'll stay away from Ultra, but how come? Do their PSU's tend to die quickly or whats the problem?

Ultra LSP series is built by wintech, which is worst OEM's for PSU. Ultra X2 is the same PSU while being modular. Quote from hardocp.

The Load Testing results for the X2 750w Extreme Edition can best be summed up by saying that we had 460w units in our $50 Roundup that did as well as the Ultra X2 750w Extreme Edition did before dying. That really sums up the entirety of our experience with two of these units. As for the actual numbers, the depressing fact of the matter is that at only 50% of its capacity the voltage regulation was terrible. The unit did however remain cool throughout the two tests it completed as the 135mm fan was able to hold temperatures to 47c-51c at 120v and 47c-53c at 100v. So the unit’s horrible performance here cannot be chalked up to overheating.

The Transient Load Tests for the X2 750w Extreme Edition were only marginally better than its standard load testing. The unit actually passed our tests inside of ATX specification, but did so only barely.

The best modular PSU right now is the seasonic X-series.

Quote from jonnyguru.

Lately, it's gotten to be much harder for a power supply company to get ahead. The competition is fierce, and it's only going to get more so as time goes on. Seasonic decided that in the X series they were going to go out on a limb, design a new platform from the ground up, and then toss it into the shark tank that is the power supply market. And you know what? If I were a company swimming in that tank, I'd watch my tail fin. This is one really impressive platform Seasonic has here. It's incredibly efficient, it's incredibly stable, and it's hungry for market share. That's a deadly combination for the competition.

oh, and BTW never trust reviews from tigerdirect, ever. If you have some free time and need to have some laughs, read this thread.

 

[leatherface7]

Lol, great read thanks. As for the good modular PSU, I guess I'll hold off since the 'good' ones are quite a bit more expensive and I dont think it will be worth it at this point. Thank you for the info!