New Comp Hardware Choices

[Santini]

So I wrote this up earlier today and it was never posted. I suspect it was not posted due to me attempting to put it on the computer help section instead of the general hardware section.

I am building my first computer from scratch but have a fair bit of computer repair experience. I am also currently quite sick with a cold and its frankly possible that I have chosen something thats stupid.

I live in Hawaii and all the parts I have chosen are from newegg because I managed to talk them into cutting down on my shipping costs. I also don't have air conditioning and am concerned about heat in an overclocked system. I am hoping the case I have chosen will offset this.

There is a stickied posting on here with some questions.


1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing. Gaming predominately with some editing and encoding of assorted media including audio and video. Some web design.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread. My maximum budget would be around 1300. Ideally I would like to get it down to around 1200 since shipping will be about 100 anyway.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from. United States, but as I mentioned above I live in Hawaii and people love to over charge us. USPS is cheapest but most hardware places only do fed ex or ups which means hefty prices for shipping. Open to suggestions as to a better place to buy stuff that ships cheaper here.

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
AMD and ATI are my preferred cpu and gpu's. HD's are any of the major brands, same goes for most of my hardware. I have been impressed with gigabyte of late which is why most of the things i have thus far chosen are from them.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are. Don't need a monitor, keyboard or mouse. need everything else.

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads. Some. Havent seen anything exactly like what I am asking.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds. Yes I plan to overclock but not extremely.

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with. depends on the game, but as high as i can get away with. My current comp sucks so anything will frankly be an improvement.

9. WHEN do you plan to build it? By the end of the month I expect to order all the parts.

10. Don't ask for a build configuration critique or rating if you are thin skinned. I am here for the help so I will work on not being thin skinned.

Here is the build -

Hard Drive - Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200rpm sata 6gb/s

Video Cards - GIGABYTE GV-R577SO-1GD Radeon HD 5770 1GB - two of these

CPU - AMD Phenom II x6 1100T Black Edition Thuban

OS - Windows Ultimate x64 -

Case - Azza Solano 1000R Full Tower case - This thing seems to have a ton of fans hoping it will keep stuff cool enough. I would be interested in a similar case that is in a similar price range but had a thermostat in it. I just haven't seen one.

Optical - Lite On 24x dual layer dvd burner with lightscribe - I am not that attached to this drive. It was a combo on newegg with the case and I just need a dual layer dvd burner for the new build.

Mother Board - GIGABYTE GA-890FXA-UD5 - I have looked at a number of similar boards by MSI and ASUS and ASrock. This seems my best bet for expandability with the 3yr warranty. Plus their OC tools look ok from what I have seen. While not as simple to use for OC as Asus they still seem ok for my needs.

Power Supply - Azza Dynamo 850w - I included a link to this one cause I have never used a power supply from them. I would frankly rather have a modular one anyway. It was a combo deal with the Corsair RAM. Looking for a second opinion on it. Anyone used one? Do they suck? Am I better off going somewhere else? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817517003

RAM - CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

Thats where I am at. Thick skin is on and I am hoping the moderators will let me post this one.

 

[LuluTheMonk]

How preferred is AMD for your CPU?

Gaming 2500k vs 1100T
Photo Editing and Audio Encoding
Video Transcoding

And then Video Transcoding while overclocking

For the same price, you get better performance across the board except for at stock speed for video encoding.

Here is a build:
i5 2500K + GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD3 combo $335
CM Hyper 212+ $19 AR
G.Skill DDR3 1333 8GB $80
XFX Radeon HD 6950 1GB $215
Corsair Force 120GB $210
Samsung F3 1TB $65
Samsung DVD Burner $19
XFX 750W $100 AR (Overkill, unless you want to SLI in the future)
Fractal Design R3 $100 or any other case you like

Total: $1143

You could easily lower the SSD to a 64 GB and come in under $1100

**edit** couldn't tell if you already own the 5770's. If you don't included a single 6950.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

How preferred is AMD for your CPU?

Gaming 2500k vs 1100T
Photo Editing and Audio Encoding
Video Transcoding

And then Video Transcoding while overclocking

For the same price, you get better performance across the board except for at stock speed for video encoding.

Here is a build:
i5 2500K + GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD3 combo $335
CM Hyper 212+ $19 AR
G.Skill DDR3 1333 8GB $80
XFX Radeon HD 6950 1GB $215
Corsair Force 120GB $210
Samsung F3 1TB $65
Samsung DVD Burner $19
XFX 750W $100 AR (Overkill, unless you want to SLI in the future)
Fractal Design R3 $100 or any other case you like

Total: $928

:thumbsup:

 

[DaveSimmons]

If heat is an issue, that's another reason to prefer Sandy Bridge since the performance-per-watt is much better than current AMD. If you're an AMD fanboy then you should wait for bulldozer.

 

[Santini]

Here is a build:
i5 2500K + GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD3 combo $335
CM Hyper 212+ $19 AR
G.Skill DDR3 1333 8GB $80
XFX Radeon HD 6950 1GB $215
Corsair Force 120GB $210
Samsung F3 1TB $65
Samsung DVD Burner $19
XFX 750W $100 AR (Overkill, unless you want to SLI in the future)
Fractal Design R3 $100 or any other case you like

Total: $1143

You could easily lower the SSD to a 64 GB and come in under $1100

**edit** couldn't tell if you already own the 5770's. If you don't included a single 6950.

First of all thank you very much for your input. As much as I love AMD I think I may have to give up on them for now. I NEED a new computer el pronto like. I dont have time to wait for Bulldozer as much as I would like to. That being the case it does look like the best bang for my buck rests with Intel. Its just all around a lot better for my needs than what AMD is currently offering.

I ended up having to do some tinkering with the build you came up with for some monetary reasons. The biggest thing I had to do was cut the SSD, even though I would dearly love to get one, I kinda need an operating system more. The other major change I made was with a different graphics card. I had been planning to originally go with 2 5770's. But after summarizing from some of the links you gave me earlier I came to the conclusion that a single graphic card would be better.

To confirm my thinking I ask which would be better 2 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125327

Or one - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102928

I would attempt to check this on AT itself but for some reason my internet is acting a bit wonky.

The only other change I made was I found a modular PSU that I like. My question is do you think I will still be able to get a second graphics card in the future considering that this new Power supply is now only a 650w?

Sum up - I realize I sorta rambled a bit there. Lets see, the questions I am asking are....

1. My question is do you think I will still be able to get a second graphics card in the future considering that this new Power supply is now only a 650w?

2. Which of the above graphics card choices would you deem to be best considering my needs listed in the original post?

 

[mfenn]

How preferred is AMD for your CPU?

Gaming 2500k vs 1100T
Photo Editing and Audio Encoding
Video Transcoding

And then Video Transcoding while overclocking

For the same price, you get better performance across the board except for at stock speed for video encoding.

Here is a build:
i5 2500K + GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD3 combo $335
CM Hyper 212+ $19 AR
G.Skill DDR3 1333 8GB $80
XFX Radeon HD 6950 1GB $215
Corsair Force 120GB $210
Samsung F3 1TB $65
Samsung DVD Burner $19
XFX 750W $100 AR (Overkill, unless you want to SLI in the future)
Fractal Design R3 $100 or any other case you like

Total: $1143

You could easily lower the SSD to a 64 GB and come in under $1100

**edit** couldn't tell if you already own the 5770's. If you don't included a single 6950.

:thumbsup: Swap the PSU to a NEO ECO 520C and up the GPU to a 6950 2GB (costs should cancel out) and that's /thread IMHO.

 

[Santini]

Quote:
Originally Posted by LuluTheMonk
Here is a build:
i5 2500K + GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD3 combo $335
CM Hyper 212+ $19 AR
G.Skill DDR3 1333 8GB $80
XFX Radeon HD 6950 1GB $215
Corsair Force 120GB $210
Samsung F3 1TB $65
Samsung DVD Burner $19
XFX 750W $100 AR (Overkill, unless you want to SLI in the future)
Fractal Design R3 $100 or any other case you like

Total: $1143

You could easily lower the SSD to a 64 GB and come in under $1100

**edit** couldn't tell if you already own the 5770's. If you don't included a single 6950.
First of all thank you very much for your input. As much as I love AMD I think I may have to give up on them for now. I NEED a new computer el pronto like. I dont have time to wait for Bulldozer as much as I would like to. That being the case it does look like the best bang for my buck rests with Intel. Its just all around a lot better for my needs than what AMD is currently offering.

I ended up having to do some tinkering with the build you came up with for some monetary reasons. The biggest thing I had to do was cut the SSD, even though I would dearly love to get one, I kinda need an operating system more. The other major change I made was with a different graphics card. I had been planning to originally go with 2 5770's. But after summarizing from some of the links you gave me earlier I came to the conclusion that a single graphic card would be better.

To confirm my thinking I ask which would be better 2 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125327

Or one - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102928

I would attempt to check this on AT itself but for some reason my internet is acting a bit wonky.

The only other change I made was I found a modular PSU that I like. My question is do you think I will still be able to get a second graphics card in the future considering that this new Power supply is now only a 650w?

Sum up - I realize I sorta rambled a bit there. Lets see, the questions I am asking are....

1. My question is do you think I will still be able to get a second graphics card in the future considering that this new Power supply is now only a 650w?

2. Which of the above graphics card choices would you deem to be best considering my needs listed in the original post?
Last edited by Santini; Yesterday at 03:57 PM. Reason: added some elusive comma's
 

I think my final questions here mighta got lost in the shuffle. Here they are again

 

[mfenn]

Your linked are jacked up, so I can't really tell which cards you're referring to. In general though, a single card is better than two cards. IMHO, the only legitimate reason to go for two cards is to achieve greater performance than any single GPU can offer. This isn't the case at your budget.

As for whether or not a 650W PSU can handle two cards, it depends on the cards. Two 6950's, sure. Two GTX 580's would probably be pushing it. I can't see the cards you linked, so I'm being vague here. The bigger issue is that upgrading to SLI/CFX is almost never worth it from a price/performance point of view. By the time you're ready to upgrade, it will make more sense to just buy a faster single-GPU than it would to deal with the SLI/CFX related BS. Not to mention that you have to pay more up front for a mobo and PSU that would support it.

 

[Santini]

Your linked are jacked up, so I can't really tell which cards you're referring to. In general though, a single card is better than two cards. IMHO, the only legitimate reason to go for two cards is to achieve greater performance than any single GPU can offer. This isn't the case at your budget.

As for whether or not a 650W PSU can handle two cards, it depends on the cards. Two 6950's, sure. Two GTX 580's would probably be pushing it. I can't see the cards you linked, so I'm being vague here. The bigger issue is that upgrading to SLI/CFX is almost never worth it from a price/performance point of view. By the time you're ready to upgrade, it will make more sense to just buy a faster single-GPU than it would to deal with the SLI/CFX related BS. Not to mention that you have to pay more up front for a mobo and PSU that would support it.

Huh, thats weird that those links stopped working.. they were fine when I made them. In any case the cards were a pair of Gigabyte OC 5770's vs a Sapphire 2G 6950. And the other question was whether I would be able to later run a pair of the 6950's if I for whatever reason got them.

After reading what you wrote it seems to make sense to just go with the 6950.

Thanks for all the input.

 

[mfenn]

Huh, thats weird that those links stopped working.. they were fine when I made them. In any case the cards were a pair of Gigabyte OC 5770's vs a Sapphire 2G 6950. And the other question was whether I would be able to later run a pair of the 6950's if I for whatever reason got them.

After reading what you wrote it seems to make sense to just go with the 6950.

Thanks for all the input.

No problem. A single 6950 2GB is indeed better IMHO than 5770 CF.