New PC Build

[anishannayya]

Okay guys, I have decided that it is finally time for a new system (when your laptop is more powerful then you desktop, you know you got problems). The last build I did was for a friend, but that was a Core 2 Duo and I haven't been keeping up with the latest hardware. I have brushed up on it a bit, and spent the last week picking out components. I plan to connect this computer to a brand new 50" (give or take a couple inches) HDTV, and want to be able to game on this rig (COD4, Bioshock, Crisis, of course I don't expect it to run on all 50 inches, but I do expect 30 inches, etc.). I also plan to do HTPC stuff, such as recording TV, watching DVDs, etc. My budget is about $2,000, but I can survive $500 more. Here is what I have in mind:

GPU: XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB

Mobo: ASUS P5E LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600

TV Tuner: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1800 MCE

RAM: mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066

Hard drives: WD Caviar SE16 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA (2 in a RAID 0 arrangement) (never messed with RAID, any tips?)

Case/PSU: COOLER MASTER Stacker 830 with 1000W Power Supply

Case fans: SILVERSTONE FM121 120mm (2) and COOLER MASTER 120mm 4 BLUE LED (2 packages of 2 = 4)

Heatsink: ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro

OS: Microsoft Windows Vista 32-Bit Ultimate OEM

Soundcard: Onboard because sound is leaving the comp digital, and the surround sound sys can take care of that.

TOTAL + Shipping: $2,200 (of course that is the price with cables, thermal paste, optical drive, etc.)

Anything I leave out besides card readers and optical drives?

I am most concerned about the motherboard. I want something that is overclocking friendly, as I plan to OC the RAM, CPU, and GPU (mainly interested in the CPU). With that in mind, I wanted good air cooling, but also want it to be quiet. I believe the case has 9 120mm fan slots, so tell me if you have any ideas. I plan to have the back and top set as exhausts and the front and side as intakes.

Thanks a million,

Anish


BTW, Newegg charges the same amount for shipping the damn Arctic Silver as the charge for the actual stuff. Seriously, it weights like 3 grams. Outrageous!

 

[jellyrole]

Yea, but they also have a lot of parts that have free shipping. You should get a 64-Bit operating system since you have 5GB of RAM including your graphics card, that way you can utilize all of it. The only other thing I can think of is possibly getting a 45nm quad instead of the Q6600, but not really a requirement.

 

[Nightblade]

9800's price has to go down on the 17th when the "real" next gen geforce cards are released or you could buy one of the new cards (since they start at about what the 9800 retails for now)

I would highly recommend waiting a week on the graphics card or putting in some placeholder card that you can get rid of and only lose 20$ like I did.

 

[Chosonman]

The 9800 GX2 Price/Performance isn't great but if you don't care just ignore what I said.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

The X38 boards are too expensive for no performance gain over P35, save some money and get a solid P35 board for much less

DDR2-1066 ram is overkill and a waste of money, get DDR2-800 or 1000 which ever is cheapest. Newegg has the gskill 2x2gb ddr2-1000 for $85 with no rebate

1000w PS is also overkill for your components, 750w is plenty even with a highend GPU

As other have said wait a few days on the GPU and your options will get better, buy a GX2 now and you will be kicking yourself in a few days.

If you plan on overclocking a quad you need a better HSF than the Freezer 7 IMO.

And you should go Vista 64-bit or you won't be able to use a good chunk of your 4gb or ram

 

[anishannayya]

Thanks for all the help guys.

Here is what I plan to do:

1. Get cheaper RAM.

2. Get 64 Bit (was reluctant because a pal of mine says it is buggy, but maybe it is his configuration)

2. Get a P35 board.

3. Get the XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler (was originally reluctant because people said it is hard to install)

I'm going to stick to the GPU. I will buy it a little later when prices drop, but the plan is that 2-3 years down the line I will pop in the same GPU in SLI mode, and squeeze another 1-2 years of gaming life out of it before it becomes the office work PC.

Also, the 1000W PSU comes with the case, so I'm, keeping that. Also I will need it if I decide to upgrade the GPU configuration down the line.

I'll be sure to post up the changes I make.

Once again,

Thanks

 

[anishannayya]

Okay, here is what I did:

1. Got A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800

2. Got 64-Bit

3. Got an SLI Mobo (Durr, what was I thinking!) ASUS P5N-D nForce 780i

4. Added the XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler and well as the retention bracket it comes with.

All in all, my total price with shipping dropped to $2,113.96, and that is every little thing I could think of, including extra cables.

SWEET!

I am going to wait until the new cards from Nvidia come out, so I can reap the benefits. Then I will order everything at once from Newegg (I really got to look into getting the thermal paste and cables from a local shop.)

Thanks

Please tell me if I should change anything.

Gratefully,

Anish

 

[Chosonman]

2,113.96 for a rig? I just built a new one for $400. Sheesh...

 

[Nightblade]

Your sli plan isn't very good, first as I found out myself... sli sounds fun and useful but after research you'll find the truth is that unless your willing to spend a $1000 on GPUs every couple years its really not worth using the buggy nforce boards for an extra slot that you'll probably never use anyway. If you must have a multi GPU capability go with a stable intel chipset that crossfire compatible.

second the 9800 is already a dual gpu card so if you sli them it becomes a 4 gpu setup, sounds cool right? problem is (like quad core CPUs) games don't support them very well right now and there's simply know way of knowing when 4 gpu setups will fully utilized.

 

[anishannayya]

Nightblade: Okay, I was cool with everything you said until the word buggy came into the equation. What would you suggest I get in terms of my motherboard? All I really need is something as stable as a rock, and easy overclocking options, as this is my first foray into that world.

Thanks for all the help Nightblade.

Awaiting your reply,

Anish

 

[anishannayya]

Originally posted by: Chosonman
2,113.96 for a rig? I just built a new one for $400. Sheesh...

What are the specs on that comp that you just built? I doubt you can run COD4 on a 50 inch screen.

 

[anishannayya]

Nightblade, how about this board: ABIT IP35 Pro?

 

[DSF]

What's the res on your screen? Generally a 50" TV is easier to run than even a 30" computer monitor. The pixel count is all that matters to the graphics card, not the physical size of the display.

Anyhow, SLi as you proposed to use it is pointless. Think about how an 8800GT or 9600GT compares to graphics cards of two years ago. For $150 you can buy a card that absolutely spanks what was the top of the line a few years back. In fact, an 8800GT even handily beats two of those older cards in SLi. You're much better off skipping the 780i motherboard and going back to P35. In two years time you'll be best served by buying a new graphics card, even if it's a mid-range model, than popping in a second 9800.

This philosophy doesn't just apply to graphics cards. A $1000 computer today easily exceeds the gaming power of a $2000 computer from two years ago. No matter how much you spend on your computer now, it will be equaled or surpassed by a mid-range system in two years. I would consider trimming back your spending in certain areas and setting aside the savings for more cost-effective upgrades as they become necessary. Truth be told, the system I built for under $1000 would keep pace with your $2000 machine in just about everything but the most demanding games.

Lastly, the stacker seems like an odd choice for you when you only have two hard drives and a single video card. (And by the way, I think you'll find RAID 0 underwhelming. It just doesn't make enough of a difference in performance to be worth the trouble and the increased risk of failure. My tip for you would be not to bother. Anandtech has done more than one article on the subject, and they consistently come to the conclusion that the performance impact is small enough to be within the margin of error.) The PSU, as has been mentioned, is also serious overkill.

 

[Chosonman]

Originally posted by: anishannayya

Originally posted by: Chosonman
2,113.96 for a rig? I just built a new one for $400. Sheesh...

What are the specs on that comp that you just built? I doubt you can run COD4 on a 50 inch screen.

Well....

I have 4 machines, I've run COD4 on my Second Rig which runs on a 60 inch Sony SXRD. (I can post pics if you like)

The specs on that machine are AMD Dual core 4600 and an ATI 3850 256MB. I run COD4 at 720 resolution because the print is too small for me at 1080 and it hurts my eyes, but I'm running Grid Racing (the game I play the most on that machine) at 1080 and they both run fine at the highest settings.

My main COD4 machine is a AMD Dual core 4800 with an 8800GT 512MB that I run on a 22" LG monitor at 1050 with "full on" graphics and it runs great.

Both machines cost me a shade under $500 when I built them and are perfectly fine for any games I want to play. My other machines are out dated single core AMD 64's that I've converted to a home server and a media center for my 43" Samsung DLP in my bed room.

So sorry if I'm shocked at how much you plan to spend on your rig. It's just shocking to me.


Edit: (Devil May Cry Bench score)
http://www.gamershell.com/download_27218.shtml

Resolution: 1680x1050
Setting: 16xAA
All High
No Vertical Synch

Frame Rate: 60fps
Grade: A

System Specs:
AMD X2 4800
2GB Corsair XMS DDR2 800
XFX 8800GT 512MD
~$450

 

[GuitarDaddy]

The Abit pro is a good board, the Gigabyte P35 boards are good also, as are Asus and DFI.
The key to picking a board is matching up the features you need (#sata's,firewire,raid,wifi,etc...) and try and pay for only the features you will use. With the Gigabyte boards for example these features make the diff between a $90 board and a $180 board. If you won't use firewire or raid and no more than 4 harddrives get the cheaper $90 version

And I agree with Nightblades assesment of SLI, it's problematic and pretty useless for everybody except the extreme tweakers who have to get the highest 3dmark score. And the upgrade to SLI option never works out.

And DSF has a very good point about resolution, I didn't catch the fact that you will be using a 50" TV for your monitor, in that case SLI and even the 9800GX2 will be a waste

 

[Chosonman]

Forgot to mention that the highest resolution for a TV is going to be 1080 you probably wont be able to hit the higher resolutions without a good monitor.

 

[anishannayya]

Well I got my ass handed to me. Repeatedly. You know what. I am going to follow everyone's advice and trim back. You see, I tend to be the type of person who sets it and forgets it. That is the reason why I wanted to spend so much. Let me change some things until I am satisfied. And by the way thanks for telling me about the whole screen size vs res fact. I sure do feel like an idiot. I'll post the results.

 

[anishannayya]

Okay here is my new plan.

GPU: EVGA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
Mobo: ABIT IP35 Pro
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
TV Tuner: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1800 MCE Kit
RAM: A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800
HDD: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Case: COOLER MASTER 690
80mm Fan: APEVIA 80mm Multi-Color LED
120mm Fans: COOLER MASTER 120mm LED (4 total)
Thermal Paste: Arctic Silver 5
HSF: XIGMATEK HDT-S1283
Dual DVD Drives: Pioneer IDE 20X DVD±R
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Ultimate - OEM
HSF Bracket: XIGMATEK ACK-I7751 Retention Bracket
PSU: PC Power & Cooling S75QB 750W

All in all with shipping: $1,454.67

I think that is pretty good. Don't see where else I should cut down. Tell me if you have any other ideas.

Thanks a million for all the help. It is really appreciated.

Awaiting your replies,

Anish

P.S. Will all that cooling be loud? Like I said my last build was a long time ago. The last comp I built for myself was a P4 with stock cooling and one 80mm exhaust, no intake. No OC. Now the case comes with 3 120mm fans. Will that suffice for what I have right now? This is how I plan to make it: front (intake), rear (exhaust), side (intake), side (intake), bottom (intake), top (exhaust), top (exhaust). I also plan to use that 80mm fan at the back of the mobo tray as exhaust to cool the CPU. Should I can some of these fans, or all of them? While I want my parts to last, this is going to be sitting in the living room next to the TV running all day long, so the last thing I need is a jet engine noise. If you have any other fan suggestions, I am willing to pay a premium for the peace of mind. The damn RO system in our house already makes enough noise. Blubbb, blurbb, blurrbbb. If it means I will have to deal with too much noise, then please tell me as I will drop the current HSF and get the Freezer 7 Pro and forget about OC'ing. Thanks again.

 

[DSF]

You really don't need six fans. I would try the three included with the case and monitor the temperatures. If they're too high for your taste, then upgrade your cooling. The CPU heatsink shouldn't be noisy.

It's a much better looking list now. The one thing I would still change is that your power supply is overpowered and overpriced. Even if you want to upgrade the graphics card in a couple years you shouldn't need a 750W PSU. Also, I've heard bad things about PCP&C's PSU noise levels despite the "Silencer" name. Your system will run fine on a good 500W PSU. If you want room for the future, even 650W is all you really need to think about.

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: anishannayya
Well I got my ass handed to me. Repeatedly. You know what. I am going to follow everyone's advice and trim back. You see, I tend to be the type of person who sets it and forgets it. That is the reason why I wanted to spend so much. Let me change some things until I am satisfied. And by the way thanks for telling me about the whole screen size vs res fact. I sure do feel like an idiot. I'll post the results.

Smart move Your not an idiot you take good advice!

 

[Chosonman]

Originally posted by: Ausm
Smart move Your not an idiot you take good advice!

Hey I quit smoking too. Since 2004 after 15 year. (That's why I have this mask. j/k)

Good luck with your build OP.

 

[Ariste]

Originally posted by: anishannayya
Okay here is my new plan.

GPU: EVGA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
Mobo: ABIT IP35 Pro
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
TV Tuner: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1800 MCE Kit
RAM: A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800
HDD: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Case: COOLER MASTER 690
80mm Fan: APEVIA 80mm Multi-Color LED
120mm Fans: COOLER MASTER 120mm LED (4 total)
Thermal Paste: Arctic Silver 5
HSF: XIGMATEK HDT-S1283
Dual DVD Drives: Pioneer IDE 20X DVD±R
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Ultimate - OEM
HSF Bracket: XIGMATEK ACK-I7751 Retention Bracket
PSU: PC Power & Cooling S75QB 750W

All in all with shipping: $1,454.67

I think that is pretty good. Don't see where else I should cut down. Tell me if you have any other ideas.

Thanks a million for all the help. It is really appreciated.

Awaiting your replies,

Anish

P.S. Will all that cooling be loud? Like I said my last build was a long time ago. The last comp I built for myself was a P4 with stock cooling and one 80mm exhaust, no intake. No OC. Now the case comes with 3 120mm fans. Will that suffice for what I have right now? This is how I plan to make it: front (intake), rear (exhaust), side (intake), side (intake), bottom (intake), top (exhaust), top (exhaust). I also plan to use that 80mm fan at the back of the mobo tray as exhaust to cool the CPU. Should I can some of these fans, or all of them? While I want my parts to last, this is going to be sitting in the living room next to the TV running all day long, so the last thing I need is a jet engine noise. If you have any other fan suggestions, I am willing to pay a premium for the peace of mind. The damn RO system in our house already makes enough noise. Blubbb, blurbb, blurrbbb. If it means I will have to deal with too much noise, then please tell me as I will drop the current HSF and get the Freezer 7 Pro and forget about OC'ing. Thanks again.

As someone else said, if you're worried about noise I'd suggest looking for a different PSU. I don't own one of those, but I've heard they're loud.

As far as the Xigmatek - it's only as loud as the fan you put on it. I've got one of these on it and it's more or less silent, and it cools great even at 4.0GHz on my E8400.

 

[anishannayya]

Okay I threw out all the fans, deciding I can buy them later if necessary. I also changed the PSU to: Antec EA650 650W ATX12V. I admit is was the cheapest one I could find under 750W, but the 12 reviews report it is extremely stable and quiet. I could really care less about modular cabling, so I will go with this. Now my total is: $1,360.02 I will, of course, be able to find deals through promos and will be able to knock that price down a bit more. So, the list is:

GPU: EVGA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
Mobo: ABIT IP35 Pro
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
TV Tuner: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1800 MCE Kit
RAM: A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800
HDD: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Case: COOLER MASTER 690
Thermal Paste: Arctic Silver 5
HSF: XIGMATEK HDT-S1283
Dual DVD Drives: Pioneer IDE 20X DVD±R
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Ultimate - OEM
HSF Bracket: XIGMATEK ACK-I7751 Retention Bracket
PSU: Antec EA650 650W ATX12V

TOTAL: $1,360.02

 

[anishannayya]

Changed it a bit again after reading other posts. This is how the list looks:


GPU: EVGA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
TV Tuner: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1800 MCE Kit
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1000
HDD: Western Digital Caviar SE16
Case: COOLER MASTER 690
Thermal Paste: Arctic Silver 5
HSF: XIGMATEK HDT-S1283
Dual DVD Drives: SAMSUNG SATA Combo
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Ultimate - OEM
HSF Bracket: XIGMATEK ACK-I7751 Retention Bracket
PSU: Antec EA650 650W ATX12V

TOTAL: $1,275.04

Now all I have to do is wait for the 18th or so.

 

[anishannayya]

Wow! I have been out of hardware for way to long! They have separate VGA coolers? Holy shit, I remember the days when the only fan you had in the case was one lousy fan over the processor. No thermal paste, just the fan, or sometimes a graphite pad and a huge warranty sticker over the proc, so that even less heat gets transfered. Anyway, with that knowledge in mind. Man, still can't wrap my mind around that. And you didn't worry about the noise the fan made, but instead worried about the machine-gun fire noise that came from your hard drive. Anyway, is it possible to get better cooling for the EVGA 8800 GT 512 MB? How would you go about installing this new cooling device? If it is possible to install an aftermarket cooler, would the Arctic Cooling S1 fit in my case? If not what would you recommend?

Thanks. I know I am full of questions, but with all this damn cooling modern hardware needs, I am really confused.

-- Anish

BTW I forgot to add the reason why I want aftermarket cooling is for less noise while overclocking.

Also need to add to the will the S1 fit in my case question that I also have the XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 which isn't the smallest thing in the world either.