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No budget multimedia/gaming build.

V

Viceroy

Junior Member
This build's ultimate purpose is to be used for mainly for gaming and multimedia downloading/burning/ripping/playback. I have stated that this build has no budget restrictions. This is true, however that is not to say that I am willing to spend excess amounts of money for hugely diminished returns on bleeding-edge merchandise. I am satisfied with the product that is currently at a great value but is not underpowered. For instance, my GPU of choice is the Radeon 5850. It is less powerful than the 5870, but also much less expensive. It is also slightly more expensive than a 4890, or 2x4870 CF'd, but also a much more solid and versatile performer. The perfect balance of power-pricing for me is the Radeon 5850.

---Potential purchases---

RAM - http://www.newegg.com/Product/..._-20-231-276-_-Product]G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)[/url]
$97 taxed/shipped
Low latency and low voltage make up for its low speed, which can be easily overclocked. I will consider purchasing a second set if 4gb seems insufficient.

GPU - http://cgi.ebay.com/Sapphire-A...6ps%3D63#ht_5235wt_936]Sapphire ATI Radeon HD5850[/url]
$265 taxed/shipped

ODD - http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16827140042]HP Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM SATA 24X Multiformat DVD Writer[/url]
$35 taxed/shipped
This one does everything but Blu-ray. If you can find me a better one or a cheaper one, chime in.

$397 total

---Recently completed purchases---

***New*** Case - http://www.newegg.com/Product/..._-11-103-011-_-Product]XCLIO Windtunnel Fully Black Finish 1.0 mm SECC Chassis ATX Full Tower Computer Case[/url]
$98 taxed/shipped

PSU - http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/...p?ProductCode=10010480]ENERMAX ERV1050EWT Revolution85+ 1050W SLI/CrossFire Active PFC Modular 85 Plus Silver Certified Power Supply[/url]
$150 taxed/shipped

HDD - http://www.amazon.com/Western-...1IEZX3G?tag=slickdeals]Western Digital 1 TB Caviar Green SATA Intellipower 32 MB Cache[/url]
$75 taxed/shipped

CPU - https://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=I7-860BOX]Intel Core i7 Processor i7-860 2.80GHz 8MB LGA1156[/url] + Mobo - https://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-P55M-D2]GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2 Socket 1156/ Intel P55/ DDR3/ CrossFireX/ A&GbE[/url]
$335 taxed/shipped

VDU - http://www.dell.com/us/en/dfo/...nitor-dell-u2410&s=dfo]Dell UltraSharp U2410 24 inch 1920x1200 6ms 1000:1 HDMI/DVI/VGA/DisplayPort Widescreen LCD Monitor[/url]
$524 taxed/shipped
Really phat screen with badass features and picture. Demands high-power GPU so I can take advantage of its awesomeness.

Audio A - http://www.alteclansing.com/in...il&iproduct_id=BXR1121]Altec Lansing BXR1121[/url]
$20.00 taxed/shipped
If you haven't heard these before then you are missing out. For the quality of sound I can't believe they only retail for about 25 dollars.

Moose - http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-mice/razer-salmosa/]Razer Salmosa[/url]
$27.00 taxed/shipped

$1229 total

***New*** ---Optional purchases---

***New*** Mouse - My current mouse, the Razer Salmosa, is somewhat unsatisfactory to me. I bought it on the prerequisite that it would be ideal for fingertip gripping, when in fact the dynamics of the mouse seem more befitting a claw grip or even a palm, and this is just not what I wanted at all. If held with fingertips, the Salmosa buttons are too difficult to depress (due to being nearer to the butt end), the chassis shows marks very easily, and the mouse itself is just much too long to be effectively maneuvered like a fingertip mouse should be.

If you have any suggestions for mice that you think I would like, please let me know.

***New*** Keys - http://cgi.ebay.com/Logitech-G...iewItem#ht_3294wt_1162]Logitech G11 Gaming Keyboard[/url]
$50 taxed/shipped
Keyboard needs to have backlighting, or whatever it is called where a light comes on beneath the keys so they can be seen easier in a dark room. The keys must have space between them and must have noticeable depression (so no laptop keys). It absolutely must NOT have all the noobish bling like a dumb little LCD screen or 50 programmable buttons I'll never use. If you have any suggestions for boards you think I would like, or if you think the G11 is perfect for me, let me know.

***New*** HDD - I already have a 1tb drive listed in my completed purchases, but I am considering several options that would involve different/additional HDDs.

One would be purchasing a 10k RPM drive, particularly the http://www.newegg.com/Product/...?ItemList=Combo.273741]Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive[/url]. Newegg is running a combo deal right now where they are throwing in a power supply along with the VR, and giving you 2 bucks just to take it off their hands. I have no use for that PSU on my machine, so I figure I could sell it on Ebay for about $70, thus bringing the practical price of a 300 GB WD VR down to $150. Another option would be to take identical drives and run them in RAID, but this would practically necessitate that I sell my current drive and buy faster ones (I am going for speed here, after all). Yet another option would be the one included in the following quote:
Another option is to buy a 32MB cache 1.0 or 1.5 TB drive ( $90 to $140 typically , Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 series in particular here ) and "short-stroke it" to only 300 ( or 700 ) GB, using the fastest part of the platters only ( restrict cylinders to only allow access to outer cylinders/tracks of the platters, so that the drive is forced to only r/w to the fastest parts of the platters ( the middle to outside of the platters, larger circumference of platter = higher data throughput there ), making inner portion of the platters inaccessible. Once you do this, the performance is on par with VelociRaptor ( even slightly better in certain benchmarks ) for about half the price of the VelociRaptor.
Click to expand...
All of the options look tempting and viable to me. I thank you for any insight you can offer me in this matter.

********

That's it for the potential purchases for now. Please give me any opinions you have-no change is too small. I've spent a lot of time on this build because I want it to be as perfect as it can be, so please spare no detail. I am all-ears.

Thanks a bunch 🙂

~Viceroy Trepanation
 
$200 for a motherboard seems a bit much. Even the $100 boards seem pretty good. $100 - socket 1156, 4 memory slots, 16gb max memory, 2 slot crossfire, gigabit ethernet.

 
Your cpu, ram, & mobo come out to 605$

If you have a MicroCenter nearby you can do better on that price & if you do, i'd suggest going with a i7 920 1366

i7 920 = 215$ after tax - MicroCenter (the i5 750 is 159$ at MC ...i think)
DDR3 1333 = 130$ free shipping at new egg
Asrock X58 Extreme = 169$ at new egg
 
Thank you all for your suggestions. I just gave the OP an update. I'll be back to respond tomorrow evening.
 
Originally posted by: ShawnD1
$200 for a motherboard seems a bit much. Even the $100 boards seem pretty good. $100 - socket 1156, 4 memory slots, 16gb max memory, 2 slot crossfire, gigabit ethernet.
Click to expand...

The ASRock board linked to only supports crossfire in x16, x4. If you are going to do CF/SLI you should look for a board that runs 2 PCIe 2.0 slots at x8, x8. The cheapest I could find on NewEgg is the mATX Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4 for $149.99 with free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128404

The board you listed (GA-P55-UD4P) is the first ATX board to show up with x8, x8 and it's $169.99 on NewEgg with free shipping. There are a couple other boards around that range that don't specify if they're x16, x4 or x8, x8 so you may want to double check those. Here's the list I reviewed:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...wDeactivatedMark=False

That being said, if you don't plan on CF/SLI then a cheaper board may suit you fine. I picked up the GA-P55M-UD2 ($109.99 NewEgg) and built a system around it two days ago and for my needs it's running great. I didn't have any issues getting it up and running.
 
^ Pretty much everyone is telling me that a 5800 would be better overall than 2x4870. I don't need that PCI interface.

I'm really not sure what features to look for in a mobo, other than compatible interface and inputs.
 
For the motherboard, just look for issues (chipset cooling, BIOS, RAM compatibility, and anything else people have had problems with including RMA/customer service)

The Samsung F1's were fast in one area, but not good all-around so I suggest you look into benchmarks of the F3 in other areas aside from sequential reads/writes. Maybe they have a winner with the F3's, but I doubt it.

Your PSU is cheap. You don't want a cheap PSU.

$170 for a motherboard is definitely not excessive, it's about right. An X58 board is that plus $100, so be happy. Unfortunately, the way it works is you can't choose the components on your motherboard, so you have to find one that works for your intended setup and make due.

You forgot the SSD. Definitely need one.
 
The Samsung F1's were fast in one area, but not good all-around so I suggest you look into benchmarks of the F3 in other areas aside from sequential reads/writes. Maybe they have a winner with the F3's, but I doubt it.
Click to expand...

Who said anything about F1s :s The F3 has been confirmed to seek faster than the Caviar.

Your PSU is cheap. You don't want a cheap PSU.
Click to expand...

Do you even know anything about this PSU, or did you just assume it was bad because of the low cost? ZipZoom was running a promo on this one and it comes with a 30 dollar rebate, plus the 20 dollars off the original price.

You forgot the SSD.
Click to expand...

I'm not getting an SSD until the compatibility issues with Windows 7 have been fixed.
 
You definitely do not want a PSU that ripples out of the 100mv spec. Check out JonnyGuru's page for PSU reviews. The PC&P Cooling Silencer 910 is a phenomenal PSU for 199$ If you want that in a modular PSU - The Enermax Revo's and Evo are among the other top tier PSU makers.
 
Originally posted by: Viceroy
Originally posted by: ChaiBabbaChaiThe Samsung F1's were fast in one area, but not good all-around so I suggest you look into benchmarks of the F3 in other areas aside from sequential reads/writes. Maybe they have a winner with the F3's, but I doubt it.
Click to expand...

Who said anything about F1s :s The F3 has been confirmed to seek faster than the Caviar.
Click to expand...

"confirmed" - what? You talk like a crazy person. ALL the newest high-density-platter based HDDs are faster than previous. SSDs are still 40+ times faster than the newest 500GB platter HDDs.

Originally posted by: Viceroy
Originally posted by: ChaiBabbaChaiYour PSU is cheap. You don't want a cheap PSU.
Click to expand...

Do you even know anything about this PSU, or did you just assume it was bad because of the low cost? ZipZoom was running a promo on this one and it comes with a 30 dollar rebate, plus the 20 dollars off the original price.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's an OCZ made by Sirtec. A POS. I got my PSU on sale with $30 rebate and free shipping and I still paid $187 after taxes. Yeah, now that's good stuff.

Originally posted by: Viceroy
Originally posted by: ChaiBabbaChaiYou forgot the SSD.
Click to expand...

I'm not getting an SSD until the compatibility issues with Windows 7 have been fixed.
Click to expand...

Maybe you should wait until they figure out how to make HDDs last 100 years... yeah better safe than sorry 😛
 
I just finished giving the OP a revision. The possibility of an i5 CPU was scrapped, and due to popular user demand, I have allowed a return of the possibility of an i7 920/x58/tri-channel core system build possibility, albeit against my better judgement. Please see the points marked ***New*** for greater detail.

Thank you all very much for your help.
 
I have been considering replacing my current motherboard selection with the http://www.newegg.com/Product/...055&Tpk=132-LF-E655-KR]EVGA P55 SLI 132-LF-E655-KR LGA1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard[/url]. It is $184 taxed/shipped, which is only 20 dollars more than my current mobo. This one looks to be of higher quality and more feature-rich, though my perspective on motherboards is somewhat limited and I ask for your insight.

Also, I found an http://www.newegg.com/Product/...16&Tpk=SSDSA2MH080G2C1]Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2MH080G2C1 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid state disk[/url] for $220 taxed/shipped, and at that price I am highly considering implementing it into my overall build. What are your thoughts?
 
I just purchased my CPU and motherboard, changed my ODD of choice, and updated the OP accordingly. I decided to commit to the i7 860 and subsequent compatible motherboard/RAM, so the rest of this build should fall into place pretty easily.

Final purchases are planned to be made in the next few days if possible.
 
That PSU is making me shake my head. Why do people want to buy cheap 700W PSUs on relatively high performance systems is beyond me. It's not the part you want to cheap out on.
 
Fork over the money and get a good PSU; it'll last you through more than one system. You can't go wrong with Corsair.

What are the Windows 7 issues with SSDs again? I must have missed something.
 
>What OS are you going to use?

Windows 7

>That PSU is making me shake my head. Why do people want to buy cheap 700W PSUs

Cuz it was at a great deal. 40% off regular price. 700 watts should be plenty for this system. If it isn't I can always just buy a different one.

>What are the Windows 7 issues with SSDs again? I must have missed something.

I dunno, something to do with the way windows 7 is coded that makes it take some half-seconds longer to do crap on an SSD.
 
One of my biggest questions is if everything will fit into my case of choice, especially with the rather large video card I will be using. Does anyone know for certain?
 
Gave a little update to the OP. I exchanged my PSU for a nicer one, nabbed a Caviar Green instead of a Spinpoint since Amazon was running a special, changed my ODD again and got rid of the peripheral purchases I made since the people I bought it from never sent the items. I did get my money back, though.

Let me know what you think.
 
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