New Build, Killer budget

[sniperchang]

Hey guys,

Its approaching that time again, so I need to get up to speed. I'll be buying within the next month, and my budget will be nearing $2000.

I'm looking for best bang for buck, my end goal is a sick gaming machine capable of running at least four monitors. I currently have a GTX260 as primary running two monitors(doing graphics during gaming), and a 9800GT as secondary (doing the physx calculations during gaming) running two monitors. I'd like to do something similar.

I'll address each component as follows:

CPU: Seems like the i7 920 are very popular right now... I'm not sure how AMD is doing with their AM3 stuff...

Motherboard: The Asus P6T series also seem popular. I've always liked asus mobo.

Ram: I'll probably just get 2gbx3 of corsair or OCZ ram. Unless 12gb has alot of benifit. Ram got alot bigger, very quickly in the last couple of years, I'm not quite sure whats best here.

Graphics: Like I said, four monitors. I'm thinking GTX 275 or even a GTX 285 Primary, and a 9800GT secondary or maybe a GTX260(physx dedication)

HDD: There's some debate weither or not to use SDD for boot. I'd like to discuss using SDD or small HD in raid. I'll just buy a large standard hd for storage.

Sound: At this point, I think on board sound has come a long way and probably not need a dedicated card. Up for debate.

TV Tuner: I currently have a old WinTV PVR2000 Expert. I could keep it, or get something else, but I have no idea what's on the market right now. I may be getting HD channels in the future...

PS: I currently have a corsair PS, and it seems to perform just fine. I could get a corsair 750W or 1000W. hmm...


Let fly your thoughts! Thanks for the help.

EDIT: Also just quickly is there big differences for the socket 1366 vs 1156? is the 1366 newer?

 

[Drenlin]

Most of that looks good. I'd consider an ati card for the primary though.

1156 is for low/mid cpu's, while 1366 is for high end. The 920 is 1366.

edit:

CPU- Core i7 920- $310
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202

CPU Cooler- Cooler Master V8- $70
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103055

Mobo- EVGA E758-A1- $280 after rebate ($310 before) (x16/x16/x8 PCIe...XFire plus Physx?)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188039

RAM- Corsair 3x2GB- $170
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145258

PSU- Corsair 1000HX- $280 (before $20 USD rebate)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139011

DVD Burner- Lite-On with Lightscribe- $28
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106282


That makes a good platform, and comes to $1176 CAD before rebates. This leaves the Hard Drives, GPU, and Case. My suggestions:

Boot- 2x Spinpoint F3 500GB in raid0- $114 (or 2x WD caviar black for $140)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181

Data- Samsung Spinpoint F3 2TB- $180
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152202

Case- Cooler Master Storm Scout- $100
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119196

Main GPU- Sapphire 5870- $430 (supports six monitors)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102856

PhysX GPU- Just use the 9800GT? The 5870 and i7 smash everything anyway...PhysX is just icing on the cake.

Total- $1992, before rebates

 

[sniperchang]

I'm not familiar with ATI cards, I usually go for NVIDIA, but I really like that card. The triple head (six with Eyefinity) is perfect for me.

How well does ATI support multiple GPUs? Say I run three monitors on the 5870, and one or two on a weaker card, can I enable physx on the weaker card like with NVIDIA, while running the three monitors as primary?

That case looks good, but it looks small.

I'm pretty happy with the rest.

 

[Drenlin]

I actually don't know the particulars of Eyefinity, but the 5870 does support three monitors without using it. I think it's two in DVI and one in HDMI.

As far as the physx goes, I think if you enable it on one card, it works for the whole system. Don't quote me on that though.

The case isn't a full tower or anything, but I wouldn't call it cramped either. Here's an assembled one to give you an idea:

There are definitely other options though. If you want a full tower, the Cooler Master HAF models are pretty good. NZXT has some awesome ones as well but newegg.ca doesn't have them.

 

[lubo4444]

For a case go with the HAF-922 (it has plenty of room in it) if you want cheaper case or the HAF-932 which is slightly bigger but it's also more expensive. For card i also would go with the 5870 because it's newer technology and also it supports DirectX 11 which again will be good for gaming (i see you've mentioned you want to game on it too).

 

[Gabe63]

Go to Microcenter also, just bought the i7-920 for $199 yesterday, not $310 like Newegg. Skip EVGA Mobo get ASUS.

nVIDIA cannot compete with ATI 5870 or 5850, both are better than the 285. Do some research on this, ATI has the best performance right now.

I love my case, it will fit a 5970 card if you can find one, and it looks normal if that matters to you.

I want to get an Intel 160GB SSD as my next upgrade.

Oh, your WinTV probably wont work with W7. The xx00 cards are not supported while the xx50 are (at least to the best of my memory). This was on their website when I was researching the diff before buying.

 

[lubo4444]

Go to Microcenter also, just bought the i7-920 for $199 yesterday, not $310 like Newegg. Skip EVGA Mobo get ASUS.

nVIDIA cannot compete with ATI 5870 or 5850, both are better than the 285. Do some research on this, ATI has the best performance right now.

I love my case, it will fit a 5970 card if you can find one.

I want to get an Intel 160GB SSD as my next upgrade.

Oh, your WinTV probably wont work with W7. The xx00 cards are not supported while the xx50 are (at least to the best of my memory). This was on their website when I was researching the diff before buying.

He seems to be from Canada. I dont think Microcenter ships to Canada.

 

[Drenlin]

What's wrong with EVGA...? That's hardly a low quality board.

 

[daisymtc]

I actually don't know the particulars of Eyefinity, but the 5870 does support three monitors without using it. I think it's two in DVI and one in HDMI.

5870 support upto 3 monitors.
CF it should support up to 6.


So, I would suggest -

Mobo - Grab one of those support SATA 6gb, usb 3.0
HDD - grab a SSD for OS and programme, and one normal drive for storage
Video card - CF 5850 or 5870, what so ever fit the budget, to run 4 monitors

 

[daisymtc]

What's wrong with EVGA...? That's hardly a low quality board.

For my understanding, they are made by Foxconn...

 

[lubo4444]

5870 support upto 3 monitors.
CF it should support up to 6.


So, I would suggest -

Mobo - Grab one of those support SATA 6gb, usb 3.0
HDD - grab a SSD for OS and programme, and one normal drive for storage
Video card - CF 5850 or 5870, what so ever fit the budget, to run 4 monitors

+1. That's true they do support only 3 monitors. So i'm assuming the same if you run 2 in crossfire you will be able to run 6 monitors total.

 

[sniperchang]

What's wrong with EVGA...? That's hardly a low quality board.

I currently have a evga board, and it's ok. However the chipset is running really hot, and I'm having problems with DVD Burners for some reason. The system will completely freeze (even the mouse! What a frustrating feeling) because the DVD burner would stop "responding". At first I thought it was the burner but I replaced it and it did the same thing, now I'm thinking it's the motherboard.

+1. That's true they do support only 3 monitors. So i'm assuming the same if you run 2 in crossfire you will be able to run 6 monitors total.

What about running a cheaper gpu independently like I was saying earlier? I could also dedicate that card to physx while the 5870 takes care of the rest. This setup would allow 5 monitors. The only question is if ATI supports multi gpu as well as nvidia (one driver for all sorta deal, with full support for independently run or CrossFire or a mix of both. NVIDIA has been great for this sorta stuff for me).

 

[sniperchang]

How did I get forgotten so quickly?

In addition to my above post questions, I wished to discuss further using a SSD vs standard Hard Drive in raid. Some people like the SSD some say they're not ready...

 

[funkysnair]

For my understanding, they are made by Foxconn...

foxconn and evga are both good quality mobos defo

 

[FATALiiTYz]

foxconn and evga are both good quality mobos defo

Yes, they both are very good quality boards. Personally I'm leaning more towards the Asus p6t but its your choice. For the ssd, I'd get the OCZ Agility 60gb but again its up to you. Otherwise, looks great :good:

edit: I just sent my broken laptop of to Asus a week ago and I got it back in *5* working days. This just shows you by paying a little bit more for a premium product, Asus make it up to you.

 

[Drenlin]

Just posted this in another thread:

IMO, you're better off with a decent RAID array at this point. SSD's aren't cost effective at all yet, and they suffer from pretty drastic slowdowns over time because of fragmentation. This requires a complete wipe of the disk since they can't be defragged or formatted.

The lack of superfetch and prefetching isn't good either. That's there to slow down the fragmentation, not speed the system up.

A good RAID array with 3-4 drives will cost the same, have most of the performance, and have 5-10 times more storage space. Samsung's Spinpoint F3 moseld and WD's Caviar Black models are excellent candidates for RAID usage.

I'd go for as many of the 500GB Spinpoint F3's as you think you need. They're $50 apiece and outperform every other hard drive in the price range, as well as most of the more expensive drives.

However, it might be possible to have a standard drive for the OS and data, and an SSD for the programs you want to speed up. That way you can just keep those install files for the on another disk and wipe the SSD when it slows down, without having to reinstall windows and the rest of your programs. And since windows is now on another disk, there's an extra 20gb of free space.

 

[FATALiiTYz]

lol you got me there

 

[sniperchang]

Yes, they both are very good quality boards. Personally I'm leaning more towards the Asus p6t but its your choice. For the ssd, I'd get the OCZ Agility 60gb but again its up to you. Otherwise, looks great :good:

edit: I just sent my broken laptop of to Asus a week ago and I got it back in *5* working days. This just shows you by paying a little bit more for a premium product, Asus make it up to you.

You don't have to remind me that it's my choice. Of course it's my choice! Nah, I'm just kidding. I agree with you, I think Asus would be a better choice. All my other systems, past or present, all have been asus and I never could complain. But not so for my evga motherboard. It's not a terrible board, but I think Asus is still better.

Just posted this in another thread:



However, it might be possible to have a standard drive for the OS and data, and an SSD for the programs you want to speed up. That way you can just keep those install files for the on another disk and wipe the SSD when it slows down, without having to reinstall windows and the rest of your programs. And since windows is now on another disk, there's an extra 20gb of free space.

That's not a bad idea. Maybe I can keep my velociraptor for the OS and get a SSD for other installs.

EDIT: The only concern I had about SSD, is that a little while back when they were coming out, some had problems (they were slow or something I don't quite remember). Is this still a problem? Any outstanding SSDs I need to avoid? Any that are the best?

 

[Drenlin]

I think the fragmentation is what they were talking about. They all do it, though some are worse than others.

 

[sniperchang]

I think the fragmentation is what they were talking about. They all do it, though some are worse than others.

Ok, so if I take care to defragment often, or run a background defragmenter, I should be ok?