Suggestions and advice? need help

InnerCalm · Aug 19, 2011

Piece by piece, suggestions and advice

I am looking to build my second computer, this time doing all the labor and installation myself. I bought off cyberpowerpc, and though i loved the computer, i wanted something different. The following is what i am looking at, and why... if you see something wrong or think i should change something, PLEASE tell me, as I want the best computer i can get within my budget (1500 or so)

Type of computer - I want a GAMING rig that will eat anything i throw at it. I want to be able to run anything i want.

Motherboard

ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe Intel Z68 LGA1155 Motherboard
or
ASUS P6X58-E PRO Intel X58 LGA1366 Motherboard

The reason i chose these motherboards is because of the ability to quad-sli... I may not use this function for the time being, but the ability to do so is very nice. They are both 259$.

Is quad-sli worth the price, and are these motherboards what I am looking for? Which one do i want? The x58 has 6 ram slots, i like that better, but in the description, the first one said it was made for second generation intel processors... is the second one also capable of using the second gen processors? HELP ME DECIDE!!!

Processor

Intel® Core™ i7-2600K Processor (8M Cache, 3.40 GHz)

I simply liked the 3.4 with quad core multi-threading. Thoughts? Price is 315$

Memory

Depending on the motherboard i have 4-6 slots... whats the most i can get within the budget?

Graphics Card(s)

I had two 6850's crossfired... need help here. Only getting one video card until after i get the rest of the computer set up, so i need help deciding on something i can do later.

SLI - Crossfire??

What do i need???

Also noticed that some of the same cards are made by different people, does that matter?

Sound

Built in

Ethernet Card

Built in

Hard Drive

Seagate ST32000641AS Barracuda XT Hard Drive - 2TB, 7200 RPM, SATA 6G, 64MB Cache

2tb is what i want, i suppose this is fast enough... 129$

DVD/BR

Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Internal 12x Blu-Ray Burner - BD-R 12x, BD-R DL 8x, BD-R LTH 4x, BD-RE 2x, BD-RE DL 2x, DVD±R 16x, DVD+RW 8x, DVD-RW 6x, DVD±R DL 8x, DVD-RAM 12x, CD-R 48x, CD-RW 24x, SATA

Figured id use this for my drive - 99$

CASE

Ultra U12-40670 BLACK Edition Full-Tower ATX/mATX Case (3) 120mm Fans, (7) External 5.25" Bays, (5) Internal 3.5" Bays, Front Port USB, FireWire, eSATA and Audio, Tool-Free, Lifetime Warranty w/ Reg

Maybe for space - 129$

Azza CSAZ-2000R Hurrican 2000R Full Tower Gaming Case - E-ATX, Full ATX, ATX, Micro ATX, 4x Ext 5.25", 1x Ext 3.5", 6x Int 3.5", 4x 230mm Fans, 4x 120mm Fans, 1x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0, e-SATA

139$

Or i might build my own if money is tight

Power Supply

Azza PSAZ-1000A14 Titan ATX Power Supply - 1000W, 80 Plus Bronze, 140mm LED Fan, SLI & CrossFire Ready, Active PFC

Extra power for later upgrades - 120$

------------------------

Thats all i can think of right now... any help would be appreciated

graphics cards and memory would help me out a lot.

claptonman · Aug 19, 2011

Quadfire GPUs would be overkill. Anymore than 1, really, has problems with heat, drivers, and some games just don't like them. If anything, just go two cards. But remember, one single powerful card > dual weak cards.

Some companies make great cards and some don't. Just look at reviews on Newegg for problems. For your budget, I would go for a Nvidia 570 or 580.

Most games don't use hyperthreading, so you might be better off with getting the i5 2500k. It will destroy anything you throw at it, and only $100 less.

For RAM, all you need is 8GB. You don't be using over 8GB of RAM playing games.

Get a 650w-750w power supply for single/crossfired cards. You may need to go to 1000w for quadfire, but like I said, that is really not worth it. And the brand of power supply isn't that great. Look for a corsair, antec, silverstone, seasonic, PC power and cooling, or XFX.

linkin · Aug 19, 2011

Give me a budget for the tower and I'll give you a list of parts to buy and assemble

Make sure to note if you need/want peripherals, speakers, sound cards, etc.

jonnyp11 · Aug 19, 2011

lga 1155 is for the 2****'s, which is the 2600k, and the z68 chipset, the x68 or whatever is for a 900 series which may have 6 cores but is useless for gaming as the 2600k is faster and way cheaper than any of them

you'll want 8gb's of 1600mhz or higher, but make sure it is supported by the mobo

you'll want a ssd for the os and other main programs, much faster than a hdd but more expensive, but for the hdd and the 2tb's you'd be better off with going raid 0 with 2 samsung f3's, makes them act like 1 hdd so thanks to the 2 cords it ends up being a good bit faster than a normal hdd, but still nowhere near a ssd

power supply needs to a be corsair/antec/silverstone/seasonic/pc p&c and i think there are 1 or 2 others, those are the best quality, that azza is most likely no where near 1000w power, they just say it is by upping the 5v rail but the gpu's and all will be using the 12v rail, and i'd go for a single 580 or 70, they will kill anything for a while, then later you can get the second card, a 6990/70/50 will be about the same way, and just get the second when the time comes, and for this you will only need to get like 800w on a psu i listed above, but corsair is the normal pick for this stuff, they are normally the best priced and best quality from what i know, but i know they are generally the best value.

you will also need to get an os disk so you can actually o something, the 100 buck win7 home is best, the others just have unneeded crap addad to them.

linkin · Aug 19, 2011

lga 1155 is for the 2****'s, which is the 2600k, and the z68 chipset, the x68 or whatever is for a 900 series which may have 6 cores but is useless for gaming as the 2600k is faster and way cheaper than any of them

You should explain the difference between chipsets as well.

P67 is first-generation 1155 stuff. Z68 is next, which brings extra features like SSD caching. All in all you'll be fine with either.

Only the 990X/980X/970X/960X (not sure about the last one) are six-core CPU's, and the chipset is X58, not X68. X68 is for the LGA2011 socket.

Also, the 6 core CPU's will beat the snot out of the 2xxxk CPU's in multithreaded stuff. 1155 being newer, has the advantage of a smaller die (32nm vs 45nm) and will most likely win in single threaded performance.

you'll want 8gb's of 1600mhz or higher, but make sure it is supported by the mobo

Mobo support generally isn't an issue unless you're buying low end boards. The boards will support the RAM easily enough, it's the CPU's themselves that are the issue, as LGA1366, LGA1156/1155 and AMD's CPU's only officially support 1333MHz. You can run higher speed RAM, but you will have to manually set up the speed, timings and voltage in the BIOS.

you'll want a ssd for the os and other main programs, much faster than a hdd but more expensive, but for the hdd and the 2tb's you'd be better off with going raid 0 with 2 samsung f3's, makes them act like 1 hdd so thanks to the 2 cords it ends up being a good bit faster than a normal hdd, but still nowhere near a ssd

With an SSD, RAID is rather pointless. I'd rather have an SSD and two separate storage drives over an SSD and RAID HDD's. Two cables mean nothing, as each drive has its' own one anyway, outside of RAID. Setting up RAID is easy enough too, as most boards come with a basic RAID controller.

power supply needs to a be corsair/antec/silverstone/seasonic/pc p&c and i think there are 1 or 2 others, those are the best quality, that azza is most likely no where near 1000w power, they just say it is by upping the 5v rail but the gpu's and all will be using the 12v rail, and i'd go for a single 580 or 70, they will kill anything for a while, then later you can get the second card, a 6990/70/50 will be about the same way, and just get the second when the time comes, and for this you will only need to get like 800w on a psu i listed above, but corsair is the normal pick for this stuff, they are normally the best priced and best quality from what i know, but i know they are generally the best value.

Solid advice but Corsair stuff can be overpriced. Make sure to shop around, read reviews and check specifications. See the PSU section and the sticky there for advice on finding the right wattage unit.

you will also need to get an os disk so you can actually o something, the 100 buck win7 home is best, the others just have unneeded crap addad to them.

Better make sure it's a 64-bit version if you're using 4GB or more of RAM.

InnerCalm · Aug 19, 2011

linkin said:
Give me a budget for the tower and I'll give you a list of parts to buy and assemble Make sure to note if you need/want peripherals, speakers, sound cards, etc.

Could we speak over a messenger? (ICQ, live messenger)

I have a few questions and you seems to know what you are talking about...

my budget is 1500 for the tower.

linkin · Aug 19, 2011

InnerCalm · Aug 19, 2011

jonnyp11 said:
lga 1155 is for the 2****'s, which is the 2600k, and the z68 chipset, the x68 or whatever is for a 900 series which may have 6 cores but is useless for gaming as the 2600k is faster and way cheaper than any of them

you'll want 8gb's of 1600mhz or higher, but make sure it is supported by the mobo

you'll want a ssd for the os and other main programs, much faster than a hdd but more expensive, but for the hdd and the 2tb's you'd be better off with going raid 0 with 2 samsung f3's, makes them act like 1 hdd so thanks to the 2 cords it ends up being a good bit faster than a normal hdd, but still nowhere near a ssd

power supply needs to a be corsair/antec/silverstone/seasonic/pc p&c and i think there are 1 or 2 others, those are the best quality, that azza is most likely no where near 1000w power, they just say it is by upping the 5v rail but the gpu's and all will be using the 12v rail, and i'd go for a single 580 or 70, they will kill anything for a while, then later you can get the second card, a 6990/70/50 will be about the same way, and just get the second when the time comes, and for this you will only need to get like 800w on a psu i listed above, but corsair is the normal pick for this stuff, they are normally the best priced and best quality from what i know, but i know they are generally the best value.

you will also need to get an os disk so you can actually o something, the 100 buck win7 home is best, the others just have unneeded crap addad to them.

So the 2600k will work fine with the lga 1155 correct? Is that a good choice?

Ive decided to only get two vid cards... should i go for a different mobo?

jonnyp11 · Aug 19, 2011

what linkin put was good, but this is what i'd do, and you can change the case if you want, it was just a nice one in a combo for 15 off the hdd, or you could also get a second hdd if you want but do you really need 2tb's, and you can go 2600k if you want, but unless doing video editing and coding/decoding it won't ever get the benefits for years, nothing will be threaded for 8 cores for a while

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.719146

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130613

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231460

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227542

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.707851

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.707924

and trust me, this card alone will be maxing any and everything for a while, and once it isn't then you can get a second, and btw it is better to get the exact same card, just better that way, and looks nicer with them matching too.

linkin · Aug 20, 2011

Not really too much performance difference between the 2500k and 2600k. Just hyperthreading, mainly. For most intents and purposes, they are the same, just with a different price tag

Suggestions and advice? need help

InnerCalm

New Member

claptonman

New Member

linkin

VIP Member

jonnyp11

Active Member

linkin

VIP Member

InnerCalm

New Member

linkin

VIP Member

InnerCalm

New Member

jonnyp11

Active Member

linkin

VIP Member