PC Build Advice/Review Thread

[Caiyuo]

used newegg's product comparison thing to see, they look identical other than the corsair being a little more expensive pre-sale price and the g.skill getting a better warranty than usual from newegg. no idea if the XMP thing on the corsair's listing is unique to it or not, I think that's just the ability to clock it to it's listed speed instead of what i3/i5/i7s normally clock memory to for whatever reason

[Asai]

I got the corsair earlier today. I'm slowly re-building 2 new pc's piece by piece as i catch deals. HDD's are ridiculous for some reason atm. I'm looking at motherboards (I want these 2 pc's to be identical). I'm looking at this MB atm: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...935&CatId=7212

-but wondering if there's anything just as good or better for the same or lower price. Wanting to stay intel on these. Probably will get a 2600k for each. Any ideas?

[Caiyuo]

Can't comment on the MB but re: the hard drive prices, flooding in Thailand caused prices to jump way up because like a third or something of hard drives are manufactured there

[Senji]

Hoorah! Been wanting to upgrade the comp so I guess now is a good time to do so. Here's what I got so far. I have been looking exclusively at the NewEgg's Black Friday sale so far. Any better alternatives? Wanna invest in an SSD but not familiar with them so I have no idea where to look. I already have a case (Antec 900), GPU (GTX 560 Ti), a monitor, an optical drive, and hard drives.

Ditch that 92 mm cooler and get the one in the post below yours.


2 posts down.

[Boyiee]

I'm really tempted to go with liquid cooling but I'm thinking of holding off until I actually feel a demand to over clock my CPU.

I didn't list with a screen pic because I'm buying parts from many different sites.

You won't need to go on water with this build, it wouldn't be worth it. Also, if you are looking to get one card now and one card later, go with 6970 2gb's instead of 570's.

[madpersian]

You won't need to go on water with this build, it wouldn't be worth it. Also, if you are looking to get one card now and one card later, go with 6970 2gb's instead of 570's.

Ok, good to know about the liquid heating. Why would you recommend the two 6970's over the 570's?

[Gredival]

Newegg has a 4890 for sale. Would people recommend Crossfiring atm or is it worth waiting for a better single card in the future?

[Boyiee]

Ok, good to know about the liquid heating. Why would you recommend the two 6970's over the 570's?

Nvidia is behind in the price/performance department and has been for a while, you're just paying for a name. That, and you'd be getting more vram which is nice for higher resolutions.

If you REALLLLLY wanted to crossfire, id get two dirt3 or toxic 6950's. If you're lucky you'll get ones with unlockable shaders and be able to overlock them to 6970 levels. They'll out perform 570's, even sli 570's in a lot of applications and will run you over 100+ cheaper. But I don't know if it's really worth crossfire/sli right now if you aren't running a 27 or 30 inch monitor at 2560x1600ish. Even BF3 runs great on single cards at 1080p and 1920x1200 and you don't have all the cons and downsides that come with crossfire and sli.

[Boyiee]

Newegg has a 4890 for sale. Would people recommend Crossfiring atm or is it worth waiting for a better single card in the future?

4890? I wouldn't crossfire those. Lots of better single card solutions out there right now, and new architecture will be out in a few months.

[madpersian]

Nvidia is behind in the price/performance department and has been for a while, you're just paying for a name. That, and you'd be getting more vram which is nice for higher resolutions.

If you REALLLLLY wanted to crossfire, id get two dirt3 or toxic 6950's. If you're lucky you'll get ones with unlockable shaders and be able to overlock them to 6970 levels. They'll out perform 570's, even sli 570's in a lot of applications and will run you over 100+ cheaper. But I don't know if it's really worth crossfire/sli right now if you aren't running a 27 or 30 inch monitor at 2560x1600ish. Even BF3 runs great on single cards at 1080p and 1920x1200 and you don't have all the cons and downsides that come with crossfire and sli.

Ok, thanks for the advice. I'll switch it up and save some money too.

[Gredival]

4890? I wouldn't crossfire those. Lots of better single card solutions out there right now, and new architecture will be out in a few months.

I already have a 4890, I was approaching it more from "Cheap upgrade now, or is it not worth the money with future cards coming out"

[Asai]

I got that ram (the corsair 8gigs 1600 9-9-9-24) for 30 bucks, but now am looking at graphics cards and mobo's. Pretty set on getting either a 2500 or 2600k for each, but not for sure on what mobo yet. However, since there's some deals going right now, I wanna know what would be the better choice between these two cards before the deal ends on the geforce one:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...&sku=G452-0550

and

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...p?EdpNo=199800 (Current pick)

[Lucki]

I'm looking to get a new desktop and saw this deal on NewEgg. It's been a while since I've built anything (10+ years) and was wondering if it was any good.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...t=Combo.755244

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Arkanna]

I'm looking to get a new desktop and saw this deal on NewEgg. It's been a while since I've built anything (10+ years) and was wondering if it was any good.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...t=Combo.755244

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

It doesn't look bad, but you should consider using that setup as a template and pick your own components. I say that because, it really should have 8GB memory and unless you absolutely need a wireless networking adapter in a desktop, it should be omitted. You should be able to find everything you need for roughly the same price as that combo. Lastly, it doesn't seem to have a video card built into the combo, so if price is a factor, you could cut the i7-2600k down to an i5-2500k, get nearly the same performance, and spend a little extra on a nice video card. Just my thoughts.

[Lucki]

It doesn't look bad, but you should consider using that setup as a template and pick your own components. I say that because, it really should have 8GB memory and unless you absolutely need a wireless networking adapter in a desktop, it should be omitted. You should be able to find everything you need for roughly the same price as that combo. Lastly, it doesn't seem to have a video card built into the combo, so if price is a factor, you could cut the i7-2600k down to an i5-2500k, get nearly the same performance, and spend a little extra on a nice video card. Just my thoughts.

I'd like to keep the i7 if possible as well as the wireless adapter (this computer would be upstairs, and my cable modem/router downstairs). I took your advise and put this together. Does everything look good?

[Arkanna]

Looks pretty good. The CPU isn't a K version though, but that only matters if you intend to overclock it.

[Lucki]

Looks pretty good. The CPU isn't a K version though, but that only matters if you intend to overclock it.

Overclocking doesn't really concern me at this moment, but if I wanted to get a CPU that could in the future, would that motherboard support it?

[Caiyuo]

btw whenever 2600s come up in builds it's usually noted that they aren't all that worthwhile over an i5-2500k unless you're doing a lot of video editing if you weren't aware

[Arkanna]

Actually, no it doesn't. The H67 chipset itself does not, it's not just the motherboard. You'll need either a P67 or a Z68 motherboard for overclocking.

[Lucki]

Actually, no it doesn't. The H67 chipset itself does not, it's not just the motherboard. You'll need either a P67 or a Z68 motherboard for overclocking.

Oh well, I haven't overclocked a PC before, so I don't really have a desire to now.

Thanks for your help, it's much appreciated.