Help out

[Killgannon]

I need some help on putting together a new pc, price around $1k, maybe a little less, maybe a little more

thing i would like: Watercooling, possibly SLI
requirements: Intel Proc, Nvidia GPU, WD HD (even though one of my WD drives died, im still a WD fanboy>.>), absolutely in no way EVER any type of Via chipset

i dont stay up to date on all the latest hardware so thats why im asking you bgers to help out there

case doesnt have to be super pretty, airflow and cable management are key though, (like i dont need fancy lights/sidepanels, a digital meter for temp would be nice though...)

newegg the prefered store, so lets see it kiddos

[Cephius]

I'm way too lazy to give you newegg links Just search! This stuff is all available on the egg though.

Unless you're good with a dremel I recommend getting a case that's pre-designed for a water cooling system. I like the Antec 900 case personally, but its an airflow case first and not designed for water cooling. If you mod a case, test fit everything 3 times before you install it and check for kinking in the tubes... can be a huge pain.

As for which watercooling setup.. Swiftech is a good name, something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835108076

Anyway... I'd go with the q6600 for its low price and overclockability. It's currently 249.99 at newegg but if there's a microcenter in your area, they have an ongoing 199.99 deal on it.

For the mainboard I like my evga 780i, support for Tri SLI, good overclocking and nice compatibility. Downside is they seem to ship a lot of problematic boards but the newest revisions seem to be a lot better. The 750i FTW is coming out soon i believe, should be a good board. I'm a huge EVGA fan.

I'd shy away from the 9800 line of video cards, I have two 8800GTs in SLI and couldn't be happier.

As for hard drives, can't go wrong with two 150 gig 10,000RPM raptors in a raid. Then just add a 750gig or 1TB drive for media storage and you're good to go.

4 Gigs of Corsair RAM, a Vista x64 license and you should have enough money left over to get a nice 22 or 24" flat panel. I'd recommend 22" Samsung or the 24" dell.

[Killgannon]

already have a 22" Samsung LCD, its <3, also dont need a media drive as i have a 1TB NAS

i was looking at the board you mentioned the other day, i priced something (left the sheet i wrote it down on at work>.< and came up to just over 1100... which i might be able to manage in a few months... (with that tax rebate thingy>.>)

[Cephius]

Yeah I mean.. its pretty cheap to build yourself a nice fast computer these days. If you want to go nuts you could always get an extreme quad core or a couple 8800 ultra 768mb graphics cards. Though if you do that on the 780i it'll cover up the other pci slot, no room for a sound card

[zoobernut]

With respect to Video cards what is the difference between pci express 2.0 16x and pci express 16x? is it worth going for a board with pci express 2.0 over one without? Or on that note can you run a pci express 16x card on a 2.0 board?

[Cephius]

With respect to Video cards what is the difference between pci express 2.0 16x and pci express 16x? is it worth going for a board with pci express 2.0 over one without? Or on that note can you run a pci express 16x card on a 2.0 board?

2.0 increases the maximum bus speed to 5gb/s but I don't think any video cards actually make sure of that yet, I'm pretty sure you'd get the same performance with PCI-e on a x16 channel.

[jkim1162]

I've seen many people do raid setup, (raid0 I think). What does it actually do? Increase performance?

[Cephius]

I've seen many people do raid setup, (raid0 I think). What does it actually do? Increase performance?

The two most common RAID setups are Raid 0 and Raid 1

Raid 0 uses two disks and spreads data across them both, in a way that makes reading and writing to it faster. You get increased disk performance this way.

Raid 1 basically clones data across 2 disks, so if one disk fails, the other contains an exact copy of your data, and you don't lose your stuff.

There are other raid setups, but this is the most common for home users. Raid 5 ect are mostly used by companies in high-capacity NAS setups and stuff like that.

[Killgannon]

another one you could use at home if you wanted to is RAID0+1 which is basically both 0 and 1 together>.>

[Shuemue]

another one you could use at home if you wanted to is RAID0+1 which is basically both 0 and 1 together>.>

Yeah, if you can afford four HD's it's a really nice setup.

[Killgannon]

k this is what i have

http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/wis ... r=11256807

suggestions on how to save a few bucks, or on some stufff that may be better (especially in the case/psu/heatsink dept) would be wonderful

[Shuemue]

Pirate windows and buy this video card; http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130327

[Norellicus]

Trying to incorporate water cooling and SLI into a $1k budget is sacrificing a lot of flexibility among your other parts, imo, and unless you're doing extreme overclocking (dangerous on budget-level equipment), is ultimately a waste.

That said:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu ... ,1810.html - "Gaming PC for $500" (they're shooting for price, but trying to get the best performance possible; I've not read the article, but toms is always pretty thorough about getting the most bang for your buck so if you want to really go on the cheap I'd check this out)

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sys ... ,1794.html - Newest installation of their System Builder Marathon, released last month. Includes builds for systems at $850, $2k, and $3400.

I just rebuilt my system based on their previous SBM and it's pretty up to par. I spent $950 or so, not including OS since I own a copy of XP. I wouldn't say it can run Crysis, but I can run WoW at full sliders at a constant 60 FPS even in Org/Shatt/etc, and that's good enough for me really...hasn't been any recent PC games out that really concern me (Orange Box, but that's not exactly intensive, and it runs like butter anyway).

[Killgannon]

you can safely ignore watercooling/sli might be an option in the future, but as of now its not

[Killgannon]

just purchased this morning, stuff should arrive soon, coming from TN, NJ, and CA (mainly CA iirc)

~1700 shipped>.>;

also i just apprently drained new egg out of the last 4GB Mushkin kit they had lol

[jkim1162]

Pirate windows and buy this video card; http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130327

Unless that card hits around $150, that is a horrible recommendation on vid card.

The 8800GT($30 cheaper) or the 8800GTS 512mb($30 more) would be better than the 8800GTS 640mb.
The 8800gts 640mb uses the older g80 core instead of the newer g92.
Has less stream processors than the other two, from which it draws most of it's performance from.

[Killgannon]

yeah i got the 8800GT from EVGA, 512MB one... in the future when i get some extra cash i may get a 2nd one for SLI, but right now its not possible

and i decided not to pirate windows at this time and actually legitimately bought it for the first time in 8 or so years (since i bought lolME when it came out like a moron)