New comp could use some advice^^

[Calina]

Ok this is ganna be my first time acculy building a comp from scratch with sepritly bought parts.I have takin old comp apart and put it back together a few times so i kinda have an idea about that iam doing but i dont know if just taring down an rebuilding is the same so any advice would be helpfull


Heres what i have priced out so far: EDIT $2,217.86 total after mail in rebates and combo rebates

Found final picks now just ganna buy them as the deals change try and get best prices on everything editing to reflect final choises

Case: EDIT desided to go 1 up and get the full tower antec 1200

Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail

Motherboard: EDIT desided on i7 after all after price stuff out better ganna get eVGA deal for MB/3260 core 216 combo holiday deal $999.98 for MB + 3 GTX 260 core 216 superclocked vs like $1,200 on new egg (eVGA's Holiday X58 SLI / GTX 260 Extreme Bundle Program)

EVGA 132-BL-E758-A1 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard

Ram: EDIT going with OCZ DDR3 1600 3x2gb for x58

OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory

PSU: EDIT going with a 1200watt since i desided on 3 GPU

SILVERSTONE ST1200 1200W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

CPU: EDIT going with core i7 920

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor

CPU cooling: EDITcant seem to find many 1366 heat sinks so ganna go with the TRUE 120 black and put 2 fans on it lol

Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme Black Anniversary Edition - "TRUE 120 Black" (Socket 1366)

GPU: EDIT getting 3 of these with the MB/GPU combo deal from eVGA

just read threw guru3d.com 's 17 page review and iam realy loving these cards
EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked review

EVGA 896-P3-1267-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

HDD's: getting 2 hard drives and ganna throw in 1 from my current comp posibly permently but most likly just to strip the data off it

First 1 goin with a 10,000rpm 150gb for main drive for OS and games and shit(may go with the 300gb for a few $ more if the deal on this dosent come back around soon)
Newegg.com - Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (bare drive) - Internal Hard Drives

and second a 1tb drive for my vast anima/movie collection(about 500gb worth of stuff atm lol) might also buy a second 1 of these later down the road really sick of only being able to watch some things once and have to delete them lol
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives

Monitors: EDIT 2 desided the get this 24" over the other ACER 1 since it has HDMI hook up ganna hook my cable derectly into it since it has a feater to switch witch imput its displaying DVI for PC and HDMI for my TV and my current speakers have the audio ports for the cable.

Acer P243WAid Black-Silver 24" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor with HDCP Support 400 cd/m2 3000:1 ACM

DVD burner: EDIT its a few $ less the the lite on and has 22x dvd-r vs 20 on the lite on and has a combo deal with the dvd-r 100 pack iam ganna get

LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X (CAV) DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner

also thinking about doin some case mods maybe cut out the antec's small side panal an add a much larger 1 later down the road

As for OS i used vlite and made myself a streamlined copy of vista ultimate x64 SP1(got it down to just 1.8gb lol) and spent past few days playing with x64 finding all the problems with current software i use so far ive found most work and the 1's that don't there is workarounds for so all in all everything i alrdy use will work

please dont complain about vista its not THAT bad and ive grown very attatched to it over the years and with how beefy this comp is i really dout its extra system usage will be a problem even on my current comp it wasent a big deal(and ive had nothing but headache with XP pro sware to god i think XP just hates me and me alone >.>)

guess thats everything id appreciate any advice you can give me kinda nervice about putting it together myself from scratch for the first time and thanks in advance for any help you can give^^

EDIT: edited to reflect current parts ive desided on

EDIT: made changes in red so you dont need to read it full threw to find them

EDIT 3 made final picks ganna be ordering them over new 3-4 weeks as the deals change on newegg and hopfully get it below 2k for parts + 300 for the monitor^^

[Cephius]

I've been using Vista 64 bit, it's much better at memory utilization. I'm very happy with it. The only downside is sometimes it's difficult to find drivers, but the only glaring company I know of that doesn't make 64 bit drivers is Linksys. You also won't be able to run older applications. Just so we're clear, by "older" I mean programs from the win98/2000 era.. most XP programs will run just fine.

(There's really no need to go to 8gigs of ram though, you'll never use that much unless you multitask like an animal)
As for your question about chipsets.. it basically means what type of processor you're running.

Building your PC is not hard, just make sure you read all the instructions before putting stuff together. Don't be a know it all, read and follow the directions and it just becomes as simple as putting together a set of legos.

[Calina]

ya i always read the instructions for anything i get i read threw the full instruction book befor using it

i usaly run up to 3 FFXI at once + granado espada + a movie on second monitor + fire fox + P2P +a dozen or so open folders and such also have TV on next to me watching that as well lol

so ya i do a tone of multi tasking ^^;;

got A.D.D. i just go from 1 thing to the next till i finish it all

ive sometimes have comp running at 100% ram and cpu for over 12hrs at a time witch is anouther reson iam getting a new comp cuase i dident have proper cooling and its starting to break down from over heating alot lol

and ya i know about driver problems + they all have to be signed witch makes it even harder to find them reason y i had switched from vista x64 to x86 soon after i got it but ill deal with that issue cuase i want the extra ram

[Boyiee]

Just so you know, that case with 2x 9800gt's, or even one, shit, that case period I had alot of trouble getting wiring in certain places and cleaning up afterwards for better airflow.

It's a great case, and it's a big case... the power supply is on the bottom which probably made it so difficult for me. And god I hope you do alot more than play ffxi, cause otherwise that's a huge waste of money.

[Isiolia]

Even the Antec 300 does the PSU at the bottom thing, which is mostly a stretch for the 12V CPU connection. Be nice if they provided an extension cable or something for it.

DVD burner: dumb question but just cuase it can burn DVDs does that mean it can burn cd's 2? last 2 comps i got where pre built and they had combo drives so kinda cunfused here(also think 1 of the reviews said it dosent come with cables so ill be adding some on when i order all this)

Never seen that not be the case. I mean, it doesn't explicitly say it reads CDs either, but it does.

dumb question i was reading a few guides and they refered to chipset whats that mean like just CPU GPU that kinda stuff?(prolly a very dumb question i know ._.)

The chipset is the thing that ties everything else on the computer together. Think of it as the brains of the motherboard. Feature support tends to depend on what the chipset supports, which is one reason it can be relevant when building a system. In some cases, motherboard makers will allow you to use things that the chipset doesn't officially support, but generally it will influence (for example) the type, speed, and maximum amount of RAM supported, whether SLI/Crossfire is supported, etc.


I would maybe reconsider quite the level of some of the components. For example, you can buy a solid motherboard for a lot less money (for example Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards )...no capability for three GPUs, but it doesn't look like you're planning to use that anyway.

SLI, for what you mentioned, may not do much for you anyway. I don't think FFXI supports it at least. Might consider starting with just one 9800GTX+ or something, and go from there.


With the budget you're looking at, I would consider something better than TN LCDs as well, but that's me. If all you're doing is gaming and stuff, then they'd probably suit.

[Calina]

first off i do play alot more then just FFXI witch is the problem and anouther reason iam getting a new comp my current comp i built spcificly to play FFXI i went with a 7950 GT OC 512mb at the time cuase there where so many problems with 8 seires and FFXI and now i have a very hard time even running current generation of FPS at max rez

i play UT3 CS:S FFXI guild wars Granado espada FEAR(old i know but i still love it and cant wait till next installment) and i plan to get fall out 3 and everything eles thats come out recently iam a FPS junky now

and as for going with that MB i picked that 1 out spcificly becuase it could use 3 gfx cards iam only getting 2 for now cuase of budget but iam ganna get a 3rd 1 down the line in a few months when i can spare some more cash cuase besides the comp iam also buying a bunch of games

and i did the math after all the mail in rebates its ganna be coming out to about 1900$ so i desided to switch things up a bit iam ganna get 2 of the 21.5" 1080p monitor only 20$ more after rebates and a HD tv tuner for the PCI 1x slot thats there

total after rebates to somthing like 2020$

do have a question about tv tuner tho would i have to plug the cable wire derectly into the tuner or into the box then plug box into tuner?

EDIT heres tv tuner i desided on

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815100014

EDIT 2 also i desided on the corsair brand ram rather pay the extra cash for a brand name i know

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145197

EDIT 3 iam thinking of giving my current comp to my mom cuase hers is a piece of shit.just pulling out my hard drives and sticking hers in would i have to reinstall OS or would it just work right off the bat?her HD is sata same as this

and anouther dumb question whats the difference between raid 0 1 2 3 all that?

thinking of putting in both HD in my current comp as well so ill have 1.5tb of space total 1 is an IDE drives with a sata converter on it witch i might get stuck not putting in cuase the converter is like huge right now its just sitting in bottom of my case dosent fit in rack on this 1 lol

would having 3 sata and 1 ide converted to sata be a problem or it wont matter assuming i can even get it to fit?

getting put it in at least once weather i keep it or not cuase i have alot of stuff on it i need

With the budget you're looking at, I would consider something better than TN LCDs as well, but that's me. If all you're doing is gaming and stuff, then they'd probably suit.

what you mean by TN LCD?

i picked out the 21.5' monitor specificly becuase it is a cheap widescreen 1080p monitor want to run a TV tuner and i also play alot of movies on it like i sed in first post i have a 500gb anima/movie collection right now i have tones of TV shows anima and movies and plan on getting HD version of them all now as well so thats easily double the space iam ganna fill up the 1tb drive shortly after i get it

and seems i was wrong about the wattage i was ganna need the 680watt 1 would have been more then enough but do you think i should go with the 850 anyway for future exspantion of the comp since i wanna get a 3rd GPU in the future

also intend to over clock everything so guessing that will use more power? kinda new to overclocking ive only just overclocked this 1 recently but it dident work out started to get more graphic glitchs or whatever like if GPU was dieing so i put it back to normal clocks

any sites or guides you reconemd for overclocking?

[Isiolia]

do have a question about tv tuner tho would i have to plug the cable wire derectly into the tuner or into the box then plug box into tuner?

Looks to me like you'd connect the antenna straight to the card, unless you were running through a VCR or cable box already. Basically, hook what you'd hook into the TV to the card. It looks like you'll need to run the sound out from the card to the sound in on your PC though.

and anouther dumb question whats the difference between raid 0 1 2 3 all that?

The common RAID types are 0, 1, 5, and 1+0 (or 10).

With two HDDs, you can have RAID 0 or 1. The difference between those is simple.

RAID 0 is data striping...basically, data for a file is split between the two drives. This effectively combines two identical drives into one larger drive, with higher throughput as a result. The downside is that if you lose one of the drives, the data on both is gone.

RAID 1 is data mirroring. This duplicates data between both drives. You can potentially get a small bonus on data access, depending on what your OS supports..but, this is done for data redundancy. You can lose one of the drives and keep all the data.

RAID 5 needs at least 3 drives, basically you have striped data on two drives, and parity data on the third. This rotates between drives. You get a performance boost, redundancy, and more capacity than simply mirroring drives (though, of course, it does take 3). RAID 2, 3, 4, and 6 are similar, albeit less popular methods to achieve a similar end result.

RAID 1+0/10 is 4+ drives, and consists of a RAID1 array made up of RAID0 arrays rather than single drives. RAID 5+0/50 is similar, but consists of a RAID0 array of RAID 5 arrays (and needs at least 6 drives).


For a home machine, probably the most common thing to see is RAID0, as you rarely have mission critical data, and people are usually going for speed. Though, personally, my new machine has RAID1 (at $50/pop for 250GB drives, why not...).

what you mean by TN LCD?

i picked out the 21.5' monitor specificly becuase it is a cheap widescreen 1080p monitor want to run a TV tuner and i also play alot of movies on it like i sed in first post i have a 500gb anima/movie collection right now i have tones of TV shows anima and movies and plan on getting HD version of them all now as well so thats easily double the space iam ganna fill up the 1tb drive shortly after i get it

There are different techs used in LCDs. Thin film transistor liquid crystal display - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia for more detail...

TN panels are the cheapest, and in terms of response times and all, the fastest panels out there. They also have the worst color reproduction and viewing angles. Though "viewable" a larger TN panel can have visible color shift just across an image in Photoshop or something. That being said, a good TN panel can still be quite nice. It's more a matter of use. If you're doing image editing, video work, etc...then a TN panel is not ideal. On the other hand, if you're playing a lot of FPS games or whatnot and are sensitive to input lag and response time, then a TN is the way to go because other technologies are generally a bit slower.

The other types out there are IPS and -VA panels, with IPS generally being preferred. Either offer a wider color gamut (TN do a lot of dithering), and better viewing angles...but can have input lag, and have generally higher response times. Depending on the model, they may be unsuitable for very time sensitive gaming. These types of panels are also more expensive, sometimes quite a bit so.
Despite those downsides, for those doing color sensitive work and the like, the pros outweigh the cons.

For what you've described, gaming and watching videos, it shouldn't matter much. But it's something to be aware of anyway.

and seems i was wrong about the wattage i was ganna need the 680watt 1 would have been more then enough but do you think i should go with the 850 anyway for future exspantion of the comp since i wanna get a 3rd GPU in the future

also intend to over clock everything so guessing that will use more power? kinda new to overclocking ive only just overclocked this 1 recently but it dident work out started to get more graphic glitchs or whatever like if GPU was dieing so i put it back to normal clocks

With a third GPU, probably, not sure if you'll need to make sure the PSU has a third rail or not for that...not too common to see. I don't even run two cards, so not something I have much experience with.
Overclocking, likewise, I don't do that much with. From what I have done, you may need to have more power for it, or not, it varies.

I'd look on the forums at [H]ard|OCP - www.hardocp.com or one of the larger hardware sites (Anand, Tom's, etc). Moderate overclocking is pretty mainstream now.

[Calina]

ok but what if the drives arent identical iam ganna get a 150gb 10,000 rpm drive for main for os and games but a 7200 rpm 1tb drive for movies and use it how iam using the drives on my current comp 1 to run os and games second to store and play videos that dosent realy fit any of the discriptions

[solsirt]

Here is a great guide on overclocking C2Q's.

IMHO I really don't see a need for 3 GPU's. 2 is pushing it... at some point you'll be bottlenecking other components and it won't matter if you have 3 or 10 GPU's.

Nothing wrong with having the money and wanting the best, but the gains from a $800-900 pc to a $2k pc is really marginal at best right now. If I were you, I'd really look at each item, and why you feel it's worth the extra $.

not trying to be an ass... just trying to help.

for tv tuners you'll need the cable box as well if you're using sat or digital cable. the tuner cards can not decode signals.

[Calina]

for tv tuners you'll need the cable box as well if you're using sat or digital cable. the tuner cards can not decode signals.

so would a tv tuner play HD channles or no? wanted to get it spcificly cuase iam getting HD monitors to have anouther use other then just playing my HD vids

thanks for the link i just skimmed threw it looks like exactly what i need to know ganna read it threw thurely later on when i have more time and test out what i learn on this comp^^

[solsirt]

well actually i said that very wrong...

tv tuners can decode, but only qam or ota stuff. you couldn't watch ESPN-HD through it if that's what you're trying to do.

[Isiolia]

ok but what if the drives arent identical iam ganna get a 150gb 10,000 rpm drive for main for os and games but a 7200 rpm 1tb drive for movies and use it how iam using the drives on my current comp 1 to run os and games second to store and play videos that dosent realy fit any of the discriptions

You don't use RAID in that case. You just have more than one drive. Many people use a similar setup... mine right now is a 250GB RAID1 array for the system drive, a 300GB internal data drive, and a 500GB external. I may need another here soon too =P

IMHO I really don't see a need for 3 GPU's. 2 is pushing it... at some point you'll be bottlenecking other components and it won't matter if you have 3 or 10 GPU's.

Nothing wrong with having the money and wanting the best, but the gains from a $800-900 pc to a $2k pc is really marginal at best right now. If I were you, I'd really look at each item, and why you feel it's worth the extra $.

not trying to be an ass... just trying to help.

Quite true =P I subscribe more to going with solid bang/buck type stuff, and upgrading more often if called for. IE, instead of building like it's going to last 5-6 years, just get something that'd be nice for the next two, then upgrade in two years, and so on...spend the same over time, but in say four years you have a new "nice" machine, which will more than likely be a lot better than a four year old high end machine.

[Calina]

well actually i said that very wrong...

tv tuners can decode, but only qam or ota stuff. you couldn't watch ESPN-HD through it if that's what you're trying to do.

so all the cable channles that come in HD a HD tv tuner cant play?

[Shuemue]

Just like to say I think the OP is nuts and could easily save a fortune and barely notice the difference.

[Calina]

Just like to say I think the OP is nuts and could easily save a fortune and barely notice the difference.

really where can i save cash in that? most of the reason its so much is cuase iam goin for 2 monitors and 2 GPU and 8gb of ram and 2 HDs without that its like 1200-1300ish i think

goin quad core cuase i do alot of multi tasking so cant exactly skimp there or eles id be in same boat i am now and wouldent realy be able to call it an upgrade from what iam using now witch cant keep up

agen for monitors i do alot of multi tasking and ive gotten used to having 2 monitors over the past 5 years and iam not going back to having 1 when i play FFXI i also watch a movie on second monitor that alone makes it worth it

8gb of ram cant really skimp there seeing as how i have 3gb in this 1 and i can eaily run it up to 100% usage for long perids of time

2 HDs definitly cant skimp here just by dumping my current HDs onto them ganna use up half the space right there after redownloading everything ive deleted they will be full within 2-3 weeks

only place i could skimp in is GPU and just deal with only being able to play games on med but for just an extra 169.99 to be able to play them all on highest settings cant go wrong there

all in all if i went cheap and bought 800-900$ pc id be using what i am right now witch is about how much the parts in my current comp cost other then the GPU and its still kinda good just way to slow for what iam tring to do with it

and all this was planed out so i could keep the new comp for anouther 3-4 years.down the line ill upgrade the GPU's and go tri-sli when i feel i need it so ill get that 3-4 years with some upgrades here and there

seeing as the TV tuner wasent what i thout it would do taking that out so down to $1900ish total now

[Shuemue]

Hey, if you can afford it, go for it.

I'd suggest you look into a HD4870X2 though, I've heard great things

[solsirt]

If you're really wanting to get SLI/crossfire/dual monitors b/c you 'need' it to play videos and ffxi at the same time (*cough cough*) then shouldn't you atleast wait for an i7? SSD's for harddrives?? why not quadfire?

the point shuemue is making is that you're essentially wasting money for very very small gains if any. 1680x1050 and anyone should be happy with a 4850 or 9800gt... e8x00 will outperform quadcores in most gaming applications anyway... if you really NEED 8gb's of ram then you probably just have too much shit running in the background that you're not looking at but once every 2hrs. If you have dual monitors now, why not use existing ones, and buy your mom a 17" cheapie for her web browsing?

that being said it's your money... do what you want, just understand you'll be paying 2-2.5x the $$$ for ~10% more performance

[Boyiee]

Hey, if you can afford it, go for it.

I'd suggest you look into a HD4870X2 though, I've heard great things

That's what I have, it's fucking amazing.

[Calina]

ya dont like amd had a bad experiance with them few years back ill never buy from them agen

bought a card it came it dident work i set it back they sent me a new 1. new 1 lasted about a week at stock speeds no over clocking i tried to return it and get my money back they wouldent i got stuck with a 350$ paper wight and ended up buying my first nvidia and havent looked back.... and never will after all that shit

If you're really wanting to get SLI/crossfire/dual monitors b/c you 'need' it to play videos and ffxi at the same time (*cough cough*) then shouldn't you atleast wait for an i7? SSD's for harddrives??

just looked into i7 and i would like to go with the core i7 920 since its only 34$ more but what MB have the LGA1366 socket?and how much more are these MB ganna be?

EDIT what little listings ive found for LGA1366 socket MBs are 550-565$ price range so i7 is out

EDIT 2 solid state drives for the same price only have 8-32gb storage so there out as well

o and heres somthing from 1 of the reviews of 1 of the higher end SSD's

Multitasking performance is horrid, WORSE than a 5400rpm HDD! They slowed to an average of only 22MB/s to 25MB/s copying back onto themselves.

all in all unless i can find a cheap LGA1366 bored in next 1-2months iam going with my current picks even with my high bugget for this iam not going over 2kish after rebates

Changed main post to reflect current changes(in red are changes)

[mootsfox]

Get the i7, it comes out on Monday (17th)

The 920 is $299.99 and the motherboards are about $250-400 depending on the performance level. The P6T Deluxe from ASUS would be good for you.

You will need DDR3 for the i7, which is about $200 for a 6GB tri-channel kit.

I'd also suggest not getting a GTX260. They run hot, have crap performance for the price and come with nvidia drivers The HD4870X2 is a beast and will best two GTX260's anyways.

Oh, and two 1TB drives in RAID 0 will produce faster transfer speeds (slightly lower access times) then the Velcoicrap.