Computer Building Advice

[Knightmare]

Building a computer for myself and I just need some advice. It's gonna be my one and only computer so it has to be able to do everything. Here are the base parts I have settled upon:

Case: Antec Nine Hundred Two Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129058

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136284

PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready Active PFC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139009
(I know its kinda big but i plan on getting mutiple harddrives and my friend will overclock all my stuff for me)

RAM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory (Model TR3X6G1600C8D)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145224

MB: EVGA E758-A1 3-Way SLI (x16/x16/x8) LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813188039

CPU: Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115202

So my questions are:

Should I wait for the i7 930 since it gonna be the 920's replacement?

I'm gonna get a $250-350 Nvidia chipset video card but on most threads you guys recommend ATI, anything particularly wrong with Nvidia cards?

I have that 64-bit windows 7 ult. edition that was floating around, my friend said you need to "unlock" it to use it permanently how would I do that?

My friend also told to make a partition on my drive for the OS, whats the point in doing this and how big should that partition be?


Sorry for the all the questions and any input is appreciated. Thanks in advance BG techies.

[fishstix]

about your questions, I havent been keeping up with the latest news, no idea about the i7 930

To "unlock" some version you have, you basically just buy the cd key, or a copy and input the key. Or... you can use some notsolegal programs to crack it.

A partition shouldn't be necessary, you can easily work with what you have atm, unless you're running some different file system like from linux. It's a personal preference really. I use multiple drives, so I can just move files around, rather than having partitions.

ATI vs Nvidia is also somewhat of a personal preference. atm, ATI has the strongest cards with their 5xxx series line, which is also DX11 compatible. Games aren't exactly built around DX11 yet, but it's looking to the future sort of thing. Some like the price vs performance value also. I use an nvidia gtx260 and love it, but I also see nothing wrong with getting ATI, the eyefinity stuff looks pretty nifty (if I ever get the money for 3 monitors)

If you do decide to stick with the 920 though, and if you have a Microcenter store nearby, you can save $50 buy buying it from them.

[vanidin]

You can pickup an ATI 5850 card on newegg for about $299 currently, 350 won't quite get you to a 5870 unfortunately but the 5850 is a good card nonetheless, and will overclock to roughly 5870 performance.

You could wait for the 930, but honestly if we all waited for that next hardware upgrading coming next month etc, we'd never upgrade, there is always a newer version coming next month lol. the 920 is a good cpu and honestly probably a lot more than anyone other than than video editors, 3d modeler's etc are gonna need. (or someone running quad sli/xfire ;p)

In regards to the partitioning question, I don't really see a reason for it, it won't improve your performance so it's not really worth the effort. I personally run a WD raptor drive as my main drive and have a 1tb drive for data storage. (soon to be replaced by an ssd drive :D)

As far as the OS goes by saying "unlock" your friend most likely meant a crack to remove the expiration date on the RC version of windows 7. Which is illegal, and would make you a thief. Man up and buy a legal version, would be my advice.


edit: almost forgot, the reason why I would steer clear of nvidia is the shear amount of trouble they have given me, the last several I have bought, from driver/compatibility issues (8 series cards and ffxi....argh) to stability issues (they always seem to underclock the fans or provide insufficient heatsinks, at least on the models I have had). I will concede though that sli tends to scale better than crossfire does, but that's really a matter of ATI getting those drivers straightened out.

[Olo401]

I would wait for the 930 for two reasons.. It'll be out fairly soon and have the same pricepoint as the 920, and at that point the 920s will be discontinued and the price will go down a little.

The GeForce GTX cards are fine and work great, but the new crop of Radeons are just better because they're next-gen. They're also a better value right now for the graphics quality you get, are more power efficient and put out less heat. Until Nvidia brings out their next-gen line they simply can't compete.

Partitioning a hard drive just means you split it - you have more than one logical drive on a single physical drive. In this case you would be splitting off maybe 100GB for the operating system and the rest is for programs & storage. This is an option instead of getting a dedicated hard drive for the OS.

[Mojo]

I think the idea behind putting the OS on a separate partition is so that application data won't get fragmented into other stuff you put on there (movies, music, pictures, etc.) It's probably a good idea if you never defrag your hard drive, plus you always have the option of reformatting without having to worry about moving that stuff around.

[Isiolia]

With the general amount you're looking at spending, I would consider actually buying a separate drive for the OS/programs entirely.

Splitting things off, with a driver or partition, can have a few benefits.

With a partition, IMO, the biggest benefit is that you can more readily just reformat if you wind up needing to. Given the sheer amount of stuff that gets written to temp files, caches, and so on, it's not like the system partition won't get fragmented as well. You might prevent completely filling it up, but most of the time that's a matter of something you do versus the system doing. If, however, you wound up getting some malware that you just couldn't get rid of though, it'd be easier to take the "nuke from orbit" approach if you knew your stuff was safe.

Using a separate drive gives you more benefits. First, you get the above benefit and then some. The system drive could die and your stuff would be safe, where with a partition, it's still one drive. 'course, your data drive could also die...but in that case your system would still boot. The more you split things amongst physical drives, the less likely you are to lose everything >.>

Additionally, higher performance drives or setups become more feasible. A Veliciraptor or other high-speed HDD, or a Solid State Disk, are far more expensive for the space, despite offering performance benefits. What's common to do is to use them for OS n apps while using a larger, slower drive for mass data storage.

IMO, multiple drives is the way to go unless you're on a real budget.

[donutseeds]

Don't spend that much on a video card. That's my recommendation. Get a $100-150 range one and spend the rest on an SSD to use for your primary drive, then use the 1TB for backup. I have that same mobo/proc right now, they're really nice.

[Deadgye]

Don't spend that much on a video card. That's my recommendation. Get a $100-150 range one

If you don't want to play any games.. sure.

[Olo401]

Don't spend that much on a video card. That's my recommendation. Get a $100-150 range one and spend the rest on an SSD to use for your primary drive, then use the 1TB for backup. I have that same mobo/proc right now, they're really nice.

Absolutely not. The single WORST thing you can do for gaming/graphics performance is sacrifice on the video card. Especially in favor of a SSD - it's a nice thing to have if you have the extra money and it does help speed up your OS load times, but if you're on a serious budget the last thing you should consider is a SSD.

[CoronA1979]

Absolutely not. The single WORST thing you can do for gaming/graphics performance is sacrifice on the video card. Especially in favor of a SSD - it's a nice thing to have if you have the extra money and it does help speed up your OS load times, but if you're on a serious budget the last thing you should consider is a SSD.

First. Olo, you're gay.

Second. Depending on what the person is gonna play they don't need a freakin' 58 or 5970... A simple GTX 260 will run most games just fine. If like most people on these boards and they're just playing XI they could get by w/ even less like a damn 9800GT, lol...

I personally run 2x GTX 275 (Which is essentially a GTX 295) and I gotta tell ya that it is such overkill for the gaming/surfing I do. I also have the i7-920 - mine is overclocked to 4.2ghz and again, unless you are folding or running something like Linx or Prime95, it's not gonna get a full load on it. IMO, I guess you could wait on the 930 but the 920 is gonna be good enough to do anything a year or more from now. I've had mine for 7 months and as mentioned it still blows everything out there out of the water and there is nothing I can't run. I'd just get the 920 but that's just me.

The only glamour about ATI right now is they have the newest card on the market. It supports DirectX 11. They were able to capitalize since Nvidia is dragging ass on there new cards. IMO, only few things (right now..) will you see a use for DX11 (especially in gaming.) IMO, rock a 260 and be done UNLESS you will be doing something majorly intensive. Or, get a 5970 and be done w/ it but it costs.

LAST THING - If you have never built your own PC you will likely be overly happy w/ how fast and great the system is. I will say this on SSD's. IMHO, it is probably the single most upgrade one could do to improve the performace of a system. Me personally, I purchased a 120GB OCZ Agility and the 5 or sub 5 second boots and 4 second complete shutdowns are just awesome. Not to mention something like Aion (which I don't play anymore) loading completely up in a matter of 4-5 seconds whereas on a 1TB Raid0 config Aion took 20 or more seconds to load up. SSD are expensive right now and while everyone thinks they will be cheap soon, I doubt it. One day it will be the standard but right now it's expensive but IMO, worth it. With that said if you're on a tight budget an SSD may not be for you but you can get a 30gb SSD relatively cheap and just make it your boot drive w/ 7 and still have room to put a few other apps/games on it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820139079

True, the speeds are not that of the more expensive ones but that would be a kickass boot drive, imo.

Olo, you're still gay ^___^

[CoronA1979]

Oh, awesome selection on the motherboard btw.. I have that exact board as well as my video cards are EVGA.

I would suggest you go w/ EVGA for your video card as well due to there awesome lifetime warranty and amazing forum community/customer support.

Just something to think about~

[Isiolia]

Well, in fairness, there are still cards in the $100-150 range that are perfectly functional for gaming right now. I'm still running an HD4850, which is at the lower end of that price range, and it's still doing pretty well at running games at 1920x1200. Granted, I've been running that card since October '08, and it's not exactly cutting edge.

With the rest of the hardware the OP is talkin' about, sure, a larger budget for the video card would likely be appropriate. However, there are reasonably capable cards in that price range, or slightly above (5770 for example). Spending $300+ isn't a necessity in order to play games, and may only be worth it if you're playing a lot of them on PC.

But, definitely, an SSD likely won't do a lot for gaming performance (though they're quite awesome for other tasks). I'd put money into a GPU before an SSD for a gaming system though.

[CoronA1979]

But, definitely, an SSD likely won't do a lot for gaming performance (though they're quite awesome for other tasks). I'd put money into a GPU before an SSD for a gaming system though.

It depends on what kind of gaming you will be doing, also.. An online game that you are forced to wait on the server to render things then yes you will be limited by said server. An offline game where you will be waiting simply for the new level/map to load up, it will be greatly noticeable.

I compared loading times for ONLINE maps when MW2 came out w/ a guy on a plain HDD (Just a single HDD not a RAID0) w/ that of my SSD and I was done loading the map and waiting on him for like 20 seconds or more, funny stuff..

I do agree to a point though that the increases in online gaming you will get from an SSD will be limited.

[Isiolia]

Well, gaming in general doesn't benefit as much - most of the time it's loading the map/textures/whatever into RAM/VRAM, then it's done. Sure, SSDs are fast at that, but it's a matter of knocking seconds off of load times at best, if the game isn't already optimized to do it in the background.

SSDs shine more with random access of small files - the kind of things that make startup/shutdown take forever because the drive is bouncing all over the place to load this driver or that system tray app. That's why they make such good OS drives.

It's not that games don't benefit at all, but that they benefit less.

[CoronA1979]

I agree - Like I said though purchasing an SSD was probably one of the most notable upgrades I have done to my PC.

Granted, I built it w/ the i7 and 2x GTX 275's etc but it was immensely noticeable when I moved to the SSD.

[Olo401]

First. Olo, you're gay.

Nah dawg.. Foopy's gay. I'm just eccentric. And holy shit you quit Aion too eh? What's you into now just MW2?

Second. Depending on what the person is gonna play they don't need a freakin' 58 or 5970... A simple GTX 260 will run most games just fine. If like most people on these boards and they're just playing XI they could get by w/ even less like a damn 9800GT, lol...

That's true but I'm thinking ahead here to games coming out in the next two years (Crysis 2 being the real killer) and I don't think a 5770, much less a GTX260, is going to be able to handle them. Which is why I was thinking his best option would be a 5850 or whatever equivalent comes out from NVidia in the next couple months.

[CoronA1979]

Nah dawg.. Foopy's gay. I'm just eccentric. And holy shit you quit Aion too eh? What's you into now just MW2?

MW2!? I played it the first day it came out and haven't rly touched it since. It's a laughing joke on PC, sadly.

That's true but I'm thinking ahead here to games coming out in the next two years (Crysis 2 being the real killer) and I don't think a 5770, much less a GTX260, is going to be able to handle them. Which is why I was thinking his best option would be a 5850 or whatever equivalent comes out from NVidia in the next couple months.

I spose but building something centered around Crysis anything is unrealistic you know that