Desktop build!

[Furtwangler]

I'm going to be coming across somewhere around $600-$800 soon and I need to build a new desktop. OS(have x64 7), Monitor, keyboard and mouse not included, just the case and insides.

I'll be looking to game with it if possible, however at the moment I just use it as a large multitasking/internet/etc computer.
I'll need a new case, preferably a large tower so I can eventually liquid cool it when i upgrade components in the future.
I'm figuring I can get at least 4gb of ram,
dvd drive,
at least 1TB of HDD space,
one of the newer intel processors (higher than dual core if possible),
a decent nvidia card, and a psu to go along with all of that.
Think I can get under 800? Help me out!

[Furtwangler]

As of right now I'm looking at something like:

199.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115215 Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor - Retail

99.99 EVGA P55 V SLI Motherboard - Intel P55, Socket LGA1156, SLI+PhysX http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...067&CatId=4720

139.99 XFX HD-575X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150448

62.99 Thermaltake M9 VI1000BWS Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133058

$99.93 G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231277

24.99 SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner - OEM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151192

134.99 OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC ... - Retail &
HITACHI Deskstar HD31000 IDK/7K (0S00163) 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.323087

Although I'd like to be able to get 2 HDD's and/or possibly another monitor to match the one I have (something like ASUS VH235T-P Black 23" 5ms Widescreen Full HD 1080p LCD Monitor) so if anyone can recommend any other replacements for what I've listed that would be less cash that'd be great

[Neb]

I would get an ATI card right now the 5000 series and much better then the nividia cards that a out at the moment check out this one.

139.99XFX HD-575X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150448


You also do not need 6GB orf Ram the new 1156 Intel Chips do not support tri channel like the older i7's do.

$99.93G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231277

Check out some of these combo deals you might be able to save a little money and or get some better components

[Furtwangler]

It's been a while since I've learned anything about RAM and such, the motherboard is 1333mhz, will the 1600 sticks work ok with that?

[Blabj]

Build looks pretty solid, with taking into account what Neb has said. I would definitely back him up in saying that you should really only be looking at ATI cards now, nvidia are so far up shit creek they're gonna need an outboard motor to get themselves out of the mess they're in.

[Furtwangler]

forgot my PSU, found a good bundle with that HDD, unfortunately prob won't be able to buy it in time to get that $25 rebate on the PSU, edited OP list with what you guys suggested and looks good so far. I'm gonna keep on these for the next month or so because money is coming from tax returns (late feb ish) so I'm assuming shit will fluctuate a bit.

[Olo401]

This is gonna be tough.. here's a starting point tho. I've provided two options for you here on CPU & Motherboard..
Core i5-661 - $210
Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3 - $120
or...
Phenom II x4 965 BE - $207
Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P - $110

XFX Radeon 5770 - $180
Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1600 2x2GB (8-8-8-24 version) - $105
WD Caviar Green SATA 1TB - $85
LG DVD/CD-R/RW with Lightscribe SATA - $29
Corsair 550VX ATX Power Supply - $80

Gonna leave out the case for now.. there's a couple new ones on the market I need to check out before I make a reco, AND I'm pushing $800 right now so I need to scale back a bit. Newegg bundles can be factored in when you're ready to buy, therefore I haven't included them either.

[Neb]

The i5-661 is only a dual core processor i believe he wants a quad to future proof his rig.

I missed that at first aswell

[Olo401]

The i5-661 is only a dual core processor i believe he wants a quad to future proof his rig.

I missed that at first aswell

It's a dual-core with hyper-threading, which makes it a virtual quad-core. It's also far ahead of the Phenom II CPU that I matched it up against in raw processing power.

[Furtwangler]

So you think the i5-661 would be a better buy than the i5-750?

[Cjskater]

The PHII generally does either slightly better or the same as the 661. He's saying (I hope) that the 661 is so good that even with only 2 actual cores it keeps up. The 750 rapes both of them.

[njitjk68]

The i5-661 is not a better buy over the 750.

If you do get a 661 over a 750, you are basically paying more for a downgrade.

[Furtwangler]

thats what i figured

[Kaelan?]

If you're planning on making major upgrades later on and want to go with liquid cooling, get a full-sized E-ATX compatible tower. The last thing a cooling system needs is lack of room for ventilation.

I'd also focus your money in power supply, motherboard & CPU, those are much more of a pain to replace down the road (and unnecessary for a very long time if you make good picks the first time around). The rest is easily replaced if/when you need it. If you're going to want something that will actually need liquid cooling, you probably are gonna be in the 750-1000W range of PSUs. Going a little higher than what you need right now is better than having to replace the whole thing down the road when you decide you want 2+ graphics cards or something like that. You can also, for not very much more than a 661/750 get an i7-920, which should last you a long time, especially given how well (and easily) it overclocks.

All of this might not be possible on that budget, so adjust as necessary (being able to do something like just re-use a GPU you already have for now would help a lot to cut costs, for example), but if you really want to get something upgradeable, I'd focus on getting parts you really want to avoid having to replace out of the way first.

[Olo401]

The i5-661 is not a better buy over the 750.

If you do get a 661 over a 750, you are basically paying more for a downgrade.

No, you're paying more for a equally fast CPU with better power efficiency. The only upside to the 750 is that it's a true quad-core as opposed to a hyper-threaded dual-core.

[njitjk68]

No, you're paying more for a equally fast CPU with better power efficiency. The only upside to the 750 is that it's a true quad-core as opposed to a hyper-threaded dual-core.

No, you are paying more for the IGP.

Cons
1.) Less cache. Falls behind in apps that are dependent on cache.
2.) Falls behind in multi-threaded apps. (HT not as good as having actual physical cores)
3.) Costs more.
4.) Will fall behind in mutli-GPU setup.

You will see the 661 perform better in some single-threaded applications that mostly cares about clock speed (which probably can be counted on one hand), but considering more applications are being created to be multi-threaded, going 661 doesn't make sense.

The i5-661 is a good chip (for those that do not plan on getting a dedicated GPU) and performs well, but not when you take into consideration of the 750 at a cheaper price point.

So yes, you are pretty much paying more to downgrade your system if you go 661, at least until the price drops on the 661.

[vanidin]

Just to put the nail in the coffin on that silly i5-661 idea, I'll just leave this here:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/defau...x?p=109&p2=117

Basically, in all but two categories (and those two being synthetic anyway and favoring the higher mhz) the I5 wins, and often by large margins, in things like video encoding, playback, game frame rates, you know, the kinda things you build your computer to do ;p.

[Furtwangler]

I may be able to scrounge a bit more if I need.. so I'm looking at the i5-750 vs the i7-860...
They look to be exactly the same save .2ghz clock speed, and I'm assuming that the i7 has hyper-threading, so that would make it technically 8 cores instead of just 4, whereas the i5 does not have that. Correct? Is it worth the $70 increase?

[Kaelan?]

That's correct. The 920 is also at 2.66GHz by default, but can easily (and safely) be brought up to 3.6-3.8Ghz without very much work or requiring any kind of extra cooling setup.

The i5-750 will do about 80-90% as well as the i7-920 generally, but the more you get into properly multithreaded apps, the bigger the difference becomes in the 920's favor. I would say that for a computer on a budget right now the i5 is probably a better choice; however if you want something that will keep up with future upgrades down the line (hence once less part you'll have to worry about replacing a year or two from now), you'll get more out of a 920.

[Furtwangler]

So my final list of stuff I'm planning on picking up will be:

199.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115215 Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor - Retail
or
279.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115214 Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80605I7860 - Retail

119.99 EVGA P55 Micro SLI Motherboard - Intel P55, Socket LGA1156, SLI, Crossfire http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...IN#detailspecs


139.99 XFX HD-575X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150448

39.99 Cooler Master RC-310-RWN1-GP Elite 310 Mid-Tower Case - ATX, MicroATX, 120mm Fan, 4x 5.25 Bays, 7x 3.5 Bays, USB, Black/Red http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...36352&CatId=32

$84.93 G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231277

19.99 SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner - OEM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151192

74.99(49 if rebate) OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341017

84.99 SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152102

I'll probably be ordering everything in about a week. I know deals can change alot by then, so if anyone, now or within a week or two comes across anything that I can get that's comparable to whats on here and cheaper please let me know, trying to pinch every penny I can, especially if I go with the i7-860.