Possible new comp build

[Dyeboy]

Not going for high end all the way around just enough to play the current games like DOW 2, COD: MW2 and Borderlands at decent settings.

Case:

XCLIO Windtunnel Fully Black Finish 1.0 mm SECC Chassis ATX Full Tower

Motherboard:

ASUS M4A78T-E AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

GPU:

EVGA 896-P3-1255-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP

PSU:

COOLER MASTER Silent Pro 700 RS-700-AMBA-D3 700W ATX12V V2.3

CPU:

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor

CPU Fan:

COOLER MASTER GeminII S RR-CCH-PBU1-GP 120mm Sleeve

Memory:

Patriot Viper 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

Hard Drive:

Western Digital Caviar Green WD7500AADS 750GB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"


tell me what you think, inappropriate comments extremely welcome.

[Hawkes]

I don't know your budget so I'm just gonna throw out there some things I'm thinking.

Personally, I'm an Intel fan so if I were to comment, I'd say go with an i7 or an i5.  If you go i7 socket 1366 than CPU upgrades down the road will be limited.  If you go i7 or i5 socket 1156 you will have plenty of upgrade opportunities on the cpu side and you will also be getting the newest technology.  The biggest difference between the older and the newer socket is QPI versus DMI.  FSB is gone.  A socket 1366 i7 would need an x58 chipset mobo whereas the 1156 will need the p55.  I have the x58 with a core i7 920 and can play any game with max settings and I don't skip a beat.  I play Aion with DVD Flick encoding DVD's in the background and downloading torrents all at the same time without a hiccup.  Here's my rig that I just built just over a month or two ago.

Core i7 920
Thermalright TRUE Black120 CPU cooler with a Sony Scythe fan running at 1600RPM
EVGA X58 SLI mobo (132-BL-E758-A1)
EVGA GTX260 video card (one step up from what you're looking at... 1257 I think)
6 gig of OCZ PC3 10666 Intel XMP Edition RAM in tripple channel
CoolerMaster HAF932 case
Corsair HX1000W PSU
Western Digital Caviar Black 500G HD

In total I spent about $900. 

[Dyeboy]

Yeah the Intel i7 920 is sorta outa my price range. I've never had an AMD so I think I want to try them out for a bit.

As far as gaming capabilities this set up should do fine right?

Im going to need monetary help from my father to get this rig up and running.

[Hawkes]

How much are you budgeted for now?  With what you listed up top, what's that come out to?

[Dyeboy]

all the parts from Newegg its about 872. Overall its about the same price its just the i7 920 is crazy priced on newegg, don't know if you can get it cheaper somewhere else.

[Dyeboy]

what kind of crazy deals were you getting, all that crap together for me came to a total of 1,256.

[Hawkes]

First off, Newegg is not always the cheapest.  I picked up the HAF932 for about $120-130 on sale at MicroCenter.  Also, the i7 920 was on sale at MicroCenter for $200 and it was stepping D0 which runs cooler.  MicroCenter is your friend if you have one local to you and even if it's a little further than you might typically drive.  Nice thing about their site is that they can give you real time stock in their stores so you know if you are wasting your time driving.  I bought my things through a few different places.  I got the motherboard and video card through Amazon.com whcih was great since they have free shipping over $25.  Really nice for cases since they are so heavy.  I picked up the case and cpu at MC.  I had the PSU from my old PC so that is probably where you are seeing the incremental price.  The CPU cooler and fan I picked up from Coolerguys.com.

Couple suggestions... price things out at a few different places.  Look for free shipping on the heavy stuff since that eats up a lot of your costs.  Check out TigerDirect too... they have some pretty good prices as well.  Just don't think that Newegg is your end all be all of computer retail.  I used to sell online myself and I can tell you first hand that they are beatable on quite a few products.  If your father is going to help you out, ask him if he has any rewards points on any credit cards he might have that he isn't using and see if he is willing to convert those points to visa or m/c or amex gift cards.  Holidays are coming up..... ask for cash... not gift cards.  Cash allows you to be more flexible in your purchases.  You can give him the cash to cover the credit card bill, but the point is you won't get stuck with Best Buy cards and pay an arm and a leg for some of the parts.

[Reddawn]

My first job out of college was working at MicroCenter Home Office doing tech support and testing out the powerspec systems. I remember it was funny we got paid twice as much at the toolboxes at the store and we were sworn to secrecy on how much we made.

[JesterDTM]

I only game on AMD. Period. Also, why not go for a 16gig solid state boot drive. They're pretty cheap now.

I like www.cyberpowerpc.com

Also, Horgone just bought a 6gig pack of Patriot Ram and it had a bad stick out of the package, so be careful with that brand that you get a warranty.

[Hawkes]

You don't want an SSD drive for gaming.

[JesterDTM]

Not even if you only put the os on it?

[Hawkes]

Then what's the purpose?  SSD is going to rock, but it's limited in respect to what it should be used for at this moment.  Low power consumption, no moving parts.... notebooks can really benefit from this, tablets, etc.  Keep in mind that this is a really new technology still.  2nd generation devices are just now coming to the market from Intel and even that step isn't going to increase availability (2nd generation will allow for firmware updates etc) which is a huge problem right now.  1st quarter 2010 we should see some 300GB versions, but again... price for performance and availability just aren't where they need to be right now.

[Reddawn]

if the board can do raid get two Velociraptor 10K drives. That's what I gots and its fast

[Hawkes]

That would be nice, but  don't think his budget will allow for that.

[Snackcakes]

i think the only problem with ssd drives is that the number of writes to the drive is limited.

from wikipedia:
Flash-memory cells have limited lifetimes and will often wear out after 1,000 to 10,000 write cycles for MLC, and up to 100,000 write cycles for SLC.[37][38][39][40] Special file systems or firmware designs can mitigate this problem by spreading writes over the entire device, called wear leveling