Building a new PC
By
Dark Ether,
Posted on: 2009-11-03 15:50 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
With that kind of budget, there not much you can't get. I'd probably start off with the latest in motherboards
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD4P - Has support for SATA 6Gb/s and USB 3.0
Base all your other components on that.
CPU - Intel Core I7-860
Memory - A-Data 4GB (2x2GB)
Case - Antec Three Hundred
Power Supply - Antec TruePower 750 Watt
Graphics -EVGA GTX285 (for this game) or if you can find one, an ATI HD5870 for all other games. It should also be noted that the new expansion, City Of Heroes: Going Rogue apparently has resolved many, if not all, of the issues that CoX and ATI have had.
HDD1 - Seagate 320GB SATA 3.0Gb/s - This is your OS and game install drive.
HDD2 - Seagate 1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s - This is your storage drive.
Optical Drive - LG 22X DVD Burner
Speakers - Logitech Z-5500
Monitor - Hann-G 28" 1920x1200
Operating System - Microsoft Windows 7 x64
All totaled, we're looking at $2137.12 shipped (using the EVGA GTX285). There's still plenty of room in your budget to up-(or down-)grade. This is just a build I'd consider if I were buying.
-Wolf sends
Quote:
That's a lot of money. I'm not comfortable with that amount of money toward a system. So here are a list of system builds from a number of sites.|
Originally Posted by Simian_Stalker
I have decided to take the plunge and build my own PC after years of just buying a new one every couple of years. This will be my first build and I will be using this PC for gaming. I thought I would ask this group if they had suggestions for the components.
I want to use Windows 7, but pretty much everything else is up for discussion. I do not want to spend more than $3k and I would like to get the most performance for my dollar, so any help is appreciated. |
Tech Report's Windows 7 System Guide
Ars System Guide: October 2009 Edition - This page links to their three builds.
bit-tech.net's What Hardware Should I Buy? - Notice this is published monthly and November's is due within a week.
Tom's Hardware Build Your Own Articles - They periodically build system at various price points and specifications. The last set specified AMD CPUs.
These are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. I hope they help.
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Thanks for the replies.
@ThrillKiller
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Wolf_Shadow
With that kind of budget, there not much you can't get. I'd probably start off with the latest in motherboards
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD4P - Has support for SATA 6Gb/s and USB 3.0 Base all your other components on that. CPU - Intel Core I7-860 Memory - A-Data 4GB (2x2GB) Case - Antec Three Hundred Power Supply - Antec TruePower 750 Watt Graphics -EVGA GTX285 (for this game) or if you can find one, an ATI HD5870 for all other games. It should also be noted that the new expansion, City Of Heroes: Going Rogue apparently has resolved many, if not all, of the issues that CoX and ATI have had. HDD1 - Seagate 320GB SATA 3.0Gb/s - This is your OS and game install drive. HDD2 - Seagate 1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s - This is your storage drive. Optical Drive - LG 22X DVD Burner Speakers - Logitech Z-5500 Monitor - Hann-G 28" 1920x1200 Operating System - Microsoft Windows 7 x64 All totaled, we're looking at $2137.12 shipped (using the EVGA GTX285). There's still plenty of room in your budget to up-(or down-)grade. This is just a build I'd consider if I were buying. -Wolf sends |
With the I-7, wouldn't it be ebtter to get RAM in multiples of 3? So maybe get 6 instead of 4?
Heck, with that decent budget, I'd look at adding a SSD to run maybe the OS and this game.
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Quote:
The 800 series of the i7's are 2-channel, not 3-channel like the 900 series are.|
Originally Posted by DarkEther
With the I-7, wouldn't it be ebtter to get RAM in multiples of 3? So maybe get 6 instead of 4?
|
The 800 series is a step down from the 900 series even though it's newer. It was specifically made for budget builds. It's not as easily manually overclocked as the 900s and has 2 instead of 3 channels. However, it has dynamic auto-overclocking of its eight threads (turbo mode) which makes power consumption much more 'green.'
At 3D Guru, benchmarks showed that the 900s generally outperform the 800s, however, in a few situations, the best 800 (the 870) outperformed the slowest 900 (the 920).
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Okay here's a quick one-off:
A couple assumptions:
- You wanted a COMPLETE system and weren't reusing ANYTHING from your old setup. So I quoted keyboard, mouse, and monitor too.
- You're buying NOW, not a couple months down the road. As such, the 5870 isn't really available right now. So I went with a GTX 285.
PLEXTOR 24X DVD/CD Writer Black SATA Model PX-880SA LightScribe Support - Retail
$52.99
COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
$69.99
Western Digital RE3 WD1002FBYS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5 (Two of them)
$319.98 ($159.99 each)
SAMSUNG 2443BWT Black 24" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor with Height& Pivot Adjustments - Retail
$379.99
EVGA 01G-P3-1181-AR GeForce GTX 285 Superclocked Edition 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
$379.99
COOLER MASTER UCP RS700-AAAAA3 700W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Power Supply - Retail
$129.99
KeyTronic E03600U2 Black USB Wired Standard Keyboard - Retail
$22.99
Microsoft N71-00007S Black 3 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB Wired Optical Wheel Mouse - OEM
$9.99
G.SKILL Trident 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL6T-6GBTD - Retail
$189.99
ASUS P6TD Deluxe LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
$289.99
Intel Core i7-960 Bloomfield 3.2GHz LGA 1366 Quad-Core Processor Model AT80601002727AA - OEM
$589.99
COOLER MASTER Intel Core i7 compatible V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail
$59.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM
$106.99
COOLER MASTER R4-S2S-12AK-GP 120mm Case Fan - Retail (Three of them)
$26.67 ($8.89 each)
Grand Total: $2,670.36 shipped
Now for a few wheres and whyfors.
Plextor Optical: Always had good luck with Plextor. Very quiet, fast drives and rarely have problems with them (have an Plextor CD burner that's over 8 years old still churning away in one of my systems). Some of the other drives, like the Lite-Ons, while they're okay, tend to be somewhat noisy. Yeah, the Plextor is almost twice the price. You get what you pay for.
RC-690 Case: I currently own this case. Nice and roomy (though if you don't care for larger cases, this might be a turn-off. Lots of room for fans. And assembly was stupid-fast. A breath of fresh air after dealing with Antec Sonata cases (quiet but VERY tight quarters) for several years.
Western Digital 1GB Drives (Matched): Drive space is dirt cheap nowadays. The drives spec'ed are decent drives. I've always had very good luck with WD. YMMV though.
Samsumg LCD: These are very decent monitors for the money. I've put them in on several clients. There's a small amount of bleed at the top, but it's only really noticeable when the screen is dead-black. Thing is, a lot of monitors have the same issue. Most of the ones I've come across that don't are far more expensive.
EVGA Superclocked GTX 285: As I said, the 5870 isn't generally available (yet). Also, I still don't quite trust ATI (even though they've gotten better since the AMD merger, there are still things I don't care for in their products, drivers, and some niggling little distrust in both ATI and AMD from being burned a few times too often).
PSU: Decent PSU. 'nuff said.
Keyboard and Mouse: I use 'em. Again, buy what you prefer. There's still a LOT of wiggle room in this budget.
Memory: Went with 6GB. I've been using G.Skill for about 3 years now. I've had exactly ZERO problems with their memory. I spec'ed out the lowest latency stuff. If you feel the need to double the amount of memory, go with the regular latency stuff, as most boards won't run a full complement in lowest latency.
Motherboard: I trust Asus. Their boards are solid. They work. They may not be THE highest-performance boards extant. But I prefer stability to top-end speed.
i7 9 series: YES, the 8 series is cheaper. The 9 series still outperforms it clock for clock. If you're going to step down to the 8 series, then yeah. Go with the 860 (as the 870 is only $40 cheaper).
CPU HSF: Decent HSF. Relatively quiet and has decent thermal performance.
Extra case fans: The base case itself only comes with a couple fans. Add a few more of these low-RPM case fans to move a decent amount of air through.
Again, this is just a suggestion and a bunch of my opinions. Make your own decisions.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
Quote:
Socket 1156 i7's take memory in pairs unlike Socket 1366 i7's which take memory in triplets.|
Originally Posted by DarkEther
With the I-7, wouldn't it be ebtter to get RAM in multiples of 3? So maybe get 6 instead of 4?
Heck, with that decent budget, I'd look at adding a SSD to run maybe the OS and this game. |
I would give SSD's another year or so before I feel they got the kinks worked out. At $2-3 a gigabyte it's a very pricey alternative to 10 cents a gigabyte of a very good terabyte drive considering the modest improvement in general performance or even game level load times (green bars are SSD, yellow bars are 7200RPM 3.5" hard drives, red bars are 10,000 RPM drives, blue bars are 2.5" laptop drives). 20-30 times the price per gigabyte for 10-30% improved performance in actual application tests, I don't think that's a fair trade unless you have a lot of money to burn.
Anyways I'm interested in seeing how SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) and an iteration or two tweaking of the file system in Windows 7 improve their usefulness and performance.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
I have decided to take the plunge and build my own PC after years of just buying a new one every couple of years. This will be my first build and I will be using this PC for gaming. I thought I would ask this group if they had suggestions for the components.
I want to use Windows 7, but pretty much everything else is up for discussion. I do not want to spend more than $3k and I would like to get the most performance for my dollar, so any help is appreciated.
@ThrillKiller