$1400 new computer, please review?
By
Emberly,
Posted on: 2011-08-08 06:51 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
i'd go with a GTX 570, but the 560Ti is a great card for the money.
your PSU is overkill for your setup. a good 600W PSU would be fine.
At first glance:
- Hard drives too small, why bother with RAID1, it's not backup
- Power supply garbage brand, no need for that many watts
- No need for 2GB RAM on graphics adapter
- Do you really need to burn bluray
- Paying extra for that NIC is a sucker's move
- Why bother with watercooling when you can OC just as well on air (hyper212 is cheap as borscht)
- Almost certainly don't need Windows 7 Pro
Get a 1GB 560Ti, drop the watercooling, drop the gimmick NIC, get Win7 Home, drop the bluray burner unless you really need it, get a decent 2GB HDD and don't fuss with RAID1. Your money of course, but I would also just order the parts off Newegg and assemble it myself. If that's outside your expertise/comfort zone, pay a pal a case of beer to do it. Save you some money.
Quote:
Hard Drive: I have a spare 1TB I can install as backup, the RAID is will go bye-bye, I think I accidentally left that on when looking at stuff.|
Originally Posted by Emberly
At first glance:
Get a 1GB 560Ti, drop the watercooling, drop the gimmick NIC, get Win7 Home, drop the bluray burner unless you really need it, get a decent 2GB HDD and don't fuss with RAID1. Your money of course, but I would also just order the parts off Newegg and assemble it myself. If that's outside your expertise/comfort zone, pay a pal a case of beer to do it. Save you some money. |
Power Supply: What would you recommend for a brand? Coolermaster, Corsair, and Thermaltake are the only options.
Video Card: Good, I don't want to pay the extra either, so I can drop down to the 1GB 560Ti no problem.
BluRay : It's just a reader (for watching movies), the writer bit is DVD, which I will use
NIC : They are tossing it in as a freebie, I can remove it from the PC, but it doesn't change the price.
Water Cooling: Honestly? I don't know what I'm doing with this at all. It was the default for cooling, so I left it there. Would stock be fine here, or should I look at one of the larger heat-sync type set ups? (~$20)
Windows: I can drop that down to HOME no problem, save some $ too.
Thanks!
Make a man a fire and keep him warm for the day, SET a man on fire and keep him warm for the rest of his life.
Incarnates: K'lir(Fire/Dark Corr):Hot-House Flower(Plant/Fire Dom):Kinrad X(Kin/Rad Def):Itsy-Bitsy Spider(Crab):Two Ton Tony(Mace/WP Broot):Teeny Weeny Widow(Fortunata/Widow) : Zeroth Law (Ice/Fire Tank)
Quote:
The site flags anything less than a 750 watt supply, because of the graphic cards 'required specs'.
|
Originally Posted by Nicodemus
i'd go with a GTX 570, but the 560Ti is a great card for the money.
your PSU is overkill for your setup. a good 600W PSU would be fine. |
Make a man a fire and keep him warm for the day, SET a man on fire and keep him warm for the rest of his life.
Incarnates: K'lir(Fire/Dark Corr):Hot-House Flower(Plant/Fire Dom):Kinrad X(Kin/Rad Def):Itsy-Bitsy Spider(Crab):Two Ton Tony(Mace/WP Broot):Teeny Weeny Widow(Fortunata/Widow) : Zeroth Law (Ice/Fire Tank)
Of those three power supply providers, the only one I would trust is Corsair and I would trust them with my life. A 600W Corsair will power that system no problem.
good thread on PSUs. will help you pick the right wattage and has a link to a list of recommended brands:
http://www.overclock.net/power-suppl...alculator.html
REVISED:
Case
NZXT Phantom Full Tower Gaming Case - White
Processor
Intel® Core™ i5-2500K Processor (4x 3.30GHz/6MB L3 Cache)
Processor Cooling
Thermaltake SpinQ CPU Cooling Fan System
Memory
8 GB [4 GB X2] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - Corsair Vengeance
Video Card
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti - 1GB - EVGA Superclocked - Core: 900MHz - Single Card
Video Card Brand
Major Brand Powered by AMD or NVIDIA
Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4-B3
Power Supply
650 Watt -- Corsair CMPSU-650TXV2
Primary Hard Drive
750 GB HARD DRIVE -- 32M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive
Optical Drive
[10X Blu-Ray] LG BLU-RAY Reader, DVD±R/±RW Burner Combo Drive Black
Sound Card
3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
Network Card
Killer Xeno Pro Gaming Network Card
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) 64-Bit
Keyboard
iBUYPOWER USB Keyboard
Mouse
iBUYPOWER Internet Mouse
Warranty
Standard Warranty Service - Standard 3-Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support
Make a man a fire and keep him warm for the day, SET a man on fire and keep him warm for the rest of his life.
Incarnates: K'lir(Fire/Dark Corr):Hot-House Flower(Plant/Fire Dom):Kinrad X(Kin/Rad Def):Itsy-Bitsy Spider(Crab):Two Ton Tony(Mace/WP Broot):Teeny Weeny Widow(Fortunata/Widow) : Zeroth Law (Ice/Fire Tank)
Much improved to my eye, how much did you knock off the price with those changes?
It is now $1326 instead of $1450, so $125. 
Thanks!
Make a man a fire and keep him warm for the day, SET a man on fire and keep him warm for the rest of his life.
Incarnates: K'lir(Fire/Dark Corr):Hot-House Flower(Plant/Fire Dom):Kinrad X(Kin/Rad Def):Itsy-Bitsy Spider(Crab):Two Ton Tony(Mace/WP Broot):Teeny Weeny Widow(Fortunata/Widow) : Zeroth Law (Ice/Fire Tank)
Looking at your last config. Looks pretty good.
1TB is only $5 more than the 750GB drive option, $30 if you want the larger 64MB cache (I'm looking at the generic Custom Intel P67 configurator, not sure which one you are using).
I've always had this odd feeling that if you use different configurators and use the identical parts, you get somewhat different prices. There may be some subtle assumptions in one versus the other but you may want to try one of the others and see if the price goes down.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
Quote:
That's true. I use CyberPowerPC, using the exact same parts and values different configurators gave different prices, almost $500 at one point....for the same parts lol. Since I've got nothing but time and still haven't ordered that dream PC I found myself the cheapest one for my goals.
|
Originally Posted by Father Xmas
Looking at your last config. Looks pretty good.
1TB is only $5 more than the 750GB drive option, $30 if you want the larger 64MB cache (I'm looking at the generic Custom Intel P67 configurator, not sure which one you are using). I've always had this odd feeling that if you use different configurators and use the identical parts, you get somewhat different prices. There may be some subtle assumptions in one versus the other but you may want to try one of the others and see if the price goes down. |
10 50's To Date! Check out Titan Sentinel; it got my CoH presence synced online
The latest build looks pretty good but I would make a few alterations.
First I would go for 4gb of ram over 8. Unless you are going to be using some extremely memory intensive programs or plan on some serious multi-tasking you really don't need more than 4 at the moment. If a time comes where you do feel like you need more you can buy some yourself and install it. Trust me when I tell you if you can tie velcro shoes you can install RAM
Second I would get rid of the aftermarket cooler and stick with the stock one. Save yourself 20 bucks. The stock cooler that comes with the 2500k is more than good enough for regular use. That's mostly due to the sandy bridge chip running cool and not consuming a very large amount of power. Unless you plan on seriously overclocking your CPU you absolutely don't need an aftermarket cooler.
Then if you want you can apply those savings towards a higher end video card. The 570 is a marginal improvement over the 560ti, but if you can stretch it to a 580 you'll have a top of the line card that can blow any current game out of the water and also last for at least a few more years. Then when it becomes too slow for the new stuff you can grab one for cheap and SLI it!
Of course the video card decision is up to you, but I think you can save money in the two things I suggested. The 560ti is my current video card and it's great.
Thanks for all the input guys!
-= TRIGGER PULLED =-
Make a man a fire and keep him warm for the day, SET a man on fire and keep him warm for the rest of his life.
Incarnates: K'lir(Fire/Dark Corr):Hot-House Flower(Plant/Fire Dom):Kinrad X(Kin/Rad Def):Itsy-Bitsy Spider(Crab):Two Ton Tony(Mace/WP Broot):Teeny Weeny Widow(Fortunata/Widow) : Zeroth Law (Ice/Fire Tank)
Quote:
Yes, "but". The OP never told us what else he plans to do on the computer. Also, if he might want to run two instances of CoH, he'll be glad to have 8GB.|
Originally Posted by Neogumbercules
First I would go for 4gb of ram over 8. Unless you are going to be using some extremely memory intensive programs or plan on some serious multi-tasking you really don't need more than 4 at the moment.
|
Quote:
| Second I would get rid of the aftermarket cooler and stick with the stock one. Save yourself 20 bucks. The stock cooler that comes with the 2500k is more than good enough for regular use. |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Kinrad
-= TRIGGER PULLED =-
|
Paragon City Search And Rescue
The Mentor Project
Quote:
Hehe. |
Originally Posted by Ironblade
um... never mind.
|
I actually ended up bumping it to 12 GB of RAM. I run a couple of virtual machines for work, and I *do* plan to run two instances of CoX at the same time.
Make a man a fire and keep him warm for the day, SET a man on fire and keep him warm for the rest of his life.
Incarnates: K'lir(Fire/Dark Corr):Hot-House Flower(Plant/Fire Dom):Kinrad X(Kin/Rad Def):Itsy-Bitsy Spider(Crab):Two Ton Tony(Mace/WP Broot):Teeny Weeny Widow(Fortunata/Widow) : Zeroth Law (Ice/Fire Tank)
Hope you're happy with it!
I shouldn't post in these threads. They always make me want to run out and buy computer parts.
Quote:
Thank god, it's not just me. The OP had me assembling builds online and desperately trying not to click Add to Cart.
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Originally Posted by Neogumbercules
Hope you're happy with it!
I shouldn't post in these threads. They always make me want to run out and buy computer parts. |
Quote:
I would have gone with 12GB if my mobo was triple channel. But that seemed overkill/too expensive at the time (~17 months ago). I'm running fine with 8GB. Running two instances is no problem. When I need to edit a screenshot, I'll load Photoshop while CoH is still running.|
Originally Posted by Kinrad
I actually ended up bumping it to 12 GB of RAM.
|
Plus, at all times, I have the following running:
- SETI@home / Rosetta@home, 8 instances
- Firefox
- Excel
- WinAmp (mp3 player)
- Skype
- Yahoo Messenger
- Avast anti-virus
- ZoneAlarm firewall
- BitMeter (logs UL/DL traffic volume)
- RealTemp (monitors CPU temp)
- 3 instances of Notepad
Paragon City Search And Rescue
The Mentor Project
That site is ripping you off if it only offers 3 choices of PSU and only 750w and up. It's way too expensive anyway. My rig has more, costs less and has an SSD to boot :P
Otherwise, going on the OP:
- Liquid cooling is a gimmick. A 2500k doesn't need it at all - I've got mine overclocked to 4.5GHz on air cooling with a thermalright mux-120 on it. It's not yet breached 60C under 100% load - 57 has been the max so far even when it's 30C outside.
You don't need liquid cooling unless you want to overclock the thing to 5ghz+, which is just not necessary *at all*.
- 850w psu is overkill. My PC has an overclocked 2500k, a radeon 6970, a few fans and 4 hdd's and an ssd on it. I'm running it quite easily on a 560w PSU. Unless you desperately want SLI (which i would not recommend unless you are willing to spend a LOT of time tweaking and fixing stuff), a high quality 600w PSU will do just fine.
- What brand is the HD? I'd get a Western Digital Caviar Black if i were you, best choice for entry consumer HDD's. Though if you go to a cheaper shop you would probably have (financial) room for a Crucial C300 128GB SSD for Windows (or an Intel 320 120GB).
- Get rid of the seperate NIC. It's a gimmick. Don't even get it for free, the NIC on the motherboard is more than adequate.
On the comments:
Emberly mentions that a 2GB card is pointless. This is only true if your screen is at 1920x1200 or less. If you use higher resolutions or more than 1 monitor, the increased framebuffer might be incredibly useful, especially if you plan to run multiple game clients.
Also, just bumping up to 12gb won't work, you'll break the dual channel setup unless it's triple channel ram. Depending on the set, make sure that the ram cooling elements don't get stuck underneath the cpu cooler aswell.
In the end, i'd still strongly consider going to another shop. $1300 seems very expensive for a setup that doesn't even have an SSD. I strongly suspect that the shop you're trying to buy from includes the NIC in the price even though they say "its free". Since seperate NIC's followed a very shortlived craze a couple of years ago dealers are probably trying to get rid of their stock this way.
Case
NZXT Phantom Full Tower Gaming Case - White
Processor
Intel® Core i5-2500K Processor (4x 3.30GHz/6MB L3 Cache)
Processor Cooling
Liquid CPU Cooling System [SOCKET-1155] - ARC Dual Silent High Performance Fan Upgrade (Push-Pull Airflow)
Memory
8 GB [4 GB X2] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - Corsair Vengeance
Video Card
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti - 2GB - Single Card
Video Card Brand
Major Brand Powered by AMD or NVIDIA
Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-P67A-D3-B3
Power Supply
850 Watt -- CoolerMaster RS850-AMBAJ3-US ** Back2School Sale! ** FREE Upgrade to CoolerMaster 1000W
Primary Hard Drive
750 GB HARD DRIVE -- 32M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Dual 750GB Drives (750GB Capacity) - RAID 1 Data Security
Data Hard Drive
None
Optical Drive
[10X Blu-Ray] LG BLU-RAY Reader, DVD±R/±RW Burner Combo Drive Black
2nd Optical Drive
None
Flash Media Reader / Writer
None
Meter Display
None
USB Expansion
None
Sound Card
3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
Network Card
Killer Xeno Pro Gaming Network Card
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) 64-bit
Keyboard
iBUYPOWER USB Keyboard
Mouse
iBUYPOWER Internet Mouse
Make a man a fire and keep him warm for the day, SET a man on fire and keep him warm for the rest of his life.
Incarnates: K'lir(Fire/Dark Corr):Hot-House Flower(Plant/Fire Dom):Kinrad X(Kin/Rad Def):Itsy-Bitsy Spider(Crab):Two Ton Tony(Mace/WP Broot):Teeny Weeny Widow(Fortunata/Widow) : Zeroth Law (Ice/Fire Tank)