[kfuchs]

So I decided to build a new comp again so me and my bro can play video games together .

Last year you guys helped me out a lot and I love the comp I got.

So the 1500 is pretty much a max I guess. I do need a monitor with the new comp. Don'T need a keyboard or mouse.

My only problem with my current comp is actually the monitor. It sits above me and you cant swivel it to point a little downwards, so looking at it from an angle makes stuff a bit darker and its tougher to see in the video games i play specially when its night time . So a monitor that can swivel downwards would be nice .

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OCZ Reaper Memory 2 of these kits if you want.

Sunbeam Full Tower Case

Samsung 20" Monitor It has a 170 degree Height and 160 degree vertical viewing, so you can see it good from all kinds of angles

Gigabyte Mobo

3.0ghz Quad Core Processor

Seagate 640gb HDD

GTX 260 SuperClocked Edition

850watt Corsair PSU

Vista Ultimate 64bit

Edit: Total comes to around $1450, somewhere in there.

Let me know what you think.

We can save a bit on only having 1 kit of RAM and then get a little better card, buy more RAM later, I would have to take a harder look. But that card is pretty awesome how it is, so...

Edited by Ferrari, 01 April 2009 - 03:56 PM.

[Ferrari]

OCZ Reaper Memory 2 of these kits if you want.

Sunbeam Full Tower Case

Samsung 20" Monitor It has a 170 degree Height and 160 degree vertical viewing, so you can see it good from all kinds of angles

Gigabyte Mobo

3.0ghz Quad Core Processor

Seagate 640gb HDD

GTX 260 SuperClocked Edition

850watt Corsair PSU

Vista Ultimate 64bit

Edit: Total comes to around $1450, somewhere in there.

Let me know what you think.

We can save a bit on only having 1 kit of RAM and then get a little better card, buy more RAM later, I would have to take a harder look. But that card is pretty awesome how it is, so...

Edited by Ferrari, 01 April 2009 - 03:56 PM.

[kfuchs]

First off big thanks Ferrari .

A few qs tho.
I love the fact that the mobo supports ethirr ddr2 or 3 but is it really worth it to get ddr3 yet? Plus I see them selling DDR 3 in 3 sticks sometimes as if it's 3 channels or something is that true?

My current screen size is 22" so I'd love to stay in that range. Also my current vid card is a gtx 260 I was looking for something better for my new comp mybe the 280 or if people suggest crossfire even tho I never bought ati .

I also don't need the vista I have vista homeprem 64 bit already.

Ps: I don't need such I flashy case my current csse is an antec 900 I believe and it's fine . I also do believe I will need a heatsink.

Edited by kfuchs, 02 April 2009 - 07:10 AM.

[kamille316]

Hi kfuchs,

I suggest you stick with a board that supports one or the other RAM type. Right now, I don't think you'll notice the difference between DDR2 and DDR3. I suggest you stick with a nice 4GB DDR2 RAM (1066) and get a better video card. More than that is overkill for your uses.

Are you going to be overclocking, is that why you think you need a heatsink?

Kamille

[kfuchs]

well when i built my first comp i said I would be overclocking but of course i havent yet and dont see the need for it yet. But eventaly I think I will be . But reguardless doesnt the heatsink/fan that come with the proccesor just suck and still not enough?

Also about the mobo that supports both, what if I want to update later wouldnt that save me from buying a mobo? or you think by that time a ddr3 mobo will be cheaper and better anyway?
Im no longer sure I need 8gb ram also . I was really liking that Idea but now I think I can just always buy more later when I will need it. It'll probably be cheaper too.


So I guess some nice advice on a Mobo graphics card and memory would be appricated . I still have no clue what timings are all about on memory so info on that would be great to .

Edited by kfuchs, 02 April 2009 - 10:45 AM.

[kamille316]

The stock heatsink is sufficient for someone that is not overclocking. However if your room temperature is really high then its good to invest on an after market cooler and since you said you might be overclocking then you should go for it. There's quite a few inexpensive but good performer heatsink out there (like the Xigmatek one that's around $30). If you have experience with overclocking and want to go to the extremes, there's also expensive ones (around $50-$70) that you can buy, they are quite big though so you would have to check if your case will have enough room for a big heatsink.

Kamille

[Ferrari]

Here are some changes to the requests you have made.

And thanks Kamille, I had heard some things about the DDR2 and DDR3 in the same board, but wasn't quite sure. I figured if Gigabyte did it, it would be ok.

New Gigabyte Mobo Suggestion

GTX 285 SC Edition New Suggestion

Lian Li Case Suggestion

New Memory Suggestion for New Mobo

Thermaltake Heatsink Like Kamille said, any of the $50 ones will be good enough, it really just matters what look or design you like. This is something you can always upgrade later to if you find your cpu getting a little to hot.

[kamille316]

I also suggest you look at the Xigmatek heatsink that I mentioned earlier.

Here's a review.

And don't forget to the retention bracket for easy installation.

Kamille

[Ferrari]

Almost forgot. Here is a 23" monitor by Acer. $209

HERE

This has the 160°(H) / 160°(V) too.

Edit: It's got the full HD 1080p widescreen and all. 40000:1 Contrast Ratio. That is pretty impressive for the price.

Edited by Ferrari, 02 April 2009 - 01:05 PM.

[kfuchs]

Thanks again both you guys .

Here is my build so far:
Case I changed the case to the current one I have. I've been happy with it and it was cheap . But I'm still open to suggestions .

Hard Drive

Monitor < I read the reviews and it sounds great but I have an acer laptop and I dont really like the display granted its pretty old tho . I'll have to go to best buy or something to take a look at it .

Vid Card < Still wouldn't mind hearing an argument about why ATI is better . I always use Nvidia and am always happy but would still love to hear the other side.

Power Supply < I dont know much about power supplies so gonna choose this one. If somone has a better one, would appricaite it .

Ram

Mobo

Proccesor

Heat Sink

Total: 1380 - rebates.

I'm liking it if somone could suggest anything different on the list and tell me why I'd love to hear the arguments .

Thanks agin Farrari and Kamile.

[Ferrari]

The build looks great! I check on the length of your card and it is 10.5 inches. Your case is 18 inches deep. You minus about 5 or 6 inches for the drive chassis and you should have enough room for the card to fit in that case. You don't have a window in that case so you could always do some cutting to make it fit if not!

I got to thinking though, you are about $120 under budget and depending on if you want to save that money or go a step up you could use everything the same except change the mobo, ram, and processor to make it an i7 build. i7 is intel's newest processor and is faster. Take a look.

Socket 1366 (i7) Gigabyte Mobo
2.66ghz Core i7 CPU
G.Skill RAM Triple Channel Kit 6GB

Your power supply is plenty strong enough.

I believe this raises the price about another $60, that's not to bad. (Just did that in my head) The processor is actual less expensive, the board is only $85 more dollars, and the RAM is $20 more.

Either one you decide, that computer is gonna fly.

Edit: Are you forgetting to include the OS for the price of the build? Or do you consider that seperate?

Edited by Ferrari, 03 April 2009 - 02:36 PM.

[kfuchs]

Hmm well now you opened up a hole new set of qs lol. How much better is that core i7? And why is it cheaper then? Also how much better is triple channel ram? I already know DDR3 isn't that much faster then ddr2. Also how come the ram is so cheap? I like the fact that the mobi has 2x PCI 16x 2.0 slots but will I be able to use 2 nvidia cards later on and put it in sli?


Edit: k just read wiki about core i7 and they said the triple channel nearly doubled the bandwidth something not really sure what that ment but sounded impressive

Also at the end of the article they said final tests with the core i7 compared to yorkfield qx9770 it scales 4x faster and beats it by avg 17% clock for clock. In high end gpu enviorments it exceeds alot more it said.

So my question now tho that 2.66 is still slower then 3.0 so won't it be less effective? Specaily that I won't be using sli.

Edited by kfuchs, 03 April 2009 - 03:13 PM.

[Ferrari]

How much better is that core i7?

See the specs HERE at Intel.com Read the "Overview" and see the "review and benchmarks"

Here is an independent review of the i7 HERE

All in all, it is faster with a better kind of processing. QPI(Quick Path Interconnect) versus the more known and common FSB(Front Side Bus)

And why is it cheaper then?

You would be surprised at how cheap some of the newer technology can be compared to it's predecessor. For various reasons, marketing, advertising(word of mouth), and sales, providing the newer stuff at a affordable price can actually help make more money in the end and get the public more accustomed to the "new stuff". There is probably about 100 other things that come into play too. I'm not going to explore all of them.

Also how much better is triple channel ram?

Its not a whole lot better, but the way I would look at it is that is what the i7 board requires and the ram is not going to be any worse, that's for sure. It is faster but not noticeable really. Again, the best way to look at it is that it is not worse. And $20 bucks isn't that big of a deal as long as you are within your means and budget.

Also how come the ram is so cheap?

I guess I have already covered this in a way, but also remember, RAM is cheap anyway. I bought a 1GB stick of PC 2 5300 for my laptop about a month ago for $12. RAM is always the cheapest and most cost efficient way of increasing system performance and speed.

I like the fact that the mobi has 2x PCI 16x 2.0 slots but will I be able to use 2 nvidia cards later on and put it in sli?

NO, a motherboard has to be SLI Certified. This board is not. Just because there are 2 PCI-Express 2.0 slots does not mean you can run SLI. This would just be an excellent extra slot if you wanted to put in a nice sound card for example. The sound card I'm looking into for my build requires a slot like this and is over $200.

With all that said, I want to be honest with you. I have never used the kind of Quad Core processor you are thinking about or the Quad Core i7 that I have now recommended. I just simply can't afford such things right now. So I don't want to come off as telling you all this from actually using the two different processors, I just know what is said and what is on paper. I don't game either, so a Core 2 Duo is all I really need anyhow.

Kamille may be able to offer more insight to this if she is still following the thread. Kamille, you here?

Something to keep in mind also, is that the board supports up to a QPI of 6.4GT/S. The processor I recommend is 4.8GT/S which means that at a later date in time, you could upgrade to a faster i7 once the cost of the 6.5GT/S come down a bit. The only one on newegg is $1000. HAHA.

Hope that helps. And remember, either way FAST, FAST, FAST. I'm jealous

[kamille316]

Actually, that Gigabyte board you suggest Ferrari has Crossfire support. However, if you flash the BIOS to F5 then SLI is also supported. There's quite a few X58 motherboards that supports both SLI and Crossfire (its the only chipset that does anyway) it just depends on the price and model. See the board's specification here.

If you can afford it, Core i7 setup is good. It performs quite well and you would be able to upgrade your CPU without replacing your motherboard.
With the Core 2 Quad setup you picked, that's pretty much the highest you can go. Intel is not going to make any high-end LGA 775 compatible CPUs because they're going to stick with the LGA 1366 socket.

Kamille

[Ferrari]

Actually, that Gigabyte board you suggest Ferrari has Crossfire support. However, if you flash the BIOS to F5 then SLI is also supported. There's quite a few X58 motherboards that supports both SLI and Crossfire (its the only chipset that does anyway) it just depends on the price and model. See the board's specification here.

Wow, I did not know that.