| Building a new computer |
 Joey Parker Jr. |
I might just take you up on that Stephen. I'll know more about when I'm going to move on this in a week or so.
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1/13/2010 2:36:02 PM (last edit: 1/13/2010 2:36:02 PM)
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| Garp |
Joey, did you know already how to assemble a computer or did you learn for the occasion?
I might do the same in a couple of months and I have no idea of the difficulty.
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1/13/2010 3:40:02 PM (last edit: 1/13/2010 3:40:02 PM)
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| Joey Parker Jr. |
I built my current machine 2 years ago. I "learned from the occasion".
I would say it's medium to easy. I think it's harder for me to know what's compatible with what.
That's why I'll pick Stephen's brain about what to get. I think advice comes with the video card purchase right Stephen?
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1/13/2010 3:58:57 PM (last edit: 1/13/2010 3:58:57 PM)
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| Toen |
Hey Joey, I'm just posting this as more info.
I built this computer near the beginning of last year and haven't had any problems with it.
It also has been overclocked to 3.4GHz the whole time.
i7-920 (2.66GHZ) cpu
--(heatsink+fan) Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme 1366 RT CPU Cooler
--(Thermal Compound) ARCTIC COOLING MX-2
Asus p6t Deluxe Motherboard
Corsair TX750W PSU
XFX GeForce GTX 285 Video card
6 Gigs Corsair Dominator ram
Cooler Master HAF 932 Full tower
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1/13/2010 4:16:04 PM (last edit: 1/13/2010 4:19:51 PM)
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| parkerfamily |
sorry, i was away from computer. school still exists and all that.... the 250 is basically a 9800gtx, which is a very small step up from my old 8800gts, which i really didn't like, because past maybe 100,000 polies things got shaky, and i pretty much couldn't touch hair and fur.
my pentium D took a whopping 6 hours to render a particular scene, my i7 took about 40 minutes. pentium D is about the same as your athlon.
the 4890 is better than the 250.
dedicated physx cards are where you install your graphics card, download the dedicated physx card drivers off nvidia's site, put them on a cd, (i believe they come in a convenient ISO that allows for nice burning of a autorun dvd) then you put in your nvidia card, and run the dvd. the physx card works solely on physx, if your not in a physx enabled app it does nothing. it's also considerably faster to use a dedicated physx card than a better card doing it all, as phyx normally gets maybe 2% of the card's power, versus 100.
the EVGA LE is a wonderful mobo, although a little pricey. i got open box on a asrock x58 supreme for 150, it was dirt cheap, i7, has 8 ddr3 1600 ram slots, 4 x16 slots, 4 x8 slots and an x4 slot, and more SATA ports than you'll ever need. only 6 USB 2.0's though...
the xigmatek dark knight is one of the best air coolers for cpu's available and only 35 bucks by the way. water cooling is a mess and high maintenance imo...
*high fives toen for the haf* best case ever... it can fit a 5970 in it, has i believe 6 fans (huge)
glows red (since LED's are the primary guage non-techy people use to judge computers) and it's shiny black! (and supports USB 3.0!!!!!)
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1/13/2010 4:28:58 PM (last edit: 1/13/2010 4:28:58 PM)
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| Garp |
Thanks Joey.
It's also the compatibility that I'm worry about. I'd hate to learn later that the speed of this component is limiting the speed of that one.
And also the bios thing, it's... what is it already?
Tip of the day:
Do not have tea with your best pal the keyboard.
It won't like you better for it.
Might even hold a grudge.
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1/13/2010 4:41:51 PM (last edit: 1/13/2010 4:43:06 PM)
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| nm8r |
What are the advantages of building a machine vs. doing a business lease on one every 2 years? Leasing avoids owning obsolete equipment, saves cash flow and working capital and you can also take advantage of tax benefits. If you or your business has very good credit the monthly costs can be pretty good.
You can even lease a refurbished Dell that would be on warranty for the whole time it is on lease and you won't have to worry about system failures.
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1/13/2010 7:21:25 PM (last edit: 1/13/2010 7:51:17 PM)
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| Westcoast13 |
I got mine about a year ago now, just before i7's so i have a core 2 quad setup. It works well for me and i got a good deal as they were on the way out!
My Turbosquid Area
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1/14/2010 4:32:02 AM (last edit: 1/14/2010 4:32:02 AM)
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| Joey Parker Jr. |
Thanks for all the help so far guys.
Here's what I've got selected so far.
Toen, that case looks nice so I'm switching to the HAF.
I don't know if I should go with the 1600Mhz ram. Could be bios issues.
And how much ram?
Also, do I need a 1000W PS? What about 850W?
Intel Core i7 920 Processor BX80601920 - 2.66GHz, LGA 1366
EVGA X58 SLI LE Motherboard - LGA 1366, Intel X58 141-BL-E757-TR
XFX Radeon HD 4890 Video Card
Cooler Master HAF 932 Full Tower
Corsair Core i7 Dominator 6GB PC12800 DDR3 RAM - Tri Channel, 1600MHz
Ultra ChillTEC 939/AM2/AM3/775/1366 Thermal Electric CPU Cooler
Western Digital WD5000AAKS Caviar Blue Hard Drive - 500GB, 7200rpm, 16MB, SATA-300 X 2
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64BIT
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1/14/2010 4:57:59 PM (last edit: 1/14/2010 4:57:59 PM)
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| Stephen R. |
You will see a huge jump if you go with Caviar Black drives, and even more of a jump if you use RE3 drives, although the price goes up with each.
The 932 is a good case, we use it a lot in the industry as a cheap but good case.
All your choices look good to me, although I wouldnt go above Windows 7 Home, its not really worth it.
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1/14/2010 5:15:56 PM (last edit: 1/14/2010 5:15:56 PM)
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| Joey Parker Jr. |
Thanks Stephen. I will definitely check out the Caviar Black drives.
Anyone have any thoughts on what speed ram and power supplies?
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1/14/2010 7:33:21 PM (last edit: 1/14/2010 7:33:21 PM)
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| Stephen R. |
You will never get more than 1600 speeds out of an i7 chip, even extremely overclocked. You don't start hitting those bus speeds till around 4.5ghz, and anything faster is strictly for high-end overclocking.
For future-proofing and less upgrading needed later I would say stick with the 1600, but if you are on a budget, 1066 would work just fine.
I hate to sound like a sales-whore, but I actually have some D9 chipped Crucial 1066 that's proven to hit DDR3 2000+. D9 chips are the same chips in Corsair Dominator DDR3 2000. Any that aren't Top-binned (anally perfect) get put onto lower grade ram and marked at a lower guaranteed speed, when in reality they are just as good at hitting higher speeds as the more expensive ram, they just cant guarantee it. It's not pretty, but for $75 it gets the job done :) Might save you a couple pennies to buy a few beers to celebrate with :p
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1/14/2010 7:48:29 PM (last edit: 1/14/2010 7:48:29 PM)
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| albongino |
One quick question Joey, and to any other that could help me understand a doubt about your pick on CPU:
what made you choose the i7 LGA1366 @ 2.66 (130W) vs. the i7 LGA 1156 @ 2.8 (95W) ?
seeing that both going for the same price range.
[edit]I'm building a new system myself and was just wondering.
................
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1/15/2010 1:17:20 AM (last edit: 1/15/2010 1:22:16 AM)
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| Joey Parker Jr. |
albongino - I never saw the 1156 listed on tigerdirect and the only listing for it on newegg
it comes bundled with a CPU cooling system. So basically until you mentioned it I didn't know it existed.
Maybe the computer experts here can shed some light on the pros and cons.
Thanks for bringing that up because I haven't ordered anything yet and would also
like to know which and why.
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1/15/2010 6:47:18 AM (last edit: 1/15/2010 6:47:18 AM)
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| Stephen R. |
The i5s/P55 chipset have less memory bandwidth, less PCIe bus (ie: slower gpu accelerated rendering when it becomes available), is not very overclockable thanks to more locked multipliers and options in the bios. It is a budget-minded chip in every way, and will not give you the overall performance of the i7. Personally I think the extra $20 and 5 minutes to set it to 2.8ghz in the bios is worth it.
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1/15/2010 7:14:21 AM (last edit: 1/15/2010 7:14:21 AM)
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