Custom Gaming rig - Any good?

ikilledkenny · Jun 19, 2009

Hey guys, I plan on building my first computer (I've heard it's pretty simple) this summer, and I would like some feedback on these parts (and if someone can check and see I have everything

). I want a computer that can run games like TF2, CS:S, and newer games (that I haven't bought yet), like Crysis and L4D.

Qualities I'm looking for (that sounds like something else

), not respectively:

Easy to Overclock
64-bit
Quiet
Not prone to overheating

jw12345 · Jun 19, 2009

Just a few thoughts:
Case: LEDs are only cool in theory, they get old and annoying. I'd recommend a solid case with no bright leds and no side window. The Antec P182 is my favorite case, but probably out of your budget for this build.
PSU: That's a lot of watts for a low price. That's bad. I can assure you this build won't need more than a 450W PSU. Go for a quality brand with lower wattage. Cheapo parts are loud, unreliable, and have poor voltage regulation.
CPU/Motherboard: at this budget, you might want to hold off until the i5's arrive. According to Anandtech, they are very impressive, and make the additional cost of the 920 and x58 platform a poor value.
RAM: doesn't matter much unless you are heavily overclocking
Graphics: that's a pretty weak card compared to the i7 CPU, are you mostly gaming? You'd be much better off waiting for the i5's and get a better graphics card at the expense of a weaker CPU.
HDD: eh, they are all the same basically, I'd consider getting a 30gb vertex ssd for boot drive if you can afford it
DVD: all about the same really
wifi: any reason you can't run ethernet? More stable and faster network transfers to other pcs

Honestly, at this price range, I'd wait until Xmas time when Lynnfield is out.

Dark Nova Gamer · Jun 19, 2009

Ehem. Go with the Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100273L Radeon HD 4850 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards for Graphics. =)

ikilledkenny · Jun 19, 2009

jw12345 said:
Just a few thoughts:
Case: LEDs are only cool in theory, they get old and annoying. I'd recommend a solid case with no bright leds and no side window. The Antec P182 is my favorite case, but probably out of your budget for this build.
PSU: That's a lot of watts for a low price. That's bad. I can assure you this build won't need more than a 450W PSU. Go for a quality brand with lower wattage. Cheapo parts are loud, unreliable, and have poor voltage regulation.
CPU/Motherboard: at this budget, you might want to hold off until the i5's arrive. According to Anandtech, they are very impressive, and make the additional cost of the 920 and x58 platform a poor value.
RAM: doesn't matter much unless you are heavily overclocking
Graphics: that's a pretty weak card compared to the i7 CPU, are you mostly gaming? You'd be much better off waiting for the i5's and get a better graphics card at the expense of a weaker CPU.
HDD: eh, they are all the same basically, I'd consider getting a 30gb vertex ssd for boot drive if you can afford it
DVD: all about the same really
wifi: any reason you can't run ethernet? More stable and faster network transfers to other pcs

Case: I was going for a full tower, and that was the cheapest one

PSU: I'll change it
CPU/MoBo: I probably won't get this until i5's are old news

RAM: I'll find a way to use 4GB, and I want a reason for x64

Graphics: I picked that b/c it was newer and cheaper. I can take some money from the PSU and put it there.
HD: Want some elbow room, and multiple OSes
DVD: Yeah...
WiFi: Can't do ethernet, family internet connection.

I'll go over these and edit my post

weh · Jun 19, 2009

On more note: the Ci7 920 needs THREE sticks of memory, not two. Look for either a 3x1GB kit or a 3x2GB kit.

Edited to add: here are some suggestions.

ikilledkenny · Jun 19, 2009

weh said:
On more note: the Ci7 920 needs THREE sticks of memory, not two. Look for either a 3x1GB kit or a 3x2GB kit.

Will do!

weh · Jun 19, 2009

ikilledkenny said:
[various stuff]

Case: -- avoid the gimmicks, think one of the Antec standard cases.

PSU: -- name brand, please, 450-ish watts is fine, but look at something from Corsair or PCP&C with a single 12-volt rail. money well-spent.

MoBo + Audio: ASUS P6T - $168, Newegg.com - Open Box: ASUS P6T LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard

fine, or one from Gigabyte, or wait for Core i5 and choose then (coming September-ish)

CPU: Core i7 920 (Heatsink and Fan inc.) - $280, Newegg.com - Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops

fine, or wait for Core i5 (as already mentioned in another post). Should be killer performance for even less money. Mobo's should be less, too. (coming September-ish)

RAM: Patriot 6GB (3x2GB) 1066 DDR3 - $80, Newegg.com - Patriot 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PSD36G1066KH - Desktop Memory

As mentioned, Core i7 needs 3 sticks; Core i5 only needs TWO. Wait and save might be prudent.

Graphics: Sapphire Radeon HD4850 (PCIe 2.0 x16) - $155, Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100273L Radeon HD 4850 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Make your choice at purchase time. New cards are almost a monthly occurrence and prices drop rapidly.

Hard Drive: Hitachi 1TB 7200RPM Hard Drive - $75, Newegg.com - HITACHI 0A38016 1TB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives

I really like the WD Caviar Black series.

CD/DVD: LiteOn DVD Burner - $22, Newegg.com - LITE-ON Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM SATA 22X DVD Burner - CD / DVD Burners

Anyone's will do. I'm partial to Pioneer, Samsung, LG and Lite-On, in that order, but it's really six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Internet: Linksys PCI Dual-Band WiFi card - $75, Newegg.com - LINKSYS WMP600N IEEE 802.11a/b/g, IEEE 802.11n Draft 2.0 PCI Wireless Adapter with Dual-Band WEP, WPA & WPA2 Personal, WPA & WPA2 Enterprise - Wireless Adapters

Linksys is good, so are D-link and NetGear. Get the same brand as your router.

Dark Nova Gamer · Jun 19, 2009

Well someone knows there stuff, glad you agree with my graphics card choice. =P

jw12345 · Jun 19, 2009

On the memory, I meant that brand and speed don't matter. Amount does matter up to a point. I wouldn't get less than 4GB. And the 920s don't require 3 sticks, it's just recommended, but most benchmarks show very little difference. But if it's going to be a while before you build, definitely don't do x58. You'll spend too much money on the motherboard and cpu and not enough on the GPU which is argueably much more important.

I'd try to get a 4870 if you can. Dual slot cooler alone makes it worth the difference in cost from the 4850 or lower. Especially since dual slot coolers push out heat pretty well, and if this is your first build, you'll almost definitely screw up case cooling the first time. Everybody does.

PSU: I wouldn't spend any less than $40 on a PSU. They are one of the most important components in a system and can seriously destroy your desktop by going cheap because of poor voltage regulation. Thermaltake and the Earthwatts (think that's what they call them) are good names.

Your wifi shouldn't cost that much unless you really need some special features. $25 is more like it.

Mark · Jun 19, 2009

Go for a good quality PSU don't go for low wattage, IMO more is better at least 600W and single Rail and for a Graphics Card I would recommend any of the GTX200 series cards and I would go for EVGA as they have good return policies and a step up program if you want to upgrade within the first 6 months (US residents only).

weh · Jun 19, 2009

Mr GRiM said:
Go for a good quality PSU don't go for low wattage, IMO more is better at least 600W and single Rail and for a Graphics Card I would recommend any of the GTX200 series cards and I would go for EVGA as they have good return policies and a step up program if you want to upgrade within the first 6 months (US residents only).

I understand your concern; however, high power is often very highly overrated. Depends greatly on the graphics card.

I'm running a dozen hard drives (yes, that's 12 of them), an i7-920, 12GB of CAS-7 memory, a power-hungry RAID array controller, two tuner cards and a 1GB HD 4850 graphics card on a 750-watt PCP&C power supply. And, according to the Kill-a-Watt power measuring gadget, I'm drawing about 350 watts at idle and peak at power-on at about 600 watts. I seldom draw more than about 475-500 watts under peak load. Power-on is the most I've ever drawn (it's all those hard drives spinning up).

jw12345 · Jun 19, 2009

I believe ATI specifies a 450W PSU for a 4850 system. And that's being conservative. If you have a quality PSU that actually delivers clean power, it can be done on a little more than 350W easily.

And buying high watt PSUs means that will be running on low power cosntantly, which is inefficient. Bigger isn't better. Get a 450W, best brand you can afford.

Mark · Jun 19, 2009

weh said:
I understand your concern; however, high power is often very highly overrated. Depends greatly on the graphics card.

I'm running a dozen hard drives (yes, that's 12 of them), an i7-920, 12GB of CAS-7 memory, a power-hungry RAID array controller, two tuner cards and a 1GB HD 4850 graphics card on a 750-watt PCP&C power supply. And, according to the Kill-a-Watt power measuring gadget, I'm drawing about 350 watts at idle and peak at power-on at about 600 watts. I seldom draw more than about 475-500 watts under peak load. Power-on is the most I've ever drawn (it's all those hard drives spinning up).

That's allot of Hard drives, I have 2 in mine and I also run 2 separate PSU's, I have one 600W to power the Main components and another 650W PSU just to run my single Graphics card (which I would like to make SLI soon), so that's a total of 1250W which I know is overkill but at least I know if the main PSU goes it wont take out my Graphics card with it.

jw12345 · Jun 20, 2009

WTF do you have 12 hdds for? Is this is file server? It seems likes you'd want to put storage on a weak tower and hide it away so you don't have the noise of 12 hdds rattling your main pc.

harmann · Jun 20, 2009

I have that case... Sure it's full tower and it's cheap. Not too bad of a case but I wish I saved more for a better case. Blue LEDs are very annoying. If you put this thing on your desk you'd want to put tape over the front LEDs; they're way too bright. I removed the front door because it's more annoying than being anything useful.

GPU: I'm almost going to jump on this deal. MSI 1gb 4890 for 136$ :shock: MSI 4890 w/ 3 free games= $136 AR/AC/ACB and eBillme - SlickDeals.net Forums
HDD: Newegg has 10% off HDDs Newegg 10% off internal external laptop hard drives ends 6/22 - SlickDeals.net Forums . That Hitachi drive can be had for 67$, unless you live in CA

weh · Jun 20, 2009

Mr GRiM said:
That's allot of Hard drives, I have 2 in mine and I also run 2 separate PSU's, I have one 600W to power the Main components and another 650W PSU just to run my single Graphics card (which I would like to make SLI soon), so that's a total of 1250W which I know is overkill but at least I know if the main PSU goes it wont take out my Graphics card with it.

Actually, that could endanger your graphics card more than you know. If the PSU running the graphics card dies, it is not likely to do any harm other than causing your system to shut down; however, if your system PSU goes, having the graphics card held at voltage could cause serious damage as power leeches to the system board from the graphics card.

Having built a number of serious workstations where dual PSUs and/or redundant PSUs were employed, a better design is to use one PSU for fans, hard drives & peripherals (where powered independently from the system board) and the other for all system-related electronics.

jw12345 · Jun 20, 2009

I second harmann about front doors. That are annoying if they cover the power switch. Really really annoying. Some cases have a door that covers just your cd drives or what not, but you want your power switch to be easily accessible.

ikilledkenny · Jun 20, 2009

Alright, I make some more changes.

I'll go with an Antec case (Nine hundred, maybe)
Bump things up to a 580W PSU
Goin' for the 4890
I'll stick with the i7, since sometimes I do a little bit of dedicated server stuff.
I'm not going with anything other than ASUS for the MoBo.

Once again, thanks for the suggestions!

weh · Jun 20, 2009

jw12345 said:
WTF do you have 12 hdds for? Is this is file server? It seems likes you'd want to put storage on a weak tower and hide it away so you don't have the noise of 12 hdds rattling your main pc.

LOL -- Almost. It's a photo-editing workstation configured as follows:

2x 150GB WD VelociRaptor in RAID-0, OS & Apps
2x 1TB WD Black RE3 in RAID-1, primary work space
8x 1.5TB WD Green in RAID-6 (Adaptec 5805 controller), storage
3x 1.5TB WD Green (in external Thermaltake BlacX dock) for 3-generation backup of the RAID-0 and RAID-1 drive pairs

So, actually, there are 15 drives; however the 3 backup drives are used one-at-a-time in an external docking station and are not powered by the internal 750-watt power supply.

My graphics card is passively cooled (fanless). I did add two pieces of 1/8-inch thick felt batting to the two side panels of the case. Considering its size and content, the whole system is amazingly quiet. Not silent; but not at all annoying, either. It is significantly quieter than the 2-drive, 3.2GHz P4C system that I recently retired from service.

ikilledkenny · Jun 20, 2009

Does anyone know if my computer (the one I have built here) will be loud or not?

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