Help with new build

[Urbwolf]

Ok im digging into a new computer.. its about time and looking for some help with this I alrdy know some things im getting like Intel I7 920 proc powersup case ect ect, My 3 main probs are on GC, HD, and mobo. Here are the options in the aroundabout price range i want, Any opinions appreciated,

Graphics cards:


BFG GeForce GTX 285 OC Video Card - 2GB GDDR3, PCI Express 2.0, FREE Batman: Arkham Asylum Game Download at TigerDirect.com

OR


EVGA GeForce GTX 280 Video Card SSC Edition, 1GB GDDR3, PCI Express 2.0, FREE Special Edition EVGA Precision Overclocking Utility, SLI Ready, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDTV at TigerDirect.com

Motherboards:



Asus P6T Motherboard & Corsair Core i7 Dominator 6GB PC12800 DDR3 RAM Bundle at TigerDirect.com

OR

EVGA X58 SLI Classified Motherboard & Corsair Core i7 Dominator 6GB PC12800 DDR3 RAM Bundle at TigerDirect.com

HD's
Last is because of price should I get One


WD VelociRaptor 300GB Hard Drive WD3000HLFS - 10K RPM, 16MB Cache, SATA 300MB/s at TigerDirect.com

Or 2 Run in raid


Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB Hard Drive ST31500341AS with Ultra Hard Drive Cooler- Serial ATA, 7200, 32MB, SATA-3G at TigerDirect.com

Thats about it been to countless reviews.. looking for some opinions
Thanks.

 

[bobkn]

Ok im digging into a new computer.. its about time and looking for some help with this I alrdy know some things im getting like Intel I7 920 proc powersup case ect ect, My 3 main probs are on GC, HD, and mobo. Here are the options in the aroundabout price range i want, Any opinions appreciated,

Graphics cards:


BFG GeForce GTX 285 OC Video Card - 2GB GDDR3, PCI Express 2.0, FREE Batman: Arkham Asylum Game Download at TigerDirect.com

OR


EVGA GeForce GTX 280 Video Card SSC Edition, 1GB GDDR3, PCI Express 2.0, FREE Special Edition EVGA Precision Overclocking Utility, SLI Ready, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDTV at TigerDirect.com

Motherboards:



Asus P6T Motherboard & Corsair Core i7 Dominator 6GB PC12800 DDR3 RAM Bundle at TigerDirect.com

OR

EVGA X58 SLI Classified Motherboard & Corsair Core i7 Dominator 6GB PC12800 DDR3 RAM Bundle at TigerDirect.com

HD's
Last is because of price should I get One


WD VelociRaptor 300GB Hard Drive WD3000HLFS - 10K RPM, 16MB Cache, SATA 300MB/s at TigerDirect.com

Or 2 Run in raid


Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB Hard Drive ST31500341AS with Ultra Hard Drive Cooler- Serial ATA, 7200, 32MB, SATA-3G at TigerDirect.com

Thats about it been to countless reviews.. looking for some opinions
Thanks.

The GTX285 is a newer, faster card than the GTX280 (leaving off factory overclocking). I think the GTX280 is out of production; don't even consider it at the TigerDirect price.

For that kind of money, you could get an AMD/ATI HD5870 card. I tend to prefer nVidia's drivers, but the 5870 is the newer technology product. (It supports DX11. It's also a single-GPU card that outperforms any current nVidia single-GPU card.) The 5850 is nearly as powerful, for rather less money. (It may be hard to get for a while, though. The supply doesn't meet the demand.)

I'm not sure which motherboard to suggest. I like my Asus P6T Deluxe. I might have preferred the vanilla P6T, as I don't use the extras on the Deluxe (like the SAS disk controller). eVGA has a highly favorable reputation, though.

I question whether you really want the Corsair Dominator memory (in the TigerDirect bundles). You can get serviceable 6GB kits of DDR3 1600 (PC12800) memory for much less than the Dominator RAM. The performance difference would be slight.

I don't know what to say about hard drives. The Velociraptor 300MB is fast, with shorter seek times than common drives. (It's not so much better for streaming data rates.) A 3TB RAID 0 array would require some special considerations. (Apparently you can't make a bootable partition larger than 2TB, unless your PC uses EFI rather than a traditional BIOS.) The elite use SSDs; a pair of 256MB SSDs in RAID 0 would be nice. (A wee bit expensive, though.)

One thing you didn't ask about: get a third-party cooler for the I7 920. I'm using a Thermalright Ultra120 Extreme. (There are probably cheaper ones that are as good.) This assumes that you want to overclock the 920. (I run mine at 3.8GHz, all the time.)

My main advice, though, is to compare with other vendors. I have the impression that the TigerDirect catalog has traps for the unwary (like that $450 GTX280). If you're in the US or Canada, give www.newegg.com a look. I have no connection with them except as a (usually) satisfied customer. Their "power search" function makes it a good place to look, even if you can't (or won't) buy from them.

 

[Urbwolf]

Thanks i actually just stumbled upon newegg and notice some things are better priced and more user reviews. Appreciate the comments, I dont like ATI cards from past experience but that is a nice card. Seriously thoe I dont think dx11 games will come out for over a year, I kinda like the nvidia card so i can also run my 8800 ultra or 9800gx2 as a dedicated physics card, I was actually Looking at some samsung 1TB drives that are cheaper still. I do have 2 150gb wd drives and a 1 TB external for storage now so i could loss some drive size in consideration. 2 500 gb WD's in raid poss. And yes with this build im going back to watercooling so the heat issue is already taken care of and alrdy have a corsair 1200 powersupply.