Machine build assistance

[RamenBooko]

Hey guys, just wondering if you would mind lending a hand with some advice on building a new machine?

No? Sounds great!

- Usage: internet browsing, downloading media, playback of music, serving video to Xbox/PS3, World of Warcraft, light video and photo editing

- Budget around $1,000 CAD (Canadian)

- Prefer Intel and ATI, from what I've heard

- Plan on recycling hard drives and optical drive

- Didn't really search since most builds are usually unique and would be difficult to come up with a good search

- Plan on running it at default, no over-clocking

- Resolution would be 1680x1050. I have two monitors, one 22" and one 19"

- Plan on building in next two months or so

Here is what I've come up with so far:

Case Coolermaster CM 690 II
Motherboard ASUS P6X58D Premium
RAM Corsair XMS3 TR3X6G1333C7 6GB
Video card XFX Radeon HD 5770 850MHZ 1GB
PSU Cooler Master Silent Pro M600
CPU Intel Core i7 930

Thanks in advance.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Phenom 955BE / Asus M4A89GTD PRO - USB3 & SATA 6Gb/s: $304

That saves you $230 right there. The Phenom 965BE combo is $10 more.

Save another $60 with the A-Data 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 for $177.

Either pocket the cash, snag an HD5850, or grab a 64Gb Gen2/3 SSD for your OS/Apps.


edit: I forgot about Thuban

A 1055T would be sweet --- a 1090T is (or will be) certainly in your budget




--

 

[RamenBooko]

Sweet, I won't have purchases anything by the time those come out. Any other input, guys?

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Your original build is excellent, don't switch to AMD.

 

[mfenn]

Hey guys, just wondering if you would mind lending a hand with some advice on building a new machine?

No? Sounds great!

- Usage: internet browsing, downloading media, playback of music, serving video to Xbox/PS3, World of Warcraft, light video and photo editing

- Budget around $1,000 CAD (Canadian)

- Prefer Intel and ATI, from what I've heard

- Plan on recycling hard drives and optical drive

- Didn't really search since most builds are usually unique and would be difficult to come up with a good search

- Plan on running it at default, no over-clocking

- Resolution would be 1680x1050. I have two monitors, one 22" and one 19"

- Plan on building in next two months or so

Here is what I've come up with so far:

Case Coolermaster CM 690 II
Motherboard ASUS P6X58D Premium
RAM Corsair XMS3 TR3X6G1333C7 6GB
Video card XFX Radeon HD 5770 850MHZ 1GB
PSU Cooler Master Silent Pro M600
CPU Intel Core i7 930

Thanks in advance.

In light of the bold, I have to ask "why?????????????????" You've got an extremely unbalanced system there.

Seriously though, your aren't doing anything that would warrant the extra expense of a 1366 build. Go with the AMD build heyheybooboo suggested, or, if you want to stick with Intel, i5 750 + GA-P55A-UD3.

 

[MisterDonut]

I see AMD written all over your needs. If you really want Intel, you should just get an AMD . i5-750 would probably come within similar performance and price range as an AMD, but you'd save a little money going with AMD and identical performance. You can probably even get by on a Propus and not the Deneb. 5770 can handle that resolution perfectly with the 5850 being more powerful than you really need. Just save the money or pick up an SSD for booting while keeping a mechanical for storage. Can probably even save like another $40 going with the Antec 300. Keep it simple . If you like the 690II though, it's a very friendly case. My only complaint is the intake fan on the front which blows air like a little girl with bubbles.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

I see AMD written all over your needs. If you really want Intel, you should just get an AMD . i5-750 would probably come within similar performance and price range as an AMD, but you'd save a little money going with AMD and identical performance. You can probably even get by on a Propus and not the Deneb. 5770 can handle that resolution perfectly with the 5850 being more powerful than you really need. Just save the money or pick up an SSD for booting while keeping a mechanical for storage. Can probably even save like another $40 going with the Antec 300. Keep it simple . If you like the 690II though, it's a very friendly case. My only complaint is the intake fan on the front which blows air like a little girl with bubbles.

Where do people get the the idea that a Phenom II 965 is anywhere close to the performance of a Core i5 750? Phenom II in general doesn't even compete with Core i series in terms of performance. If you like AMD and want to convince somebody to buy an AMD cpu, that's fine. Just don't spread misinformation trying to sway the buyer to go with AMD.

 

[mfenn]

Where do people get the the idea that a Phenom II 965 is anywhere close to the performance of a Core i5 750? Phenom II in general doesn't even compete with Core i series in terms of performance. If you like AMD and want to convince somebody to buy an AMD cpu, that's fine. Just don't spread misinformation trying to sway the buyer to go with AMD.

The benchmarks maybe? For the OP's tasks, the 965 is within 10% except for WoW.

Not saying that the i5 750 isn't a good chip, but the 965 is no slouch for general usage. and the total platform costs can be >$50 cheaper.

EDIT: Before you accuse somebody else of being an AMD fanboi, notice that I recommended an i5 750 in my earlier post.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

The i5 750 won almost every one of those benchmarks. You also need to factor in power consumption and overclocking.

 

[mfenn]

The i5 750 won almost every one of those benchmarks. You also need to factor in power consumption and overclocking.

The benchmarks maybe? For the OP's tasks, the 965 is within 10% except for WoW.

Not saying that the i5 750 isn't a good chip, but the 965 is no slouch for general usage. and the total platform costs can be >$50 cheaper.

EDIT: Before you accuse somebody else of being an AMD fanboi, notice that I recommended an i5 750 in my earlier post.

Bolded the relevant parts of my previous post for ya.

EDIT: I'm not necessarily recommending the 965 over the i5 750, because the factors you mention are important. I'm just saying that from a $/performance standpoint, the 965 is just as good, and it is within 10% in absolute performance.

 

[MisterDonut]

I would retort that, but mfenn has elegantly done that for me. If you can save >$50...well...save >$50.

 

[RamenBooko]

Appreciate all the feedback guys. It's tax return money, so it's money 'already' spent, haha.

Two things; in a year from now, which would I be more happy with, the Intel or the AMD? Another reason I like the Intel better is because of the fact that it's the MAJOR architecture out there. I had a PowerMac G5 (IBM PowerPC) for about 5 years and learned the hard way about the end of an era. I know this probably wouldn't happen with AMD, but I like having the most popular out there, as dumb as it sounds. If it could save me a few hundred dollars to switch to AMD, I would definitely consider it. Anyways, enough ranting on this topic.

Secondly, what do you guys mean about unbalanced? Mind my ignorance, but I've been out of the custom PC business for a few years (had the Mac).

In light of the bold, I have to ask "why?????????????????" You've got an extremely unbalanced system there.

Seriously though, your aren't doing anything that would warrant the extra expense of a 1366 build. Go with the AMD build heyheybooboo suggested, or, if you want to stick with Intel, i5 750 + GA-P55A-UD3.

 

[MisterDonut]

I think he just means the i5-750 would do just fine. In a year from now, there are going to be new Intel sockets (Sandybridge). I haven't seen AMD's roadmap, but I know that their new mainstream hexacore processors are still supported by the AM3 socket. Either way, you can't go wrong.

 

[mfenn]

I think he just means the i5-750 would do just fine. In a year from now, there are going to be new Intel sockets (Sandybridge). I haven't seen AMD's roadmap, but I know that their new mainstream hexacore processors are still supported by the AM3 socket. Either way, you can't go wrong.

This.

OP, based on your requirements, an i7 930 would be complete overkill and a bit of a waste of money.

Money in the bank appreciates in value. Computer components depreciate in value. Buy the parts that fit your requirements and save the rest of the money for a rainy day. You will NOT notice a difference in WoW.

 

[fffblackmage]

Two things; in a year from now, which would I be more happy with, the Intel or the AMD? Another reason I like the Intel better is because of the fact that it's the MAJOR architecture out there. I had a PowerMac G5 (IBM PowerPC) for about 5 years and learned the hard way about the end of an era. I know this probably wouldn't happen with AMD, but I like having the most popular out there, as dumb as it sounds. If it could save me a few hundred dollars to switch to AMD, I would definitely consider it. Anyways, enough ranting on this topic.

Secondly, what do you guys mean about unbalanced? Mind my ignorance, but I've been out of the custom PC business for a few years (had the Mac).

Any LGA1366 build would automatically mean a high-end build. Pairing a high-end platform with a budget graphics card like the 5770 just doesn't make much sense (from a gaming perspective). An uber CPU would certainly make sense if you intend to use it for some CPU-intensive purpose though.

If you were to build a high-end gaming system with LGA1366, we're expecting to see at least two 5850s in xfire or something for a "balanced" build.

For gaming purposes, you're not losing out on much going with AMD instead of Intel, except the money part. One year later, you're still probably not losing out on much.

Now, if you were definitely going to overclock, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a Core i5-750 or some Core i7. If you can get a Core i5-750 for not much more than a comparable AMD build, go for it.

 

[RamenBooko]

So, the general feeling here is to go with an AMD build, which will make me happy performance wise and money wise? Aside from that, drop down from an i7 to an i5?

I started looking into AMD, they are pretty cheap, like really cheap.

I've also seen a few times mentioned, the new hexa-core processors that AMD has coming out. They come out on the 26th or so, I may just wait to see what's up.

 

[mfenn]

So, the general feeling here is to go with an AMD build, which will make me happy performance wise and money wise? Aside from that, drop down from an i7 to an i5?

I started looking into AMD, they are pretty cheap, like really cheap.

I've also seen a few times mentioned, the new hexa-core processors that AMD has coming out. They come out on the 26th or so, I may just wait to see what's up.

Unless you need build RIGHT NOW awe, that's a good plan. They're supposed to have AMD's version of Turbo Mode as well, which will boost their single-threaded performance by a decent amount. They're supposed to be in the $200-$300 range though, so I'm not sure if they will be cost-competitive with the iX series

 

[RamenBooko]

Alright guys, thanks for all the help! This what I ended up with, including a final bill of about $900:

- Antenc Nine Hundred Two
- Antec EarthWatts 650W
- Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H
- AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE
- Corsair XMS 3 4GB
- XFX Radeon 5770

I just put it together yesterday and was looking around in the BIOS. Will be installing HDDs (with OS - Windows 7 64) and optical today, as well as doing some better cable management.