Rate my cheap rig (<$600)

[ColFrankFitz]

Core i5 3570K 3.4GHz LGA 1155 Processor 179.99
Asrock Z77 Extreme4 84.99
Samsung 256GB 830 182.00
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W + SAMSUNG DVD Burner SH-224BB 49.99
NZXT Source 210 Elite White Steel 34.99
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB 29.99
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler 25.97
GPU - 0.00 (no gaming or apps that would benefit)

Used for - MS Office, VFP Development, DVD Rip (x264 only MT app)
Budget - $600
Country - USA
Brand - Intel/nVidia
Current parts - storage hdd
Overclock - like to get a light o/c
resolution - dual M1 - 1920*1024, M2 1280*1024
timeframe - <1 month

All together comes to $587.92. What do you think? Anything I should change?

 

[lehtv]

Need some more information

What sort of productivity are we talking about? Anything heavily multithreaded?

 

[riversend]

Welcome to the forums! First off, can you please answer the questions in the sticky here. For comments like productivity and light development please be more specific. There are a lot of members here who can use that info to help you make informed decisions (which is what you are asking for).

Without any other info, the only part I would ask about is the case. Do you tend to reuse parts in future build? Do you care what the case looks like? This is one of those parts I am willing to spend a few bucks on to meet aesthetic desires and long-term functionality. Since you do not have a GPU, I assume your productivity tasks get no benefit from that product.

 

[Termie]

Core i5 3570K 3.4GHz LGA 1155 Processor 179.99
Asrock Z77 Extreme4 84.99
Samsung 256GB 830 182.00
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W + SAMSUNG DVD Burner SH-224BB 49.99
NZXT Source 210 Elite White Steel 34.99
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB 29.99
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler 25.97

...

In addition to the excellent questions asked above by lehtv and riversend, I would note two things:

(1) the 3570k and Extreme4 prices you quote appear to be from Microcenter. These are only available in-store, but keep in mind they also come with a $50 bundle discount, so your total would actually be lower than what you've posted (but would include tax).
(2) the PSU and DVD burner appears to be a bundle deal. While there's nothing wrong with the DVD burner, I would highly recommend that you focus on getting a better quality, lower wattage PSU, rather than being compelled to buy this combo, which isn't all that great. Instead look at a quality PSU like this 300w Seasonic: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151086

...and the cheapest DVD burner you can find on this list at the time of purchase: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...er&amp;Order=PRICE

Yes, you'll pay slightly more overall, but you'll get a more efficient, higher quality PSU that is better suited to your power needs.

 

[ColFrankFitz]

Termie, thanks for your advice. Would you by chance know of an efficient, 300W psu that has modular cables?

 

[Termie]

Termie, thanks for your advice. Would you by chance know of an efficient, 300W psu that has modular cables?

This 400w PCP&C is the closest thing at $50AR: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817703034

Another good options would be this 450w Gold model from Rosewill for $65: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817182261

I realize that these are pushing the budget a bit, but unfortunately, there are no modular 300w PSUs, and I just wouldn't recommend the OCZ 600w modular despite the discounted price.

 

[ColFrankFitz]

I would highly recommend that you focus on getting a better quality, lower wattage PSU

I could also pull CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W from my current rig: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139003

Do you think that would be an ok psu?

 

[Termie]

I could also pull CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W from my current rig: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139003

Do you think that would be an ok psu?

That's an excellent PSU, actually. I'd say it's higher quality than the OCZ you're looking at, and while modular cables are very nice to build with, in your price range, their additional expense is pretty hard to swallow. By the way, here are user reviews on the Corsair (I have one too and it's been doing well since Nov. 2008): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003

In your situation, given your budget and usage requirements, re-using the Corsair makes a lot of sense.

One other thing I'd note on "balancing the budget" - the Samsung SSD you've chosen is excellent, but it's about 1/3 of your entire budget. Ask yourself if you really need that much SSD space. Can you get by with a 128GB drive? If so, you'll knock about $100 off the price of this build.

 

[ColFrankFitz]

One other thing I'd note on "balancing the budget" - the Samsung SSD you've chosen is excellent, but it's about 1/3 of your entire budget. Ask yourself if you really need that much SSD space. Can you get by with a 128GB drive? If so, you'll knock about $100 off the price of this build.

I already have the Samsung 830 on hand from a B&H deal a few weeks ago, so there's no point in a CBA on that.

BTW, i picked up the cpu/mobo from MC today, so i installed the cpu, ram, and hs just to verify everything was working, and I was seeing idle temps around 30-32C (as reported in BIOS) with the mobo outside the case with no o/c. Does that sound right?

 

[Termie]

I already have the Samsung 830 on hand from a B&H deal a few weeks ago, so there's no point in a CBA on that.

BTW, i picked up the cpu/mobo from MC today, so i installed the cpu, ram, and hs just to verify everything was working, and I was seeing idle temps around 30-32C (as reported in BIOS) with the mobo outside the case with no o/c. Does that sound right?

That's perfect. So now you have everything but the case and DVD burner? Do you have an old DVD burner you can reuse? The only reason to get a new one would be for SATA over IDE, perhaps.

 

[mfenn]

(1) the 3570k and Extreme4 prices you quote appear to be from Microcenter. These are only available in-store, but keep in mind they also come with a $50 bundle discount, so your total would actually be lower than what you've posted (but would include tax).

$85 for an Extreme4 is including discount. Regular is $135.

OP, I wish I had seen this thread before you bought. Since you don't have a discrete GPU (or even an plans to game), you don't need the extra features that the Z77 Extreme4 has over the Z77 Pro3 which saves you $40.

 

[ColFrankFitz]

I assembled my new machine over the weekend, and I wound up having to use a gpu (an old GTS 250). I'm running 2 monitors, and I couldn't get the onboard vid to fit my panel over hmdi. That left just 1 dvi and 1 vga, and my 2nd monitor looked like crap hooked up to vga.

FWIW, I've noticed that the Samsung 830 benchmarks aren't as good as I expected:

Seq 369.6 362.3
512k 278.4 341.1
4K 21.86 60.12
4k QD32 216.5 149.4

It's hooked up to a sata3 port, ahci mode, and I installed the latest Asmedia 106x driver from Asrock.

My first impressions are that new box isn't any faster than the old one. Boot time is faster but once they are both up and running, the old box actually "feels" snappier to me. Old box was i7-920 @3.6 on an Asus P6T running XP SP3 (no ssd). New box is Win7 Ultimate x64. Don't know if it is hardware or OS, but I was definitely expecting too see more of a boost.

 

[Termie]

The SSD should not be connected to the Asmedia SATA ports. Use the built-in Intel ports. Probably port 0 and 1.

The processor itself shouldn't make it snappier, but the SSD should. Also Windows XP is much simpler than Windows 7, especially interface-wise.

 

[ColFrankFitz]

The SSD should not be connected to the Asmedia SATA ports. Use the built-in Intel ports. Probably port 0 and 1.

Thanks! That helped a lot. New CDM scores:

Seq 488.5 430.3
512k 342.0 407.1
4K 23.9 78.3
4k QD32 274.1 152.1

Any advice on which ports to hook up other storage devices?
WD Black 1 TB
Hitachi Deskstar 500 GB
Samsung SH-224BB DVD-ROM

Also, I haven't installed Intel RST. Do you believe there's any benefit in it?

 

[Termie]

Thanks! That helped a lot. New CDM scores:

Seq 488.5 430.3
512k 342.0 407.1
4K 23.9 78.3
4k QD32 274.1 152.1

Any advice on which ports to hook up other storage devices?
WD Black 1 TB
Hitachi Deskstart 500 GB
Samsung SH-224BB DVD-ROM

Also, I haven't installed Intel RST. Do you believe there's any benefit in it?

Nice! Those scores are right on the mark.

I would connect the Sata2 drives to Sata2 ports, just for the sake of compatibility. At least that's what I do, knowing that they won't benefit from Sata3 speeds. As for Intel RST, I think it was what originally brought AHCI to desktops: http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/CS-020784.htm

It's pretty bog-standard to have it installed, but perhaps others know whether or not it's necessary.

 

[mfenn]

Always use Intel ports before moving on to add-on controllers because the Intel ports have a direct connection to the chipset whereas add-on controllers have to go over PCIe.

As for "feel", Windows 7 adds a lot of animations that make things seem to take time whereas they were instant in XP.

 

[ColFrankFitz]

As for "feel", Windows 7 adds a lot of animations that make things seem to take time whereas they were instant in XP.

I am seriously considering going back to XP. 4gb ram, slightly faster boot, and TRIM command are about the only things I'd be giving up. Otherwise, everything else seemed better/faster in XP.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I am seriously considering going back to XP. 4gb ram, slightly faster boot, and TRIM command are about the only things I'd be giving up. Otherwise, everything else seemed better/faster in XP.

Or you could just disable Aero, and run with the Windows 7 Basic theme...

If you want the Windows "Classic" experience there is even the Classic theme...

 

[ColFrankFitz]

Or you could just disable Aero, and run with the Windows 7 Basic theme...

If you want the Windows "Classic" experience there is even the Classic theme...

I tried that . Still not the same, IMO. Plus, when I use one of the non-Aero themes, it seemed to cause Firefox's autocomplete to fail. Doesn't make any sense, but switching back to Aero fixed it.

There's other stuff, too. Like MPC. I've got all my dvd's ripped to mp4 and served on a Synology nas. In my old box, when I double-clicked a movie, mpc would launch and play instantly. No hesitation. No pause. Now, on the new box, there's a slight delay like it's buffering, or something.

I was encoding Oldboy this morning in Megui. When it completed, I clicked X on titlebar to close, and it sat there for like 3-4 seconds before closing. On old machine, closing Megui was instantaneous.

Bottom line is that I have been able to find any good reason to stay in 7 and lots of reasons to go back to XP.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I tried that . Still not the same, IMO. Plus, when I use one of the non-Aero themes, it seemed to cause Firefox's autocomplete to fail. Doesn't make any sense, but switching back to Aero fixed it.

There's other stuff, too. Like MPC. I've got all my dvd's ripped to mp4 and served on a Synology nas. In my old box, when I double-clicked a movie, mpc would launch and play instantly. No hesitation. No pause. Now, on the new box, there's a slight delay like it's buffering, or something.

That sounds very odd. It does almost sounds like you've got some kind of buffering problem or DPC issue. Are all your drivers fully updated? (and I don't just mean from Asrock's site...). I can tell you that I have zero issues on a system similar to yours...

About the NAS. Have you tried with another LAN adaptor?. Broadcom NICs are usually very good, but some of them can have strange behaviour with older drivers...

Bottom line is that I have been able to find any good reason to stay in 7 and lots of reasons to go back to XP.

I can give you several reasons why not...:biggrin:

1) Come April 18th 2014 ALL Hotfixes, security updates and support WILL end...
2) WinXP is 32bit ONLY, You are effectively limiting yourself to 3GB RAM minus what's on your GFX adaptor...
3) Software is fazing out XP support...
4) WinXP is 11(!) year old technology...

 

[ColFrankFitz]

The only drivers that I could find that were new than Asrock was the Asmedia Sata and of course, nVidia.

I constantly type in Firefox address bar and it will give you a dropdown of history and or bookmarks that match the string. When Aero is turned off, that dropdown displays just for a millisecond and you don't have time to choose and click. Same thing with lastpass, when i click on it to fill a form, it "flickers". Turn Aero back on, and it works fine.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Try this;

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

Make sure the there isn't activity in the system/interrupts CPU usage column. ~<0.1 to <0.5 is normal, if it shows more you have a bad driver somewhere...

 

[Insomniator]

There is no way anyone should want to go back to XP. Its not faster or snappier on any reasonable machine, even with all the fancy animations.

 

[ColFrankFitz]

Try this;
Make sure the there isn't activity in the system/interrupts CPU usage column. ~<0.1 to <0.5 is normal, if it shows more you have a bad driver somewhere...

If I sit there doing nothing, it hangs around .49 - .60. However, if i launch firefox and move my mouse around it will spike up over 2 and stay in the 1 - 1.25 range depending on mouse usage.

After I took this screenshot, I kicked off an x264 encode, and it's been steadily between 2.15 - 2.50.

Since the 1st pass finished, it's dropped down to 1.00 - 1.20 during 2nd pass.

 

[FleatUWP]

I have to use Windows XP on a fairly regular basis at work, and I would never go back to it on my personal machines. I think you need to give Windows 7 a bit more time before you jump ship. Nice build though.