19 replies to this topic

[Mrjshua]

=============================================
Spec Me! Questionnaire
=============================================

1) What's your budget and in which Currency?

2000-3000$

2) When are you going to buy your PC?

Within 1-3 months


3) What is your computer type?
a. Desktop
b. HTPC Media PC
c. Workstation
d. Server
e. Laptop
F. Net book
G. Tablet


(A)

4) What's the main purpose of the PC?
- If it's gaming, please indicate what resolution you're playing the games at and which games you want to play the most.
- If it isn't gaming, indicate other purposes.

Gaming - 1920 x 1080


5) When do you intend to upgrade your PC?

Entire new Rig!


6) Do you want to keep any component that you already own?
- If so, specify which component you have and ignore the question about it.


7) Do you prefer any brand or manufacturer (Intel/AMD, NVidia/ATI, Asus/Gigabyte,...)?
- If so, specify why.

I really am new and I really don't know the difference between them so?? I've usually when with AMD and Asus but I hear Intel and Gigabytes pretty good so?

8) Are you going to overclock?

Possibly?

9) Where are you going to buy the components from? Do you have any preference over some store?

Newegg or Tigerdirect


10) Will you be assembling the system yourself or will it come pre-built?

I plan on having a friend do it or maybe someone on here do it for me


11) Do you have any configuration in mind?
- If so, specify your choices and explain them. You can then erase all the question below.
- If you don't, keep on.

For it to be Fast and reliable!

12) Processor
a. Green Low Power
b. Price/Performance (Bang for the buck)
c. Performance

B-C

13) Motherboard
a. ATX / mATX / ITX
b. Crossfire / SLI capability

B

14) Graphics card
a. On Board
b. Single card
c. Crossfire / SLI
d. Single card configurations but planning on Crossfire / SLI in the future


15) Storage
a. 1 drive (Indicate capacity)
b. 2 drives (Indicate capacities)
c. RAID (Indicate which RAID array)
d. SSD

1 HD and 1 SSD

16) Optical Drives
a. DVD writer
b. Blu-ray player
c. Blu-ray writer
d. External optical device

CD-DVD Drive


17) Power supply
a. Make sure it has the required wattage for your particular setup
b. Become future proof, if you're planning on upgrading your system, you may need a higher wattage PSU.

B


18) Computer case and cooling methods
a. Air cooling / water-cooling (which heatsink, fans or loop components are you looking forward to get)
c. Light and easy to carry case (optimal for LAN systems)
d. Stylish case (Indicate which style of cases you like the most)

A and C

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811133089

or

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811133193

19) Do you need any special connectivity?
a. Wireless
b. eSATA
c. FireWire
d. HDMI
e. Optical sound output

Not really


20) Does the budget include any peripherals?
a. Monitor (Indicate the size, response time, resolution,...)
b. Keyboard (Specify if you want a gaming / home theater / normal one)
c. Mouse
d. Speakers / Headset

No

21) Do you need an operative system?
a. If so, which one?
b. No, you may already have one laying around (specify which one).


B. Use W7



The bottom line is I have an idea for the parts but usually in the past I would just buy parts that look cool or this and that and I've been told I shouldn't spend so and so and could save 100 on this part because that specific part is used for something I would never use.

I'm a Noobie and this is what I've came up with lemme know if I'm going too far out or not. I'm mainly wanting an entire new thing for Starwars of The Old Republic coming out in November.

Here is a list below of what I was thinking? Please again If I'm buying a part that's not needed and should pick something else please let me know.

Case - Thermaltake Level 10 VL30001N1Z Black Aluminum ATX Super Full Tower Gaming Station Computer Case
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811133089

or

Case - Thermaltake Level 10 GT LCS (VN10031W2N) Black Steel SECC / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case with Liquid Water Cooling System and Three Fans-1x 200mm Colorshift front fan, 1x 200mm Colorshift side fan, 1x 140mm rear turbo fan
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811133193


Hard Drive -Western Digital RE4 WD1003FBYX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Enterprise Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822136798

SDD - Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820148348

Video Card - ZOTAC ZT-50101-10P GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card (1 or 2 ?)
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814500184

or should I go with 2 GTX 570s or a GTX 590?

1.Power Supply - Thermaltake Toughpower Grand TPG-1200M 1200W ATX 12V v2.3 & SSI EPS 12V v2.92 SLI Certified CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817153145

or

2.Power Supply - SILVERSTONE ST1000-P 1000W ATX 12V v2.3 & EPS 12V 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817256057

Ram - Patriot Viper Xtreme 8GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 15000) Desktop Memory Model PXD38G1866ELK
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820220562

1.Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD5 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128513

or

2.Motherboard -GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3P LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128506

or

3.Motherboard - MSI Z68A-GD65 (G3) LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813130611

1.CPU - Intel Core i7-2600 Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819115071

or

2.CPU - Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601950
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819115211

or should I go with AMD?

Edited by Mrjshua, 24 August 2011 - 02:16 AM.

[Unknownuser200]

pending on if you feel like waiting to christmas or not you can get socket 2011

if not for 2650 usd at newegg you can get this

case silverstone Rv03

PSU corsair ax850

motherboard gigabyte ud7 1155
Cpu 2600k

Ram Muskin redlin 1600mhz 7-9-8-24 8gb kit

Gpu evga 590

OS drive.. ocz revo 3 x 2

storage drive WD green 2tb

cpu cooler noctua NH-D14

I can promise you this will be a very fast computer in everway and at that resolution you will NOT find a game you cannot play

edit: only things i forgot were a copy of windows and an optical drive so add on another 140$

Edited by Unknownuser200, 24 August 2011 - 02:32 AM.

[Kauw]

yeah nice !
OCZ Revodrive 3 x2 Series

[Derbixrace]

about the best gaming build you could have with your budget right now, also very futureproof, supports upcoming ivy bridge CPUs and PCI-E 3.0.

let the hardware speak for itself

Edited by Derbixrace, 24 August 2011 - 03:16 AM.

[Mrjshua]

Jesus 700$ for that SSD? Can I ask why that SSD and not a cheaper one? Is the speed that much of a difference? Also one thing that's a must for me is the Thermal Intake BMW Design case the 700$ I just love the look of it.

[Derbixrace]

Mrjshua, on 24 August 2011 - 03:20 AM, said:

Jesus 700$ for that SSD? Can I ask why that SSD and not a cheaper one? Is the speed that much of a difference? Also one thing that's a must for me is the Thermal Intake BMW Design case the 700$ I just love the look of it.

just picked the best parts for your budget, that SSD is CRAZY! 1.5gb/s read 1.2gb/s write and up to 200 000 IOPS!

i dont like the lvl 10 cases at all, i'd really recommend the rv03 instead, looks good (imo) and is one of the best aircooling cases around.

[Mrjshua]

Derbixrace, on 24 August 2011 - 03:24 AM, said:

just picked the best parts for your budget, that SSD is CRAZY! 1.5gb/s read 1.2gb/s write and up to 200 000 IOPS!

i dont like the lvl 10 cases at all, i'd really recommend the rv03 instead, looks good (imo) and is one of the best aircooling cases around.

Eh I don't like the look of it. It's the same as every other case really with a little different design in the front. The reason why I like that Thermal Intake 10 case it's the most unique case I've ever seen. I bought the Antec Lanboy AIr Yellow and I thought that was cool lol.. I have it with 12 Blue Leds and my favorite color is yellow but I saw this and I said woah!

[Mrjshua]

I have a newbie question here... If you don't intend on Over clocking your ram is there any reason to buy expensive ram? Also is there a different in gaming and speed between 8gb of Ram and 16?

Also Motherboards I mean I don't fully understand the huge difference in the prices and understand half the crap they say they can do?

Also Should I go with the Intel or AMD CPU?
And should I go with 2 GTX's or 2 6990's?

[Derbixrace]

Mrjshua, on 24 August 2011 - 03:35 AM, said:

I have a newbie question here... If you don't intend on Over clocking your ram is there any reason to buy expensive ram? Also is there a different in gaming and speed between 8gb of Ram and 16?

Also Motherboards I mean I don't fully understand the huge difference in the prices and understand half the crap they say they can do?

Also Should I go with the Intel or AMD CPU?
And should I go with 2 GTX's or 2 6990's?

8gb is easily enough for gaming, also no reason to buy expensive RAM for sandy bridge Platform, the kit i picked is really great bang for buck.

i'd recommend 2 GTX's over 2x 6990s because there is usually micro stuttering with quad sli/cf.

[Unknownuser200]

Mrjshua, on 24 August 2011 - 03:35 AM, said:

I have a newbie question here... If you don't intend on Over clocking your ram is there any reason to buy expensive ram? Also is there a different in gaming and speed between 8gb of Ram and 16?

Also Motherboards I mean I don't fully understand the huge difference in the prices and understand half the crap they say they can do?

Also Should I go with the Intel or AMD CPU?
And should I go with 2 GTX's or 2 6990's?

anything over a 590 for that resolution is a waste of money IMHO if you'd like you can get smaller card for phys x as well but its highly unnecessary.The ram i picked is excellent ram i use it in my own personal rig. Muskin almost always does its rated timings at that speed unlike some other companies. the is no reason to go beyond 8gb for your usage, it would just again be a waste of money. I picked the ud7 by gigabyte to give you future expandability if you so choice, along with its an extremely stable and reliable board. If you so choice you could overclock quiet well with it , the Asus maximus 4 is also an excellent board.The case i choice was because its among one the best air cooling cases out there. the rv03 in particular because it has a left hand window (just personal preference) it terms of overall looks you can always get the rv02 or ft02 and have extremely good cooling as well but might suit ur appeal better. Why waste 800 on a case that performes on air mediocre? you can get plenty of nice looking cases that cool much better for way cheaper and use that money else were. As for that ssd, its actually 4 of the best SSDs in raid 0 on one board, it has trim so theres is no data loss like normal raid setups and you dont need a raid card as it is one as well. A normal 240 gb vertex 3 costs around 520 , imho the extra money is well worth it , for the massive speed upgrade you will get. I use a similar drive and i love it . Trust me sir ive been building rigs for a very long time, and i like to sacrifice nothing i would not short change you . you will be very happy with this configuration.

Edited by Unknownuser200, 24 August 2011 - 06:41 AM.

[mihapiha]

Derbixrace, on 24 August 2011 - 03:16 AM, said:

about the best gaming build you could have with your budget right now, also very futureproof, supports upcoming ivy bridge CPUs and PCI-E 3.0.

let the hardware speak for itself

Holy cow. A monster setup right there! But he'd not really benefit with a PSU that powerful unless he'd go with 3-way SLI. And since he's running 1080p might I suggest the single card and a Corsair AX850.

It wouldn't hurt if he saved some money.

@ Mrjshua: Derbix system suggestion rocks by the way, so the only question is if you want the overkill setup or do you prefer something cheaper...

[dirtylarryuk]

Mrjshua, on 24 August 2011 - 03:32 AM, said:

Eh I don't like the look of it. It's the same as every other case really with a little different design in the front. The reason why I like that Thermal Intake 10 case it's the most unique case I've ever seen. I bought the Antec Lanboy AIr Yellow and I thought that was cool lol.. I have it with 12 Blue Leds and my favorite color is yellow but I saw this and I said woah!

The RV03 really suits nvidia stock cooled cards (front intake and rear exhaust) much better than other cases bar Raven 2 or Fortress 2. You will find under full GPU load over 5-10 hours of gaming the inverted cases can often be 5-10c cooler on the GPU than other cases.

TT case is great but if you did shove in a 6990 or 590 or 595 i would urge a Silvestone inverted mobo case.

Revo 3 x2 is a killer device if the budget is a issue just buy a 240GB 500-rw Corsair force 3 (cheap) or any of the new G2 2.5 SSD's.

I have a revo x2 with a 4.9 GHZ 600k and as an example of the speed when windows patches on my Acer revo a little 1.6GHZ ion with eco 5200 rpm drive that takes around 2 mins when you switch off to install a big set of updates. My 3GHZ Core 2 quad with 300MB RW SSD's takes about 10-20 seconds, the SB 2600k at 4.9 with a revo 2x2 takes about 100ms, you see the "at 30%" bit of install for around 100-200ms then the machine is off.

if you have the budget the revo 2x2 or revo 3x2, they are stunning bits of kit that really make a PC fly.

[ExtremeGrandpa]

Mrjshua, on 24 August 2011 - 03:32 AM, said:

Eh I don't like the look of it. It's the same as every other case really with a little different design in the front. The reason why I like that Thermal Intake 10 case it's the most unique case I've ever seen. I bought the Antec Lanboy AIr Yellow and I thought that was cool lol.. I have it with 12 Blue Leds and my favorite color is yellow but I saw this and I said woah!

the guys look to have you sorted out for the most part. But i wanna touch bases with you about the case you have chosen to build on.

I have done two different builds on the level 10 case and I actually found them quite frustrating to work with. And thats not to mention they are horribly overpriced for a case that almost requires H2O cooling for it to work well. and cable management in that case is difficult at best under certain circumstances.

For a truly unique case, check out Mountain Mods. Ben is a top notch guy and will spend time getting your custom case built for your needs. I have one myself and I dont know but 3 other people that have one even close to it in design. Also to consider would be the Danger Den cases. But honestly that TT level 10 is just a novelty that wasnt well thought out for todays hardware.

EG

[Viral]

ExtremeGrandpa, on 24 August 2011 - 10:30 AM, said:

the guys look to have you sorted out for the most part. But i wanna touch bases with you about the case you have chosen to build on.

I have done two different builds on the level 10 case and I actually found them quite frustrating to work with. And thats not to mention they are horribly overpriced for a case that almost requires H2O cooling for it to work well. and cable management in that case is difficult at best under certain circumstances.

For a truly unique case, check out Mountain Mods. Ben is a top notch guy and will spend time getting your custom case built for your needs. I have one myself and I dont know but 3 other people that have one even close to it in design. Also to consider would be the Danger Den cases. But honestly that TT level 10 is just a novelty that wasnt well thought out for todays hardware.

EG

Couldn't have said it better myself. The Level 10 really is just a novelty... Buy it if you really want but all it'll be is a pain in the ***BAD***, and a waste of money.

[Lordred289]

I counter with... BUDGET BUILD! (sub 1500$) He only wants to play an MMO maxed out guys, he does not even need to spend this much.

Note: I am biased on the heatsink for the build, my personal oppinion is that the Zalman Radial heatsinks are some of the best looking things out there.

Edited by Lordred289, 24 August 2011 - 03:00 PM.

[dirtylarryuk]

+1 for budget builds and the vertex 3 would make wow or any MMO fly.

MMO's need a SSD more than a GPU as they all tend to stream and have loads of loading times.

[jfrydom]

Lordred289, on 24 August 2011 - 02:59 PM, said:

I counter with... BUDGET BUILD! (sub 1500$) He only wants to play an MMO maxed out guys, he does not even need to spend this much.

Note: I am biased on the heatsink for the build, my personal oppinion is that the Zalman Radial heatsinks are some of the best looking things out there.

Well I've been personally asked by the OP to give my opinion so here I am. Lordreds config is mostly good (surprisingly) so I'll use that as a baseline. The Psu is overpowered any decent 650watt (antec, corsair etc.) will be able to power a single gpu rig. For a case, if you want something unique that will stand out, you can talk to Bill Owen at MNPCtech (a vendor on the forums) he could modify a case of your chossing and it could come out to the same price as the level 10. Western digital RE4s are actually extremely fast, close to the speed of velociraptors, it would make for good storage. An older (larger vertex 2 might suit your needs better as it should be cheaper per GB. Not to mention, ssd tech is still in its infancy (the reason why I don't own one. Given the low cost of ram you might as well buy 16GB, and be able to do without a pagefile. You have a little extra room in your budget so you could go after something like the 6970 Lightning just to have a little fun with OCing (it is fun), although the twin frozr III 6950 will suit your needs perfectly and not be noisy (unlike stock cards). The 2500k is fine, and as for mobos, I generally prefer asus, but gigabyte SHOULD be fine. As for coolers the market is full of copycats and closely performing items, just ask anybody on the forums and they will give you an option thats "good enough".
P.S. stay away from the HAF series, save the X.
jfrydom

[ExtremeGrandpa]

jfrydom, on 25 August 2011 - 09:45 AM, said:

Well I've been personally asked by the OP to give my opinion so here I am.
jfrydom

hmmm Dont think you are the lone stranger, because I know the OP PM'd both myself and challenger, and who knows who else.

PS: Jfry, leave out the little digs in your posts at other members in future.

But it looks like he has the info he needs now to make an informed decision, given the chance to digest it.

[dirtylarryuk]

jfrydom, on 25 August 2011 - 09:45 AM, said:

Well I've been personally asked by the OP to give my opinion so here I am. Lordreds config is mostly good (surprisingly) so I'll use that as a baseline. The Psu is overpowered any decent 650watt (antec, corsair etc.) will be able to power a single gpu rig. For a case, if you want something unique that will stand out, you can talk to Bill Owen at MNPCtech (a vendor on the forums) he could modify a case of your chossing and it could come out to the same price as the level 10. Western digital RE4s are actually extremely fast, close to the speed of velociraptors, it would make for good storage. An older (larger vertex 2 might suit your needs better as it should be cheaper per GB. Not to mention, ssd tech is still in its infancy (the reason why I don't own one. Given the low cost of ram you might as well buy 16GB, and be able to do without a pagefile. You have a little extra room in your budget so you could go after something like the 6970 Lightning just to have a little fun with OCing (it is fun), although the twin frozr III 6950 will suit your needs perfectly and not be noisy (unlike stock cards). The 2500k is fine, and as for mobos, I generally prefer asus, but gigabyte SHOULD be fine. As for coolers the market is full of copycats and closely performing items, just ask anybody on the forums and they will give you an option thats "good enough".
P.S. stay away from the HAF series, save the X.
jfrydom

IO would disagree and point out that SSD tech is now well out of it's infancy and not using a sandforce SSD to host your OS at least for any decent PC should be a crimnal offence a bit like using Intel or AMD IGP's for hardcore gaming.

HDD's are for storage and fast ones are just total waste of cash. Even SAS HDD's array can't get past 400 iops even the worst SSD from 5 years ago has 5-10k (Yes 10000) and many now 80,000-100,000 plus).

If you into MMO's HDD's are a MASSIVE bottleneck.

Since 2010 HDD's are for storage nothing more.

HDD's bottleneck Atom and ARM cpu's they are roughly 1/10th the power of a stock i7 2600k....

Veloraptors R4's are are a complete waste of cash now, just buy a cheap eco 1-2TB drive use that for storage, buy a 120-240 GB SSD 220RW or better for OS and games and apps.

TT case is ok but Raven 3 is way cheaper and much better for cooling and same for Haf-x.

16Gb is great but do understand that can limit the OC on many mobo's, 8GB sets are safer as in 4GBx2 and just 2 slots filled.






DLUK's 7 golden rules.


1: Do get a 4 core CPU (or 4 thread) or better, that works at stock 3GHZ or with OC (overclock) 4GHZ or better for games now.

2: For a monitor of a resolution higher than 720p (1024x768p-1368x720p) get a Nvidia GTX 460 or GTX 560 1GB VRAM or better (see my GPU guide for better than GTX 460) for a great gaming GPU.

3: Get 4GB of RAM or better and ONLY use Win7 64 bit (Home Prem' is fine Pro' is waste of cash 98% of time)

4: Get a decent branded, with great warrenty PSU, avoid cheap brands!

5: Get a case with room to expand and that has dust filters that are easy to remove, built in. Raven 2-3, HaF X are fine examples.

6: Get a 60GB-120GB Sandforce based SSD or larger to fit WIN7 64 and your fav games to make even a slow CPU seem alot faster.

Edited by dirtylarryuk, 25 August 2011 - 10:50 AM.

[Lordred289]

jfrydom, on 25 August 2011 - 09:45 AM, said:

The Psu is overpowered any decent 650watt (antec, corsair etc.) will be able to power a single gpu rig.

An 850w EP-80 Gold gives him room for growth in the future, but you are quite correct.

jfrydom, on 25 August 2011 - 09:45 AM, said:

Western digital RE4s are actually extremely fast, close to the speed of velociraptors, it would make for good storage. An older (larger vertex 2 might suit your needs better as it should be cheaper per GB. Not to mention, ssd tech is still in its infancy)

While the RE4's are better then the Cavair Black's they are still slower then a SSD. I'm with DLuk on this, SSD or bust for the OS drive / MMO's

jfrydom, on 25 August 2011 - 09:45 AM, said:

go after something like the 6970 Lightning just to have a little fun with OCing (it is fun), although the twin frozr III 6950 will suit your needs perfectly and not be noisy (unlike stock cards).

I would of used the 6970 in this build, however newegg was out of stock

jfrydom, on 25 August 2011 - 09:45 AM, said:

As for coolers the market is full of copycats and closely performing items, just ask anybody on the forums and they will give you an option thats "good enough".

Jfry is dead on with this one, there are ALOT of cooling options out there they all perform roughly the same, some cost less then the Zalman (by a lot) the choice on my end was very biased for asthetics.


As EG said the OP has directly contacted many of us, myself included.