Building a new Monster PC

jmx009

Hello everyone

I am new to Ireland and i am trying to build this monster gaming rig. However i am not sure of the places to go to get the components. I am not even sure if buying online is cheaper than going to the shop. I have attached the list of components that i would like to have in my PC. Any help regarding where to buy them would be greatly appreciated.

N.B: this is my first time building a PC. So i am not sure if the components that i went for are the right ones. I would also appreciate it if you would go through the specs and tell me your honest opinion.

Processor (CPU)

Intel® Core™i7 Processor i7-920 (2.66GHz) 4.8GTs/8MB Cache

Memory (RAM)

6GB CORSAIR XMS3 1333MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (3x2GB)

Motherboard

ASUS® P6T: DDR3, 3-Way SLI & CrossFireX on Demand

Operating System

Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium 64 bit Edition + SP1, CD & Licence

USB Options

8 x USB 2.0 PORTS (6 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD

Memory - 1st Hard Disk

1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

2nd Hard Disk

1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

1st CD/DVD Drive

22x DUAL LAYER LIGHTSCRIBE DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

2nd CD/DVD Drive

22x DUAL LAYER LIGHTSCRIBE DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

Graphics Card

1792MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX295 PCI EXPRESS

2nd Graphics Card

1792MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX295 PCI EXPRESS

Sound Card

Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Xtreme Gamer

Modem

NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

Network Facilities

ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

Floppy Disk Drive

NONE

Memory Card Reader

INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)

Case


COOLERMASTER HAF 932 FULL TOWER BLACK GAMING PC CASE

Power Supply & Case Cooling

1500W Thermaltake Toughpower Modular + 120mm Case Fan

Processor Cooling

ASUS TRITON 81 PURE COPPER BASE ULTRA COOLER (£49)

Firewire & Video Editing

1 x IEEE 1394a FIREWIRE PORT ONBOARD

TV Card

NONE

Monitor

24 Inch Wide TFT Silver/Black 1920 x1080 8MS D-Sub, DVI (£169)

Keyboard

Logitech® Internet Keyboard + Hotkeys (Black) (£6)

Mouse

NONE

Speakers

LOGITECH X-540 5.1 Surround sound effect with full range and deep bass

Webcam

NONE

kaimera

to be honest, first impression is over kill.

what do you want to play and we (everyone who'll reply) can help tailor yer needs to components.

z0oT

I think you'd be wasting an awful amount of money on 2 GTX295 cards, you'd be far far better off just sticking with one single gpu card such as the GTX275/GTX260/HD4890, the only real reason for those dual gpu setups is if you've a 30' monitor or something, any overhead is just a waste of money really.

I'm also of the opinion that the i7 platform isn't really worth the price if you're to be using it for gaming alone, benchmarks will tell you that there's no real advantage for gaming. It's the GPU that counts more, a Phenom II with a 790FX or a Core 2 with an X48 along with a good solid single GPU card are far better value for money.

I'd always find it's better buying stuff online, shops don't really have the selection I'd be looking for. The main places I'd use here would be:
http://www.dabs.ie
http://www.pixmania.ie - often has some very good deals
and http://www.komplett.ie
actually komplett have a forum here aswell:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=242

Blazer

Agreed with the dual GPU choice.
At 1920x1200 two x 295s are complete overkill. Drop one or buy a 30" monitor.
You can also drop the 1500w PSU...a 1000-1200w will do.
If you can afford it (with the money saved from GPU+PSU) get a 250GB SSD. About €500 and well worth the speed increase.
I recommend the OCZ vertex range. Huge boot in boot up times/ app startup etc.

jmx009

I always thought that a dual GPU configuration is always better than a single GPU. I thought i read some articles regarding this. I could be wrong.
About the system, I will be using it mainly for gaming and for occasional multimedia purposes like video converting,file conversions and watching DVD's. dabs.ie seems to be a nice site. I am going to check it out..

N.B Sorry for being a noob but what does overkill mean? Does that mean my configuration is more than what is needed?

uberpixie

jmx009 wrote: »

I always thought that a dual GPU configuration is always better than a single GPU. I thought i read some articles regarding this.

SLI and Crossfire only come into their own at very high res and IF the game supports it.... Depending on the game, the 2nd card may add a little performance 30% or so or it may just sit on it's ass and suck up power and make loads of noise because the game you are playing does not support it.

The card you have picked a GTX295 performs about the same in games as a 4870X2 which is around €100 cheaper.

Bear in mind the GTX295 (and the 4870X2) is a dualcore card anyhow: adding another to the mix is a huge and pointless waste of money as it will add very little if any performance gain in most games as anything past two cards in SLI or Crossfire under performs (and is some cases reduces framerates!) and is just not supported well at all...

Get one good gfx card and put the €500 odd saved to an SSD, a better screen, in the piggey bank to upgrade your gfx card when something better comes out in a year or two.

Also why two DVD drives? (You really only need the one)

Greatly reduce the power supply: 750-800W is all you really need, just make sure to get a quiet one. A corsair in that range should be a good starting point. 1500W is total overkill and a waste of money. Also running a barely used 1500W psu will be more heavy on the electricty bill than a well used 800W.

Blazer

It normally is...but the GTX295 is already a dual card ie 2 cards within one card.
If you had two of them you'd be using quad-sli and it's frankly not worth it.
I have the ATI 4870X2 which is the same really at the GTX295 and it easily plays games at 1920x1200..
I wish Nvidia would do the same now as ATI and identify their dual cards as an X2 so you know straight away if it's SLI or X-Fire already.

jonny72

Maybe best if you give a budget and get the guys to spec you a PC from a German site that will build the PC for you and install the software.

As some of the guys said, a solid state hard drive will add much more speed to your system than a second 295.

Do you want a quiet machine or does it matter? do you want to overclock it?

jmx009

jonny72 wrote: »

Maybe best if you give a budget and get the guys to spec you a PC from a German site that will build the PC for you and install the software.

As some of the guys said, a solid state hard drive will add much more speed to your system than a second 295.

Do you want a quiet machine or does it matter? do you want to overclock it?

I definitely need a quiet machine. I dont have any plans to overclock it at the moment. Which is this German site that you are talking about? Let me know and i will check it out.

If yall think that i should go for a 4870Hd single card, i will change the spec then. How about the mother board? Can i use the same motherboard in the spec mentioned above with the 4870HD card or should i change it too?
I checked out komplett.ie and dabs. THey both seem to be nice. What would guys reccomend between them or are there more websites like them ?

Jonathan

www.hardwareversand.de

Effluo

This is something like a more sensible option. It's what will play nearly every game on uber high settings, vvv-overclockable and upgradable.
Not to mention just about as futurproofed as you'll get!



I'm sure people will have things to change in it.
hdws.de didn't seem to have any coolers for the cpu and i chose the case cause that's what the op had in his first sheet.

In terms of audio card unless you're a complete audiophile then you should really stick with the onboard.

And i just put a tv card in it for the laugh! ha ha ha... ha.....

Blazer

You forgot the SSD drive though


Op..what's your budget and what do you intend using it for?
Just gaming?

Unregistered.

uberpixie wrote: »

Get one good gfx card and put the €500 odd saved to an SSD, a better screen, in the piggey bank to upgrade your gfx card when something better comes out in a year or two.

Or blu ray!!

Solitaire

jmx009 wrote:

Processor Cooling

ASUS TRITON 81 PURE COPPER BASE ULTRA COOLER (£49)

Just my 2 cent... Asus + CPU Cooler = Fail.

You can get a vastly better model for less.

And two GTX295 are Ultimate Overkill. Period. Hell, unless they're heavily discounted you could get a pair of GTX275 or OC a couple of HD4890s for far less than just one of those! :eek:

And dropping the extra ~250W means you can cut further off the PSU budget... you'd be looking at a good 750W or (if OCing heavily) 850W from Antec or Corsair.

jmx009

Sc@recrow wrote: »

You forgot the SSD drive though


Op..what's your budget and what do you intend using it for?
Just gaming?

Well my budget was 2500-3000 euros. However after reading through all your suggestions i am starting to think if i actually need such a high power system after all.. I mean, if the 2 GTX295 is too powerful i might bring it down to a radeon HD 4870 X2 card ( is that an ok card? ).
about the SSD, are solid state drive a lot faster than the traditional drive? Is it worth the extra buck?

A quick question : Is there a big difference between the HD 4870 X2 and the HD 4890 cards? I was thinking of going with the HD 4870 X2 but if yall think the HD 4890 is better, i might go for that. Also my motherboard "ASUS® P6T: DDR3, 3-Way SLI & CrossFireX on Demand ", is that ok or do i have to go for another one?

Blazer

At 1920x1200 there is a nice difference between the 4870X2 and 4890 in favour of the X2.
I'm using a X2 and it's a fantastic card for the price.
You need a very good CPU though so as not to be cpu limited at the higher resolutioms.
For that reason I recommend you get the Core i7 and X58 board.
This allows you 2-3 years of upgrading if needed.
Definitely only 1 GPU is needed and I'd spend the extra money on a SSD..
Get at least a 128GB or 250GB one. You won't regret it.
Boot times are significantly faster, app startups are way faster epsecially photoshop or every heavy apps.
Your board is a bit overkill considering you won't be going SLI or X-fire (as in 2 cards), however with Windows 7 you can run a 4870X2 card for your main games and a Nvidia card for Physx if you so desired. Vista won't allow ATI+NVidia cards to be run together due to only allowing one video driver to be installed. Windows 7 does allow 2 though.

Stevo105

I'd get a Intel processor...stay clear of the AMD for gaming (usless your on a budget) also do a bit of research yourself, after all your spending alot of money there

try
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/

http://www.anandtech.com/

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/best-gaming-cpu,review-31640.html

Unregistered.

jmx009 wrote: »

...2500-3000 euros...

YO DAWG, I herd you like overkill.....




EDIT: Upgraded the mobo so it can support 3-way XFire AND threw in a blu-ray drive to boot.

Stevo105

have a look at this guide on Anandtech...they know there sh1t

http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=3610&p=1

54kroc

Here's my two cents

Solitaire

Unregistered., why the two Palit HD4870X2s? They've barely any OC at all and the Sapphire ones are €100 less per card! Hell, you can buy a GTX295 for nearly €20 less! Or on a premium X58 mobo put 3-4 HD4890s together...

Blazer

One 4870X2 will do him.

cherryghost

feck it get the 4870x2 in crossfire. and double that memory! whos wants 6GB ffs? :rolleyes:

cherryghost

what do i win?



EDIT: Forgot the CPU cooler!! noooo! Add another 60 euro onto that so :P

DOUBLE EDIT: Throw in 5/6 monitors there.

54kroc

Why bother with an i7-975?

cherryghost

cork45 wrote: »

Why bother with an i7-975?

cause hes got 8 grand to spend. personally i wouldnt even bother with a core i7 for the time being anyway

Unregistered.

Solitaire wrote: »

Unregistered., why the two Palit HD4870X2s? They've barely any OC at all and the Sapphire ones are €100 less per card! Hell, you can buy a GTX295 for nearly €20 less! Or on a premium X58 mobo put 3-4 HD4890s together...

See edit.....

Unregistered. wrote: »

YO DAWG, I herd you like overkill.....




EDIT: Upgraded the mobo so it can support 3-way XFire AND threw in a blu-ray drive to boot.

Not bad for a nose over 3K Delivered! If you need more storage than 300GB, I suggest you replace it with 4 x 1TB Samsung F1 drives (with the 32MB cache). Organise RAID0 for the four of them so you have 2 x RAID0 then set up RAID 1. :cool:

Solitaire

Or get a fifth HDD and RAID5 them

Unregistered.

Solitaire wrote: »

Or get a fifth HDD and RAID5 them

*click-click-click

---

click-click-click-click-click--click-click.....*


What's that noise?



Oh, it's the sound of RAID5!!!! :pac: That's if you can hear over the sound/vibration of 15 platters spinning simultaneously!

Anti

Some ****ing horrible builds here. The amd build made me rofl hard. The buiild above with the WD green 2tb hdd made me rofl like **** too. And whats overkill about the "YO DAWG" build? Ill give you a overkill build here, and a proper build.

Yo dawg, we heard you like extreme, so we put an extreme in yo extreme so you can extreme while you extreme.




Ah bollocks i forgot the second kit of ram, the second powersupply too. So add another 600 ish on it. Ill do the proper build later on when i have some time.

cherryghost

Anti wrote: »

Some ****ing horrible builds here. The amd build made me rofl hard. The buiild above with the WD green 2tb hdd made me rofl like **** too. And whats overkill about the "YO DAWG" build? Ill give you a overkill build here, and a proper build.

Yo dawg, we heard you like extreme, so we put an extreme in yo extreme so you can extreme while you extreme.




Ah bollocks i forgot the second kit of ram, the second powersupply too. So add another 600 ish on it. Ill do the proper build later on when i have some time.

Yeah, but can it play Crysis? :D

Solitaire

HEY! Where's the water?! Hell, where's the phase-change?! And why isn't there a monitor built into the case front powered by its own mITX PC inside the case!? :P

Been a while since I've seen a TurboCool brandished in anger!

jmx009

Allright people, after going through all your suggestions and after talking to some people. I have decided to go for a lower budget. From what i've heard investing in a high end system is a waste of money as prices go down every 6 months. Hence it would be stupid to invest in a 3000 euro system to find out that in 6 months the price goes down by a grant !!
So i have decided to set up a new budget of about 1500-1750 euros instead of 3000 euros.

I am still thinking of having a i7 920 processer. I am not sure about the graphics card and the other components..

Any suggestions?

jmx009

cork45 wrote: »

Here's my two cents

I like the specs on this one. What do yall think?

Anti

Solitaire wrote: »

HEY! Where's the water?! Hell, where's the phase-change?! And why isn't there a monitor built into the case front powered by its own mITX PC inside the case!? :P

Been a while since I've seen a TurboCool brandished in anger!

Oh.... Its sooooooo on now !

Unregistered.

Anti wrote: »

Some ****ing horrible builds here. The amd build made me rofl hard. The buiild above with the WD green 2tb hdd made me rofl like **** too. And whats overkill about the "YO DAWG" build? Ill give you a overkill build here, and a proper build.

Yo dawg, we heard you like extreme, so we put an extreme in yo extreme so you can extreme while you extreme.




Ah bollocks i forgot the second kit of ram, the second powersupply too. So add another 600 ish on it. Ill do the proper build later on when i have some time.

WOW, €3,000 == £16,000!!!! That's some exchange rate! :rolleyes:

Blazer

jmx009 wrote: »

I like the specs on this one. What do yall think?

Nice build..I'd up the SSD to a 250Gb and maybe drop the blu-ray dvd..but overall it's a good system.

AlmightyCushion

jmx009 wrote: »

I like the specs on this one. What do yall think?

I'd go with an ocz vertex or an intel ssd.

@Anti - You forgot the nuclear reactor needed to power the thing.

leninbenjamin

Don't bother with the i7 if you don't have a specific reason or need for one, no games out there avail significantly of the hyperthreading, even those advertised as optimised for multicore.

kaimera

raid0 intel ssd tbh.

a few tb of storage in the background.

blu-ray if thats yer thing but maybe hold off for CBHD to boom in the next while