Author Topic: New computer build.  (Read 2138 times)

Offline Rozzly

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New computer build.
« on: October 08, 2009, 06:06:53 PM »
I would really like some feedback and/or suggestions. The idea was to build a high end pc sticking with the micro-atx form factor so that my setup could easily be moved during gatherings and lan-parties. I was also looking for a small setup like this to convert into a media-pc at a later time if my interest in gaming suddenly died.

CASE: NZXT Rogue sff  ||  SALE=$69.99  ||  http://www.virtual-hideout.net/reviews/NZXT_Rogue/index.shtml
PSU: Rosewill 80+ Bronze series  750W  ||  SALE=$89.99  ||  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182186
MOBO: ASUS Rampage II GENE x58  ||  SALE=$219.99  ||  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131371
CPU: Intel Core i7 920 D0 stepping  ||  SALE=$199.99  ||  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202
CPU COOLER: ZALMAN CNPS10X Extreme  ||  $74.99  ||  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118051
CASE FANS: 4x ENERMAX MAGMA  ||  $7.99 ea.  ||  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835214001
MEMORY: OCZ Platinum 6GB 1600 Cas-7  ||  SALE=$144.99  ||  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227381
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB  ||  $94.99  ||  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate

Video is still undecided. Ive been running on a 9600gso for quite some time, but it's currently the loudest part in my system. I originally wanted to get SLI GTX 275's, but then ATI released the 58xx series and i've heard rumors of the 5870 beating or benching really close to the gtx295's. The only problem I have deciding is the price:performance ratios.

With my CPU OC'd to 3.0ghz 24/7, the idle temps are an average of 29-30 degrees C, and at 100% on all 8 threads, i've yet to break 60 degrees C.
Now OC'ing to 4.0ghz+ has worked stable, but the temps are a bit too high for my liking. Il probably wait till mid winter and use it as a heater. (;

Any thoughts?
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Offline Lupin

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Re: New computer build.
« Reply #1 on: October 08, 2009, 06:11:54 PM »
Don't bother with Windows 7 Ultimate. Buy Windows 7 Pro instead unless you have an absolute need for the language support provided by Ultimate.

Don't bother with any current NVidia cards too. None of them are DX 11 compliant. Buy ATI's 5850 instead.

Offline Tatsujin

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Re: New computer build.
« Reply #2 on: October 08, 2009, 06:15:51 PM »
I would really like some feedback and/or suggestions. The idea was to build a high end pc sticking with the micro-atx form factor so that my setup could easily be moved during gatherings and lan-parties. I was also looking for a small setup like this to convert into a media-pc at a later time if my interest in gaming suddenly died.

CASE: NZXT Rogue sff  ||  SALE=$69.99  ||  http://www.virtual-hideout.net/reviews/NZXT_Rogue/index.shtml
PSU: Rosewill 80+ Bronze series  750W  ||  SALE=$89.99  ||  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182186
MOBO: ASUS Rampage II GENE x58  ||  SALE=$219.99  ||  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131371
CPU: Intel Core i7 920 D0 stepping  ||  SALE=$199.99  ||  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202
CPU COOLER: ZALMAN CNPS10X Extreme  ||  $74.99  ||  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118051
CASE FANS: 4x ENERMAX MAGMA  ||  $7.99 ea.  ||  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835214001
MEMORY: OCZ Platinum 6GB 1600 Cas-7  ||  SALE=$144.99  ||  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227381
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB  ||  $94.99  ||  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate

Video is still undecided. Ive been running on a 9600gso for quite some time, but it's currently the loudest part in my system. I originally wanted to get SLI GTX 275's, but then ATI released the 58xx series and i've heard rumors of the 5870 beating or benching really close to the gtx295's. The only problem I have deciding is the price:performance ratios.

With my CPU OC'd to 3.0ghz 24/7, the idle temps are an average of 29-30 degrees C, and at 100% on all 8 threads, i've yet to break 60 degrees C.
Now OC'ing to 4.0ghz+ has worked stable, but the temps are a bit too high for my liking. Il probably wait till mid winter and use it as a heater. (;

Any thoughts?
Yup, purchase the new ATI card. Also, get a different type of RAM. I have no idea why your getting ... THAT type of RAM, specially from OCZ. Get this, get only one and then get the rest later (one by one, you know?)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231313


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Offline Rozzly

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Re: New computer build.
« Reply #3 on: October 08, 2009, 06:21:48 PM »
I would really like some feedback and/or suggestions. The idea was to build a high end pc sticking with the micro-atx form factor so that my setup could easily be moved during gatherings and lan-parties. I was also looking for a small setup like this to convert into a media-pc at a later time if my interest in gaming suddenly died.

CASE: NZXT Rogue sff  ||  SALE=$69.99  ||  http://www.virtual-hideout.net/reviews/NZXT_Rogue/index.shtml
PSU: Rosewill 80+ Bronze series  750W  ||  SALE=$89.99  ||  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182186
MOBO: ASUS Rampage II GENE x58  ||  SALE=$219.99  ||  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131371
CPU: Intel Core i7 920 D0 stepping  ||  SALE=$199.99  ||  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202
CPU COOLER: ZALMAN CNPS10X Extreme  ||  $74.99  ||  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118051
CASE FANS: 4x ENERMAX MAGMA  ||  $7.99 ea.  ||  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835214001
MEMORY: OCZ Platinum 6GB 1600 Cas-7  ||  SALE=$144.99  ||  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227381
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB  ||  $94.99  ||  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate

Video is still undecided. Ive been running on a 9600gso for quite some time, but it's currently the loudest part in my system. I originally wanted to get SLI GTX 275's, but then ATI released the 58xx series and i've heard rumors of the 5870 beating or benching really close to the gtx295's. The only problem I have deciding is the price:performance ratios.

With my CPU OC'd to 3.0ghz 24/7, the idle temps are an average of 29-30 degrees C, and at 100% on all 8 threads, i've yet to break 60 degrees C.
Now OC'ing to 4.0ghz+ has worked stable, but the temps are a bit too high for my liking. Il probably wait till mid winter and use it as a heater. (;

Any thoughts?
Yup, purchase the new ATI card. Also, get a different type of RAM. I have no idea why your getting ... THAT type of RAM, specially from OCZ. Get this, get only one and then get the rest later (one by one, you know?)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231313

Woah. Well i like that stick, but it's a little out of my price range. I had my eye on the ocz platinum's because it was a tri-channel pack totaling 6 gigs and they ran stock at 7 cas latency. Plus the price is half that of the 4gig stick. (;

Oh and what is the overall difference that I would get in buying the 5870 over the 5850 or vise versa. I know there is a $100 price difference, but how much real-world performance would i lose/gain between the two?
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Offline Lupin

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Re: New computer build.
« Reply #4 on: October 08, 2009, 06:31:58 PM »
Oh and what is the overall difference that I would get in buying the 5870 over the 5850 or vise versa. I know there is a $100 price difference, but how much real-world performance would i lose/gain between the two?
around 10-15% difference

Offline kureshii

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Re: New computer build.
« Reply #5 on: October 09, 2009, 12:19:30 AM »
Woah. Well i like that stick, but it's a little out of my price range. I had my eye on the ocz platinum's because it was a tri-channel pack totaling 6 gigs and they ran stock at 7 cas latency. Plus the price is half that of the 4gig stick. (;

Oh and what is the overall difference that I would get in buying the 5870 over the 5850 or vise versa. I know there is a $100 price difference, but how much real-world performance would i lose/gain between the two?
Nice pick on the OCZs, I agree they're a more worthwhile purchase than the other option :)

(Not that I would understand the reasons why a pricier dual-channel kit was recommended over a much cheaper and no less reputed triple-channel kit with lower CAS latency... but to each their own I guess)

Oh by the way, I noticed you quoted the price for an i7-920 at $199... are you buying it in a combo set?

The Rosewill looks good, but I'd personally go with a Corsair TX750 for $10 less, or Corsair TX850 for $10 more (it's not overkill; looking beyond the power rating, for that $20 difference you get better current tolerances and better efficiency at high power loads). Or with moolah to spare, I'd head for a Corsair HX750. The TX-series are not Bronze-rated, but they have their specifications rated at 50C (vs 40C for Rosewill). It's not modular so you might get more cable clutter, but you won't be shortchanged on connectors.
« Last Edit: October 09, 2009, 01:32:10 AM by kureshii »

Offline Rozzly

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Re: New computer build.
« Reply #6 on: October 09, 2009, 01:15:32 AM »
Woah. Well i like that stick, but it's a little out of my price range. I had my eye on the ocz platinum's because it was a tri-channel pack totaling 6 gigs and they ran stock at 7 cas latency. Plus the price is half that of the 4gig stick. (;

Oh and what is the overall difference that I would get in buying the 5870 over the 5850 or vise versa. I know there is a $100 price difference, but how much real-world performance would i lose/gain between the two?
Nice pick on the OCZs, I agree they're a more worthwhile purchase than the other option :)

(Not that I would understand the reasons why a pricier dual-channel kit was recommended over a much cheaper and no less reputed triple-channel kit with lower CAS latency... but to each their own I guess)

Oh by the way, I noticed you quoted the price for an i7-920 at $199... are you buying it in a combo set?

The Rosewill looks good, but I'd personally go with a Corsair TX750 for $10 less, or Corsair TX850 for $10 more (it's not overkill; for that $20 difference you get better current tolerances and better efficiency at high power loads). Or with moolah to spare, I'd head for a Corsair HX750. The TX-series are not Bronze-rated, but they have their specifications rated at 50C (vs 40C for Rosewill). It's not modular so you might get more cable clutter, but you won't be shortchanged on connectors.

No actually I was lucky enough to pick up the i7 just a few days ago at the local microcenter for only $200. I think they may still have the sale going on.

EDIT: http://microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0302727
The only trouble i had was explaining to the customer rep that i wanted a D0 stepping model, and I wasn't going to pay for a C0.
« Last Edit: October 09, 2009, 01:19:22 AM by Rozzly »
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Offline kureshii

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Re: New computer build.
« Reply #7 on: October 09, 2009, 01:32:57 AM »
Nice :O I wish we had such awesome discounts here.

Offline Tatsujin

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Re: New computer build.
« Reply #8 on: October 09, 2009, 02:56:05 AM »
Hate OCZ RAM, ... the nightmares, oh the nightmares.


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Offline Rozzly

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Re: New computer build.
« Reply #9 on: October 09, 2009, 02:59:15 AM »
Hate OCZ RAM, ... the nightmares, oh the nightmares.

Although the specifications are very appealing, is there anything in particular I should watch out for from your experience?
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Offline Tatsujin

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Re: New computer build.
« Reply #10 on: October 09, 2009, 03:16:51 AM »
Hate OCZ RAM, ... the nightmares, oh the nightmares.

Although the specifications are very appealing, is there anything in particular I should watch out for from your experience?
black screens, blue screens, slower than G.Skill. Problems and other problems (playing videos, anime, at the very most). The ones I bought were a year and a half ago. I'll never go back to them.

Corsair or G.Skill. Corsair is far better, but they're expensive.

As soon as I switched to G.Skill, all problems vanished.


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Offline Rozzly

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Re: New computer build.
« Reply #11 on: October 09, 2009, 05:13:27 AM »
Hate OCZ RAM, ... the nightmares, oh the nightmares.

Although the specifications are very appealing, is there anything in particular I should watch out for from your experience?
black screens, blue screens, slower than G.Skill. Problems and other problems (playing videos, anime, at the very most). The ones I bought were a year and a half ago. I'll never go back to them.

Corsair or G.Skill. Corsair is far better, but they're expensive.

As soon as I switched to G.Skill, all problems vanished.

Well I noticed the platinum series has a more recent model release, and the tri-channel sets are primarily for the x58 boards that support them. Im sure they've worked their old voltage problems out by now. At least I hope. ): But like I said, I primarily wanted to go with this set because of the price and the Cas 7.

EDIT: I've heard good things about OCZ Gold. But i'm not sure between gold:platinum
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Offline Klocknov

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Re: New computer build.
« Reply #12 on: October 09, 2009, 05:46:12 AM »
OCZ is okay ram, but G.Skill or Corsair is always my choice over it. I tend to most the time spend the extra penny on Corsair for my home builds then go G.Skill on my friends unless I can get a great deal on OCZ Titanium.
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Offline Viseroid

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Re: New computer build.
« Reply #13 on: October 09, 2009, 06:46:10 AM »
Setup looks pretty good. Never seen that kind of case before though :D, I'll take a look at them when I build my next rig. Bet it's loads easier to get at the mobo that way. Thanks for the link too :).
I would hold off on buying any vid cards for a bit. Though the new ati card looks pretty awesome so far nvidia will be making its move soon. Wait until then.

Offline Tatsujin

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Re: New computer build.
« Reply #14 on: October 09, 2009, 11:01:11 AM »
Thing is your wasting so much money on Mobo and CPU, so notch the rest up a bit. Get a really good RAM, get ONE piece a 4GB (come on, 24GB on a Mobo?! That's awesome. Killer choice). I don't know what type of video card your getting as well, but like that other guy said 5850 HD is one hell of a video card and the price is a lot better than the previous generation!

I'd save and get them. This is getting me hyped up. I can actually purchase a Core 2 Extreme for 450 dollars right now but would that be worth it?! No idea.


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Offline Rozzly

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Re: New computer build.
« Reply #15 on: October 09, 2009, 12:08:04 PM »
Thing is your wasting so much money on Mobo and CPU, so notch the rest up a bit. Get a really good RAM, get ONE piece a 4GB (come on, 24GB on a Mobo?! That's awesome. Killer choice). I don't know what type of video card your getting as well, but like that other guy said 5850 HD is one hell of a video card and the price is a lot better than the previous generation!

I'd save and get them. This is getting me hyped up. I can actually purchase a Core 2 Extreme for 450 dollars right now but would that be worth it?! No idea.

Well 24gb would be nice (;, but i don't do large scale renders / data processing, so even in this generation I couldn't make full use of even 12gb. So really in the long run 24gb would be a large chunk of wasted money. When 24gigs becomes usable in the future, im sure the 4gb sticks will overrun the 2gb's, but until then.. XD As for the video card, im still debating between the 5850 and the 5870.
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Offline Tatsujin

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Re: New computer build.
« Reply #16 on: October 09, 2009, 12:49:59 PM »
Thing is your wasting so much money on Mobo and CPU, so notch the rest up a bit. Get a really good RAM, get ONE piece a 4GB (come on, 24GB on a Mobo?! That's awesome. Killer choice). I don't know what type of video card your getting as well, but like that other guy said 5850 HD is one hell of a video card and the price is a lot better than the previous generation!

I'd save and get them. This is getting me hyped up. I can actually purchase a Core 2 Extreme for 450 dollars right now but would that be worth it?! No idea.

Well 24gb would be nice (;, but i don't do large scale renders / data processing, so even in this generation I couldn't make full use of even 12gb. So really in the long run 24gb would be a large chunk of wasted money. When 24gigs becomes usable in the future, im sure the 4gb sticks will overrun the 2gb's, but until then.. XD As for the video card, im still debating between the 5850 and the 5870.
Price difference? If it's like 50 dollars ... eh, maybe. Anything less than that is a plus. Look at the specs, too. Names mean shit. Specs is everything. Alright I got a full day today at work. :P


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Offline Natheria

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Re: New computer build.
« Reply #17 on: October 11, 2009, 11:58:02 PM »
No actually I was lucky enough to pick up the i7 just a few days ago at the local microcenter for only $200. I think they may still have the sale going on.

EDIT: http://microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0302727
The only trouble i had was explaining to the customer rep that i wanted a D0 stepping model, and I wasn't going to pay for a C0.

wow... I think i just raged a little bit.  :-\

Offline Rozzly

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Re: New computer build.
« Reply #18 on: October 13, 2009, 04:02:33 AM »
No actually I was lucky enough to pick up the i7 just a few days ago at the local microcenter for only $200. I think they may still have the sale going on.

EDIT: http://microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0302727
The only trouble i had was explaining to the customer rep that i wanted a D0 stepping model, and I wasn't going to pay for a C0.

wow... I think i just raged a little bit.  :-\

bahaha 32 left in stock, i might be up for snatching a few and shipping :3
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Offline kyanwan

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Re: New computer build.
« Reply #19 on: October 13, 2009, 10:30:01 AM »
Hate OCZ RAM, ... the nightmares, oh the nightmares.

I have PCs with:

- Mushkin
- Corsair
- Kingston
- ( generic )
- OCZ

The PC with OCZ is a piece of shit.  

The Generic, is half-ass ... but for the system it is, it runs pretty good.   Everything else is fine.

---------

By the way.

That case looks like a window unit AC sitting on a table, or a fancy air filter.

Nothing.