Build Advice

Budget:
$1500 (not counting tax and shipping unless I can slip by that somehow lol!)

Expectations:
I expect it to rock (compared to my XPS 630i, which doesn't suck, I'm sure it'll rock just fine as is)

Usage:
Lots and lots of gaming.

Special Needs:
It needs to work when I get it. :)

Saved Ticket #: 453452


Specifications:
See the Ticket above :P


Ok, what I have (as stated above) is a Dell XPS 630i, Core2QuadCore, 9800GTw/512mb, 2gigs of whatever RAM they put in it. This machine would easily last me another couple years as is. I have no problems running the games I want at the current resolution my 19" Widescreen allows (1440x900)with everything cranked up.   But, the wife's PC (an ol' P4D 3.2ghz) finally bit the dust, which means I'm gettin' a new PC. She hardly ever uses a computer so I win when hers dies. Love ya honey! lol

First a little history. I've spent the better part of the last two weeks researching custom PC builders and of course I came across Cyberpowerpc, which on the surface looks pretty good, as does Ibuypower. But after spending the last 4 days reading reviews on their own forums and at offsite forums, there's no way in hell I'm going to trust my $$ with these ppl, which brings me to DSO. BBB rating and wonderful customer reviews have convinced me that DSO is the place I want to spend my money. I'm the kind of customer that *expects* to take his new toy out of the box and start playing with it and I just couldn't bring myself to believe that would happen with DSO's competition (if you can even call them competition at this point).

So here I am, I'm already over budget with the build I have, but its what I'm gettin' come hell or high water. lol Considering I've already invested $400 on the 37" Vizio (nephew works at Walmart so I got a 20% discount hehe) What I need to know from you guys is, do you see any issues with it?

What is the cooler that I have chosen? Could I get more info on it? Will it do the job? I know the retail would do the job, but I want a little more than what the retail cooler will do, and I'm simply not interested in Liquid cooling at all. The less BS I have the deal with the happier the customer I am.

The case I chose only comes with 2 fans so I upgraded the fans, will that upgrade cover all the available fan slots in the case I've chosen?

I chose the only 1gb GTX 460 that was in the config, but is an EVGA available? Would you recommend a different brand and if so, why? What would be the approx cost of another brand? What brand does DSO use by default?

What brand of RAM does DSO use? (according to what I have selected)

Do I get all the items that came with the original case? (mounting brackets screws, etc). Do I get all the manuals and cables that come with all of the original hardware? These seem like silly questions to me as I'm paying for these things, I think I should get everything I'm paying for instead of just what they decide to include when they're done.

Believe me, I've read reviews on everything I'm ordering (that I have a brand/model for), from the case, the MSI Mobo, the video card, etc. I'm a diehard Intel/Nvidia man.   There is no changing those 2 factors. I've had Intel since 1989, and I've been using Nvidia since they first started producing video cards. Until those 2 brands break something badly, I will be using them till then or until I die. AMD and ATI are no goes for this ol' man. :P (no offense to you AMD/ATI folks)

So if anyone could address all that and let me know if there may be any problems with my current build, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you very much in advance. :)

Edited by HazerX - 02 Nov 2010 at 2:17am

Hmmm, I'm not sure I'm willing to bite on the CPU and considering I have a 9800 GT now that is rock solid, I think a GTX 460 will suit me just fine.

Thats what I think at least.

Why would you downgrade to the i5 750 and upgrade to the GTX 470?

I know the overclocking is free, but I have this superstition that OCing reduces the life of my hardware. :)

By all means correct my superstitions if need be.

Edited by HazerX - 02 Nov 2010 at 3:03am

Well, I appreciate it very much. :) Options are good. :)

Originally posted by HazerX $1500 (not counting tax and shipping unless I can slip by that somehow lol!)

Tax is only if you live in CA. I believe shipping is $65.

What is the cooler that I have chosen? Could I get more info on it? Will it do the job? The case I chose only comes with 2 fans so I upgraded the fans, will that upgrade cover all the available fan slots in the case I've chosen? What brand of RAM does DSO use? (according to what I have selected)

You're taking the wrong approach to select so many unknowns.

You also have the wrong idea about cases, it's not a good idea to take a crappy case and replace its fans with expensive and obnoxiously loud 120mm Zalmans (they only replace fans, not add). Just get a good case from the start (922, 932), much cheaper, quieter, simpler.

Not sure on the CPU cooler. It might "do the job", but less CPU cooling means a directly proportionally lower CPU overclock, so you don't want to skimp. You definitely get your money's worth out of a good cooler.

Digital Storm Certified memory in the past has been Mushkin, Kingston, and Super Talent. Possibly also TechNPC. Timings of 9-9-9-24. Best buy for the money, as you would have to pay an arm and a leg for memory with tighter timings yet get imperceptible performance gain from it.

I chose the only 1gb GTX 460 that was in the config, but is an EVGA available? Would you recommend a different brand and if so, why? What would be the approx cost of another brand? What brand does DSO use by default?

They all use Nvidia's reference design, so brand is irrelevant.

Do I get all the items that came with the original case? (mounting brackets screws, etc). Do I get all the manuals and cables that come with all of the original hardware? These seem like silly questions to me as I'm paying for these things, I think I should get everything I'm paying for instead of just what they decide to include when they're done.

Yes, you get every leftover item that they don't use. Cables, case wheels, screws, bridges, etc.

Hmmm, I'm not sure I'm willing to bite on the CPU and considering I have a 9800 GT now that is rock solid, I think a GTX 460 will suit me just fine.

They all overclock the same, so about the only difference between a 760 and a 950 is hyper-threading. What does hyper-threading get you? Well in gaming absolutely nothing, almost no games can make use of more than 2 threads, let alone 8.



There are some minor platform differences between x58 and P55 as well, but for a budget rig that is going to boil down to mostly just 4GB of memory versus 6GB of memory. And no 6GB will not help gaming performance.

I'd say get either the aforementioned Ticket #453374 P55 system for $1489, or go over your budget a bit for the x58 system equivalent, Ticket #453542 for $1633.

the problem with tvs in general is color depth and quality compared to a monior of far less cost