Seeking Advice for New PCPost Date: 2011-04-06 |
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Obfuscate 
Newbie 
Joined: 05 Apr 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 25 |
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 Topic: Seeking Advice for New PCPosted: 06 Apr 2011 at 12:11am |
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Hello, all. I've been looking around at different design-it-yourself companies, and I'm liking what I'm seeing from DS, so I think I'll be buying here once I settle on build. I'm a newbie, however, so I'd like to post my current proposed build for review -- any sage technical advice would be much appreciated.
Budget: $1500 Expectations/Usage: I'm looking for a stable, gaming-oriented PC that will hopefully last a decent while. I'm not a hardcore gamer who needs super awesome performance all the time, but I do definitely want to step things up a bit from my aging, off-the-shelf Vista Dell. I'd like to be able to play current and near-future games on reasonably high settings. I'm planning to buy a 1920 x 1080 monitor. Proposed Build: http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=516562 Price: $1424 Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master Elite 430 Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish Processor: Intel Core i7 2600K 3.40GHz (Unlocked CPU for Extreme Overclocking) (Quad Core) Motherboard: ASUS P8P67-M PRO (Intel P67 Chipset) (New & Improved B3 Revision Without SATA 3G Issue) System Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested) Power Supply: 750W Corsair TX (Dual SLI Compatible) Expansion Bay: - No Thanks Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (500GB Western Digital/Seagate/Hitachi/ Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: - No Thanks Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x) Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections) Video Card: 1x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 768MB (Includes PhysX Technology) Add-on Card: - No Thanks Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 1: Noctua NH-U12P SE Dual 120mm Fans High Performance Cooler H20 Tube Color:- Not Applicable, I do not have a FrostChill or Sub-Zero LCS Cooling System Selected Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (Blue) Enhancements: - No Thanks Chassis Mods: - No Thanks Noise Reduction: - No Thanks Boost Processor: FREE: Overclock the processor between 3.6GHz to 3.9GHz Boost Video Card: FREE: Yes, Overclock the video card(s) as much as possible with complete stability Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory Boost OS: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition) Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows 7 CD) My main questions/concerns: 1) Video card, video card, video card... My biggest headache here. I don't have much financial wiggle-room: I can only afford one card, and probably not one of the higher-end ones. I've currently selected a GTX 460 -- at the risk of asking a loaded question, is the 460 "good enough"? I'd like my card to be able to at least kinda-sorta be able to keep with games into the future. (Looking at you, Skyrim.) 2) Is it worth having the video card OC'd? 3) Would additional chassis fans be desirable in such a build? This will be the most powerful system I've ever used, and I'll inevitably start being paranoid about it melting... 4) What are the merits of choosing one motherboard over another? 5) I've read glowing reviews of both the AMD and Intel processors. Are Intel's really, tangibly better for gaming? To use an automotive analogy: a guy who's only ever driven a 20-year-old Camry is going to have an equally good time in either a BMW or a Mercedes, so does it make a particularly noticeable difference which one he chooses? Thank you in advance.  |
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DST4ME
DS ELITE 
Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758 |
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Posted: 06 Apr 2011 at 2:30am |
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For 1900 x 1200, its best to start with 570/6970 and have a system that can handle 2 of them if needed.
budget will not allow us to this, so I would do this: Here you go Ticket# 516693 --- $1532 (To see this build click here) Copy of Specifications: Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - HAF 922 Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish Processor: Intel Core i7 2600K 3.40GHz (Unlocked CPU for Extreme Overclocking) (Quad Core) Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 (Intel P67 Chipset) (New & Improved B3 Revision Without SATA 3G Issue) System Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested) Power Supply: 750W Corsair TX (Dual SLI Compatible) Expansion Bay: - No Thanks Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (500GB Western Digital/Seagate/Hitachi/Samsung (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: - No Thanks Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x) Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections) Video Card: 1x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB (Includes PhysX Technology) Add-on Card: - No Thanks Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 1: Noctua NH-U12P SE Dual 120mm Fans High Performance Cooler H20 Tube Color:- Not Applicable, I do not have a FrostChill or Sub-Zero LCS Cooling System Selected Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans Internal Lighting: - No Thanks Enhancements: - No Thanks Chassis Mods: - No Thanks Noise Reduction: - No Thanks Boost Processor: FREE: Overclock the processor between 3.6GHz to 3.9GHz Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s) Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory Boost OS: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition) Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows 7 CD) Virus Protection: - No Thanks Office: - No Thanks Benchmarking: - No Thanks Install/Test Game: - No Thanks Display: - No Thanks Surge Shield: - No Thanks Speakers: - No Thanks Keyboard: - No Thanks Mouse: - No Thanks External Storage: - No Thanks Exclusive T-Shirt: - No Thanks Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed Warranty: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty 1. you need to start with a 570. 2. not here, its very mild, oc it yourself, its easy, we can show you. 3. Ask DS specifically for this fan to be added to the side, so you endup with 3 x 200mm fans: haf 200mm non led fan 4. Depends on your needs. 5. I don't think your analogy is dead on, intel has much better performance all the way around look at where amd is in these charts for example: 
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Obfuscate
Newbie
Joined: 05 Apr 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 25 |
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Posted: 06 Apr 2011 at 7:22am |
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Thanks for the info.
As far as the processors are concerned, I'm persuaded, so Intel it is. My next question is: can I get by with an i5 instead of an i7? The 7 would be preferable, of course, but opting for the 5 would free up a fair bit of money that could get me a 570 card. That $1500 budget is unfortunately pretty inflexible, so I'm not going to be able to have my cake and eat it, too. On the other hand, I'm thinking it might be better to take the i7 and a lesser card, since in the future I can probably upgrade the card more easily than the processor -- and by the time I can afford a good dual card set-up, I'll be able to afford (and will want) a whole new system, so that's honestly a bit irrelevant. Any thoughts? |
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DST4ME
DS ELITE
Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758 |
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Posted: 07 Apr 2011 at 1:41am |
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I'm a big believer of going big on the brain (cpu), since the gpu can get updated any time/anyways.
but its upto you, the 2500k is a very good processor also but its no 2600K, specially in things other then gaming. |
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Obfuscate
Newbie
Joined: 05 Apr 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 25 |
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Posted: 07 Apr 2011 at 9:03am |
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In the end, I placed my order with an i5 2500k coupled with a GTX 570. The i7 would have been preferable, of course, but looking realistically at my needs and budget, the 5 should be sufficient.
Thanks for the input. Helpful forum is helpful. |
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DST4ME
DS ELITE
Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758 |
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Posted: 08 Apr 2011 at 2:01am |
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My pleasure and congrats
Don't forget pics and specs when you get it
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Obfuscate
Newbie
Joined: 05 Apr 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 25 |
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Posted: 08 Apr 2011 at 8:06am |
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I definitely will. Order was processed yesterday, so now I'm officially in the "wait anxiously for the next stage" phase, lol.
I'm going to squee like a little girl when this thing finally shows up at my door.  |
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DST4ME
DS ELITE
Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758 |
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Posted: 08 Apr 2011 at 7:19pm |
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Let the torture begin
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