$2300 i7 Gaming Build

Jospeh said:
Why would you buy a horrible set of speakers?
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What is your suggestion at that price point? I am not interested in spending more than $100 on my speakers. I have used logitech speaker set ups before and I have never encountered a situation where I would call them horrible, in fact they seem pretty decent in my experience.
 
They are not decent. They are pretty terrible quality. Unless you like distorted sound. I don't think you'll find a good 5.1 system for 100$. Around 200-250$ you can probably get a decent one though.
 
Better to get a good pair of headphones (especially for gaming) like the ad700 at that price point.
 
In regards to headphones: I have never found a pair that didn't cause me pain so I am not interested in going down that road. I'll be honest, I must have a tin ear and I am certainly not an audiophile. My most recent set of speakers was a similarly priced set of altec lansing 2.1 sound speakers. I thought the sound quality on them was just fine so something that provides a similar level of quality in 5.1 is all I am looking for.
 
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Personally now having dealt with a 4.1 setup and a few 5.1 speaker setups since I'm not made of money I'd try putting the money into a good 2.1 setup. IMO a $100 2.1 setup could be better than a 5.1 unless you need surround.
 
Be careful bro.. I see a 5.1 logitech vs 2.1 setup flame thread hurricane forming :D Oi, if you like the sound out of a set of speakers and you don't want to spend more then don't. There are always better speakers, just stick to what you like if thats where your money takes you :)

Just be aware that some 2.1 setups DO sound way better than some logitech 5.1 setups.. but the logitechs don't sound 'distorted'.. thats a load of shit. They sound a little muddy, but if it doesn't bother you, ie. they sound fine to you. Then go with them :) Your rig, your ears, your cash ;)

As for the fans.. sounds like ya on the right track to me..

:Luca
 
I've started ordering components, starting with the peripherals so that I can test them before I build the computer. The main order is going in next Tuesday and I hope to be able to start building the system the Saturday after that. I <3 newegg service. They've already refunded $10 on the monitor I bought because it dropped in price, even though they had no obligation to do so.
 
tiraides said:
Could you post the final build list?
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I've edited the first post to reflect the current final build list.

One final other thing has occurred to me:
My apartment complex has what I could best describe as "mildly dirty" power. Lots of small surges/flickers/etc. Not visible at all day to day but when I lived with roommates we had watched it blow out multiple old CRT monitors over the years. I purchased an APC Line-R 1200 power regulator a few years ago to combat this and it has been pretty successful.

The power in this complex has also burnt out two laptop power adapters in 3 years (as I just plug these into the wall rather than into the APC). Eventually they start to whine and get even hotter than normal. Then they will pop/smoke and I have to go buy a new one. Needless to say I don't leave my laptop plugged in unattended.

Will that device still be sufficient for my new computer? Specifically I am concerned on whether it will not bottleneck the line current/etc and cause problems.

For example: the regulator allows a maximum line current per phase of 10A. Is that pretty much standard? I see the PSU that I have chosen has an input current of 10A. I am not an electrician so I am just trying to understand the nature of what is going on here. Is this all normal and nothing at all to even bother being concerned about or thinking about?
 
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It'll work fine for regulating the power to your system. However, it has very low surge protection, so I'd strongly suggest getting a UPS (1300VA should be fine) or at least a better surge protector. ;)
 
M-Audio man. I know these speakers are over $100+ dollars but, I have these and the sound is really good. I feel my M-Audios sound better than my brothers Logitech Z-5500 and his is waay more expensive. I brought my M-Audio speakers to work and used it for karaoke for our xmas party and even my coworkers was surprised of how good it sounded.
 
HardwareGuru said:
M-Audio man. I know these speakers are over $100+ dollars but, I have these and the sound is really good. I feel my M-Audios sound better than my brothers Logitech Z-5500 and his is waay more expensive. I brought my M-Audio speakers to work and used it for karaoke for our xmas party and even my coworkers was surprised of how good it sounded.
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The Z-5500's were cheap for me, $145. :D Still, I wish I got something similar to those AV40's, haha!
 
All components are now purchased!! I will post pictures as they arrive and a build log next week. My folks asked my wife and me to watch their house for them this weekend, so I probably won't get a chance to start work on it until next week x.x
 
My last batch of components arrived today at 1:00. Nine hours later and two hail mary's for good luck and I pushed the power button. Perfect boot on the first try! I am completely physically and mentally exhausted. I can't believe how much this took out of me. I took a fair amount of pictures through the process though and will post a worklog tomorrow. Maybe with some lessons learned for th efuture.
 
RAD said:
My last batch of components arrived today at 1:00. Nine hours later and two hail mary's for good luck and I pushed the power button. Perfect boot on the first try! I am completely physically and mentally exhausted. I can't believe how much this took out of me. I took a fair amount of pictures through the process though and will post a worklog tomorrow. Maybe with some lessons learned for th efuture.
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Congrats! It does take a bit out of you. My own i7 build took several hours and I was physically exhausted. Mostly because I didn't assemble it on the desk as I should have, but was in an uncomfortable position on the floor instead. It is a great feeling though when you push the power button and everything works perfectly from the first time.
 
Success on first boot?!?!? Hah... people are spoiled these days. :p

Looking forward to that worklog. Please link it here if you make another thread or something.
 
Hi guys, build log is up over here: (link). Thank you all for all of the help and advice! I have higher res images of course but I didn't want to bog the post down with them. At a point in the middle I OCD'd out and went into hyper focus on building and two hours later realized I hadn't taken any pictures during that two hours. Oh well.
 
Loose the fans and get a better case. 80mm fans are loud and youll hear them over everything else so its pointless buying fans.

For 190 you can get a:
Acer X233Hbid Black 23" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail
My mate has an LG 22" and they look exactly the same in image quality and better then my old 19" philips and sammy. very good buy im very happy with it.

My mate bough that case and its very cheap and full of plastic.

you can get:
COOLER MASTER COSMOS 1000 RC-1000-KSN1-GP Black/ Silver Computer Case - Retail
Which is a much better quality case with the money you save from the screen and the fans.

Also do you really need a raptor for acouple secounds in load time? you could get yourself a 750G 32mb cache seagate or something for now then down the line get a SSD and use the 750 for storage. raptors are horrible bang for buck and SSD offer much greater performance and with more and more comming out in bigger capacities also they will keep droping in price.

Edit*

Lol i think im abit late oh well.
 
Did anyone ever correct you about when the Windows 7 RC ends? Its not August, its March of 2010.

EDIT

I can see you went with Win 7 in the build log, nevermind.
 
The beta for windows 7 ends in June 2010, it just starts having rolling restarts in March. I don't mind, as soon as the OS launches I will buy it, sooner the better so I don't have to back too much stuff up for the final install. I am loving windows 7 by the way, great os.
 
chrisewaters said:
Loose the fans and get a better case. 80mm fans are loud and youll hear them over everything else so its pointless buying fans.

For 190 you can get a:
Acer X233Hbid Black 23" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail
My mate has an LG 22" and they look exactly the same in image quality and better then my old 19" philips and sammy. very good buy im very happy with it.

My mate bough that case and its very cheap and full of plastic.

you can get:
COOLER MASTER COSMOS 1000 RC-1000-KSN1-GP Black/ Silver Computer Case - Retail
Which is a much better quality case with the money you save from the screen and the fans.

Also do you really need a raptor for acouple secounds in load time? you could get yourself a 750G 32mb cache seagate or something for now then down the line get a SSD and use the 750 for storage. raptors are horrible bang for buck and SSD offer much greater performance and with more and more comming out in bigger capacities also they will keep droping in price.

Edit*

Lol i think im abit late oh well.
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I have to say I disagree with pretty much everything you said here, honestly. The raptor is awesome and has noticeable improvement in load times over a 7200 drive and no new technology issues like the SSDs. Also, seagates have been absolute turds in quality control lately so I would not buy one for any purpose. If I had to buy a 7200 drive for storage I would just go WD.

the coolermaster cosmos is a massive, heavy (37 lbs vs 22 lbs) $200 case with no window (have to purchase a window for $30). 4 inches taller, 3 inches longer and 2 inches wider than the CM 690 at $100 including window. If I wanted a case that huge and expensive I would have bought an Antec 1200. The quality of the CM 690 case to me is top notch, the plastic is only either fully optional removable wire management clips or at toolless drive insertion points where metal wouldn't be feasible. Even counting all the optional fans I filled my case with it is still at least $100 cheaper than the Cosmos.

That acer monitor has 5 ms lag and noticeable input lag, not even remotely ideal for my purposes.

Finally, The 80 mm fan is completely silent, I don't even hear it over the hsf fan and 120 mm fans. With every fan in the case set to full speed through fan controllers it is still barely audible over the room fan in my room. Since the fans are usually at %40-%60 power the noise level is barely a whisper and actually something of a comforting noise to me. Additionally, the fan on the gtx 285 drowns them all out completely when I kicked it up to full power to test it.
 
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