Advice on a possible Gaming rig build.

[Harkonnen]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Mostly Gaming, and regular PC use.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
My budget is approx $1000-$1200 Total with tax and shipping.

3) Where do you live?
Canada

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
Complete PC, except monitor and peripherals(mouse, Keyboard, etc)

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
None

6) Will you be overclocking?
More than likely not, it would definitely not be anything extreme.

7) What size monitor do you have or plan to have?
Have a 20" Samsung 205BW @ 1680x1050 that I will be reusing.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Possibly this month, Jan 09.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
I'd like eSATA support, one IDE header, Gigabit Ethernet. RAID is unnecessary but would be nice to have in future . Crossfire or SLI is also unnecessary because 2 cards is too expensive, but most motherboards have one or the other.

Here is what I have spec'd out so far.

Everything is from Ncix.com because I'd perfer to use them.

Antec Three Hundred Mini Tower Gaming Case 300 ATX 3X5.25 6X3.5INT No PS Front USB & Audio - $73.56
Antec Neo HE550 High Efficiency 550W ATX12V V2.2 Active PFC Power Supply - $105.56
ASUS P5Q Pro ATX LGA775 P45 DDR2 2PCI-E16 CrossFire 3PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 Sound GBLAN eSATA Motherboard - $149.98 + $15 MIR
G.SKILL F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ PC2-6400 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-800 CL5-5-5-15 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit - $55.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 3.5IN 500GB SATA2 8.5MS 7200RPM 32MB Cache NCQ Hard Drive OEM - $65.98
EVGA E-GEFORCE GTX 280 602MHZ 1024MB 2.214GHZ GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDCP HDTV Out Video C *IR-$140* - $369.99 + $20 MIR
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Dual Core Processor LGA775 3.0GHZ Wolfdale 1333FSB 6MB Retail - $199.99
Pioneer DVR-216DBK Black 20X SATA OEM DVDRW No Software - $44.70


Total - $1,065.75 Total After Tax and Shipping - $1,184.30 minus $35 in rebates.
All Prices are CANADIAN DOLLARS.

I don't need an OS.

I am hoping that this setup would last me at least 2 years.

Reccomendations and suggestions are welcome. Just be sure to remember I'd perfer using ncix.com because I am from Canada. Also if suggesting other hardware be sure to check the promotional sale flyer at the top of ncix.com.

 

[tiraides]

You don't need a GTX 280 for the resolution you're using. Yes, I know that you want this system to last at least a couple of years, but video cards are the fastest depreciating components in your system. Go with either the 1GB Radeon HD4870 or the GTX 260 with 216 shader cores instead.

Instead, you may want to consider buying a quad-core processor for the sake of longevity. It's good for multitasking -- as in, running multiple programs (e.g., Photoshop, Virtual PC) simultaneously -- and more games are being "optimized" for use with it. The Q6600 is a good choice, as it isn't that much more expensive than the E8400 and it is easily overclockable (speeds above 3GHz are common with the Q6600).

I also suggest spending the extra money to buy one of the 640GB hard drives from Seagate or Western Digital. All of the 640GB drives use a two-platter design that makes them run faster than most hard drives smaller than that size. The Western Digital (Caviar Blue) WD6400AAKS is known to perform about as well as the last-gen Raptor X (and, based on the benchmarks, is only about 10% slower than the newer model VelociRaptor).

 

[lt_shiro]

Everything looks good but I would use Corsair powersupply cause it has longer cables and cables pre-sleeved

Corsair TX650W 650W ATX 12V 52A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 120MM Fan $125

 

[Harkonnen]

You don't need a GTX 280 for the resolution you're using. Yes, I know that you want this system to last at least a couple of years, but video cards are the fastest depreciating components in your system. Go with either the 1GB Radeon HD4870 or the GTX 260 with 216 shader cores instead.

Instead, you may want to consider buying a quad-core processor for the sake of longevity. It's good for multitasking -- as in, running multiple programs (e.g., Photoshop, Virtual PC) simultaneously -- and more games are being "optimized" for use with it. The Q6600 is a good choice, as it isn't that much more expensive than the E8400 and it is easily overclockable (speeds above 3GHz are common with the Q6600).

I also suggest spending the extra money to buy one of the 640GB hard drives from Seagate or Western Digital. All of the 640GB drives use a two-platter design that makes them run faster than most hard drives smaller than that size. The Western Digital (Caviar Blue) WD6400AAKS is known to perform about as well as the last-gen Raptor X (and, based on the benchmarks, is only about 10% slower than the newer model VelociRaptor).

I put the GTX 280 in there because it was only 20 bucks more than the GTX 260s. I have considered the 1GB 4870 as well, but I really dislike the warranties on the AMD cards.

I've looked at benchmarks for the Q6600 as well and it is a slower CPU for gaming than the e8400 and the Q8200 performs worse than the Q6600 but its $40 cheaper. I've also been hearing rumors about intel cutting prices this month as well. As well as Nvidia as they move to 55NM. Also the Q6600 would be a little bit hotter running and might make the PC more noisy. Q6600 is $260 and the Q8200 is $229, E8400 is $199 at ncix.

It really is a difficult choice.

I'm not married to my HDD choice, its just the seagate one is $65 for 500GB and the WD Caviar black 640gb is $88.

Everything looks good but I would use Corsair powersupply cause it has longer cables and cables pre-sleeved

Corsair TX650W 650W ATX 12V 52A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 120MM Fan $125

Is 650W really even necessary for my system? I don't plan on using SLI or Crossfire. I am only going to have 2 Hard drives. Also I was looking for a modular PSU to cut down on cable clutter. I don't believe the TX has modular.

With the 20 dollar rebate it does come down to the same price as the one I picked, but I was trying to avoid rebates IF possible.

 

[Harkonnen]

It would be great if I could get a couple more opinions.

 

[lt_shiro]

Clutter doesn't matter if you don't have the cable length to get to the parts in the case.

the Cosair 450 watt would get the job done for your current picks but I like building little head room. lol

 

[Harkonnen]

Heh, at least that image answers one of my questions.

Like do the gtx 280 and 260 fit in a antec 300 comfortably.

 

[HardwareGuru]

Yeah it will fit a GTX 260 or GTX 280 video card. Just barely makes it in though. Just make sure a HDD is not mounted in that slot where it will prevent the video card from installing.

 

[Sathsayin]

I see you were getting it from a diffrent site
I just bought this for my friend who is building a new computer for 400 bucks so! he had the board ram and used 9600gt video card he wanted.

ok.. now for another build suggestion.

newegg has the antec three hundred for 47.99 free shipping if that helps in us
so here we go.

all stuff below is from newegg.ca

all in canada with most of the stuff free shipping anyhow best i could do. Damn prices suck up there. this gives you 2 harddrives for raid(these harddrives are supposed to be as fast as 2 sata 150 drives each) and 8gb of ram plus a quadcore cpu.

also those vidoe card prices i couldn't even begin to tell you to spend 400 bucks on a 260 let alone on a 280 GOOD GOD. anyhow this 3870 has 320 stream proccesors which is equal to about 180 or so nvidia stream proccessors. but here is the thing it uses gddr4 instead of 3 so expect an increase from there. you don't overclock so this is beefy setup. also going to tell you that newegg does have a canadian website now!

never had a build suggestiont take 1.5 hours looking for combo deals to no avail.

Dude this is 2 times the ram 2 tiems the core and 2 times the hardrive! i would dump ncix if hte only reason is becasue your in canada.

 

[engiNURD]

I wouldn't say it fits comfortably, lol, but it fits!

No, you don't need 650W. Yes, the Neo 550W would do just fine, but I'd go for the Corsair 520W instead, if you want a more quiet PSU. The Corsair uses a single 120mm fan, while the NeoPower uses a single 80mm fan. Once that PSU gets hot and the fan needs to kick in, you'll definitely notice an 80mm fan more than a 120mm fan. It also bugs me that Antec didn't get their "high efficiency" lineup 80+ certified -- wtf?!?!

Yah, for $20CAD, I'd go with a 280 over 260, too.

Personally, I'd go for the Caviar over the 'Cuda, but only because its faster. The price difference here in the states isn't that bad (only $10), so its an easy choice for me, lol.

I agree, avoid rebates.

Go for whichever card you feel comfortable spending money on that gives you the performance you're looking for.

... (these harddrives are supposed to be as fast as 2 sata 150 drives each) ...

Huh?

 

[lt_shiro]

4670 is better buy than the 3870... only about 5% slower but good $20 cheaper and uses 66% less power than 3870 or you can get Sapphire 4830 for just $15 more, which is about as fast as 8800/9800 GT.

 

[Sathsayin]

This is what you wanted if you want it to last about 2-3 years.and will cost about 1300 after shipping so! good luck with your build. you do not need a 280 for that screen size.

 

[Sathsayin]

I wouldn't say it fits comfortably, lol, but it fits!

No, you don't need 650W. Yes, the Neo 550W would do just fine, but I'd go for the Corsair 520W instead, if you want a more quiet PSU. The Corsair uses a single 120mm fan, while the NeoPower uses a single 80mm fan. Once that PSU gets hot and the fan needs to kick in, you'll definitely notice an 80mm fan more than a 120mm fan. It also bugs me that Antec didn't get their "high efficiency" lineup 80+ certified -- wtf?!?!

Yah, for $20CAD, I'd go with a 280 over 260, too.

Personally, I'd go for the Caviar over the 'Cuda, but only because its faster. The price difference here in the states isn't that bad (only $10), so its an easy choice for me, lol.

I agree, avoid rebates.

Go for whichever card you feel comfortable spending money on that gives you the performance you're looking for.



Huh?

read that these drives were 10 percent slower than the last generation raptor's. I then ran accross a website. Not sure which one that said that these drives were faster than 2 below average sata 150 drives in raid. (ones that had several platters). I think some low budget 35 dollar rebranded hitatch deatstars maybe( olymipus/olymipia something i cant remeber) Anyhow everyone keeps praising these. so I said supposedly. If i'm wrong i don't won't to be spreading false information that would suck. plus would piss me off if i'm the builder. Anybody ?

 

[engiNURD]

read that these drives were 10 percent slower than the last generation raptor's. I then ran accross a website. Not sure which one that said that these drives were faster than 2 below average sata 150 drives in raid. (ones that had several platters). I think some low budget 35 dollar rebranded hitatch deatstars maybe( olymipus/olymipia something i cant remeber) Anyhow everyone keeps praising these. so I said supposedly. If i'm wrong i don't won't to be spreading false information that would suck. plus would piss me off if i'm the builder. Anybody ?

I just didn't understand your sentence the first time because it was missing the "raid" part, which is crucial to it making sense.

My personal observations of my own drives...
Two below avg SATA150 drives would do under 90MB/s (I had two 'cuda.7's in raid0 that performed under 90). Two SATA300 drives w/ two platters would do slightly over 100, around 110MB/s (had two 'cuda.10's in raid0 that did 112). A single WD6400AAKS does at least 90MB/s for the earlier versions, and I'm seeing even faster for the recent batches. The platter density of the newer drives is what makes them faster. These new drives are 320-333GB per platter, whereas the older drives were 250gb, 160gb, etc.

 

[Sathsayin]

I just didn't understand your sentence the first time because it was missing the "raid" part, which is crucial to it making sense.

My personal observations of my own drives...
Two below avg SATA150 drives would do under 90MB/s (I had two 'cuda.7's in raid0 that performed under 90). Two SATA300 drives w/ two platters would do slightly over 100, around 110MB/s (had two 'cuda.10's in raid0 that did 112). A single WD6400AAKS does at least 90MB/s for the earlier versions, and I'm seeing even faster for the recent batches. The platter density of the newer drives is what makes them faster. These new drives are 320-333GB per platter, whereas the older drives were 250gb, 160gb, etc.

sorry was up t 15 hours now.lol i'm a hardfourm addict. i went to sleep bout 4 am. ifeel better now. besides i can barely talk let alone type