[Blitzula]

I'm going to have a pc built, mine is old. I use my pc to surf the web and occasionally for games. I want to buy something that is future proof for at least the next three years....what do you think of this? Just starting my research now.

Gaming Desktop, Intel - Ultimate (using ASUS P5N72-T Premium SLI motherboard w/ Nvidia 780i)
Recommended Uses:
- High-level Gaming Performance
- First Person Shooters (such as Call of Duty and Crysis), Online (such as World of Warcraft) Games
- Overclocking



Selected options:
Desktop: Motherboard, Intel S775: ASUS P5N72-T Premium SLI, Nvidia 780i SLI, S775
Desktop: CPU Model, Intel S775: Intel Quad Core 2 Q9550 2.83GHz (12MB),1333MHz
Desktop: Intel CPU Cooling: Intel Stock CPU Fan (S775)
Desktop: Memory, DDR2: 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-800 CL5 RAM, GSkill
Desktop: Case: Antec Sonata Plus 550 w/ 550W Power Supply
Desktop: Power Supply: Not Needed For Cases Which Already Have A Power Supply
Desktop: Floppy Drive: Please Select
Desktop: Hard Drive: Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB SATA 2, 10,000rpm
Desktop: 2nd Hard Drive: Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB SATA 2, 10,000rpm
Desktop: RAID: RAID 0 (Striped) - boosts performance, requires 2 same sized drives
Desktop: SATA Cables: Please Select
Desktop: Round Drive Cables: Please Select
Desktop: CD/DVD Drive: ASUS 20x DL DVD-RW Burner, Lightscribe, quieter
Desktop: 2nd CD/DVD Drive: Please Select
Desktop: Gaming Video Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX280 1GB PCI-E
Desktop: 2nd SLI Video Card: Please select one (Must choose an identical model for SLI)
Desktop: TV Tuner: Please Select
Desktop: Sound Card: Creative Labs Audigy SE 7.1, PCI
Desktop: Modem: 56k V.92 Fax WinModem, PCI
Desktop: Wireless: Please Select
Desktop: Monitor: Please Select
Desktop: Keyboards: Please Select
Desktop: Mice: Please Select
Desktop Software: Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium, 32 or 64-bit
Desktop Software: Productivity: Please Select
Desktop Software: Security: Please select one
Desktop Services: Warranty: *** 3 Year Warranty On All System Components ***
Comments: Type any specific requests or comments here.


$2,510.00 x = $2,510.00

 

[NoHands]

everything seems fine, however i would go with a motherboard with an intel chipset. the nvidia ones are known to be buggy. The asus motheboards with an intel chipset called x38 are better, less buggy and run faster.

everything else seems fine.

 

[milkpowder]

Is there any reason why you're going for a GTX280 instead of the 4870X2? I'm under the impression the 4870X2 is faster. It might be slightly unfair to compare a dual GPU card to a single GPU card.

EDIT: I just had a look at a few benchmark and it does seem that the GTX280 is faster in some games, though not by a whole lot .

I would probably go with a X48 motherboard with DDR2. DDR3 seems a bit pricey at the moment.

 

[Blitzula]

Updated, I dropped Raid Array and the 10,000 rpm hard drive, as neither seems to boost performance significantly from what I'm reading online. I haven't updated the motherboard yet, there's no option to do so in the KC Computers configurator.

Gaming Desktop, Intel - Ultimate (using ASUS P5N72-T Premium SLI motherboard w/ Nvidia 780i)
Recommended Uses:
- High-level Gaming Performance
- First Person Shooters (such as Call of Duty and Crysis), Online (such as World of Warcraft) Games
- Overclocking



Selected options:
Desktop: Motherboard, Intel S775: ASUS P5N72-T Premium SLI, Nvidia 780i SLI, S775
Desktop: CPU Model, Intel S775: Intel Quad Core 2 Q9550 2.83GHz (12MB),1333MHz
Desktop: Intel CPU Cooling: Intel Stock CPU Fan (S775)
Desktop: Memory, DDR2: 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-800 CL5 RAM, GSkill
Desktop: Case: Antec Sonata Plus 550 w/ 550W Power Supply
Desktop: Power Supply: Not Needed For Cases Which Already Have A Power Supply
Desktop: Floppy Drive: Please Select
Desktop: Hard Drive: Western Digital 1TB SATA2, 7200rpm
Desktop: 2nd Hard Drive: Please Select
Desktop: RAID: Please Select
Desktop: SATA Cables: Please Select
Desktop: Round Drive Cables: Please Select
Desktop: CD/DVD Drive: ASUS 20x DL DVD-RW Burner, Lightscribe, quieter
Desktop: 2nd CD/DVD Drive: Please Select
Desktop: Gaming Video Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX260 896MB PCI-E
Desktop: 2nd SLI Video Card: Please select one (Must choose an identical model for SLI)
Desktop: TV Tuner: Please Select
Desktop: Sound Card: Creative Labs Audigy SE 7.1, PCI
Desktop: Modem: 56k V.92 Fax WinModem, PCI
Desktop: Wireless: Please Select
Desktop: Monitor: Please Select
Desktop: Keyboards: Please Select
Desktop: Mice: Please Select
Desktop Software: Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic, 32-bit
Desktop Software: Productivity: Please Select
Desktop Software: Security: Please select one
Desktop Services: Warranty: *** 1 Year Warranty On All System Components ***
Comments: Type any specific requests or comments here.




$1,900.00 x = $1,900.00

 

[Planar_head]

From what I read, Nvidia chipsets do NOT overclock well. (shown by the conplete lack of OC'ing info on the chipset)

Crossfire scales way better than Nvidia cards, and one 4780x2 is better at high resolutions. Unless you only play Crysis, then you should atleast really consider getting a ATI card.

You say you're gonna overclock? I doubt you could get far on a stock cooler. That is, unless you're watercooling and you're buying from somewhere else.

If you do watercool, i'd say look into a Lian-Li case. I only hear good things about their biggest case for watercooling.

Your case PSU won't deal with overclocking and a card. I suggest a without a PSU and go with a Seasonic or something.

Why a Creative Audigy? Those things aren't very good at all. Go with a Creative X-Fi/Prelude or a ASUS Xonar or something. Audigys are for the 20th century.

Another one -- why Vista home basic? Why 32bit? I'd say go with atleast Home premium 64bit.

Have fun!

 

[olblueyez]

I would add the 10000 rpm drive back in, and lose the raid only.

 

[myinitialsaredac]

OP,
It doesnt make sense to delve into a new computer for at least 6 months. Nvidia is working on a method to offload processes from the CPU (2 cores) to the GPU (256+ cores) which should be coming out fairly soon. They unveiled part of this tech using adobe illustrator to flip around and resize an image in real time (usually takes a considerable amount of loading with that many vectors). It is going to be truly revolutionary when that comes out and will trump any CPU even a quad core oced to 8ghz with liquid nitrogen.

As for the nvidia boards, i currently have a 680i sli from evga and i can OC with air to a stable 3.8 on a 2.8 core duo. As far as OCing goes im fairly sure its more based on the competance of the ocer more than the board, as long as the options arent locked in the bios. But as far as your system you never mentioned anything about ocing, so i find it a tab bit erroneous. The 280s are truly amazing cards, and beat out their ati counterparts in almost all side to side comparisons.

however that is my take, I'd agree with planar that you should get a prelude or x-fi instead of the audigy tho.

Also with 4 gigs of ram you should go with 64 bit environment otherwise you only use 2.8 gigs at a time (limit in 32-bit).

Dave

 

[chesebert]

post this on forum.anandtech.com..you will get better response

 

[JamesL]

oops
\/

 

[JamesL]

I recommend the intel motherboards as well..
(imo, nvidia's only stayed in the motherboard market because of their vice-grip on SLI)

I would recommend the 320gb or 640gb 7200rpm western digital drives instead of the 1tb 7200rpm or the 10krpm velociraptor.
(the 320gb has a higher platter density than the 1tb, which is 4x250gb platters, and is faster. The 640gb drive is basically 2x 320gb platters)
Real life benchmarks show that the velociraptor is only about 1% faster to load material, which in most cases is going to be completely undetectable. (to put it into context.. it'll take 2 seconds to load up a game map, instead of 2.02 seconds)
If it's anything like the original raptor, it's most likely louder, warmer, and more failure prone.

RAIDs in general are also pretty buggy, and RAID-0 especially, can be very failure prone.

$400 for video card (gtx280)
$320 for processor (Q9550)
$60 for RAM
$120 for case and a cheapy power supply
$25 optical drive,
$200 for motherboard
$100 for hard-drive


Overall, the 3-year warranty is nice, but that's more than $1000 over parts cost and 1-2 hours of put-together.


Unless you feel -really- uncomfortable about not having a warranty,
I say find 3-4 hours off your week to build it yourself.

You stick the ram in the motherboard. you stick the cpu on the motherboard. you stick the graphics card in the motherboard. You bolt it down to the case, and connect a few wires.

With the leftover money, you can get a nicer power supply, a better case, some nice quiet fans, a better cpu heatsink, and you'll still have a ton of money left over.

If you need, I'll be more than glad to help you pick out the actual parts and dealers.

 

[Blitzula]

Thanks for all the feedback guys, cool as always. I’m not overclocking, that’s just one of the recommended uses from the website-sorry for the confusion..

This is what I have so far (some comments follow after, and I've included rough googled cost per part):


Desktop: Motherboard, Intel S775: ASUS P5N72-T Premium SLI, Nvidia 780i SLI, S775 ($275)
Desktop: CPU Model, Intel S775: Intel Quad Core 2 Q9550 2.83GHz (12MB),1333MHz ($350)
Desktop: Intel CPU Cooling: Intel Stock CPU Fan (S775) ($15)
Desktop: Memory, DDR2: 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-800 CL4 RAM, GSkill ($80)
Desktop: Case: Antec Nine Hundred Gaming ($80)
Desktop: Power Supply: Thermaltake 850W Toughpower ($190)
Desktop: Floppy Drive: Please Select
Desktop: Hard Drive: Western Digital 1TB SATA2, 7200rpm ($153)
Desktop: 2nd Hard Drive: Please Select
Desktop: RAID: Please Select
Desktop: SATA Cables: High Quality SATA Cables With Clips (Qty 2) ($15)
Desktop: Round Drive Cables: Please Select
Desktop: CD/DVD Drive: ASUS 20x DL DVD-RW Burner, Lightscribe ($29), quieter
Desktop: 2nd CD/DVD Drive: Please Select
Desktop: Gaming Video Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX260 896MB PCI-E ($250)
Desktop: 2nd SLI Video Card: Please select one (Must choose an identical model for SLI)
Desktop: TV Tuner: Please Select
Desktop: Sound Card: Creative Labs X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1, PCI ($60)
Desktop: Modem: Please Select
Desktop: Wireless: Please Select
Desktop: Monitor: Please Select
Desktop: Keyboards: Please Select
Desktop: Mice: Please Select
Desktop Software: Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium, 32 or 64-bit ($166)
Desktop Software: Productivity: Please Select
Desktop Software: Security: Please select one
Desktop Services: Warranty: *** 1 Year Warranty On All System Components ***
Comments: Type any specific requests or comments here.

1. $2,200+$100 shipping=$2,300 (cost from quick google search is roughly $1,663 plus 10% uplift for shipping/taxes=$1,830). Not an obscene margin…or is it? I also wonder if the margin might actually be less, given that 10% number may be higher shipping each part.

2. I’ll post on that other forum too…interested in getting some more opinions here first.

3. I’ll try to google the motherboard issues, as several of you have mentioned them, yet KC stands by the selection. I like the SLI...I'll probably pick up a second card when they're dirt cheap.

4. Is it really a bad time to buy a pc, as one poster suggested? I can wait if so.

 

[JamesL]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blitzula /img/forum/go_quote.gif 1. $2,200+$100 shipping=$2,300 (cost from quick google search is roughly $1,663 plus 10% uplift for shipping/taxes=$1,830). Not an obscene margin…or is it? I also wonder if the margin might actually be less, given that 10% number may be higher shipping each part. 2. I’ll post on that other forum too…interested in getting some more opinions here first. 3. I’ll try to google the motherboard issues, as several of you have mentioned them, yet KC stands by the selection. I like the SLI...I'll probably pick up a second card when they're dirt cheap. 4. Is it really a bad time to buy a pc, as one poster suggested? I can wait if so.

1. I suppose it's ok, if you really don't feel like building it yourself.
I just don't like the idea of paying so much for something that I can probably do during my lunchbreak. As for shipping, just about -everything- you need can be gotten off newegg.com at competitive prices.

3. That's what 'everybody' says.. but I've seen so many people with maxed-out SLI setups, that 'downgraded' to a single-card intel based offering. The company you're ordering this from probably caters to the hardcore gamers who's trying to squeeze every little frame bit out of his game, and in that sense, only nVidia motherboards offer SLI capabilities.
The only problem with the idea that they'll just SLI when the card becomes dirt cheap is that.. when the current offering becomes cheaper, a new card will be released, that offers better performance than your current SLI setup. The 9600gt today, at $100 or something easily outperforms the top-of-the-line card from last year.. which probably still goes for over $150.
Technology won't wait for you... your components will always be outdated.
Personally, I think it's wiser to spend half the price for 80% of the performance, and upgrade twice as often.
The power supply, case, fans, hard drive, etc on the other hand are worth investing in(quality)

4. It's -always- a bad time to buy a pc. If you keep waiting for the next best thing, you'll never end up buying anything. However, the nehalem architecture is coming out soon which -might- be worth waiting for.

 

[Planar_head]

It is a bad time because Nehalem and Deneb are coming out Q4 2008 some say...

Ugh... This is a audio forum, can you atleast get a X-Fi/Prelude or something?

Where did you get that insane price for a copy of Vista 64bit? Get a OEM copy instead.

I'll save you the trouble of SLi by saying that it isn't worth anything if you're not playing at 1680x1050 and beyond (preferably beyond).

Where are you buying all this anyway?

 

[Blitzula]

KC Computers is the company...very highly rated on reselleratings.com.

KC Computers Reviews, Ratings and Prices at ResellerRatings

 

[JamesL]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Planar_head /img/forum/go_quote.gif It is a bad time because Nehalem and Deneb are coming out Q4 2008 some say... Ugh... This is a audio forum, can you atleast get a X-Fi/Prelude or something? I'll save you the trouble of SLi by saying that it isn't worth anything if you're not playing at 1680x1050 and beyond (preferably beyond). Where are you buying all this anyway?

From what I heard, nehalem is expected to perform 2x faster than today's offering. 'Futureproof' is such a misunderstood word in the PC industry. =/

lol, I was thinking the same thing... what is up with the audigy? If you want digital output, just get it from your motherboard.

I'm running 1920x1200 with a cheapy hd3850(the 256mb version), and I ran the crysis demo flawlessly. needless to say, I'm no gamer.
The GTX260 though is a real beastie from what I heard.

Oh, btw.. if you purchase the components separately to build it yourself, you still get warranty. Typically, you'll get lifetime warranty for your video card, about 3-years on most everything else. I think seagate gives 5 years on their hard drives.