atennisplayah

Here we go, long story of me researching every possible inch of my new build which has started from scratch to me now in the final stages of planning and soon to be ordering hardware and get building!

Ok, so starting off let me just give you a quick summary of the hardware that I will be using in this build, keeping in mind it is incomplete and made on a notepad file, hence the need for advice & discussion;

RIG



CPU: Intel - Core i5 750 - $247 CONFIRMED


PSU: Seasonic M12 80+ 700W - $179 CONFIRMED


CASE: Antec P183 (mid) - $216 CONFIRMED


RAM: 4G Kit DDR3 2000 Patriot-Viper2 (1156 pin) - $179 - Ugh so many other choices, what mhz? should I go 3x2 (6gb) or 2x2 (4gb) of ddr3


HDD: WD Black 1tb - $137 (File storage) + WD black 500gb (OS & Games) - $90 CONFIRMED


GPU: ATI 4890's in crossfire - $500** (what brand) CONFIRMED


MOBO: asus, gigabyte or msi?...p55


FANS ETC: Prolimatech Mega Shadow Deluxe Black Edition - $99 CONFIRMED

case fans?, heatsink fans?, fan controller?


TOTAL - $xxxx


now of course the price is still undetermined due to the fact that not all items are 'CONFIRMED' and haven't been ordered yet. Keeping in mind that also this build is not to exceed about $1400 but 20 dollars here and there for the right reasons is fine, anything under this cap is great.

Ok so getting on to the business end, I will give a listing of what issues need to be attended to and I hope you guys can give some good quality advice either from first hand experience, links to reviews/benchmarks/guides etc or any information that you think would be useful.

#1. In no order of priority lets deal with the GPU's first, ok so they are definitely going to be 4890's but all I need to find out is firstly, a brand of card that has a good and quiet heatsink (heard sapphire made em good) and also a brand that OC's well.

#2. Wow, ram, please give me some serious education right about here, at one point I was pretty much set on a 2x2gb set of DDR3 2000mhz Patriot-viper 2's but now I'm throwing up between some very competitive prices of other 2000mhz ram and 1600mhz ram such as the corsair dominator GT, kingston hyper X and G.skill ripjaws respectively, who are the main contenders as far as I can see. Needing the best value for performance here but don't skimp on good hardware for me here either.

#3. Of course, this is a pretty big one, the motherboard. Pretty much I am looking at either a Gigabyte (UD3 or 4 or 5 or 6 ***), Asus (I am confused with deluxe/limited edition etc) or an MSI (a MSI P55-GD65?). Definitely not worried about any fancy and particularly unnecessary features for boards such as an OC remote which I have seen around but if a board has such a thing and is still maintains a competitive price and good capabilities for CF and OC'ing etc then please recommend me it.

#4. Oh yeah, fan controller to cope with a full set of case fans in my Antec p183 and some heatsink fans to recommend for my megahalem (push/pull setup)

Just scratching my head now to think if I have left anything out which I probably have but will add it later if need be.

So, finally I would like to say any help is appreciated meaning that if you have an answer or an opinion/advice for any aspect or piece of hardware for this build then please just feel free to throw in a two liner response or go the whole 9 yards and hit me with a wall of informative text!


Thank you so much if you have gone to the trouble of even reading over my build because as many of you will know it is not easy to put so many hours into researching a build then hit a wall on what stuff to get (since I enjoy searching for reviews and benchies when looking for parts that is strange coming from me).
Heres to hoping that this sparks off some good debates and advice so I can post up all this complete build in under a months time and get down to the real buisness which is OC'ing and gaming!

Thanks again.

Afrodisiac

1). I can't argue the fact that the 4890s are currently the best bang for buck cards on the market, but I still feel that for a $1,400 build you should look into the ATI DX11 cards. A single 5870 would be sweet. Kill your 4890s, use less power, have less trouble because it is a single card, and has all the new features of DX11.

2). I say Ripjaws but I'm a G.Skill fanboy. The DDR3-2000 Ripjaws are great. You shouldn't get a 3x2GB kit since i5 doesn't support triple channel, only dual.
ripjaws

3). The MSI GD55 board looks nice, but honestly, if you can afford it, try for the GD80. What's your budget?

4). You won't need a fan controller, stock fans are generally quiet. I have my 1350RPM Yate Loons (around 5 of them) directly connected to my PSU and they are inaudible, so you don't need a fan controller IMO. For your Megahalems, a single Sanyo-Denki San Ace 1011 would do the best job. They outperform most other push-pull setups.

Good luck with your build.

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drBlahMan

If you use a 38mm fan on that Megahalems, you will only be able to use the heatsink in a pull setup if the memory has tall heatspreaders (you will have to use memory that has no heatspreaders in order for that fan to fit properly). Get yourself a couple of Scythe S-Flex G fans for some push/pull action if the memory you select has tall heatspreaders.

atennisplayah

Yes I agree with you blah, I hope that that fan & ram combo fits together, if not then I will just have to experiment other wise.

@Afrodisiac, yes perhaps the 5xxx may beat my cf 4890's but I am totally set on getting those cards at the price they are now sorry.
Also thanks for the heads up about the fact that tri-channel ddr3 ram is not applicable to my p55, that saves me returning incompatible hardware and also narrows down my choices. Will probably get the ripjaws at the moment.

With my mobo it depends on what I find is neccacery for my board to give me max OC'ing capability but still remaining in the mid-range price area. Will probably go with the MSI.

Any other imput is highly welcome.

Thanks.

Mygaffer

I am going to argue against the Core i5 here. Without Hyper Threading you are actually going to lose a lot of performance in any well threaded app. As we keep rolling on into the future that means more and more apps and more and more games. You don't want to be two years down the line wishing you had got a Nehalem with HyperThreading.

Also, the Lynnfield have on-die pci-e controller. The number of pci-e lanes is limited. You may not surpass that limit with 2x4890's but what about next year when the 5870's are really cheap and the DX11 games are out and you decide to crossfire two of those? Then you will probably be hampering your performance.

That is why I recommend you go X58 and Core i7 920. They overclock like crazy and you aren't limited by an on-die pci-e controller. Please strongly consider this. I know it will add a little to your overall cost, but I think it is worth it.

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atennisplayah

I have looked quite intensely at HT utilization with the i5 750 and have observed that the decrease in performance between a HT and non HT enabled cpu is barely 1-2%.
Furthermore, two years down the track, if not less, I will be building another PC (building rigs isn't a one off thing for me, I truly appreciate and enjoy the process).

Therefore since this rig that I will build in the future will see a much heftier budget cap (will be WC'ed and completely high end beast) so this rig will definitely not be seeing a price hitch in the form of an i7, x58 platform build nor with the 5870's. After many comparison charts and endless benchmark/reviews I have scoured through over and over again I can clearly observe that the aforementioned upgrades will not see significant performance increase especially for the deadly price hitch that is involved.

Sorry I don't mean to shut you down or anything but this current build of mine will not involve the 1336 platform whatsoever. The gpu, cpu, psu, case and mobo will all be pretty much locked in but I still highly appreciate your input and bringing up any flaws with my build.

Thanks.

FSF-Foxhound

tbh the i5s don't run hot, a mugen 2 would do good enough. I got about 78c max load @ 1.42 with my thermaltake V1. With a i5, without HT, it would run much cooler.


HT isn't worth it if you play games. If you don't play games, and render and whatnot, then it does.

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atennisplayah

Yes, that pretty much my standpoint also foxhound, my main priority is high end gaming, internet, watching movies/listening to music and simple word document usage.

The temps should be easily covered once I throw on my megahalem anyway.

Thanks.

FSF-Foxhound

Awesome, also, at above, the PCI-E controller does limit it to x8x8, but it barley makes a difference. Also, because of the PCI-E controller, the PCI-E-CPU latancy is lower, and usually results in better gaming performance.

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atennisplayah

Yes, I agree with you there fox, good man.

Thanks.