New desktop

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dy1an

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Wanted to get a few other opinions before i finalize this build tonight, what do YOU think? Any tips to improve generally?

Here it is: (Amd of course)

Board:ASUS Sabertooth 990FX AM3+ SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
Proc:AMD Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition Deneb 3.5GHz
Ram:CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 15000)
Card:XFX AMD Radeon HD 6870 900M 1 GB DDR5 Dual MINIDP Dual DVI PCI-E Video Card HD687AZDFC
Hard drive:Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Green SATA II Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive WD20EARS
OS:Windows 7 pro 64-bit
Case:COOLER MASTER RC-692-KKN2 CM690 II Advanced Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
PSU:Corsair HX Professional Series 750-Watt 80 Plus Certified Power Supply Compatible with Core i7 and Core i5 - CMPSU-750HX
Optical:LG WH12LS30 12X SATA BLU-RAY BURNER
Sound:Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium PCI Express Sound Card
 
Are there any cash constraints with this build? If not, here's what I'd recommend you alter. The rest of it's quite boss-like but these are the most glaring issues (I assume this is off iBuyPower/Cyberpower, or did you order the parts yourself?)...


CPU: You may enjoy downgrading to a 955BE more on the condition that you're into overclocking. You can easily each the stock rates on the 970, save some money, and have a more stable, more reliable processor.

HDD: WD's Caviar Greens are slow as molasses compared to the Black series. They're the 'eco friendly' edition of the Blacks and Blues. I would say downgrade to a 1TB Caviar Black or if your budget isn't holding you back, you'd get lightning fast response times with an SSD for your boot drive and pair it with a 500GB - 1TB Caviar Black. It's important to note that if you go with a Black, aim for at least 32MB cache and 7200RPM or you won't notice much of a performance boost over a Green.

RAM: What is the timing on that RAM kit like?

PSU: May I recommend a TX V2 of the same brand and model? I'm not sure what's available to your budget or even on the site you're ordering from, but I honestly think that if you can order the 850TX v.2 vs. the HX model (Which uses older, less awesome components), you'll be doing yourself a favor. There's an even newer TX850V2 (2.31 iteration) but I have not heard anything about it, good OR bad.

Sound Card: The audio on the 990FX is already a solid 8.1 channels of quality audio if I'm not mistaken. This is kind of like a minor pseudo-downgrade (IMHO.. I think Creative's soundcards are overpriced), but it's entirely up to you!
 
runo said:
Are there any cash constraints with this build? If not, here's what I'd recommend you alter. The rest of it's quite boss-like but these are the most glaring issues (I assume this is off iBuyPower/Cyberpower, or did you order the parts yourself?)...


CPU: You may enjoy downgrading to a 955BE more on the condition that you're into overclocking. You can easily each the stock rates on the 970, save some money, and have a more stable, more reliable processor.

HDD: WD's Caviar Greens are slow as molasses compared to the Black series. They're the 'eco friendly' edition of the Blacks and Blues. I would say downgrade to a 1TB Caviar Black or if your budget isn't holding you back, you'd get lightning fast response times with an SSD for your boot drive and pair it with a 500GB - 1TB Caviar Black. It's important to note that if you go with a Black, aim for at least 32MB cache and 7200RPM or you won't notice much of a performance boost over a Green.

RAM: What is the timing on that RAM kit like?

PSU: May I recommend a TX V2 of the same brand and model? I'm not sure what's available to your budget or even on the site you're ordering from, but I honestly think that if you can order the 850TX v.2 vs. the HX model (Which uses older, less awesome components), you'll be doing yourself a favor. There's an even newer TX850V2 (2.31 iteration) but I have not heard anything about it, good OR bad.

Sound Card: The audio on the 990FX is already a solid 8.1 channels of quality audio if I'm not mistaken. This is kind of like a minor pseudo-downgrade (IMHO.. I think Creative's soundcards are overpriced), but it's entirely up to you!
Click to expand...

CPU: Noted and done

HDD: Also noted and done

RAM: 9-10-9-27

PSU: I'm actually spending a lil bit more in this area for the modular cabling and 850 sounds kinda overkill.

Sound card: I just really wanna get the most out of my headset and history has taught me that integrated sound is god awful, plus i heard having a dedicated sound card gives a bit of a fps boost.
 
That's actually a really good point. An 850 is overkill even if you wanted to, say, Crossfire another 6870 at some point. lol - Maybe kick it down to a SeaSonic X650 (which is an awesome modular unit) or something Superflower-based in that range?

RAM: The timing on that's really awkward. If you can get something like 8-8-8-24 or 9-9-9-24/27, maybe, then you'd have the optimal range, but I haven't looked into DDR3 1866 too much ... I'm more familiar with 1600 kits.
 
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runo said:
That's actually a really good point. An 850 is overkill even if you wanted to, say, Crossfire another 6870 at some point. lol - Maybe kick it down to a SeaSonic X650 (which is an awesome modular unit) or something Superflower-based in that range?

RAM: The timing on that's really awkward. If you can get something like 8-8-8-24 or 9-9-9-27, maybe, then you'd have the optimal range, but I haven't looked into DDR3 1866 too much ... I'm more familiar with 1600 kits.
Click to expand...

Thats a bit much for 650w and i do plan on crossfiring at some point so I think im gonna go with the corsair for this build.

And what do you mean by optimal range, im looking at the 1600 version of this kit with 9-9-9-24 for a little less am i paying more for less right now with the 1866 or what?
 
Better timing means faster memory, which means you're paying less for better speed. 9-10-9-27 is... weird timing.
 
runo said:
Better timing means faster memory, which means you're paying less for better speed. 9-10-9-27 is... weird timing.
Click to expand...

It's also 1866mhz memory. If he downclocks it to 1600mhz, I bet it will be around 9-9-9-24... actually it'll probably have tighter timings than that.

Also, in the day and age of high-speed DDR3, timings matter very little in overall performance. It was much more important back during regular DDR days where the timings were far lower. Keep that in mind.
 
Good point. I was just wondering if it's worth spending the extra cash when he can just grab a 1600 kit with good timing to start with, without having to tinker with it if he didn't want to. :O
 
Alright, seems that its as good as its gonna get right now, gonna go ahead and order.
Final price: $1337.25 (lol)
 
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