Building a rig!

G

GBear

EGO Zealot
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May 22, 2009
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Hey all of you experienced computer guys, I need a bit of help finding components for a new rig! It's for my dad. Here are a couple specs for the rig:

Budget: $1300-1600

Location: Canada
Thus newegg.com will not be an option. However, newegg.ca, directcanada.com, tigerdirect.com, and ncix.com are all fair game!

Case: Preferably mid to full tower

CPU: Most likely going to be the i7 920. He wants an i7.

CPU Cooling: Liquid cooling is an option! The budget will probably be raised to roughly $1700 if liquid cooling is included!

Motherboard: Asus/eVGA/Gigabyte
I also need reliability and specification reports on the motherboard. He wants to run through them.

RAM: NOT MUSHKIN! I made a huge mistake by putting these in my rig!

PSU: To be honest, Corsair. Hopefully modular. If there's better, recommend it please! :)

HDD: My dad hates Seagate with a passion. 7200rpm is good enough. If a SSD or 10000rpm fits in the budget, please recommend as well!

GPU: Either ATI or nVidia would work. However, seems like nVidia really jumped their prices of their 200 series.

Optical Drive: Uhm yeah, any would work?

Sound Card: Just a decent one such as Creative. Not sure if that one I have is good or not. HT Omega Striker 7.1.

Wireless Card: Preferred

Thanks for your help guys!
 
What exactly does he plan to be doing on this? Video editing / 3d model? Browse? Game? Etc.

As for the wireless card, I'd say get a USB wireless receiver; this option doesn't hog a PCI slot.
 
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Just lots of work stuff. He just wants it as powerful and reliable as possible.
 
If you're going to get an i7, I recommend the ASUS PK5PL-CM motherboard. I have it, and it is SWEET. Although that board's integrated graphics are fine (512MB VRAM) I recommend an EVGA nVIDIA GeForce 9400GT to go along with it.
 
Zeu5 said:
If you're going to get an i7, I recommend the ASUS PK5PL-CM motherboard. I have it, and it is SWEET. Although that board's integrated graphics are fine (512MB VRAM) I recommend an EVGA nVIDIA GeForce 9400GT to go along with it.
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Lol, that motherboard has a completely different socket. i7's are socket 1366 CPU's, that is a socket 775 motherboard.

Please, for the sake of everyone else, don't recommend something for somebody to spend their money on when you have ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE what you are talking about.
 
Zeu5 said:
If you're going to get an i7, I recommend the ASUS PK5PL-CM motherboard. I have it, and it is SWEET. Although that board's integrated graphics are fine (512MB VRAM) I recommend an EVGA nVIDIA GeForce 9400GT to go along with it.
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The 9000 series is too outdated and is not that amazing.

FreakingHell said:
Lol, that motherboard has a completely different socket. i7's are socket 1366 CPU's, that is a socket 775 motherboard.

Please, for the sake of everyone else, don't recommend something for somebody to spend their money on when you have ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE what you are talking about.
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Thank you, haha.

Basically, my dad wants power and reliability which is why he wants to see all reliability and spec reports of the mobo.
 
I would recommend an EVGA or Asus x58 board (those being the most reliable and popular so far, backed by great warranties)

and define 'work'?

That could be from Photoshop, to 3D modeling.

But, if he's a software programmer, then take a look into Cuda.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUDA#Supported_GPUs

Otherwise, an ATI 5770 or 5850 would fit the budget nicely.
 
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I don't know too much about his work. He just wants it as powerful as it can get. He isn't a software programmer.
 
For work purposes, I would definitely recommend an nvidia card. The computational performance is much greater than all of ATi's cards(yes, even the 5890).

I would not recommend water cooling. A Noctua NH-D14 will perform on par with almost all 2x120 rad setups, for much cheaper and no maintenance. You are pretty much guaranteed 4.0Ghz overclock as well.

For the Motherboard, I recommend the EVGA x58 SLI.

RAM, I would go with 1600Mhz G Skill. Either 6 or 12 gigs, depending upon he wants to do with the computer. The lower the timings the better.

I would get a Corsair HX850 PSU. Unless he goes high end SLi or tri-sli it will be complete overkill, but why not have the expandability. It's not much more than the HX750.

Just suggestions, sorry, too lazy to build an entire PC right now.
 
I7 920, GTX 285, Asus P6T Deluxe, Corsair 3x2 GB ram at 1600 MHz.

Only get water cooling if you can afford a cooling unit so you dont have to rely on the room tempurature.

WD Caviar Black is a decent HDD. NOCTUA FTW. FreakingHell is right on the cooling.

Oh and encase it all in an Antec 902. TRUST ME, ITS AMAZING.
 
FreakingHell said:
For work purposes, I would definitely recommend an nvidia card. The computational performance is much greater than all of ATi's cards(yes, even the 5890).

I would not recommend water cooling. A Noctua NH-D14 will perform on par with almost all 2x120 rad setups, for much cheaper and no maintenance. You are pretty much guaranteed 4.0Ghz overclock as well.

For the Motherboard, I recommend the EVGA x58 SLI.

RAM, I would go with 1600Mhz G Skill. Either 6 or 12 gigs, depending upon he wants to do with the computer. The lower the timings the better.

I would get a Corsair HX850 PSU. Unless he goes high end SLi or tri-sli it will be complete overkill, but why not have the expandability. It's not much more than the HX750.

Just suggestions, sorry, too lazy to build an entire PC right now.
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Yeah thanks for the suggestions. I've heard about the Noctua NH-D14. Having liquid cooling for him is not so much performance-wise but for the sake of having liquid cooling. Plus, it'd be fun to put together. In terms of RAM, I was actually thinking about high performance Corsair/G Skill/OCZ.
 
-Get i7 920 (Microcenter sells it for $230 in-store) it went up in from from $200 :( but still a much better deal than anywhere else

-Get an Asus P6T series or up mobo, except for the cheapest one which doesn't do CFX/SLI

-Ram, get like Corsair, G.Skill, OCZ, Kingston and whatever is a good price

-For GPU, get 5870's/5850's or GTX 285's/275's and SLI/CFX is you can afford it...they all go for around pretty much the same price of the opposite brand, in gaming the ATI would win tho

-PSU, get a Corsair HX-850 or the 1000watt whichever you want and if you CFX/SLI or not

-Get the Noctua NH-D14 as Freakinghell has said or if you want water-cooling, pickup a swiftech kit, one of the H20-220 kits with a dual-radiator, or you could just custom put one together but they are more expensive
 
GBear said:
In terms of RAM, I was actually thinking about high performance Corsair/G Skill/OCZ.
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With 1366 CPU's, running anything higher than 2000Mhz get's finicky. If you are going to be filling 6 DIMM's(12GB), then the highest you will be able to run without issues is 1600Mhz. Thus, I recommend getting a 1600Mhz kit with as low latencies as you can afford.
 
FreakingHell said:
With 1366 CPU's, running anything higher than 2000Mhz get's finicky. If you are going to be filling 6 DIMM's(12GB), then the highest you will be able to run without issues is 1600Mhz. Thus, I recommend getting a 1600Mhz kit with as low latencies as you can afford.
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In terms of high performance, I meant anything higher than 1000MHz. I've OC'd mine, and it's at 1066MHZ, rofl.

Yeah, I've got an Antec 900 case, and it's great. I should've waited for the 902 though.
 
GBear said:
In terms of high performance, I meant anything higher than 1000MHz. I've OC'd mine, and it's at 1066MHZ, rofl.

Yeah, I've got an Antec 900 case, and it's great. I should've waited for the 902 though.
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The i7 uses DDR3 RAM. You can't buy DDR3 ram at lower speeds than 1066 lol.

Oh, don't get Corsair RAM. Way overpriced. Unless you find a good deal of course...
 
The Noctua NH D14 should fit in a HAF932 or Antec 902 right?

Nvm, yeah it should.
 
FreakingHell said:
Not certain about a 902, but definitely in a 932...
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yup definitely a HAF 932, the antec nine hundred two is still a bit small just as the regular nine hundred is........

I have a HAF 932 and its by far the best performing case for the price, well almost pretty much the best performing case for all prices, definitely worth it.....I like the Corsair Obsidian alot though but it definitely isn't worth the price tag unless you have the money of course
 
***note this is a suggestion!***

Case:
Cooler Master ATCS
Its better looking then the HAF but is still monstrous.

CPU:
Intel i7 860
I think?

Motherboard:
ASUS P7P55D Deluxe
It gets good reviews from the sites i look at (maximumpc)


PSU:
Raidmax Hybrid 630w
I own this PSU, it is modular, and it runs nicely, if you feel the need for more power then go corsair.

RAM:
OCZ ram
Its ram, by a good company. What more can you say?

HDD:
1 TB Western Digital drive
you can do whatever you want here depending on his needs

Video Card
ATi 5770 (x2)
Crossfire 5770's, my sources (pewpewbangbang) say that this will be about 5870ish in awsomness.

OS:
Win 7 home premium x64
'nuff said

Total price:
$1,499.90 CND

Anything i forgot?
 
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