Can YOU help Runo ascend to awesomeness with a $1500 PC budget?

R

runo

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As you can probably see, my rig isn't all that impressive. It's okay as a budget beast, but now that I have a better idea of what I'm building, I'd like to give it another go with a higher pool of moolah and future-proof the crap out of this thing (say, at least 3-4 years before I'll really be hankering for an upgrade. I can only really afford to majorly update my rig every ~5 years). I wanted to try an Intel build this time.

I get a big sum of money in check-form every now and then for a past mishap. That aside, my budget's around $1600 tops but I'd prefer to spend no more than $1500 with or without shipping.



The build I have so far is pretty much all the modern necessities, including aftermarket cooling for later OC'ing, three matching 500GB SpinPoint F3s for RAID-5, eight gigs of some (IMHO) pretty sweet RAM ... though maybe it could be better? I wasn't positive with my motherboard choice, either. I also don't mind the idea of a multi-GPU setup. Maybe CrossfireX a pair of 6950s? I initially didn't choose that option because some people are hinting that they've 'patched' the unlock "issue", but I'm not sure how valid that statement is.




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Please keep in mind that I probably won't be ordering 'til sometime in July or later. If Bulldozer is worth waiting for, I'm an admitted AMD fanboy and will gladly wait for that -- but I won't pass up on an Intel build if that's 'the haps' either. Pretty much, give me ideas here!
 
$1,500 you say? :D

Do you have a RAID card for that RAID 5 setup you're thinking about?

I'll get started on a build.
 
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Lmk if you want more GPU and less CPU. This build is ready for another GPU, and has the 3 drives like you wanted.
 
nzxt m59 $49.99

samsung sping point 1tb $64.99

i5 2500k (i7 is not a i7 its a i5) $224.99

MSI P67A-GD65 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $164.99

XFX HD695XZDDC Radeon HD 6950 1GB $269.99

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 $44.99

Antec EarthWatts EA750 750W $89.99

total 844.94

the reason i choice a 6950 is that they can be easily oc to a 6970. i did the nzxt is because of its looks and its incredible cooling power to keep inside temps low. i would recommend u throw in a ssd and use it as a boot drive. u can add another 6950 adn up the psu to 850w. also since u are not getting this asp i would wait for bulldozer to come out. suppost to come out late summer early fall of this year.
 
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Pho's build is really good, but I'd tweak some ;). I don't personally think the 2600k is worth it, and 3TB of F3's seems silly to me. If you get less space and a 2500k, you should be able to get a good SSD in there which I think would be a great idea. He also forgot to add in the CPU heatsink, but a CM212+ which you already selected is cheap and effective.

The RV03 case is ridonculous awesome.

Keep in mind, when consumer Bulldozer releases in August-ish prices should fluctuate a lot depending on how well it does.
 
2600k its not worth it. ur buying an i5 really. the heat sink that runo chose is the best out there. personally i would wait till august and c what new releases there are. no sense making u a build if ur going to buy it july, august ish. basically replace ur mobo with the msi. i would go dual 6950 and oc to 6970 its cheaper and success rate about 90%. down fall is ull lose a little bit of speed memory form oc the gpu. (thats the gpu). go with an ssd like a 32 gb make it so that u can boot ur os to it.
 
a pet rock said:
Pho's build is really good, but I'd tweak some ;). I don't personally think the 2600k is worth it, and 3TB of F3's seems silly to me. If you get less space and a 2500k, you should be able to get a good SSD in there which I think would be a great idea. He also forgot to add in the CPU heatsink, but a CM212+ which you already selected is cheap and effective.

The RV03 case is ridonculous awesome.

Keep in mind, when consumer Bulldozer releases in August-ish prices should fluctuate a lot depending on how well it does.
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Eh, I figured since his budget can go up to $1500, why not? lol.

That RV03 looks so sexy. I want it, but my cooler doesn't allow. :(
 
Ph?bus said:
Eh, I figured since his budget can go up to $1500, why not? lol.

That RV03 looks so sexy. I want it, but my cooler doesn't allow. :(
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lol@ginormousheatsink..... o wait.

There are a couple things that bug me about the RV03. For one, I think its hideous. The RV02 looks better, and the FT02 is way way way better ($100 for looks?). Second, 180mm fans are stupid right now. Maybe one day, the market will be saturated with good 180mm fans but for right now you are stuck with Silverstone fans. The upside being that even with Silverstone fans it's still one of if not the absolute best performing case out there. Still, I bet adding some GT's to that sucker would be phenomenal.

Oh, and I agree with the budget why not. I just think the money would be better spent on an SSD than a 2600k+2TB of space. But, I also hardly use any space at all. I've got 200GB used right now, and I feel like I have too much crap already. Man, I could fit everything I have on a single SSD. Anyways, if the guy buying won't ever use 3TB of space, he might as well get an SSD boot drive at the very least.
 
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Sorry for the late response! BTW: That case is freakin' hot. I was eyeing the Fortress too and could probably afford it, but I kinda like the way the RV-03 looks. Although in all honesty, to me, a case is a case as long as it works - I'm not much of a case modder, so it's usually function over form to me.



@Phobus: That setup looks sweet, bro. I actually don't have a RAID card on me - I have next to no idea as to what to look for in a RAID card besides what iteration of SATA connectors it totes and which interface -- so any help there would be appreciated.

Honestly, I'd rather have a solid CPU first since graphical horsepower is easier to upgrade later on, and I'm pretty positive that a single 6970 will blow any games I have out of the water. Right now, in my current rig, a single mildly OC'd GTX 460 is smooth sailing; I'm running at 1080p resolution with ALL settings maxed out on every game I own and my frame rate is still solid, woot!

The problem with my current rig is that it has modest RAM and a -- albeit decently OC'd -- dual core CPU, so it doesn't multitask or run as lightning fast as it could.



@a pet rock: The reason I wanted that RAID-5 setup is that it should still be lightning fast without compromising quality or breaking my budget. I'm not entirely sold on SSDs as they are now, given their price-to-performance and storage ratios. But, to be perfectly honest, I barely use over half of my 750GB storage space in this rig and that's probably due to the fact that I never uninstall games once they're in, I just reformat every 9-18 months. lol

In lieu of the fact that I don't really need roomy HDDs, I could probably bump it down to a 2500K and still be good but then that raises the question of which SSD to use for the boot drive... I'd like to keep the three F3s, though, just to rig up for that RAID-5 setup for my data drive(s).
 
2600K benches significantly higher, it completely controls 3dm01, and the like.

Not sure if you are into that kind of stuff or not.

Also lot harder to find 55x 2500s. Expect to need twice as much chips as you would for 2600s
 
runo said:
Sorry for the late response! BTW: That case is freakin' hot. I was eyeing the Fortress too and could probably afford it, but I kinda like the way the RV-03 looks. Although in all honesty, to me, a case is a case as long as it works - I'm not much of a case modder, so it's usually function over form to me.



@Phobus: That setup looks sweet, bro. I actually don't have a RAID card on me - I have next to no idea as to what to look for in a RAID card besides what iteration of SATA connectors it totes and which interface -- so any help there would be appreciated.

Honestly, I'd rather have a solid CPU first since graphical horsepower is easier to upgrade later on, and I'm pretty positive that a single 6970 will blow any games I have out of the water. Right now, in my current rig, a single mildly OC'd GTX 460 is smooth sailing; I'm running at 1080p resolution with ALL settings maxed out on every game I own and my frame rate is still solid, woot!

The problem with my current rig is that it has modest RAM and a -- albeit decently OC'd -- dual core CPU, so it doesn't multitask or run as lightning fast as it could.
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Aight man. I'll modify the build a bit. Why not get a 128GB SSD?

Keeping the RV03, lol. Dropping down to a 2500k.
 
Austin said:
128GB SSD's are roughly 300 dollars. I don't see how he could manage that in the budget.
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Go from 2600k to 2500k, win $100. Remove two 1TB F3s, win $120.

Buy SSD.

The 2600k only passes the 2500k in benchmarks, any practical applications like games won't see an improvement. That and the OP has already stated he won't be using 3TB of space, it'll be in RAID5. And I'm under the impression that an SSD should be faster than RAID5. The only thing RAID offers him is drive failure security.
 
samsung sping point. if u go with phos build ur wasting money. i would personally go with mine. add an ssd make it a so boot drive. heck u can add 2 6950 oc at 6970 to mine. phos ur overpaying a cpu that is just like an i5. getting 3tb hdd were u can get another gpu or an ssd if u cut 2 out.
 
It's spin point. Not sping.

I'll redo the build as soon as I get home.
 
i say get it later and wait for Ivy Bridge :D i can see that ur current rig is good enough for another 5 months.
 
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