Having New System Built - experts advice?

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Oldswagon

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I am loooking at getting a custom made system over the next month or two. Here is what I have speced out so far:

PROCESSOR: i7 - 950 3.06GHz LGA 1366

MOTHER BOARD: ASUS P6T S.1366 INT X58/ICH10R ATX 3PCIE X16,6D.DDR3-1333MHZ

MEMORY: 6 GB DDR3 1333 PC10666 Kingston (3x2 GB)

HARD DISK DRIVE 1: 500 GB WESTERN DIGITAL SATA

HARD DISK DRIVE 2: 1 TB WESTERN DIGITAL SATA

MONITOR: SAMSUNG 24 IN. 2494SW 5MS /DVI

DVD/BLUERAY DRIVE: LG DVD R/W DUAL LAYER 22X BLACK SATA

VIDEO CARD: ATI HD5750 PCI-E 1GB DDR5 HD/DP/2

SOUND CARD: 32 BIT SOUND CARD ON BOARD

NETWORK CARD: 10/100 NETWORK CARD ON BOARD

FAX/MODEM: --- NO MODEM ---

SPEAKERS: LOGITECH X540 5.1

KEYBOARD: LOGITECH KEYBOARD

MOUSE: LOGITECH OPTICAL MOUSE

CASE: ANTEC NINE HUNDRED

POWER SUPPLY: COOLERMASTER 600W SLI READY

OPERATING SYSTEM: MICROSOFT WINDOWS 7 PROFESSIONAL

Any advice on the above? I am not really sure about the harddrives. I want two Hard drives and I want the main disk to be fast a reliable, the secondary drive can have the capacity.
 
That looks like some good specs. The western digital "Black" version is the best version from a build and reliability standpoint. It doesn't look like cash is a huge concern, so upgrading to the black drives shouldn't be a problem for you. If you really want speed, look at getting a WD VelociRaptor line high speed drive for your primary. If you really want speed, get two of them and set them up in RAID. That will be at some additional cost, but response and loading times will improve noticeably.
 
do you play games if not .. that video card is fine..
if you play new games or plan on it upgrade the video card.
you have top of the line processor etc.. but a mainstream video card.

ati- 5850 or gforce 460+ would fit with the rest of the computer better.

since it looks like you are spending over 1000$ you might consider a SSD drive for your OS.. and something like a 2tb data drive.

that motherboard should come with a 10/100/1000 network card.. guessing the line you copied got cut off.

coolermaster(power supply) is kinda like buying valutime green beans.. its a mediocre brand at best. If available you should go for(in no particular order)

Seasonic, enermax, pc power and cooling, there are other good brands also but they have some duds in their lineups.
 
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Great reply guys! I am far from a computer expert, so your advice is greatly appreciated.

As for the power supply, I can get an Enermax Liberty 500 Watt or an Enermax Galaxy 1000 W. They also have a Thermal Take 700 Watt supply (not sure if that's any good)?

Thanks for all the tips on HD. I see SSD are pretty pricey for low capacity, but if they are fast an reliable it might be worth the extra cash. What size should I get for a main drive? I'll have to watch the budget because as speced I was near my limit.

As for SATA drives, is there any difference between WD and Seagate? I can also get Seagates for pretty much the same price. I will defintiely look at the black WD drives and the Raptors too price wise. I have also heard the reliability of drives goes down as they get bigger? Is this true? Or will a 2 TB be as reliable as a 1 TB?

I am not planning on gaming, so I'll probably stick with that video card.

The mother board has a built in network card (as far as I am aware).

Any suggestions on speakers? I just kind of picked those ones at random. I do want good quality sound and a sub. What about Logitech LS21 2.1 speakers?
 
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I just had my son build me one. Not in the same class. But the whole thing cost 335 bucks. Parts purchased from. http://www.newegg.com/. I guess my point: Might be that do you need every thing that you are planning? If you go cheaper, you could replace it in 5 years and be $$$ and technology ahead.

Intel Celeron E3300 Wolfdale 2.5GHz 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor BX80571E3300

ASRock G41M-S LGA 775 Intel G41 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2P10664GK

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3250318AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

ENERMAX VOSTOK ECA2020-B Black 0.6mm SECC Steel MicroATX Mid Tower Computer Case 350W Power Supply

I really like this case. Very quiet and very efficient with respect to cooling.
 
enermax 500 would be good.. no need for 1000

there are many ways to cut the price of your build that you wouldnt notice much..

a SSD has access time of less than 60gb is usually sufficient.
**- some ssd's slow down over time


if you want to go cheaper.

you could build something 80% as fast for 2/3 as much

whats your budget.. what are your expectations.. useage?

how much storage do you need... and for what.


most people prefer WD blacks to seagates.

seagates .11 series had alot of firmware problems..
that being said I have had 3 500gb seagate 7200.12's in a raid 0 for 9 monthes now.. working fine.
 
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Just nitpicky stuff.

Go for some 1600 RAM if possible to give yourself some overhead if needed. I have been happy as a clam with this set, and have used it on 3 builds: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231225 Runs cool at 1.5V, and no tall cooling fins on it to get in the way of aftermarket coolers.

As far as hard drives, the WD Blacks seem to be the popular choice, and I can't argue with that. I don't know why you want to go with a 500 gig drive for the primary. You might as well go with 2 1TB drives, or a 640 gig black as a primary vs the 500. 640 is just a better/slightly quicker drive than the 500. WD Velociraptors are a bit silly at this point.

Holiday season prices are going to drop more this year than in the past. Monitors, SSDs, especially video cards are going on a quick downhill price slide for the holidays.

Power supply reviews:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/index.php
http://www.hardocp.com/reviews/psu_power_supplies/
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/page/power
 
Change that to an AMD Phenom II X6, and accompanying motherboard, and a Corsair, Antec, OCZ, Enermax power supply. Coolermaster isn't really known for it's really high quality PSUs. I would recommend the Enermax 500. Enermax makes fantastic power supplies. Also, I would go with Western Digital. I have had several seagate harddrives fail on me. Several times. I would never buy another.
 
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I can attest to the SSD. There are lots of good choices out there. I have a 40GB intel, because of budget constraints. I would look at the Intel 80GB, or any of the ones with the Sandforce controller. (stay away from anything with Jmicron. They've fixed the stuttering issue, but there are better options out there)
 
A friend of mine built an i7 with all the fixin's. Everytime we talk computers, which is just about everytime we talk, lol, he raves about the single best performance enhancing option, his Intel SSD. Looks like that Kingston might be an even better option! (I won't tell him that though, lol)
 
Thanks for all the input. I think I am going to have to seriously look at an SSD drive. I wanted at least 1 TB of storage and it's mostly for vidoe files/images. I will probably go with a WD black for the secondary drive.

I'll probably go with the enermax power supply as well and I will look at the RAM.

Any other advice is appreciated.

Any recommendations for a good SSD? I see a lot of Intels.
 
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you cant really go wrong with an intel..

or any new ssd that has a sandforce controller chip.

ssd's had many issues that werent transparent when they first came out.. the newest ones to market have fixed any flaws for the most part.

let me look around ill post some likely ones(deals)
 
Originally Posted By: Nick R
Change that to an AMD Phenom II X6, and accompanying motherboard, and a Corsair, Antec, OCZ, Enermax power supply. Coolermaster isn't really known for it's really high quality PSUs. I would recommend the Enermax 500. Enermax makes fantastic power supplies. Also, I would go with Western Digital. I have had several seagate harddrives fail on me. Several times. I would never buy another.


Why deviate from an Intel CPU and Chipset? They are the most reliable combination.

Not to mention, even the i5 750 rapes the X6 1090T and 1055T in true processing power:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3674/amds-sixcore-phenom-ii-x6-1090t-1055t-reviewed/3
 
It's fun to root for AMD, but the performance really isn't there and this machine doesn't look like it's playing the money game. The power supply is just fine, too. Coolermaster has been around awhile and isn't known for making bad quality stuff, either. You're right about the hard drives, but he already said he was going with WD.

Also, everybody is right about the SSD for your primary drive. I hadn't thought about that option. They're blazing fast. We have them in a few machines at work and it'll knock your socks off.
 
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