New Computer, need advice

[Dracona]

Hi everyone, my old system bit the dust last week and im looking for a new gaming rig.
take a look at this one and plz give me your thoughts on it.
Thank You



ASUS Sabertooth X58 Motherboard - LGA 1366, Intel X58, SLI Ready, CrossFireX Ready, Triple Channel DDR3 support, SATA 6GB/s, USB 3.0
Intel Core i7 950 Processor BX80601950 - 3.06GHz, 8MB L3 Cache, 4.8GT/s QPI, HyperThreading, Quad Core, Bloomfield, LGA 1366, Retail, Fan
Corsair CMZ12GX3M3A1600C9 Vengeance 12GB DDR3 RAM - PC12800, 1600MHz, 3x4096MB, Non-ECC, Unbuffered
Sony Optiarc AD-7260S-0B 24x DVDRW Drive - 24x, S-ATA, Black, OEM
Seagate ST31000520AS Barracuda LP Hard Drive - 1TB, 5900RPM, 32MB, SATA-3G
EVGA 01G-P3-1450-TR GeForce GTS 450 FPB Video Card - 1024MB GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0, Dual DVI, Mini HDMI, SLI, DirectX 11, Fermi, FREE Performance Boost Overclock to 822MHz
Cooler Master RC-932-KKA3-GP HAF 932 Full Tower Case and Pre-installed eXtreme 700W Power Supply

The HDD is slow for me, so i will be grabbing a
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX
My price range is $1000, I haven't used an intel cpu in many years, would i be better off to go with the AMD Phenom x6?

[Quadunit404]

The Intel Core ix line is known for being very powerful and capable of handling stressful situations like they're nothing (seriously, I have a PC with a Core i5, never crashes due to system stress) and afaik the Core i7 can run a resource-intensive application and still use only 10% of the total CPU resources. You definitely want to go with that.

[ikt]

Hi everyone, my old system bit the dust last week and im looking for a new gaming rig.
take a look at this one and plz give me your thoughts on it.
Thank You



ASUS Sabertooth X58 Motherboard - LGA 1366, Intel X58, SLI Ready, CrossFireX Ready, Triple Channel DDR3 support, SATA 6GB/s, USB 3.0
Intel Core i7 950 Processor BX80601950 - 3.06GHz, 8MB L3 Cache, 4.8GT/s QPI, HyperThreading, Quad Core, Bloomfield, LGA 1366, Retail, Fan
Corsair CMZ12GX3M3A1600C9 Vengeance 12GB DDR3 RAM - PC12800, 1600MHz, 3x4096MB, Non-ECC, Unbuffered
Sony Optiarc AD-7260S-0B 24x DVDRW Drive - 24x, S-ATA, Black, OEM
Seagate ST31000520AS Barracuda LP Hard Drive - 1TB, 5900RPM, 32MB, SATA-3G
EVGA 01G-P3-1450-TR GeForce GTS 450 FPB Video Card - 1024MB GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0, Dual DVI, Mini HDMI, SLI, DirectX 11, Fermi, FREE Performance Boost Overclock to 822MHz
Cooler Master RC-932-KKA3-GP HAF 932 Full Tower Case and Pre-installed eXtreme 700W Power Supply

The HDD is slow for me, so i will be grabbing a
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX
My price range is $1000, I haven't used an intel cpu in many years, would i be better off to go with the AMD Phenom x6?


Gaming on windows or ubuntu?

[Dracona]

getting win 7 with system, but will be mainly in ubuntu

[BHEJU]

My 2 cents on processors:
I have used Pantium (Old dektop), Core2Duo (my laptop), Core2Quad (work destop), Core-I3 (old laptop from work), -I5 (wife's laptop) and I7 (new work laptop.
I do not see any perf diff between core2Duo and any core-I*. Core2Quad is a beast.
For AMD.. I do not like them due to heat generation power hogging. You can call me bias on this but I never had good exp with AMD chips because of the heating and power concerns.

Cheers,

[papibe]

If you go Intel, I would advice you to get the new mobo standard LGA1155. That way you also can also go for the new generation of Intel's CPUs: Sandy Bridge.

Check this article (http://www.maximumpc.com/article/how-tos/build_it_sandy-bridge_powered_gaming_pc_under_grand) from the Maximum PC Magazine.

Regards.

[mips]

Rather go with the newer Sandy Bridge kit.

[CharlesA]

Rather go with the newer Sandy Bridge kit.
+1 to that.

[Dracona]

"Rather go with the newer Sandy Bridge kit."

same here, if i can find a setup under the $1k mark

[papibe]

"Rather go with the newer Sandy Bridge kit."

same here, if i can find a setup under the $1k mark

The name of the article link that I suggested in my previous post is: A Sandy-Bridge Powered Gaming PC (for under a grand) (http://www.maximumpc.com/article/how-tos/build_it_sandy-bridge_powered_gaming_pc_under_grand).

Regards.

[CharlesA]

"Rather go with the newer Sandy Bridge kit."

same here, if i can find a setup under the $1k mark
See the link to the MaximumPC article. :)

EDIT: That's what I get for opening a tab and letting it sit for a few mins. :lolflag:

[Dracona]

The name of the article link that I suggested in my previous post is: A Sandy-Bridge Powered Gaming PC (for under a grand) (http://www.maximumpc.com/article/how-tos/build_it_sandy-bridge_powered_gaming_pc_under_grand).

Regards.
so true, i should click before i type.
i did give it a look over, i thank you for the link. I thank everyone for there input.

i have been doing research into the SandyBridge, been way to long since i last built a system. so much has changed.

so much to think about, H67 has (on chip )gpu support no OC
P67 no ( on chip ) gpu support, but can OC
on that, is there any advantage to having the on chip gpu if you are going to add a graphics card?

[mmsmc]

hi, i have a similar problem here is, i am looking for a gaming computer(on ubuntu) with a lot of memory, great graphics card, i am also willing to build my own, but sadly have no knowledge of hardware
thank you

[Dustin2128]

I'd swap to a Phenom II X6 and use the savings to upgrade to, say, a GTX 570 or 460.

[cascade9]

Whatever you do, dont get LGA1366 for a $1000 gaming machine. LGA 1366 isnt worth it unless you want to spend a lot more money.


so much to think about, H67 has (on chip )gpu support no OC
P67 no ( on chip ) gpu support, but can OC
on that, is there any advantage to having the on chip gpu if you are going to add a graphics card?

Dont get a P67 if you are going to use a video card. H67 is slightly faster, and doesnt have the onboard video junk to deal with.Just a pity that intel is making the newer sandy bridge chipsets a pain, theres more than a few bugs around, and the whole SATA contoller issues are just plain silly.


I'd swap to a Phenom II X6 and use the savings to upgrade to, say, a GTX 570 or 460.

I wouldnt even bother with a X6 for gaming at that price range.

GTX460 or even GTX560 Ti (if you dont mind playing with drivers) is a much, much better choice for gaming than a GTS450.

*-edti P67/H67 were the wrong way around, fixed now.

[mips]

theres more than a few bugs around, and the whole SATA contoller issues are just plain silly.


What bugs, I'm only aware of the SATA issue but the new boards should be shipping by now and you can always swap out an affected board without charge.

[mips]

same here, if i can find a setup under the $1k mark

You guys in the US have it really good when it comes to component prices, we can only dream of having access to something like Newegg over here.

That said we would still be able to build a SB based system over here for US$1000 so you guys should be able to do it for less. It's all relative to how BIG you want to go though. Over here the the guys are using the 2500k cpu as a base.

EDIT: Just had a look at the MaximumPC article and if you leave out the Win 7 OS the price drops to US$856 and the savings you can put towards a i5 2500k.
I would also change the GPU to nVidia for proper Linux drivers.

Actually a very good guide that using top notch quality components.

If you are new to PC building I would highly recommend you follow that guide. Just change the i3 to the i5 2500k, ATI to nVidia GTX460 and the coolermaster 212+. Excellent bang for buck cooler that

[Dracona]

" Dont get a H67 if you are going to use a video card. P67 is slightly faster, and doesnt have the onboard video junk to deal with.Just a pity that intel is making the newer sandy bridge chipsets a pain "

In the later part of this year Intel will release a Z67 chipset the combines the H an P series.

[Dracona]

after doing a bit of system builds, i have settled on this setup for now, Let me know what you think an if anything is incorrect.

1. ASUS SABERTOOTH P67 (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

2. ASUS ENGTX560 TI DCII/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

3. Raidmax RX-730SS Modular PSU

4. Intel Core I5-2500k CPU

5. CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory

6. Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

7. Win 7 home premium ( don't hate me for this )

the total on this build come to $1063.98 including shipping. This build does not include a case, i will use the one that died recently.

[mips]

after doing a bit of system builds, i have settled on this setup for now, Let me know what you think an if anything is incorrect.


3. Raidmax RX-730SS Modular PSU


This is the only thing that bothers me, they are crap. Rather get a decent Antec or Corsair PSU.

If you go to newegg and sort PSU by Ratings you will know which ones are tops.

[Dracona]

made 2 changes
1. ASUS ENGTX460 DirectCU TOP/2DI/1GD5

2. Antec BP550 Plus 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

the motherboard might be more then I need, but damn its a nice board.

[slooksterpsv]

My 2 cents, AMD has gotten a lot better in terms of power consumption, speed, and performance.

I'd rather have an AMD, but I've had more trouble with Intel in the past. The Phenom and Athlons are not far behind the ix cpus, which means that for substantially less $$$, you can get a CPU that is close near the ix line of CPUs.

Also, funnily enough, the APU Fusion computers are able to play Crysis and what not quite a bit better than an i5 - of course the APU Fusion C-50 has an AMD Radeon HD 6250 and the E-350 has a 6310. Just saying, although support for APU won't be in the kernel until 2.6.38 I believe is what I read.

I'm not a fan of NVidia, but I'll leave it just at the CPU discussion level.

Good luck =D

[Dracona]

My 2 cents, AMD has gotten a lot better in terms of power consumption, speed, and performance.

I'd rather have an AMD, but I've had more trouble with Intel in the past. The Phenom and Athlons are not far behind the ix cpus, which means that for substantially less $$$, you can get a CPU that is close near the ix line of CPUs.

Also, funnily enough, the APU Fusion computers are able to play Crysis and what not quite a bit better than an i5 - of course the APU Fusion C-50 has an AMD Radeon HD 6250 and the E-350 has a 6310. Just saying, although support for APU won't be in the kernel until 2.6.38 I believe is what I read.

I'm not a fan of NVidia, but I'll leave it just at the CPU discussion level.

Good luck =D

I appreciate your input, I havent used an intel cpu since my pent.2 so many yrs ago. I am not rulling out the Phenom x6 1100t or 1090t. i have built up both systems ( online only ) and the prices arent that far apart, from what the reviews i have been reading on the i7s, for now they are the cream of the crop.

Main reason i am going with nvidia instead of ati/amd graphics card, is my love for ubuntu. last time i tried to set up my radeon card for 3d support it was a nitemare (several years ago). i havent had any issues with the nvidia cards i have used since then, either in game or in ubuntu.

[mips]

Also, funnily enough, the APU Fusion computers are able to play Crysis and what not quite a bit better than an i5 - of course the APU Fusion C-50 has an AMD Radeon HD 6250 and the E-350 has a 6310. Just saying, although support for APU won't be in the kernel until 2.6.38 I believe is what I read.


Please supply a source for this information or I'll have to call BS.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4023/the-brazos-performance-preview-amd-e350-benchmarked/1
http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-brazos-platform-tested-e350-apu-review/1

This does not seem to backup your post. They are comparing it to Intel GFX which is as good as useless. So the AMD version is slightly better than useless. None of them can even start to be compared against a dedicated GPU from AMD or nVidia.

It's a processor aimed at the Atom Ion market. Crysis? You gotta be joking.

Edit: Before being accused of being an Intel fanboy every single PC I have built has used AMD cpus, from the AMD K5 up until K8. The last PC I built was the first to use a Intel CPU C2Q 6600 as it provided the best bang for buck ratio and if I had to build another PC tomorrow it would be Intel Sandy Bridge based.

When it comes to GPUs unfortunately there is not much choice when it comes to Linux, nVidia is the only option. AMD need to sort their drivers out so we have more choice.

[Dracona]

(http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/20)

[cascade9]

What bugs, I'm only aware of the SATA issue but the new boards should be shipping by now and you can always swap out an affected board without charge.

Theres more bugs than just the SATA issue, just the SATA issue got all the press (and the memory issues in patricular are in part from bad parts/chipset matchups, but thats just one of the other bugs)

IMO intel has known how bad that SATA problem was for ages, they just didnt let on. Another reason to avoid intel.



In the later part of this year Intel will release a Z67 chipset the combines the H an P series.

Z68 now.

Still wont get around the limited upgrade path on LGA1155. Unless intel backflips and acutally does make X6, and/or 'high end' CPUs for LGA 1155, which might well happen _*IF*_ bulldozer is still on target and can beat out the intel CPUs.

I really hate it when intel goes back it is '3 tier' model- Tier 1, 'entry' or 'consumer' level (currently LGA 1155, up to quad core only). Tier 2- 'performance' or 'enthusiast' level (currently LGA1366, and whatever it is replaced by, if intel actually does replace it..which looks almost certain now),. Tier- 3- Servers, which have thier own set of sockets, not that desktop users need to worry about that.

Intel tend to do this sort of thing (pointless socket changes, 'splitting' the market into segments) when they feel that AMD is behind, and then consolidate to single sockets for desktops (not servers) when AMD is ahead.

[Shazzam6999]

My 2 cents on processors:
I have used Pantium (Old dektop), Core2Duo (my laptop), Core2Quad (work destop), Core-I3 (old laptop from work), -I5 (wife's laptop) and I7 (new work laptop.
I do not see any perf diff between core2Duo and any core-I*. Core2Quad is a beast.
For AMD.. I do not like them due to heat generation power hogging. You can call me bias on this but I never had good exp with AMD chips because of the heating and power concerns.

Cheers,

That's not really a fair comparison since the laptop processors aren't the same as the desktop ones, and they are underclocked.

[Windows Nerd]

My 2 cents on processors:
I have used Pantium (Old dektop), Core2Duo (my laptop), Core2Quad (work destop), Core-I3 (old laptop from work), -I5 (wife's laptop) and I7 (new work laptop.
I do not see any perf diff between core2Duo and any core-I*. Core2Quad is a beast.
For AMD.. I do not like them due to heat generation power hogging. You can call me bias on this but I never had good exp with AMD chips because of the heating and power concerns.

Cheers,

That's a "Pentium". The reason you perhaps don't see a difference between the core2Duo and core i-series is because you don't really stress your system anyways? Other reasons could be that you had a high end Core2 processor(s) and a lower end i3, where the performance benefit of that is really not much. But the difference between a core2Duo and i7 is HUGE.

As far as AMD goes: I don't know where you are getting the heat/power concerns, as they typically have a lower TDP than intel chips (especially older intel chips): It depends on the chip: for example an enthusiast oriented chip by AMD will definitely have a higher TDP than, say, a low-end intel chip marketed for a netbook.

Please don't go parroting generalizations without providing reason and logic, as it confuses many, and just spreads confusion and assumptions that may be untrue.


@OP:

1. ASUS SABERTOOTH P67 (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Good choice, but make sure this is a board that has the fixed chipset on it! Otherwise your SATA chipset's performance will degrade. Intel is just shipping back many repaired boards to its suppliers. The new boards should indicate that it has the B3 revision on it, which means the chipset issue is fixed.

2. ASUS ENGTX560 TI DCII/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Good choice, solid card for gaming with the sweet spot of price VS performance. Good bang for the buck.

3. Raidmax RX-730SS Modular PSU

Good choice, should have enough power to accomadate any power-hungry extra components you may wish to add in later (like a second GPU for SLI, etc).


4. Intel Core I5-2500k CPU

Good, should overclock well if you are into that :)

5. CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory

Good choice, again. I don't know if you would ever find a way to use a whole 8GB of ram, but ram is so damn cheap anyways, so no big deal.

6. Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

Good, but just to note that no hard drive has a need for the new SATa 6.0Gb/s ports. Though it doesn't matter if the hard drive is reliable, because the new ports should be compatible for a long time.

7. Win 7 home premium ( don't hate me for this )

No comment. ;D

the total on this build come to $1063.98 including shipping. This build does not include a case, i will use the one that died recently.

Just make sure your case has good ventilation/airflow to keep you new components nice and cool - keeping them cool prolongs their lifetime!

Scott