Help with build

GenMarshall

GenMarshall

High Elven ISB Capt & Ghost Agent
Joined
Jun 17, 2002
Messages
44,443
Location
Night Haven, Vekta, United Systems of Arathor
I'm in the market of getting a new computer, again. To be frank, I'm staying away from big names like Dell, HP, and Gateway and turning to a reputable computer builder (Note: I cannot build my own because I do not know how to and don't have the patience). Also, don't talk me into over clocking because I don't want to over clock any of the parts.

The rundown that I plan to use the computer is gaming and image editing. The games that I mainly play are Source Games (Half-Life 2, TF2, L4D, Gmod, etc), Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Resident Evil 5, Mass Effect series, CivV, as well as independent titles like Terraria and Minecraft.

The system I have in mind goes like this:
Code: 
Processor:     	Quad-Core Intel® Core™ i7-960 3.20GHz
Motherboard:	Intel® DX58SO2 - ATX - Intel® X58 Chipset
Memory:      	6 x Crucial Ballistix 2GB PC3-12800 1600MHz DDR3 (12Gb)
Chassis:             Antec Nine Hundred Two V3 - ATX Mid Tower - Black
Power Supply:	Corsair HX750 - Modular - 750W Power Supply
Hard Drive: 	1.0TB SATA 6.0Gbps 7200RPM - 3.5" - Seagate Barracuda® 7200.12
5.25" Bay:	        Samsung 22x DVD+/-RW Dual Layer LightScribe (SATA)
3.5" Bay:	        All-in-One 3.5" Card Reader (Black)
Video Card: 	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB GDDR5 (2xDVI, 1xmini HDMI)
 
For CPUs the intel 2xxxs are the new state of the art, if your image manipulation software is really good in using multiple threads, go for the 2600, otherwise the 2500 should be the most efficient choice. Add a matching mainboard in the $100 range.

Do you really need LOTS of RAM? For games 4GB would be enough, if you need some headroom for your image editing, 8GB should be plenty(?). As you are not overclocking, those fancy RAM sticks are pointless, go for some run of the mill standard RAM like those:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139398

The PSU is overkill for such a system, some quality 500W part would still be more than enough.

What's your monitor resolution? I suspect a GTX460 should be "good enough", unless you know how to coax those fancy uber-AA modes out of a video card.

All that should be quite a bit cheaper than your original build, you could invest the saved money in a SSD for a system drive, e.g.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167054

THAT would make a difference you could feel daily, in contrast to the difference between a "fast" and a "faster" CPU or GPU :)
 
For the RAM, the motherboard IIRC has a tri Channel so I cold only go between 6Gigs or 12Gigs. I'd like to have 8Gigs though unsure if it's possible with a tri channel.

As for PSU, I still want headroom in the event I upgrade as well as last a long time. The lowest I can only go is 650 kW and sticking with a Corsair unit (I heard they are quite reliable). I don't want to face a PSU nightmare that I had with my piece of crap Dell. Plus I don't want to skimp on the PSU.
 
CivGeneral said:
I'm in the market of getting a new computer, again. To be frank, I'm staying away from big names like Dell, HP, and Gateway and turning to a reputable computer builder (Note: I cannot build my own because I do not know how to and don't have the patience). Also, don't talk me into over clocking because I don't want to over clock any of the parts.

The rundown that I plan to use the computer is gaming and image editing. The games that I mainly play are Source Games (Half-Life 2, TF2, L4D, Gmod, etc), Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Resident Evil 5, Mass Effect series, CivV, as well as independent titles like Terraria and Minecraft.

The system I have in mind goes like this:
Code: 
Processor:     	Quad-Core Intel® Core™ i7-960 3.20GHz
Motherboard:	Intel® DX58SO2 - ATX - Intel® X58 Chipset
Memory:      	6 x Crucial Ballistix 2GB PC3-12800 1600MHz DDR3 (12Gb)
Chassis:             Antec Nine Hundred Two V3 - ATX Mid Tower - Black
Power Supply:	Corsair HX750 - Modular - 750W Power Supply
Hard Drive: 	1.0TB SATA 6.0Gbps 7200RPM - 3.5" - Seagate Barracuda® 7200.12
5.25" Bay:	        Samsung 22x DVD+/-RW Dual Layer LightScribe (SATA)
3.5" Bay:	        All-in-One 3.5" Card Reader (Black)
Video Card: 	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB GDDR5 (2xDVI, 1xmini HDMI)
Click to expand...

CPU: Go with an i5-2600k, it's faster than that CPU and is generally $80+ cheaper
Mobo: get the BOXDZ68DB, $130 cheaper and is at least as good in everything
RAM: definitely overkill, triple channel 3x2GBs is fine, dual channel 2x4GB, 4x2GB or 2x2GB is fine.
PSU: Overkill as long as you aren't going heavy dual GPU (either dual GPU mofo card or powerful two cards).
HDD: I'm fond hybrid drives, go with the Z68 so you can have an SSD cache with the cash you just saved
 
Going from a i7 to an i5 seems to be a downgrade for me (I've been using an i7 based PC for a few years).
 
CivGeneral said:
Going from a i7 to an i5 seems to be a downgrade for me (I've been using an i7 based PC for a few years).
Click to expand...

The i5 is 0.1GHz faster and is 10%+ faster clock for clock, also overclocking consists of typing a new number in the clock multiplier space.
 
Based from memory:

Dell Studio XPS 8100, Intel Core i7-920 2.8GHz, 8GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB
 
Why don't you just upgrade that?? That's still a fairly decent machine. It's probably got the right mobo to stick a 960 on there if you're really set on that minuscule of an upgrade.
 
illram said:
Why don't you just upgrade that?? That's still a fairly decent machine. It's probably got the right mobo to stick a 960 on there if you're really set on that minuscule of an upgrade.
Click to expand...
The problem with my piece of crap Dell is that, it's a piece of crap. Each time I cold boot it (eg. Start it up after a prolong shutdown), it freezes within 10 minutes after boot then works fine after I'm forced to hard restart it. I've already sent it three times now to the Geek Squad (I bought it via Best Buy and had the warranty) and they could not find anything wrong with it (BS!!). I've already wasted two months trying to get this crappy computer to get it to working condition (eg. NOT freeze up on me after a cold boot). I'd figure I'd save my sanity and return the piece of crap Dell for my money back to buy a new and reliable computer instead of a lemon.
 
CivGeneral said:
The problem with my piece of crap Dell is that, it's a piece of crap. Each time I cold boot it (eg. Start it up after a prolong shutdown), it freezes within 10 minutes after boot then works fine after I'm forced to hard restart it. I've already sent it three times now to the Geek Squad (I bought it via Best Buy and had the warranty) and they could not find anything wrong with it (BS!!). I've already wasted two months trying to get this crappy computer to get it to working condition (eg. NOT freeze up on me after a cold boot). I'd figure I'd save my sanity and return the piece of crap Dell for my money back to buy a new and reliable computer instead of a lemon.
Click to expand...

Try checking your RAM with Windows memory diagnostic tool. Either windiag or memdiag, can't remember. It's a bootable CD that will tell you if your RAM is failing.

Don't drop $1,500 on a new machine that would not be much of an upgrade when you could probably spend a couple hundred and a few hours fixing your current one. Troubleshoot! :sniper:
 
CivGeneral said:
The problem with my piece of crap Dell is that, it's a piece of crap. Each time I cold boot it (eg. Start it up after a prolong shutdown), it freezes within 10 minutes after boot then works fine after I'm forced to hard restart it. I've already sent it three times now to the Geek Squad (I bought it via Best Buy and had the warranty) and they could not find anything wrong with it (BS!!). I've already wasted two months trying to get this crappy computer to get it to working condition (eg. NOT freeze up on me after a cold boot). I'd figure I'd save my sanity and return the piece of crap Dell for my money back to buy a new and reliable computer instead of a lemon.
Click to expand...

Have you tried reinstalling the OS?
 
illram said:
Try checking your RAM with Windows memory diagnostic tool. Either windiag or memdiag, can't remember. It's a bootable CD that will tell you if your RAM is failing.
Click to expand...
I used memtest86+ to test. On the first run on a cold boot. It freezes within 5-15 minutes with or without any errors. After reset, memtest86+ reports that it passes.

civ_king said:
Have you tried reinstalling the OS?
Click to expand...
Done that, still persists
 
Memtest freezes? I'd say that's not passing. Does memtest run off it's own bootdisk? Try memdiag or windiag, forget the name.

If tests are inconclusive you could always just spend $50 and get some replacement RAM and see if your computer runs without crashing. Worst case scenario you've got extra RAM sticks lying around.

Alternatively stick another HD in there with a fresh install of windows and it will seem like you have a new computer.
 
Yeah its probably the RAM, HD or motherboard that is the problem. And they are a lot cheaper and easier to replace than buying a whole new computer. (RAM sticks are easier than Playmobil!)
 
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