PC spec's what do you think

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Needenergy

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#61661 21-May-2010 01:04

Okay so im thinking of building a pc sometime this year with a 2 grand limit and have been browsing through parts etc. but still cant decide between a few but heres what ive got so far:

CPU: i5 750 (will overclock sometime)
MB: Asrock P55DE3
Graphics: XFX 5770 (not sure if i could get any better with my price range)
Ram: 4GB DDR3
HDD: Hitachi 500gb 7200 rpm
Optical Drive: Benq (nothing special)

Case: Now this is where it gets tricky i have a 3 way split between the Antec 900, Antec 900 2 and the coolermaster Storm Sniper. The 900 and 900 2 are relatively identical other than the Washable fan filters of the 900 2. They're both in the same price range. where as The Sniper is pretty much the same but apparently has better airflow and easier control over led's and fan speeds but costs about $NZD100 more. I originally considered the Antec 200 but thought i probably should get something with a bit more cooling. So this part is not settled at all and I would love suggestions.

PSU: Not sure but probably just an Antec TP-550.

Monitor: Benq E2420HD But i was told that this was over priced and i could find a better monitor.

Cooling im probably just going to use air cooling as I dont have enough knowledge on liquid cooling both antec cases come with 4 fans built in and have 2 optional ones and the coolermaster has 3 with 2 optional ones.

With the Antec 200 this build came to $NZD1,677 + delivery costs

Any help into this build would be greatly appreciated especially pointing out any flaws.
Thanks.

samwooff

219 posts

Master Geek

#333800 23-May-2010 22:48

Hey man, what do you want to use your pc for?
If you're going to be overclocking you definitely want to be thinking about the cooling side of the equation. Water cooling is pretty cool (pun fully intended) but for a budget of 2k I think you'd struggle to beat a decent air cooler without sacrificing other more important aspects of your build. A TRUE or a prolimatech or similar will let you get 4ghz very safely.

I've not had experience with the coolermaster though I've read good things but I do own the antec 1200 which is just a full tower 902 and it's a very nice case, keeps everything very cool, not too loud on low fan speeds and very solid. The only major flaw is how long it takes to put in or take out hard drives cause they're not toolless.

The e2420 is sort of in the middle of two price brackets, being a TN panel it's probably going to be relatively quick but have fairly average colours, thing is a good IPS monitor; the HP ZR24w is only $100 or so more and is a far superior monitor or on the other hand other TN panels which will have similar image quality to that BenQ can be had for $300. I reccommend you go either side of it depending on your budget and wants.

Desktop: i7 920, GTX 275, asus P6T, antec 1200, 6gb ram, 1tb spinpoint f1, 1tb spinpoint f3, Logitech Z2300, Zero DAC, Shure SRH440
Laptop: Toshiba satellite, T5300, Go 7300
Home Theatre: 32" loewe CRT, Harmon kardon amp, dvd player, image 418 speakers, rega planar 25 turntable :)

Needenergy

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#333887 24-May-2010 09:34

Hey, Thanks for the reply.

The True only fits a 775 socket doesnt it?

Oh and whats your opinion of the Benq G2110w? (if you have one)

samwooff

219 posts

Master Geek

#334295 25-May-2010 00:12

The TRUE fits any socket, you either buy it with the correct mount for your CPU or if you have one already get an adaptor when you change socket. Most CPU coolers should be similar.
I don't own a Benq G2110w but I don't think it's a good monitor for the money, low resoloution and you're giving up a lot of screen size compared to the 24" monitors. Also seems pretty hard to track down with no well known stores selling it.
Why not something like the Dell ST2410, currently only $299?

Needenergy

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#334370 25-May-2010 10:33

Ah okay,
I was also looking at the Spin Q VT. What do you know about that?
Duh.... i am so stupid i didnt even look at any dells, thats a good idea.
Thanks

GamerOC

439 posts

Ultimate Geek

#334799 25-May-2010 22:17

it all depends on what you are gonna use that pc for,
if for gaming i7 will be great
also make sure get fast Ram not only DD3 but check the timings for latency.
Beffie PSU very important
Mobo that allows FSB overclocking
Fastest hard drive possible under the budget, check the size of the cache and tech details of bus.
do your homework and make sure you get the best for your buck.
Good case with good airflow.

good luck

Andy

Needenergy

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#334804 25-May-2010 22:24

Yea its going to be for gaming mainly WoW and other rpg's but also bad company 2 and a few other fps's but its also going to be used for a bit of designing hardly any 3D if any though. From the i7's the main response I've been seeing is get a 920 would i be correct in saying its the best for its price?

samwooff

219 posts

Master Geek

#334829 25-May-2010 22:57

The spin isn't a bad cooler it just doesn't quite hold up to the top tier of coolers, there are plenty of group tests out there of air coolers if you want to see how much a difference each cooler makes.

I actually disagree with GamerOC here on some points, the i7 is overkill for a gaming computer especially one on this budget. It offers up a few extra frames at best and for some games it actually isn't the best CPU. If you're interested in fps only $200 extra on graphics will give you a loooot more than $200 extra on processing.
This toms hardware article gives you some nice examples to look at.

If you go for either the 1156 or 1366 socket you're restricted to DDR3 and again going for faster kits or ones with less latency doesn't seem to give much extra performance in games for the money.

If you're willing to overclock the i7 920 is definitely best bang for buck out of the 1366 CPUs but I'm a big fan of the i5 750 which only loses hyperthreading which I've yet to find a program to utilise properly.

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Needenergy

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#334847 25-May-2010 23:52

Okay so ive decided to go for the i5 750 still as its cheap and quite a few of the overclockers forums rave about it. But now im concerned about both the Graphics card and Mobo.

With the graphics card I kind of know what to look for: high bit rate and high memory

But when it comes to the mobo Im almost clueless other than needing the same socket as the cpu and also features like say the oc genie button on some msi boards, oh and if they can support multiple graphics cards (which i would prefer, not that i would use it till later on though) but other than those 3 im clueless.

Oh and for the PSU is the The theme i seem to get is anything from corsair should be okay. Im looking at the HX750W right now

samwooff

219 posts

Master Geek

#334861 26-May-2010 01:02

Yep the 750 does overclock very well.

As for graphics cards, yes and no. More of both of those things is always good but there are arguably more important aspects of a video cards spec sheet such as number of shaders and texture units and of course the clock speed of all these components.
Short answer, I'm thinking either an Ati 5770 $270-$300 or a 5850 $469-$529 depending on just how gaming orientated you want to make this machine, and of course your budget.
Medium answer, read tom's hardware best graphics card for the money(based in US so take with a grain of salt) http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card-radeon-hd-5870-geforce-gtx-480,2621.html
Long answer, start reading lots and lots of reviews/benchmarks/articles etc

You definitely want your mobo to have the right socket lol. I'm not really a huge fan of stuff like OC genie, turbo V, or anything like that. It's what your BIOS is for, unleash your inner computer geek lol. If a motherboard has special features consider it the cherry on top but your priorities should be in no particular order:
PCI and PCIe slots, number, order, speed and placement are all important.
All other ports, slots, connections again number and placement are important as is type eg: USB 3.0 and SATA 6gb/s.
Your Input and Output panel on the back.
How user friendly and adjustable the BIOS is.
What accessories you get in the box.
Durability and physical overclockability.
Brand(slightly subjective but some brands are more popular than others, sometimes for good reasons)
For the i5 I quite like the Asus P7P55D E but there are others out there that might fit your budget and needs better.

Corsair do make very good quality PSUs especially the modular ones, Seasonic(who make corsair's PSUs) are probably the best in the business, Enermax and a few others are meant to be quite good as well but I'm unashamedly a corsair fan for now.
The HX750 is a very good power supply, you could get away with the HX650 easily too but you can never have too much safety factor.

b0untypure1

1426 posts

Uber Geek

#334883 26-May-2010 07:42

save some money and get an AMD 965 black edition,
you can overclock it much more than the weak intel 15.

samwooff

219 posts

Master Geek

#335034 26-May-2010 13:21

By that logic he should get a pentium 4, very cheap and you can overclock it 8ghz if you're really trying.