Poll: Decided to build a PC, what do you think?

[Life_Is_A_Mess]

Looks good. Yeah, why not, go for it.

 

[TOO S0BER]

@Marq So, if I'm interpreting this chart correctly, the Radeon HD 5970 is the best card...?

 

[theriddlen]

If i was you, i would pick a cheaper processor (i know, some people have issues, but do you really have to buy more expensive one, with performance that goes to fck itself unless you use it to a pro task, like montage of movies or rendering?), and change two 460 to single 480 - SLI is not always a good move, usually games don't take advantage of two cards, sometimes having a pair even slows them down.

Disk space - i would pick two terabytes. I have only one terabyte, and i certainly would use more space. And if you are sure that you would not, then you can use it to make RAID.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Only advice on top of that is location. Keep it clear of walls, dust and radiators or you will be sorry.

 

[veloper]

Get a cheap soundblaster, like a SB4SE, because onboard sound stinks. This will cost almost nothing and makes the difference between decent sound and pops and static and the occasional silence.
It's cheap. There's no good reason to skimp on this with that budget.

Also, 4GB of RAM would be a good idea.

Personally, I would get a cheaper CPU and add a 100GB Intel SDD, because short application load times is something you'll notice every day, while the CPU is overkill for just about everything. Even a shitty SDD will load programs faster than a WD Raptor.

 

[TOO S0BER]

@veloper & @theriddlen This is the very first computer I'm building, you could say i'm popping the cherry. I went with this processor because I want this comp to last for a good 5+ years to be honest. I went with 6 GB of RAM just as a precaution. My laptop currently has 4 GBs (no I don't know if it's DDR 1, 2, or 3. i've been assuming 2) and it crashes a bit from memory leaks. Would simply like to avoid the problem.

@RAKtheUndead Lol. Thanks for that compliment-I appreciate it. But believe me, 4 weeks ago I a complete computer newb. You could've asked me what RAM stood for (random access memory, or Primary memory) and I wouldn't have been able to answer. I took a 5 week course (CIS-100) to brush up on computer basics.
Thanks for the rep info on my PSU, the BB guy said the same thing when I was chatting with him.

 

[TOO S0BER]

@Yosharian Well, this isn't just an upgrade. i'm building my own, very first, computer. I'm shooting for high performance, and for once, I have the cash to back it up. I intended to spend upwards of $2,500; but I'm just dandy with $1,622 to $1,922. It might be cheaper. That price list is SOLELY from Best Buy. I bet I can find some of that stuff cheaper at, say, SWS Electronics or Amazon. I'm no spendthrift or penny pincher. I'm somewhere in between.

And thanks to advice from theriddlen, I may cut down on the Graphics cards from 2 cards to only 1. Gonna do more research.

 

[greenslade]

you might want to rethink that setup. the new Fermi chipset can melt a small reactor, and the 902 is not the most efficient case that Antec has ever produced, put this together with over-clocking your i7 and you might reduce the overall life of your PC. I recommend buying a 5850 rather than a 460 if you can find room in your budget, and have a look at the lian-li k58/60 for better thermal efficiency, then consider whether over-clocking the i7 is in really necessary.

I otherwise applaud your choice of components. Good selection of ram, cooler, PSU and HDD. Don't worry about it only being 7200 rpm, the new caviar black is almost as fast as the velociraptors.

 

[SNIPERFOX ft. Harry P.Ness]

epic win. i have a 2.8 ghz aswell. sadly i only have a 7800 gt to back it up

 

[Nero09]

I'd say throw in an SSD as a system drive, makes your computer start up in the blink of an eye from what I've heard. With that kind of hardware a 7200RPM hard drive might become a bottleneck.

 

[David Bray]

And that, my friend, is why i only play old PC games. Fuck £1010 quid on a tower.

On the upside it looks awesome but try not to overclock if you can.

 

[Spacelord]

Is 2G of RAM enough? Apart from that, pretty damn sweet.

 

[TOO S0BER]

@Yosharian Well, this isn't just an upgrade. i'm building my own, very first, computer. I'm shooting for high performance, and for once, I have the cash to back it up. I intended to spend upwards of $2,500; but I'm just dandy with $1,622 to $1,922. It might be cheaper. That price list is SOLELY from Best Buy. I bet I can find some of that stuff cheaper at, say, SWS Electronics or Amazon. I'm no spendthrift or penny pincher. I'm somewhere in between.

And thanks to advice from theriddlen, I may cut down on the Graphics cards from 2 cards to only 1. Gonna do more research.

Man that is a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a computer. Let me let you into a little secret when it comes to computers: it's a giant waste of cash to get the top of the line stuff, at ANY given time. You don't buy top of the line and then let it sit there for 5 years. That's not how it works. What you do is you buy fairly high up, more often.

Lol. Who says it's gonna just "sit" there? I'll be crankin that thing up nearly every day for games like Starcraft 2, Civilization 5, and Diablo 3 (when it comes out). Plainly speaking, $1,600 is not that much for a more-than-decent gaming CP. You want really expensive? Check out Alienware.com. Their stuff is borderline ridiculous. Also, price range varies on what you want from a computer.

People who are just typing documents, checking e-mail, basic stuff, etc, won't need a $1600 comp. $200-$300 might fit the bill. But people who want great gaming experience (like me) want something more beastly. Example of "great gaming": Right now on my weak, aging laptop, I can only run Starcraft 2 on its LOWEST settings; and still it runs very very slow. With this computer, i'll be able to (in theory) run SC2 at full graphics without a problem. Price all depends on two things and there is one constant:

1. How much you are willing/able to spend.
2. What you plan to do on your computer
And the constand is: The lower in price you go, the less power your computer will have.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

the specs are awsome, but dont overclock it... its an i7 its awsome on its own that it does not need to be overclocked.
makes me think of my dream computer.:

Spoiler

PU -- Intel Core i7 980x 3.33 Ghz (Six Core)
Video -- GeForce GTX 480
Audio -- Logitech 5.1 550 Speakers
Storage -- 4.5 TB total
RAM -- 8 GB
Drives -- 1 DVD Burner, 1 CD Burner
Motherboard -- Asus P6T
Keyboard -- Logitech G19
Mouse -- Logitech G500
OS -- Windows 7 Ultimate
I am getting the money together slowly and some of the parts I alrady have.

Just curious as to what you want for the cooling?

OT: It seems pretty solid but I would get rid of the overclocking as it is not needed and you just burn out your processor before its time. Although for anti virus I highly suggest NoD32. I haven't had any problems with it so far although I have gotten viruses with McAfee and Norton so I would heavily advise you away from those. Also if people want to see some high end comps go to www.beastcomputers.co.uk

Edit:

Spoiler: Aphros XS

Processor
2 x Overclocked Liquid Cooled Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9775 Quad Core

Chipset
Liquid Cooled Intel D5400XS

Power Supply
Coolermaster 1100w UCP Ultimate

Motherboard
Intel D5400XS ?Skulltrail? Socket 771 eATX PCI-EXPRESS FB-DIMM DDR2

Memory
8GB (4 x 2GB) FB-DIMM DDR2-800MHz

Graphics
2 x AMD/ATi HD4870X2 2GB GDDR5 (crossfire)

System Software
Windows Vista
NERO Burning ROM
PowerDVD

Disk Drives
3 x 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drives (SSD) [RAID]
1 x 1TB (1000GB) Samsung Spinpoint F1 SATA II HDD [Storage]

Sound Card
Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional PCIE

Expansion/USB
10 x USB 2.0 ports

Networking Capabilty
KillerNIC M1 Network Card with 400MHz Processor
Gigabit (10/100/1000 Mbits/sec) LAN Subsystem

Benchmarking
3dMark06: 26000

 

[TOO S0BER]

@Spacelord No, 2 GB of RAM is not enough. Starcraft 2 alone needs 2 GB of RAM. That's not including the RAM your OS needs, and any other Aps you may run in the background. My laptop has 4, and I feel it's not enough. So I'm going 6 this time. From what I hear/read, above 6 GB of RAM is overkill

Again, if you guys REALLy wanna see overkill, read maximumpc's Dream Machine 2010 article at maximumpc.com

 

[andeve3]

You definitely made the right choice in building a PC. Looks good, just skimming through it, better than what i have, and i am extremely satisfied with my PC.

 

[Avelestar]

Looks sweet, I shelled out the cash for my current PC 3 years ago ($1000 AUS) and she's barely showing her age at all, you'll get good milage out of yours.

I would suggest bumping the ram up to 4 gig though, it's not that much expensive and it does make a big difference. You could cut the possible second graphics card if you need the money, honestly one will do you fine unless you want to go really fancy.