Elvis~SPARTA~ Posted November 28, 2009 Share Posted November 28, 2009 My video card died, and I've got other issues, so it's probably time to build something new. I'm not looking for cutting edge, but at the sweet spot in pricing or slightly above. Case: Want room Vid card: The BFG died, and the RMA came back damaged, so I'm not thrilled with them at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elvis~SPARTA~ Posted November 29, 2009 Author Share Posted November 29, 2009 OK, option one is this, with costco's warranty, and not having to take the time/gain the learning experience of putting together another machine: http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?...p=C&topnav= Other than that: i7. 860? or should I jump up a bit for quite a bit more. Mobo: MSI Eclipse SLI Graphics: Geforce GTX 275 Drive: HDD or SSD? If SSD Patriot Torx 64GB or stick with the HDD (still have the raptors) Case recommendations? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter~SPARTA~ Posted November 29, 2009 Share Posted November 29, 2009 I'm very happy with the Cooler Master Storm Scout case, myself. Well built, easy to build in, looks nice, its functional (built-in carrying handle), and the front panel ports are very convenient. Newegg.com's Listing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KalXen~SPARTA~ Posted November 29, 2009 Share Posted November 29, 2009 ibuypower is not that bad, but the GTX 250 is not that great given that a 260 costs barely more and has a ton more potential. i7 920 is pretty spot on without being on bleeding edge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDAN Posted November 29, 2009 Share Posted November 29, 2009 i use the antec nine hundred good solid case great air flow not that expensive pretty silent also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrNo~SPARTA~ Posted November 29, 2009 Share Posted November 29, 2009 That Antec is nice, and its got a great little cubby pocket thingy on top for your keys or flashdrives too I guess, mayby even salted peanuts. Very handy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Watchman~SPARTA~ Posted November 29, 2009 Share Posted November 29, 2009 I use the Antec 900 too, great case. Good value for money IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halli~SPARTA~ Posted November 29, 2009 Share Posted November 29, 2009 I use this Case from NZXT. $130.00 bucks but full of fans. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811146029 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewman~SPARTA~ Posted November 29, 2009 Share Posted November 29, 2009 That's a nice case Halli Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MH6~SPARTA~ Posted November 29, 2009 Share Posted November 29, 2009 And if you like the design of the Antec 900 but want something a tad bigger, go with the Antec 1200. It's what I have, and I love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elvis~SPARTA~ Posted November 29, 2009 Author Share Posted November 29, 2009 I have the Antec 900 and wouldn't mind either the 1200 Hallis case, or a CM product. Assuming I build it myself. For the specs, I agree on bumping up to the 260. With that in mind, costco, bless them, has this alienware product for $1500 that has the i7-920, the 260, 6 gigs of DDR3. The disadvantage is that I don't know what Dell is putting in as far as components. I know the PSU will be enough to power it and maybe another SATA drive and a BluRay I could add, but little margin of error. Actually, I might be able to swap in my current PSU if I upgrade enough. I know the memory will be fine, but probably won't be Corsair or other high end. I know its liquid cooled, but I'm going to be using it eventually in a cabin that can drop below freezing when we're not there (anyone know what liquid they use? A little antifreeze in it?) I will miss my lovely copper CPU cooler. I guess I sit down and price out the individual components and see how it compares. Add that to the one-year at home warranty for the off the shelf product. I hate to think it's that I'm becoming lazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halli~SPARTA~ Posted November 29, 2009 Share Posted November 29, 2009 I hate to think it's that I'm becoming lazy. Naw just OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just get what ever you like and hurry up as we forgot yer voice already........ The Alienware will work great as you can add and fluff that thang. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedicSN6 Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 (edited) CASE: Antec 1200 link PSU: Rosewill xTreme 850 link MOBO: EVGA 141-BL-E757-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX link CPU: Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor link CPU fan: COOLER MASTER Intel Core i7 compatible V10 Hybrid TEC link RAM: 3x Kingston HyperX 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 link HDD: Solid State HDD, at least 80 GB for Windows and core programs. Price range from $130-$200 (Recommended: link) OPTICAL DRIVE: LITE-ON Black 4X BD-ROM SATA Internal 4X Blu-ray Disc Reader Model iHOS104-08 link Video Card: Here is where you can be flexible. You can go one of two ways... A. Start with eVGA brand. They are great. Then you need to choose whether you want SLI or not, then go from there. I run an EVGA 9800 GTX+ 1GB card which they dont make anymore. My recommendation is to get a card that will do SLI, and has at least 1 GB of RAM. The RAM will help you in the long run. http://www.evga.com SOUND CARD: Your choice but most MOBOs come with on board surround sound. Edited November 30, 2009 by Medic~SPARTA~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elvis~SPARTA~ Posted November 30, 2009 Author Share Posted November 30, 2009 That comes out to about $1450, less the optical drive that I can hold off on for a bit re-using the old ones, comparable to the alienware one with brand components. Plus add Windows 7 home premium to make it near 1650. It does have the SSD, and I can pull my existing drives for plenty of additional storage. Comments? Criticisms? Suggestions? Now vs. alienware with the warranty and pre-assembled. I think the SSD will rock tho, and the brand components should help, but by how much? PS Medic, thanks for your taking the extra time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athlon64~SPARTA~ Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 (edited) If you don't like waseting your money, Get this combo and you will be right up there with the big boys, and you will save enough to build the rest of the system, or you can go the outher way and be broke. Theres is better boards as well. do a little looking. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/se...90&csid=_22 Or this one if you want invidia http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...&CatId=4297 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...&CatId=4297 Edited November 30, 2009 by Athlon64~SPARTA~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedicSN6 Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 That comes out to about $1450, less the optical drive that I can hold off on for a bit re-using the old ones, comparable to the alienware one with brand components. Plus add Windows 7 home premium to make it near 1650. It does have the SSD, and I can pull my existing drives for plenty of additional storage. Comments? Criticisms? Suggestions? Now vs. alienware with the warranty and pre-assembled. I think the SSD will rock tho, and the brand components should help, but by how much? PS Medic, thanks for your taking the extra time. By all means substitute with different vendors or products. I was giving you a ballpark range of system components. When it comes to the BR drive, just get a reader for now, still too expensive to make coasters. Also check in to some of the combo deals, like those Athlon mentioned. But he's and Athlon fan, so I wouldn't take him too seriously ;) Intel has the same types of deals on tigerdirect and newegg. If you can find a deal that is comparable, then you can save some money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ebden~SPARTA~ Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 The site I leaned on the most when building my machine was Tom's Hardware. And just in time for your new build is the recent article "Building A Balanced Gaming PC" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDAN Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 yep i agree with ebden good article read it a few days ago Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Batwing~SPARTA~ Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 (edited) CASE: Antec 1200 link PSU: Rosewill xTreme 850 link MOBO: EVGA 141-BL-E757-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX link CPU: Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor link CPU fan: COOLER MASTER Intel Core i7 compatible V10 Hybrid TEC link RAM: 3x Kingston HyperX 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 link HDD: Solid State HDD, at least 80 GB for Windows and core programs. Price range from $130-$200 (Recommended: link) OPTICAL DRIVE: LITE-ON Black 4X BD-ROM SATA Internal 4X Blu-ray Disc Reader Model iHOS104-08 link Video Card: Here is where you can be flexible. You can go one of two ways... A. Start with eVGA brand. They are great. Then you need to choose whether you want SLI or not, then go from there. I run an EVGA 9800 GTX+ 1GB card which they dont make anymore. My recommendation is to get a card that will do SLI, and has at least 1 GB of RAM. The RAM will help you in the long run. http://www.evga.com SOUND CARD: Your choice but most MOBOs come with on board surround sound. I do really like this config in general but the only point I have to desagree is the videocard choice. Actually, also if you are looking for an Nvidia 260 or possibly 2 of them to go SLI, Newegg is having those cards for about $185 -$200 each. So you go SLI, which is a technology that sometimes fails, exactly like Crossfire. When i say "fails" i mean that occasionally you have incompatibilities with games full supporting the SLI or Crossfire technology. If you buy 2 of them, you go to about $400 bucks, so my point is: For that money, why don t you get a fantastic HD 5870 ? First of all is a fully DX 11 card, this you will enjoy in the next few months, second is 1 card only kicking the arse of those 2 260s and not having compatibil;ity issues whatsoever related to SLI or CF configs. Plus it comes with the new Eyefinity ATI system, driving up to 4 monitors on one card for hyper high resolution. If one day you'll decide to run 3 30" monitors for a full immersion game experience, this card does it and does it pretty well, check on youtube for the Eyfinity videos. And a personal comment about SSDs. Still too much expensive and the performances do not justify them, exept for the fancy thing to have 'em on board. Think instead a pair of pretty quick HD with some good cache, set them in RAID 0 and here you go, high performances for lower price and way larger storage capacity. To give you an idea of what I am saying look at this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136358 The SSD medic is suggesting is 60 GB fro about 200 bucks - Here you have WD 7200 rpm with 32MB cache quick drives, take 4 of these babies and put them all together in RAID 0 and you have 32MB cache *4 and 2 terabytes of high performances for $220 ... ahem.... It's quite self explanatory. However you can also find 10.000 RPM high performances drivers, you get 2 of 'em instead of 4 and you still pay way less than 200 bucks and way more storage than 60 GB. I am running a config with a I7 920 OC at 3.6, 6 GB ddr3 and 2x HD 4850s CF and I am having great performances. Honestly i would not think a second to get a 5870 if i had 400 bucks to put on the table right now. Edited November 30, 2009 by Batwing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stang~SPARTA~ Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Not sure if this helps any or not...but this is what $ 2,500.00 from Alienware gets you. So far...no issues whatsoever and the performance is excellent [1] Area-51® X58 Processor: Intel® Core? i7-920 2.66 GHz 8MB Cache Alienware P2 Chassis: Alienware® P2 Chassis with AlienIce? 3.0 Video Cooling - Space Black AlienFX®: Alienware® Standard System Lighting - Astral Blue Alienware P2 Chassis Upgrades: Alienware® Standard System Cooling Power Supply: Alienware® 750 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply Graphics Processor: Single 1,792 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 295 Video Optimizer: AlienAdrenaline v1.0: Video Performance Optimizer - More Info Memory: 6GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 3 x 2048MB Motherboard: Alienware® Approved Intel® X-58 Motherboard- Socket 1366 Core i7 Ready, Dual Triple Channel DDR3 Memory Operating System (Office software not included): Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium (64-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1 System Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 500GB SATA 3Gb/s 7,200RPM 16MB Cache Additional Storage Drive: Additional Storage Drive - 1TB SATA 3Gb/s 7,200RPM 32MB Cache Optical Drives : Single Drive Configuration - 20X Dual Layer Burner (DVD±RW) w/ LightScribe Enthusiast Essentials: Dual High Performance Gigabit Ethernet Ports Sound Card: High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio Keyboard: Standard Keyboard - Standard Keyboard Mouse: Standard Mouse - Standard Optical 3-Button Mouse with Scroll Wheel Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Onsite Service and 24/7 Toll-Free Phone Support AlienRespawn: AlienRespawn v2.0 Recovery DVD ? Windows Vista® Edition Removable Storage: Alienware® 28-in-1 Media Card Reader with Bluetooth Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mesh Cap Alienware Extras: Alienware® Desktop Binder Alienware Extras: Owner Identification Card Alienware Extras: Internal Wire Management Avatar: Predator 2 Window Style: Blue Window Style Mouse Pointers: Standard Mouse Pointers Wallpaper: Alienhead Logo Power Plan: Standard Power Plan Automatic Updates: Automatic Updates On for Critical Updates Only Time Zones: (GMT - 5.00) Eastern Time (US & Canada) [1] Gaming Season Bonus; Free Shipping SubTotal: $2,380.00 Shipping: $100.00 Discount: $100.00 Tax: $166.60 Order Total: $2,546.60 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athlon64~SPARTA~ Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Tell you a little storie about Toms miss information hardware sight. Back when SLI first came out they claimed that any sli card of the same series would work with any outher SLI card of the different mfg. NOPE! they do not, So I had to suffer a return shipping and restocking fee, becouse of good old toms hardware Is full of crap and I woulden't pee on them if they were on fire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skaz~SPARTA~ Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Not sure if this helps any or not...but this is what $ 2,500.00 from Alienware gets you. So far...no issues whatsoever and the performance is excellent [1] Area-51® X58 Processor: Intel® Core? i7-920 2.66 GHz 8MB Cache Alienware P2 Chassis: Alienware® P2 Chassis with AlienIce? 3.0 Video Cooling - Space Black AlienFX®: Alienware® Standard System Lighting - Astral Blue Alienware P2 Chassis Upgrades: Alienware® Standard System Cooling Power Supply: Alienware® 750 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply Graphics Processor: Single 1,792 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 295 Video Optimizer: AlienAdrenaline v1.0: Video Performance Optimizer - More Info Memory: 6GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 3 x 2048MB Motherboard: Alienware® Approved Intel® X-58 Motherboard- Socket 1366 Core i7 Ready, Dual Triple Channel DDR3 Memory Operating System (Office software not included): Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium (64-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1 System Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 500GB SATA 3Gb/s 7,200RPM 16MB Cache Additional Storage Drive: Additional Storage Drive - 1TB SATA 3Gb/s 7,200RPM 32MB Cache Optical Drives : Single Drive Configuration - 20X Dual Layer Burner (DVD±RW) w/ LightScribe Enthusiast Essentials: Dual High Performance Gigabit Ethernet Ports Sound Card: High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio Keyboard: Standard Keyboard - Standard Keyboard Mouse: Standard Mouse - Standard Optical 3-Button Mouse with Scroll Wheel Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Onsite Service and 24/7 Toll-Free Phone Support AlienRespawn: AlienRespawn v2.0 Recovery DVD ? Windows Vista® Edition Removable Storage: Alienware® 28-in-1 Media Card Reader with Bluetooth Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mesh Cap Alienware Extras: Alienware® Desktop Binder Alienware Extras: Owner Identification Card Alienware Extras: Internal Wire Management Avatar: Predator 2 Window Style: Blue Window Style Mouse Pointers: Standard Mouse Pointers Wallpaper: Alienhead Logo Power Plan: Standard Power Plan Automatic Updates: Automatic Updates On for Critical Updates Only Time Zones: (GMT - 5.00) Eastern Time (US & Canada) [1] Gaming Season Bonus; Free Shipping SubTotal: $2,380.00 Shipping: $100.00 Discount: $100.00 Tax: $166.60 Order Total: $2,546.60 OMG, I'm stunned by the way people throw money away Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter~SPARTA~ Posted December 1, 2009 Share Posted December 1, 2009 OMG, I'm stunned by the way people throw money away Might as well spend it on stuff to make you happy. Can't take it with you when you go, friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ebden~SPARTA~ Posted December 1, 2009 Share Posted December 1, 2009 Tell you a little storie about Toms miss information hardware sight. Back when SLI first came out they claimed that any sli card of the same series would work with any outher SLI card of the different mfg. NOPE! they do not, So I had to suffer a return shipping and restocking fee, becouse of good old toms hardware Is full of crap and I woulden't pee on them if they were on fire. That's like saying you didn't like an article in the NY Times, so the whole paper is a washout. C'mon b'y, they have more than one author, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stang~SPARTA~ Posted December 1, 2009 Share Posted December 1, 2009 Hey, it works and its ready to use today no fuss, no mess, no hassles (lets see if you're saying that while you're trying to get everything to configure properly) time is money...remember OMG, I'm stunned by the way people throw money away Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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