Advice for new desktop

[dirkieman]

Guys, I requested a quote for a new PC on another thread. I am no hardware expert, and would like to have your comments/advice on the hardware below, where better value for money/performance options are available:

Main use of the PC will be casual gaming, office applications and software development.
Please replace components where better value for money options exist.

Coolermaster Full Tower Chassis, Storm Sniper, Black, No PSU (Bottom Placed), Meshed Side Panel, Front eSATA/USB/Audio, ATX
Coolermaster 550W PSU, eXtreme Power Plus, 24pin, Dual 12V Rail, 3xSATA, 2x6pin PCI-E, 1x120mm Fan
ASUS Nvidia Geforce GTX460, 768MB DDR5, 256bit (2x DVI+ HDMI) - PCI-Express
Kingston Value RAM Memory 2GB 1333MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL9 DIMM (X2)
LG 23" LCD Wide 1920x1080, 30000:1, 5ms, D-Sub, DVI
LG OptDrive 24x SATA DVDRW Lightscribe - Retail Packaging
Samsung, 750Gb, 7200rpm, 32mb cache, NCQ, SATA-300
Samsung, 1TB, 5400rpm, 32mb cache, NCQ, SATA-300 (New Echo Green)
Intel CPU i7-960 Core i7 LGA1366 3.20GHz 4.8GT/s QPI 8MB Cache 45nm
Intel Extreme Series, 'Smackover', Intel X58, LGA1366, 6.4GT/s QPI, 4xTriple DDR3 1600, 3xPCI-x16(CrossFire & SLI), 1xPCI-x1, 1xPCI, 6xSATA(Raid,0,1,5,10), 2x eSATA, Gbe Lan, 10ch-Sound, Max 12xUSB, 2xIEEE1394, ATX
Microsoft/Logitech wired keyboard and mouse bundle
Windows 7 Professional

Many thanx in advance

 

[nakedpeanut]

I think it would be better if you just gave us your budget but looking at that I'd get
A cheaper case like CM692 over the storm
Better PSU like Corsair GS600w or the 500w variant.
I'd get a 6870 over the 460
Increase your ram to 3x2GB or 3x1GB. Do not buy 2x2GB or pairs if you using 1366 platform.. Only triple.
Rather get i7 950 the R2500 odd difference is not worth it for i7 960!!
Rather get better Mobo like http://www.prophecy.co.za/x58agd65-lga1366-triplechannel-ddr3-3way-crossfirex-p-77418.html
You should think of maybe getting an SSD drive like 120GB and then a 1.5 or 2TB HDD drive for storage
Maybe get 24" just cause

On a general note get a good mouse and keyboard not a generic bundle. Sometime they are good but just research

 

[Terumo]

Seems you covered most bases But like peanut said kinda hard not knowing your budget.
Id second the Corsair PSU
You can save a couple going for an i5 platform and an i5 760 cpu
3d card, will mostly depend on what software development you are doing, imo gtx 460 is a win in that department
Also second a 24''

 

[Pada]

I would do as nakedpeanut suggested.

With a big budget like yours (my guess would be in the region of R15-20k), you should really get a decent power supply and not a cheap one like that CM EPP 550W!
I would recommend that you get at least a 500W PSU, and that you look at either Corsair CX/TX/GS or CoolerMaster GX series power supplies, unless you can afford better/modular power supplies.

I really don't know why you went for the i7 960, because it is really ridiculously expensive compared to the i7 950 @ ~R2500 - like Nakedpeanut said.
With the Socket 1366 motherboards, it is critical that you get the RAM modules in multiples of 3. I would recommend that you go for 6GB.
If you purely want to build a gaming rig, then you would be much better off by getting a Socket 1156 motherboard, a Core i5 760 CPU and 2x 2GB of RAM.

Currently the 1.5TB hard drives are the quite good value for money at like R700.
If you don't want to spend R2200 on a 120GB SSD, then you can always get a 60GB SSD from Wootware for like R1200. It should suffice for Windows, Office, game (or 2) that you're currently playing and a few more apps.

 

[dirkieman]

Thanks for all the input guys.
I do not really have a budget, I usually spec what I want and if it is something I feel comfortable paying, then I buy it, otherwise start picking cheaper options
@NakedPeanut: I see the Mobo you recommend is a MSI. How does that compare with Intel mainboards? I have always used Intel boards with not much problems
I also assume the GPU you prefer is ATI?

@Pada: I picked the i7-960 as I usually replace my PC every 2-3 years and then mostly pick a CPU that is near to the top model, but what is said wrt tot price difference, I will prob take your advice

If I want to have access to all 6GB of RAM, I need to get Win 7 64Bit. I assume then I will have quite a few apps not running, or be I mistaken?

 

[nakedpeanut]

I'd take msi over Intel board anyday It's got more features including USB3 and SATA3.
I don't prefer ATI just recommend the best band for buck at the moment in the price range you looking at. The Don't get me wrong, the 460 is a good card and if you prefer Nvidia take it.
Just make sure you get the 1GB model not the 768mb version.
Look at Archers charts you'll see that the cost per frame per second is lower with the 6870 when compared to the 460 1GB and it performs better. Hence my choice

This is a comparison of the i7 950 and the i7 960
They are identical with the exception of the: Bus/Core Ratio 23 and 24 respectfully
So you are paying an extra ~R2500 for them to change one setting that gives you 133MHz extra? Not worth IMO

And yes you will need a 64 bit operating system if you want to make full use of 4GB (I just rounded up a lil ) or more of RAM. I've had no problem running any of my 32bit applications or games in Win7 64. Everything runs perfect. Almost all applications are being provided in both 32 and 64 versions nowdays so don't worry about it too much.

 

[Pada]

You can much rather get a Corsair H70 cooler and overclock your FSB to reach the same speeds as you would've gotten from the i7 960.

Win7 x64 should be a compulsory with that kind of rig. If the application can't run on Windows Vista/7, then you simply run VirtualBox with Windows XP on it

 

[DUDE!@##$%%]

Why are you getting a 750Gb and a 1TB?

but anyone, I would drop the i7 960 and opt for an i7 950 which are practically the exact same processors but the 950 is about R2500 cheaper....

With this extra cash I would jump on a nice aftermarket cooler, and about 6GB of ram (future proof ftw) the i7's are known for easily making it to 4GHz if you turn hyperthreading on (useless atm but will be good in the future)

I would also get a less expensive case like the CM 690 II Plus - amazing case, very similar to scout but again (i think) about R500 cheaper

Get a 6870 instead of a 460


EDIT: if you do get the aftermarket cooler, I reccomend the Coolermaster V6GT very good cooling for the price, but the 100% best two air coolers on the market atm is the Noctua NH-14 and the Silver Arrow, unfortunately none of those will fit in the Cm690 (they are fricking massive) but I have the V6GT in mine and I have an overclock @ 3Ghz using a core 2 quad (known for crappy overclocking and heat )

I would also say you just shoot us a budget and let us look

EDIT: make sure you get the windows 7 x64 version, else you not gonna be able to use more than 3.2GB of ramzorz

 

[flarkit]

My 2c, to summarize what I'd change from your original spec:

- CM 690-II case (known as the the 692).
- CM GX550W, or Corsair VX550W. Both are 80plus certified (means they're solid) and have 5-yr warranties, which is better than the Corsair CX series or the other CM series
- I7 950, which will feel the same for gaming, office applications and most development (unless you're doing massive data crunching)
- 3x2Gb DDR3-1333
- Either get 2x1Tb 7200RPM SATA, or 64Gb SSD + 1.5Tb or 2 Tb SATA
- 1Gb 6870
- I work on a 23" 1920x1080 monitor and the g/f has a 24" LCD 2m away. There's hardly any noticeable difference. If it means having to give up on an SSD, or 6Gb RAM, I'd take the 23" in an instant
- Get Win 7 64bit, it's happy to run 32-bit apps.

 

[DUDE!@##$%%]

wow looking at some hefty price differences:

CM 690 II Plus Vs CM Storm Sniper

both are very nice cases, but R1600 is just waaay to much if you look at what your getting..
the 690 is also amazing case, got everything you need and only R850

you save R750! yaaaaaaayyyy


Intel i7-950 Quad Core vs Intel i7-960 Quad Core

they are practically exaclty the same performence, and most likely you will never be able to tell...
the i7 960 is R5390.95 and the 950 is R2581.99...
thats a R2809 difference! not even nearly worth a processor thats almost exactly the same!

you save R2809! yaaaaayyyy

thats a total saving of R3559!1!
OMW TEH YAYOZRS???

with the R2809 you could get another 6870 and have performence better than the R7000 Radeon 5970!!
if you dont believe the value for money you are getting here just look...

Colin McRae Dirt 2

FAR CRY 2

ANON:

keep in mind that all these games are running at FULL HD with all possible graphics settings to high...

and in price comparison, two 6870's will cost you about R5100 and two 480's will cost you about R10 000 for like 10fps? no....just hell no

 

[Archer]

Whats with the random graph posting? I've averaged all the results and done value comparisons already. Also note you really should post a link to the source of that info, otherwise its blatant plagarism

 

[flarkit]

I don't really agree with buying 2 gfx cards for "casual gaming" (as the OP stated). The added noise, heat and cost layout isn't justified for bragging rights. In addition, you don't even receive the full performance benefit of 2 cards. A single 6870 will do perfectly well, whilst there's a whole lot of added benefit from a 64Gb or 120Gb SSD.

Or buy more RAM (3x4Gb?), create a 6Gb RAM disk and assign a pagefile on there

 

[boswald]

I would also stay away for 5400rpm drives. Especially for a desktop. Minimum of 7200 if you ask me

 

[dirkieman]

Thanking each and every-one for your advice.. Hele paar dinge geleer hier!!

As I final thought, below is the final spec I am settling on:

Coolermaster CM690 II Advanced Tower Chassis - No PSU
Corsair GS600 600W Power Supply Unit with 140mm Blue Led Fan
Asus ENGTX460 DirectCU/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX460 1GB GDDR5 256-bit PCI-E 2.0 ( I have settled on this as the 6870 is 1K more everywhere I look)
Samsung P2370H 23" 2ms 70000:1 Widescreen LCD Monitor
Corsair CMFSSD-128D1 Extreme Series SSD 2.5" 128GB SATA2
(Only thing bothering me here (SSD) is if this will be enough space: By default I will load Win 7, SQL 2008 R2, VS 2008 and VS2010, Open Office and some odd utilities.
Games, maybe 3)
Seagate Barracuda ST31500341AS 1.5TB SATA2 7200rpm
Samsung SH-S223C 22x SpeedPlus™ Serial ATA internal DVD Writer.
Intel i7-950 Quad Core 3.06GHz LGA1366 8MB Cache CPU
MSI X58A-GD65 LGA1366 Triple-Channel DDR3 3-Way SLI / CrossFireX
Corsair CMP6GX3M3A1600C7 Desktop 3x2GB Kit DDR3-1600 1.65v CL7
Logitech 967670 LX710 Cordless Laser Keyboard + Mouse
Windows 7 64-bit

Any last minute thoughts please. One thing I would like to change is the mainboard, as I do not need one that has SLI or Crossfire ability. I cannot find one, or not looking well enough

 

[DUDE!@##$%%]

Thanking each and every-one for your advice.. Hele paar dinge geleer hier!!

As I final thought, below is the final spec I am settling on:

Coolermaster CM690 II Advanced Tower Chassis - No PSU
Corsair GS600 600W Power Supply Unit with 140mm Blue Led Fan
Asus ENGTX460 DirectCU/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX460 1GB GDDR5 256-bit PCI-E 2.0 ( I have settled on this as the 6870 is 1K more everywhere I look)
Samsung P2370H 23" 2ms 70000:1 Widescreen LCD Monitor
Corsair CMFSSD-128D1 Extreme Series SSD 2.5" 128GB SATA2
(Only thing bothering me here (SSD) is if this will be enough space: By default I will load Win 7, SQL 2008 R2, VS 2008 and VS2010, Open Office and some odd utilities.
Games, maybe 3)
Seagate Barracuda ST31500341AS 1.5TB SATA2 7200rpm
Samsung SH-S223C 22x SpeedPlus™ Serial ATA internal DVD Writer.
Intel i7-950 Quad Core 3.06GHz LGA1366 8MB Cache CPU
MSI X58A-GD65 LGA1366 Triple-Channel DDR3 3-Way SLI / CrossFireX
Corsair CMP6GX3M3A1600C7 Desktop 3x2GB Kit DDR3-1600 1.65v CL7
Logitech 967670 LX710 Cordless Laser Keyboard + Mouse
Windows 7 65-bit

Any last minute thoughts please. One thing I would like to change is the mainboard, as I do not need one that has SLI or Crossfire ability. I cannot find one, or not looking well enough

http://www.prophecy.co.za/club3d-cgax68724-radeon-hd6870-gddr5-256bit-pcie-p-85915.html ??
but they are expecting stock soon... but almost the same performance as a 460 so you fine there...

I always wanted that screen

I reccomend you follow this tutorial:
http://www.overclock.net/ssd/700470-tutorials-real-world-windows-7-ssd.html

which will really help you optimize windows 7 for using an SSD

another thing to consider, i was also going to buy a 1.5TB but you actually just never fill them in the end.. still got like 200GB free on mine

are you going to overclock? i can tell you now, with a quality R600 cooler you get get that i7 950 to 4GHz and feel the performance difference...

anyway thats just my 2c but other than that it looks like a nice build

 

[dirkieman]

Thanks ##%$$@DUDE... Not into the over-clocking game, never done it, and with my knowledge I will end up buying a new PC 1 day after attempting to do it

 

[flarkit]

Hi, a few last minute notes, in bold below

Thanking each and every-one for your advice.. Hele paar dinge geleer hier!!

As I final thought, below is the final spec I am settling on:

Coolermaster CM690 II Advanced Tower Chassis - No PSU

• excellent choice, meneer

Corsair GS600 600W Power Supply Unit with 140mm Blue Led Fan

• No, get the VX550W rather! The GS600 has a 3-yr warranty as opposed to the 5yr on the VX or TX ranges. These are really excellent PSU's. I ran a new AMD 965 quadcore, 890FX motherboard, 2x2Gb DDR3, 3x1Tb SATA drives, SB XFi, MSI 460GTX OC, DVDRW, 3x120mm fans on a VX450 without any issues

Asus ENGTX460 DirectCU/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX460 1GB GDDR5 256-bit PCI-E 2.0 ( I have settled on this as the 6870 is 1K more everywhere I look)

• I have an MSI 1Gb 460GTX OC myself, which is a good performer, but the 6870's are currently the best buy. They should cost about the same as the 1Gb 460's though (around R2,500). Just verify your sources

Samsung P2370H 23" 2ms 70000:1 Widescreen LCD Monitor
Corsair CMFSSD-128D1 Extreme Series SSD 2.5" 128GB SATA2
(Only thing bothering me here (SSD) is if this will be enough space: By default I will load Win 7, SQL 2008 R2, VS 2008 and VS2010, Open Office and some odd utilities.
Games, maybe 3)

• Even if each of those uses 10Gb each, you're still safe

Seagate Barracuda ST31500341AS 1.5TB SATA2 7200rpm
Samsung SH-S223C 22x SpeedPlus™ Serial ATA internal DVD Writer.

• A minor point, but I've found LG DVDRW's to be quieter and more reliable than Samsungs. Having used 3 of each brand, I gave the Samsungs away and got LG's instead

Intel i7-950 Quad Core 3.06GHz LGA1366 8MB Cache CPU
MSI X58A-GD65 LGA1366 Triple-Channel DDR3 3-Way SLI / CrossFireX
Corsair CMP6GX3M3A1600C7 Desktop 3x2GB Kit DDR3-1600 1.65v CL7
Logitech 967670 LX710 Cordless Laser Keyboard + Mouse
Windows 7 64-bit

Any last minute thoughts please. One thing I would like to change is the mainboard, as I do not need one that has SLI or Crossfire ability. I cannot find one, or not looking well enough

You'll have yourself one decent workhorse, that should keep you happy for 3years at least

 

[nelis]

Thanks ##%$$@DUDE... Not into the over-clocking game, never done it, and with my knowledge I will end up buying a new PC 1 day after attempting to do it

I have been overclocking my pc for 2 - 3 years now. My cpu is a Q9450 and it's running at 3.2 all the time so decided to go for 3.3GHz and succeeded. maybe I should try to go further. CPUs are designed to overclock.

My dad is also running a i5 660 @ 4GHz all the time and I think he can even push it further. Just search on the net and you will find tons of guides on overclocking your cpu.

 

[DUDE!@##$%%]

I have been overclocking my pc for 2 - 3 years now. My cpu is a Q9450 and it's running at 3.2 all the time so decided to go for 3.3GHz and succeeded. maybe I should try to go further. CPUs are designed to overclock.

My dad is also running a i5 660 @ 4GHz all the time and I think he can even push it further. Just search on the net and you will find tons of guides on overclocking your cpu.

yes, it really isnt that complicated, even if your not serious a nice 3.6/3.7GHz OC will be nice, its almost a waste to not oc that cpu

 

[Chevron]

Thanks ##%$$@DUDE... Not into the over-clocking game, never done it, and with my knowledge I will end up buying a new PC 1 day after attempting to do it

Here's a 6870:

http://www.take2.co.za/electronics-...rd-hd6870-1gb-256bit-gddr5-pci-e-8659925.html