My Computer Plan

• Halfslashed wrote on 2010-07-05 15:51
  So, I'm going to build a computer with OVERKILL hardware for what I really need. Yeah, I know, the mouse, keyboard, speakers, and monitor ALL SUCK, but I just need a working mouse and speaker, so refrain from comments on that. Also, I don't watch too many movies.. so yeah, small monitor and no blu-ray drive.
  
  Anyways, feel free to comment on it. I already know that stuff I'm getting is too much for what I need it for, but that's the whole point :D
  
  Use the search bar on newegg.com for all the full specifications.
  
  Decided against SSD since a fast hard drive will suffice for now.
  
  

  
  Computer Plan/Cost
  All from newegg.com
  
  Motherboard: "ECS BLACK SERIES A790GXM-AD3 AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard" - 119.99
  Processor: "AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban" - 305.99
  Memory (x4): "G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9S-4GBRL" - 107.99 (431.96)
  Video Card: "SAPPHIRE 100290SR Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT)" - 527.86
  Sound Card: "ASUS Xonar DX" - 97.67
  CD Drive: "Sony Optiarc Black" - 26.98
  Case: "AZZA Solano 1000R Black" - 139.98
  Case Fan: "StarTech FAN5X15TX3 50mm Case Fan" - 10.88
  Hard Drive: "SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ" - 74.99
  HDD Fan: "Nexus FRIZZBEE Inaudible HDD Cooler" - 19.98
  CPU Fan: "Thermaltake Slim X3 CLP0534 92mm CPU Cooler" - 27.98
  CPU Thermal Gel: "Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM" - 99.99
  Power Supply: "Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W Continuous Power ATX12V Ver.2.2" - 101.98
  Keyboard: "Rosewill RK-7310 Black" - 19.98
  Mouse: "Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical - Black" - 20.98
  Monitor: "Hanns·G HH193DPB Black 19'' 5ms LCD Monitor 250 cd/m2 X-Contrast 15,000:1 (1000:1) Built-in Speakers" - 159.99
  Speakers: "Logitech S-220 17 Watts 2.1 Multimedia Speaker System" - 28.99
  Operating System: "Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM" - 179.99
  
  Grand Total: $2,277.16 USD
  
  ///Specifications///
  Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit OS
  16GB DDR3 1333 RAM
  Hex Core Processor at 3.2GHz per core
  ATI Radeon HD 5870 Chipset
  2GB Dedicated Video Memory
  1TB Hard Drive Disk space
  7200 RPM Hard Drive Disk Speed
  116 dB SNR
  Standard CD/DVD Drive
  ATX Full Tower Case
  92MM CPU Fan
  60MM HDD Fan
  50MM Case Fan
  650W Power Supply
  1280 x 1024 recommended resolution
  

• sakraycore wrote on 2010-07-05 17:23
  overkill computer is not really that overkill.
  
  go for i7-930 (or even i5-750), sapphire toxic 5850, 4GB DDR3 (1600MHz)
• Osayidan wrote on 2010-07-05 23:05
  Your skimping out on the hard drive. So many people do. WD sucks too, their drives always die.
  
  What you wanna do is have a solid state disk (SSD) for your operating system. This will boot windows ridiculously fast. There's some pretty affordable ones now too, get a low capacity (30GB or less if they still make them), single layer.
  
  If you can afford it, use another SSD for applications, or go RAID 0 with 2 good quality disks. If one disk fails in RAID 0 though anything on them is lost. You can format and reuse the good drive, so it isn't a total loss. Also be sure to use a hardware RAID controller, not software.
  
  If you really want to go nuts, RAID 0 some solid states. Be sure to use SATA 3, not sure 2 has enough bandwidth.
  
  Then make sure your board has USB 3.0, and get a USB 3.0 stick of at least 4 GB, and set your page file on it. I would say to use a partition on the OS solid state for this, but page file creates a ton of writes which will wear out the solid state.
  
  All that is for performance, of OS and apps. Actual data like work, photos, movies and all that should be kept on their own dedicated storage. Build yourself a NAS/file server and map some shared folders on a gigabit network.
  
  If you wanna go overkill do it for real.
• Cucurbita wrote on 2010-07-05 23:06
  Keyboard waste of money.
  
  Standard ones these days get more or less the same amount of performance from the gaming ones.
• Shirayuki wrote on 2010-07-05 23:13
  You need a gaming mouse more than a gaming keyboard anyway...
  
  And you might need a better power source thinger. I don't think 650W is enough for ALL that...
• Cucurbita wrote on 2010-07-05 23:15
  If you really think you're not getting proper performance out of a standard dell keyboard (which shouldn't happen, but whatever), you can always overclock it for faster input reads (by like what, that noticeable 0.06 second delay to 0.04?)
• Taycat wrote on 2010-07-06 06:20
  I seriously can't see where his RAM count is at, but let's say it says 4GB?
  
  What OS are you gonna use?
  
  32 bit or 64 bit?
  
  Vista or Windows 7?
• Shirayuki wrote on 2010-07-06 06:23

  Quote from Xiyamae;83382:

  I seriously can't see where his RAM count is at, but let's say it says 4GB?
  
  What OS are you gonna use?
  
  32 bit or 64 bit?
  
  Vista or Windows 7?

  
  
  In his post it said 4x 4GB and 64-Bit W7 owo
• Taycat wrote on 2010-07-06 06:27

  Quote from Shirayuki;83385:

  In his post it said 4x 4GB and 64-Bit W7 owo

  
  
  I couldn't tell through all that jargon.
• Halfslashed wrote on 2010-07-07 23:20
  Ah good, a handful of useful replies :D. Somehow, I knew I was missing stuff... 3 opinions aren't enough.
  
  

  Quote from sakraycore;82810:

  overkill computer is not really that overkill.
  
  go for i7-930 (or even i5-750), sapphire toxic 5850, 4GB DDR3 (1600MHz)

  
  
  Okay, all of your recommendations would be a downgrade. The Phenom II hexcore is more efficient than the i7 due to more physical cores. It's base processing speed is lower, but it can be overclocked for more. The graphics card you recommended is just a downgrade, the card up there is slightly more advanced and it's the same brand. And come on, 4GB!? Dude, there is 16GB ram up there.
  
  

  Quote from Osayidan;83060:

  Your skimping out on the hard drive. So many people do. WD sucks too, their drives always die.
  
  What you wanna do is have a solid state disk (SSD) for your operating system. This will boot windows ridiculously fast. There's some pretty affordable ones now too, get a low capacity (30GB or less if they still make them), single layer.
  
  If you can afford it, use another SSD for applications, or go RAID 0 with 2 good quality disks. If one disk fails in RAID 0 though anything on them is lost. You can format and reuse the good drive, so it isn't a total loss. Also be sure to use a hardware RAID controller, not software.
  
  If you really want to go nuts, RAID 0 some solid states. Be sure to use SATA 3, not sure 2 has enough bandwidth.
  
  Then make sure your board has USB 3.0, and get a USB 3.0 stick of at least 4 GB, and set your page file on it. I would say to use a partition on the OS solid state for this, but page file creates a ton of writes which will wear out the solid state.
  
  All that is for performance, of OS and apps. Actual data like work, photos, movies and all that should be kept on their own dedicated storage. Build yourself a NAS/file server and map some shared folders on a gigabit network.
  
  If you wanna go overkill do it for real.

  
  
  Wow! That's REALLY useful advice right there.
  
  How's this for an SSD? - Newegg.com - Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
  
  Also, for a hard drive, I just need some decent storage space, but the SSD idea is good. I absolutely hate slow startup/shutdown.
  
  By the way, the three people that gave me advice on this said it was overkill for what I was going to use it for, but that was mainly the point.
  
  

  Quote from Margatroid;83062:

  Keyboard waste of money.
  
  Standard ones these days get more or less the same amount of performance from the gaming ones.

  
  
  I'll take your word for it.
  
  

  Quote from Shirayuki:

  
  You need a gaming mouse more than a gaming keyboard anyway...
  
  And you might need a better power source thinger. I don't think 650W is enough for ALL that...
  

  
  
  Can you explain to me why a gaming mouse would be a good investment?
  
  Also, I checked through it, and 650W is enough.
  
  That's all the replies for now.
• Infamy wrote on 2010-07-08 01:03
  Areas to improve: storage, audio, display, and keyboard/mouse.
  If it's in your price range, SSD's are the best. Osay's covered that.
  
  I'm assuming you were planning to work off your motherboard's onboard audio? Sound can make a big difference in games and even general use. I think something along the lines of SENNHEISER PC350 with a ASUS Xonar DX should be proportional to the rest of your budgeting. The specific products are just suggestions.
  
  Nowadays, overkill with a 5870 kinda implies Eyefinity =P Dual monitors is the standard. In fact, if you drop $150 from the processor budget and put it into another screen you'll still be getting tons more productivity.
  
  A "gaming keyboard" doesn't really serve any purpose unless it has special key designs, such as butterfly keys. Of course, the usefulness of such things are all preference. Media keys and programmable keys just tend to get in the way. I have a lightweight wireless keyboard/mouse set for when I want to sit back and watch/read. It's adequate for the light typing I do at home. For action games I use a Belkin N52 with a logitech MX518 (ya it's old...).
  
  A good mouse should be comfortable, first of all. Definitely find one that you can try in your hand before buying, even if it's just by visiting a Best Buy. Secondly, mouse buttons. There's no way I can go back to gaming on a 3-button mouse now. Thumb buttons are great for things like melee attack, push to talk, or special equipment. Other useful features include side scrolling, fast scrolling for long documents, and on-the-fly dpi switch.
  
  Other useful things you seem to have overlooked and loose reccomendations:
  Webcam (Microsoft Lifecam Cinema 720p)
  Mousing surface (I have 2, one smooth for normal use, RTS, and MMOs, and a rough one for shooters)
  Case fans (ventilation is important)
  Extra storage (more HDDs, RAID, or NAS)
  Blu-Ray drive? (you DID say overkill...)
  More screens...
• sakraycore wrote on 2010-07-08 02:11

  Okay, all of your recommendations would be a downgrade. The Phenom II hexcore is more efficient than the i7 due to more physical cores. It's base processing speed is lower, but it can be overclocked for more. The graphics card you recommended is just a downgrade, the card up there is slightly more advanced and it's the same brand. And come on, 4GB!? Dude, there is 16GB ram up there.

  
  
  Not really, all of them are upgrades. the i7 will be faster in games, especially with overclocking ram, that's why you get 6G of 1600MHz ram. sorry meant 6G and not 4G. the toxic version of 5850 is nice since it gives nice temps and good overclockability, but you can also get MSI Lightning 5870, that one is pretty nice I heard. There's a large difference between Toxic and Vanilla Sapphire for sure.
  
  I don't see why you can't get at least 7.7 WEI (Windows Experience Index) if you're spending that much.
  http://weishare.net/
  
  As for SSDs, consider the Vertex 2 for sure.
• Taycat wrote on 2010-07-08 07:06
  Also, let me tell you a gaming mouse is built better than a normal mouse. So it can take excessive clicking better and a keyboard is just there.
  
  Nobody uses it and they're stupid cheap nowadays.
• Halfslashed wrote on 2010-07-08 16:24

  Quote from Infamy;85119:

  Areas to improve: storage, audio, display, and keyboard/mouse.
  If it's in your price range, SSD's are the best. Osay's covered that.
  
  I'm assuming you were planning to work off your motherboard's onboard audio? Sound can make a big difference in games and even general use. I think something along the lines of SENNHEISER PC350 with a ASUS Xonar DX should be proportional to the rest of your budgeting. The specific products are just suggestions.
  
  Nowadays, overkill with a 5870 kinda implies Eyefinity =P Dual monitors is the standard. In fact, if you drop $150 from the processor budget and put it into another screen you'll still be getting tons more productivity.
  
  A "gaming keyboard" doesn't really serve any purpose unless it has special key designs, such as butterfly keys. Of course, the usefulness of such things are all preference. Media keys and programmable keys just tend to get in the way. I have a lightweight wireless keyboard/mouse set for when I want to sit back and watch/read. It's adequate for the light typing I do at home. For action games I use a Belkin N52 with a logitech MX518 (ya it's old...).
  
  A good mouse should be comfortable, first of all. Definitely find one that you can try in your hand before buying, even if it's just by visiting a Best Buy. Secondly, mouse buttons. There's no way I can go back to gaming on a 3-button mouse now. Thumb buttons are great for things like melee attack, push to talk, or special equipment. Other useful features include side scrolling, fast scrolling for long documents, and on-the-fly dpi switch.
  
  Other useful things you seem to have overlooked and loose reccomendations:
  Webcam (Microsoft Lifecam Cinema 720p)
  Mousing surface (I have 2, one smooth for normal use, RTS, and MMOs, and a rough one for shooters)
  Case fans (ventilation is important)
  Extra storage (more HDDs, RAID, or NAS)
  Blu-Ray drive? (you DID say overkill...)
  More screens...

  
  
  Okay, so as for the sound card and the headset, I honestly hate having headsets on from experience. I was also told that the on board sound card is already pretty good. Also, I prefer speakers, then I can wake up the neighbors xD. Also, you suggested a second monitor? I was told that you can only do one type of thing on both monitors. If i used a second monitor, it'd be for playing mabi and l4d, mabi and browsing, or l4d and browsing.
  
  Woo, saved me about 80 USD with that keyboard suggestion, thanks!
  
  Hmm, I think i'll remove the mouse from the plan after seeing that. Best buy ftw?
  
  And as for your extra recommendations
  
  Webcam - I don't do video chat.
  Mouse Surface - I have a custom one here at home.
  Case Fans - Will add to my plan.
  Extra Storage - 1TB is more than i'll ever use, lol.
  Blu-Ray Drive - Not a movie person, will never use it.
  More screens - No, just no.
  
  

  Quote from sakraycore;85176:

  Not really, all of them are upgrades. the i7 will be faster in games, especially with overclocking ram, that's why you get 6G of 1600MHz ram. sorry meant 6G and not 4G. the toxic version of 5850 is nice since it gives nice temps and good overclockability, but you can also get MSI Lightning 5870, that one is pretty nice I heard. There's a large difference between Toxic and Vanilla Sapphire for sure.
  
  I don't see why you can't get at least 7.7 WEI (Windows Experience Index) if you're spending that much.
  WEI Share
  
  As for SSDs, consider the Vertex 2 for sure.

  
  
  i7 - So, you're saying you want me to go from 6 physical cores to 4 physical cores and 4 virtual cores? Not likely. Remember, I don't just play mabi all day, I do some video editing and other projects that require alot of processing power.
  
  RAM - You're telling me 6GB ram is better than 16GB ram? Not likely man.
  
  5850 - 5870 > 5850.
  
  SSD's - That i'll consider.
• sakraycore wrote on 2010-07-08 16:27
  Well if this build is not for gaming, then disregard my advice. What i said only holds true for gaming purposes.