• Please review my PC build
    38 replies, posted
Hello. Through the help of a friend I've assembled this list of components for my new PC. My budget was around 1,200€ but my dad has agreed for me to step up to 1,350 (I'll probably put in some of my money). Here's the list [img]http://gabrielecirulli.com/p/20110925-232527.png[/img] You can also browse it on Google Docs [url]https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlFxzfIaBkuDdGdEM2cwYmlhVV9yUDFCZEh3Yk9DZFE&hl=en_US[/url] Please tell me what you think. I'm buying from an Italian site because, since I live in Italy, that'll make it cost less for me to get the things delivered.
I pretty much have the same specs and I'm very happy about it. I would recomend it, but I'm not that tech wise, so maybe wait 'till one of the smarter facepunchers comments.
What's it for? You're wasting money on the RAM, Motherboard, and possibly CPU - if you don't do rendering stuff.
My main activities on the PC are, in order of importance, programming, video editing (using sony Vegas), very heavy graphical stuff (photoshop usually becomes slower than a bitch on my current), some 3d graphics and gaming. Is it fit for me? [editline]26th September 2011[/editline] Should I get the AMD card or the corresponding nVidia card?
Nvidia has CUDA and better OpenGL, which video editing could benefit from (and photoshop too i think). [editline]26th September 2011[/editline] Get a GTX570 instead of a 6970 (Benchmarks and personal experience show the 570 blows the 6970 away) Also get something like a Asus P8Z68-V Pro. It's half the price of that Maximus board and does the same.
[QUOTE=Goz3rr;32486315]It's half the price of that Maximus board and does the same.[/QUOTE]Exactly the same for half the price? Where's the catch?
[QUOTE=TerabyteS_;32486388]Exactly the same for half the price? Where's the catch?[/QUOTE] Asus ROG boards are like alienware, you pay double for what can be done for half the price. I think the only difference is 10 USB 3.0 ports on the Maximus vs 4 (You will never need more anyways) Maximus has 16x 16x PCIe lanes, the other has 8x 8x and that has about 0.1% impact on performance.
[QUOTE=TerabyteS_;32486388]Exactly the same for half the price? Where's the catch?[/QUOTE] it's not purty colurs
[QUOTE=Goz3rr;32486315]Nvidia has CUDA and better OpenGL, which video editing could benefit from (and photoshop too i think). [editline]26th September 2011[/editline] Get a GTX570 instead of a 6970 (Benchmarks and personal experience show the 570 blows the 6970 away) Also get something like a Asus P8Z68-V Pro. It's half the price of that Maximus board and does the same.[/QUOTE]Ok, I've switched to that motherboard, total price went down to € 1191.92. I'm having problems about the graphics card. I'd like to switch to the nVidia GTX 570 but I don't know which brand I should get, e.g., asus. Ideas? [editline]26th September 2011[/editline] Also benchmarks don't seem to talk too well about the 570 in comparison with the 6970 [img]http://tpucdn.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6970/images/crysis_1920_1200.gif[/img] [img]http://tpucdn.com/reviews/ASUS/Radeon_HD_6950_CrossFire/images/crysis_1920_1200.gif[/img] [img]http://tpucdn.com/reviews/ATI/Radeon_HD_6850_CrossFire/images/crysis_1920_1200.gif[/img]
Myself i have the MSI 570GTX Twin Frozr III, and for some reason my fps in benchmarks are always different from the ones showing, and higher than the ones of a 6970
I see. I can choose between Asus, Gainward, Gigabyte, Palit and Zotac. Which one should I get? Also, another friend suggested that I get a 1TB WD Caviar Black instead of the Samsung Spinpoint F3. What do you think? I'd switch to that since it doesn't cost that much more than the Spinpoint F3 but only if there's a gain in performance. [del]He also suggested that get an AcBel PSU instead of the coolermaster one. Should I listen to him? In the case that it is better, which AcBel PSU should I get?[/del] It seems that this PSU is not available on the website I'm buying from, so I'll have to get the Cooler Master one.
The Palit one seems good [url]http://www.guru3d.com/article/palit-geforce-gtx-570-sonic-platinum-review/7[/url] low temps/noise from the cooler and its the cheapest one
[QUOTE=Bladerunner1;32489005]The Palit one seems good [url]http://www.guru3d.com/article/palit-geforce-gtx-570-sonic-platinum-review/7[/url] low temps/noise from the cooler and its the cheapest one[/QUOTE]I think I'd value performance potential more than temperatures and noises, to be honest. Don't any of those come as overclocked?
Spinpoint F3 is probably the best harddrive you can get. Also the Twin Frozr III cards come with a factory overclock (And is the best cooler too IMHO). I don't know about others.
Okay, I'll keep the F3. What about the GPU?
Any help?
Like i said, i really like the MSI 570GTX Twin Frozr III. Its really quiet, runs cool (Like 34 deg C at idle (Aero and chrome running), max 58 deg C during full load. Room temps where 20 ish) and i've been able to max any game out i could find. (bfbc2, black ops, just cause 2, source, crysis 2, Deus Ex:HR, Dirt 3, Fallout new vegas, GTA IV, Trackmania 2 and Minecraft (at 500 fps :v:)
This is the final thing. Total price: € 1.212,52. [img]http://gabrielecirulli.com/p/20110927-184811.png[/img] Any last-minute changes?
Don't get an overclocked card, wasted money unless it's the same price as a standard one, the case/blu-ray is just personal preference I guess. Also you should get 2x8gb sticks rather than 4x4gb, from what I can recall having more than two-three actually slows it down, I could be wrong on that one though. Oh, and if you're video editing/rendering get two harddrives atleast.
[QUOTE=David Tennant;32506565]Don't get an overclocked card, wasted money unless it's the same price as a standard one[/quote] Why? Is that because it can be overclocked later? Anyway, it costs just ~20€ more, is that so bad? [QUOTE]Also you should get 2x8gb sticks rather than 4x4gb, from what I can recall having more than two-three actually slows it down, I could be wrong on that one though.[/QUOTE]Currently that's 2x4gb for a grand total of 8GB. Is 8GB enough for "extreme" stuff or should I get 16? I think I have enough money for 16. [quote]Oh, and if you're video editing/rendering get two harddrives atleast.[/QUOTE]I've already got an external one where I store all of my stuff (work, documents, downloads). Did you mean something like moving everything to one of the internals and keeping the externals for backup only, or something else?
Yes you can overclock the card yourself by just downloading MSI afterburner (works with any card) and clicking a few times, 8gb is enough, I thought that was a 2x4gb kit going by the price. And I said get two harddrives for video editing/rendering as you can take advantage of both by having the vanilla files on one drive and rendering to the other.
[QUOTE=David Tennant;32507083]Yes you can overclock the card yourself by just downloading MSI afterburner (works with any card) and clicking a few times[/quote]Won't that hurt it since its fans are not powerful enough? The overclocked one appeared to have 3 fans. [quote]And I said get two harddrives for video editing/rendering as you can take advantage of both by having the vanilla files on one drive and rendering to the other.[/QUOTE]Does that make it faster because reading and writing on different drives takes less time? Anyway I do video editing just occasionally, it's not really a main activity. Should I still get the two drive for the other reason I posted above?
I assume by three fans it's the gigabyte one? Try get a twin frozr.
Yeah, the three fans one is the GigaByte one: [img]http://www.e-key.it/images/products/big/EK00019294_1.jpg[/img] I think the three fans are the reason why it costs those 20€ more, and the're there because the overclock makes the card hotter. The website doesn't offer cards branded twin frozr, sadly. What should I do?
If they offer a limited amount just get the cheapest that isn't reference, pretty much all 'brands' are decent these days.
[QUOTE=David Tennant;32508970]If they offer a limited amount just get the cheapest that isn't reference, pretty much all 'brands' are decent these days.[/QUOTE]What do you mean by "isn't reference"? [editline]27th September 2011[/editline] Anyway the asus seems to be gone now. So I only have these alternative, sorted by price. [img]http://gabrielecirulli.com/p/20110927-221620.png[/img] Which one do you think I should pick?
Go for the cheap gainward, has good cooling and isn't overclocked, then overclock it yourself. And reference refers to the reference cooler on the first 570's, they use squirrel blowers like most reference coolers and they aren't great.
By cheap gainward you mean the one that costs 264€, right?
Yes
get [url]http://www.e-key.it/prod-ram-ddr3-corsair-cmx4gx3m1a1333c9-1600mhz-4gb-cl9-20188.htm[/url] the vengeance overpriced crap will block some HSF, and you could get 16GB of this for only $30 more if you wanted.
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