Building new comp - help me figure out parts

[Humodour]

I'm going with:

 

AMD Phenom II 965 (about $250 AUD) - highest end AMD CPU, 3.4 Ghz quad core with 8mb cache total between lvl 2 and 3, the comparative Intel product is $750 plus I've always preferred AMD, especially given Intel's somewhat dubious business practices against competitors.

nVidia GTX 985 (about $500 AUD) - second highest nVidia, $200 cheaper than highest end product

AM3 Socket Gigabyte mother board with DDR3 ($100 to $200 I guess) - what to look for in a motherboard?

A case

CPU fan

Power supply

Hard drive (7200 RPM with 32mb cache preferably) - I don't care what the HD size is. Smaller is probably better. I use externals for anything important. HD will mostly contain game installs. Don't think you can really get smaller than 200gb or so these days anyway.

RAM (3 or 4 GB max)

 

Can anybody think of anything else I will need, as well as expand on specific products to buy for fan, PSU, RAM, etc?

 

I'm looking do build this comp for under $1200 AUD - should be doable given the CPU and GPU I've chosen.

 

I'll be ordering via this website I think, for reference: http://www.tigersdirect.com.au/

Edited February 21, 2010 by Krezack

[Humanoid]

GTX285? It's pretty poor value at the moment though I understand some people are avoiding AMD GPUs. It's been reported that nVidia are holding a press release about GF100 this coming week so you might want to listen to what they've got to announce. To drop a little personal op-ed here though, I'd say nVidia's recent business practices are as dubious if not moreso then Intel's (handling of mobile bump-gate, PhysX lockout, Batman AA, constant rebadging).

 

Also given the tiny difference between the 965 and 955 (200MHz and nothing else) and how trivial they are to overclock I'd go with the 955BE - since after all the only real reason to go for a BE is for overclocking. RAM for AMD is dual-channel only so 4GB. Motherboard you're probably looking at a 790X unless you plan to do crazy things like run 3 video cards.

[Spider]

What's the purpse of the computer? Best bang for the buck gaming computer? Or more high end?

 

Anyway, the processor you've chosen performs about the same as the Intel Core i5, which has a similar price, so no the comparative intel product is not three times pricier. I think the edge goes to the i5, but it's insignificant enough that whatever is cheaper is the better deal.

 

As for the graphics card, I don't recognize that number. Do you mean 285? At a similar price point (550 at the site you linked) you can get ATIs 5870, a card that crushes the 285 in virtually every test and comes close to the gtx 295 in some. Or you can get the 5850 which has a performance similar to the 285 but costs under 400.

 

My understanding is that the best price/performance computer you can build currently is an i5/5850-system and that's what I'd be going for if I was to build a new computer today. But the i5 and Phenom II are fairly interchangeable. Going Nvidia for graphics though, will lead to paying more for less, virtually at all price points.

 

As for case and cpu-fan. What are your priorities? Will you be overclocking or do you want low noise levels?

 

I think the best solution for performance and low noise is the Corsair Hydro H50, but there is a Noctua CPU-cooler that seems to have better performance. I'd go with the H50, but I value silence a lot.

 

As for case, the site you linked is a bit limited. I'm thinking about getting a new case currently myself, but they didn't have any of the models I'm considering. Those would be Fractal Design R2 (definitely the best performance/price case right now, costs less than half compared to other performance models and isn't far behind), Corsair Obsidian and Silverstone Fortress 2. I would go with the latter (because I like Silverstone and it has great performance) but I don't know how compatible it is with a Hydro H50 I'm also considering getting.

 

PSU and ram I don't know much about. Just that basically any known brand will do in regards to both. Corsair, Kingston, AData, OZC for ram. If you're going for a single gpu solution, then you'll be fine with any psu at around 600 or so. Brobably in a SLI/Crossfire setup as well.

 

Now, harddrive is where it gets interesting. Since it'll only be used for applications, having a faster drive could mean a lot for performance. If you can fit it in your budget, I'd look at an SSD. But they're not cheap. The intel and OZC brands are the best and I'd recommend the 80GB version Intel has, which should be enough for OS, a few apps and 3-4 games (or more depending on the games). but if you like keeping lots of game installed, it will fill up 8since games like mass Effect take a bit over 10 GB on the disk).

 

another option would be to look at the Velociraptor. The 300GB version also has pretty good performance, although not as good as an SSD of course. But neither the 300GB velociraptor or any of the brands of SSD I mentioned are available on that site. The 150 GB velociraptor is, but I'm not sure it performs as well as the 300GB version (it well could though).

 

Or you could go for a regular HD. I'd go with the Smasung Spinpoint F3 1TB in that case, because the larger drives have better performance as well. Not sure if there difference between that and the 500GB is that large, but neither is the price.

[Humodour]

Thanks to both of you. Yes I meant GTX 285. One of the reasons I chose nVidia is because they have better Linux driver support than ATI. I will have to consider the ATI's I guess, though. I am definitely sticking with the AMD Phenom II (not sure which model - price difference seem negligible and I don't overlclock, but the 3.0 ghz model seems to use less power which could be tempting)

 

I am willing to buy an SSD. I just didn't think that the HD would be as large a bottleneck as you suggest, Spider. I would be looking for a 128 or 256gb SSD. 80gb could work I guess.

 

And yes, this is most definitely a gaming PC. I want to buy it to last 3 to 4 years for once, so I'm going high-end this time.

 

For the case I guess I want a smaller form factor.

 

To clarify: I will be dual-booting between Ubuntu Linux and XP. Linux for coding and some gaming (for example I buy all my indie games as Linux versions), XP for any gaming that doesn't work on Linux.

Edited February 21, 2010 by Krezack

[Humanoid]

SSDs are awesome but WinXP does a terrible job of supporting them - general use degrades SSD performance until it does some self-rearranging - typically for modern drives this is implemented using TRIM which is Win7 only I believe. For Indilinx-based SSDs there's also a utility called wiper.exe when using them under older versions of Windows which is roughly equivalent to an SSD "defragger," but being a manual process it becomes a bit of a chore. (Incidentally, don't use standard HDD defrag on SSD, it's just causing wear without gaining anything.

[Spider]

I have yet to get an SSD, but I've been told the difference in everyday use is enormous. In gaming, the result is shorter loadtimes, but after that you won't see much. So my suggestion would be to get a smaller SSD and use it for OS and apps, then a bigger normal drive for games.

 

The problem with SSDs is that you really pay for each GB. Getting a larger disk will not net you a lower price per GB, the 160GB SSD intel has is twice the price of the 80 gb (which in turn is twice the price of the 40 GB, but at least here there is an increase in performance as well). Personally I am considering the Intel X25-M G2 80GB, which seems to suit my needs. Then I'll get rid of my raptor and all the noise it brings.

 

I wasn't aware of the terrible XP-support though.

 

As for graphics cards, nVidia are supposedly making some sort of announcement tomorrow. Whether it's in regards to their new line of cards or not remains speculation, but if they do announce their new line then, it's possible cards will be available within a month or so, then you might get a good nVidia that could compete with ATI in price and performance. But it also depends on how patient you are, since availability in the first month or so is likely to be scarce. But tomorrow should bring some answers hopefully.

[Humanoid]

Intel are charging extortionate prices in Australia so we either import them or go for cheaper Indilinx drives really.

 

The nature of SSDs is that unlike HDDs the larger the drive the more operations can be performed simultaneously. 160GB SSD will perform significantly better than 80GB and so forth which is especially noticeable on writes. There's no real dropoff where gaining capacity does not give a performance boost. That said, even 64GB SSDs crush spindle drives on reads by so much hardly anyone would be quibbling about it - though I'd be a bit dubious about the general utility of 32-40GB models (typically marketed as boot drives now).

 

 

Aside, best value SSD over in Australia for the time being will be the G.Skill Falcon II at about $250AUD for 64GB or ~$440AUD for 128GB.

 

 

P.S. I've heard Raptors are actually very quiet drives in themselves, just that the 3.5" bolt-on chassis causes all manner of vibrations and associated problems. Used as a 2.5" and suitably mounted (ideally suspended) it'd probably beat out some 7200rpm drives for quietness.

[I want teh kotor 3]

I wouldn't get the AMD, and wait until next week to get your GPU, because nVidia apparently has some big news coming. I personally have a 285, and it runs everything perfectly. SSDs are, at this point, net very cost-effective. Get a Caviar Black instead- very fast, and reasonably priced. As for the case, Corsair is apparently releasing a smaller version of the 700D- that should meet your requirements.

[Spider]

P.S. I've heard Raptors are actually very quiet drives in themselves, just that the 3.5" bolt-on chassis causes all manner of vibrations and associated problems. Used as a 2.5" and suitably mounted (ideally suspended) it'd probably beat out some 7200rpm drives for quietness.

 

You're thinking about the velociraptor. That one is very quiet. When I was complaining about noise, I meant my old 36 gb raptor. That one is only available as a 3.5 drive and when it's working it's lojs as hell. When idling it's not so bad though, but when working drowns out everything except my CPU fan under load.

[Walsingham]

You've only mentioned the mundane components. For a really effective build I suggest you make teh case out of the wooden legs of old sailors, and have a liquid cooling system containing orphans tears.