Announcement

**Blocks** · 01-02-2010, 05:11 PM

My reaction is that you should go with the i5. There's only one i5, the i5-750, and in the US it's ~$20 more than the E8400. For a little more money, you get a quad-core, L3 cache, and a socket with more upgrade potential. You'll have to change your motherboard if you go with an i5.

Note that the top-of-the-line AMD processors roughly align with the i5 in performance, for a cheaper build overall, so that's an option as well.

For the money, it seems like you should be able to get memory with better timings than that, but I'm no European. That hard drive has a lot of storage space, but will be relatively slow as a boot drive.

**Bioture** · 01-02-2010, 05:28 PM

i7 920s go for $200... probably the best deal and the best scalability (if you add a new heatsink.)

**Jason** · 01-03-2010, 08:09 PM

definitely go with the i5. as blocks stated, it's a newer socket which gives you greater longetivity as far as an upgrade path. and the i5 will outperform a c2d for sure, especially as we progress more and more toward multi-threaded applications.

the i5 is a great overclocker, too. slap an aftermarket cooler on it and you'll easily hit the 3.5 - 3.8GHz range.

my recommendation:

core i5-750
cooler master hyper 212+ heatsink (if you're going to overclock get this, if not the stock cooler will suffice)
probably an asus or gigabyte mobo
4gb g.skill pc1600 ddr3 ram (good timings)
xfx radeon hd 5770 (i saw you were already going with the 5770, so go with xfx as they are the only manufacturer which offers a lifetime warranty)

as for the mobo, do some research on socket lga1156 based mobos and see what you like. each company offers several different options with varying features. i personally like gigabyte. i'm using a p55-ud4p in my current build. there's a p55a series now which offers usb 3.0 and 6Gbps sata support. not sure if you need things like that or not.

blocks is correct about that hard drive, too. it's fine for storage, but as a boot drive, it'll be slow. you're better off with a single platter hdd. the seagate 7200.12 series, in the 500gb size would be a good bet. or there's the samsung spinpoint f3 series, also in a 500gb size.

**Guest** · 01-04-2010, 05:42 AM

here is my setup (i just built this a couple days ago, so its brand new)

Processor: Intel Core i7-920 CPU
Motherboard: ASRock X58 Extreme
Hard drive: Hitachi 1 TB @ 7200 RPM, 32 MB Cache
Graphics Card: ATI HD 5770
Memory: OCZ 6 GB ( 3 x 2 GB ) DDR3 1600 ( PC12800 ) RAM
DVD-RW: 24x LITE-ON
Case: Antec 300 Illusion
Power: Corsair TX750W 750 Watt
Monitor: 24" Samsung LCD/HDTV (1920x1200 - 16:10)

why did i do this?

1) to brag.
2) to tell you that this forum will do no where near as much good for you compared to the help you will get at tomshardware.com ..i strongly recommend going there to ask questions about new builds and individual components. enjoy.

**Jason** · 01-04-2010, 12:35 PM

if we're going to recommend other forums to check out, be sure to stop by www.hardforum.com

the general hardware section is full of incredibly helpful people who will basically put together a build for you.

**Galleleo** · 01-04-2010, 12:39 PM

So that was to brag Trance? I am not impressed, looks like a piece of shit computer to me.

**Xog** · 01-04-2010, 01:19 PM

[QUOTE=Galleleo;746363]So that was to brag Trance? I am not impressed, looks like a piece of shit computer to me.[/QUOTE]

I agree. Very crappy and slow computer.

**Guest** · 01-04-2010, 05:14 PM

Originally posted by Xog View Post

I agree. Very crappy and slow computer.

true, i wish i had that crappy laptop of yours instead

**Jason** · 01-04-2010, 08:43 PM

who the hell would even bother with an i7-920 these days?

i guess trance was just too cheap to go for a dual xeon system, eh?

i mean you can get two xeon w5990's for only $1,689.99 a piece, and then a dual socket 1366 mobo is only going to run you $589.99. throw in 48gb of ram, that's four 12gb kits (3 x 4gb). each kit is $439.99.

so let's see:

xeon w5990 (x2) = $3379.98
dual socket mobo = $589.99
four ram kits = $1759.96

that brings us to a total of: $5729.84

i'll let you use your imagination as to just how much more the price will balloon once we start talking triple sli/crossfire and storage (ssd's of course) and power supply and an enclosure.

i mean, c'mon, who doesn't own a system like this? i have three.

trance is just a cheap bastard.

**duel pasta** · 01-04-2010, 10:46 PM

Well, I have gotten good suggestions here so I don't see why I should go to another forum

I have changed my build and I will go for a gigabyte mobo and the i5 processor, I will definately look at the memory also and one more question

if I would go for another HD like you guys tell me, will that only change the time it takes for my computer to start up or does it have other benefits as well?

**Jason** · 01-04-2010, 10:54 PM

when one says "boot drive" one is referring to the hard drive upon which your operating system and all your applications are installed. a faster boot drive means that not only will your machine boot faster, but programs will launch faster. the large 1tb and 2tb drives out on the market today are not well suited for use as a boot drive. they are intended for storage.

your best bet is to get a smaller/denser (and therefore faster) boot drive and then additionally get a larger drive for storage. the two best single platter drives (these are 500gb in size) as far as price/performance are the seagate and samsung i've already mentioned.

and one last option, if you have the money, is to use an ssd (solid state disk) rather than a traditional mechanical hard drive as your boot drive. ssd's are much much faster than any mechanical hdd ever will be, but they come at quite a price premium. an 80gb ssd will run you in the neighborhood of $300 USD.

**Louis XV** · 01-05-2010, 12:25 AM

Originally posted by Jason View Post

and one last option, if you have the money, is to use an ssd (solid state disk) rather than a traditional mechanical hard drive as your boot drive. ssd's are much much faster than any mechanical hdd ever will be, but they come at quite a price premium. an 80gb ssd will run you in the neighborhood of $300 USD.

You forgot to mention reliability. No moving parts means it'll take a beating and last much longer than a mechanical HD, which is extremely useful for laptops as HDs are currently their least reliable parts. :greedy:

**Jason** · 01-05-2010, 02:11 AM

wasn't thinking reliability/durability since he'd be sticking the ssd in a desktop, but they do last, especially the intel g2's with trim support. wish i had mega bucks and could grab the 160 gig. hands down would be the best upgrade i could possibly do.

i'm trying to wait out a price drop, though. my patience will probably fail me.

**Guest** · 01-05-2010, 03:26 AM

Originally posted by Jason View Post

who the hell would even bother with an i7-920 these days?

i guess trance was just too cheap to go for a dual xeon system, eh?

i mean you can get two xeon w5990's for only $1,689.99 a piece, and then a dual socket 1366 mobo is only going to run you $589.99. throw in 48gb of ram, that's four 12gb kits (3 x 4gb). each kit is $439.99.

so let's see:

xeon w5990 (x2) = $3379.98
dual socket mobo = $589.99
four ram kits = $1759.96

that brings us to a total of: $5729.84

i'll let you use your imagination as to just how much more the price will balloon once we start talking triple sli/crossfire and storage (ssd's of course) and power supply and an enclosure.

i mean, c'mon, who doesn't own a system like this? i have three.

trance is just a cheap bastard.

lol :P

Originally posted by Jason View Post

when one says "boot drive" one is referring to the hard drive upon which your operating system and all your applications are installed. a faster boot drive means that not only will your machine boot faster, but programs will launch faster. the large 1tb and 2tb drives out on the market today are not well suited for use as a boot drive. they are intended for storage.

your best bet is to get a smaller/denser (and therefore faster) boot drive and then additionally get a larger drive for storage. the two best single platter drives (these are 500gb in size) as far as price/performance are the seagate and samsung i've already mentioned.

and one last option, if you have the money, is to use an ssd (solid state disk) rather than a traditional mechanical hard drive as your boot drive. ssd's are much much faster than any mechanical hdd ever will be, but they come at quite a price premium. an 80gb ssd will run you in the neighborhood of $300 USD.

Originally posted by Jason View Post

when one says "boot drive" one is referring to the hard drive upon which your operating system and all your applications are installed. a faster boot drive means that not only will your machine boot faster, but programs will launch faster. the large 1tb and 2tb drives out on the market today are not well suited for use as a boot drive. they are intended for storage.

your best bet is to get a smaller/denser (and therefore faster) boot drive and then additionally get a larger drive for storage. the two best single platter drives (these are 500gb in size) as far as price/performance are the seagate and samsung i've already mentioned.

and one last option, if you have the money, is to use an ssd (solid state disk) rather than a traditional mechanical hard drive as your boot drive. ssd's are much much faster than any mechanical hdd ever will be, but they come at quite a price premium. an 80gb ssd will run you in the neighborhood of $300 USD.

well...im only using my pc for subspace, design software (adobe creative suite 4), music/movies here and there...i dont really play any other games..so that being said--running off of a single 1tb harddrive for me hasnt been an issue..and judging by his purpose for this computer i think he'd be okay too..im not some "pro" though :P

Announcement

New system (i5 or E8400)

New system (i5 or E8400)

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Channels