Looking for opinions on this machine I may build

[Animus]

I am working on designing a gaming comp that is good quality for the price and upgradeible to last me 5ish years.

My current system is an HP Pavilian core 2 duo e6300, I bought it shortly before windows Vista launched and it is still lasting me pretty well for most games I play. My goal is to build a comp that will last me as well as this one if it's possible and I would value any opinions from the people here.

What I have tentatively decided on so far costs about $1,500 when I buy all the parts form new egg.

Intel core 17 2600k processor

GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD7-B3 LGA 1155 motherboard

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 RAM

EVGA 015-P3-1480-AR GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) 1536MB Graphics card

XION AXP Lan-Party Edition AXP-1000R14HE 1000W powersupply

XCLIO A380COLOR Fully Black 1.0 mm SECC / ABS Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case


HITACHI Deskstar H3IK30003272SW (0S0320 3TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5 HDD

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070&cm_re=i7_2600k-_-19-115-070-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128480&Tpk=GIGABYTE%20G A-P67A-UD7-B3%20LGA%201155%20Intel%20P67
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233144&cm_re=CORSAIR_Ve ngeance_8GB_%282_x_4GB%29-_-20-233-144-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130552&Tpk=EVGA%20015-P3-1480-AR%20GeForce%20GTX%20480%20%28Fermi%29
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817190021&Tpk=XION%20AXP%2 0Lan-Party%20Edition%20AXP-1000R14HE
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811103033&Tpk=XCLIO%20A380 COLOR%20Fully%20Black
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145472&cm_re=HITACHI_De skstar_H3IK30003272SW-_-22-145-472-_-Product


I figured to keep it viable later I can upgrade with: more ram, second video card to sli, SSD.

My main concerns are

Will the powersupply be enough to run this even after I do some upgradeing?
Does ATI's Crossfire work better the NVidia's SLI?
Will there be enough cooler with the stock processor and case fans?
Are all the componants compadible?
and Will this system stand up to games 5 years from now?



Any input anyone has would be greatly appriciated, I haven't really looked at computer products in a long time.

[David (PassMark)]

I would reduce the size of the power supply to ~600W.
Then in 2 years, rather than going to SLI, just buy the latest video card available at the time. Then it might last 5 years, just. Will also reduce heat (and thus noise) and save on running costs.

[wonderwrench]

If the XION PSU is any good, cant find any reviews it should easily run your new build if you add a second GTX 480. I use PSU's built by Seasonic or CWT only. Corsair brand mainly. GTX 480's are getting old though they are still some of the fastest cards. The biggest drawbacks are they suck huge amounts of power and create tons of heat. IMO look at other cards even if they are slightly slower or cost more. A GTX 570 or HD 6870 would be good choices. The GTX 570 will perform slightly better in most games but the HD 6870 will draw less power and produce less heat. A Corsair AX 850 or Seasonic X 850 should be all the PSU you will ever need even if you go 2x SLI or 2x CF. I'm no fan of upgrading to SLI or CF from a single card as a newer single card will be faster in most cases. If you never go SLI or CF a 650-750 watt PSU would be all you should ever need. A good 600 watt would even do it.

As far as hard drives go if you are going to use a 3TB drive as a boot drive you will need to make sure the mother board you get uses an EFI bios. I would rather have two or three smaller drives because they tend to be more reliable and much easier to back up.

The stock Intel heat sink should be enough to cool the 2600k at stock speeds or moderate overclocks to say 4 Ghz. The case your looking at should have decent cooling I would guess. The side fan may be a problem if you want to use a large aftermarket CPU cooler?

[Animus]

The reason I chose that perticule rmotherboard was with the intention of eventually doing SLI, since it can handle 2 @ X16 mode and by the time I need to upgrade graphics cards a second one of the same would be 100-200 ish, making it a bigger upgrade for the money. Is it still the opinion that a single good card would beat out 2 lower end sli'ed cards, for performance and money?

If that is the case do you have a motherboard recomendation that would be better for me since i wouldn't need the double x16 slots? Possibly this one? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-729-_-Product


And thanks for your prompt responses so far.

[David (PassMark)]

I am not a great fan of SLI. But that is just my opinion. With SLI you get more cost, heat, noise, power usage, double the change of hardware failure, and a lot more software compatibility issues. So you need to be a pretty hard core gamer to justify it.

[wonderwrench]

The reason I chose that perticule rmotherboard was with the intention of eventually doing SLI, since it can handle 2 @ X16 mode and by the time I need to upgrade graphics cards a second one of the same would be 100-200 ish, making it a bigger upgrade for the money. Is it still the opinion that a single good card would beat out 2 lower end sli'ed cards, for performance and money?

If that is the case do you have a motherboard recomendation that would be better for me since i wouldn't need the double x16 slots? Possibly this one? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-729-_-Product


And thanks for your prompt responses so far.

The only Intel chipset that trully supports PCI-E 16x when using two cards is the X58. The board you are looking at uses a PCI-E bridge chip to work around the problem. Sandy bridge only has enough PCI-E lanes to do 8x when using two cards The bridge chip is a poor work around. Its better than running at 8x but not true 16x. The downsides to X58 are no native SATA III. The Marvell SATA III addon most boards use is a POS. And Sandy bridge CPU's are faster clock for clock than CPU's that run on the X58 platform. So at this point in time you cant have the best of everything. Intel will be releasing the replacement for X58 that will fix this problem later in the year if I remember correctly. If your not going to use SLI or CF this is a moot point. Which board to choose? Board layout and brand support are high on my list. I'll do some digging as I have been out of the loop.

Bill

[wonderwrench]

The Z68 boards are now shipping. They still have the PCI-E limitations but the Z68 boards now allow using the built in GPU in Sandy Bridge CPU's to be used for trans coding video. Some boards also support video out. All support overclocking of the CPU/GPU. Previous to the Z68 you had to choose H67 if you wanted to use the GPU built in to Sandy Bridge and sacrifice overclocking or get a P67 and loose the use of the Sandy Bridge GPU. The trans coding power of the GPU in Sandy bridge is stellar. If you do any video work the Z68 is for you. If not P67 boards will do the job. Available Z68 boards here. P67 here.

Bill

[Animus]

Thanks again for the responses, I have good reason to not do SLI or CF, I think I got enough info to make a final part selection.

[Animus]

I came back for more advice. I was about ready to buy the parts and build the comp but had some car issues, which set my computer plans back a bit.

I adjusted my plans a little bit with the advice I got from you all, here's what I got so far now.

Definate:
core i7 2600k
ocz agility 3 120gb hd
geforce gtx 570
same xclio atx case
either 1, 8gb stick of ddr3 1600 or 2, 4gb sticks

Need advice:
motherboard - Not doing SLI, want to make sure it has at least 1 pci-e x16 for graphics, and sata 3 6gb/s for the SSD and to add a future 1TB+ storage drive. I'll also be using onboard sound.

powersupply - I guess 600w will be good but I know little about what plugs I'll need for my chosen componants.

Do I need to do anything special with the ssd for installation? I haven't really dealt with comp hardware since 2006ish.

Going to get windows 7, for gaming is there any reason to get profesional over home?

As far as the deffinate parts is there anything new comeing out this year that will drop the price of those enough to warrent waiting a little? Or just a strong reason to get somethign else instead?

I already have speaker, keyboard, mouse, monitor, is there any parts I am missing?


As always I appriciate your knowledge and opinions. Thanks.

[David (PassMark)]

Might need a DVD or Blu-ray drive.
Pretty much any 600w power supply will have the right plugs for current motherboards.
The only problem with SSDs is that sometimes the screw holes don't line up with the case holes, depending on the case and if the drive comes with a mounting bracket. But they are so light you can use a cable tie to hold them in place if need be.

For Windows versions see,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ndows_versions

[Animus]

DVD drive I was just going to use the one form my old comp, but apaprently the 2600k processor comes with a free 22x dvd burner at newegg right now.

It's good to know that I shouldn't have to worry too much about power supply plugs, they all list so many kinds of connecters I thought it might be an issue.

About the mother board though, do I need one with UEFI for a 3TB drive as storage or only if I use a large drive like that for booting?

[David (PassMark)]

If using a 3TB drive with 1 partition, then you need to format the drive with GUID partition table (GPT) instead of the old MBR format.

The MBR format only allows drives to be 2.1GB in size.

Win7 64bit supports GPT disks. But to boot from the drive you also need EFI instead of BIOS.

[wonderwrench]

I came back for more advice. I was about ready to buy the parts and build the comp but had some car issues, which set my computer plans back a bit.

I adjusted my plans a little bit with the advice I got from you all, here's what I got so far now.

Definate:
core i7 2600k
ocz agility 3 120gb hd
geforce gtx 570
same xclio atx case
either 1, 8gb stick of ddr3 1600 or 2, 4gb sticks

Need advice:
motherboard - Not doing SLI, want to make sure it has at least 1 pci-e x16 for graphics, and sata 3 6gb/s for the SSD and to add a future 1TB+ storage drive. I'll also be using onboard sound.

powersupply - I guess 600w will be good but I know little about what plugs I'll need for my chosen componants.

Do I need to do anything special with the ssd for installation? I haven't really dealt with comp hardware since 2006ish.

Going to get windows 7, for gaming is there any reason to get profesional over home?

As far as the deffinate parts is there anything new comeing out this year that will drop the price of those enough to warrent waiting a little? Or just a strong reason to get somethign else instead?

I already have speaker, keyboard, mouse, monitor, is there any parts I am missing?


As always I appriciate your knowledge and opinions. Thanks.

You will need to install memory modules in pairs to see the full potential of the dual channel memory controller in the i7 2600k cpu. So if you want 8 gigs of ram get two 4 gig modules preferably in a dual channel kit.

The new SATA III drives that use the Sandforce controller are giving many people trouble, me included. Freezing, BSOD, drive not detected by the bios etc. All SATA III OCZ drives are using the Sandforce controller. If it were me I'd get an Intel SSD even though they are slightly slower. Intel's SSD's just plain work. I can't see using an SSD as your only drive do to their small size. At a minimum you will need a 80 gig SSD for the OS and small programs and a 1 TB magnetic drive for large programs and data. Partition the magnetic drive into two partitions. Use the first partition for large programs and the second for data/backups etc.

BTW what PSU are you getting?

Bill