Ive got the Credit Card in my Wallet it has a $3000 limit I had it for 6 months waiting to buy the right rig for the RF2. Im thinking I wont have to buy another computer for a good 5 years or so.
What you guys think?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...t=Combo.564144
I wouldn't get that deal. (but that's just me)
Be careful with package deals, they tend to have 1 bad part to cut costs, or extra crap that you don't need. On that page I cant see any mention of what operating system it comes with although it does mention 8gb of ram so it must be 64bit. Be careful you don't get stuck with win7 home 32bit. Best to get win7 pro 64.
Dominator ram is not that special. the name is attractive but ram is ram. If the latency and speed is right, it will do the job.
I don't see the point of a 1200w PSU, unless you have dual CPU's, dual graphics cards, water cooling and a hundred flashing LED's on the case, you will never use that much. 600w-800w is ample. There is a wattage calculator here you can use to see the max watts your system will use. http://www.antec.outervision.com/
You should be able to get a high performance rig built for around $1500 if you build it yourself. I also recommend Nvidia, GTX580 or 570 and Gigabyte motherboards have been very good lately.
Have you tried tigerdirect?
Check http://www.tomshardware.com for reviews on parts.
Also, don't buy a system hoping to upgrade it in the future, parts change things don't fit anymore, etc, etc, buy it for what it is now.
The only 1 really important thing to be aware of when building it yourself is the ram, a lot of people get caught out with it. You need to get ram that is in the QVL (qualified vendor list) for the motherboard that is suited to the cpu, QVL lists can be found on the manufacturers website.
The cpu, motherboard and ram all need to have been tested together and proven to work.
My advice, Don't focus on your credit card limit thinking you can spend a lot and get something good, all you will get from that mindset is a salesman ripping you off.
If you do your homework and get the right parts, they will last a lot longer and will outperform any package deal. Save your $$ for some nice dual 24in monitors (or 3)
Will do ty for the advise!
Exactly, mianiak is right... well, maybe apart the fact that having solid "base", you at some point will do some upgrades (mostly, that will be your graphics card, which gets outdated more quickly than the rest of PC parts) :P
You want 4 core CPU. If that will be Intel, having HT (Hyper Threading) is not a must-have (yeah, it helps in some applications, but not that much in games). Forget about all that overpriced "Black Edition" etc. it will be faster just slightly, but way more expensive. The fact is, that with hi end graphics card, even 3,2GHz is not enough to get the most out of it... if you really want to have the best what you can get, you will end up with overclocking your CPU.
As for the graphics card - the same rule applies. Want to have top performance? Buy two mid-segment cards and connect them in SLI (nVidia) or CrossFire (Ati). You will get much more performance than one hi-end card, but for a similar or sometimes lower price (check some performance tests on the internet).
With that, pick good motherboard. Not the cheapest one, but until you are really an OC freak, also not the most expensive. Such motherboard should have reasonable layout, allowing for SLI/CF, 8 physical (not virtual, like some mobos have) CPU phases or more, with radiators on it (more phases = they are all cooler. CPU Vcore stability is not an issue at all from a some time already). Be sure that there will be no interference between RAM sticks and some big CPU coolers. You also want pinouts for USB, FireWire and maybe eSATA connectors. On back I/O, 6 USB or more, SPDIF or at least TOSLink (digital audio output) is a welcome thing, also at least one eSATA.
You want 8GB RAM (probably as 4 sticks of 2GB modules). 4GB nowadays is not enough, especially when you really don't want to use page file on your hdd (no memory content swapping through hdd - everything sits in RAM all the time). For me, 1333MHz CL9 1,5V is enough... even for CPU OC at 4,5GHz (then I have 1285MHz mem running with lowest multiplier) but that's me ;-) So for you, I think 1600 CL9 1,5-1,6V will be good. I don't think you need anything faster.
Windows 7 64bit - yes, but I think that instead of Professional, Home Premium should be enough for your needs (of course, YMMV).
As for HDD, you can buy one small SSD for OS only (so, ~60GB is enough for that). One high capacity "green" HDD for data like movies, music etc. For gaming, you can by high capacity SSD (which are very expensive, so... ) or 7200rpm modern HDD with 500GB platters. You can even go with RAID 0 with them (so, 2x500GB instead of one 1TB, for example).
The case...it's really a matter of taste, but if your target is a midi/middle tower, then I suggest to pick some spacious one. At least 500mm deep (from front panel to back), 200mm wide and 460mm tall. A must is 120mm fan (900-1000rpm is enough and still quiet) at the back. Cable management is welcomed, as are screwless mounting for cards, drives and hdd.
Also as mianiak said, 1200W PSU is an overkill in that case. Look around for 700-800W good quality PSU, that is also a quiet one! Detachable cables is definatelly a good thing. you should get one within $200 limit. It will serve you good for a long time.
With GPU cooling, you will probably stick with stock one... but for CPU, forget about BOX solutions (but buy BOX CPU, to have longer warranty period!). Look after something like Scythe Mugen 2 rev.B, TRUE etc. If you don't want your PC to sound like a hurricane, then look for coolers that works with 120mm fan at max 1000-1200rpm (140mm fan 700-900rpm or so). For example, Mugen 2 is with fan that turns up to 1390rpm - you don't need such high rpms so you can slow it down with a cheap fan regulator (for a few bucks) to about 1000rpm and it will do the job, beeing noticably more quiet.
If you want dead silent PC, you can go one step further and buy water cooling... but that is a story for different thread (you need different case that have predefined space for WC parts).
Last edited by LesiU; 01-02-11 at 04:06 PM.
AMD CPUs are not overpriced. Black Edition CPUs are for overclockers, it has unlocked multiplier and can be easily overclocked over 4 GHz. Running all six cores at 4 GHz sounds impressive, but there isn't any games, that utilize all 6 cores. Although I've heard, that rFactor 2 will support CPUs with 4 cores or more.Originally Posted by LesiU
Myself would still chose Intel i7 though.
If on AMD platform you can't reach 4GHz on "standard" CPU because FSB is the limiting factor then you might be right (but then question is, how much you have to pay more for BE, compared to standard one?). Otherwise, I don't need higher multipliers :P
The best advice I can give you is to wait until after rFactor 2 is released and possibly the first mods start appearing. You will have a much better understanding of the requirements by that time, plus you will be able to get a faster system. Anything you buy now will be overpriced tomorrow.
Also give http://www.ibuypower.com a look. They can have some decent deals.
I would look first for the most complete Gamers Motherboard and after that look for the same board without all the extra stuff on it.
I build my own rig using only the parts that where needed to run rFactor (So today you can save a lot on a rig only for rFactor because most systems are already overkill).
The reason i say this is because i pay my own energy bill, and i don't like screaming fans in a case knowing they are only wasting energy.
heres a rig for ya!
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half the price, better performance! dont worry youll just have to put it together yourself and if you do need help just head on over to a forum. im from Maxishine.au forums so theres a start.
dont even think about raid0 unless u want to lose all your data if ONE drive fails. it is gone kaput boom pow see ya.
the ram, 6gb is sufficient. unless you photoshop big pics then 6gb is enough.
the cpu, 6cores will keep you going with games programs etc. and no bottlenecks with that graphics card. plus you can overclock it if you know how or want to later because you will have an excellent board and superb cooling.
the case, preference but that case is nice and provides good airflow.
stick to that build, its good and will last you quiet a long time. you can max out any game with it.
water cooling isnt even quieter as well. you will be adding 2 more fans plus a pump. that should be equal to or even louder than air. that cpu cooler as well up there is the best at the moment. really quiet and great cooling.
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