New Rig

[Cmoney]

This looks a lot better.

[Hitshade]

the antec 300 could be replaced for the 900 if you want to save 30 bucks and then you wont look like a ricer

why did you switch from amd to intel?

Im into the whole rice thing. rofl. Of course, if I did go that route I could spring for c6 ram instead of the c7.

I went with the intel chip after taking a harder look at benchmarks. I could probably shave off another $100-$150 if I went back to the AMD chip... but the idea was basically to get the best I could out of a set budget. After I changed around some of the hardware I wound up with a rig that performs better, for the same cost I was originally shooting for. (actually a little less, which was a bit of a surprise)

[Sanderz]

lolwut you picked out a micro atx board

[lawlerbation the hardcore squatter]

but the idea was basically to get the best I could out of a set budget.

would seem to me that getting a RAID setup would be the more noticeable increase in performance over a bit beefy-ier processor or even getting an ssd over the i7

[Hitshade]

lolwut you picked out a micro atx board

Yup, anyone who reviews it inevitably dips themselves in a vat of plum sauce and runs around screaming "I CAN'T BELIEVE ITS NOT ATX!"

But in all seriousness, this board has got nothing but excellent reviews. If anyone can find a full ATX board with the x58 chipset in the same price range, with the same features and stellar reviews, by all means, point it out to me. The only concern I have going with this m-ATX board is how close my video cards will be to each other.

This one seemed to get decent reviews as well, and its cheaper by about $100.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6813130226

This one is more expensive but also got a decent review.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6813130215

I guess my next step will be to compare benchmark values.

would seem to me that getting a RAID setup would be the more noticeable increase in performance over a bit beefier processor or even getting an ssd over the i7

For the same price as my original system, there was no reason to not choose the i7 cpu.

I could certainly achieve faster read/write times by going with a raid array, or amazingly fast read/write with the current gen SSDs. I have been tossing around the idea of getting a SSD, somewhere around 50-100gb just for games. Unfortunately they are still just too damn expensive.

In fact... You have made me seriously considder this. I could drop an extra $50 and get 2x500GB drives. Good call.






EDIT: That first motherboard, the X58 Pro-E actually has better benchmark scores than the m-atx board I has looking at. Means I dont have to spend any "extra" money for another HDD. Fuck this is a great way to kill time at work.

[Crazy Diana]

get this
http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/28/atis ... -reviewed/

[Sinivi]

lolwut you picked out a micro atx board

lolwut you picked out a micro atx board

Yup, anyone who reviews it inevitably dips themselves in a vat of plum sauce and runs around screaming "I CAN'T BELIEVE ITS NOT ATX!"

But in all seriousness, this board has got nothing but excellent reviews. If anyone can find a full ATX board with the x58 chipset in the same price range, with the same features and stellar reviews, by all means, point it out to me. The only concern I have going with this m-ATX board is how close my video cards will be to each other.

This one seemed to get decent reviews as well, and its cheaper by about $100.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6813130226

This one is more expensive but also got a decent review.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6813130215

I guess my next step will be to compare benchmark values.

would seem to me that getting a RAID setup would be the more noticeable increase in performance over a bit beefier processor or even getting an ssd over the i7

For the same price as my original system, there was no reason to not choose the i7 cpu.

I could certainly achieve faster read/write times by going with a raid array, or amazingly fast read/write with the current gen SSDs. I have been tossing around the idea of getting a SSD, somewhere around 50-100gb just for games. Unfortunately they are still just too damn expensive.

In fact... You have made me seriously considder this. I could drop an extra $50 and get 2x500GB drives. Good call.






EDIT: That first motherboard, the X58 Pro-E actually has better benchmark scores than the m-atx board I has looking at. Means I dont have to spend any "extra" money for another HDD. Fuck this is a great way to kill time at work.

First of all, I need to sing the praises of ASUS on the rampage II gene. I just finished building a machine for a co-worker with that board and an i7 (much like your setup) and that board is phenomenal. It's an enthusiast board, so the overclock settings are (comparitively) easy to play with, and everything sets up nicely without much tinkering. i7 is also REALLY really nice, especially if you plan to overclock (i can give you some sites if you plan to run a 24-7 setup, but if youre looking to seriously overclock you may want to look into after market heat syncs and the like if you plan to stay air cooled).

HOWEVER: I would be careful trying to crossfire on this board, I didnt see whether or not you had planned to go down to 1 video card (which isnt at all unreasonable with this setup and a 4890, with the money you save you could maybe invest in something like a velociraptor drive) because the PCIe slots are pretty close together (mini atx). I havnt tried to crossfire on this board, but if you want to try you still may be able to considering that most 4890's stay pretty cool even when overclocked, and have some form of rear port exhaust....

to be totally honest, I'm not sure how necessary it is to crossfire at al with your setup....but in the end... really up to you ;P

[Sinivi]

lolwut you picked out a micro atx board

Yup, anyone who reviews it inevitably dips themselves in a vat of plum sauce and runs around screaming "I CAN'T BELIEVE ITS NOT ATX!"

But in all seriousness, this board has got nothing but excellent reviews. If anyone can find a full ATX board with the x58 chipset in the same price range, with the same features and stellar reviews, by all means, point it out to me. The only concern I have going with this m-ATX board is how close my video cards will be to each other.

This one seemed to get decent reviews as well, and its cheaper by about $100.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6813130226

This one is more expensive but also got a decent review.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6813130215

I guess my next step will be to compare benchmark values.

would seem to me that getting a RAID setup would be the more noticeable increase in performance over a bit beefier processor or even getting an ssd over the i7

For the same price as my original system, there was no reason to not choose the i7 cpu.

I could certainly achieve faster read/write times by going with a raid array, or amazingly fast read/write with the current gen SSDs. I have been tossing around the idea of getting a SSD, somewhere around 50-100gb just for games. Unfortunately they are still just too damn expensive.

In fact... You have made me seriously considder this. I could drop an extra $50 and get 2x500GB drives. Good call.






EDIT: That first motherboard, the X58 Pro-E actually has better benchmark scores than the m-atx board I has looking at. Means I dont have to spend any "extra" money for another HDD. Fuck this is a great way to kill time at work.

OH FFS DONT GET AN SSD they are a freaking waste right now. If you need someone to back me up on this talk to Mark. Just raid 2 caviar blacks or get a raptor drive...SSD is overpriced for a minimal increase in performance you can make up by raiding superior drives....sorry for double post i just threw up in my mouth a little.

[Hitshade]

First of all, I need to sing the praises of ASUS on the rampage II gene. I just finished building a machine for a co-worker with that board and an i7 (much like your setup) and that board is phenomenal. It's an enthusiast board, so the overclock settings are (comparitively) easy to play with, and everything sets up nicely without much tinkering. i7 is also REALLY really nice, especially if you plan to overclock (i can give you some sites if you plan to run a 24-7 setup, but if youre looking to seriously overclock you may want to look into after market heat syncs and the like if you plan to stay air cooled).

HOWEVER: I would be careful trying to crossfire on this board, I didnt see whether or not you had planned to go down to 1 video card (which isnt at all unreasonable with this setup and a 4890, with the money you save you could maybe invest in something like a velociraptor drive) because the PCIe slots are pretty close together (mini atx). I havnt tried to crossfire on this board, but if you want to try you still may be able to considering that most 4890's stay pretty cool even when overclocked, and have some form of rear port exhaust....

to be totally honest, I'm not sure how necessary it is to crossfire at al with your setup....but in the end... really up to you ;P

Yeah, that was my initial reasoning for going with the GENE (the ease of overclocking), but it was the concern over Crossfire that led me to the MSI X58 Pro-E LGA 1366. ( http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6813130226 ) After comparing benchmarks the MSI board actually seems to pull ahead ever so slightly, while having a lower cost. I feel as though Ive missed something because the MSI is full ATX and $100 less expensive... but I cant figure out what. Im also considering the ASUS P6T SE ( http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6813131386 ) I would love some assistance/advice on this matter. I want to keep the motherboard cost @ or under $300.

I do plan on overclocking the i7 and Im picking up a XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V to cover the cooling needs. ( http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6835233029 ) It managed to keep the i7 (overclocked to 3.8GHz, full-load) at the same temp the stock heatsink did while at full-load (non-overclocked). http://www.pureoverclock.com/review.php?id=719&page=4

After Lawlers post I looked at running 2 drives in Raid 0... but I was shocked after looking at benchmarks. It looked like there was very little benefit to running a raid array at all. Gaming load times seemed to get the best results but it looked like some other applications actually saw a loss in performance... (??)

(I will admit though, I really know next to nothing about raid arrays so as with a lot of my choices Im at the mercy of information I find online)

The system will primarily be used for gaming so Im still open to the idea... If anyone can show me some impressive numbers, please do. But at this point, I don't think I'm going to consider a raid array after what I saw, at least with my storage requirements and the money I'm willing to spend on the HDDs.

[lawlerbation the hardcore squatter]

the increase is minimal but unless you know about some super amazing games that no one eles does its going to give you the biggest increase in performance out of anything eles you could buy for your computer..

i mean seriously you are rocking a top of the line gpu in crossfire, an i7 which you are probably going to overclock past 3.4ghz and you have 6gigs of ram .. what game cant you crush?

pretty sure load times are going to be your bottleneck for SUPERGAME ENJOYMENT