Building a Rig, Opinions Appreciated

[Sant]

So yeah, after a few years of "Oh, I'm gonna build a new comp soon," I'm finally getting around to it. I realize that going Phenom II this close to Bulldozer is a bit foolish, but I'm sick of waiting, and I wouldn't have gone Generation 1 of bulldozer anyways.

 

 

Case - Xigmatek Elysium (was originally going to do Antec 1200, but I really love the Elysium).

 

Powersupply - Antec High Current Pro HCP-1200

 

Motherboard - ASUS Crosshair V, AM3+

 

Processor - AMD Phenom II 1100T Black Edition

 

GPU - Asus 6970 DCII 2GB

 

RAM - Corsair DOMINATOR 16GB, DDR3 1333

 

Memory

1. Crucial C300 128GB SSD (Windows 7, 64bit Ultimate because as a grad student, can get it for $7).

2. Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB, 7200RPM (x2 - One for music and media, one for games).

3. Hitachi Deskstar 1.5TB 7200 RPM (Running Ubuntu on it, in addition to a couple of computational chemistry programs that I'll need).

 

Optical Drives

1. Sony Black Blu-ray Burner SATA BWU-500S

2. Asus 24X DVD Burner

 

Sound Card - Asus Xonar Essence STX

 

Cooling

1. Antec Kuhler H2O 620 (CPU)

2. Noctua 120mm (x2) and Noctual 140mm (x2) for case and airflow

 

Monitor - Asus VH238H 23" LED/LCD (may add more later, Eyefinity6 pretty sweet and all).

 

Keyboard and Mouse - Logitech G510 and G5

 

Headset - Going to go Sennheiser HD558 and a clip-on Zalman mic.

 

 

 

I'm set on most of these pieces (AMD processor instead of Intel, mainly due to price/performance ratio and the fact that computational chemistry programs tend to run better on AMD processors (something to do with how the integers are handled, but IDK)). I'm welcome to any opinions one way or the other, however. Really, I know I could get a better performance/price deal in one of the already assembled bundle kits, but building this guy is one of those "selected every piece cause I want it" situations. I don't want to settle, I want to build a system that I want/design. Also, with being a student and all, can get a lot of software suits for pennies on the dollar, so am planning to pick up quite a few things. Thanks for reading.

Edited July 7, 2011 by Travisty

[ZeroDamage]

I honestly think going Phenom II at this point is a waste of money. You would be better off spending a little bit more and going with the latest generation Intel i5 or take a look at the new stuff now being released by AMD. The reviews I've seen for the new AMD APUs (CPU and video card on the same chip) put the same priced system in line with the Intel product. The prices are really good ($135 for the CPU and another $135 for the mobo) and if you get a similar videocard to what is built into the APU, you will get crossfire performance by only buying the single video card. I've only seen the one review at Legitreviews.com so far but it is looking promising.

 

http://promotions.newegg.com/AMD/11-1834/index.html?cm_sp=Cat_CPUs-Processors-_-AMD/11-1834-_-http%3a%2f%2fpromotions.newegg.com%2fAMD%2f11-1834%2f696x288.jpg

[lousiest]

I'm so out of touch with what's on the market these days

[Preacher]

I agree with ZD i5 or i7 is the way to go, anything less is almost silly to upgrade. I'm completely unfamiliar with AMD's new stuff so I'll give no opinion on that but some of the socket 775 chips were better than the Phenom II series and that is 3 generations ago (4 if you include i3). Honestly if you have maxed out your cash there I suggest dropping back on the video card to a 6950 and going with i5 sandybridge series instead. You will get much better performance overall that way.

[ZeroDamage]

This is Anandtech's review of AMD's new APU based platform. I would wait until they release something more powerful with this platform before buying unless you were going to build an HTPC.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4476/amd-a83850-review/1

[Sant]

Well, I wanted to get the Phenom II b/c comp program like GAMESS (edited for typo) optimize multithreading abilities to where cores matter, not speed or threading. It sounds crazy, and when my boss explained it it sounded crazy, but there you have it. I'll write more about it when I figure it out.

Edited July 8, 2011 by Travisty

[onyxdragoon]

I doubt you need a PSU like that.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010

Save quite a bit, 80 Plus SIlver, 750W and Modular.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151087

Same thing but 80 Plus Gold

[Clueless]

New AMD A series CPU's are out, dunno much about them, just that Newegg sent me a flyer on them, might be worth looking into.

[ZeroDamage]

The new AMD stuff is basically the same CPU's now but with a video card integrated. I am sure they will get better. Price wise towards Intel though they are as good or better.

[bushwack]

Well, I wanted to get the Phenom II b/c comp program like GAMESS (edited for typo) optimize multithreading abilities to where cores matter, not speed or threading. It sounds crazy, and when my boss explained it it sounded crazy, but there you have it. I'll write more about it when I figure it out.

 

Craaaazy maaann. I recently upgraded from a 2 core intel E5200 @ 3.9 to a i5 2500K and gaming fps are identical while just pushing a single GTX 460. I even overclocked the i5 to 4.0 and still no better fps. Seems the 2 extra cores I have now are just sitting idle, sucking on a soda. I'd hate to think I had a 6 core CPU with 4 cores lounging around while I was gaming. But now, if all you do is decode video all day, I'd have to say go with the hex core over the quad, Handbrake will thank you.

 

Are there any games out that can actually use more then 2 cores? Any up coming games? I'd say go with a cheap i3 for now and take the extra cashola and dump it in your video card where it matters more (or SLI mobo). And when games actually start using more then 2 blasted cores upgrade to the proper CPU type then.

Edited July 9, 2011 by bushwack