800$-1200$ Build -- need motherboard/cpu/vga advice!

cloneman · Post by **cloneman** » Thu Dec 10, 2009 10:57 pm

Hello,

I'm in a situation where I've done builds before, and I've been at SPCR long enought to know about silencing.

****OBJECTIVE****
To Build a new rig that will be used every day as my main computer, and kept in the room where I sleep 4-5 meters away.
Some gaming will happen. I'm not hardcore, but I'm really tired to turning settings to low, I'd like to have a powerful rig for once.

AREAS WHERE I NEED THE MOST HELP IN orange

Annoyances: Any type of coil whine & Lack of Speedfan support.
[/b] FANS THAT DON'T RAMP DOWN AFTER THE LOAD IS GONE.

Case: P183, or something more compact?
PSU: Thinking of getting the 650W Seasonic that is semi-fanless on low loads.

CPU: I'm thinking about i5, don't know which model. Naturally I want bang for buck here. There isn't much benefit to getting some really sick CPU, but I'd like something fairly powerful since I'm investing in a strong system overall. The priority is low idle power,

MOTHERBOARD Here's where I have no idea what I'm getting into. I don't need SLI or CF, and I'm not really planning on overclocking. Intel AMT seems like an awesome feature, but I'm NOT gonna buy an intel chipset board just for that I don't think. Since I want to use RAID0, I need a motherboard that can handle that well. Is that technology that uses onboard video when not gaming any good? I forget if its ati or nvidia that has that

Videocard: Again the priority is idle power. I really like the idea of the 5870 using only 27 watts on idle. But I think this card might be a bit too expensive, expecially since I'm thinking most my gaming might get done at 1600x900ish resolution, and not 1080p.
The idea is for the card to be a real sleeper on idle, load noise/power doesn't really matter much. So, I'm thinking maybe something in between a GTX260 216 and a radeon 5870, anything there thats low idle power. I might just end up getting a used gtx260 if I decide I want to be cheap. The card must be silent at stock or have awesome third party coolers available for silent idle experience.

Hard Drive Hard drive will be Solid state, whatever 300$ Can buy me. (I was thinking OCZ vertex 30gbx2 RAID-0

RAM: I don't really plan on overclocking...

Monitor(not included in price): I like glossy monitors. I like 22 inches. I don't think I like 1080p, I like 1600x900ish. I don't need some crazy accurate color reproduction or anyway, just something pleasant, crisp, and decent.

protellect · Post by **protellect** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 12:53 pm

1. There is only one model of i5 that you can currently buy, the i5-750 2.66ghz. I'd consider upgrading to the i7-860 if you do any video encoding at all, ever. It's very nice.

2. P183 is fine, quiet. Fans are mediocre at best.

3. PSU: Totally overkill. Corsair 550VX would be fine, especially since you
stated you're never going to do xfire. Less power supply would be fine, too if you go for less video card. I like the 520HX, the 450HX, and the 400HX, all corsair models. Corsair models are generally less expensive than seasonic, as well.

4. 5870 is a huge card for "some gaming". 5770 or less would suffice, save you money, etc. I'd try and get a model with a blower cooler. 4670 would be sufficient, and has 3-5w idle. Wouldn't be enough for a bigger monitor though.

5. Disk? I'd go a single intel 80GB ssd over 2 30GB in raid0. I don't think you will notice the difference, speed wise. A single SSD is already leaps and bounds over a spinning HD. RAID-0 is neat and fun, but if one of your drives craps out, enjoy your reformat.

Here is a tip: onboard raid usually has 6 ports connected to a single PCI-E 1X connector [2.5gbps], so you won't ever surpass that speed without buying a 4x/8x dedicated raid card.

6. I'd spend more on the monitor. Get a nice dell ultrasharp 24", or if you rather glossy, that hanns-g 28" at newegg is 300$. It is the piece you look at the most, ya, and once you ahve a 24" or bigger, you quickly learn to love the real-estate. I've already got a 24", and I want a 30" now.

7. If you're concerned about noise, you haven't even talked about the CPU cooler or case fans. CPU Heatsink? I have a coolermaster HX one which i'm happy with, but its rather inexpensive. Noctua and Scythe with zalman fan controllers are my recommendation.

8. Motherboard? I can highly recommend the ASUS P55D pro.

Post by **MikeC** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 1:07 pm

protellect wrote:3. PSU: Totally overkill. Corsair 550VX would be fine, especially since you stated you're never going to do xfire. Less power supply would be fine, too if you go for less video card. I like the 520HX, the 450HX, and the 400HX, all corsair models. Corsair models are generally less expensive than seasonic, as well.

The 550VX is not quiet. Corsair went to Channel Well for some of its PSUs, and while the overall quality is fine, the noise is definitely nowhere near as low as the Seasonic-built models. 550VX, 750VX both are poor acoustically.

Post by **CA_Steve** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 3:09 pm

I recently did a build recommendation for someone based on the i5 and gaming. Here's the newegg link for the parts list. Doesn't have a HDD or ODD on it. You might want the next level of the gigabyte mobo. You might look at the HD5770...no passives available, yet..

cloneman · Post by **cloneman** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 3:17 pm

Thanks for the recs.

I have a 24" dell ultrasharp, and I think it's too big. I don't like turning my neck. I just sold it it to someone.

5870 might be big for 'some gaming' but thr 27W idle is nice, and I'm planning on playing games on high.

I want 60fps on all games... @ 1600 res

Post by **CA_Steve** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 9:05 pm

cloneman wrote:Thanks for the recs.

I have a 24" dell ultrasharp, and I think it's too big. I don't like turning my neck. I just sold it it to someone.

Heh, I have two dell g2410's side by side and I love it.

There are some great gaming review sites out there (like PCgameshardware.comthat will show the performance of the games you play in various cpu/gpu configs vs screen resolution. There's something to be said for having more power than you need, but it seems like the difference between a gfx you need today vs a high end card you might need tomorrow is going from $150 to $400. I've always been a fan of buying the $150 today...and then 2-3 years down the road when I need more oomph, buy the next $150 card. For example, I game at 1900x1080, and I'm waiting for a decent passive/quiet HD5770 to ship to replace my 8800GTS 320.

That being said, I think an i5 is a good fit.

danimal · Post by **danimal** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 5:38 pm

cloneman wrote: I have a 24" dell ultrasharp, and I think it's too big. I don't like turning my neck. I just sold it it to someone.