I’m not going to be running much really I don’t play many games but the few I do I want great graphics and so forth. I think to start out the SSD will do what I want I plan on getting an HDD soon after the build is done hell I might end up with one before the build is done. I might have some laying around in KS I have a 2 comps me my brother and step dad built years ago and my step dad tinkers with comps all the time and have tons of parts laying around in a safe place.
All this will be for is gaming for the most part. What I want is to be able to run say BFBC2 and Black ops on max or close to max settings.

I would like room to improve either adding SSD’s or HDD’s I would love to go with a dual vid setting in the future.

So saying that I think the MOBO and CPU I have chose will be great for what I want plus some correct?

Memory wise I can add up to 16GB on the system I selected which is a gazillion more then I need considering my 1T external will be hooked up 24/7 with a dedicated desktop.

Now we agree 750W power supply will be more than sufficient right?

Now what we don’t agree on is the video card I have selected and the Hard Drive.

The vid card I have selected is obviously the main reason I’m building this rig since I’m spending over 300 on it so please if possible send me some links to the ones you are suggesting because like I said I’m clueless and can’t find them.

Ok I think these are what yall are talking about correct?

The 6850 $199.99
<a class="postlink" href="www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a">www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102908
The 6870 $239.99
<a class="postlink" href="www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a">www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814131373

The 460 $184.99
<a class="postlink" href="www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a">www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130563
The 470 $259.99
<a class="postlink" href="www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a">www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130550

I only found 1 6870 and its by power color the nVidia are both Evga and the 6850 is sapphire. What one do you all think is generally the better for the money?

Ok I’m lost considering I posted a retty good SSD in my mind I want to buy but you say to get an HDD because its better space for the money but then you contradict yourself saying that the HDD will fill fast with games, Do you mean the SSD will fill fast with games

How about I do this.

This is the SSD I plan on getting
<a class="postlink" href="www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a">www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820227604
Ill also get an HDD and wont install it until I get the OS working on the SSD. Now Goat you said go for the F3 but now looking on Newegg they have an F4 now here are the specs that differ on the two HDD’s.

F3
interface - SATA 3.0Gb/s
Capacity - 1TB
RPM - 7200 RPM
Cache - 32MB
Average Seek Time - 8.9ms
Average Latency - 4.14ms

F4
interface - SATA 3.0Gb/s
Capacity - 2TB
RPM - 5400 RPM
Cache - 32MB
Average Seek Time - 8.9ms
Average Latency – 5.52ms

So the main difference is the capacity size, the RPM, and the Average Latency time so which HDD is better?

Or olives mentioned this.

<a class="postlink" href="www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a">www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 95005620AS

Ok. Long post incoming

SSD's will NOT affect graphics ingame. They will affect loadtimes, but not by too much, and their main use is heavy file transfers (ie a server or a heavily used workstation comp) and they will drastically increase boot time.

When I say HDD, I refer to both SSD's and traditional mechanicals drives - which is not technically correct. What I mean is, you will find that even a 120GB SSD will fill in no time if it is your only drive.

Until SSD prices drop enough to justify it, for normal users like us they are purely OS drives with maybe one game and commonly used applications.

In your case, definitely get a 500GB or 1TB mechanical, you will appreciate the space more than the speed, especially when they're so cheap atm.

In regards to your question about the Samsung, the F3 is better. You will definitely be wanting a 7.2k drive, and it is still the fastest on the market. Definitely get the F3.

In terms of SSD brand, get an Intel X-25. They are the best ones out right now, and along with the Samsung, cheap too With your hard drive, expensive doesn't always mean better. It's similar with RAM and some cases (Lian Li's K series are quite cheap, but excellent cases).

Will you be overclocking? If yes, get an 890FX chipset, they overclock better. If no, get an 890GX chipset, they're cheaper. Go Asus or Gigabyte, and ensure you have an AM3 socket, DDR31600 support (at least), USB3/SATA3 (but not ONLY those, you will want some SATA2 and USB2 ports... they are backwards compatible, but you want to be safe), and one 16x PCIe lane with the capacity to do 8x/8x in dual GPU configuration.

For the CPU, I would personally go for the 955 quad, because hexacores don't show that much of a difference when gaming, however if you are set on the hexacore, get the 1090, it's the only one worth getting IMO.

Memory wise, you will probably not need any more than 4GB if you are gaming. Get either G.Skill or Corsair and make sure it is 1600MHz with CL8, CL7 preferred. I don't understand your thing about the 1TB external, Memory (RAM) is unrelated to HDD's. Never bother with the max amount of RAM a mobo will support. You will never need this much unless it is a workstation PC or a server, and more RAM/higher frequency RAM actually makes overclocking more difficult.

750W will be plenty, but ensure you get a good one. The best out right now would be the Seasonic X-750, but it is very expensive, and I'd just go with a nice Corsair or Enermax (or cheaper Seasonic), preferably modular because it makes cable management easy. The lovely thing about the X-series is the fact that it is so efficient. You can comfortably run a computer with recommended spec of about 820W on them (Note, when determining how much power your comp will need, go by the recommendation on the GPU and add 50W, it tends to work out nicely, and if it doesn't, you've got an awful PSU or their recommendation was wrong. GPU's tend to require slightly less than the recommended spec, so by adding 50 you give yourself enough room). If you want to run dual cards in the future, make sure you check the recommendation for two cards, and get a PSU with that amount.

In terms of graphics, get the EVGA 470 you linked. It is a reference card, so it should have voltage control enabled for a nice overclock if such things grab your attention.

Mouse and keyboard are really personal preference, but I highly recommend either a Logitech Mx518 or a Razer Death Adder V2, both mice are very good quality and have more sensitivity than you'll ever need

For keyboard, I recommend the MS Sidewinder X4 or Logitech G15, again, both wonderful keyboards, I've used both of them and prefer the SW x4, but the G15 is nice too.

For monitor, I have to say that the best ones are Samsung and Dell. At this point in time an LED monitor would be preferred, and a 24" is a nice size, with res of 1920x1080 and preferably a 2ms response time (although 5ms is plenty fast enough). Make sure it can do 75Hz at least, because a 60Hz monitor can look quite blurry, and it's unpleasant to use a lot of the time.

Afterthought: The Seagate Momentus is nice, and sort of worth the money, but I think you'd really be better off with a mechanical + an SSD, rather than both. You also mentioned you would install windows then put the mechanical in? I'd be careful doing that, as major changes can corrupt your install. Now I know this doesn't apply to RAM or GPU as I've done both of those, but I've never run more than one HDD so it might be a good idea to be safe and put both in. It shouldn't be too difficult to tell which is which.

Do not format your SSD on first install, and try to avoid it as much as possible. Mechanical is no problem, but formatting an SSD can reduce the life of the NAND's and stuff up TRIM support.

Laymans terms, it'll make it die quicker.

I really hope this helps you, because it took me 20mins to type out Let me know if you have questions and I'll try to answer them. Sorry for the wall of text, too.

yup, agree with hydro.


If you need to wait till january or so, don't buy anything yet. prices always come down, new cpus and graphics cards come out etc. spend the next 2 months reading up on tech sites what's coming out, read reviews etc. if you peridodically (1-2x per week) scan through some fo the sites you get an idea what is out there and how it performs.

couple of useful sites:
anandtech.com
dailytech.com
hexus.net
pcper.com
semiaccurate.com - take it with a bit of salt, but they sometimes have some interisting news pop up.
hardocp.com - good overall info andcheck their deals forum for often killer deals, but they often sell out very quickly, once you get close to shopping, may want to check the deals section often.

tomshardware.com I like for the monthtly best cpu/gpu money can buy article - it also has a good chart at the end comparing CPUs/GPUs
I'm not into overclocking so I don't often look on those forums.

and yes, don't get the top tier stuff, get the top tier -1 or -2. that gives you close to top performance without spending top $$$.

I don’t think yall understand when I say I don’t know what you’re talking about haha.

No I do not want the i7 because the only CPU with the 1366 socket is 250 bucks when I can get an AMD equivalent for cheaper.

Now in my house my fiancée and I both have laptops and she owns her own business. She does a lot of picture taking with high res photos that’s why we have the external so she can render pictures on her laptop and save them to the external since both our laptops are on their last end.

Now if you would of looked I already have the 890GX chipset chosen. I don’t have the slightest clue about OC’ing so will I do it on this build probably not.

So now saying that here is what I have so far.

Tower
Cooler Master Storm Scout

MOBO
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO

Power Supply
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W

Memory
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3

Vid Card
EVGA 012-P3-1470-AR GeForce GTX 470

Hard Drive
OCZ Agility 2 OCZSSD3-2AGT90G
With the
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3R HE103SJ
On stand by

CD/DVD Drive
LG WH10LS30K 10X Blu-ray Burner

Now that puts me at about a grand total of $1,254.91 before taxes and S&H.

Nobody suggested i7. It's fine to say that but I put it in laymans terms as best I could, and if you don't try to understand you won't learn.

I learnt all the stuff I know about computers by spending a few weeks on an overclocking forum, and pulling apart and rebuilding comps.

It's really not difficult stuff, so read through our posts slowly and see what you can garner.

Now. That looks fine, HOWEVER, don't get the OCZ SSD. Get an Intel X-25 40GB, and get the F3 as well. Install BOTH drives before you install Windows.

Do you absolutely need a Blu-Ray drive? It's a short-lived technology, there is a higher def disc type on the way. What is the frequency (the value with MHz after it) and the Cas Latency (it'll say CLsomething) of that memory you chose?

I know you've chosen stuff, but you keep saying you don't understand, so I'm not sure if you exactly know what you are picking.

No offense is intended, but if you build your own rig it's important to know what is in it. I get so many of my friends bragging about how they built their computer, only to come running to me for help at the slightest problem because they have no idea how to fix it. It's a lot easier on you to understand it.

I’m starting to understand I had some help in picking the first setup and since then I have learned a lot more then I would of imagined. When I say I don’t understand I need links it’s because when you start saying get the so and so I don’t know what you are talking about that’s why I need links. I have started to learn Newegg and can search it with proficiency.

Do I need Blu-Ray no hell I don’t even have any Blu-Ray disks its just the one I saw I was planning on going thru and finding another but haven’t.

How about this CD/VD drive?
<a class="postlink" href="www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a">www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6827106334

Is this the SSD you mean?
<a class="postlink" href="www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a">www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820167030

On the memory the Cas Latency is 9 and the frequency I didn’t find but the timing is 9-9-9-24-2N and the speed is DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)

If you say the 955 quad is much better for the money I will take your word for it and go with it instead.

Now I changed my mind yet again and im a tad interested in OCing so ill get the 890FX mobo instead it’s not much more then the GX.

None taken, I understand I don’t know it all I’m still trying to learn haha. This build is still half the price of my lappy so I’m happy lol. sorry for being a PITA

---

So this is what we have so far.

Tower
Cooler Master Storm Scout

MOBO
ASUS Crosshair IV Formula AM3 AMD 890FX

Power Supply
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W

Memory
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3

Vid Card
EVGA 012-P3-1470-AR GeForce GTX 470

Hard Drive
Intel X25-V SSDSA2MP040G2K5 2.5" 40GB
With the
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3R HE103SJ


CD/DVD Drive
LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 24X DVD Writer

Price 1092

---

One last question the CD/DVD drive I linked says it’s a writer on my last build I had a writer and a reader but the reader could write so I’m wanting to make sure it can do both. Maybe later I will buy a really good fast reader but I don’t need it that bad lol.

So I added this all to my wish list on newegg and shocker the price is $1,065.89 that includes windows 7 pro 64 bit I will get in a combo with the memory cards. Now the CPU is not included because it must be purchased with a combo so ill see what other CPU’s I like or try to figure out this combo stuff and see if anything I have has it in a combo.

EDIT the 955 s out of stock for now at least.

Wonderful

Yes, that's the one

"Speed" = frequency. That 1333 is 1333MHz. Get some G.Skill Ripjaws, 1600MHz 8-8-8-24. Here: www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231278

Good

Complete overkill. That is an enthusiast board and you will not need it. If you want the 890FX chipset, get the Gigabyte UD5, here: www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128441

Fine. It isn't modular, so make sure you cable manage it well because it'll help temperatures. The Storm Scout has pretty good cable management - I have one so I know :P

Here are some before/after pics of my rig cable managed (yes, there are a few differences, there were upgrades in between...)

i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk185/BWLAF93/IMG_0708.jpg
i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk185/BWLAF93/IMG_0902.jpg

Read above

Lurvely :P

Good!

Yes.

Righto: "Price 1092"

What about monitor and peripherals? You need to take those into account.

---

Just companies trying to confuse you, 24x SATA Optical is plenty fast enough, and yes it'll both read and write, no need for two optical drives.