Fearless’ 2011 (AMD) Gaming Rig BUDGET $800.00 **All prices include allotted shipping, shipping insurance, and applicable taxes; less any mail in rebates/cashback already applied. ** Coolermaster Storm Scout Mid Tower $70.37 Corsair H50 CPU Watercooler $72.81 Asus M4A88TD-V EVO DDR3 USB3/SATAIII 880G $123.49 AMD Phenom II X6 1090T BLACK $219.00 Seagate 2.5” Momentus XT 4gb SDD 500GB HDD $116.00 Corsair Vengeance 2X4GB 1600mhz 8gb $130.25 XFX 650Watt XXX Modular Bronze. PSU $82.00 $813.91 [+/- ~$10.00] Peripherals: Microsoft Reclusa Keyboard $47.14 Logitech G35 7.1 Surround Sound Headphones $87.50 Reused parts from previous computer: XFX 4870 XXX OC Edition Logitec MX518 Mouse Monitor: Dell U2311h 23” IPS LCD display Build Details: All parts bought on sale to some degree. I believe that the total cost for this computer represents (arguably) the best price for building a mid-high end AMD gaming rig with premium components in Canada at this time, less the purchase of a new GPU. I chose to go with an AMD rig for 2 reasons: cheaper mobo and cheaper CPU. The savings of around $250 on this end will go towards a future GPU, which, given that I’m using the computer exclusively for gaming (and maybe some folding) seemed to be the most effective choice. Plans are to buy an Nvidia GTX570 or 580 card once their pricing becomes more reasonable. My preference would normally be ATI, however the CM Storm Scout case has insufficient room for any GPU beyond 10.5 inches, and AMD’s new 6900 series lineup exceeds 11 inches in length, which is too big to fit without modification (in before: that’s what she said). Some Action Shots: Starting the build: Mobo installed: Realizing that the 8pin power connector was located at the top... major WTF moment. Kind of a kick in the head after spending alot of time on wire management having to run a thick ass cable up the front of the mobo: Checking out the Processor: Installing H50: ^ what a bitch this was to install first time, although half of the reason for that was somewhat unclear instructions and impatience on my part. Finished: ^ I'll be putting some blackfacing cardboard over the front of the hard drive cage to conceal all the excess wiring. Not the most amazing inside of a case you'll ever see, but it'll do. I might try to redo a little bit more of the wiring once I upgrade the GPU but for now this is done. Posted (thank god): The New Battlestation: Overclocking Stock Core Temps: Overclocked to close to 3.84 ghz @ 1.43v (240x16) Average temperature @ Idle: 20 degrees C Average temperature @ Load: 39-47 degrees C Overclocked (CPUZ): Post-Build Thoughts: I suppose the only regret about building a computer is that it will effectively become obsolete within 2-3 years or so, even with using premium components. Intel is planning the release of their new Socket 2011 mobo’s and processors and AMD has its new bulldozer processor lineup right around the corner with AM3+ chipsets that are not backwards compatible. Because computer technology loosely follows Moore’s law, the idea of building a computer is a little depressing because you are sinking money into something that will only be at its peak effectiveness for a relatively short period of time. I decided to take the plunge in order to gain some experience with this type of thing and just as a personal project. I think it paid off both as a learning experience and as a way to upgrade to a higher end personal computer. If you wanted you could use a cheaper case, cheaper memory, a lower end hard drive, cheaper PSU and a 1055T processor and get very similar performance to the one I built with some overclocking for under $650. But, to be honest, if you’re going to take the time to do a project like this don’t skimp too much on the components. You might as well end up with a finished product that you will be proud of. 2011 is going to be the year of some serious game releases. My primary gaming reason for building the computer was The Witcher II (The Witcher I was epic, do yourself a favor and play it if you are at all into RPG’s/adventure games), as well as: Mass Effect 3, Dead Space 2, Elder Scrolls 5, Deus Ex, Diablo 3 (maybe haha), and Dragon Age II. Its as good a time as any to build a new rig if you’re running on old tech in my opinion, but don’t spend too much on components that are easily outdated. Honestly, investing in good peripherals is probably more worthwhile in the long term over things like processors and motherboards where chipsets can become outdated in a year. Random afterthought: ^ the largest DVI cable you'll ever see. This thing is like a fucking python. I bought it off monoprice thinking "whatever, i'll spend a couple dollars extra for a thicker cable, maybe it will be better quality" and it turns out to be huge.
Absolut Vodka. haha For my next cpu, i actually wanna try building one. But i dont think i can.. too noob ^^ But anyways, it looks pretty cool
Comparing to actual SSD such as OCZ Vertex 2 and Intel X25-M.. the performance is a huge huge difference..
True.. I would have just went with a 2TB 7.2k HDD at that price point though if it was going in a desktop -unsure and save up for the next gen Intel SSD which suppose to be much more affordable that what it is now.
looks nice except on the dual channel of DDR3s intel iSeries Gen2 boards are backward compatible with Gen1 CPUs
@ Chinen... who are you btw? you have a colored name but i don't recall you. Also, I thought I was too noob to build a computer too. If you do the research first on it and maybe watch some youtube videos. [video=youtube;HIJx6Y3tofg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIJx6Y3tofg"[/video] ^ Linus is a pretty cool guy and does some good tech tutorials. @ RTH - I was building on a budget. If you research the specs on the Seagate Momentus XT you will see that it has some read/write times surprisingly on par with full SSD's. I have a Kingston 128gb SSD in my macbook and I'd have to say that so far I notice very little real world difference between the two. I could have gone with a 64GB Sandforce SSD for $120 and then a 1TB WD Black for like $80, but I realized that price/performance was better just getting a 500gb hybrid drive and would keep me within my budget. @ kontra gfight1 @noasian what's wrong with my ram?
Some Momentus XT benchmarks just fyi if you're interested. Real world: Performance Bench: ^gets its ass kicked here, it can't even compare to actual SSD's for random r/w. doesn't matter though, the boot time is almost on par and application access times are great which was all I really wanted. I'm not putting very much on this computer in terms of data, so if it turns out I can get a 128gb SATAIII SSD in the coming year for under 80 dollars I'll format no problem and upgrade my boot drive, using the momentus as a storage drive. More likely i'll be waiting until atleast 2012 for the prices to drop that low though.
I'm Chinen . Was a normal V.I.P. before, but since i host radio now, got the colour for PA radio hosting.
For sure ssd won't drop below $100 for 120gb+ this year.. First ssd i had was a kingston ssdnow v-series.. it stutter like crazy.. and not "too" much improvement over standard drive. Bought this drive back in.. some time in 2009 for $140 Second ssd was the Intel X25-M 80g G2 which was a huge improvement over standard drives but I used it in my Macbook Pro.. It has an impress boot time and application opening. The major issue with Intel is their write speed though. Bought this back in March 2010 for $250. Third ssd was the OCZ Vertex 2 60gb which is the one in my desktop. I use it as a boot drive and an application load drive, having a 500gb internal for other storage such as music and photos. The drive is pretty fast, comparable to Intel X25-M G2. Although the cost of the 60gb was $130. Fourth ssd was Kingston SNV100 64gb, didn't get to use it yet, but had it compared to the OCZ Vertex 2, quite a huge difference. This drive cost $90, might install it on a netbook or my other desktop. OCZ Vertex 2 vs Kingston SNV100
@ RTH Those specs on the new kingston SSD are pretty nice. If I were to upgrade I would definitely go for a crucial sata III SSD though: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148357 Sequential Access - Read: 355MB/sec (SATA 6Gb/s) 265MB/sec (SATA 3Gb/s)Sequential Access - Write: 75MB/sec (SATA 6Gb/s) 75MB/sec (SATA 3Gb/s) the only place these drives fail a little is their write times, but the sata III read time is amazing.
I personally think the i5-760 would have been a better choice. Unless you do really computer intensive tasks, you'll never really make use of all those cores. The i5-760 has a better/more aggressive turbo making everyday tasks a little snappier. I thought SandyBridge was a totally different socket, LGA 1155. I'm sure that only improves performance in stuff like video encoding and synthetic benchmarks. No improvement, for everyday tasks. @Fearless - I'm a newb at overclocking, but did you just up the BCLK? With the BE you can just bump up the multiplier I think.
