Experienced user please for advice on new built PC

Well...This time, I think I have to go for the new PC as my current PC is acting weird. So budget would be $1500 to $2000 or a little over is fine.

I will take the core-i7 960 bloomfield and a video card made in either 2008 or 2009 perfect video card.

 

http://forums.afterdawn.com/t.cfm/f-216/building_a_new_computer-827345/
Heres another thread with a $2K i7 920 build. If you have any questions let us know in this thread, but more importantly, its best to let us know what your plans for the rig are such as video editing or gaming as we might want to tweak thing slightly for your needs.

 

My plan is huge video editing and the best out of the gaming system...It is possible that in the future, I would connect two monitors together. create a video game or editing graphic while editing the game and playing it.

 

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=17304647

Since your interested in video editing I gave you an 860 because it out performs the 720 in almost every aspect aside from memory bandwidth(for obvious reasons, triple channel vs dual channel). Pared with a 160 GB SSD this is a great combo for high performance.

You could drop 1 of the 1 TB drives for now if you like. Thatd save about $85 but your already about $330 under max budget.

For a video rig you could easily get a much weaker card and be fine, but you sound like you want the best of both worlds so I put a 5870 in there.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5870,2422-13.html

Now I did cheap out on a mouse and keyboard, but they should be sufficient. I also cheeped out on a speaker system. There really good speakers for the price, but they cant compare to high end speakers. Personally if these three things are important, Id go cheap for now and upgrade in a few months when you have the cash.

Oh and I went cheap on a case, but I would highly recommend a better case for this build. This was just being lazy on my part.

 

Well...The question is why core-i 860 beats core-i 920...I just don't get it.

Besides, I would like to have 6 - 12gb for RAM

 

The Lynnfield cpus, have a new memory and bus interface design.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynnfield_(microprocessor)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfield_(microprocessor)

The main thing is the i7 860 and Lynnfield cpus bypass the northbridge and instead, Intel incorporated its function right into the CPU chip which achieves much better efficiency considering the chips are based on the same architecture and the 860 only achieves 2/10 of a gigahert in clock speed. 920 is 2.66 GHz while the 860 is 2.8 Ghz. Normally such a small increase in speed(For example 2 Intel Core 2 Quads built exactly the same but rated 1.44GHz difference) would mean you would achieve ever so slightly better benchmarks, but were talking 2-3 seconds if that I would guess.

As for 6-12 GB. 6GB is pushing the realm of waste of money imo. Try maxing out your 4 GB on your current system(assuming you have 4 GB), and see how hard that really is to do. I havent ever managed to. Even loading multiple instances of 3DS,Photoshop, and other memory intensive apps, and I still manage to stay under 3.75 GB. So in general I fond it hard to believe that you will really push the limits of 4 GB even under heavy use. So going up to 12 GB would be a complete waste of money.

 

That's cool. Sorry about keeping bugging you for the responses. Well...Will my PC benefit from speed boost if I use core-i 960 or 950?

Besides, is dual(two) video cards better or only one video card better that you have chosen for me. Because I would like my gaming to run real smoothly and have better graphic.

This is the advice I am gonna take for my future update or maybe I could squeeze some more from my pocket.

BTW: When the motherboard says dual channels with 4 slots, is it possible to install 4 memory sticks to make it up to 8gb. 2gb x 4?

 

Ask away.

Speed boost compared to what? The i7 920? Sure the 960 over the 950, again yes. However thats based on stock speeds. The 920 can overclock to match the stock speeds of these cpus so long as you have good cooling and know what your doing.

Generally one is better. Not every game supports 2 cards either, not to mentioning you need a mobo to support 2 cards, so thats more money as well. Depends on what games your playing ass to how the 5870 will perform for you.

Squeezing more out is up to you, but the thing is your wanting a rig for video editing and gaming. Video editing is very cpu heavy while gaming can be very gpu heavy. If you want to focus on bring the gpu up a notch you can get the 5970 for $240 more then the 5870.The 5970 is currently the fastest GPU on the market, so it doesnt get any better. Of course you could drop the SSD and swap 1 of the Caviar Green hard drive for a 1 TB Caviar Black and then have enough for the 5970 with money left over. You could also drop a TB hard drive that bring it down to about $180.

So its up to you just which one is more important, or if you want the absolute best of both worlds. I promise you wont regret the SSD.

Yes but this is also going to generate more heat in the RAM DIMM area. Not to mention like i said before your wasting money more then likley. For a gaming machine 4 GB should be plenty, just make sure you run a 64bit os. This will unlock the full 4 GB of RAM, and allow the system to better utilize the video card RAM.

 

well...When installing 4 sticks of rams, what is the benefit of it, I mean the boost? Since the motherboard supports dual channels, and if a motherboard with four slots, does it mean that the motherboard supports two dual channels? If that's the case, what if I only install one stick or three sticks? What would be the side effect by not installing two sticks if that's dual channel?

I would like to learn more about this.

also, will the core-i 860 be overclocked to 4.0ghz? I would like it to be around 3.8ghz to 4.0ghz.

 

Dual Channel is 2 sticks. While Ive never heard the term used, I suppose 4 stick would be Quad Channel. The benefit, is simply more memory for applications to utilize to use. Everything uses memory so the more things running the more memory used. Then factor in apps like Firefox, which can be quite heavy depending on your extensions used and such, Photoshop, 3Ds, and high end apps like this utilize more memory then something simple like uTorrent or CoreTemp which is going to use a few MB compared to 600 MB for firefox(in my case atm). I do video editing, and game modding as well on my rig and have no problems getting by with 4 GB.

What I suggest is getting 4GB(2x2GB) and see how that does. If it does fine, your good to go. Then if you find 4 GB simply isnt enough drop the extra cash for 4 more GB.

As for installing one stick or three, well one stick wont cause any problems. If you wanted to use 4 GB you could salp a single 4 GB stick in there and be fine but you wont have the added performance of dual channel(think of it as 2 heads are better then one). If you run 3 sticks so long as you populate the right DIMM I believe you will be fine, but again you loose dual Chanel capabilities. So this is why it ideal to run either 2 sticks or 4.

As for over clocking, keep in mind you need a good cooling system for this. The harder you push the cpu the more heat it generates. This is where a CPU cooler comes in to play, but also makes case air flow more vital as well. Will it reach 4.0? All depends. I havent really tried to OC manually but i did try the built in OC Genie on the mobo I have. I was able to push it to about 3.6 or 3.7 steady. 3.8 it started crashing if memory serves me right. So chances are, if you OC manually through the bios and dont use a gimick tool to OC, I believe you could likley reach 4.0.

Now that you bring up OCing, this bring up a concern towards your mobo. Most P55 mobos have a foxcon socket. Now these are only known to cause problems in extremely high OCs, but I think its a chance best left avoided. Sam pointed out a gigabyte mobo just a few days ago that is known to only ship with Lottes sockets so id search and find that one.

 

BTW, the clock of the CPU can be overclocked and clocked however you want it to be? But the importance is the stability and the heat problem right? Now I have learned something.

BTW, Xplore4 when you refer to the right DIMM, did you mean the memory bank, the memory path connected to the processor? How do I determine the memory bank or the memory path connected to the processor? or what the right DIMM is to use? Because the mobo and CPU do not state anything on the advertised spec.

I know Intel Platimum class is 64bits...So how do you find such information?

 

Not sure what you mean on the first part but the second part is partially hand in hand. The cooler you can get your CPU, it generally improves lifespan for one, and for two, if you have to much heat then its going to make your OC unstable. However, even with the most advanced cooling system in the world the cpu can still only be pushed so far.

I mean the slots where you install your memory sticks. Look in any mobo manual and it refers to them as dimms. As far as using the right DIMM, I was referring to the correct slot. On the P55 chipset you have to populate(insert) the stick into the inner(right) DIMM on the left set(Channel 1) of DIMMs. The second stick has to go in the right dimm of channel 2. Now on the old Core2 Series mobos, as long as you put the sticks in to the left DIMM of each channel or right of each channel your fine.

What information? If a CPU is 64 bit capable? If its a modern chip like a Core2 or Core i series, you should be fine.

 

Well...Without overclocking the CPU and even if overclocking the CPU but the speed isn't up to 3.8gb to 4.0gb, I won't be easily satisfied...The main thing I am considering is a CPU that can be overclocked to 3.8gb to 4.0gb...I know I am too creedy and so much obsessed with speed as I do programming and applications, video editing, photo editing and a bunch of other stuff...So I really need a faster PC and I think applications will heavily have an impact on the CPU.

hopefully you could help me out a bit...I am not sure how long my current PC can survive, so the sooner the better. Without the PC, nothing could be done in the long run.

 

Im not sure what more you want. I believe the 860 can reach 3.8 to 4.0. I got mine to 3.7 or 3.8 with a built in over clocking utility so doing it manually will result in better OCing so you should reach 4.0 I would guess, but even then, just go with the 860 and be done with it. You will not regret it even at stock clock speeds. I went from a Intel Core2Quad Q6600 and the difference is like day and night. If you have the budget, sure you could move up the ranks of the CPUs, but really the 860 is one of the fastest CPUs on the market, and bang for buck rating is great to:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3641
Charts are a bit out of date but pretty good comparison none the less.

 

Well...I browsed through ebay...And there is one guy, not sure if this guy should be around in this forum...He sells intel core-i chips, and he claims that intel chips, the stock speed sucks and in his statements of the advertisement of his chips, he claims his chips could max out 4.4gb to 4.6gb for extreme core-i 976.

Anyway, I might need your help with the set up of BIOS, and CMOS too and hope you could step me through.

 

Dont buy something like this off ebay. You never quite know what your getting.

As for maxing out at 4.4Ghz to 4.6GHz, thats also the extreme chip so its not of alot of relevance here unless your looking to drop $1K on a CPU when the 920 can be OCed similar to the Extreme.

CMOS is rather irrelevant. As far Bios, alot of its personnel preference. A quick google should result in some advice on what the settings do and then if something screws up, you can clear cmos.

 

Well...I have also checked some of the other motherboards for better suiting future update when needed...So I am quite interested in this mobo, and not sure which one is better...Because, although I am not planning to crossfire, but assuming I do in the future, the mobo you recommended doesn't have two Epress x 16 slots for better performance, but the info does say it supports crossfire...SO I am not sure which one is better?

 

This is my build...

1) First, tell me what you think of my build.
2) I really need a case for all these junk. A case that could have better ventilation.
3) Should I go for SAPPHIRE 100283-3L Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card X 2 or should I just go for Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106335
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824002358
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102873
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148319
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186134
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115211
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131614
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220401
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836166006
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006

or this mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128423

Assuming I will overclock.

 

i think overall you have made some good choices the crucial ssd seems pricey, but there may be a good reason for that the video card may not be pricey enough try looking in the 200 range, that seems to be a pretty sweet spot. NEC makes good monitors, last i knew. memory also looks good i was impressed with viper (nvidia green type) memory when i had some. try amazon and such for price comparison. bose makes good stuff, so does altec lansing, jbl, cambridge soundworks(i think)
and finally i think that is supposed to be an awesome power supply.

 

Nobody really help me with the case and give me feedback about my build? I hope some of you could help me out and see if each of the part I purchase is compatible with one another.