Well, for the first time, they actually have an architecture that can scale to the various niches. The idea has been around since Pentium D.
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Well, for the first time, they actually have an architecture that can scale to the various niches. The idea has been around since Pentium D.
I think they do more feature crippling than actual power scaling. The i3 is a monster for mundane tasks, but both it and the i5 lack hyper-threading on the desktop. The i5 also has a better GPU.
So a friend of mine has given me a $5,000 budget to build him a PC. Here is what I'm thinking:
Case and Cooling:
NZXT Phantom Full Tower, Red - $159.99
3 x Cooler Master 200mm Red LED Fan (two top, one side) - $59.97
Noctua NF-P14 FLX 140mm Fan (front) - $19.99
Corsair Hydro H80 CPU cooler - $99.99
2 x Noctua NF-S12B FLX 120mm Fan (for the H80) - $39.98
Core Components:
Intel Core i7-3930K Processor, 3.20GHz w/ 12MB Cache - $629.99
Gigabyte GA-X79-UD5 - $349.99
Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3 1600MHz CL9 - $99.99
2 x eVGA GeForce GTX 580 3GB - $1,199.98
Corsair Professional Series HX1050 Modular Power Supply - $219.99
Drives:
Crucial M4 2.5in SATA III Solid State Drive, 256GB - $399.99
2 x Seagate 2TB Barracuda Green SATA III w/ 64MB Cache - $379.98
Samsung 12x Internal Blu-Ray Combo, SATA, Black - $89.99
Other Stuff:
Windows 7 Pro - $149.99
Samsung S24A450UW 24in Widescreen LED LCD, Black w/ HAS, USB - $349.99
Sub-Total: $4,249.80
GST: $212.49
Total: $4,462.29
He would still need a keyboard, mouse, and speakers (he wants surround sound ones) after this and inside the budget.
In addition, he was the one that picked out the case from a few suggestions I made. The Phantom is really nice as long as you maximize its cooling potential, hence all the fans.
We're still debating what he wants to do for graphics cards. It's going to be dual GTX 580's or a single GTX 590. If he goes the GTX 590 route he wants to add a second one later (which is the only reason to get a 590 over two 580's). I told him that two 580's are insanely good and will easily last for 6 years worth of games at 1920x1200 and that GTX 590's are already getting hard to find on the market. I also mentioned the fact that two GTX 590's = quad SLI which doesn't have the greatest driver support yet. I think he's leaning towards the GTX 580's now because he kinda wants to water cool them in the future and maybe add a third to the system.
Suggestions?
Shit for that amount of money you might as well liquid cool it.
Note how the cost of those components kind negates that fact right now. Can't water cool it now. Doing a custom water-loop for the CPU and two GPU's will run you at least another $1,000.
He should recycle a HDD and use that rather than blowing $800+ on HDDs that would be half the price usually. He should wait until HDD prices come back down. Who knows. SSD prices will probably drop by then, too.
EDIT: Okay, maybe the SSD he can get, just to have something nice and fast, with a bit of space on it. However, the Hard Drives he should wait for. With 256GB, I think that's enough to last 5 months easy if you don't download too much stuff.
I'm not sure if he has one to recycle, but that's a good idea. I'll remind him that he can do that. Thanks for reminding me.
you know, you might also throw a little card reader in there. i added one to my build for 15 bucks and im surprised at how often ive used it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820223109
this is the one i bought. it has a black and a gray faceplate, so i guess you could use the black to go with the red case.
E: it does have a blue LED on the front though. idk if hes gonna get upset about that, but i figure i should mention it anyway
All the bays on the phantom are covered anyway, not a big deal. I'll ask if he's interested in a card reader.
Phantom for reference:
You can see how all the bays are covered up, that front panel cutout you see is a door. The handle is the larger gap in the near-side of the front panel.
If you haven't, you should ask him what kind of looks he wants in a case. I myself would rather buy a Fractal Design XL, as I believe it's a better case and that it looks better. M $0.02.
