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[Cortexian]

I got my Crucial M4 128GB SSD, getting everything reinstalled now.

@KingFisher: It could be the HDD's, I never use 5,200 drives anymore. There are 5,900 drives on the market for only slightly more that offer the same reliability of 5,200's with better performance.

[PopeAK49]

I was thinking of getting a 7200rpm HDD or even a solid state, but time will tell. Without vsync, I get an average of 43 fps which is nice. I would like no tearing, but tearing only seems noticable during cinematics.

Also, tell me how that SSD is working out for you when everything is in place.

[Patrickssj6]

I am pretty sure it has nothing to do with your HDDs. Once loaded into memory, there is barely any IO action.

My guess is that something is bottlenecking.

[StankBacon]

Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor

ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory - x2

EVGA 01G-P3-1460-KR GeForce GTX 560 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 Video Card

OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular High Performance Power Supply

Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - for storage

Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive - for OS and apps


$805 after rebates, that seems expensive :o

its been a long time since i did this... is this any good?/will it work?

still need a cpu cooler, suggestions?

money is an issue so where can i trim the fat? i chose these components mostly because they all have favorable reviews... even tough i could have chosen a cheaper one, but i REALLY don't feel like dealing with any doa/rma bs.


help me plz.

[Cortexian]

If you can:
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor
("k" version CPU's are a must for Sandy Bridge overclocking)

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory
(Sandy Bridge likes faster memory for overclocking. 1600 is good, 1866 is better, 2133 is best, etc)

CORSAIR Gaming Series GS700 700W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply
(Stay away from OCZ products, they have extremely poor quality control in my experience. When their products work they work decently but their products outright fail a lot. Corsair or Silverstone for PSU's)

Out of those three I'd get the better PSU first, then the better processor, then if you can afford it, better/faster RAM. The 1600mhz stuff works great as well as the 1866mhz. I listed the 1866mhz cause it's what I'm running my 2500k on.

If you're not planning on overclocking you can stick with the 2400 CPU, but I'd recommend the 2500 or waiting for Ivy Bridge processors to drop Q1 2012.

[Warsaw]

Ugh, Ripjaws. I liked G.Skill when they made no-frills heat spreaders. Tired of these over-the-top, obnoxious fins that really don't serve much purpose. Corsair Vengeance Low-Profile or bust.

[Cortexian]

Except the Corsair LP DIMM's aren't as fast.

[Warsaw]

They are just as fast as the large Vengeance sticks, but yeah, they aren't 1866.

Personally, I think more is better than fast in this case. He's not going to be running an i7-2600K or an X79. Granted, you are suggesting an 8GB kit vs. his 4GB selection, I feel that at this point 8GB is a medium between going low (4GB) and getting something to last (16GB). There's no telling how long RAM prices are going to remain this low, so if he's doubling his price point to get four more gigabytes, why not spend $20 after that to get eight more gigabytes on top of those four?

As important as PSUs are, I feel like the one he has chosen is already more than adequate (hell, a Rosewill would have sufficed, even).

So, I would save money on the PSU and buy this kit over the 1866 kit. Games are now starting to take advantage of 8GB, and then you have games like All Points Bulletin which aren't completely satisfied with even that at 720p. Fast isn't going to help your texture buffer as much as capacity will. I put in a faster 2GB of DDR1 into my rig, didn't make much difference in HL2:E1. I combined it with the slower 2GB and look, now I have buttery smooth frame rates (unstable though because mobo hates having 4 DIMMs, tried with 4DIMM 3GB, still no joy).

1600 is more than adequate (1333 is also good, but go no lower), and 1866 is better if you are already running an enthusiast platform.

I do also recommend saving for the 2500K. That unlocked multiplier is really the only thing that makes it worth spending up on Intel over AMD unless power consumption is that big of a deal to you, because cheaper AMD CPUs can be OC'd to match at the cost of power efficiency.

[Cortexian]

What I meant about the LP kits being slower is that there are no options for faster speeds. They just don't make anything over 1600mhz in LP to my knowledge, and the reason for that is (IIRC) because they can't dispate enough heat.

The larger heat spreaders ARE more efficient, though I have to agree with you that some of the designs are just silly. I'd take the G-SKILL spreaders over the regular Vengenge style ones any day.

I found that a good medium for speed and capacity is 1866mhz since it's a lot more affordable than most 2133mhz+ stuff and you can still get yourself 16GB fairly easily. More if you want to fork over the cash for 8GB DIMM's.

[Donut]

Part list permalink / Part price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 640 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($98.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock 870 Extreme3 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: A-Data Gaming Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($25.99 @ Amazon)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($111.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 1GB Video Card ($152.55 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XClio 650W ATX Power Supply ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG GH22NS90B DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $571.49
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated 2011-12-29 01:09 EST-0500)

budget was 600 bucks. this is supposed to be able to play skyrim on high and other games maxed out. building it for a friend. suggestions?