$1300 build, not too shabby imho

[JonBoy2001]

What do you guys think about this build?

It's got exactly what I'm looking for in terms of storage, processing power and the case.

If I've picked anything that's iffy, or downright complete garbage, please let me know. If something doesn't make sense, ask away. I spent alot of time reading up on all this new fangled post-AGP technology and I think I'm up to speed. If I forgot something, color me stupid, point and laugh, and 'ha-ha' at me all day long.

Here's hoping I can live off $480 after bills + budgeting this thing in for the next two months. Birthday is Sept 16 and I can order it on the 15th. I'll sadpanda all over the place if something unexpected pops up.

The Mrs will get hers a month later.

[ant1pathy]

Double up the RAM; you won't have a pagefile with a SSD and you'll need it if you multitask. I just ordered another 4gb, and that exact gpu for my system .

[bals]

4gbs of ram is all you need unless you're doing some crazy stuff at the same time

[ant1pathy]

I hit 4gb pretty frequently with no pagefile. Win7 64bit, uTorrent, Chrome with 5-10 tabs, AIM or Digsby, iTunes, and WoW spikes it up to "close shit or I'm going to crash".

[bals]

have you gotten the ram upgrade yet and has it made a difference?

[ant1pathy]

Ordered today, but I turned pagefile back on for the HDD I have and it doesn't hit as fast. I have a little system monitor widget that shows CPU/RAM load and the needle pushes 75% pretty frequently with 4gb.

[bals]

I'm pretty surprised tbh, is it mostly utorrent?

[Enola]

What do you guys think about this build?

It's got exactly what I'm looking for in terms of storage, processing power and the case.

If I've picked anything that's iffy, or downright complete garbage, please let me know. If something doesn't make sense, ask away. I spent alot of time reading up on all this new fangled post-AGP technology and I think I'm up to speed. If I forgot something, color me stupid, point and laugh, and 'ha-ha' at me all day long.

Here's hoping I can live off $480 after bills + budgeting this thing in for the next two months. Birthday is Sept 16 and I can order it on the 15th. I'll sadpanda all over the place if something unexpected pops up.

The Mrs will get hers a month later.

Looks decent, would prefer a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151095 PSU (modular), wouldn't worry about the ram, can always had in future if you ever need it with 0 loss, there are a few tim's atm that surpass AS5 some cheaper btw (and easier to apply).

[Moobious]

Double up the RAM; you won't have a pagefile with a SSD and you'll need it if you multitask. I just ordered another 4gb, and that exact gpu for my system .

Why on earth would you not have a page file with an SSD?

You typically will want to put the page file on the SSD.

[vesseblah]

Double up the RAM; you won't have a pagefile with a SSD and you'll need it if you multitask. I just ordered another 4gb, and that exact gpu for my system .

Silly cat. There's no justifiable reason to turn the pagefile off in high performance computer, SSD or no SSD.
If you don't trust me, here's a bit from MicroSoft developer blog back from Win7 beta days:

Should the pagefile be placed on SSDs?

Yes. Most pagefile operations are small random reads or larger sequential writes, both of which are types of operations that SSDs handle well.

In looking at telemetry data from thousands of traces and focusing on pagefile reads and writes, we find that

* Pagefile.sys reads outnumber pagefile.sys writes by about 40 to 1,
* Pagefile.sys read sizes are typically quite small, with 67% less than or equal to 4 KB, and 88% less than 16 KB.
* Pagefile.sys writes are relatively large, with 62% greater than or equal to 128 KB and 45% being exactly 1 MB in size.

In fact, given typical pagefile reference patterns and the favorable performance characteristics SSDs have on those patterns, there are few files better than the pagefile to place on an SSD.

[JonBoy2001]

Looks decent, would prefer a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151095 PSU (modular), wouldn't worry about the ram, can always had in future if you ever need it with 0 loss, there are a few tim's atm that surpass AS5 some cheaper btw (and easier to apply).

Ooohohohooo, modular. Completly forgot that route.

So which TIMs are better than AS5? I thought, through reading, AS was king.

RAM is staying at 4gb. Think I'll wait a while and see how it goes, what with that nice article about SSDs and the page file.

Thanks guys.

[Enola]

I would go with mx-4 but not really sure, probably better asking in ocn forum, any of them are pretty good, and any difference it's extremely small.

[Cilraaz]

I use AS5, myself. I believe I'd read a review of like 80 different TIMs. The end result was that brand name TIM was better than off-brand TIM and other than that, it boiled down to personal brand preference or curing method preference.

[edit: Here's the review. The link goes straight to the "Excellent Enthusiast Performance" results page.]

[Enola]

I use that guide too Cilraaz, but it's one year old by now, a couple of younger cammed out since it was written, some of them better then AS5, I tried not to recommend any specific one has I'm not really up to date on the matter.
Indeed, the performance difference from the top ones are so insignificant, it's basically irrelevant, but if I'm not wrong MX-4 for example it's easier to apply, not electric conductive, and no curing time should be around the same price maybe cheaper.

[Cilraaz]

I use that guide too Cilraaz, but it's one year old by now, a couple of younger cammed out since it was written, some of them better then AS5, I tried not to recommend any specific one has I'm not really up to date on the matter.
Indeed, the performance difference from the top ones are so insignificant, it's basically irrelevant, but if I'm not wrong MX-4 for example it's easier to apply, not electric conductive, and no curing time should be around the same price maybe cheaper.

Yeah. I'm not claiming that to be a non-exhaustive list... just a good start.

[pansertjald]

i use the Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound myself...... its alot cheaper then the Arctic Silver 5 Polysynthetic Thermal Compound here in denmark and it gets less the 1 degree hotter

[Rottenbeaver]

I dont like that case, and cooling is key when it comes to having a performance gaming pc.

i would go with this case.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811112218

it has a nice flow of air going across the CPU and exiting where the hard drives are.

i personally have this case and its very well built.

[JonBoy2001]

Please tell me that's sarcasm Rottenbeaver. The mobo I chose isn't a mini, and that case looks like a heat trap for something I want to experiment with OC'ing on. Besides, I love the monsterous/professional look to the Antec one. Oh, and blue LED fans. Mmm, blue LED fans.

Been reading up on Artic Cooling MX TIMs. Going to go with MX-2. Non conductive and no curing time, huzzah! Gotta hand it to AS's instructions on their website though, very informative.

[pansertjald]

the antec 300 has way better cooling then the lian li case. the lian li takes cold air in from the back and blows it out in the front. this meens that all the hot air it blows out, goes on all the hdd`s and thats not good at all

the antec 300 takes cold air in from the front and the side and blows it out in the back and top and thats MUCH better because you have your gpu and cpu blowing hot air to the top, and the fans helps it get out faster

the lian li case is NOT a gaming case...... the antec 300 IS A gaming case, but i would go for the ninehundred insted

the lian li is for coumputers what B&O is for hifi...... desing and nothing more

[JonBoy2001]

The 900 is a little more pricey than what I'd want to spend on a case. The 300 and 900 appear to function exactly the same, but I'm partial to the quasi-professional look of the 300.