[Thomas Mullaly]

Hey guys,

My laptop is currently on the fritz. I've had it since Sept 2008, and it's starting to bluescreen frequently (about 5x a day) and claim hardware problems. I feel as if it's time for me to get a new computer, and I'm going for a desktop.

Although I know a fair amount about computers, I have no idea when it comes to building them. A friend of mine who is in his fourth year BSc in Computer Science and has built computers before has put together a package for me he's going to build. I need second opinions as to whether or not this is a good deal.

Specs:

CPU:
Intel Core i5 2500K Quad Core Unlocked Processor LGA1155 3.3GHZ Sandy Bridge 6MB
WITH
Coolit Systems Eco CPU Water Cooling System AUTO-REGULATED & Maintenance Free

RAM:
Patriot Sector 5 PGV34G1333ELK 4GB DDR3 2X2GB DDR3-1333 CL 9-9-9-24 Dual Channel Memo *IR-$2*

Hard Disk (will use RAID, whatever that is....lol):
TWO OF:
Western Digital SE16 320GB SATA2 7200RPM 16MB Cache 8.9MS NCQ Hard Drive OEM 3YR MFR Warranty

Optical Disk:
LG GH22NS50 Black 22X SATA DVD Writer OEM

Tower:
NZXT Gamma ATX Mid Tower Case Black 4X5.25 7X3.5 Front USB Audio eSATA with 120MM Rear Fan No PSU

Motherboard:
ASUS P7P55 LX P55 DDR3 LGA1156 ATX 2PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 3PCI 6SATA CrossFireX Motherboard

Power Supply:
OCZ StealthXStream 2 700W ATX12V 24PIN Active PFC 80PLUS ATX Power Supply 120MM Fan Black

Graphics Card:
ASUS GeForce GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II Fermi 830MHZ 1GB 4.0GHZ GDDR5 2XDVI Mini HDMI PCI-E Video Card

The total (before taxes and Shipping): $893.81

After Taxes and Shipping and Gov't Fees: $1060.71


SO is it a good deal? Will it work well? Is he missing anything?

[Christopher Halsey]

Depends on two things.

The first is what you are actually going to use the computer for, what are the most demanding programs you will be using?

Secondly how much are you willing/able to spend? Both in terms of short and long term when upgrades are factored in.

I would imagine based on the fact that your current computer is a laptop that is several years old that you would be able to build a machine for considerably cheaper than that price that would meet your requirements for some years to come.

[Sharpkiller]

Looks okay for a mid-range PC. Though, I question the choice of motherboard since:

A) You do not have multiple graphic cards, nor would I recommend you ever having multiple graphics as it'd be bottlenecked by your other specs.
B) Crossfire is for AMD's video cards, you're using a Nvidia card.
C) LGA1155 and LGA1156 sockets are not compatible with each other. So your CPU would not be able to be seated on that motherboard.

Seems a bit pricey too for you what you're getting, do you have prices for each part on hand?

[Silynn]

What operating system are you planning on running? Windows 7?

For gaming, I'd boost up your RAM some. 8 GB is wonderful.

Also, I would go for larger Hard Drives. 500 GB min, 1 TB preferred. The price difference isn't all that much and not having to worry about storage space is always a good thing.

Especially if you download lots of music, movies, tv shows, etc.

[Burtonshaw]

RAID depends on how many disks you are using, and if not set up correctly can slow the PC rather than speed it up. however if set up correctly it will improve performance and provide a redundancy system, so if the HDD breaks, you'll not lose all your data.

One important addition on HDDs, is most people forget that a small HDD ( around 80GB) should be used as your C:. This should have nothing but the drivers and OS, thus speeding your system up. also it is important to never use RAID on this HDD / Partition.

As far as processing power, you could probably do with a less powerful CPU. i still use a Q6600, which provides far more than enough power to deal with the most demanding of multiple applications. Also a less powerful CPU will bring the cost down considerably.

Again the graphics card is impressive, but at top of the range, offers far more than you are likely to need at a much higher price.

Finally, the motherboard does not support the selected CPU.

I would be interested in seeing a price breakdown for this, as i think it may be a little overpriced.

PS. the guy has completely forgotten to add any cooling fans for the RAM or HDDs. The water cooling system is CPU only, meaning you will lose your HDDs pretty quickly.

[U.S.S. Hyperion]

As already stated above, it would be good to know for what you primarly use the system?

CPU:
Intel Core i5 2500K Quad Core Unlocked Processor LGA1155 3.3GHZ Sandy Bridge 6MB
WITH
Coolit Systems Eco CPU Water Cooling System AUTO-REGULATED & Maintenance Free

This CPU offers plenty of performance and you will not need to upgrade it for quite some time, should you decide to buy it.
On the other hand, depending on your demands you could use a cheaper CPU. Since most games nowadays still use at best 2 cores there is very little gain in more cores. Unless you have some very CPU heavy applications like video editing that fully support multiple cores. If you go for a CPU with more than 2 Cores make sure it has a high freqency (GHZ). That way you can mostly compensate the performance loss in applications and games that dont like multi cores.

Water cooling.... well your CPU will be cooled very good.... although I personally dont like the idea of water anywhere close to such expensive hardware. The question is also if it does require such powerful cooling at all. Unless you intend to overclock it a lot, a far cheaper fan based cooling should be more than sufficient. On a side note, the water pump may die after prolonged service. Unless a fan, you wont hear any difference with a not working pump and so you may notice quite late that the system is without cooling. A friend of mine had exactly that problem, he just made it to BIOS and saw a CPU Temperature well above 100 degree Celsius (water boil temperature) before the screen went black. The quad core actually survived it and is still running, but you certainly dont want to try that out.

RAM:
Patriot Sector 5 PGV34G1333ELK 4GB DDR3 2X2GB DDR3-1333 CL 9-9-9-24 Dual Channel Memo *IR-$2*

4 GB of this state of the art memory is more than sufficient. Should you go with a cheaper CPU you could also use a motherboard with DDR2 instead of DDR3. The performance increase of DDR3 above DDR 2 is only minor, but DDR3 is considerable more expensive. 8 GB of RAM demand an 64bit operating system - and applications that require huge ammounts of RAM. With Windows XP still being widely used - a primarly 32 Bit OS - there are very few games that can make any use of this RAM, even if it is available. You should however make sure that the motherboard supports more RAM, for possible future upgrades.

Hard Disk (will use RAID, whatever that is....lol):
TWO OF:
Western Digital SE16 320GB SATA2 7200RPM 16MB Cache 8.9MS NCQ Hard Drive OEM 3YR MFR Warranty

This is not really a good deal imo. Using a RAID in your case will either increase speed or allow a permanent backup of your data on the second drive. In both cases you will have only 320 GB of space. Hard disk of this size are usually older models with slower speed than modern ones, they are however not much cheaper. I would recommend nothing below 500 GB. I also recommend a HDD from WD (Western Digital) I have excellent experience with those for well over a decade and nearly 30 drives.

WD Green drives = cheap, cool and quit. Somewhat slow in access, not recommended as a system drive.
WD Blue drives = cheap and reasonable fast - for all uses
WD Black drives = High Performance - but more expensive and louder

Optical Disk:
LG GH22NS50 Black 22X SATA DVD Writer OEM

The drive seems to read and write every CD and DVD. LG is a high quality brand and I recommend to buy it.

Tower:
NZXT Gamma ATX Mid Tower Case Black 4X5.25 7X3.5 Front USB Audio eSATA with 120MM Rear Fan No PSU

Sounds good. Notice that when you use a high end graphic card you may be forced to install additional cooling or a faster and louder rear fan.

Motherboard:
ASUS P7P55 LX P55 DDR3 LGA1156 ATX 2PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 3PCI 6SATA CrossFireX Motherboard

Make sure that you buy the right motherboard for your choosen CPU! Should you go with an older CPU socket motherboard I would recommend staying at 4 GB of RAM. At the time you can use that 8 GB of RAM, your CPU will way to old. If you go with a modern CPU socket, nothing speaks against more than 4 GB of RAM, although its use may be limited (see RAM)

2PCI-E16 mean that you can install 2 graphic cards, I dont recommend doing so though. Power and cooling requirements are huge and in 1 year of time a single midrange GPU card will easily surpass them in rendering power.

Power Supply:
OCZ StealthXStream 2 700W ATX12V 24PIN Active PFC 80PLUS ATX Power Supply 120MM Fan Black

Sounds like a good PSU. Unless you plan to install multiple high end graphic cards, 700 Watt is more than generously specified. Active PFC makes it more efficient.

Graphics Card:
ASUS GeForce GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II Fermi 830MHZ 1GB 4.0GHZ GDDR5 2XDVI Mini HDMI PCI-E Video Card

This should be more than enough power to play even the latest games on highest quality settings. If you dont play the latest games you can go for something cheaper. If you have the money I would recommend to buy it - it will end our graphic card worries for a long time.


But we should really know about your computer demands - what are you mostly doing on your comp?

[Thomas Mullaly]

At the current time, the most graphically difficult games that I want to play are Mass Effect 2 and STO, which is next to impossible on my current laptop. I also want to be able to quickly edit HD 1080P Video for my vlog. Before my laptop died, it would take up to 45-60 minutes to render a 2-3 minute blog at 720P.

As for cooling with the RAM and HDD (Hard Drive?) what do I need, and how much would that cost me?

Sharpkiller - what specs would cause bottlenecking? I don't think I need any higher graphics for what I'm doing at the moment, do I?

Hyperion - I've noted your concerns. Thanks for the tip about RAID. I'll ask my friend about it and see about changing the Hard Drive.

Below are the costs per item. *NOTE* I've changed up the motherboard for a slightly ($20) more expensive one that has LGA 1055 to match the CPU.

Intel Core i5 2500K Quad Core Unlocked Processor LGA1155 3.3GHZ Sandy Bridge 6MB
$238.99

Patriot Sector 5 PGV34G1333ELK 4GB DDR3 2X2GB DDR3-1333 CL 9-9-9-24 Dual Channel Memo *IR-$2*
$41.96

Western Digital SE16 320GB SATA2 7200RPM 16MB Cache 8.9MS NCQ Hard Drive OEM 3YR MFR Warranty
Electronics Recycling Fee $0.40 Per Item
$79.92 for 2

LG GH22NS50 Black 22X SATA DVD Writer OEM
Electronics Recycling Fee $0.40 Per Item
$25.99

Coolit Systems Eco CPU Water Cooling System AUTO-REGULATED & Maintenance Free LGA1366/1156/1155/AM3
$49.99

NZXT Gamma ATX Mid Tower Case Black 4X5.25 7X3.5 Front USB Audio eSATA with 120MM Rear Fan No PSU
$49.99

ASUS P8H67-M PRO/CSM H67 mATX LGA1155 2PCI-E16 2PCI HDMI DVI Sandy Bridge B3 Motherboard
$126.98

OCZ StealthXStream 2 700W ATX12V 24PIN Active PFC 80PLUS ATX Power Supply 120MM Fan Black
$59.99

ASUS GeForce GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II Fermi 830MHZ 1GB 4.0GHZ GDDR5 2XDVI Mini HDMI PCI-E Video Card
$238.04

[Sharpkiller]

You could probably step back to a GTX 460 if they're still available, they're much cheaper than a 560 Ti, and you'll still be able to max out nearly every game (with the exception of Crysis ). I have two GTX 460 in SLI myself, runs like a dream.

You could probably remove the water cooling as well to save some cash, I'd only suggest having water cooling if you we're pushing top of the line hardware to its limit, which it doesn't appear you'll be doing. With 2 GTX 460s, 4 hard drives, and an i7-930, my temperatures are still at or below the average with air cooling. Admittedly though, my case has 3 200mm fans.

I don't see why you'd need cooling for the hard drives or RAM either. Again, you aren't buying RAM with incredibly high clock speeds that you're pushing to the upper limit. Same goes with the hard drive as you aren't looking into getting performance hard drives that pump out heat.

I think you're getting overcharged on your hard drive, there are 1TB hard drives with fairly good ratings for less than what you're paying.

Out of curiosity, where are you looking at purchasing these items from? Check out Canada Computers if you have one near you, their prices rival what you'd find on online stores, but you cut out the shipping charges.

[Burtonshaw]

The most common, and cheapest cooling method is a simple fan between 80-120cm mounted in the front of the case in around the HDD mounts. This costs between

[Christopher Halsey]

At the current time, the most graphically difficult games that I want to play are Mass Effect 2 and STO, which is next to impossible on my current laptop. I also want to be able to quickly edit HD 1080P Video for my vlog. Before my laptop died, it would take up to 45-60 minutes to render a 2-3 minute blog at 720P.

If these are your requirements then you will be able to get away with a system quite a bit cheaper than the one in your first post.

[Ninja]

Video rendering is the most intensive thing for your PC so it really depends on your budget. One small thing i might add is to get an Intel SSD as your boot drive and leave the two 500GB HDs for storage - would definitely recommend RAID if you're doing video editing. I can't believe your friend has "built computers and is a CS major" and yet he's mismatched the hardware so bad. Doesn't seem like he knows what he's doing at all. A CrossFireX motherboard with a GeForce card? ROFL.

[U.S.S. Hyperion]

Video rendering is the most intensive thing for your PC so it really depends on your budget. One small thing i might add is to get an Intel SSD as your boot drive and leave the two 500GB HDs for storage - would definitely recommend RAID if you're doing video editing. I can't believe your friend has "built computers and is a CS major" and yet he's mismatched the hardware so bad. Doesn't seem like he knows what he's doing at all. A CrossFireX motherboard with a GeForce card? ROFL.

In most cases the speed of the CPU is a far more limiting factor for video editing than the HDD. This is especially true for HD videos.

An SSD may be lightening fast, but good ones are still quite expensive for a low capacity. So you have that super speed but only on a small drive. I am not sure if the price tag is justified by the better boot up time.

[Reggie]

If you have the money to spend I would go with what your friend is going to build you otherwise see if he can spec you a cheaper machine he sounds like he knows what he's talking about anyway.

[Christopher Halsey]

If you have the money to spend I would go with what your friend is going to build you otherwise see if he can spec you a cheaper machine he sounds like he knows what he's talking about anyway.

His friend made a few errors with some of the parts not matching up but its easy enough to do if you are just brainstorming, must have just been thinking on what he felt were good components individually rather than collectively.

If you don't mind us asking though Mullaly what sort of budget were you looking at spending?

[Thomas Mullaly]

I have a budget of about $1000, plus or minus $100-200. The computer as per posted specs comes out to about $1080 after taxes and fees.