Official XS PC Rig Building Guide

[Nikolasz]

Regarding used HDD's... definitely a huge don't: i bought 4 250gb caviar enterprise drives, every single one died in consecutive use within 3 months of being plugged in. Oh the frustration...
As for the guide... very XS !

Lol, abaut that problem..
If those hdds are kind of surface dead, try to put hier seek time timings.
Im shure you can find fome tools for that

[perkam]

AMD Rigs Added !!

Perkam

[RPGWiZaRD]

If you want best possible gaming performance without breaking your bank I'd say:

E7200 OC @ ~4.0GHz with OCZ Vendetta 2
HD4850 or HD4870 depending on your budget
Intel P35 or cheap P45 mobos such as Gigabyte P45 DS4
Some 2x2GB ram kit, whatever you find cheapest
Thermaltake ToughPower 750W (costs pretty much same as 700W version or HX-620) or Corsair HX-620W
Samsung SH-S203N DVD-burner
500GB WD, Samsung or Seagate drive whatever u prefer (personally I hate Seagate)

[perkam]

If you want best possible gaming performance without breaking your bank I'd say:

E7200 OC @ ~4.0GHz with OCZ Vendetta 2
HD4850 or HD4870 depending on your budget
Intel P35 or cheap P45 mobos such as Gigabyte P45 DS4
Some 2x2GB ram kit, whatever you find cheapest
Thermaltake ToughPower 750W (costs pretty much same as 700W version or HX-620) or Corsair HX-620W
Samsung SH-S203N DVD-burner
500GB WD, Samsung or Seagate drive whatever u prefer (personally I hate Seagate)

Agreed. But the focus with the guide was to offer quality parts all around, not the cheapest parts around.

Remember, this is XS, not your local community hardware store As for the 620HX recommendation, it is $160 for which prices you can go 750W PCP&C, so the 750TX works better for 4850 Xfire (both are quality parts though)

Perkam

[billdavis]

what about the new raptor hdds for the high end rigg?

good job, and thanks

[i found nemo]

$ 600 budget


9800gtx 199.99+7.59 s&h

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814500039

6000+ 113.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103773

gigabyte 79.99+7.59 s&h

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128340

g.skill 59.99+5.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231152

or

84.99+6.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231145

psu 89.99+12.11

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139004
577.23/603.23

[Logos]

perkam, you wrote "bloomfield" (=Nehalem ) instead of Yorkfield in the high end config

just read it again, there was no involuntary mistake, X58 is also there... how can you actually suggest components that are not out yet?

[perkam]

perkam, you wrote "bloomfield" (=Nehalem ) instead of Yorkfield in the high end config

just read it again, there was no involuntary mistake, X58 is also there... how can you actually suggest components that are not out yet?

Make no mistake, those ARE the specifications for a bloomfield rig

Do you really think someone who's been here long enough (not to mention the blue text) could mistake Bloomfield for Yorkfield

The Asus bloomfield X58 motherboard is REAL, the Bloomfield spec (TDP, socket type, clockspeed) is REAL (the name may not be) and it will have tri-channel memory hence the 6GB of DDR3 Only the prices are estimated.

Perkam

[Logos]

Make no mistake, those ARE the specifications for a bloomfield rig

Do you really think someone who's been here long enough (not to mention the blue text) could mistake Bloomfield for Yorkfield

The Asus bloomfield X58 motherboard is REAL, the Bloomfield spec (TDP, socket type, clockspeed) is REAL (the name may not be) and it will have tri-channel memory hence the 6GB of DDR3 Only the prices are estimated.

Perkam

...not mistaken but mistyped yes, happens to the best of us OK this said even if the components exist already, and I know they do, none of them won't be available before December this year at the earliest. So we're talking prototypes, and this thread was supposed to help newbies building a new rig now, I thought...I mean some newbies wishing to build a first high end rig might get lost when they read this...

edit: I know the spec are right

[TedShred]

Interesting, and usefule, thread. Thanks for putting it together.

I think the first post has the 2.66G Nehalem with the 3.2G model's price, or maybe more likely you meant to show the 3.2 not the 2.66? ($284 for 2.66 and $999 for 3.2 according to the item linked below)

http://en.hardspell.com/doc/showcont.asp?news_id=3734

[perkam]

...not mistaken but mistyped yes, happens to the best of us OK this said even if the components exist already, and I know they do, none of them won't be available before December this year at the earliest. So we're talking prototypes, and this thread was supposed to help newbies building a new rig now, I thought...I mean some newbies wishing to build a first high end rig might get lost when they read this...

edit: I know the spec are right

If you knew the specs were right, why on earth would you think I mistook Bloomfield for Yorkfield

In any event, I've left a note next to the high end rig

Perkam

[Logos]

If you knew the specs were right, why on earth would you think I mistook Bloomfield for Yorkfield

In any event, I've left a note next to the high end rig

Perkam

I first did think so, 'cause I only read quickly the beginning of the system spec; and as I stated in my first post -I edited it very quickly-, I then reread the full spec and saw X58 etc...and I said it was not a mistake, but intentional...no big deal

just read it again, there was no involuntary mistake, X58 is also there... how can you actually suggest components that are not out yet?

[wideband]

Great Job Perkam,

would you mind adding a sound card to the mix where you feel it is required, as it does affect the price by $100 or more.

[Chewbenator]

Except for some nitpicky things the list looks good! <grumble> why P43 instead of P35 <grumble>

[perkam]

Except for some nitpicky things the list looks good! <grumble> why P43 instead of P35 <grumble>

Lack of PCI-E 2.0 support on the P35.

@ Sound card request. The Cheap X-fi's are screwed up and it's up to members to buy an aftermarket CPU HSF, though I was this close to putting an OCZ Vendetta in there for all the rigs (except the Bloomfield one ofcourse )

Perkam

[wideband]

Lack of PCI-E 2.0 support on the P35.

@ Sound card request. The Cheap X-fi's are screwed up and it's up to members to buy an aftermarket CPU HSF, though I was this close to putting an OCZ Vendetta in there for all the rigs (except the Bloomfield one ofcourse )

Perkam

can you expand on what you mean 'cheap x-fi's are screwed up' as $100 is not cheap in my eyes. I take your point on the HSF, but maybe you should include a generic HSF to show its required. Thanks.

[perkam]

can you expand on what you mean 'cheap x-fi's are screwed up' as $100 is not cheap in my eyes. I take your point on the HSF, but maybe you should include a generic HSF to show its required. Thanks.

There are sub-$100 X-Fi's on newegg that do not work well at all.

Perkam

[perkam]

Intel Bloomfield system updated

Perkam

[Blacky]

imo the true p45 performers (also price wise) right now are the Biostars

[jcool]

@ Sound card request. The Cheap X-fi's are screwed up

Ever heard of the X-Fi Xtreme Music
I don't know about USD, but this card is like 55€ and it kicks ass. Can do everything the 200$+ cards can and only lacks the X-Ram (useless for anything but professional audio editing anyway).
The old rule with soundcards is still vaild, the bigger the better. X-Fi Audio and Gamer are crap, true, but the Music truly shines for the price. It's only lacking said X-Ram and a proper front panel connector.. but you can mod that all right.
Apart from these 2 glitches, a full-powered card featuring the "good" chip as well as EAX 5,0 and all the other features for a fraction of the cost of the Elite Pro.
You don't get a front panel of course, but I gotta say, the Elite pro's FP is ing ugly anyways

[bowman]

You called Bloomfield 'Core 4'. I don't think they'll skip a number..?

Oh, and why recommend the 2.93GHz version when the multipliers are so high? 20x vs. 22x, and that price difference.. I'd be hard pressed to recommend anything but the 2.66 to someone who is even going to mildly overclock it.

[perkam]

You called Bloomfield 'Core 4'. I don't think they'll skip a number..?

Oh, and why recommend the 2.93GHz version when the multipliers are so high? 20x vs. 22x, and that price difference.. I'd be hard pressed to recommend anything but the 2.66 to someone who is even going to mildly overclock it.

I recommended it because I could, mainly. The price will be around ~$550 for the 2.93 Ghz and until we can confirm how well these can clock, a stock chip running at ~3ghz is always preferred to a stock chip running at 2.66Ghz, just like in the E8x00 series. Here, the build is meant to be top of the line, so the $550 chp is a good option.

Perkam

[yankee]

We can almost omit the case from these quotes. Nobody's listing cooling here for good reason, and there's already a case/casemod section.

Cases are also a matter of taste(or lack thereof). If anything, just list $100 for a case.

Another thing people should keep in mind is that these lists are just starting points. To see a bunch of cookie cutter rigs around here would be travesty.


Sticky for good reason.
Thanks everyone!

[perkam]

Both Intel and AMD rigs have now been updated

Intel Rigs now have updated pricing, Q9400, E8600, Q9650 mentions, while the AMD rigs have a couple of 790GX boards in there and updated cpu pricing as well. Waiting on high end 790GX boards to completely take the FX boards off.

Perkam

[Tonucci]

To me, the ideal budget system would be the "Intel Sub-$750 System" but with an hd4850, rocketfish case and 320/640 (320Gb platter) drive.

Excellent performance up to 1600x1050 and substantially better than anything cheaper