PC Build Thread

[82mm 4g63]

Originally Posted by WingsofWar

^ well i have no rig right now..iv just been picking up parts here and there..but no motherboards that go with any of the processors iv found. Iv been doing all my interwebs stuff via my cellphone.

BTW since i scored a i7980 for much cheaper, should i flip it for more and get some cash back? or just stick with it since the 1366 boards are the "future" anyway, and im sure that having 6 cores will help with my rendering?

Oh, if that's the case then I would just pick up the cheapest motherboard for either one of those two processors. Min-Max'ing with either one of those isn't really worth your brain cells. Whichever can be had cheaper for the month or two you'll be using it will suffice.

As far as the 980x goes, if all things were equal yes 6 cores > 4 cores, but all things aren't equal when comparing the older Gulftown to the latest Sandy Bridge. At stock clock speeds the 2600k is pretty damn close to the 980x performance wise, but the 2700k will be 10% better than the 2600k for the same price as the current 2600k. IMO, equal/better performance for 2/3 the price as well as cheaper motherboards and newer chipsets is a no-brainer.

The s1366 is not the future, it's actually end-of-life. Intel's new s1155 will be the mainstream socket that will be replacing the s1156 and the s2011 will be replacing the s1366 supporting the Sandy Bridge-E cpu's.

If you can sell that 980x for a profit I would definitely do that. Hell, the new Sandy Bridge-E chips will be out soon, the entry level 6-core will be between $550-600. It will also support PCIe 3.0 and Quad Channel Memory. If you have your heart set on those extra cores, which isn't a bad thing, I would maybe hold off and see how much an s2011 rig would set you back. They're going to be nasty machines. But even the s1155 based 2700k would be sexy and would give you a few years worth of possible upgrades before they release their next socket. If you stick with the s1366 you won't be seeing any new processors so you'll be stuck with what you have.

[82mm 4g63]

Well with the AMD FX processors released and bench marked, they are barely better than the Phenom II X6s of the last AMD line. What a total disappointment.

AMD is officially written off.

[WingsofWar]

Originally Posted by 82mm 4g63

Oh, if that's the case then I would just pick up the cheapest motherboard for either one of those two processors. Min-Max'ing with either one of those isn't really worth your brain cells. Whichever can be had cheaper for the month or two you'll be using it will suffice.

As far as the 980x goes, if all things were equal yes 6 cores > 4 cores, but all things aren't equal when comparing the older Gulftown to the latest Sandy Bridge. At stock clock speeds the 2600k is pretty damn close to the 980x performance wise, but the 2700k will be 10% better than the 2600k for the same price as the current 2600k. IMO, equal/better performance for 2/3 the price as well as cheaper motherboards and newer chipsets is a no-brainer.

The s1366 is not the future, it's actually end-of-life. Intel's new s1155 will be the mainstream socket that will be replacing the s1156 and the s2011 will be replacing the s1366 supporting the Sandy Bridge-E cpu's.

If you can sell that 980x for a profit I would definitely do that. Hell, the new Sandy Bridge-E chips will be out soon, the entry level 6-core will be between $550-600. It will also support PCIe 3.0 and Quad Channel Memory. If you have your heart set on those extra cores, which isn't a bad thing, I would maybe hold off and see how much an s2011 rig would set you back. They're going to be nasty machines. But even the s1155 based 2700k would be sexy and would give you a few years worth of possible upgrades before they release their next socket. If you stick with the s1366 you won't be seeing any new processors so you'll be stuck with what you have.

Thanks so much for the advice! Socket 2011 sounds very very enticing to wait for at the end of the year paired with a Core i7 3930K. I truely feel like ill benefit with a 6core processor over a quad because of the applications i want to run. If i was just thinking of gaming, benchmark tests suggests that core for core 2600k/2700k is the best thing on the market. and i would have just gone with the LGA1115+2600k.

After some reading, im going to sell the i7980 and get some cash back. I was talking to an animator friend of mine in california that works on movies and he said that the best computers in the office for rendering 3D and film are not built from consumer grade processors and GPUs.

Id love to get my hands on some of that, but the cost for industry processing computer parts are astronomical.

Also the new SB-E processors only run on water now? Im really confused as the 2600k overclocked at 5.0ghz is stable on air. What makes SB-E needs water when i cant see it pumping out more heat or power than 2600k. Are we expecting to see overclockers successfully run it at 6.0-8.0ghz out of the box?

[82mm 4g63]

Originally Posted by WingsofWar

Thanks so much for the advice! Socket 2011 sounds very very enticing to wait for at the end of the year paired with a Core i7 3930K. I truely feel like ill benefit with a 6core processor over a quad because of the applications i want to run. If i was just thinking of gaming, benchmark tests suggests that core for core 2600k/2700k is the best thing on the market. and i would have just gone with the LGA1115+2600k.

After some reading, im going to sell the i7980 and get some cash back. I was talking to an animator friend of mine in california that works on movies and he said that the best computers in the office for rendering 3D and film are not built from consumer grade processors and GPUs.

Id love to get my hands on some of that, but the cost for industry processing computer parts are astronomical.

Also the new SB-E processors only run on water now? Im really confused as the 2600k overclocked at 5.0ghz is stable on air. What makes SB-E needs water when i cant see it pumping out more heat or power than 2600k. Are we expecting to see overclockers successfully run it at 6.0-8.0ghz out of the box?

My pleasure. The SB-E won't ONLY run on LC, but that's what Intel is pushing/recommending. Intel's working with Asetek, the same company who made the Corsair Hydro H70 LC kit to make an Intel TM'd LC kit.



I'm pretty damn excited about the next few generations of Intel chips. I'm still not sure if I want to go with s2011 or s1155. Considering the Ivy Bridge chips will be 100% backwards compatible with the current SB/SB-E chips I might go with a "lesser" processor (2600k/2700k) now and upgrade to the big dog IB/IB-E in a year or so. Also with Quad Channel Memory controllers I'll definitely be going with a 16GB configuration.

[82mm 4g63]

I'm going to be building my new Christmas present, this is what I'm thinking so far.

Intel Core i7 2600k {$315}
- [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16819115070]
MSI Z68A-GD65 {$180}
- [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16813130611]
G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1600 16GB Quad Channel {$110}
- [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16820231315]
XFX HD 6950 {$250}
- [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16814150524]
Corsair Professional Series HX750 {$150}
- [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16817139010]
Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB SATA3 {$150}
- [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16822136792]
Crucial M4 128GB SATA3 SSD {$228}
- [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16820148448]
Samsung Blu-ray Combo {$60}
- [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16827151222]
Centon IntiniTV 4 Quad-tuner Card {$300}
- [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16815706001]
Logitech diNovo Mini Bluetooth Mini Keyboard {$124}
- [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16823126039]

= $1850 ish

It's going to be my gaming rig and HTPC. If there's anything left from my bonus I really want a second TV to go dual monitor with.

[serialk11r]

YIKES intel pushing for liquid cooling? Okay Asetek, eh could be worse. They had some okay watercooling stuff a very long time ago from what I remember. But honestly, a 120mmx120mm radiator is not going to get very far either. IMO Intel should move to slightly larger heatsinks for stock processors, their stock heatsinks were pretty pathetic in the past being just a copper core with aluminum fins.

Also sucks to hear AMD is still slacking...we need more competition in this industry.

[82mm 4g63]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

YIKES intel pushing for liquid cooling? Okay Asetek, eh could be worse. They had some okay watercooling stuff a very long time ago from what I remember. But honestly, a 120mmx120mm radiator is not going to get very far either. IMO Intel should move to slightly larger heatsinks for stock processors, their stock heatsinks were pretty pathetic in the past being just a copper core with aluminum fins.

Also sucks to hear AMD is still slacking...we need more competition in this industry.

The Corsair Hydra H70 (built by Asetek) was a pretty nice CPU LC kit, second only to Noctua. [Also developed the Antec Kuhler H20 920.] Intel's OE heat sinks are way more than adequate for OC'ing the Sandy Bridge chips (s1155). You can run 4.3GHz 24/7 on an 2600k without breaking a sweat. The 2600k OE cooler is very similar to the Arctic Cooler Pro 7 with a solid copper base, tower style and 3 heat pipes with a 92mm fan. The 2500k OE cooler isn't all as great, but still very capable. They have a built in thermal throttle so even if it starts creeping up to 90c it will turn it down a notch. They've made OC'ing easy and damn near fool proof for almost everyone.

Personally I like that they're pushing for LC, the more money going into the LC tech the more they'll be able to spend on R&D to improve upon it. Air cooling is pretty much tapped out.

Bulldozer was my last hope for AMD CPU's and they fail... hard. I'm now officially an Intel fan, they innovate and put their money where their mouth is. AMD should take a page from their new GPU department's book and quit playing catch up with their CPU's. I just don't see them ever competing with Intel, they don't have the resources to keep up. Oh well, go Intel.

[serialk11r]

I don't know about how these all in 1 WC kits are, but I remember water cooling pumps were the least reliable thing on earth. We have the Laing DDC which after several revisions still has problems, some mini 40 dollar DangerDen retail pump that had basically every single customer who gave it a rating come back to say it died...and then there's sealing. Most pumps that people used were not very good for watercooling at all, such as the D5, which is more of a low pressure pump. The DDC was fine, except a big proportion seemed to burn out and the ones that didn't had startup issues. Tubes tend to eventually stretch out, so I don't know if they can guarantee no leaks over the lifetime. I think it's a bit scary to package every CPU with something like this, when most consumers will have no idea what is there and that it probably needs a little more attention than an air cooling system.

But then again, if anyone were to bring a reliable product to the market, it would be Intel. I might just be overconcerned.

[82mm 4g63]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

I think it's a bit scary to package every CPU with something like this, when most consumers will have no idea what is there and that it probably needs a little more attention than an air cooling system.

But then again, if anyone were to bring a reliable product to the market, it would be Intel. I might just be overconcerned.

That's just it, they're not packaging the s2011 CPU's with any cooling solution, it's packaged separately. All they're doing is working with Asetek to make an entry level CPU LC kit. I'm hoping it will be severely marked down, maybe in the $40 range.

[WingsofWar]

almost done with a decent PC i can work with for a while (OMG LOTS OF READING AND LEARNING). Still waiting on someone to pick up my i7980. Im considering just waiting next year to build a PC since all the new stuff is just around the corner, ie: x79/LGA2011/Geforce GTX600/SB-Ei7/DDR3quad/PCIe3.0/ all power saving options vs older tech. I might as well drop a good 2k on a rig next year than attempt to build something good now.

Here is what iv got going so far
ASUS M4N78 Pro ($40)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0ghz windsor AM2 (free)
8G 2gx4 Crucial Ballistix Sport PC2-6400 ($80)
Variable 1G Nvida Geforce 8400GS 512mb GPU (FREE) Running Hybrid SLI with Nvida 8200 512mb mGPU
Using old IDE 80G@7200rpm WD HDD with ($10) IDEtoSATA converter.

I still need a decent CPU fan, im thinking of the;
Cooler Master Hyper N520 CPU Cooler - $30

[serialk11r]

Wait, DDR2? D: Are newer boards even backwards compatible?

[WingsofWar]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

Wait, DDR2? D: Are newer boards even backwards compatible?

apparently early AM3 and late AM2+ motherboards are backwards compatible with AM2 & AM2+ CPUs as long as they have DDR2 memory controllers like the AM2+ board i bought.

BTW, a friend of mine just finished his gaming rig too with a i5 2500k 8g g.skill DDR3 and a GTX460. I loaded Maya and AutoCad onto his computer assuming his shit would run them well. Well fuck me sideways they actually run like shit with 20fps max. And his PC can run Crysis flawlessly. I couldn't believe it. I did some searching and forum lurking and it appears that even though GTX cards are powerful they run workstation opengl like garbage. Geforce GTX is definitely a gaming card, not a processing card. And Im affraid im going to have to get the +$400 Quadro 2000 cards or Nvidia Tesla Cards to run the programs i want well.

[82mm 4g63]

Originally Posted by WingsofWar

I couldn't believe it. I did some searching and forum lurking and it appears that even though GTX cards are powerful they run workstation opengl like garbage. Geforce GTX is definitely a gaming card, not a processing card. And Im affraid im going to have to get the +$400 Quadro 2000 cards or Nvidia Tesla Cards to run the programs i want well.

lol. Yeah, good luck with that. The quality cards are ridiculously expensive. At least you can see first hand how a consumer/gamer card works as a workstation gpu. A lot can be said for workstation drivers.

[WingsofWar]

OMG NVIDIA! you upset me to no end! so i was looking at workstation card prices and stats with a friend of mine at his apt. And another friend of his walked in and said, "why are you looking at workstation cards?" I told him i need to build a 3d rendering PC. and he said.."are you stupid? just get a Geforce card for a fraction of the price and softmod it to run Quadro Drivers" im like.....wtf is softmodding?

Apparently Gaming cards and workstation cards share equivalent hardware. Ie my Geforce 8400GS is the same card as Quadro FX370 worskstation card. Difference is the drivers. All i have to do is use a program to trick the graphics card to run a different driver.

Well FUCK ME TO HIGH HEAVEN! i was all ready to put down $1200 for a workstation card too! and now your telling me i can get a superclocked GTX580 for a fraction of my budget and run a $3000+ Quadro 6000 graphics driver? I can run games AND 3d programs at the same time?

CHRIST!