The ULTIMATE $600 build!!!

Chixofnix · Dec 28, 2009

[EDIT: Prices below are from zipzoomfly on 12/28/2009. Links have been added to each item mentioned as a manner of showing how to best present what you're considering, and will likely become dead over time. ~chixo]
[EDIT: Thanks to both EarthDog and Xtreme Barton for your timely assistance!]
...Well, not a complete build, but the parts I need

! I'm at that point-of-purchase, and as always I like to share and subject my hours of research/fretting/number-crunching to be ripped apart by your collective cold criticisms...
(masochistic? perhaps... :sly:

) (j/k)

I've included my justifications for each component after the summary. Please do bring up anything I may not be clearly considering or wherever I may go awry!

Overall Price Summary:

PSU - 80 (w/ rebate - Expires 12/31/09)

MBD - 94

GPU - 160

CPU - 180

RAM - 74 (w/ rebate - Expires 12/31/09)

587 total after rebates
(Budget: 600 max)
(563 total with the combo alternative discussed below)

Component Breakdown:

(PSU) ENERMAX ELT620AWT-ECO - $79.99 (Link)

Quiet

Modular

620W is nearly double the capacity this build requires, but crossfire and possibly 6core AM3 upgrades are future expected upgrades.

VERY favorable review at jonnyguru: (Link)

$79.99 after $50 rebate

(MBD) GIGABYTE GA-MA785GT-UD3H - $98.99 (Link)

AM3/DDR3 board

Great onboard sound

PATA means I can reuse my disc drive and recover friends' old drives easily.

Crossfire potential, though with whatever performance hit 16x/4x might entail (?)

Reviews are favorable for overclocking/value: (Link)

(GPU) SAPPHIRE HD 5770 - $159.99 (Link)

Plays today's game very well at 1900x1200.

I'm making DX11 a futureproofing priority for this build, unfortunately currently knocking nVidia out of the running.

I know the 5850 is a better futureproof option but I can't justify today's inflated prices from availability.

5770's are happily dropping in price post-Christmas!

(CPU) Phenom II X4 965 (3.4GHz) Black Edition - $179.99 (Link)

New C3 stepping - 125W instead of 140W - great for overclocking thermal headroom

3.40 GHz

4 cores

(Limited Time AMD deal) Game Freebies: Operation Flash Point, Grid, Dirt (Link)

At MSRP, I reckoned the 965 to be a red herring with dissappointing performance, but at ~$180 this is much more attractive. Here's a review showing at stock it's in the same ballpark as the i7 series: (Link)

EarthDog graciously pointed out the 955, which is the same thing @ 3.2Ghz stock, should be considered, but I reckon the +$15 difference is worth the free games and 200Mhz (plus I'm still under budget).

(RAM) OCZ Gold Kit (2x2Gb) - $73.99 (Link)

DDR3

PC1600

2x2Gb

Simply the cheapest kit I could find with the above 3 credentials.

Between 1066/1333/1600 speeds, 1333 is generally the best performance:dollar ratio for those not overclocking, but 1600 is a headroom prerequisite for overclocking Phenoms (thanks Earthdog!).

$73.99 after $30 rebate

I know the CPU is approaching i5 territory in price (~$200), but this CPU-splurge (from an intial CPU budget of ~$130) is more a result of not having the funds to make the next logical GPU step (5850). I gather both the i5 and X4 965 are in "overkill" territory regarding today's games at 1900x1200 and below.

My latent concern is the motherboard actually... it seems ideal in every respect except the second GPU slot is x4... how much of a hit would that be in fps for a future crossfire?

Is there anything here you'd suggest re-visiting? Any give-and-take between components to keep everything under the $600 mark?

PS: I tried to make this post exemplary regarding clarity - This drive is in the interest of suggesting a template for "advise my build" type posts to assist others with formatting... any thoughts? mods?

EarthDog · Dec 28, 2009

IMHO of course...

1. 965 is a waste of money, get a 955.
2. DDR3 1600 should be the standard for air/water overclocking, 1333 for not overclocking.
3. The x4 slot will not slow down a 5770 really. The 5770 is only as fast as a GTX260 216 or so. Anything more than that and it will likely be a significant bottleneck.
4. Not so sure on teh quality of that PSU either. I know the high end enermax (think 1kw) are solid, but I recall the lower models not being as good. Someone please correct me if I am wrong. EDIT: If JG said its ok, then its OK....

Chixofnix · Dec 28, 2009

EarthDog said:
1. 965 is a waste of money, get a 955.

Okay, $15 savings for -200MHz, I can dig

EarthDog said:
2. DDR3 1600 should be the standard for air/water overclocking, 1333 for not overclocking.

I'd like to respectfully request your elaboration! These results have me thinking the $25+ premium from 1333 to 1600 is not worth the minimal gains in terms of gaming frames-per-second, all other things being equal...

EarthDog said:
3. The x4 slot will not slow down a 5770 really. The 5770 is only as fast as a GTX260 216 or so. Anything more than that and it will likely be a significant bottleneck.

To clarify, I'm concerned a second 5770 down the road, then running 16x/4x PCIe, would be significantly bottlenecked relative to 8x/8x or 16x/16x... is that a valid concern?

EarthDog said:
4. Not so sure on teh quality of that PSU either. I know the high end enermax (think 1kw) are solid, but I recall the lower models not being as good. Someone please correct me if I am wrong. EDIT: If JG said its ok, then its OK....

I'm in the same boat

I know enough to know there's a lot I don't know regarding PSU's... so I also defer to jonnyguru ^_^

EarthDog · Dec 28, 2009

2. I was talking about under within the context of OVERCLOCKING only. The performance difference is negligable at best as your link describes. However when overclocking you need the headroom on the ram. So again, if you are not overclocking DDR3 1333 is fine. If you plan on overclocking on air/water, get DDR3 1600.

Chixofnix · Dec 28, 2009

EarthDog said:
2. I was talking about under within the context of OVERCLOCKING only. The performance difference is negligable at best as your link describes. However when overclocking you need the headroom on the ram. So again, if you are not overclocking DDR3 1333 is fine. If you plan on overclocking on air/water, get DDR3 1600.

Thanks very much for clarifying

! I might invest the nominal CPU savings towards faster RAM then. I do not expect to overclock heavily, but I would like to take advantage of whatever my chip can achieve.

In summary, you're advising between:

3.4Ghz X4 CPU + 1333 RAM
3.2Ghz X4 CPU + 1600 RAM

You'd suggest the latter option? I do not intend to overclock any more than stock cooling will reasonably allow (hoping for approximately +400Mhz), at least until games come along that are severely hindered by this CPU. At that point in the future I will juice this silicon for whatever it's worth if that's the economical option vs. a complete swap =).

EarthDog · Dec 28, 2009

If one is to overclock, yes. Frankly the 965 is just a waste of cash when the 955 BE will hit the same clocks. The price difference was much different last time I checked though.

Xtreme Barton · Dec 28, 2009

where are you pricing your hardware at ? just curious ..people are gonna get annoyed with me on this but bing baby bing !!

EarthDog · Dec 28, 2009

I was wondering that myself (the prices are NOT from newegg I can tell you that as I looked). If you are planning on submitting this as a prospect to the staff here as a template, you would want to include links to things and typed out properly.

For example, instead of doing this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202&cm_re=i7_920-_-19-115-202-_-Product

You can do this: i7 920 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202&cm_re=i7_920-_-19-115-202-_-Product

Or best option: i7 920

Chixofnix · Dec 28, 2009

Xtreme Barton said:
where are you pricing your hardware at ? just curious ..people are gonna get annoyed with me on this but bing baby bing !!

Primarily zipzoomfly and secondarily newegg. Most prices I'm referencing reflect "combo deals" that only show up when you add things to your cart.

Are you finding some significantly better deals? I spent a bit of time finding these so I'd love for you to share :bday:

!

After I hit "buy," I will edit the original post with appropriate links for those in a similar boat, but for now it seems like too much work while things are still semi-fluid

[EDIT] Here's a screengrab for the moment of my zipzoom cart since you're curious

. The 129.99 PSU has the $50 rebate.

Xtreme Barton · Dec 28, 2009

Chixofnix said:
...

Are you finding some significantly better deals? I spent a bit of time finding these so I'd love for you to share !

only on my setup compared to a newegg only shopping cart

.. i havent looked for your hardware yet but i can say i found som fantastic deals that bumped my future rigs specs up to a huge smile !! ill take a look and see what i can find

EarthDog · Dec 28, 2009

Cool Chix....!

Thing is though, some people prefer to order from one place....I know Id rather pay $20 more to order from one place, though I have been known to be an idiot sometimes... LOL!

Xtreme Barton · Dec 28, 2009

i usually fill an egg cart an then go from there .. if i can save 20.00 bucks i will (but not if it means going to a no namer to buy) .. i then treat myself to an 18pack so i can get ridiculously bubbly and kick over drinks next to my new hardware and have my life flash before my eyes numerous times within an hour .. or ill just see if i can get a better piece of hardware with that 20.00 ..

Chixofnix · Dec 28, 2009

Lo! It looks like I'm able to find a 4Gb 1600 speed kit for LESS than 1333!

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10008735

With that my total still chimes in under the 600 mark, "wasteful" 965 included (noting the +$15 for 200Mhz also comes with 3 free modern games... kinda evens it out if I end up liking one of them!)

Looks like my entire order is from zzf this time around folks... (OP is now edited with updated prices).

Xtreme Barton · Dec 28, 2009

cool !! congrats !! always nice to get some games to mess with

Chixofnix · Dec 28, 2009

Okay. First post reflects the updated and "ready to buy" build, unless anyone can come up with something else I haven't considered =). I'm hitting "buy" before I go home today, so speak up if you've got somethin' to say

!

Xtreme Barton · Dec 28, 2009

you better hit buy now that way your cc is processed sooner and you get your new toys possibly faster

bok bok bok bahhhhhhGOOOOOKKKKK .... do it ...do it ...

Chixofnix · Dec 28, 2009

The deed is done

I will update the OP with specific links now... I'm still very open to any suggestions regarding making my first post an example/template for others interested in a clean presentation to follow!

deRusett · Dec 28, 2009

Sorry to be late to the game

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.308218

this combo deal at Newegg would have been awesome for you,
that Mobo is a killer mobo,

Chixofnix · Dec 29, 2009

deRusett said:
Sorry to be late to the game

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.308218

this combo deal at Newegg would have been awesome for you,
that Mobo is a killer mobo,

That's what I get for being decisive... :rain:

Well I'm still a happy camper, as it's not a big difference for the moment, but I do think in retrospect that this newegg combo (which I did consider and re-consider) may be the better buy.

Here's the breakdown:

Relative to the ZZF components above, the newegg deal...

(-) Does NOT come with three games

(-) Includes a CPU which is 200Mhz slower at stock (negligible really)

(+) Has a motherboard with better crossfire potential - 8x/8x instead of 16x/4x

(+) $14 cheaper

jgv115 · Dec 29, 2009

I think the previous deal with the 3 games is worth it.

3 games is quite expensive

The ULTIMATE $600 build!!!

Member

Gulper Nozzle Co-Owner

Member

Gulper Nozzle Co-Owner

Member

Gulper Nozzle Co-Owner

Member

Gulper Nozzle Co-Owner

Member

Attachments

Member

Gulper Nozzle Co-Owner

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Similar threads