Gordo's New PC: 2011

Post by **GORDON** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 11:55 am

Newegg has some interesting bundles now, but I was going through them, looking at each component, and I always wanted to bump up this thing, or that thing. My impression was that for every 2 great components, they threw in one that wasn't selling and they were trying to offload as part of a bundle.

So, I built my own system, as usual.

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    ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
    Item #: N82E16813131790
    Iron Egg Standard Return Policy

	$209.99
Shipping from NJ, USA  
   	1 	

    Logitech G510 Black USB Wired Gaming Keyboard
    Item #: N82E16823126100
    Standard Return Policy

	$88.99
   	2 	

    Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAKX 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
    Item #: N82E16822136770
    Standard Return Policy

	$189.98
($94.99 ea)
   	1 	

    Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 ...
    Item #: N82E16819115070
    CPU Replacement Only Return Policy

	$319.99
   	1 	

    Logitech Free World of Tanks In-Game Items
    Item #: N82E16800996702
    Standard Return Policy

	$25.00
   	2 	

    CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9
    Item #: N82E16820233144
    Memory Standard Return Policy

	$93.98
($46.99 ea)
   	1 	

    Cyberlink TRIPLE PLAY - Power Director 9 + MediaEspresso 6.5 + Photo Director 2011
    Item #: N82E16800992069
    Standard Return Policy

	$149.99
Shipping from TN, USA  
   	1 	

    EVGA 01G-P3-1561-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support FPB Video ...
    Item #: N82E16814130604
    VGA Standard Return Policy

	$249.99
   	1 	

    Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM
    Item #: N82E16832116986
    Software Standard Return Policy

	$99.99
   	1 	

    LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS424-98 LightScribe Support
    Item #: N82E16827106335
    Standard Return Policy

	$25.99
   	1 	

    Corsair Carbide Series 400R Graphite grey and black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Gaming Case
    Item #: N82E16811139008
    Standard Return Policy

	$99.99
   	1 	

    CORSAIR Gaming Series GS800 800W ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC High Performance Power ...
    Item #: N82E16817139025
    Standard Return Policy

Going RAID 0. Win 7 Home Premium, 64 bit, OEM. Spent a good long time trying to decide between the i5 and i7 CPU... i7 ultimately won out for having the extra layer of cache, and being better for hyperthreading. I love hyperthreading.

Could have done without all the overclock options, as I am not a fan (joke), but all the best stuff had the overclock options.

Going to try to stick with the air cooling since, again, I am not OCing. We'll see how it works.

16GB of RAM is going to be fun.

Shit, forgot a sound card.[/color]

Post by **Cakedaddy** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 1:00 pm

Micro Center has that CPU for $279.99 and recently had a sale where you would have gotten $60 off their $219.99 price for that mother board.

Caviar Black drives are their fast ones. Why so small on the hard drive?

If you aren't going to SLI, you could save a ton on the motherboard. In my brief look, I didn't see much of a difference between the motherboards. What do the high end boards have over the cheaper boards?

The two Lite-on drives I have bought both died VERY quickly. I stay away from them now.

I like Corsair stuff. I have a couple of their power supplies now and so far so good.

Post by **GORDON** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 1:02 pm

"Small" hard drive because I don't put any media or anything on my gaming machine. The 640 GB I am going to have in RAID 0 is 3 times more than I will ever need.

I go big storage on the file server.

And I want to keep my option for SLI at a later date.

Edited By GORDON on 1323540230

Post by **Cakedaddy** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 1:19 pm

For what it's worth, I've always said that too. Then I actually bought it and have it in place on my current machine. Two cards. I NEVER use it. You can't have dual monitors when using SLI and that sucks. Also, the cards have to be the same. And waiting to buy the second card could mean it's not available. Buying two new cards in the future is often a lower bang for buck than buying one better card with newer DX support, etc. I have found the SLI is over rated.

It's pretty easy to switch back and forth between SLI and non though. But I still never use it. Haven't even needed it. However, if you use two monitors and have icons on the desktop on both monitors, when you switch to SLI and one screen, it messes up your icons.

For my next machine, I'm going to skip the added price of a second card and SLI support on the motherboard and put it all into the biggest/best video card. Should end up with the same performance, or close to it for less money.

Lastly, I just read an article that some of the hard drive makers are coming back on line soon and drive prices are expected to drop. It may have been that article Leisher linked. But I'd still check out their 'Black' line of drives with the faster transfer rates.

Post by **GORDON** » Wed Dec 14, 2011 7:26 am

Ha, every other part is "Out for Delivery" with UPS, except my motherboard, which is still sitting in Columbus... which would be more amusing if it hadn't been sitting in Louisville, KY for a day and a half.

Still slightly amusing. Just happens to be the one part that I can't start building without.

Post by **TheCatt** » Wed Dec 14, 2011 7:48 am

Let us know how it turns out, I've been pondering upgrading my workstation/server for a while (I think it's still running an old Q6600).

Post by **GORDON** » Wed Dec 14, 2011 8:33 am

So far, so good. Newegg.com is the only online retailer that I am guaranteed to have a hard time getting my credit card... any credit card... approved. I don't think I ever placed a large order, and there have been several, that didn't immediately go into HOLD status because of payment method.

This time, the card wouldn't approve, and I tried it twice more after verifying my numbers/etc, and then Bank of America called me right then and asked if I was trying to buy something for X amount on newegg. They assumed it was fraudulent and wanted my verbal authorization. I actually kinda/sorta like that, might save me some hassle if I get mugged and the thief goes on an immediate shopping spree on newegg before I can get home and cancel the card.

So, there's that.

Post by **GORDON** » Wed Dec 14, 2011 9:35 pm

Oh, another goofy thing about newegg.com:

When putting together a system I have multiple tabs open, one for each component, so I can tab back and forth looking at specs to make sure everything is compatible.

I had a tab open to a case/power supply combo deal, and was tabbing looking at other case and PSs sold individually to see how they compare... and I accidentally closed my case/PS combo tab. I opened up another newegg tab, went to the page with the list of combo deals... and the one I was looking at was no longer listed. I double and triple checked... nope, wasn't listed. "Did they just sell the last damned one," I was wondering?

Closed that tab and went back in, and there it was, back in the list where I saw it the first time.

Post by **GORDON** » Sat Dec 17, 2011 2:18 pm

Spent the last 23 hours troubleshooting this thing after taking about an hour to build it.

There were no initial memory errors, which plagued me with the last system I built, so I was happy that there were no errors, at all. The thing just started booting immediately after I powered it on.

I had to go into BIOS first, of course, to tell it the boot priorities and stuff, and immediately after that I expected to go into RAID setup and tell it how to treat my HDDs. And I never got to that point, because you are supposed to hit CTRL+I at POST and then go into the utility... but I could never get in. I started hitting tech support forums on my phone, and found a couple people with the same problem, but no solution's that worked for me. Eventually got tired of the small screen and just loaded Win7 on the one HDD, so I could have a real system to browse on, and again, never found a solution.

Called ASUS MoBo tech support... surprised when I was oonly in the queue for about 5 minutes. Also surprised that it only took 3 minutes for them to tell me I had a broken RAID Controller, and to RMA it.

I hope that means that this is a common issue with this board, and that's why she had the answer so fast... not that she was just blowing me off and I will have the same issue in 10 days when the new mobo shows up.

Sigh.

I am now back on my old system, which is noisier and slower, but at least it has a working RAID Controller.

Post by **TheCatt** » Sat Dec 17, 2011 2:41 pm

Shit like that is why I haven't rebuilt my custom system in 3 years.

Hope the next mobo goes better.

Post by **GORDON** » Sat Dec 17, 2011 4:03 pm

I hope I remember this aggravation in 3 years and just have a prebuilt system shipped to me.

Post by **TheCatt** » Sat Dec 17, 2011 5:19 pm

LOL. Well, I've done 4 custom builds, and of those 4 at least 1 component was bad in 3 of them, and I fried a CPU in one of those too.

So I ordered a Dell XPS 9000 (or something) a few years ago, but then realized they used BTX instead of ATX motherboards, and it was barely expandable, etc. Thus why I did the last custom build (Need 16 hard drives, yes, I do).

Post by **GORDON** » Sat Dec 17, 2011 5:22 pm

I had to RMA the mobo of the last system I built a few years ago, but I forgot the frustration.

I wouldn't buy a Dell... PC Gamer mag is full of gamer systems that use "standard" sized parts. I'll pay more attention to those ads next time.

Post by **Cakedaddy** » Sat Dec 17, 2011 7:25 pm

I will take the frustration of getting the system built and solid over paying too much for a prebuilt system with bloatware and other shit on it. I rarely have problems with my custom builds, and I do one about every 2 years or so. Last prebuilt system I bought was a P266 Gateway machine.

I've only had to RMA one part. A power supply. Was on the phone for less than 5 minutes working through stuff. I've built at least 15 systems over the years. I've had shitty parts that sucked (a motherboard that wouldn't run at the correct FSB speeds) and things like that. But, I've had many prebuilt systems like that over the years as well. I've since learned who to buy and who not to buy.

Post by **TheCatt** » Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:21 pm

Bloat ware just means reinstall OS. That's nothing compared to a build.

Lately though(my last two machines), I've been buying laptops, so there is no DIY

Post by **TPRJones** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 9:33 am

I've never had to RMA a part for my computer.

Although it probably helps that I don't just build a whole new computer every few years. I built my first custom system in '95 and I've just been upgrading it ever since. The closest I come to what you might call building a new one is when I upgrade the mobo/CPU, but even then it's usually the only part to get swapped at the time.

It's been a good system. I don't think there's a single piece of it that's still original from '95, though.

Post by **GORDON** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 11:37 am

"I still use the axe my great grandfather made with his bare hands in 1885. The handle has been replaced 4 times and the head twice, but it is my grandfather's axe."

Not being pissy, just sharing a quote I read a while back.

Post by **TPRJones** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 12:49 pm

Yeah, I can't disagree, but the alternative to saying I still have the same computer from 1995 is saying I've gotten a brand new computer twice every year, except it had all but one component be the same one from the computer before it. Which is just as incorrect. There is no clear way to characterize the discontinuity, or lack thereof.

Post by **GORDON** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 10:17 pm

Built, RAIDed, and loading stuff.

Post by **GORDON** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 7:57 pm

Everything seems to be good, except possibly the LAN adapter. Doesn't seem to be fast enough. Yes, brought my drivers up to date.

I guess the only way to test it is going to be to move some big files over the network. How fast should a gigabit LAN be moving files? Earlier I was moving my "backup" folder over to the new system and I was only seeing about 40 Mb/S.