New Build

[motoman]

Well after a lot of shopping around for different components, I've finally put together (on paper) a system that should last me the next few years with room for upgrades. TxRedneck is going to help me out with a little bit of OC'ing, I hear that eight core will do 5Ghz without any issues. As of right now this comes in at right under $850 before tax when bought from Micro Center. I'll be picking up the first round of components this afternoon.

CM 690 II Advanced Mid Tower ATX Computer Case

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0328082

GA-990FXA-UD3 Socket AM3+ 990FX ATX AMD Motherboard

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0366425

FX 8120 Black Edition 3.1GHz Eight-Core Socket AM3+ Boxed Processor

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0375765

High Current Gamer 620 Watt ATX Modular Power Supply

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0383861

Hyper 212 EVO Universal CPU Cooler

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0373900

Ballistix Sport 8GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) CL9 Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit (Two 4GB Memory Modules)

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0382101

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Superclocked 2048MB GDDR5 PCIe 2.0 x16 Video Card

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0373506

Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-60G 60GB SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) with SandForce 2281 Controller

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0364779

Samsung 22X DVD±RW Burner with Dual Layer Support

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0382892

[roliath]

how much are you gonna be spending total? nvm, saw $850. not a bad setup. I'm iffy on that SSD, but for that price its too hard to pass up. And if you are dead set on Nvidia, wait a few weeks (unless you need the stuff now) and get a 660, or save a bit and go 7850.
Oh and also, BE THAT GUY and have them price match against all etailers (newegg/amazon/tigerdirect) and you may save some cash. Dead serious.

edit: microcenter has 20% off on all samsung ssd's right now too.

[motoman]

how much are you gonna be spending total? nvm, saw $850. not a bad setup. I'm iffy on that SSD, but for that price its too hard to pass up. And if you are dead set on Nvidia, wait a few weeks (unless you need the stuff now) and get a 660, or save a bit and go 7850.
Oh and also, BE THAT GUY and have them price match against all etailers (newegg/amazon/tigerdirect) and you may save some cash. Dead serious.

I'm new to the SSD market, that seemed the best bang for the buck. Only plan is to put Windows 7 on that SSD, everything else will be on another hard drive I already have. I'm pretty set on nVidia, their cards are pretty much the cards I know, and the video card will probably be the last thing I pick up. Will the 660's be dropping in price in the next few weeks?

[motoman]

edit: microcenter has 20% off on all samsung ssd's right now too.

I'll have to take a look at what they have.

[roliath]

The 660s should settle in price, they just came out (ti) so give it a few weeks. But all info says it's gonna be a beast.

[motoman]

The 660s should settle in price, they just came out (ti) so give it a few weeks. But all info says it's gonna be a beast.

Any idea of what it'll probably run? I really don't want to spend more than $300 on a card.

[roliath]

It launched at 300, but price gouging might put it at 4.

[motoman]

how much are you gonna be spending total? nvm, saw $850. not a bad setup. I'm iffy on that SSD, but for that price its too hard to pass up. And if you are dead set on Nvidia, wait a few weeks (unless you need the stuff now) and get a 660, or save a bit and go 7850.
Oh and also, BE THAT GUY and have them price match against all etailers (newegg/amazon/tigerdirect) and you may save some cash. Dead serious.

edit: microcenter has 20% off on all samsung ssd's right now too.

Turns out ALL SSD's are 20% off, so I spent a little more and went with this for $115. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227791

I spent the extra money because I'll be saving $50 when I buy my mobo/processor on promotion.

[roliath]

nice, I read the 4's were out and it made me realize just how little I used my vertex 3's.

[motoman]

This is my first time using a SSD as a primary drive and I'm eager to see how fast they are, especially when it comes to boot times.

[roliath]

keep in mind boot times are also affected by hardware. on one gpu and one ssd, my system boots incredibly fast. with 7 ssd's 1 hdd and 3 gpu's, shit gets slow at least when my board is being a dick about things.

since this is your first ssd (as primary), i'm sure it'll be like "why haven't I done this before." ssd's are a game changer imo, best bang for buck upgrade for most any system.

[Veight7]

Don't know if this is still the case or not since it's been over a year but when I bought my OCZ it was recommended that I flash it at least 3 times and then download the latest firmware using it as a slave drive before loading windows on it. Just FYI

[motoman]

These are only $30 more than the card I picked... Will it be worth the extra $30?http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130810

[Tx Redneck]

Based on the review from Tom's Hardware, the extra cash is very much worthwhile.

http://m.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-ti-benchmark-review,3279-3.html

Saved and Texan by the Grace of God, Redneck by choice.

[roliath]

IF you can get it 300 now, jump on it.
It goes toe to toe with 670's, the 670 is lost in this market now that the 660 is out imo. No one in their right mind would buy a 670, and the cost to get a 680 over a 660 is ridiculous.


for $40 bucks more, you can get 1gb more of vram.
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Galaxy-GeForce-Express-Graphics-66NNH7DV6WXZ/dp/B008PFE4CW?tag=hardfocom-20[/ame]
review here

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/08/16/galaxy_geforce_gtx_660_ti_gc_3gb_video_card_review