Hey guys. I've been wating to build a desktop for awhile now but I'v always been a bit uneasy about getting all the parts ordered. I want to build an absolute beast of a PC, top of the line. I have a budget for this project of about 10G.

Edit: And by the way, I sold the pre-built rig in my sig just in case there was any confusion haha

I've never built one from scratch, but I've taken enough apart to have some hints, including performing a motherboard-ectomy at one point:

Choose your motherboard and processor first. The type of case you pick will flow from that choice, since the case must accept the mobo, unless you want to build a custom case like one of these.

Then select the components (HDDs, optical drives, and so on) since the power supply must be strong enough to power all the internal components with juice left over in case you wish to add something later. Then choose the power supply.

Then put them all together.

I would recommend choosing a case that allows easy access to everything. I have one computer in a tower case in which the drive carriers block easy access to the area of the mobo where the drive cables plug in. Major hassle to add or remove drives.

Other than that, it's pretty much an issue of putting things in place, screwing them down tight, and plugging in cables.

Don't close up the case until you make sure everything works.

Newegg has published how-to videos. Here's the first; it links to the others.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPIXAtNGGCw

I would go for something about the rig in your sig, it is top of the line and I don't understand why you sold that. You will not get better parts at this time.

I would have to agree.

What exactly do you need it for anyway ?

10k? Well past the 'point of diminishing returns'. Spending half that amount will still give you a Very Fast Machine and to be honest I wouldnt even spend that much....

Most of those cases in the link are just modded 'standard' cases, not really custom...depepnding on your definition of 'standard' and 'custom'.

Not quite true, you can get 'better' parts- a nice i7-EE (extreme edition) and LGA 1366 board for starters. But I wouldnt, the i7-EEs are about $1K US for just the CPU, and they simply arent worth 3 times the cost of a i7-2600.

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Hi,

I tend to agree with my fellow LQ members! Define how you are going to USE the new machine. Exactly what are your needs?

We could look into our crystal balls but most are cracked therefore the vision is blurred. So we need more information from you in order to provide a solid recommendation.

You are right, the i7 990X would be faster, but not in a really significant way that would justify an upgrade from an LGA1155 machine with 2600K processor. If I really would need more computing power than a 2600K can deliver I would get a decent cooling system and overclock it to hell. According to the overclockers' forums most of them easily go over 4GHz (4,2 for a 2500K and 4.5 for a 2600K seem to be common), and I think that wouldn't be as easy with the 130W i7-EE and it may also be slower than a highly clocked LGA1155 CPU.
But of course overclocking is not for everyone .

Thanks for the feedback guys! I sold the rig I had because at the time we were going through some financial troubles. I'll use this rig for Fruity Loops and other audio editing progs (I need a good sound card with 7.1 surround sound) and playing every game I throw at it at 75 FPS on a 1080p monitor, I am quite demanding. I would be fine with a water cooled OCed rig, the more cooling the better if it will make my investment last. And as far as a custom case I don't really care about LEDs and glowing cases I wouldn't mind having such thing things but there not on my priority list.

Thanks again

Alright, so:

Processor:

The best i7 extreme is:
http://ark.intel.com/products/53478/...he-2_70-GHz%29
However, at a price of $1100 it is only very slightly better than the best i7:
http://ark.intel.com/products/53476/...he-2_50-GHz%29
at about $570
Certainly, I would go for the regular i7 and overclock if you want to. That would save a lot of money that you can use on cooling equipment.

Video Card:

I recommend nvidia...

GTX 590 = $750, it's probably the best card you can get.
GTX 560 Ti = $250, I would say it is the second best card you can get, and much cheaper too, and uses significantly less power. This is the one I would buy.

For your HDD, I guess if you want maximum performance you would get a SSD:
http://www.fastestssd.com/featured/s...-state-drives/
I would get #2 on that list.

EDIT:
For mobo, I would look at some ASUS boards. It depends on your preference tho.

Both of that are mobile CPUs and not for desktop systems. The best i7, as mentioned above, is the i7 990X (socket LGA1366, 6 cores, 12 MB cache, 3,46 GHz) for approximately 1000$ (US), but in my opinion it isn't worth the money.

I would do the same, but I also know already how to overclock properly. It is nothing that is done with only getting a better cooling system, you have to have the knowledge and money, since there a) isn't a guarantee that the CPU you got is good at overclocking, and b) your machine may fail at any given time with or without warning signs.
But since I got my Phenom II X6 I didn't bother with overclocking, just because I don't need more power.

May be the 580 (I know, you had already one) is also worth a try.


Before we can give you a good advice on hardware for your music making requirements we need more info, especially: Are the programs you used ready for multithreading. Many (Windows) tools for that purpose are not, and a quad- or hexacore CPU will not speed up things, better would be a really fast dual-core.
Games also seldom take advantage from more than four cores, so a hexacore machine will not bring that much for this purpose.

Oops, yeah, I must have clicked the wrong section.

You are right, the best one is the 2600:
http://ark.intel.com/products/52213/...he-3_40-GHz%29
Is this the right one, because it is supposed to cost $300. That would be very good.

Yes, that is the right one, together with the Phenom II X6 1100T (6 cores, 3,3GHz, 6MB L3 cache, 190$ at Newegg) this is the best bang for the buck you can get, IMHO.

Even with a GTX580, you'll find some games that wont play at 1920x1080 @ 75FPS if you run AA/AF/etc.

I'd consider going to 2 x GTX560 Ti card in SLI over a GTX570/580/590 if you are gaming with windows. BTW, I'm not a fan of SLI/crossfire, but in this case its possibly worth it. 2 x GTX560 Ti cards in SLI can outrun a GTX580, depending on the game.

For a good sound card, maudio or one of the asus cards is where I would be looking.

Unles you are going to build your own custom water cooling setup, dont bother with water cooling. Its not worth the hassle, and even the good kits are not much better than a good aircooler.

The i7 990X and 980X actually overclock very well, and considering that they are 'unlocked' they are probably better for overclocking than the i7-2600K. See here for a bit more info-

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...n,2874-13.html

Still, its simply not worth the extra cost IMO (and toms hardware agrees)

BTW, intel product page for the 990X is here-

http://ark.intel.com/products/52585

The K in Intels new product numbers as in 2500K and 2600K indicates that these CPUs have not a locked multiplicator.

Wow, didn't suspect those 130W CPUs to overclock that good. But to be fair, that wouldn't be the way I would test them, I would put the same good aftermarket cooler on all three CPUs and would try to reach the maximum stable frequency with staying under a given temperature (regardless if I have to increase voltage, as long as staying in a safe range with that) and after that I would benchmark them. And I would think that the 9XX CPUs will have serious heat issues if you have to increase the voltage on them.
But anyways, all three of them are fast enough for almost anything one has to do, I would think.

And I agree, too. But if anyone would give me such a platform for free

Ahh, yes, the 'K' series are the ones that are unlocked. Of course intel wont give you everything at that price-point, so the virtualisation hardware suppoort is disabled...

If you're actually intrested in overclocking 2600K vs 990X comparison with a bit more detail that isnt using 'stock' coolers, heres the place to look-

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu...600k-990x.html

Which makes the 990X look even worse IMO.

If I got given a 990X system, I'd sell it and buy something else.

I couldnt justify using a CPU worth at least $700 2nd hand when I can buy a complete and quite nice Phenom II X6 system for about that much.