Out of Pod Experience

So I decided to break the bank a little and build a new rig. While unorthodox, in my opinion, to make a forum post about building a new PC, I feel a little special about it this time around and thought I'd share it with others who may a) give a crap b) are thinking of using the same or similar parts or c) are bored at work.

So the reason I feel special about this build is because it's the first "expensive" build I've done. All my other computer builds have been sub-$400's. This time around the Executive Commander of the house (read: wife) is gratiously allowing me to build something a bit higher than that. Here's the parts list:

CPU: Intel Core i7-2600 Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost)
Motherboard: MSI H67A-G43 (B3)
RAM: Pareema 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM
PSU: APEVIA ATX-CB700W 700W
Graphics: 2x ECS NGTX550TI-1GPLI-F1 GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB
HDD: 2x 320GB SATA6 7200 RPM in RAID 0
Antec 900 Case
Bunch of other unimportant shite.

I was really impressed with the CCP Presents portion with tesselation and all that, so I'm looking forward to being prepared. All in all it's about a $1,300 build. Parts should be in next Thursday.

You're an early adopter of the technology required for DirectX11 and Tesselation as it pertains to use in EVE Online, but I think you'll see the benefits elsewhere. Not sure how long it will be before/if that happens as it is just speculation at this time. Granted, I think it must happen, but that is because I see it as inevitable.

I've never heard of Pareema RAM - Kingston HyperX works fine in my experience and is usually cheaper.

Apevia scares me - Power Supplies are very important; particularly given Intels CPUs seem to be increasing in sensitivity and are potentially susceptible to death by psu..

I assume you mean WD Black HDDs - Sadly I don't have anything good to say about any HDDs

MSI is making reasonably decent boards these days. The funny thing is you picked one that didn't support SLI for Nvidia cards.

Antec 900? Cooler Master makes some half decent cheap cases.

CPU is good and I hope the P67 chipset has some vast improvements over P55

There is no such thing as unimportant shite when it comes to building a proper PC

edit: That PSU really is pathetic. Just because it offers 700W doesn't mean it is anywhere near good. Also, ECS? You scare me.

In short, go check out some forums that focus on the PC Building and OCing. Ask some questions and find out what is best and right for you. There are some things you just don't want to do when building a PC, and tossing in lowest end components on top of expensive high-end components is one of them. (i.e: i7 2600 with a $39 PSU)

The chassis doesn't matter too much, but it is where you are going to be building. If it is cramped or awkward it is just going to cause problems. Look for an 80 Plus PSU. It doesn't have to be expensive but it should at least have some ratings qualification and decent consumer reviews.

If you're looking at Nvidia cards, 560 is pretty standard performance and reasonable priced. There is no reason you should need two of them. Save some money and buy a GPU from a good manufacturer with some guarantee behind it. I always recommend EVGA.

MSI probably makes the best mid-range boards right now, covering features and value, as well as providing good stability and the expectation that they won't just suddenly stop working. Consider motherboards intended to support PCI Express 3.0; nothing wrong with being a bit future proof, even if there isn't a CPU on the platform that supports it, now or within current projections last I checked.

Buy a good CPU cooler, (HSF), and expect it to cost you a bit. Build your base computer with an eye for quality and support, and upgrade from there later if you eventually decide you want two GPUs in SLI, or one for GPU and one for PhysX, or whatever other combination you decide you may want to do. Same applies to HDDs, SSDs, RAM, etc.. Even your chassis.

It's not really the number of PCIe slots that determines Crossfire or SLI but whether it has built in support for it. If you look at the manufacturer specs, most of them will tell you if it does or not and whether it supports 2 8x, 1 16x + 2 8x, etc..

EVGA has good forums, and there are some others that really get into it, but you can find most of them from there with a quick question in the right place. http://forums.evga.com

Have a look at EVGA mate, i got me a nice setup with an SR2 at home.

Two things I change, a different PSU brand like Antec, Coolermaster or Corsair and go with a 560ti instead of two 550s as the 550 is a overclocked 460.

Agreeing with the those who advise that you should cancel that order if it is still possible. The two biggest offenders are of course the PSU and the MB, but you should also reconsider the SLI 550's. On top of that, you are over paying by about 20-40% at the price you listed. Where are you trying to order these components from?

Looking at an I5 build may also be a good option for you unless you plan on doing something that absolutely needs the extra cores of the I7 (EVE certainly does not.)

hmm.. Hyper-Threading isn't the only benefit of an i7 processor, but regarding that, I have had activity on all 8 cores, (4 real and 4 virtual), with no more than Windows and IE running. If that's the case, how useless do you really think it is?

edit: I suppose it's more appropriate to say 8 virtual cores on 4 real cores, but it is most often just referred to as 4+4.

That said, i5 is fine for most uses-including gaming-but keep in mind that it does have other limitations that may or may not matter depending on whether you need them for other stuff.

I have no idea what you are talking about with that last bit or how it is even relevent here. AMD underperforms, and just doesn't make the cut. They're not even cheap anymore.

Thanks for all the input, guys. I've put a cancel on the order and re-ordered with some tweaks mentioned here. Of those, I changed these parts:

Motherboard: MSI Z77MA-G45
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Series EA-750 Green 750W
CPU Cooler: ZALMAN CNPS9500 AT 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink

And of course, with all builds I've ever done, I always use Arctic Silver for my thermal paste. I am keeping the i7 because I will definitely be using the extra oomf. I'm a software developer and I utilize Linux (Gentoo, more specifically), so I will definitely benefit during compiles. The RAID setup is largely from the fact that ever since I started using RAID, I've fallen in love with the access performance. Mostly a preferential thing. I don't need bigger harddrives initially as I mostly pull from my NAS, do my work locally, and recommit to NAS, syncing through my SVN. That, of course, is all work-related though. For games, of which EVE is the major game in place besides a few others, [EDITED OUT] I broke and ordered the EVGA 560 Superclocked. Gonna RMA the two 550's.


EDIT: I did take the time to read this, so it's interesting to note that the performance is definitely higher on the 560's.

Yeah I went ahead and ordered the EVGA Superclocked 560. Looking at the specs, it is very superior. I'm just going to RMA back the 550's. I don't see where I needed SLI to begin with other than to say I SLI, but it looks like the 560, at least from some article I remember reading somewhere just now, apparently gives 550's in SLI a run for their money.

I've heard of and know someone that does some fancy piping with gcc to their graphics card. I'm definitely going to look into that. Thanks for the reminder.

According to NewEgg and the Antec website, the PSU is 80 Plus Certified at Bronze, though the Antec site doesn't expressly state the Bronze part of the certification. All in all, every build I've done has been with Antec, so I'm sure this time around it'll be the same high quality. I only picked something else this time because I'm ******** and brain farted.

I thought about the new Intel processor class coming out, and while I'd love to upgrade at that time, I'm not guessing my processor will be the first thing to upgrade. I use to be that kid who bought parts every week and kept upgrading, but not so much now. Plus for EVE and what I do, I'm sure that the Sandy will do just fine for many years to come. I definitely have it in mind, though. Truth be told I'm a little broke right now until I RMA some of those replaced parts, anyway, so ordering more parts again is kind of out of the question :P