Sir Arun

Alright guys, here are the two finalists. I'm torn between which of them I would want to buy. I'm planning to do a lot of gaming (like Crysis) at high resolutions (1920 x 1200) with my new PC, and am not much of a graphical/video editor. Please tell me which one to purchase:

Tower: NZXT Crafted Series Apollo, black

Power Supply Unit: 850 Watt THERMALTAKE ToughPower SLI-Ready

Processor: INTEL Core 2 Quad 9650/3.00 GHz, LGA775 12 MB Cache, FSB 1333

Cooling: ZALMAN CNPS-9700 AT

Motherboard: Asus P5QL PRO FSB1600 Intel P43

RAM: 4096MB DDR2-RAM, PC2-800 MHz, CL4 OCZ Titanium (64-Bit OS required)

Graphic Card: GeForce GTX295, 1792MB DDR3 896-Bit Dual DVI HDMI HDCP

Hard Drive: 1 TB SAMSUNG SpinPoint F1 7200rpm SATA 32MB Cache

Disc Drive (read + write): LG GH-22LS, LightScribe SATA DVD-writer, black, SecurDisc

Soundcard: Onboard Sound (5.1)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit

Price: 1455 €



and the other finalist is:



Tower: Coolermaster Storm Sniper Tower

Power Supply Unit: 800 Watt HIPER

Processor: INTEL Core i7-920 4x 2.66 GHz overclocked to 4x3.66 GHz

Cooling: Asetek internal watercooling

Motherboard: not specified (I'm guessing one that supports i7 technology)

RAM: 4096MB DDR3 Dual Channel 1600 MHz (PC3-12800) (64-Bit OS required)

Graphic Card: GeForce GTX295, 1792MB PCI-E

Hard Drive: 1000 GB 7200rpm SATA 16MB Cache

Disc Drive (read + write): 20x DVD+-RW Double Layer LightScribe writer

Soundcard: Onboard Sound (5.1)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit

Price: 1598.97 €



So which one to choose? For 100 Euro more, I get an overclocked i7 processor at 3.6GHz compared to a stock clock speed Q9650; DDR3 RAM instead of DDR2 and water cooling, so my computer will be a lot more silent, but I prefer the case of the first one. Any help would be appreciated!

Cheers

Tyree

Get a Mobo with a P45 chipset. The P5QL Pro is a very nice Mobo but the 24 pin PSU connector is in a very awkward location.
For gaming, get a Dual Core CPU. The E8500 is excellent.
The stock CPU cooling fan will be fine and will allow for some OC'ing in a well ventilated case.
The Hiper brand PSU, listed in the 2nd build, is NOT a quality PSU.
Water cooling is overpriced and most systems are as loud, if not louder, than air cooling.

linderman

295 is overkill .............285GTX is plenty



"my" money would be on the 275GTX Super Clocked instead

linderman

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...review-20.html

Sir Arun

I have to disagree...I've seen many sites with 295 benchmarks and almost all of them had the following result:

Crysis 1920 x 1200, all settings set to very high, DX10, 4xAnti Aliasing

28 - 32 FPS.

Now that is playable; anything below 25 FPS and you won't enjoy the gameplay. It is true that the 295 is overkill even at such high resolutions for 97% of other games, but my main point was to buy an affordable (under 1600€) PC to play Crysis on a 26'' monitor (native resolution 1920 x 1200) and thus, anything below a GTX295 will force me to lower the resolution and that causes pixel stretching, which sucks.

As for the link you provided, the GTX280 scores between 22 and 30 FPS on a resolution of 1920x1080, not 1920x1200 and the test system used an Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9770 @ 3.852Ghz, compared to a 3.0GHz Q9650 which provided the benchmarks for the reviews of the GTX295 I had viewed.

What's more, the GTX295 will be more future-proof than other cards, in my opinion. I've read GTX295 benchmarks and usually the 295 is ahead by at least 10 FPS in all games, if not more. Thus, I'm happy with keeping the 295.

Cheers

Dacads

Definitely go with the 2nd one, like you said for that extra 100euros you will have 4GB DDR3, Intel I7 920 @ 3.66GHz and water cooling. You said you prefer the case in 1st option then use that for the 2nd option ;)

Sir Arun

How will that affect my gaming?

My other alternative would be the ASUS P5Q SE (P45), but both motherboards have a 2.0 PCi Express slot, so they won't bottleneck the GTX295, right?

Also, is a 850PSU really necessary? I thought 750W will do (I've heard others running Quads and GTX295s on 700W PSUs and below down to 650!)

Phædrus2401

It won't affect gaming, but it might make it difficult to put the system together.

PCIe x16 2.0 won't bottleneck anything.

An 850 watt PSU isn't completely necessary, but more power is better. You can *theoretically* run that system on a 400 watt PSU, but it won't last very long. My system only pulls ~300 watts at the wall running FurMark (though the meter I used was kind of old, not sure how accurate it is), but I wouldn't use less than 650 watts for it. It isn't that your graphics card is going to be using up 70A of current all the time, but your GPU and CPU can put massive picosecond demand on your PSU for current, and it needs to be able to supply it or you're going to suffer instability. You can get away with a quality 750 watt for that build and even do some decent overclocking on it, but 850 watts would be better, just for insurance.

Sir Arun

Ok, thanks for the info.

I'm also thinking of replacing the ZALMAN CNPS-9700 AT with a Scythe Mugen 2 cooler to save 16 euros; is that a good idea?

linderman

why would anyone even "thinking" about any video card which costs as much as the 260GTX or more even consider squeezing the power supply ?

what is the actual savings from the 850 to the 750 ?

Tyree

The ASUS P5Q SE has the PSU connector in same location but it does use the P45 chipset. It makes mounting an aftermarket CPU cooler very difficult.
Also, both of those boards are ATX and are 12" in height but they are only 7.6" wide as opposed to the standard 9.6". The RAM slots are also offset on both of those boards. Neither is a problem but it does crowd the board.
Zalman isthe better cooler. If you use an aftermarket CPU cooler, be aware that it does void the CPU warranty.
The Seasonic 750W and 850W are both the same price on Newegg ($180) and both have a $30 mail-in rebate that comes as a check...NOT a rebate card.

linderman

FWIW: Corsair 850-TX for $123.00

http://www.provantage.com/corsair-cm...x~7CSM900N.htm

Sir Arun

Well actually the place where I'll be buying my PC is a shop where they'll build it for me and I just select the components:

http://www.aki-tech.at/product_info....figurator.html

Yup, you guessed it - I'm not a native English speaker, but I think it should be pretty easy to see the components available in the configurator on that site.


The price difference between a 750W PSU and an 850W PSU is almost 50 Euros, so I thought I'd ask you guys.

But since the majority of you have said that the 850W provides smoother performance and, while not absolutely necessary, will be more future-proof (for overclocking or getting a better single video card), I think I'll stick with the 850W PSU.


If that is the case, will it be problematic installing the Scythe Mugen 2? And will there be more heat problems due to the more confined space?

From all the motherboards on the list of the site listed above, which one would you suggest?


Cheers