best laptop for the money

[starship_troopers]

hell, i also saw some more pros and cons for each card....pros for the 590: better tesselation, physx, quieter Cons: higher power consumption, if you have the wrong drivers and try to OC it, it goes KA BOOM! (saw this happen).

pros for the 6990: equal performance, a few bucks cheaper, lower power usage. Cons: screen tearing/flickering on some games, loud ass fan, not as good with physx (and most games have a bias towards nvidia performance lmao.)

have always been leaning towards the 6990 anyway, but thinking about the 590gtx at this current moment due to the physx and small things like that...but i swear if it blows up, im gonna fly out to nvidia headquarters and shove the card where the sun dont shine!

[RTB]

Your choice of video card really depends on what resolution you play at. At the moment pretty much any midrange current-generation card from nvidia/ati can run any game at 1920*1080 and the higher models have no problems with 2560*1600. As for the CPU, currently there's no real need to go beyond an i7-2600k or even a i5-2500k with a good cooler to run either chip at 4.5Ghz or so, because as you increase the graphics settings any new game becomes mostly GPU-limited. I'm no fan of crossfire/sli because a single card is always more efficient, and it's less buggy too.

On the laptop side, there isn't much to specifically recommend as it's a real mess. As long as you get a 1366*768 screen (which by the way is pathetic in various ways) most midrange cards should work, if you go 1920*1080 things get tricky because the card needs to be beefier and that causes lots more heat and power usage. For CPU you don't have to look beyond intel's i5-2xxx or i7-2xxx series, which can be dual core (with hyperthreading) or quad core (with and without hyperthreading). If you care about battery time nvidia seems to have the advantage with Optimus, but there is no way to see if a laptop has implemented that before buying and testing it. Optimus shuts off the video card entirely reducing idle usage. Ati has a similar technology but doesn't advertise it as well, and it's hard to find info on which laptops have it.

Edit: Note to self: when checking out a thread, don't forget to click the second page before replying. Facepalm-inducing, really.

[Blako]

Nice to see you've done your home work Ryan. Yes Ati's cards give better game performance per watt then nvidia's. IF your encoding tool uses 12 threads that's only 25% more then the 2600k while costing hundreds more. Are the programs your going to use compatible with 12 threads? As you most likely know games prefer cpu frequency to cpu threads. Also the coming launch of a Radeon 7970 might change the prices of the Radeon 6990.

Tomshardware said:

Best PCIe Card For ~$750: None

Despite a less-than-ideal price/performance ratio, we used to give props to the two fastest graphics cards on the planet: the dual-GPU equipped Radeon HD 6990 and GeForce GTX 590. Those cards are at the end of their life cycles though, and even though the new Radeon HD 7970 isn't available yet, we can't recommend those older flagships now that we've seen what the next generation will do.

I already answered your ati vs nvidia folding question on the folding page.

Stanford Said:

Due to a difference in the implementation (in part due to hardware differences), the ATI code must do two force calculations where the x86, Cell, and NVIDIA hardware need only do one.

Bit-Tech Said

radeon 6990 8k ppd @ 450 watts

nvidia 460gtx 9k ppd @ 215 watts

nvidia 590gtx 25k ppd @ 420 watts

[starship_troopers]

true. thanks for the answers and yeah i felt dumb for asking about the folding thing again, cause i went straight to that thread and reread it after i posted in here haha. (forgot to come back and edit the post i made).

on the one hand, i have heard both sides to the arguement of "its better to have a 3930k now cause who knows how long it will be a decent speed/thread cpu because its way higher on threads than anyone uses right now pretty much." and ive heard "get the 2600k instead as it will be a better choice for the reason of price/performance ratio".

so im still at a small toss up there, but i figured the 3930k would multitask just a bit better and considering that the systems i built online were all around the same price (2600k and 3930k models) i just went ahead and went with the 3930k lol.

so as for that point being said, i still see reason for both sides of the arguement, and will do some more looking around online.

[RTB]

so im still at a small toss up there, but i figured the 3930k would multitask just a bit better and considering that the systems i built online were all around the same price (2600k and 3930k models) i just went ahead and went with the 3930k lol.

so as for that point being said, i still see reason for both sides of the arguement, and will do some more looking around online.

I don't see the advantage there, both chips are more than sufficient for 'multitasking'. The reason to go with a 3930k would be to render CPU-limited things faster if your time is more important than the extra 300 dollar investment. Though, if you go that way you'll want more and faster ram, something like 1866mhz 16GB. The one thing you didn't add which helps multitasking more than a bigger CPU is an SSD. At this point I can't really recommend sandforce drives due to their instability, which leaves the Intel 510 series, Crucial M4 and Samsung 830. If I'd have to pick between investing 300 dollar in the CPU versus an SSD, I'd pick the SSD for sure. Likewise, both CPUs are unlocked and OC nicely, but you picked the no 'OC option'. Do you plan on OCing it yourself?

[starship_troopers]

I don't see the advantage there, both chips are more than sufficient for 'multitasking'. The reason to go with a 3930k would be to render CPU-limited things faster if your time is more important than the extra 300 dollar investment. Though, if you go that way you'll want more and faster ram, something like 1866mhz 16GB. The one thing you didn't add which helps multitasking more than a bigger CPU is an SSD. At this point I can't really recommend sandforce drives due to their instability, which leaves the Intel 510 series, Crucial M4 and Samsung 830. If I'd have to pick between investing 300 dollar in the CPU versus an SSD, I'd pick the SSD for sure. Likewise, both CPUs are unlocked and OC nicely, but you picked the no 'OC option'. Do you plan on OCing it yourself?

basically i was thinking 3930k as more of a "upgrade proof" way to go about things since i wont get to do any decent ($$$) upgrades for quite some time after getting this. (had to spend forever convincing g/f of more than a 1K budget).

and i agree i need an ssd, i must have removed the wrong one from my cart on the site before copying, i had a small ssd as a boot drive selected. thank you very much for pointing that out to me!!!

and i chose the no OC option because i dont think i'd trust a company to OC a computer before shipping, i can tweak settings and OC on my own. plus i want to run it stock for a little bit to make sure everything runs good and stable (no defects mainly). then i'll start ramping things up.

Edited January 17, 2012 by RyanS

[starship_troopers]

by the way, is intel smart response technology really worth it? i honestly cant see much of a difference from using a normal SSD...of course im sure the only way to do this is with a RAID setup. but is it really worth it or is it better to just have an SSD

also forgot to add, i went with air cooling as i have no experience in liquid cooling, and why get liquid cooling for the cpu if im not gonna cool the gpu the same way? lol plus im paranoid and dont trust myself to not have the thing spring a leak.

edit/ here is the config i actually have emailed to myself. lemme know what you think!

also, i seem to have hit the wrong HDD. THE hard drive is a 1TB Sata III drive. not a 500gb Sata II

Configuration

• *BASE_PRICE: [+1269]
  
• BLUETOOTH: None
  
• CARE1: Ultra Enhanced Packaging Solution - Protect Your Dream System During Transit [+19]
  
• CARE2: CoolerMaster Thermal Fusion 400 Extreme Performance CPU - Thermal Compound Optimized for Thermal Dissipation [+10]
  
• CAS: NZXT Black Tempest 210 Mid-Tower Gaming Case [-20]
  
• CASUPGRADE: None
  
• CD: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive (BLACK COLOR)
  
• CD2: None
  
• COOLANT: Standard Coolant
  
• CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-2600K 3.40 GHz 8M Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified)
  
• CS_FAN: Maximum 120MM Color Case Cooling Fans for your selected case [+15] (Blue Color)
  
• ENGRAVING: NONE
  
• FA_HDD: None
  
• FAN: Xion HP-1216B Five Heatpipes Direct Core Contact Copper Heatsink CPU Cooling Fan (Extreme Silent at 20dBA & Overclock Proof) (Extreme Silent at 20dBA & Overclock Proof) [-3]
  
• FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)
  
• FREEBIE_VC1: FREE Game Coupon Batman: Arkham City [+0]
  
• GLASSES: None
  
• HDD: 500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [-68] (Single Hard Drive)
  
• HDD2: None
  
• IEEE_CARD: None
  
• IUSB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
  
• KEYBOARD: Xtreme Gear (Black Color) Multimedia/Internet USB Keyboard
  
• MB_SRT: 60 GB OCZ Agility 3 SATA III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 525MB/s Read & 475MB/s Write [+106] (Single Drive)
  
• MEMORY: 8GB (2GBx4) DDR3/1800MHz Dual Channel Memory [+65] (Corsair or Major Brand)
  
• MONITOR: None
  
• MONITOR2: None
  
• MONITOR3: None
  
• MOTHERBOARD: [CrossFireX/SLI] ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 ATX Mainboard w/ Lucid Virtu, Intel SRT, UEFI & 7.1 THX TruStudio Audio, GbLAN, HDMI, USB3.0, SATA-III RAID, 3 Gen3 PCIe X16, 2 PCIe X1 & 2 PCI [+68]
  
• MOUSE: XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Buttons Gaming Mouse
  
• NCSW: None
  
• NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
  
• OS: Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit Edition)
  
• OVERCLOCK: No Overclocking
  
• POWERSUPPLY: 1,000 Watts - XtremeGear SLI/CrossFireX Ready Power Supply [+53]
  
• RUSH: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 10~15 BUSINESS DAYS
  
• SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
  
• SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
  
• SPEAKERS: 600Watts PMPO Subwoofer Stereo Speakers [+15]
  
• TEMP: None
  
• TVRC: None
  
• USB: None
  
• USBFLASH: None
  
• USBHD: None
  
• USBX: None
  
• VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 Dual GPU SLI 3GB 16X PCIe Video Card [+543] (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
  
• VIDEO2: None
  
• VIDEO3: None
  
• WNC: PCI Wireless 802.11n 150Mbps Network Interface Card [+19]
  
• _PRICE: (+2091)
  
• _view_: {C18D5259-DCA9-456B-A612-D10E1EB16690}
  
• _load_: 1/16/2012 5:16:15 PM
  

Edited January 17, 2012 by RyanS

[RTB]

by the way, is intel smart response technology really worth it? i honestly cant see much of a difference from using a normal SSD...of course im sure the only way to do this is with a RAID setup. but is it really worth it or is it better to just have an SSD

also forgot to add, i went with air cooling as i have no experience in liquid cooling, and why get liquid cooling for the cpu if im not gonna cool the gpu the same way? lol plus im paranoid and dont trust myself to not have the thing spring a leak.

I haven't looked into intel's smart response stuff, so you'll have to ask someone else. If it's a caching thing, then I doubt it's going to make a difference, especially with a small SSD. Custom watercooling is going to take maintanaince, but there are coolers like the Corsair H80, which have a closed loop, so they doesn't need any.

also, i seem to have hit the wrong HDD. THE hard drive is a 1TB Sata III drive. not a 500gb Sata II

For traditional HDDs SATA3 offers no real benefits, but there's probably no price difference at the same size harddisk anymore.

CARE2: CoolerMaster Thermal Fusion 400 Extreme Performance CPU - Thermal Compound Optimized for Thermal Dissipation [+10]

Sounds fancy, which means it probably doesn't do much

CD: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive (BLACK COLOR)

If you say you want the system to last as long as possible, consider a blu-ray reader.

FAN: Xion HP-1216B Five Heatpipes Direct Core Contact Copper Heatsink CPU Cooling Fan (Extreme Silent at 20dBA & Overclock Proof) (Extreme Silent at 20dBA & Overclock Proof) [-3]

More fancy words for a fan

MB_SRT: 60 GB OCZ Agility 3 SATA III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 525MB/s Read & 475MB/s Write [+106] (Single Drive)

You'll want the SSD as dedicated boot drive, not as caching thingy. You also picked an SSD with a sandforce controller, which are not that reliable. If you want the machine to last, you should look for Intel 510, Crucial M4, or Samsung 830. Those are considered significantly more reliable, and are latest generation drives. The size depends on how much you want to install on it, 64GB might be a bit small.

MEMORY: 8GB (2GBx4) DDR3/1800MHz Dual Channel Memory [+65] (Corsair or Major Brand)

In general Intel's sandy bridge CPUs are not that sensitive to memory speed, I only mentioned that for serious video editing work. 1600mhz is probably a bit cheaper.

POWERSUPPLY: 1,000 Watts - XtremeGear SLI/CrossFireX Ready Power Supply [+53]

Power supplies are the most efficient when supplying a wattage at or above 20% of their maximum. This means that you'll want to pick a PSU for which the idle wattage of your system is at about 20%, and full load is at roughly 50%. Even though you plan on folding with the card 24/7 I still think that 1000 watts is overkill, and 800-850 watt would be fine. Secondly, at high wattage the efficiency rating of the PSU becomes more important in my eyes. The difference between 80% and 90% at full load for your system is quite a lot. If possible, look into adding a PSU that has a better 80+ certification.

VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 Dual GPU SLI 3GB 16X PCIe Video Card [+543] (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)

At this point I find it difficult to recommend a video card for gaming sake, but if you're after folding speed then I guess the 590 can't be beat. It's still a dual GPU card, which I find iffy, because average fps can be deceiving.

[starship_troopers]

lol im doing away with the smart response crap from intel, ive read so much about it, that i'd rather not go install a raid setup for no performance gain. (some even had performance loss....even on official youtube vids it was a slow system). i'll get a SSD for my OS and a few things i use the most, then a regular HDD as storage.

as far as the thermal compound, i figured as much, but all in all i'd rather have some thermal paste on my cpu than the regular little thermal pad crap thats on stock coolers...and for a few bucks, considering how expensive the system is anyway lol.

i actually have plans on getting a blu-ray burner drive, which is why i went with a normal cheapo drive. i figure that can stay in the tower, and i'll put in a blu ray burner as a second optical drive. .

and i havent ever been able to see myself using liquid cooling. as i dont OC stuff far enough to need it. as long as i have a decent cooler and good airflow, im fine. but dont get me wrong, i like to see how far my systems actually go, i just dont keep them at the peak of performace for heat/life expectancy reasons. but i do remember having a damn amd athlon 64x2 5600+ at almost but not quite 4ghz on air cooling and stock cooler, with no heat problems at all!! (never figured out how i did that without it overheating though....but it ran for a few days stable ...mostly... until i cranked it down to stock again.)

i'll see what SSD brands i can find that they have for my system and change it up. probably a crucial. although i've heard kingston isnt that bad either, but im partial to crucial as i know they are good for ram.

the ram i chose was because i was still under my budget so i figured why not throw in one more little upgrade lol.

the psu, i noticed was a little on the cheap side, (as far as reviews) and i will most definitely change that lol. but at the same time i want a psu that will be able to handle my upgrade to dual GPUs as well. or hell, i may just buy a new psu when i get a new card. who knows lol.

[TriRan]

i use a closed loop liquid cooler like RTB was talking about its fantastic i haven't had any problems with it at all except for the radiator getting clogged with dust which happens no matter what type of cooler you use

keeping the heat away from the cpu is always a good idea imo my block stays relatively cool while my radiator will be at 50-60C maybe even hotter i've never checked it

[starship_troopers]

just curious as i've heard that the 2600k does very well on air cooling. in fact ive heard some people say that they've OC'd it and kept it well under the 70 degree C core temp.which hell, ive always had air cooling (hard to change to liquid as who knows how much i will forget about it or whatever haha.) and with the amount of people on the net who have air cooling (and screens to post temp and videos and what not) i believe air cooling is decent enough.

now if i went with a liquid cooling system i'd like my gpu to have one too, but as thats not really much of an option on the model i've chosen i just kind of strayed away from the whole idea.

here is a link to just one of the reviews for the cooler i chose.

http://www.overclock...r_hp1216b/4.htm

suprisingly it was one of the best air coolers in a few sites and quite average and decent in others.

ok guys im sorry for so many long posts. but here is a config that will best the others by far.

got a 80+ 1,000 watt psu for my future gpu escapades haha.

a 60gb SSD (corsair) and a 500GB HDD

and the other stock options (such as optical drive) will be upgraded myself later. as well as the OC.

Configuration

• *BASE_PRICE: [+1269]
  
• BLUETOOTH: None
  
• CARE1: Ultra Enhanced Packaging Solution - Protect Your Dream System During Transit [+19]
  
• CARE2: CoolerMaster Thermal Fusion 400 Extreme Performance CPU - Thermal Compound Optimized for Thermal Dissipation [+10]
  
• CAS: NZXT Black Tempest 210 Mid-Tower Gaming Case [-20]
  
• CASUPGRADE: None
  
• CD: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive (BLACK COLOR)
  
• CD2: None
  
• COOLANT: Standard Coolant
  
• CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-2600K 3.40 GHz 8M Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified)
  
• CS_FAN: Maximum 120MM Color Case Cooling Fans for your selected case [+15] (Blue Color)
  
• ENGRAVING: NONE
  
• FA_HDD: None
  
• FAN: Xion HP-1216B Five Heatpipes Direct Core Contact Copper Heatsink CPU Cooling Fan (Extreme Silent at 20dBA & Overclock Proof) (Extreme Silent at 20dBA & Overclock Proof) [-3]
  
• FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)
  
• FREEBIE_VC1: FREE Game Coupon Batman: Arkham City [+0]
  
• GLASSES: None
  
• HDD: 60GB Corsair Force Series SATA III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 550MB/s Read & 510MB/s Write [-39] (Single Drive)
  
• HDD2: 500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+94] (Single Hard Drive)
  
• IEEE_CARD: None
  
• IUSB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
  
• KEYBOARD: Xtreme Gear (Black Color) Multimedia/Internet USB Keyboard
  
• MB_SRT: None
  
• MEMORY: 8GB (2GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)
  
• MONITOR: None
  
• MONITOR2: None
  
• MONITOR3: None
  
• MOTHERBOARD: [CrossFireX/SLI] ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 ATX Mainboard w/ Lucid Virtu, Intel SRT, UEFI & 7.1 THX TruStudio Audio, GbLAN, HDMI, USB3.0, SATA-III RAID, 3 Gen3 PCIe X16, 2 PCIe X1 & 2 PCI [+68]
  
• MOUSE: XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Buttons Gaming Mouse
  
• NCSW: None
  
• NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
  
• OS: Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit Edition)
  
• OVERCLOCK: No Overclocking
  
• POWERSUPPLY: 1,000 Watts - Raidmax RX-1000AE 80 Plus Gold Power Supply [+71]
  
• RUSH: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 10~15 BUSINESS DAYS
  
• SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
  
• SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
  
• SPEAKERS: 600Watts PMPO Subwoofer Stereo Speakers [+15]
  
• TEMP: None
  
• TVRC: None
  
• USB: None
  
• USBFLASH: None
  
• USBHD: None
  
• USBX: None
  
• VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 Dual GPU SLI 3GB 16X PCIe Video Card [+543] (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
  
• VIDEO2: None
  
• VIDEO3: None
  
• WNC: None
  
• XWNC1: Asus USB-N13 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 300Mbps Wireless USB Adapter [+22]
  
• _PRICE: (+2064)
  

and as always i went with any deals i could find. there is free shipping and the tax section says there is none...and a 5% discount. which means this will cost 1960.80 and from newegg for a 24 inch 1920x1080 monitor it will be around another 140 bucks...so all in all id say thats a good deal.

Edited January 17, 2012 by RyanS

[TriRan]

just curious as i've heard that the 2600k does very well on air cooling. in fact ive heard some people say that they've OC'd it and kept it well under the 70 degree C core temp.which hell, ive always had air cooling (hard to change to liquid as who knows how much i will forget about it or whatever haha.) and with the amount of people on the net who have air cooling (and screens to post temp and videos and what not) i believe air cooling is decent enough.

now if i went with a liquid cooling system i'd like my gpu to have one too, but as thats not really much of an option on the model i've chosen i just kind of strayed away from the whole idea.

here is a link to just one of the reviews for the cooler i chose.

http://www.overclock...r_hp1216b/4.htm

suprisingly it was one of the best air coolers in a few sites and quite average and decent in others.

ok guys im sorry for so many long posts. but here is a config that will best the others by far.

got a 80+ 1,000 watt psu for my future gpu escapades haha.

a 60gb SSD (corsair) and a 500GB HDD

and the other stock options (such as optical drive) will be upgraded myself later. as well as the OC.

Configuration

• *BASE_PRICE: [+1269]
  
• BLUETOOTH: None
  
• CARE1: Ultra Enhanced Packaging Solution - Protect Your Dream System During Transit [+19]
  
• CARE2: CoolerMaster Thermal Fusion 400 Extreme Performance CPU - Thermal Compound Optimized for Thermal Dissipation [+10]
  
• CAS: NZXT Black Tempest 210 Mid-Tower Gaming Case [-20]
  
• CASUPGRADE: None
  
• CD: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive (BLACK COLOR)
  
• CD2: None
  
• COOLANT: Standard Coolant
  
• CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-2600K 3.40 GHz 8M Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified)
  
• CS_FAN: Maximum 120MM Color Case Cooling Fans for your selected case [+15] (Blue Color)
  
• ENGRAVING: NONE
  
• FA_HDD: None
  
• FAN: Xion HP-1216B Five Heatpipes Direct Core Contact Copper Heatsink CPU Cooling Fan (Extreme Silent at 20dBA & Overclock Proof) (Extreme Silent at 20dBA & Overclock Proof) [-3]
  
• FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)
  
• FREEBIE_VC1: FREE Game Coupon Batman: Arkham City [+0]
  
• GLASSES: None
  
• HDD: 60GB Corsair Force Series SATA III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 550MB/s Read & 510MB/s Write [-39] (Single Drive)
  
• HDD2: 500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+94] (Single Hard Drive)
  
• IEEE_CARD: None
  
• IUSB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
  
• KEYBOARD: Xtreme Gear (Black Color) Multimedia/Internet USB Keyboard
  
• MB_SRT: None
  
• MEMORY: 8GB (2GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)
  
• MONITOR: None
  
• MONITOR2: None
  
• MONITOR3: None
  
• MOTHERBOARD: [CrossFireX/SLI] ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 ATX Mainboard w/ Lucid Virtu, Intel SRT, UEFI & 7.1 THX TruStudio Audio, GbLAN, HDMI, USB3.0, SATA-III RAID, 3 Gen3 PCIe X16, 2 PCIe X1 & 2 PCI [+68]
  
• MOUSE: XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Buttons Gaming Mouse
  
• NCSW: None
  
• NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
  
• OS: Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit Edition)
  
• OVERCLOCK: No Overclocking
  
• POWERSUPPLY: 1,000 Watts - Raidmax RX-1000AE 80 Plus Gold Power Supply [+71]
  
• RUSH: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 10~15 BUSINESS DAYS
  
• SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
  
• SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
  
• SPEAKERS: 600Watts PMPO Subwoofer Stereo Speakers [+15]
  
• TEMP: None
  
• TVRC: None
  
• USB: None
  
• USBFLASH: None
  
• USBHD: None
  
• USBX: None
  
• VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 Dual GPU SLI 3GB 16X PCIe Video Card [+543] (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
  
• VIDEO2: None
  
• VIDEO3: None
  
• WNC: None
  
• XWNC1: Asus USB-N13 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 300Mbps Wireless USB Adapter [+22]
  
• _PRICE: (+2064)
  

and as always i went with any deals i could find. there is free shipping and the tax section says there is none...and a 5% discount. which means this will cost 1960.80 and from newegg for a 24 inch 1920x1080 monitor it will be around another 140 bucks...so all in all id say thats a good deal.

looks good to me

[starship_troopers]

so, all in all, i think ive got it figured out. thanks guys, couldnt have done it myself. (as far as certain parts/price and ideas). one last thing....would i see any advantage from 2 or 3 SLI'd 580s? i know if i had 3 580s i would but would 2 580's be better? although im kind of heart set on the 590 right now. (except im afraid to OC it...saw and heard some horror stories about them. but i think it was just a driver and user disagreement lol.)

[TriRan]

so, all in all, i think ive got it figured out. thanks guys, couldnt have done it myself. (as far as certain parts/price and ideas). one last thing....would i see any advantage from 2 or 3 SLI'd 580s? i know if i had 3 580s i would but would 2 580's be better? although im kind of heart set on the 590 right now. (except im afraid to OC it...saw and heard some horror stories about them. but i think it was just a driver and user disagreement lol.)

you might especially with folding SLI in games though is really not all its cracked up to be, its buggy, hardly ever works and patches break it all the time both driver and game/program developer

i don't think i'd mess with it if it were me

[RTB]

just curious as i've heard that the 2600k does very well on air cooling. in fact ive heard some people say that they've OC'd it and kept it well under the 70 degree C core temp.which hell, ive always had air cooling (hard to change to liquid as who knows how much i will forget about it or whatever haha.) and with the amount of people on the net who have air cooling (and screens to post temp and videos and what not) i believe air cooling is decent enough.

Yes, air cooling works fine, and some towers are on par with Corsair's closed-loop sets.

here is a link to just one of the reviews for the cooler i chose.

http://www.overclock...r_hp1216b/4.htm

suprisingly it was one of the best air coolers in a few sites and quite average and decent in others.

Looks like an average tower aircooler to me, and it's really only 'the best' there because it's being compared to coolers I've never even heard of before.The more famous ones like the thermalright ultra 120 aren't listed.

HDD: 60GB Corsair Force Series SATA III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 550MB/s Read & 510MB/s Write [-39] (Single Drive)

In the end the choice is yours, but I'd still like to stress that Corsair is only one of many companies that sell drives with sandforce controllers. Likewise, the 500+MB/s read and write is a theoretical maximum and only applies to very compressible data. Last time I checked, RMAs for such drives are unusually common, whereas Intel, Crucial and Samsung have much lower return rates.

POWERSUPPLY: 1,000 Watts - Raidmax RX-1000AE 80 Plus Gold Power Supply [+71]

Had to look it up, and this is apparently a rather dodgy brand. Such a pity that 80+ certification is already being cheated with, because it had a decent start. It's still worth it to restrict PSU choice to supplies with the certification, because the good PSUs will have it anyway, and the bad ones will fail during reviews.

The question is, what are you after in videocards? You plan to get a cheap 1080p screen, so a single 580 is pretty much overkill to begin with for gaming at that resolution. Don't think that video cards don't last long nowadays, as video games are mostly console ports now, so they don't have excessive graphics. If you're after folding performance, of course SLI 580s will be huge, but that comes at a price. 24/7 folding with two 580s is like 600 watt plus PSU inefficiency, which will cost quickly cost more in electricity than the price of the video cards themselves. Not to mention the heat.

[Pgoodwin1]

Don't underestimate the effect of the monitor on your experience. They are not all created equal in terms of brightness, contrast, linearity, speed, color accuracy. I haven't researched them for a few years so I don't have any recommendations.

[starship_troopers]

im defnitely already ahead of you about the SSD. for some reason i had corsair on the mind, not crucial. not sure what happened there haha. must have been thinking of the RAM i had in my old laptop. Also, what about the A-DATA SSD? i've had ram from that brand, and it was some beastly stuff. never had a problem with that brand.

and as the psu, i went ahead and changed it also. it was a bit more $$$ but worth it. then again i've had psu's by choice that people hated and i loved them. such as my Hipro 500W psu in my old desktop build. lol.

not trying to argue with anyone, i am glad for the help, im just also throwing in my 2 cents. but then again something this expensive i'd rather trust someone with more experience than i have.

and as for the monitor choice, i definitely research those as much as the other components. i've been in the boat where i've bought a crt monitor (when lcd's were expensive as hell) and it was fuzzy and the colors were horrible even after adjusting. it was most likely a defect, but still. i check the amount of RMA's and low reviews and compare them to the high reviews.

i'll test my settings with some other parts, then post up one more build and see if i get the thumbs up

[starship_troopers]

Configuration

• *BASE_PRICE: [+1289]
  
• BLUETOOTH: None
  
• CARE1: Ultra Enhanced Packaging Solution - Protect Your Dream System During Transit [+19]
  
• CARE2: CoolerMaster Thermal Fusion 400 Extreme Performance CPU - Thermal Compound Optimized for Thermal Dissipation [+10]
  
• CAS: NZXT Black Tempest 210 Mid-Tower Gaming Case [-20]
  
• CASUPGRADE: None
  
• CD: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive (BLACK COLOR)
  
• CD2: None
  
• COOLANT: Standard Coolant
  
• CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-2600K 3.40 GHz 8M Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified) [-20]
  
• CS_FAN: Maximum 120MM Case Cooling Fans for your selected case [+9]
  
• ENGRAVING: NONE
  
• FA_HDD: None
  
• FAN: * Thermaltake FRIO Overclocking Cooler Fan (CLP0564) [+20]
  
• FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)
  
• FREEBIE_VC1: FREE Game Coupon Batman: Arkham City [+0]
  
• GLASSES: None
  
• HDD: 120 GB Intel 510 Series SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 450MB/s Read & 210MB/s Write [+155] (Single Drive)
  
• HDD2: 500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+94] (Single Hard Drive)
  
• IEEE_CARD: None
  
• IUSB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
  
• KEYBOARD: Xtreme Gear (Black Color) Multimedia/Internet USB Keyboard
  
• MB_SRT: None
  
• MEMORY: 8GB (2GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)
  
• MONITOR: None
  
• MONITOR2: None
  
• MONITOR3: None
  
• MOTHERBOARD: [CrossFireX/SLI] ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 ATX Mainboard w/ Lucid Virtu, Intel SRT, UEFI & 7.1 THX TruStudio Audio, GbLAN, HDMI, USB3.0, SATA-III RAID, 3 Gen3 PCIe X16, 2 PCIe X1 & 2 PCI [+68]
  
• MOUSE: XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Buttons Gaming Mouse
  
• NCSW: None
  
• NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
  
• OS: Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit Edition)
  
• OVERCLOCK: No Overclocking
  
• POWERSUPPLY: 850 Watts - Raidmax RX-850AE 80 Plus Gold Power Supply [+59]
  
• RUSH: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 10~15 BUSINESS DAYS
  
• SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
  
• SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
  
• SPEAKERS: 600Watts PMPO Subwoofer Stereo Speakers [+15]
  
• TEMP: None
  
• TVRC: None
  
• USB: None
  
• USBFLASH: None
  
• USBHD: None
  
• USBX: None
  
• VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 Dual GPU SLI 3GB 16X PCIe Video Card [+543] (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
  
• VIDEO2: None
  
• VIDEO3: None
  
• WNC: None
  
• XWNC1: Asus USB-N13 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 300Mbps Wireless USB Adapter [+22]
  

when all is said and done (including my newegg purchases for this beast) its around 2300$

[RTB]

im defnitely already ahead of you about the SSD. for some reason i had corsair on the mind, not crucial. not sure what happened there haha. must have been thinking of the RAM i had in my old laptop. Also, what about the A-DATA SSD? i've had ram from that brand, and it was some beastly stuff. never had a problem with that brand.

Sadly, they run sandforce controllers.

and as the psu, i went ahead and changed it also. it was a bit more $$$ but worth it. then again i've had psu's by choice that people hated and i loved them. such as my Hipro 500W psu in my old desktop build. lol.

Just be aware that it's a cheap PSU, and will not do the "80 plus gold" advertised.

and as for the monitor choice, i definitely research those as much as the other components. i've been in the boat where i've bought a crt monitor (when lcd's were expensive as hell) and it was fuzzy and the colors were horrible even after adjusting. it was most likely a defect, but still. i check the amount of RMA's and low reviews and compare them to the high reviews.

I'm of the opinion that there isn't such a thing as a quality TN screen. It's just absurd that in almost a decade there has been so little progress for monitor technology. Given that the manufacturers received fines for price fixing yet continued on their merry way after that, I doubt we'll be seeing good progress from them ever.

[starship_troopers]

for everyone who has posted in here, thanks for the help. here is what im currently going with. (content is subject to change). im still iffy on the psu but hey, its got great reviews and i like the brand. any other suggestions available to me are nice as well.

here is the beast so far.

• BLUETOOTH: None
  
• CARE1: Ultra Enhanced Packaging Solution - Protect Your Dream System During Transit [+19]
  
• CARE2: CoolerMaster Thermal Fusion 400 Extreme Performance CPU - Thermal Compound Optimized for Thermal Dissipation [+10]
  
• CAS: NZXT Black Tempest 210 Mid-Tower Gaming Case [-20]
  
• CASUPGRADE: None
  
• CD: LG UH12LS28K 12X Blu-Ray Player & DVDRW Combo Drive [+41] (BLACK COLOR)
  
• CD2: None
  
• COOLANT: Standard Coolant
  
• CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-2600K 3.40 GHz 8M Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified) [-100]
  
• CS_FAN: Maximum 120MM Color Case Cooling Fans for your selected case [+15] (Blue Color)
  
• ENGRAVING: None
  
• FA_HDD: None
  
• FAN: * Thermaltake FRIO Overclocking Cooler Fan (CLP0564) [+20]
  
• FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)
  
• FREEBIE_VC1: FREE Just Cause 2 Game Coupon [+0]
  
• FREEBIE_VC2: FREE Game Coupon Batman: Arkham City [+0]
  
• GLASSES: None
  
• HDD: 120 GB OCZ Vertex 3 SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 550MB/s Read & 500MB/s Write [+57] (Single Drive)
  
• HDD2: 500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+94] (Single Hard Drive)
  
• IEEE_CARD: None
  
• IUSB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
  
• KEYBOARD: Xtreme Gear (Black Color) Multimedia/Internet USB Keyboard
  
• MB_SRT: None
  
• MEMORY: 8GB (2GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)
  
• MONITOR: 24" Widescreen 1920x1080 Asus VS247H-P LCD [+157]
  
• MONITOR2: None
  
• MONITOR3: None
  
• MOTHERBOARD: [CrossFireX/SLI] ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 ATX Mainboard w/ Lucid Virtu, Intel SRT, UEFI & 7.1 THX TruStudio Audio, GbLAN, HDMI, USB3.0, SATA-III RAID, 3 Gen3 PCIe X16, 2 PCIe X1 & 2 PCI [+68]
  
• MOUSE: Logitech Optical Wheel Mouse [+2] (BLACK COLOR)
  
• NCSW: None
  
• NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
  
• OS: Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit Edition)
  
• OVERCLOCK: No Overclocking
  
• POWERSUPPLY: * 1,000 Watts - Thermaltake TP-1000M ToughPower Modular, 80 Plus Silver Certified, Quad SLI Ready, CrossfireX Ready & Active PFC Power Supply [+208]
  
• PRINTER_CABLE1: 6-FT HDMI Cable HDMI to HDMI mini, Male to Male Cable, v1.3 [+14] (1 piece)
  
• RUSH: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 10~15 BUSINESS DAYS
  
• SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
  
• SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
  
• SPEAKERS: 600Watts PMPO Subwoofer Stereo Speakers [+15]
  
• TEMP: None
  
• TUNING: Intel® Core™ i7-2600K Performance Tuning Protection Plan by Intel [+29]
  
• TVRC: None
  
• USB: None
  
• USBFLASH: None
  
• USBHD: None
  
• USBX: None
  
• VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB 16X PCIe Video Card [+259] (EVGA Superclocked [+20])
  
• VIDEO2: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB 16X PCIe Video Card [+515] (EVGA Superclocked [+20])
  
• VIDEO3: None
  
• WNC: PCI Wireless 802.11n 150Mbps Network Interface Card [+19]
  

[starship_troopers]

I would really love to try out the 7970 crossfire but ive heard a few bad things. But benchmarks blow awaysome competition. So my question is this...im not a huge fan of having to max out AA and stuff in games. Just want a high setting or max settings without much hassle. So two 1.5gb 580s in sli should do the trick for a 1920x1080 monitor right? Im assuming they will be fine for quite some time, or am i wrong?? Keep in mind i dont want to have to upgrade for a few years

[RTB]

HDD: 120 GB OCZ Vertex 3 SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 550MB/s Read & 500MB/s Write [+57] (Single Drive)

Why this change?

MONITOR: 24" Widescreen 1920x1080 Asus VS247H-P LCD [+157]

What would a Dell U2312HM cost there? Feature comparison here.

POWERSUPPLY: * 1,000 Watts - Thermaltake TP-1000M ToughPower Modular, 80 Plus Silver Certified, Quad SLI Ready, CrossfireX Ready & Active PFC Power Supply [+208]

Seems to be a fairly decent PSU, for SLI 580 you'll need 1000 watts too.

PRINTER_CABLE1: 6-FT HDMI Cable HDMI to HDMI mini, Male to Male Cable, v1.3 [+14] (1 piece)

What is this?

TUNING: Intel® Core™ i7-2600K Performance Tuning Protection Plan by Intel [+29]

Afraid to fry it?

VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB 16X PCIe Video Card [+259] (EVGA Superclocked [+20])

VIDEO2: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB 16X PCIe Video Card [+515] (EVGA Superclocked [+20])

For 1080p gaming this is way overkill, so again it's the question if you want to fold 24/7 at huge speed/cost or you want the power for gaming. Note that a single 580 is enough for now, and that it's cheaper to keep the 500 dollar and buy a new videocard when it's no longer sufficient. Of course, the only reason to get a 580 at this point is for folding, because the 7970 is plainly better (and still overkill for 1080p).

[starship_troopers]

Lol oops. The ssd is the intel 510 (i had multiple tabs open fir builds)

The monitor is gone as well...its actually a 139$ 1080p from newegg.

No friggin idea ehere the cable came from as i didnt select one.

Its always nice to get a free replacement when ocing haha. Im sure ill be careful but its insurance.

And sli for the reason of me being the person who upgrades now and saves later. But im currently trying to keep my budget around 2500 and still get crossfire 7970. Same reason. Although i may get one 7970 and upgrade to crossfire later. But i want want dual cards for

[starship_troopers]

ok here's one for ya. from my research if i want to get 2 7970's (...which i do....its a guy thing haha...plus i cant upgrade for quite some time, so im doing it all now) i need to make some cuts here to meet budget...now i know how much better the SSD is. and if i install the main game or 2 i'd be playing on the SSD i know (or at least i assume) that the level load and save times will be quicker, but it wont really improve my performance other than that, and windows load/powerdown times. except small things like waiting one second less for firefox or something like that. but still, would i really actually NOTICE THE CHANGE other than load times...if not i think im gonna skip the ssd until later...of course, who the hell knows.

or stick with the ssd and get something smaller such as a single 7970...which i dont want to have to upgrade my card later. because it would be less of a pain to just pop in a new graphics card than reformat the OS and stuff onto an SSD later on....

but like i said, i want the best i can get now so no upgrading for a while. or stick with the 2 gtx 580s? cause i'll do folding, but still i'd put my present gaming/future gaming ahead of folding if im paying this much.

any ideas?

on a seperate note, i know the difference between 80+ gold and bronze...but would i really notice it on the electric bill....hell more importantly will i really notice it on the lifespan or anything of my components being powered by an 80+ bronze compared to a gold....stupid question yes. but my head is spinning while im currently researching literally enough tabs to slow down nasa haha. (multiple projects going on and what not)

[Blako]

Would the solid state drive help the windows page file? Why Samsung says you need a SSD.

2 GTX 580's would give you the option to fold on the better cooled card while gaming on the other. A single 580 would let you play most 2011 games on highesh settings. Um in the past sli had to be disabled. But it appears that nvidia created drivers allowing us to fold SLI enabled, with 2 clients on 2 cards.

Here are the multi-GPU specific requirements:

• The current multi-GPU installation guide requires more than a basic knowledge of Microsoft Windows, and of the FAH software.
  
• SLI or Crossfire does not have to be disabled to run the GPU client. However, SLI and CF cannot be used to make a dual GPU card or cards perform like one super GPU. The SLI and CF link does not have enough bandwidth to support that functionality. Run one FAH GPU client for each GPU chip.
  
• If you are running multiple GPU cards with SLI or Crossfire, you may need to extend the desktop for the client to recognize multiple GPUs.
  
• If Windows prompts for a new driver, hit CANCEL. The default Windows driver may not be the best driver to use. Allowing Windows to install a driver automatically runs the risk of having sub-par performances and/or client installation issues.
  
• If you run Windows Vista or Windows 7, you may need to have each GPU connected to a monitor (a KVM can also work but not all models of KVM will provide a signal when it is not the active monitor). Another alternative is to use VGA dummy plug.
  

Tomshardware GPU charts

3D Guru gtx 580