1600$ Rig Help Please

[CalcProgrammer1]

That monitor looks pretty good, but it does have a very glossy looking frame which may reflect images from the side monitors. My monitors have a glossy black frame that isn't bad but it might just be the lighting in the picture. Otherwise that monitor looks great.

DisplayPort to VGA:
Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE Active DisplayPort to VGA Adaper Model 100916

DisplayPort to DVI (Active):
Newegg.com - Accell B087B-003J Mini DisplayPort to DVI Dual-Link Adapter

If you search for DisplayPort to DVI you'll find plenty of adapters, many of them are dirt cheap too, but they are passive adapters. What this means is that the DisplayPort is put into "compatibility mode" where it actually sends out DVI signals which move through the passive adapter to the monitor. The 5870 GPU can only generate 2 DVI signals and thus if you're already using the 2 onboard DVI ports (or HDMI port as HDMI uses DVI signals too), there is no third signal to use. The DisplayPort in normal mode can be used independently of the other ports as it generates its own DisplayPort signal in normal mode. The active adapters take this DisplayPort signal and convert it using a processor into either VGA or DVI format. The VGA processor doesn't use much power but the DVI one does and thus the DisplayPort to DVI adapter has a USB cord to draw power from.

 

[carson1931]

Thank you for your detail! Exactly what I needed. You said you use the DP to VGA adapter. Is the color/quality difference super noticeable? Would you recommend it? Or would the 100 dollar upgrade be worth it?

PS: Still looking for somebody to answer my questions about micro-center and combo deals from earlier posts.

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

The color difference is sometimes noticeable. I've found that brown looks more green on the VGA but I can't get it adjusted. I think it may be the monitor itself as one of my monitors was defective and I had to get a replacement, I think the replacement has a slightly different tone to the screen color but it isn't bad. I don't think the DVI upgrade is worth $100, maybe $50 and if they get cheaper I will probably buy one then. For now the VGA is good enough for 1920x1080 monitors and the picture is still nice and sharp on VGA. ATi's drivers have several color tweaks you can use to adjust the monitors closer together (saturation, brightness, hue, color temp, etc).

As for Micro-Center I've never bought from them, we don't have any locally (really don't have any good retail stores here, that's why I buy everything from Newegg). I'd say if you can get the CPU cheaper there buy it, but remember you pay tax when you buy it in stores, Newegg is tax free unless you're in California I think.

 

[syn_sic]

if you have that big of a budget, get a SSD. Someone said it doesn't really matter if you have your computer on all day, but that's not necessarily true. All that does is eliminate boot time. Seek times are important, and if you leave your computer and come back, your harddisk needs to rev up the platters again after a long standstill, and that's when you notice a huge difference in load times between the 2. Harddrives are the biggest bottleneck in your computer, even Windows index agrees lol. Once you get a SSD, you won't go back to normal 7200 rpm harddrives for boot drives.

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

your harddisk needs to rev up the platters again after a long standstill

Wrong. The platters are always spinning unless you enable power saving mode. You won't have to wait if you just let the hard drive keep spinning and it doesn't significantly wear the drive out just spinning the platters. It may consume more power but for a fast PC it isn't a significant issue. In a laptop or low power PC this is more of an issue, SSD's are useful in laptops for their low power consumption. For boot disks they make sense if you shut your PC down a lot, but if you leave it on 24/7 and it's a gaming PC I see no reason. Games are very large these days, many exceeding 10-15GB of game content on your drive. If you want to use the SSD for the loading advantages (and if you leave the PC on 24/7 that's really the only reason you'd want one) you would be limited to having 3-4 games installed at a time. If you don't want to uninstall games to play new ones you're better off with a fast HDD (either a 7200RPM with large cache or a higher RPM drive). If you're not using your PC for gaming and rather just video/photo editing or programming then go with an SSD if you want, those apps should fit in 64GB.

 

[syn_sic]

Wrong. The platters are always spinning unless you enable power saving mode. You won't have to wait if you just let the hard drive keep spinning and it doesn't significantly wear the drive out just spinning the platters. It may consume more power but for a fast PC it isn't a significant issue. In a laptop or low power PC this is more of an issue, SSD's are useful in laptops for their low power consumption. For boot disks they make sense if you shut your PC down a lot, but if you leave it on 24/7 and it's a gaming PC I see no reason. Games are very large these days, many exceeding 10-15GB of game content on your drive. If you want to use the SSD for the loading advantages (and if you leave the PC on 24/7 that's really the only reason you'd want one) you would be limited to having 3-4 games installed at a time. If you don't want to uninstall games to play new ones you're better off with a fast HDD (either a 7200RPM with large cache or a higher RPM drive). If you're not using your PC for gaming and rather just video/photo editing or programming then go with an SSD if you want, those apps should fit in 64GB.

Wrong. I didn't say the drive shuts off, but anyone with ears can even tell when their harddisk starts to spin faster, which is why there are sometimes delays when you click on an icon for a program or folder. haha 3-4 games at a time? We've come a ways since 1980, so we can afford to fit a little more than that.

Newegg.com - WD SiliconEdge Blue SSC-D0128SC-2100 2.5" 128GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - SSD

128 GB SSD for under $200 shipped. That's plenty of storage to fit what you need. 10-15 GB? That's a little exaggerated. My last games were Bad Company 2 and Mass Effect 2, neither of which were anywhere near 15GB.

Anything higher than 7200 RPM is just a waste. Like Velociraptor drives...pitty anyone who actually bought one. Spending 3-4x as much for incremental performance. and like he said, it's not going to be JUST for gaming. He's an engineering student, and will be using such apps. He'll notice a big difference with a SSD.

 

[Yerfdog]

In all the benchmarks I've seen, the only time the i7's outperform the 1090T is when the i7's are over $500. :/
So, if those are right, you'd be better off getting the 1090T which is less than $300. I even have a good list of parts for someone to use for a good AMD build at less than $1600.

Broadway Com Corp Okia-black-650 650W ATX SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX
XFX HD-585X-ZAFC Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity
AZZA Solano 1000 Black/Black Japanese SECC Steel/Metal mesh in front ATX Full Tower Computer Case
MSI 790X-G45 AM3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM
Microsoft SideWinder X3 5 Buttons USB Wired Laser 2000 dpi Mouse - OEM
Logitech Internet 350 Black 104 Normal Keys 8 Function Keys USB Wired Standard Keyboard - OEM
ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 1000:1 (ASCR 20000:1) Built in Speakers
BELKIN BE112230-08 8 Feet 12 Outlets 3780 Joules Surge Protector with Telephone and Coaxial Protection
Creative Inspire T3130 2.1 Speakers

Total cost: $1513.45

 

[syn_sic]

^^lol looks familiar.

 

[carson1931]

In all the benchmarks I've seen, the only time the i7's outperform the 1090T is when the i7's are over $500. :/
So, if those are right, you'd be better off getting the 1090T which is less than $300. I even have a good list of parts for someone to use for a good AMD build at less than $1600.

Broadway Com Corp Okia-black-650 650W ATX SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX
XFX HD-585X-ZAFC Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity
AZZA Solano 1000 Black/Black Japanese SECC Steel/Metal mesh in front ATX Full Tower Computer Case
MSI 790X-G45 AM3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM
Microsoft SideWinder X3 5 Buttons USB Wired Laser 2000 dpi Mouse - OEM
Logitech Internet 350 Black 104 Normal Keys 8 Function Keys USB Wired Standard Keyboard - OEM
ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 1000:1 (ASCR 20000:1) Built in Speakers
BELKIN BE112230-08 8 Feet 12 Outlets 3780 Joules Surge Protector with Telephone and Coaxial Protection
Creative Inspire T3130 2.1 Speakers

Total cost: $1513.45

Sorry yerf, I've done a fair amount of research, and really the 1090t is pretty much equal to the i7 920. It wins in some applications. but since almost no games will use 6 cores, I feel the 920 is better. Especially when you consider the fact that I'm getting it for 200$. A lot of that build deviates from my original requirements too =(. Thanks for your input however, honestly I was thinking 1090t for the longest time, then decided to switch.

 

[Sean W.]

the i7 920 will out pace a 1090T in almost every application