[MagicNumbers]

I was hoping to wait until the new year for better prices on the best stuff out today but circumstances have changed unexpectedly and I can only wait until after windows 7 releases.

I'm building this thing for the dual role of gaming and in depth photo editing.

I suppose its dumb to ask what prices will be come late October but what can I get for under $2000 in a fully loaded rig? Graphics card, motherboard, CPU, power source, DDR3 RAM, 1920 x 1200 monitor, keyboard, mouse. Case (w/xtra fans if necessary/heat sinks), and speakers (I'm a big sound guy so maybe sound card).

I'm fairly confident I can build a computer from scratch so OEM is fine by me.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Fozzik]

It's late where I'm at, so I won't be able to look tonight...but I think the $2k price is very do-able. You're likely looking at a Core i7 build, I would think... a bunch of RAM, etc.

[Slide]

Quick bash on Newegg produced this. I've put a *very* good screen in their as you will be photo editing, and based it around the new i7 860 chip on Socket 1156 with 8GB. There's $500 left over to add in the case of your choice*, and one of the new ATI 5xxx cards that are launching today. (Don't know prices yet - most likely you'll want the 5850). Seperate sound card is a luxury you can do without as onboard is pretty good. Add in CD Drives / keyboards etc or repurpose from an old build.

*case choice is too personal to make a recommendation


Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives - OEM
Item #: N82E16822136284
$94.99


HP LP2475w Black-Silver 24" 6 ms (GTG); 12ms HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail
Item #: N82E16824176104
-$60.00 Instant
$594.99
$534.99


CORSAIR CMPSU-750HX 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power ... - Retail
Item #: N82E16817139010
$169.99


OCZ Gold 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G1600LV4GK - Retail
Item #: N82E16820227483
-$5.00 Instant
$239.98
$229.98
($114.99 each)


ASUS P7P55D PRO LGA 1156 Intel P55 Intel Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813131405
Protect Your Investment (expand for options)
$169.99


Intel Core i7 860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80605I7860 - Retail
Item #: N82E16819115214
$299.99

Subtotal: $1,499.93

[MagicNumbers]

Thanks for the help Slide! I'm going to continue to research and see what's up. One thing I read recently was that the 1156 pin structure was a bit of a dean end. Is this true?

[rabb1t]

Originally Posted by MagicNumbers

One thing I read recently was that the 1156 pin structure was a bit of a dean end. Is this true?

No clue where you read that but I'd say the complete opposite. Socket 1156 is the new mainstream target. It can have Core i7, Core i5, and Core i3 CPUs, thus covering consumers in all 3 markets (general use, gaming, high-end/enthusiast gamers) while socket 1366 will remain strictly a high-end / overclocer / enthusast range and only have Core i7 CPUs. The beginning prices of motherboards for socket 1366 hits the high end price of the socket 1156 boards. Similarly, CPU prices will always be high and limited on socket 1366 compared to 1156.

You may want to do some more reading. Socket 1156 CPUs revved up to the same speeds as their 1366 counterparts are matching performance at much lower closts. If anything I'm predicting we'll see the same thing that happened with AMD's 939/940. Now that the "mainstream" 1156 is out socket 1366 will be almost entirely ignored by part builders, and the greatly reduced CPU options will make it a less attractive long-term consideration.

My "generation 9" builds went up yesterday. Nearly all of them are socket 1156 (I think only the very lowest cost and, of course, AMD builds are not.) You may want to give them a peek.

2k? Plenty. My "Noob" build with a Core i5, 4 gig of DDR3-1600, GTS 250 1 gig, 1920x1080 monitor (16:10 aspect is in the process of being phased out), estimate price for Win 7 OEM, totals at around $1200. With 2k you are talking a higher-end build. (Though I'd recommend against a Core i7 type, as the difference between the Core i5 and Core i7 in performance is effectively nill unless you are talking about multi-GPU systems, and even then it's extremely small.)

I would recommend that everyone ignore socket 1366 from now on. (We have to stop saying "Core i7" since it is also available for socket 1156.)

[rabb1t]

Originally Posted by Slide

OCZ Gold 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G1600LV4GK - Retail
Item #: N82E16820227483
-$5.00 Instant
$239.98
$229.98
($114.99 each)
(8-8-8-24 timed)

Do not want.

G.Skill 4 gig DDR3-1600 9-9-9-24 timed $80
G.Skill 4 gig DDR3-1600 7-7-7-24 timed $95

Shaves off $40 to $70.

(No offense, I know you said ya just skimmed NewEgg. I spent ~4 hours putting together my system builds and going through parts. )

[MagicNumbers]

Originally Posted by rabb1t

No clue where you read that but I'd say the complete opposite. Socket 1156 is the new mainstream target. It can have Core i7, Core i5, and Core i3 CPUs, thus covering consumers in all 3 markets (general use, gaming, high-end/enthusiast gamers) while socket 1366 will remain strictly a high-end / overclocer / enthusast range and only have Core i7 CPUs. The beginning prices of motherboards for socket 1366 hits the high end price of the socket 1156 boards. Similarly, CPU prices will always be high and limited on socket 1366 compared to 1156.

You may want to do some more reading. Socket 1156 CPUs revved up to the same speeds as their 1366 counterparts are matching performance at much lower closts. If anything I'm predicting we'll see the same thing that happened with AMD's 939/940. Now that the "mainstream" 1156 is out socket 1366 will be almost entirely ignored by part builders, and the greatly reduced CPU options will make it a less attractive long-term consideration.

My "generation 9" builds went up yesterday. Nearly all of them are socket 1156 (I think only the very lowest cost and, of course, AMD builds are not.) You may want to give them a peek.

2k? Plenty. My "Noob" build with a Core i5, 4 gig of DDR3-1600, GTS 250 1 gig, 1920x1080 monitor (16:10 aspect is in the process of being phased out), estimate price for Win 7 OEM, totals at around $1200. With 2k you are talking a higher-end build. (Though I'd recommend against a Core i7 type, as the difference between the Core i5 and Core i7 in performance is effectively nill unless you are talking about multi-GPU systems, and even then it's extremely small.)

I would recommend that everyone ignore socket 1366 from now on. (We have to stop saying "Core i7" since it is also available for socket 1156.)

Thanks for the info Rabbit! I'll check your site.

[rabb1t]

Lots of articles around teh Internets if you want bla bla. I'm pretty sure anandtech and Tom's both have fairly large articles posted in the past few days comparing 1156 to 1366.

Be warned though that suppply and demand may spike prices in the coming days. That can happen at launch.

[MagicNumbers]

I have to wait until late October early November to make the purchase.

[rabb1t]

That'd be best. I'm guesing by November prices and availability will be totally settled, and the next gen Nvidia and ATi cards may even be out. (Rumors were Nvidia was looking at October and that ATi was trying to beat them to the punch.)

As always, I don't recommend really looking at parts lists if you are more than 1 month off of your build. These days too much can change in that time. (No so much in terms of parts with that timeframe, but prices in terms of who's positioning where.)

[Slide]

[quote=rabb1t;352363(No offense, I know you said ya just skimmed NewEgg. I spent ~4 hours putting together my system builds and going through parts. )[/QUOTE]

Good call, I had 10 minutes before work, and the prices are all in Foreign

Originally Posted by rabb1t

No clue where you read that but I'd say the complete opposite. Socket 1156 is the new mainstream target. It can have Core i7, Core i5, and Core i3 CPUs, thus covering consumers in all 3 markets (general use, gaming, high-end/enthusiast gamers) while socket 1366 will remain strictly a high-end / overclocer / enthusast range and only have Core i7 CPUs. The beginning prices of motherboards for socket 1366 hits the high end price of the socket 1156 boards. Similarly, CPU prices will always be high and limited on socket 1366 compared to 1156.

Not strictly true 1366 will have Core i9 (for $$$$$) - it's basically a workstation chipset. Unless you are planning to do Heavy Heavy crunching then 1156 is the only sensible choice.

Originally Posted by MagicNumbers

I have to wait until late October early November to make the purchase.

I agree that would be best, you'll want either i5 or i7 860 any price gouging should settle by then.

Originally Posted by rabb1t

That'd be best. I'm guesing by November prices and availability will be totally settled, and the next gen Nvidia and ATi cards may even be out. (Rumors were Nvidia was looking at October and that ATi was trying to beat them to the punch.)

As always, I don't recommend really looking at parts lists if you are more than 1 month off of your build. These days too much can change in that time. (No so much in terms of parts with that timeframe, but prices in terms of who's positioning where.)

September 22 for ATI and not a soft launch. The rumour mill suggests we might not see anything other than rebrands from Nvidia until next year.

[rabb1t]

Originally Posted by Slide

Not strictly true 1366 will have Core i9 (for $$$$$) - it's basically a workstation chipset.

Hum, I've never heard of a Core i9 before. Wouldn't surprise me I suppose.

I agree that would be best, you'll want either i5 or i7 860 any price gouging should settle by then.

I think prices will settle by then for sure. The only question which remains is will they spike up again due to crazy building sprees right before December.

September 22 for ATI and not a soft launch. The rumour mill suggests we might not see anything other than rebrands from Nvidia until next year.

I'm not sure what to believe on ATi's side. I've only seen one mention of it, and no other spy pics, rumored stats, or anything. So beating an October launch seems pretty unlikely due to a lack of news. That being said I have seen a few mentions of Nvidia not making the series 3 launch and instead launching new series 2 cards (the greatest rumors are on entry level cards, such as something like a GTS 240.)

I've also seen rumors that Nvidia is getting rid of the suffix and just going with a straigth up "GeForce ###" scheem. It would make the most sense. I never understood why they kept the suffixes when they said they wanted to simplfy things. Even the series-within series numbering is still somewhat confusing since most would guess an 3xx would beat a 2xx because it's in a higher hundreds and that wouldn't be the case.

[Slide]

Originally Posted by rabb1t

Hum, I've never heard of a Core i9 before. Wouldn't surprise me I suppose.

aka Gulftown - 6 core i7 9xx basically - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core_i9

Originally Posted by rabb1t

I'm not sure what to believe on ATi's side. I've only seen one mention of it, and no other spy pics, rumored stats, or anything. So beating an October launch seems pretty unlikely due to a lack of news. That being said I have seen a few mentions of Nvidia not making the series 3 launch and instead launching new series 2 cards (the greatest rumors are on entry level cards, such as something like a GTS 240.)

I've also seen rumors that Nvidia is getting rid of the suffix and just going with a straigth up "GeForce ###" scheem. It would make the most sense. I never understood why they kept the suffixes when they said they wanted to simplfy things. Even the series-within series numbering is still somewhat confusing since most would guess an 3xx would beat a 2xx because it's in a higher hundreds and that wouldn't be the case.

48xx stock is drying up and dropping in price in the channel now, there was an event/announcement last week demoing the multiscreen stuff and an announcement that the performance NDA's would be lifted on 22nd/23rd and strong rumours that (lots) of units would be in retail that day. Rumoured prices are $299/$399 for 5850/5870. Look on any of the usual hardware sites and you'll see it.

If you want a card now, the 260 looks a great deal it's 100quid here with a copy of the Batman game (30 quid in itself) - I might pick up a pair next week depending on what the 5xxx are like.

[MagicNumbers]

Quick question about the i7 860 2.8 GHz CPU. If I decide to grab that chip in late October, how do I overclock it to 3.8 GHz?

[Slide]

Originally Posted by MagicNumbers

Quick question about the i7 860 2.8 GHz CPU. If I decide to grab that chip in late October, how do I overclock it to 3.8 GHz?

There will be plenty of guides floating on the net by then, good place to check will be the forums of the motherboard manufacturers.

http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=642
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...php?t=18052218

[MagicNumbers]

Thanks Slide. I'm completely new to any sort of overclocking so the links help a lot.

[Slide]

Originally Posted by MagicNumbers

Thanks Slide. I'm completely new to any sort of overclocking so the links help a lot.

The i7 920 is still worth looking at, it clocks as well or better than the i7 860 and is easier to clock also. The argument about the socket not being upgradeable doesn't really hold any water for me - as neither sockets motherboards have SATA3 or USB3 at the moment.

[MagicNumbers]

How's this for a Price/Performance ratio?

Asus P755D Deluxe Motherboard + i7 860 bundled for $555 Canadian?

[rabb1t]

Likely only a Canadian can answer, but NewEgg prices today on the US site show $150 and $290 for those respectively; $440 US. A conversion site says that's $470 Cad, so obviously there are some price spikes due to importing.

Couldn't say, but those are solid parts (according to review sites).

Personally I don't see the difference between the regular version and the LE for the Asus ($15 difference), and the Core i7 860 only has minimal gains (primarily in multi-GPU configurations) over the Core i5 750, so it doesn't seem worth the price increase to me. (Roughly a +50% price increase.)