Want to build the best gaming computer I can for $2600

red i am sure Seasonic makes corsairs PSU's but i think moiz is trying to say that there are better psu's that are gold rated vs bronze rated for better efficiency.

Not as far as the readers of Custom PC and bit-tech are concerned it would seem.

I personally don't use KingWin as their better specced products aren't available here- they are also (in general) saddled with a short warranty period.
The NZXT units seem pretty good...if you can get one. From their local availability I'm guessing they are handmade...they are always out of stock/pre order status. I guess it depends on whether your local etail/retail has a reasonable working relationship with NZXT.

Corsair quality is mediocre when it comes to the CX range. The top-tier PSUs are good, but some of them are overpriced for their features, compared to others in the same power output range. Corsair usually makes great supplies, but they're over-recommended by and far, since most people don't expect there to be better-priced units out there with the same, or better, performance.

The Kingwin unit is actually a rebranded Super Flower unit, with top-notch build quality and specs. The +12V rail is slightly underpowered vis-a-vis the total power output of other PSUs but the difference is not more than around 50W or so; insignificant IMHO. The NZXT is based on the same platform IIRC.

Haha, sorry I don't really.
I just know stuff like ASUS Xonar, omega HT claro halo XT...

can anyone suggest a nice sound card and speakers? that will work with the udr3 mb?

I would like to go out on a limb and say NO to the Western Digital Black 1TB drive, both SATA II and SATA III, especially the SATA III version. The difference in performance is not that high from my experience, though for the price I guess it doesn't matter in the end.

That being said I would recommend the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB. It's faster than the WD Black 1 TB (SATAII) and roughly as fast as the WD Black SATA III version, costs less (in some cases $20-$35 less) and runs cooler and quieter, at the expense of a slower spinup time and slightly slower access time.

I have 4 of them (The 1TB), and I just bought a F4 2TB, which is astonishingly faster than the 1TB despite having one more platter and spinning only at 5400RPM (as opposed to 7200RPM).

/endrantaboutsamsung

The two sound card series listed by hellokitty are nothing to laugh at, and are generally well rated. The Xonar has both PCIe-x1 and PCI cards, while the HT Omega are PCI only. The PCIe-x1 are likely a little more accessible if you're going to have more than one GPU considering the PCI slot is potentially covered by a dual slot cooler from a second GPU, so that might be a deciding factor.

As for speakers, I know a dozen or so people with the Logitech z5500, and ALL of them love the set, without exception. If I had the money and space, I personally would go all out and have my computer connected to a receiver and use some good floor monitors and a subwoofer, but that's just me. =p

You make a good point, but the Caviar Black has a larger warranty coverage period, and since he's going to be buying an SSD anyways (which'll be far faster than either HDD), an HDD with a larger warranty period will be a better buy IMHO.

Bump.
I'd like to know about the HT omega claro halo XT v Asus Xonar too, while being lazy and not looking them up.
Also, I might be looking for some decent speakers.

I'd recommend the ASUS Essence ST instead; it delivers significantly better sound quality than either of those cards, with features like jitter reduction etc.

For speakers, I recommend the Logitech X540, M-Audio AV40 and the harman\kardon SoundSticks II (I've owned these, and they were awesome).

Longer you mean, but I digress.

When choosing hardware I usually weigh performance, features, reported reliability, and efficiency higher than price (though price is important of course). Additional benefits (such as longer warranty) come as an extra bonus, and should not necessarily be a deciding factor.*

In my opinion the extra 2 years does not make a big difference. It has been my experience that every hard drive I've ever owned has lasted significantly longer than the average 3 year warranty period (I have drives over a decade old that still work just fine). In fact, I have given away more drives because I did not need them anymore than I have thrown out/destroyed drives because of failure.

Plus both 3 years and 5 years is a long LONG time in the computer world, by then platter drives for the average joe might be dying off with SSD taking center stage. Platter Drives might be 2-3 (or 5+ if Toshiba gets to the point of producing bit-patterned based drives at a consumer price) times the capacity for the same price, who knows.

I guess I'm just really lucky with my drives.



*A drive that runs cooler and more efficiently should in theory last longer, which is what I'm getting at.

I've heard of the Essence being a very nice card, too bad they don't have a PCIe-x1 version, and that if you want 5.1 surround sound you need to use S/PDIF. I had the X-530s before I blew out the left channel twice, those were great speakers. I heard the 540s weren't as good (looked cooler though), but only by a small margin.

ASUS Xonar Essence STX Virtual 7.1 Channels PCI Express x1 Interface 124 dB SNR / Headphone AMP Card

derp, that's what I get for not doing a search myself first.

The 5.1 surround sound comment is still accurate, however, since "virtual 7.1 surround" does not count.

Hey red unlock the fps bud. Klepto, if you are playing games, creative is also very good. If you are going for games you want a card that supports LEGIT EAX support.

Point taken. I've taken a liking to the SpinPoint series as well, and I'm actually considering buying one myself, along with a new HD 6850.

As for the ST vs the STX, the ST is the better card, having higher-quality hardware compared to the STX.

guys thanks for all your help i want some killer speakers with this setup and i think you have helped me out now to wait on the money and bask in the new computer im going to build.

Klepto, if you are going all out. I would wait for the sandy bridge. leaked info from Japan, that the new processor is running at 5Ghz cool and stable. The retail maybe expensive at first, but hey, maybe by then you'll have 3k saved up

that sounds good but sandy bridge is the replacement for i5 cpus and will not be top of the line also i think a top end i7 system will still offer great performance for a couple years to come if you look at what im running now its a huge step up.

guys i have been doing a lot of reading and i dont think i like the corsair force ssd very much it seems to get a lot of bad reviews and seems to have problems would getting a good old intel ssd be better?

My own search has revealed that the latest Force 2.0 firmware has solved the BSOD issues. So don't worry about it IMHO. There are no other issues with the Force drives that I know of.

Got to disagree with getting a 980X. It's an immensely powerful processor, granted, but this is a PC that'll be primarily used for gaming. A lot of people tend to forget that the vast majority of games only really use two cores maximum. Games like Crysis or Metro 2033 that are really intensive might use more, but it's mainly down to GPU.

Not to mention the $950 pricepoint. Paying that kind of money for a load of extra processing power that won't really be used by even the most intensive games is pretty wasteful, I think.

Instead, get an i7-950 or a 960 and invest the saved money ($650 or $400, respectively) in a Radeon 6970, which I reckon will outperform the GTX580, or perhaps Crossfire'd 6870s.

Preferably,you could just not spend the money at all. I don't see how a single GTX580 or Radeon 6870 couldn't handle the most intensive games, I know the 4870 can handle Crysis pretty much maxed so the 6870, more powerful and two generations ahead should have no trouble. Not to mention the fact that when a single 6870 does become a bit dated, in several years time, you can just throw in another and be good to go.

People tend to forget that games don't use masses of processing power the likes of the 980X can provide and that's it's mostly down to graphics processing power. There is really little need to ever spend more than $1000 on a gaming PC.

However, out of entire builds submitted, if you'd rather just have a list of components would be Rage_3k_moiz' on the first page.