advise on a pc build

[alexander]

Cooler Master HAF X Full Tower Gaming Case 179.99
Gigabyte Radeon HD 6950 2Gb PCI-E 295.95
Coolermaster GX 750W 80+ Power Supply 99.95
Intel Core i5-2300 Sandy Bridge 2.8GHz 189.95
Intel Desktop Board DP67BG Socket LGA1155 209.99
Corsair XMS3 TR3X6G1600C8 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1600 99.95
Creative Sound Blaster X-FI TITANIUM - PCI Express Sound Card 96.99
Samsung BX2350, 23" Widescreen LED Monitor 219.99
Kingston 64GB SSDNow V100 Drive SATA2 2.5 Read 99.95

1492.71

Keep in mind these are canadian prices.
Let me know how i can improve or fix any issues I may not be aware of. Thanks.

[zburns]

I suggest you google the monitor cat # followed by reviews. Look for the CNet review; it is generally complimentary however, they call out one negative which you will see. Then go to other reviews and see if that same negative shows up. If it does not, disregard it. I will read the other reviews later today to look for the same thing. I have a Samsung 24" monitor and like it very much; would buy Samsung again if I had to buy right now; I am very pleased with my monitor (245BW). These are all TN panels which have negatives only if you are a professional photoshop user and do work for clients; otherwise the TN panel is fine for everyday use. Colors great, brightness consistent.

Other comments later today or tomorrow.

[alexander]

Thanks for fast response. I forgot to mention all I'm gonna do on this PC is gaming so I guess it doens't affect me. Out of all manufacturers from my own experience I prefer samsung as well. I picked this monitor for LED and 2ms delay, but I believe its still only 60hz refresh rate. I don't know if its worth it to pay extra for a 120hz if all you do is game. Plus this monitor looks pretty stylish. Also I don't really know what you mean by TN panels and everything, would be nice if you could explain. Thanks again.

[RickyTick]

You may find this informative. It's a couple of years old, but still good info.
http://www.gcmac.org/html/panel_types.pdf

However, in a nutshell, if you need a monitor for working with detailed colors like with photography, graphics, or design, then you should get an IPS monitor. If it's for everyday use and gaming, then a TN (twisted nematic) monitor is great. It has a better response time, plus it's just a lot less expensive. I personally have a dual monitor set up with a Samsung 226BW and an Asus VW224U.

btw, that ram won't work with that motherboard. You need dual channel ram, not triple channel.

[alexander]

You may find this informative. It's a couple of years old, but still good info.
http://www.gcmac.org/html/panel_types.pdf

However, in a nutshell, if you need a monitor for working with detailed colors like with photography, graphics, or design, then you should get an IPS monitor. If it's for everyday use and gaming, then a TN (twisted nematic) monitor is great. It has a better response time, plus it's just a lot less expensive. I personally have a dual monitor set up with a Samsung 226BW and an Asus VW224U.

btw, that ram won't work with that motherboard. You need dual channel ram, not triple channel.

Thanks. Any thoughts on the soundcard, ssd and cpu? I've heard that sandy bridge has got some issues. Is it true? And I'm clueless about soundcards and ssds. From what I heard dont know if its true only a creative card supports hardware acceleration. And for ssd does brand make a huge difference cuz I don't want to spend a ton on one.

[RickyTick]

It's true that there is an issue with SB. They should start shipping again in April. If you can wait until April, it will be worth it.

I don't know much about sound cards or SSDs.

[zburns]

Comments on soundcards: Your Intel Desktop Board DP67BG has built a built in sound chip. I imagine you have looked at the Intel Spec page, but if you have not, here is the link: http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/db-DP67BG/DP67BG-overview.htm . About the fourth item down is the Audio Specification. I would suggest you use it first and then go to a sound card if you are disatisfied. If you are a real Hi Fi enthusiaist and can actually distinguish really good sound from mediocre, you should be able to test the Intel quality; however, I would point out that a high quality sound system is one with a frequency response up to 20K cycles with "very minimal distortion".

Soundcards have been around for some years, probably because of the absence of good medium (or even 'low') performance 'sound chips' to go on motherboards. Look at Intel's venture into a gpu chip for full video performance on their H67 motherboards. According to reviews, it does a fair job for an average 'gaming' experience but does not rise to the enthusiast level. However, Intels entry threatens video card manufacturers so now they will 'reach' higher and higher to make their products more appealing than the motherboard video chip.

Back to the soundcard. If you have or propose to have a high quality, multi speaker home theater system for use with HDTV and quality music listening, you are going to spend some 'thousands' on that speaker system plus electronics to drive it. This type system goes 'way beyond' what can be done with a 'on board' mobo audio chip or even a 'plug in soundcard'.

So it boils down to what you want out of the audio system and how much you are willing to spend. I imagine a sound card can have audio qualities that outperform a single motherboard audio chip -- but with low cost small speakers (in the $ 100 plus/minus range), I would not expect the sound card to be vastly superior to the 'on board mobo audio chip'. All that said, the only way to really know is to 'hear' and 'compare' both methods.

SSD's. My and Ricky Ticks comments are the same. I really know very little about them. I would rather wait and see how their popularity goes. Prices should come down. Mechanical hard drives are reliable and long lived and have been proven; hard drives are not like solid state computer chips that do experience random weird types of partial to complete failure. Hard Drives either work or they do not -- no in between. Example: RAM sticks can have partial failures and still work, but the partial failures can be difficult to figure out.

[zburns]

Further monitor comments: In my first response I made reference to a CNet review. Here is the link to that review: http://reviews.cnet.com/lcd-monitors/samsung-syncmaster-bx2350/4505-3174_7-34139828.html#reviewPage1

Early on, the reviewer makes reference to a two problems, backlighting and 'touch' controls. He sums it up in a short sentence: "The bad: Samsung SyncMaster BX2350 has very noticeable backlight clouding, low vibrancy in games, and its OSD array touch sensors work inconsistently"

This comment does not 'disqualify' this model. I was just suggesting that you take a look at all reviews on this model and see if those complaints are repeated elsewhere, then you might be concerned.

If I had to buy right now, I would find it difficult not to buy Samsung. My 245 BW has been perfect for desktop viewing. Samsung is a 'big time' monitor manufacturer and, as such, they logically look for ways to cut costs and improve products. So you have to take the CNet reviewer seriously, look for other reviews to verify or debunk the CNet complaint. Maybe he, the reviewer just had the sample monitor set up wrong, etc.. It the backlighting complaint is valid, one would think other reviews would point it out but maybe 'diminish' the relative importance of it.

[alexander]

Thanks for your responses. Like I said I'm going to get this PC exclusively for gaming.
The actual reason I'm getting Intel manufactured motherboard is that it has onboard Intel Pro network card. As for sound I have my Sennheiser hd555's and not plan to use speakers for this PC. From what I know a dedicated sound card can both offload cpu and improve sound. I guess you are right about ssd's. I've got a couple good old hdds and I'm just gonna use that.

I've read that review and I've been looking at whole bunch of other monitors. From my research I found out that there is no 120hz LED monitor worth buying (there is one from benq and viewsonic but meh) perhaps since I don't need this pc right now if I wait a month or so something better will come out.

I've also made some adjustments
Changed my case thought I don't need a full tower for this configuration.
Changed my PSU since I don't need that much power either and upgraded my CPU for a better one. Also replaced triple with dual channel ram.

COOLER MASTER HAF 922 99.95
Gigabyte Radeon HD 6950 2Gb PCI-E 295.95
CoolerMaster RP-600-PCAR EXTREME 69.95
Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz 209.95
Intel Desktop Board DP67BG Socket LGA1155 209.99
Corsair XMS3 Dominator CMP4GX3M2B1600C8 4GB DDR3 104.95
Samsung BX2350, 23" Widescreen LED Monitor 219.99 (big maybe)
Creative Sound Blaster X-FI TITANIUM - PCI Express Sound Card 96.99 (also not sure)
1307.72

Anyway I'm gonna keep researching and thinking. If anyone got anything else to say feel free to share. Thanks.

EDIT: What do you think about this Asus ML248H 24" LED Widescreen Monitor 1920x1080 2ms(GtG) 10000000:1(ASCR) DVI-D HDMI monitor and about Asus monitors in particular. I know I like samsung more and they are clearly the best in that field but who knows maybe asus is not that far behind.

[RickyTick]

I have a Samsung and an Asus side by side. I can't tell the difference.

Why not go with 8gb of ram for the same price. Plus this is designed for Sandy Bridge.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233144

[alexander]

I have a Samsung and an Asus side by side. I can't tell the difference.

Why not go with 8gb of ram for the same price. Plus this is designed for Sandy Bridge.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233144

Sweet, good idea. Alright. Thanks.

[alexander]

I've decided to change few components around let me know what you think.


Cooler Master HAF 932 Full Tower ATX Case 129.99
Gigabyte Radeon HD 6970 2Gb PCI-E GDDR5 2xDvi Hdmi DisplayPort Video Card Retail Box 299.95
OCZ StealthXStream 700W Power Supply - Active PFC 120mm Fan OCZ700SXS 91.95
Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz 209.95
Asus P8P67 Deluxe Socket 1155 Intel P67 Chipset CrossfireX/SLI Dual-Channel DDR3 2133(O.C.)/1866(O.C.)/1600/1333Mhz 3x PCI-Express 2.0 x16 Dual GigaLAN 8-CH High Definition Audio 4x SATA 6.0Gb/s 4x SATA 3.0Gb/s 4x USB 3.0 2xFirewire Bluetooth v2.1 ATX 239.99
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 104.99
Asus ML248H 24" LED Widescreen Monitor 219.99
Creative Sound Blaster X-FI TITANIUM - PCI Express Sound Card 96.99
OCZ (OCZSSD2-2AGTE60G) Agility 2 SATA II 2.5" 60GB Solid State Drive 99.88

My primary concern if the memory is compatible with this motherboard.