I'll try to make it a bit different by explaining my thoughts and specific questions, should make it easier to tell me where I'm wrong. As you can see, I have put a lot of thoughts into this, I just hate spending lots of money on something that can turn to be badly spent money.
I'm building a PC for everything and I'd like it to be fast enough at these tasks.
- a bit of gaming (not interested in any competitive online FPS)
- a bit of coding, some calculations, pretty big files (databases, excel etc)
- a bit of Photoshop
LCD
I am planning to get HP ZR30w. The reasons are great colors, 10-bit possibility in the future and I am kind of interested to play some games at 2560x1600, not to mention photographs. Also I don't think there is any other panel with color accuracy and gamut like this , that would be more decent to play fast games on it.
CPU
i7-2600K, seems to me like best option, since I do want a bit of computational power in case I need it. I do not plan to set any overclocking records, I will OC it just so I haven't wasted money on the K version. Gotta use what I bought, right?
Motherboard
I have been thinking a lot about it, currently I like Asus P8Z68 Deluxe Gen 3 most. To be honest it looks a bit of an overkill, however I do want to have some room there for future (for possible SLI, sound card in far future, possible FX Quadro GPU addition etc) so not a fan of GENE Z. The Deluxe has better audio and that is something that interests me at the moment. As for brand, I wouldn't call myself ASUS fanboy, but I would prefer to get one of their boards at the moment. I like Gigabyte as well, but none of their motherboards persuaded me.
SDD
I have shortlisted couple of possibilities, either 250GB or 500GB. The argument against 500GB version is that I think this segment of industry is developing very fast, so I think it's better to stay slightly below top offer, to avoid overpaying what I don't need. Even with 500GB SSD, I would still need additional HDD's. In order of preference I have this list:
- Crucial M4 256GB
- Crucial M4 512GB
- Kingston HyperX 240 GB
- Samsung 830 256GB
- Samsung 830 512GB
I want something fast, but reliable. I don't trust OCZ at the moment, I have heard too many bad things about their SSD's, I hope that they fix their problems and stay problem-free for at least a year.
CPU Cooler
I am thinking about Corsair H100. It's efficient and it looks better than those huge heatsinks (personal preference, I know many think opposite). I also believe that it will be better for hot summers that I will have to go through, it should resist heat just a little bit better.
Case
One of the toughest choices. I am not into something superfancy, no need for any LED's, but if it looks decent, even better. I also don't want to have any problems with it. Not now, not in the future. I don't want any clearing issues, any space issues, nothing. I want to have nice airflow there.
My pick is HAF X 942. Visually it might not be for everyone, I think it's decent enough though. I like all that space, I like the big fans, I like the fact that it has zero problems with any kind of H100 configuration.
I would however ask for advice, what to do with fans and H100? Would you buy any extra fans to replace existing, the H100 and also in case? If so, which ones? I hear that H100 fans are very loud and I can't accept that. I don't know how the rest of the fans are, but I am willing to spend few extra bucks to get it better.
GPU
I've changed my mind couple of times and at the moment I have settled for GTX 590.
First of all I am not a big fan of SLI (although 580 3GB SLI was one of my choices), because of micro-stuttering. It would have been an issue with many games at 2560x1600. GTX 590 seems to be using different SLI method, so the micro-stuttering is not an issue. I probably can't accept anything lower than that, as gaming at 2560x1600 is hard enough. My thoughts are (crush my dreams...) that with high resolution I will not need a lot of AA and with most demanding games out there, no AA at all. The reason why I think so are the tests that I have done with 2560x1600 screenshots of jaggies in games. I realized that I can just move screen a bit back and jaggies turn into a nice flat line. I also realized that there will ALWAYS be jaggies, no matter what kind of AA is applied - if you only look close enough. So why not use this optical law the best I can?
Also, can I get some recommendations for which 590 is the best to get?
RAM
I'm thinking that GSKill Ripjaws X 1.5V 1600(?) would be a good choice. I am still deciding between 16GB and 32GB though. Besides money, is there is any disadvantage of having all 4 slots used? I have heard some claims, that if all 4 slots are used, the speed/transfer or whatever is worse. True? 16 = 4x4 or 2x8?
My plan is to not use paging file and hoping that it wouldn't cause me any problems with possible programs that might require it.
HDD
Apart from SDD I intend to keep my current Seagate 2TB and add more WD RE4 in the future... when the prices hopefully get more normal.
Optical Drives
Thinking about Plextor PX-LB950SA.
PSU
I intend to keep my current Corsair 850 and hope for the best.
What would you change or add, it could be even small detail that you think should not be forgotten?
I'm building a PC for everything and I'd like it to be fast enough at these tasks.
- a bit of gaming (not interested in any competitive online FPS)
- a bit of coding, some calculations, pretty big files (databases, excel etc)
- a bit of Photoshop
LCD
I am planning to get HP ZR30w. The reasons are great colors, 10-bit possibility in the future and I am kind of interested to play some games at 2560x1600, not to mention photographs. Also I don't think there is any other panel with color accuracy and gamut like this , that would be more decent to play fast games on it.
CPU
i7-2600K, seems to me like best option, since I do want a bit of computational power in case I need it. I do not plan to set any overclocking records, I will OC it just so I haven't wasted money on the K version. Gotta use what I bought, right?
Motherboard
I have been thinking a lot about it, currently I like Asus P8Z68 Deluxe Gen 3 most. To be honest it looks a bit of an overkill, however I do want to have some room there for future (for possible SLI, sound card in far future, possible FX Quadro GPU addition etc) so not a fan of GENE Z. The Deluxe has better audio and that is something that interests me at the moment. As for brand, I wouldn't call myself ASUS fanboy, but I would prefer to get one of their boards at the moment. I like Gigabyte as well, but none of their motherboards persuaded me.
SDD
I have shortlisted couple of possibilities, either 250GB or 500GB. The argument against 500GB version is that I think this segment of industry is developing very fast, so I think it's better to stay slightly below top offer, to avoid overpaying what I don't need. Even with 500GB SSD, I would still need additional HDD's. In order of preference I have this list:
- Crucial M4 256GB
- Crucial M4 512GB
- Kingston HyperX 240 GB
- Samsung 830 256GB
- Samsung 830 512GB
I want something fast, but reliable. I don't trust OCZ at the moment, I have heard too many bad things about their SSD's, I hope that they fix their problems and stay problem-free for at least a year.
CPU Cooler
I am thinking about Corsair H100. It's efficient and it looks better than those huge heatsinks (personal preference, I know many think opposite). I also believe that it will be better for hot summers that I will have to go through, it should resist heat just a little bit better.
Case
One of the toughest choices. I am not into something superfancy, no need for any LED's, but if it looks decent, even better. I also don't want to have any problems with it. Not now, not in the future. I don't want any clearing issues, any space issues, nothing. I want to have nice airflow there.
My pick is HAF X 942. Visually it might not be for everyone, I think it's decent enough though. I like all that space, I like the big fans, I like the fact that it has zero problems with any kind of H100 configuration.
I would however ask for advice, what to do with fans and H100? Would you buy any extra fans to replace existing, the H100 and also in case? If so, which ones? I hear that H100 fans are very loud and I can't accept that. I don't know how the rest of the fans are, but I am willing to spend few extra bucks to get it better.
GPU
I've changed my mind couple of times and at the moment I have settled for GTX 590.
First of all I am not a big fan of SLI (although 580 3GB SLI was one of my choices), because of micro-stuttering. It would have been an issue with many games at 2560x1600. GTX 590 seems to be using different SLI method, so the micro-stuttering is not an issue. I probably can't accept anything lower than that, as gaming at 2560x1600 is hard enough. My thoughts are (crush my dreams...) that with high resolution I will not need a lot of AA and with most demanding games out there, no AA at all. The reason why I think so are the tests that I have done with 2560x1600 screenshots of jaggies in games. I realized that I can just move screen a bit back and jaggies turn into a nice flat line. I also realized that there will ALWAYS be jaggies, no matter what kind of AA is applied - if you only look close enough. So why not use this optical law the best I can?
Also, can I get some recommendations for which 590 is the best to get?
RAM
I'm thinking that GSKill Ripjaws X 1.5V 1600(?) would be a good choice. I am still deciding between 16GB and 32GB though. Besides money, is there is any disadvantage of having all 4 slots used? I have heard some claims, that if all 4 slots are used, the speed/transfer or whatever is worse. True? 16 = 4x4 or 2x8?
My plan is to not use paging file and hoping that it wouldn't cause me any problems with possible programs that might require it.
HDD
Apart from SDD I intend to keep my current Seagate 2TB and add more WD RE4 in the future... when the prices hopefully get more normal.
Optical Drives
Thinking about Plextor PX-LB950SA.
PSU
I intend to keep my current Corsair 850 and hope for the best.
What would you change or add, it could be even small detail that you think should not be forgotten?
