Need help with PC build

[bevo]

I have a friend buildgin my first gaming pc. I'm wanting to use a 50 inch panasonic plasma tv for my monitor, and run the sound through my denon 1909 receiver. My buddy has never used a tv for a monitor, or ran the sound through and AVR receiver and isn't sure about the sound card he has picked.

Here is what he has come up with so far, let me know if this setup would do what I'm wanting it to.

I'm also wondering how well everything should look on a 1080p tv.

EVGA 131-GT-E767-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 SLI3 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard


Creative PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series Sound Card

MSI N570GTX-M2D12D5 GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card



CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C8D

KINGWIN Mach 1 ABT-1000MA1S 1000W ATX / BTX SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601950

ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD10EALX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

LG Black Super Multi SATA WH12LS30 LightScribe Support

That's everything i think. I don't even know what most of it is, but he said it should be all I would need to run anything.

Let me know what you guys think and if I should change anything.

 

[nick09]

Why go for a last generation i7? You won't have any upgrade paths in the future if you don't use a 1155 processor(the second gen i3, i5, and i7 run on socket 1155. Make sure to get a 1155 socket motherboard for this). Not to mention the selection is cheaper and faster. Get this RAM. Most likely cheaper and you get an extra 2GB of RAM out of it for the same RAM speed.

 

[Terronium-12]

As already mentioned you're better off with LGA 1155. However, if you're patient and really want the perspective 1366 offered then wait until the 2011 boards come out which should be sometime in Q4.

As for the sound card you'd be much better off with an Essence STX.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

I read advice recently that said you don't actually need an i7 for gaming, and that you'd be better off buying an i5 and spending the cash on a better graphics card.

I agree with nick09 & Terronium-12, in saying you should go for an LGA1155 board. If you get one with an optical output on the built-in sound card, you feed that straight to your Denon and save the money on the X-Fi. My Asus board has optical digital out on the sound card. Actually, if the Denon has a USB input, just run that. It'll install itself as a sound mixer on your system. I'm doing that with a Cambridge Audio DACmagic, and I'm getting great sound.

You appear to have two optical media writers. Is that as intended?

And you may wish to buy a case to put everything in... Antec do very good cases with nice features for cleaning up your internal wiring (and thus airflow).
Finally, "Kingwin" isn't a name I've heard of in connection with PSUs. Have a look at some of the more established brands - e.g. Corsair. You may well find that a Corsair 750W PSU actually has a higher, and more stable, output than a lower-grade 1000W PSU.

 

[Casio]

g (and thus airflow).
Finally, "Kingwin" isn't a name I've heard of in connection with PSUs. Have a look at some of the more established brands - e.g. Corsair. You may well find that a Corsair 750W PSU actually has a higher, and more stable, output than a lower-grade 1000W PSU.

+1

Here is a great article testing no name PSUs.


The 700w didn't even make 350w before catching fire.

 

[bevo]

I ended up ordering everything the other night. I dropped the blue ray, and added a 120SSD, and a cheaper sound card. Do I even need a sound card since I am going to be using HDMI as my out to my receiver? I had one friend that said that since it's hdmi it might also carry sound from my graphics card some how.

 

[eSZee]

Did you get a quality power supply as suggested?

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

I'm guessing not, since last night would be before all but one of the comments were posted.

Jonnyguru.com thought it was okay, so things could be worse. Though that was 2 years ago.

 

[David]

I ended up ordering everything the other night. I dropped the blue ray, and added a 120SSD, and a cheaper sound card. Do I even need a sound card since I am going to be using HDMI as my out to my receiver? I had one friend that said that since it's hdmi it might also carry sound from my graphics card some how.

I don't know about the 570 specifically, but my 480's have audio processing built in and can send the audio via hdmi to a tv or receiver. This is fine for games, but I think from my understanding you may not be able to get true 5.1 if you're watching movies on the computer because of the different types of encoding. Something to think about / look into.

 

[Casio]

II had one friend that said that since it's hdmi it might also carry sound from my graphics card some how.

Makes no difference at all. How do you think a PS3 works?

And you can get 5.1. I run a HTPC with HDMI to a Receiver and get DTS when avaliable.

 

[bevo]

Did you get a quality power supply as suggested?

I got the one I had listed. I didn't really get any comments on the build but one before I ordered it.

Here is everything I bought

ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner

Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio 70SB104000000 7.1 Channels PCI Express x1 Interface Sound Card (I really want to just have my sound pass through to let my denon receiver do all the work, but I didn't know how to do that, so I just bought a cheap soundcard. Hopefully that will work, or hopefully it will pass through the HDMI from the video card)

Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz

MSI N570GTX-M2D12D5 GeForce GTX 570

IN WIN Dragon Rider Black 1.0 - 0.8mm SECC Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case

2 of these CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

EVGA 131-GT-E767-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 SLI3 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

The things I changed was the soundcard, the HDD from the blue to black, added an SSD, and doubled the RAM.

 

[bevo]

Makes no difference at all. How do you think a PS3 works?

And you can get 5.1. I run a HTPC with HDMI to a Receiver and get DTS when avaliable.

So your saying that I don't even need a sound card?

Another question.
How is this going to look going to a 1080p plasma using HDMI? Do I need to use DVI or will HDMI look the same?

 

[David]

Just use the hdmi cable that comes with the card. It will look great.

 

[Casio]

So your saying that I don't even need a sound card?

No, you shouldn't.

Another question.
How is this going to look going to a 1080p plasma using HDMI? Do I need to use DVI or will HDMI look the same?

It'll look fine. Make sure your screen supports 1:1 pixel mapping though. Sometimes TVs will overscan HDMI by default. Something you don't notice on a PS3/Movie, but something you will when you can't see half your taskbar.

 

[bevo]

No, you shouldn't.



It'll look fine. Make sure your screen supports 1:1 pixel mapping though. Sometimes TVs will overscan HDMI by default. Something you don't notice on a PS3/Movie, but something you will when you can't see half your taskbar.

When you turn on 1:1 pixel mapping while watching normal HD TV, does it put a green bar on the side of the screen?

 

[Casio]

When you turn on 1:1 pixel mapping while watching normal HD TV, does it put a green bar on the side of the screen?

Mine doesn't, though I think I have different setting per input (I just do TV from the Built-In Tuner, not from an external device). Every TV is different though.