I'm going to buy a new system here shortly and have come down to these 2 choices, Which one would be the better of the 2. Thanks for your input

1   AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition with Cooler Master V6 Cooler / AMD 890GX Chipset + ATI SB850 / Asus ATI Radeon HD 6970 2GB GDDR5 / Corsair DDR3 1600MHz 8GB (2x4GB) / OCZ (OCZSSD2-2VTX80G) Vertex 2 SATA II 2.5" 80GB + 2x 1TB Storage RAID 0 / Pioneer BDR-206 Black SATA 12x Blu-Ray Writer / Antec Nine Hundred Mid Tower / Antec TPQ-850 TruePower Quattro 850W PSU / Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit  

2.  Intel Core i7 950 Quad-Core With Cooler Master V6 CPU Cooler / Asus SABERTOOTH X58 / Corsair XMS3 Classic 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz / OCZ (OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G) Vertex 2 SATA II 2.5" 120GB Solid State Drive / Sony AD-7260S-0B Black SATA DVD Writer 24x DVD-/+R 48x CD-R / Asus Radeon 6870 1GB GDDR5 / Cooler Master HAF 922 Mid Tower ATX Case / Cooler Master Silent Pro M850 Modular 850W PSU / Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-b
                                                                                                  Thanks Maxwell Smart (Agent 89)  

I would go with build #2...the SSD drives really speed up load times in your games!

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I also like #2. If you don't mind me asking what is the price for the systems? I am also looking at getting a new system soon.

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WARNING: Long Post...albiet informative...  

To start, I would mix #1 & #2...I prefer AMD over Intel, although with the newer, lower cost chips Intel has out these days they're actually better then their earlier $999 counterparts...either way, since you've chosen to run ATI(AMD now) vid cards, make sure the motherboard truly support the cards...look for a nice Crossfire board for future upgrading...go with the SSD for your boot...you can even get 2 SSD's since prices have dropped and RAID them...then of course have your 1TB storage drive...for vid cards you could even go with the 5850...Crossfire these bad boys for even less than one 6970 and get the same if not better performance...definitely go with the HAF case...for memory I actually like the G.Skillz brand...somewhat cheaper then Corsair and they have better timings...for the CPU cooler I'd recommend the self-contained water cooling system from Corsair...either the H50 or the H70 (twin fans, larger radiator)...and make sure your psu is rated 80+ Bronze or better...



To help out sgm10...here's a Do-All system that's upgradable and only costs about $600 to build...remember that you have to give up a little bit of performance, but again it's upgradable for down the road...and even though I prefer AMD, this rig is Intel based:

CPU:  Intel Core I3 2100 - the baby sister of the 2nd Gen Sandy Bridge lineup...Socket 1155...3.1Ghz...4 cores - $135
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H67M-D2 - the low end of the H67 lineup, but supports the entire line of 1155's...not the best O'C board so be careful - $95
Memory: Corsair TW3X4G1333C9 DDR3-1333 - 4GB - only $42
Case/PSU: Cooler Master 534 w/460w power - case is actually decent...PSU won't handle beefier vid cards but for $69 it's a bargain...you can upgrade PSU later...
Video card: HIS Radeon HD 5750 - Gives you DirectX 11 on a $110 budget...just remember you'll have to run on moderate resolutions, eye candy dialed down a lil, etc...
Hard drive: Seagate 7200.12 160GB - yea it's a smaller drive, but we wanted a better CPU and graphics...and for $36 it's a steal...
Optical drive: LG GGH22NS50B DVD Burner - only $16...why go Blue Ray unless you watch movies right at your PC...
OS: Win 7 Home Premium X64 (OEM) - stable, runs DirectX 11...not a memory hog like Vista was...good for gamers - $100


How to save money on PC Hardware

1) Package deals - some resellers bundle MBs/cpu/mem...or graphics/psu...just know your components in the bundle...

2) Buy from 1 reseller - you might save a few $ here and there from purchasing from different sites, but you lose those savings in shipping costs...plus many resellers will waive shipping if you buy above a certain $ amount...

3) Sell your old stuff - you can sell your old stuff on Ebay, etc...you'd be suprised at how much you can get for an old MB or graphics card...

4) CPU price drops - Intel and AMD (although to a lesser extent) cut prices regularly...as often as quarterly...even current-generation cpu's will drop after a quarter or two...

5) Stock up on memory - DDR3 prices are dirt cheap currently, so buy more then you originally think you need...



Hope this helps...  

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When I got my SSD, I was going to get 2 and run them in RAID 0 until I went onto some forums and asked around. I was informed that it is pointless to run SSD's in RAID 0 because they already do that internally. Is that incorrect??

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i would go with system #1 bump the psu to 1000 watt tt modular so u can and  a 2nd 6970 down the road . reason for  #1 ati all system super fast comuincation more options but i advise against the raid if anything goes wrong its all gone and if u get the wd 64 bit cache h/d they almost as fast as a ssd on 3.0 sata and that system proply cheaper as well but in the end its all u max

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ted100 wrote (View Post):

i would go with system #1 bump the psu to 1000 watt tt modular so u can and  a 2nd 6970 down the road . reason for  #1 ati all system super fast comuincation more options but i advise against the raid if anything goes wrong its all gone and if u get the wd 64 bit cache h/d they almost as fast as a ssd on 3.0 sata and that system proply cheaper as well but in the end its all u max

 Thanks Ted for your input, it's a hard choice, but your right on the raid part, and I will ask them to bump up the power supply. What have you heard on the 1100 AMD cpu?