Thanks for all the great information on NCIX.com, even I was not aware of all of that.

Glad to hear that you found Ncix. As specialk pointed out, they are an excellent source for hardware when you are in Canada.

Indeed, the prices gap between parts in the USA and Canada make no sense to me either sometimes, especially when you consider the exchange rate.

Out of curiosity, where in Canada do you live? I might be able to suggest to you a local/regional store with better prices perhaps.

Another option that you could consider is Ebay. Prices tend to be very competitive on there, although I highly recommend buying from Canadian sellers, to avoid expensive customs fees.

If you do order something from the USA, avoid UPS like the plague.

I have heard too many horror stories on how poorly they take care of their shipments and they will likely rip you off with insane custom fees based on my personal experience with them.

Finally, if it ends being too expensive, I also offer other custom builds on the website, ranging from $400 to $2000 USD in the USA, that you can base yourself on. Perhaps that the $1250 Gaming PC, after converting prices to what you find in Canada, with Windows 7 and a monitor, will be more in a reasonable price range for you.

Cheers,
Mathieu

I see your point with the socket 1366 and the Core i9 coming out in the future.

A good point that I have to agree with, although there’s unfortunately a lack of information on pricing regarding the Core i9.

I’m simply afraid that Intel might just decide to jack their prices and offer only one core i9 processor at a $500 if not even $1000 price point.

I see your point with triple channel RAM. It’s true that while it is not really useful right now except in the most demanding programs, in the future it is likely to give you a nice advantage compared to dual-channel.

In the end, I believe that it’s a question of whether you prefer to invest more right now for a socket 1366 platform or rather spend less on a socket 1156 platform.

True, a socket 1366 platform will allow to upgrade to a Core i9, have triple-channel and in the end, a platform that should last you longer.

But you could also simply change your P55 motherboard/Core i5 cpu in the future for the next mainstream cpu/motherboard platform that should be more powerful thanks to 32nm technology and various improvement that Intel will implement here, while the Core i9 doesn’t bring much to the table but 6 cores.

Yes, a new motherboard/cpu will cost you, but so will a Core i9. A new high-end 6-core CPU vs a mainstream CPU/motherboard? I don’t think that the price gap between the two will be that great.

The question is: Will 6 cores bring any advantage over 4 cores in a a few years down the road? Sure, for any heavily multithreaded programs, but what about video games?

Personally, I feel that you’re better off spending less and upgrading to the mainstream platform every few years, rather than spending more now on a higher-end platform.

In any case, time will tell us what will happen in the next few years, all we can do now is speculate about future technology and future demands from programs/games and I’m afraid that we can’t really draw much of a conclusion here.

Not that I don’t enjoy talking about this though =D

Regarding my comment about RAID, I simply meant that you can also use RAID (0,1,5, etc.) on a the P55 platform as well.

I understand how RAID 0,1,5,10, etc. works, although I would not recommend RAID 0 on a machine made to last due to increased chance of failure and the risk of losing all your data.

While RAID 0 or 5 is certainly a nice option, if you really want your games/programs to load faster, a SSD is really the way to go now in my opinion.

Something like a SSD for your OS and main programs/games along with a RAID 1 (or 5 if you can afford it) on two (or three) mechanical hard drives for more important data, or less used programs/games, would definitely be a faster alternative compared to using only mechanical hard drives only.

While SSDs are “only” 70%-%160 faster regarding transfer rates, where they really shine is with seek latencies, that are in the 0.05-0.07ms compared to 7.00-9.00ms on a regular mechanical hard drive.

That alone will make your OS, programs and games load much faster than pretty much any RAID array of mechanical hard drives could ever aspire to.

Definitely you might want to consider for your future builds.

Thanks for your comment, sure made me think about alternative ways/parts for this and other builds that I publish here on Hardware Revolution.

Cheers,
Mathieu

As well, if you regularly buy computer stuff you can buy a premier partner membership ($150) and many many things become much cheaper.

I haven’t used it, but there is also a “price match” feature which people talk about in the comments of some products. This may mean NCIX price matches with competitors.

I have bought probably 1000 things from NCIX and use them exclusively, only because I have never came across anything better.

In my opinion, the 1366 is much more future proof by spending a few extra bucks now especially when you compare cost against the 860. This socket would let you upgrade once to the core i9 before you have to throw it out.

Although tri-channel memory isn’t a major consideration for most people, again it’s more future-proof. I agree that gaming won’t notice much performance difference (for now). Those who do data-bound processing such as video editting and DVD ripping will appreciate the extra memory bandwidth. Tri-channel simply has a bigger pipe to move data around.

I didn’t understand your comment about RAID but let me elaborate. Two 500 GB disks in RAID 0 will still give you 1 TB of storage but nearly double your read and write performance. Can you say faster load times in your favorite game? You’ll be zoned and killing stuff before your friends get through. Add another disk for RAID 5 and you have protection against a single drive failure. I will say that SSD/mechanical disk combos are also an attractive option.

The last machine I built lasted 7 years. I’m about to build another one like I’ve described but, unlike the last one, this one is awaiting spousal approval.

DD

Welcome to Hardware Revolution and glad to hear that you enjoy the site.

I can’t help it but ask why go with a core i7-920 and the socket 1366 motherboard?

The core i5/1156 motherboard will provide similar performance (According to AnandTech: http://bit.ly/18JzYL), thanks to its aggressive turbo mode, while costing a good $200-$250 less.

Triple-Channel RAM doesn’t bring much to the table in terms of real-world performance and 8x/8x PCI-E 2.0 slots provides enough bandwidth even for the fastest video cards on the market.

If it’s because of Hyper-Threading, you have the Core i7-860, which is still on the 1156 platform, while being faster and consuming less power than the Core i7 920.

If you’re afraid of running out of RAM, nothing is stopping you from getting 8GB (4×2GB). Same goes for the 2 or 3 disks in RAID 0 or 5.

Then again, there are a multitude of possible configurations for $1500 and while I believe this is the best balance of performance and being future-proof, I always welcome comments like yours which makes me think about other possibilities.

Of course, that’s the best part of building your own PC. You choose what goes in it

Thanks for your comment and I look forward to hear again from you in the future,
Mathieu