Building a Gaming PC

[Cannon01]

You guys prolly get bored to death on doing these and I really appreciate any help I can get .
Im wanting to upgrade and venture into the world of water cooling . I have zero experience in OCing and would love to learn more . I built my current rig about 5yrs ago thanks to yalls input and never had any problems so here I am again . My current and my sons 2 PCs are AMD so I would like to stay with that . Incase I need back up parts etc. Im covered .

I have already ordered a torture rack , black bottom and red/orange back . Wanna go with a sun burst look so everything Ive been looking at has been either red , black or clear .

I dont have a huge budget (1500ish)and plan on trying to buy 1 to 2 pieces a week til I get it all . I usually buy everything from Newegg or Tigerdirect.

Main Purpose is for gaming , playing Aion atm and not looking too good on my current rig.

So far this is what Ive come up with :

motherboard - Asus M4A79T Deluxe
pcu - AMD phenom II X 3 720
gpu - Radeon HD 4870 1g , plan on using 2 after my money get backs right lol
ram - cruical 3g DDR3 1600 with red LEDs to match my theme
psu - would like to go with a full modular system (any advice would be great)

Im not sold on these items so if there is something better or matches better please say so.
Like I said any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[Blain]

With a $1500 budget you should be able to build a fast enough PC, that you wouldn't need to OC.

Overclocking was for the days when performance component prices where prohibitively expensive.
"Power" is relatively cheap these days.

The water cooling angle, I can understand based on a quiet system.

 

[heyheybooboo]

You can go with 2 x Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 1Gb for $310.

Double slot --- All black with a bit of plastic chrome.

Geil makes some 7-7-7-24 DDR3 1600 starting around $125 for a 2x2Gb kit. Most seem to be either black or a deep gray --- not sure if the red LED 'dragon' RAMs from Geil are available here (their model/motherboard configuration check is being modified - thank goodness for that - they needed it)

 

[yh125d]

That G.Skill ripjaws ram in the banner ads would also be a good choice for your theme


A Xigmatek Dark Knight or a TRUE black either running passive or matched to a red yate loon (I think they have them at petra's tech shop) and any of the 5xxx ATI GPUs with their black/red shrouds would look great.



My memory might be failing me but I think enermax has some PSUs with red fans (red colored, not LEDs) but it may have been another manufacturer. The corsair 750TX is orange/black and would prob fit in ok, but it's probably overkill depending on what your final build looks like

 

[Malak]

With that high of budget, why waste money on last gen video cards? The new 5870 is better than the 4870x2, so get it instead.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Malak
With that high of budget, why waste money on last gen video cards? The new 5870 is better than the 4870x2, so get it instead.

And not that much more expensive, and a single card, so why not get the 5870?

 

[BD231]

Another vote to the 5870, my 4850 chugs along @ 20 to 30 fps in Crysis Warhead max settings even on this overclock. Time for an upgrade.

 

[Cannon01]

5870 it is then! Thanks
Anything else I should change ? I picked the Asus MB from some reviews but Ive always had good luck with gigabyte but after reading alittle the Asus seemed like a better choice .

 

[yh125d]

Asus and Gigabyte are both great manufacturers. It's pretty hard to go wrong with any of their boards

 

[Cannon01]

Im about to pull the trigger on the MB and PCU and is this combo still up to date ?
motherboard - Asus M4A79T Deluxe
pcu - AMD phenom II X 3 720

Our would this be a better set up for a gaming rig ?
motherboard - Asus M4A79T Deluxe
pcu - AMD phenom II X 4 965

I know there is a bigger price difference but if its way better suited for gaming then I will get the 965 and just extend the build rate if its better in the long run.

 

[BD231]

Congrats!

You can't really beat the price point of the X3 yet. Its sad though because these 720's require more voltage for higher overclocks than the 9XX four core parts. On a positive note, you know you'll have a cheap/worthwhile higher clocked upgrade path on the same platform within a year or so. Prices should go down quite a bit by then, especially when AMD introduces their six core part.

 

[Cannon01]

This is what I have now :
DD Torture rack
Phenom II x4 965 BE
MSI 790FX-GD70
Cruical 2gx 3 Black w/red LEDs
Thermaltake Toughpower XT 750W

Wanted to go with HD5870 but cant find any in stock anywhere .
Would I get noticeable difference if I went with a HD5850 and down the road doing HD5850 X2 ? Would it be better just to wait and get the 5870 ?

 

[RinksCustoms]

according to recent reviews, two 5850's will consume less power under load while having similar performance to two 5870's.. especially on a rig that has only two PCIe x8 slots. two 5870'a would just be a waste on an x8, x8 mobo. However, if an x16, x16 board were used than the potential of two 5870's could be realized.. . IMHO

I was thinking of adding another 8800 Ultra but realized id probably pop the 15A circuit since two 8800 Ultra's in SLI would be like 600W, just for the graphics cards! (only a 500W PSU right now)

 

[Cannon01]

Im running 4 120mm fans . Would it be ok to run all 4 off the motherboard ?
Would it be better to run say 2 to the board and 2 straight to the PSU ?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: RinksCustoms
I was thinking of adding another 8800 Ultra but realized id probably pop the 15A circuit since two 8800 Ultra's in SLI would be like 600W, just for the graphics cards! (only a 500W PSU right now)

Somehow, I doubt that. What kind of power plug do they have? If they only have a six-pin, then that's 75W from the PCI-E slot, and 75W from the power plug, for a total of 150W per card.

 

[Patrickz0rs]

OP. I just pulled the trigger on this really good Combo Offer:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...?ItemList=Combo.273353

Can't beat that price with or without the rebate. Also free shipping.

 

[Cannon01]

Thanks! I already received the 965 and MSI . Did a test run last night with Win7 . Coming from XP with a Athlon 2.0 ghz , radeon x850xt and 2g ram . The 965 , HD5850 , 6g ram and WOW what a difference . I was playing Aion at very minimum settings to maxxed out across the board and just smooth as can be . Like playing a totally different game . I couldnt be happier . Thanks everyone for all your suggestions!!

Now just waiting on my sleaving stuff and WC items to jazz it up and cool it down!

 

[Cannon1]

http://img705.imageshack.us/i/picture001s.jpg/
http://img22.imageshack.us/i/picture002ps.jpg/
http://img707.imageshack.us/i/picture003dc.jpg/

Its finally done . Here are a few pics .
I still have alot of sheathing and cleaning up to do .
Thanks for all the tips!

 

[RaistlinZ]

http://img705.imageshack.us/i/picture001s.jpg/
http://img22.imageshack.us/i/picture002ps.jpg/
http://img707.imageshack.us/i/picture003dc.jpg/

Its finally done . Here are a few pics .
I still have alot of sheathing and cleaning up to do .
Thanks for all the tips!

Congrats! Can you give us a full run down of the system specs and the total price you paid?

 

[ScorcherDarkly]

http://img705.imageshack.us/i/picture001s.jpg/
http://img22.imageshack.us/i/picture002ps.jpg/
http://img707.imageshack.us/i/picture003dc.jpg/

Its finally done . Here are a few pics .
I still have alot of sheathing and cleaning up to do .
Thanks for all the tips!

Sexy.

 

[BD231]

http://img705.imageshack.us/i/picture001s.jpg/
http://img22.imageshack.us/i/picture002ps.jpg/
http://img707.imageshack.us/i/picture003dc.jpg/

Its finally done . Here are a few pics .
I still have alot of sheathing and cleaning up to do .
Thanks for all the tips!

I've gotta get one of those torture racks ... that looks extremely cool. You did about the same as me. I went from a 2500+ x1 on a 9800pro with 2gb ddr to x3 720 @ 3.73ghz.

Are you going to overclock?