Gaming rig build ~$1500 - Critique wanted

[PreachTru]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
Gaming workhorse

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
$1500 +/- a little

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
USA

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
Intel CPU, ATI GPU

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
Case: LIAN LI PC-7B plus II (Most likely replacing this with Corsair Obsidian 800, but not a factor in budget)
Monitor: BenQ FP241VW
Hard drive: 2x Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200rpm
DVD-RW: LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
Yes, but would like opinions on my specific build.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Mild overclock, if any. It is something I am interested in, but not a requirement for my system.

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.
1920x1200

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Within the next 30 days
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Setup I am leaning towards so far...

SAPPHIRE Toxic 100281-2GTXSR Radeon HD 5870 2GB when it is back in stock at Newegg.

And the following parts...

 

[busydude]

An 850W is not required for your setup. A 650W should do good for your build.

And I am not sure about your GPU selection as well. You can get a GTX 480 for the same price or save $100 and go for the 1 GB version without sacrificing much performance.

 

[PreachTru]

I went for the larger PSU because I might do Crossfire in the future. Also avoided the GTX 480 because of the heat it generates and I don't like Nvidia cards. The 1GB version of the same Sapphire card is only ~$25 cheaper.

 

[Axon]

Looks strong. Not much I can improve.

While the Toxic 5870 is pricey, the improved cooling and clocks are very nice. Sapphire's non-ref cards are very impressive... and 2GB is butta

 

[MisterDonut]

If this is for pure gaming, keep in mind 1366's main benefit is the full PCI-E lanes. (Even at x8, the performance difference is minimal). I would suggest either dropping down to the i7-860, which would better suit your non-OC plans with the better TurboBoost (1366 turbos like a weenie). Otherwise, if you don't mind sizing down the budget to save some money, you get better performance/$ with an AMD setup. Either way, games will not be bottlenecked by any fast quad-core. Also, I wouldn't pick an unnecessarily expensive motherboard.

I'd also just get the 1GB 5870. It's fast enough for that resolution. It'd be a shame to leave it at stock though. They're fantastic overclockers. I'd avoid CFX in general because your resolution doesn't call for it, and there will almost always be single cards fast enough to handle everything.

Also, I'd drop that watercooler. I'm not saying it won't do its job, but if you want to go h2o, go all the way. Even on air, CPU's can still be cooled extremely adequately. If you're doing mild overclocks at most, stick with a cheap Hyper 212+ (can be had for about $25). If you want to get a little more out of your chip, you can shoot for something mid-range like the Mugen 2 for around $45. Any other high end air cooler (ProMeg, VenX, DH-14, etc.) are, imo, only worth it if you want to push your chip all the way.

Of course, the i7-860 would be more popular (and obviously faster), but if this is a PURE gaming build, my honest opinion would be to save some money on the CPU and go with a 955BE setup. Any money saved is money in your pockets, and you might consider getting into the SSD market. It doesn't benefit gaming, but it'll make general computing and boot much faster (I don't know if this will matter in your case). Something simple and small for OS + a few apps (games installed on your 1TB's) around 60gb would be fantastic. Even 40gb is sufficient for my rig.

Cheers!

 

[mfenn]

If this is for pure gaming, keep in mind 1366's main benefit is the full PCI-E lanes. (Even at x8, the performance difference is minimal). I would suggest either dropping down to the i7-860, which would better suit your non-OC plans with the better TurboBoost (1366 turbos like a weenie). Otherwise, if you don't mind sizing down the budget to save some money, you get better performance/$ with an AMD setup. Either way, games will not be bottlenecked by any fast quad-core. Also, I wouldn't pick an unnecessarily expensive motherboard.

I'd also just get the 1GB 5870. It's fast enough for that resolution. It'd be a shame to leave it at stock though. They're fantastic overclockers. I'd avoid CFX in general because your resolution doesn't call for it, and there will almost always be single cards fast enough to handle everything.

Also, I'd drop that watercooler. I'm not saying it won't do its job, but if you want to go h2o, go all the way. Even on air, CPU's can still be cooled extremely adequately. If you're doing mild overclocks at most, stick with a cheap Hyper 212+ (can be had for about $25). If you want to get a little more out of your chip, you can shoot for something mid-range like the Mugen 2 for around $45. Any other high end air cooler (ProMeg, VenX, DH-14, etc.) are, imo, only worth it if you want to push your chip all the way.

Of course, the i7-860 would be more popular (and obviously faster), but if this is a PURE gaming build, my honest opinion would be to save some money on the CPU and go with a 955BE setup. Any money saved is money in your pockets, and you might consider getting into the SSD market. It doesn't benefit gaming, but it'll make general computing and boot much faster (I don't know if this will matter in your case). Something simple and small for OS + a few apps (games installed on your 1TB's) around 60gb would be fantastic. Even 40gb is sufficient for my rig.

Cheers!

This. An SSD will make more difference in general usage (and game loading times!) than 2GB worth of framebuffer will.

 

[PreachTru]

Made a few changes...

Dropped the cpu water cooler, corsair 850 watt psu, and 2gb 5870. Decided to keep my seasonic 750 watt psu that is only a year and a half old. Picked up an xfx 5870 xxx edition gpu, hyper 212+ cpu cooler, and an ocz agility 60gb ssd. Kept the I7-930 cpu and gigabyte mobo.

 

[mfenn]

Made a few changes...

Dropped the cpu water cooler, corsair 850 watt psu, and 2gb 5870. Decided to keep my seasonic 750 watt psu that is only a year and a half old. Picked up an xfx 5870 xxx edition gpu, hyper 212+ cpu cooler, and an ocz agility 60gb ssd. Kept the I7-930 cpu and gigabyte mobo.

Smart moves. Once you use a computer with an SSD, you'll wonder how you put up with spinning disks all of those years!

 

[MisterDonut]

You might want to consider a better cooler and OC the 930. Still Turbos like a weenie . Should hit around 4ghz easily on decent air.

Oh the noise. Wait...what noise? .

 

[PreachTru]

Well I might as well get the water cooler I originally had then if that is the case.

 

[Reincus]

The water cooler has a fan too. The bigger heatsinks will often run lower RPM fans and still keep things cool. Depends on the load of course, but that is a universal truth.

I have an associate that had one of those sealed water cooling things leak after 18 months and fried his motherboard. Unlike real water cooling, they aren't filled with DI (non-conductive) water.

 

[PreachTru]

So this is what I ordered today... $1,556.67 shipped. Decided to get a full tower instead of re-using my Lian-Li mid tower. Also went with the Noctua heatsink instead of water cooling.

 

[MangoTBG]

Good choice on the heatsink. That's coming from someone who just put together an AMD machine with the Corsair version.

Two reasons, though:

1. I don't have the links (not that it matters) but I did research the two units and the Corsair was reportedly better.
2. It's really not as good of a cooler as most of the larger heatsinks. It seems better suited for the cooler AMD chips.

(All of that said, it's perfect for me)

Anyways, you've got a great looking rig!! Enjoy!