Thanksgiving Gamer

[R4in]

This will be my second build in 3 years. Open to all suggestions. I am hoping this build will be good for another 3 years or so.

Alot of gaming, movies, and SOME web editing.

Not so much of a budget, but I'd like to stay around $1800 as I have a better chance of keeping my manhood out of my wife's grasp :/

US

Intel, NVidia, WD, EVGA but am open to all as these are just what I am used to

ASUS VK246H Monitor, Steelseries Shift KB, Steelseries Cata Mouse, Bose Speakers

I have posted threads about individual parts all over AT and overclocking.

Will OC CPU, GPU, and RAM

Dual 1920x1080

Around Thanksgiving when I get home from Afghanistan, and sales will be helpful.

Im in the military, not much anyone could say that would "hurt my feelings" lol

These are the parts I'm looking at based off individual threads.

Case - CM HAF 932 Advanced - 159.99
PSU - Corsair Enth TX650 V2 - 84.99
CPU - i 5 2500k - 219.99
CPU Cooler - CM 212+ - 26.99
GPU - EVGA GTX 570 SC - 349.99
RAM - G-Skill Ripjaw DDR3 1600 - 51.99
HDD - Samsung F3 x2 1TB - 119.98
SSD - Crucual M4 128GB SATA III - 196.99
ODD - LG DVD Burner w/ LS - 21.99
Mobo - ASUS P8Z68-V LE - 132.99
NT-H1 - 9.99
Monitor - 23" ASUS LCD x2 - 359.98

Total Price 1735.86 (before Tax and S&H)

This appears to be the final build. Price/performance it is about the best i can do. We will see at thanksgiving-ish

Thank you everyone for all your valuable input. If i didnt change something you suggested, its not that i dont trust you, but i still gotta have a lil of my idea in here (case) lol.






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[Ken g6]

Oh, boy...

First, it looks like you have some "disposable cash". Problem is you're disposing of it on the wrong parts. First, what you got right:

CPU: perfect.
RAM: Probably the best less-than-cheap RAM. That's 8GB, right?
ODD: Can't go wrong with pretty much any DVD burner. After we're done you'll be able to afford a blu-ray if you want.

I'll leave for others:
Case: I think HAF cases are ugly. That one's ugly and expensive.
CPU Cooler: Expensive. You could get a $28 CM Hyper 212+ and I'm sure you'd be perfectly happy with the performance. (If you're aiming for benchmarks, that's another story.)

As for the rest, I'm going to mostly borrow from [thread=2192841]mfenn's thread[/thread]:
ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 $138
GTX 570 $340
Crucial M4 128GB $200 - faster than RAID!
Samsung F3 1TB $60 - heck, put two in RAID if you want.
Antec 550W $58 AP
Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Compound $10

Now we're somewhere up around $1300 assuming the CM cpu cooler. If you want more performance:
1. Get two 6950 2GB ~$500 AR.
2. Get two more small monitors for ~$100 each and put them on each side of your big one!

Honestly, it's hard to spend $1800 well on a rig with a 1920x1080 monitor. You could spring for a gold PSU and that expensive CPU cooler, but I don't see many more good upgrades.

 

[mfenn]

Two months is too far out to give concrete recommendations, especially with the impending launch of Bulldozer and the Radeon 7000 series.

EDIT: Ken's post will get you thinking along the right track as far as what parts you should be spending money on and what parts you shouldn't.

 

[R4in]

Yeah i know its still a little ways away, just want to make sure i get a good foundation when the time comes instead of scrambling around while the sales are going. Getting more monitors would actually be very appealing, seeing as now I can dump my money there instead of a $300 mobo and such. Do ATI cards run on PCI-e just like nvidia? as i said, im a total noob when it comes to ATI.

Everyone is saying ASRock, I had never heard of them until these forums so I assumed they were low quality backburner guys. Less than half the price of evga cant beat that.

For the HDDs, looks like i can get more storage and performance for less cash...wtf lol.

Will the 550w support SLI in the future?

Last but not least, all excellent suggestions. I will most certainly edit my cart and see what i come to. Thank you both and look forward to hearing more form you.

 

[Ken g6]

Personally, I've concluded that Bulldozer will be no good for gaming, and that the Radeon 7000 series cards won't actually be available for purchase until January. But I could be wrong.

 

[mfenn]

Just don't get married to the idea of any particular part, because the deals will have shifted around completely.

A 550W PSU will not support SLI/Crossfire with any reasonable cards, but dual-GPU isn't a good upgrade path anyway. You're better off upgrading to the next generation of single cards. You have the budget for dual-GPU, so you can get it now if you want, but it's not really necessary for 1080P.

AMD (no such thing as ATI anymore) and Nvidia cards are very similar. They work the same way as far as the user is concerned, you just install one set of drivers instead of another.

 

[mfenn]

Personally, I've concluded that Bulldozer will be no good for gaming, and that the Radeon 7000 series cards won't actually be available for purchase until January. But I could be wrong.

Doesn't hurt to wait and see IMHO. Planning two months out is like a straightjacket in this biz.

 

[R4in]

Yeah im fairly set on sticking with the i5 as it seems to be the most viable option for time to come.

You have the budget for dual-GPU, so you can get it now if you want, but it's not really necessary for 1080P.

As Ken mentioned, with the money i can save by going off your list, i could buy more monitors (or possibly a much larger one?) thus the need for SLI could arise? If this is the case then I should also track down cards with 2GB of VRAM like the 460 correct?

Oh, and yes, the GSkill is 2x4GB.

 

[mfenn]

As Ken mentioned, with the money i can save by going off your list, i could buy more monitors (or possibly a much larger one?) thus the need for SLI could arise? If this is the case then I should also track down cards with 2GB of VRAM like the 460 correct?

Multiple monitors will only matter if you plan to use Eyefinity or Nvidia Surround. Make sure you read up on multi-monitor gaming very carefully before you decide to take the plunge. You can end up spending a lot of money on something that you don't like very much.

As for the VRAM, yes 2GB cards can be useful, but only if the GPU is powerful enough to warrant it. The GTX 460 is not.

 

[R4in]

As for the VRAM, yes 2GB cards can be useful, but only if the GPU is powerful enough to warrant it. The GTX 460 is not.

Thanks for the advice, I noticed some pics and I can already tell the monitor borders in the middle of the game could take some getting used to. However, I could possibly just buy say a 30" monitor and maybe a 2GB 570 if cash allows

 

[mfenn]

Thanks for the advice, I noticed some pics and I can already tell the monitor borders in the middle of the game could take some getting used to. However, I could possibly just buy say a 30" monitor and maybe a 2GB 570 if cash allows

A 30"-er is awesome (I use one at work), but you will be paying about a grand for the monitor itself at that point. It's not a bad choice, just an expensive one.

 

[R4in]

oh, ouch, maybe i can just grab a 570 and see what the future holds for monitors lol

 

[T_Yamamoto]

might as well go with a duel monitor instead of a 30"

 

[R4in]

it would be possible, and cheaper, to just grab a 2nd 24"-er from ASUS and call it a day

 

[R4in]

Could a 550-600w PSU be enough to run single high end GPUs rather then go with dual GPUs?

 

[mnewsham]

Could a 550-600w PSU be enough to run single high end GPUs rather then go with dual GPUs?

Yes, a quality 550w-600w will easily run the most demanding GPU (besides 6990 and 590) and bang for buck at the moment for GPU's is AMD (what you call ATI) Dual 6950 2GB cards will beat pretty much and Nvidia solution at that same price point.

 

[mnewsham]

it would be possible, and cheaper, to just grab a 2nd 24"-er from ASUS and call it a day

You cant really do two monitors for gaming, three you can do, two you would have one for gaming and a second for some other task, (web browsing, movie, etc.)

 

[lehtv]

It's not a bad choice, just an expensive one.

And here I was thinking I'd never hear you say that

@R4in

Power supply minimum wattage recommendations can be found both on the specification page for the GPU on the manufacturer's website (NVIDIA or AMD), and in reviews of the GPU or SLI setup.

On an average system, a GPU with maximum power consumption of around 150 watts (e.g. HD6950) will need a 500W PSU.
A 200W GPU (e.g. GTX 570 or 6970) will need a 550W PSU.
A 250W GPU (GTX 580) will need a 600W PSU.
Two 150W GPUs will need 650W, two 200W GPUs will need 700-750W, two 250W GPUs will need 850W-1KW.

These recommendations are based on having a sizeable enough gap between the maximum power consumption of the system, and the rated wattage of the PSU. That gap should be around 30-40% of rated wattage, and it ensures that efficiency stays at optimal levels, that the PSU won't age prematurely so that you can use it for several years without any problems, and that you have room for minor upgrades that increase power consumption.

 

[R4in]

Well, crap, very well then. I may just jump back on that HX850 just for future improving. But we still have a while so we will see.

 

[Zap]

Just don't get married to the idea of any particular part, because the deals will have shifted around completely.

This. 2 months is an eon. We already know of some things coming out (Bulldozer) and some things that was coming out but is late (AMD 7000 series). We don't know what pricing/sales will be, nor what availability may be. For instance you may have your heart set on a particular motherboard, but when it comes time to buy everyone is out of stock on it. Or, a similar motherboard happens to be on sale and you can save $50. You have to be a bit flexible, for instance have a handful of motherboard brands/models that you wouldn't mind owning, and then when buying time comes around choose the best priced board out of what is in stock.

Alot of gaming, movies, and SOME web editing.

Gaming is the only thing that can stress the system. I'll go down the list and make comments.

Case - CM HAF 932 Advanced - 159.99
Case is very individual. What you like may not be what someone else likes. It's like this; some people may like the Mustang but others may like the Camaro. Both are fine vehicles. Choose the one that you like the looks of, as long as it isn't crap. The HAF is not crap. I would never ever buy one for myself, but it is not crap.

PSU - Corsair Pro HX850 - 163.99
A bit on the expensive side for my tastes. Of course it is modular. If you can bear to live without modularity, you can save some cash. Of course if you can live without modularity and without SLI, you can save huge. While I've been known to do SLI and may do so in the future, a higher performance single card is usually preferable.

CPU - 15 2500k - 219.99
Good choice.

CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-D14 - 85.87
As mentioned, on the expensive side. These new CPUs do not run very hot, so you can get by on a budget with zero impact on a 4.5GHz overclock. Any heatsink that has at least three heatpipes and uses a 120mm fan or larger will work just fine, so start shopping the $20-30 range.

Mobo - EVGA Z68 FTW - 299.99
Ouch! Very expensive. There are many, many cheaper motherboards that are very good. The new CPUs are so easy to overclock that you don't need expensive motherboards. They add some features, but you have to ask yourself if you will need them. Plenty of $130-180 motherboards that are really nice.

GPU - GTX 460 2GB - 214.99
No. For that money you can almost get a 2GB Radeon 6950, which will be a LOT faster. What you CAN get for that money is a 1GB GTX 560 Ti, which is sufficient for 1080p gaming. Alternately, you can save $100 on the power supply, save $150 on the motherboard and get yourself a GTX 580 for that money.

RAM - G-Skill Ripjaw DDR3 1600 - 51.99
Basic stuff.

HDD - WD Caviar Black 1TB - 79.99
This is fine, but you can get 98% of the performance for 75% of the price with a Samsung F3 1TB drive. That's why everyone recommends the Samsung.

RAID - 2x WD Raptors 300GB - 289.98
No. Unless you know for a fact that you really need these, you are much better off with an SSD. Sure, you won't get as many gigs with an SSD for that price, but the performance will run circles around even Raptors in RAID. With the money saved elsewhere, you can get a 256GB SSD for around $400 and blow the platters off hard drives in performance. Now, there can be certain circumstances where you would choose a couple HDDs in RAID over an SSD, but usually you are better off with an SSD.

ODD - 2x LG DVD Burner w/ LS - 43.98
Don't know why you would need two, but whatever. LG optical drives work fine.

AS 5 - 12.99
Not really needed. Just use whatever comes with the heatsink. Knocking 2ºC off your temperatures won't help you get to 4.5GHz, because you'll already be there.

 

[R4in]

Gaming is the only thing that can stress the system. I'll go down the list and make comments.

Thanks for all the info Zap. I want everyone to know I'm taking all this into consideration.

Just for Shits n Giggles I built a semi-equal machine on MicroCenters website. I wont list all the parts but its pretty close except for the addition of 2 23" monitors, and the price is only $1900...quite shocked at the difference between them and newegg.

 

[mfenn]

Well, crap, very well then. I may just jump back on that HX850 just for future improving. But we still have a while so we will see.

Actually, I would take the opposite impression from lehtv's post. A 650W PSU will cover pretty much any "reasonable" single-GPU setup.

There are very valid reasons to get an 850W PSU, but the potential to upgrade to SLI isn't one of them. If you want dual-GPU now, you have the budget for it, but as I've said before, you aren't going to see a huge benefit at 1080P.

If you just want to plan for the future, a 650W will be fine. That's because you're better off upgrading to another faster GPU down the line than getting a second GPU.

 

[R4in]

im not interested in dual-gpu if it wont have an affect on 1080p gaming or maybe 2 monitors (1 with game 1 with facebook/movie/etc)

i would much rather stick with single as it will be cheaper overall

 

[mfenn]

im not interested in dual-gpu if it wont have an affect on 1080p gaming or maybe 2 monitors (1 with game 1 with facebook/movie/etc)

i would much rather stick with single as it will be cheaper overall

In that case, go 650W.

 

[R4in]

sounds good, evga 570 for 340 on the egg, 1 of those should last me a while

http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0354785

thats the monitor i was thinking about grabbing 2 of