1500$ish New Gaming Rig

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ultraviolent

n00b
Joined
Aug 18, 2011
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-Looking to build a hardcore Gaming PC (New games on MAX settings), some web browsing and video.
-1500$ - 2000$limit not including tax or monitors.
-Live in Arizona.
-Need motherboard, CPU, RAM, Graphics cards, Hard drive / SSD, Case, CD drive, Power supply, Fans, Heat Sync, Thermal Compound, Sound Card?, Mouse.
-Not reusing any parts.
-No overclocking (want this PC to last a couple years).
-3 27 inch Planar monitors. 1080P
-Looking to buy / build with the next two weeks.
-Features on motherboard: Crossfire, SLI, USB 3.0, SATA 6 Gb/s.
-OS windows 7 home, 64 bit.

Looking to build a gaming monster, thinking about a crucial M4 SSD and two HDDs. Not sure if there is a difference with i72600k and i52500k in hardcore gaming? 133 RAM, 1.5V. 750W PSU? Havn't built a PC before, any input would be helpful.
 
Do you plan to game on all three monitors at once?
 
MiLk said:
Look in my thread, I pretty much asked for the same thing you have...take a look at everyones posts

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1634013

In a nut shell:
2500k > 2600k for gaming....but if your not overclocking...no reason for the "k" version
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Ive read that hyper threading might be useful in gaming speeds, that's why I was considering the 2600k. Don't know all the differences with the "k" version. Your post has some helpful info in it about CPUs but those guys were getting too technical for me to understand...
 
ultraviolent said:
Ive read that hyper threading might be useful in gaming speeds, that's why I was considering the 2600k. Don't know all the differences with the "k" version. Your post has some helpful info in it about CPUs but those guys were getting too technical for me to understand...
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In recent benchmarks, the 2500k preformed as good as and in some cases better than the 2600k in gaming. So for gaming, the 2500k is the better choice.

If you do not plan to overclock, then getting the regular 2500 instead should save you some money.

ultraviolent said:
Yes
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What games do you play or plan to play?
 
I really hate to recommend a gaming rig for a game that we do not even know what hardware it will require. You're kind of just shooting in the dark here, hoping for a hit.

..and gaming on three monitors at 5760x1080 with BF3 is probably going to be relatively hard, but again we're just shooting in the dark here.

I highly recommend waiting until either the game comes out, the specs are released or people can start benchmarking hardware on them.

If you still want to continue anyway, then lets wait until the September combo deals come out (Should be tomorrow) so we can see what kind of good deals we can get.
 
Skillz said:
I really hate to recommend a gaming rig for a game that we do not even know what hardware it will require. You're kind of just shooting in the dark here, hoping for a hit.

..and gaming on three monitors at 5760x1080 with BF3 is probably going to be relatively hard, but again we're just shooting in the dark here.

I highly recommend waiting until either the game comes out, the specs are released or people can start benchmarking hardware on them.

If you still want to continue anyway, then lets wait until the September combo deals come out (Should be tomorrow) so we can see what kind of good deals we can get.
Click to expand...

Due to my current occupation, I'm going to have to buy / build pretty soon. I'm willing to pay for quality so it'll last. Thanks for the advice, I'll wait for the combo deals to come out.
 
OK so I've got an idea of some of the parts, I just don't know if these are on sale somewhere... Please let me know what you think of these.
-Cooler Master HAF 932 Full Tower
-Ripjaw 8Gb DDR3 1333 (X2)
-i7 2500k
-Crucial M4 128 SSD
-Samsung HD103SJ 1TB (X2)
-AMD 6970

Not sure if that video card would be the best choice for future games, I realize that we don't know what BF3 is going to require, I know the new frostbite engine is prob. going to be demanding. If I didn't have to buy now I would wait but sadly that is not the case. Input?
 
If you plan on gaming on all three monitors at 1920x1080, I recommend CF video cards. Yes AMD cards can do three monitors with one card uing the display port, but for gaming you're gonna want more power.

Sadly this months Newegg combo deals aren't all that great. Here is a build I recommend for you.

$129.99 - MSI P67A-G43 (B3) LGA 1155
$219.99 - i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz
$44.99 - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
$59.99 - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB
$227.99 - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2CCA 2.5" 128GB
$19.99 - SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner
$134.99 - CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX850 V2 850W
549.98 - XFX HD-695X-CNFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB (Two cards in Crossfire)

Total before shipping: $1387.92

Choose a case that you like, I recommend one of the following: (Yes I realize the case you outlined above is in here as well, but here are other options some cheaper)
$90 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$100 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$110 - NZXT Whisper WHI - 001BK ATX Full Tower Case
$110 - Lian Li PC-60FN ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7FN ATX Case
$120 - Velocity Micro GX2-W Silver Classic Aluminum Case with Side Window
$120 - Fractal Design Arc Mini Tower
$127 - Fractal Design Define R3 Black ATX Case
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - Lian Li PC-9F ATX Case
$140 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$143 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-002OR Black Finish w/Orange Trim Full Tower ATX Case
$150 - Corsair Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$160 - Silverstone RV02B-W ATX case
$178 - Silverstone RV02B-EW ATX case
$190 - Corsair Obsidian Series 650D ATX Case[/QUOTE]

Few things about the above build.
-I took away your 16GB of RAM for 8GB of RAM because nothing you have listed as uses will make use of 16GB, in fact 8GB will probably be a little over kill for most of those uses but RAM is so cheap I left it at 8GB. You can upgrade to 16GB at a later time by ordering another 2x4GB kit. (If you really want it, just get two of those kits)
-I took away one of those HDDs because you really haven't given a good reason to have multiple HDDs when the SSD will be much faster even if you plan on setting them up in RAID. Plus you can add more hard drives later very easily. (If you really want two, then just order a second one)
-I replaced the 6970 with two 6950s in Crossfire because gaming at that resolution is going to require a lot of VRAM and adding an extra 2GB of VRAM will help tremendously, still don't know if it will handle BF3 on "high" settings but it'll be better than having a single 6970 right now.
-I gave you other options for cases since the case you chose will put you over your $1500 low budget.
 
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Skillz said:
-I replaced the 6970 with two 6950s in Crossfire because gaming at that resolution is going to require a lot of VRAM and adding an extra 2GB of VRAM will help tremendously, still don't know if it will handle BF3 on "high" settings but it'll be better than having a single 6970 right now.
Click to expand...

You do realize that adding a second card in Crossfire doesn't increase the amount of VRAM available, right? Each card still has 2GB to work with, so no net gain.
 
Forceman said:
You do realize that adding a second card in Crossfire doesn't increase the amount of VRAM available, right? Each card still has 2GB to work with, so no net gain.
Click to expand...

Actually no I did not, but I do know that CF is better for multiple displays, I just assumed it was due to the extra VRAM. :eek:

Either way, I don't think a system will be able to play BF3 on tri displays at 5760x1080 when CF 6970s run BFBC2 at ~40FPS.
 
Skillz said:
Actually no I did not, but I do know that CF is better for multiple displays, I just assumed it was due to the extra VRAM. :eek:

Either way, I don't think a system will be able to play BF3 on tri displays at 5760x1080 when CF 6970s run BFBC2 at ~40FPS.
Click to expand...

I agree - BF3 on three displays is going to be challenging with this generation of hardware.
 
Forceman said:
I agree - BF3 on three displays is going to be challenging with this generation of hardware.
Click to expand...

You think it will be easier to accomplish when the 7000 series cards come out? If anything I can just use one screen with BF3 until I upgrade the video cards...
 
ultraviolent said:
You think it will be easier to accomplish when the 7000 series cards come out? If anything I can just use one screen with BF3 until I upgrade the video cards...
Click to expand...

This is what I would recommend. Going with a single 6950, then wait until the game comes out and go from there. BFBC2 is the only reference we have on what we think BF3 might require and BFBC2 already requires a good bit. I suspect BF3 requiring a good bit more.

ultraviolent said:
Shouldn't I go with a power supply that has at least 1000W or would that be overkill?
Click to expand...

For the setup I recommended no. That 850W PSU is a "true" 850W PSU unlike most PSUs.

Just read this article.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6950-crossfirex-review/14

CF 6950s only consume 329W, contrary to popular belief you don't need a Nuclear Power source to power multiple GPUs. lol
 
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Skillz said:
CF 6950s only consume 329W, contrary to popular belief you don't need a Nuclear Power source to power multiple GPUs. lol
Click to expand...

Though just to point out that Nvidia cards tend to require a little more power currently. Also, the 6950 is a very efficient card in terms of power consumption. My 6950 CF rig in my sig only pulls ~550W from the wall running both Prime95 and Furmark at the same time, which reports as 100% cpu and gpu utilization. If you figure that my power supply is 80-85% efficient then I'm only using 440 to 467 watts compared to the rated output. Personally I still wouldn't feel comfortable with much less of a PS in my rig though.
 
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