Help needed in building a new system

[xmanius]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming, Web browsing, playing vidoes.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
No set budget at this stage. Trying to get an idea of parts and prices

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Australia

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU, Motherboard, RAM, HDD, graphics card, case, power supply

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Benq 24" monitor
Logitech keyboard and mouse
Creative Labs speakers

6) Will you be overclocking?
No

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
24" 1920x1200

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? etc.
SLI support would be good
USB 3
SATA 6 GB/s
eSATA
Onboard video might be handy, but not essential


10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Win 7 64 bit
XP 32 bit

 

[wtourist]

With 1920X1200 resolution I would go to either the Intel I5 2400 or 2500K, both are 4 core CPUs. The 2400 is the sweet spot of the I5 at USA prices. If the price is close and the budget allows the I5 2500K has 40-60% better on chip video, unlocked multiplier for overclocking or change of rig resale.
These chips are easy to overclock.
Asus Z68 Maximus IV Gene-Z/GEN3 probably has the best performance/cost and what you want ratio.
2 SLI or Crossfire at x8, x8, 2 eSATA, on board video out.
Check out similar Asus and Asrock boards.
Any name brand 1.5 volt DDR3 1600 CAS9 RAM will do very well. XMP is nice option to look far.
With HDD prices what they are it is a how many GB you need now for the next 6 months to a year or so.
Hitachi drives have 3 year warranty's here and seem to come up lowest priced more often, perhaps because fabricated in China rather than Thailand.
I am particularly in favor or Western Digital Black Drives (5 year warranty still) and Samsung drives (were the price performance leader).
Stay away from Green Drives for boot drives.
If you can live with the cost and size an SSD from Crucial (M4), Samsung 830, Intel 510, Corsair PRO, would be worth considering.

Graphics card defines case since case must accommodate card length and cooling. This is usually a budget decision but look at AMD HD 6950/6970 or 7950, NVidia GTX 560 TI 448 or 570.

Cooler Master 690 II Advanced would be a good choice, Corsair Carbide 400R, I like the CM HAF 912/922 Cases.
NZXT starts with Source 210 Elite, and goes up in price and features.
BitFenix does well with several cases.
Lian LI Lancool cases offer excellent cases.
Depends on features, appearance, and cost desired.

Power supply for one video card should be 500-600 watt, say 650-750 or 750-850 for SLI or Crossfire. Again depends on Video card power requirements. Figure 200 watts for motherboard/CPU, 200-250 for each video card, and 50-60 watts more for HDD, ODD, Fans, etc.
Realistically a good 450 watt would likely serve very well.
Seasonic, Corsair, Antec, Super Flower, XFX, are commonly mentioned power supplies. OCZ ZS or ZT power supplies are good.

Anyway this would be a start.

If you list stores or sites you will be shopping from someone might make a list.

 

[xmanius]

Thanks for the reply.

1. Am I looking at much advantage getting an i7 2600K or 3930K vs the i5 mentioned?

2. I'd like to do HD (1080p) gaming with regards to the current crop of games (MW3, Skyrim, etc). Which card is best?

3. If I decide to go down the SLI path, is 850W enough or should I be leaning towards higher wattages like the 1000W units?

 

[Dangman]

1) Nope. For gamuing, you won't notice a difference between the 2600K, 3930K, and 2500K unless you're running multiple MMORPG clients at the same time. For your needs, you'll be fine with the Core i5 2500K.

2) Depends how high of a settings you want. With that said, in terms of best bang for the buck value, I'd go with the following cards:
~$270 USD - HD 6950 2GB
~$300 USD - GTX 560 TI 448 Core
~$330 USD - HD 6970 2GB

If you want overkill at an okish- bang for the buck value, go for this:
~$460 USD - HD 7950 3GB

Before you ask, the GTX 560 TI 448 Core is pretty much Nvidia's highest end bang for the buck video card. It's cheaper than the GTX 570 but offers 97% of the performance. The GTX 580 is simply overpriced compared to many of the AMD cards as well as Nvidia cards. If you plan on SLI or sticking with Nvidia in general, your best bet from a best bang for the buck perspective would be the GTX 560 TI 448 Core or two of those.

If you do go AMD, if you want to do Crossfire off the bat, don't go with the HD 7950 as the Crossfire drives for the HD 7xxx series are not that good at the moment. Best bet would be the HD 69xx cards in Crossfire if you're doing Crossfire off the bat.

3) Yes a good 850W PSU is more than enough.

Motherboard wise, I'd recommend the following:
$185 - Asus P8Z68-V/GEN3 Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard
$205 - Asus P8Z68-V Pro/GEN3 Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard

IMO, if you're planning on SLI, the two above mobos are a better choice than the Maximus IV Gene-Z/GEN3 recommended earlier since those two mobos allow you to have an expansion slot worth of space between the two video cards. That allows for better cooling.

As far as cases go, I recommend the following cases (even if you plan on SLI):
$100 - Corsair Carbide Series 400R ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$120 - Lian Li PC-9F ATX Case
$120 - Fractal Design Define R3 Arctic White ATX Case
$125 - Fractal Design Define R3 Black Pearl ATX Case
$130 - Fractal Design Define R3 Silver Arrow ATX Case
$125 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$130 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Full Tower ATX Case
$130 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-002OR Black Finish w/Orange Trim Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - Antec P280 ATX Case
$140 - Antec Performance One Series P183 V3 ATX Case
$143 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$144 - Silverstone RV03B-WA ATX case
$160 - Corsair Graphite Series 600TM ATX Case
$160 - Silverstone RV02B-W ATX case
$164 - Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$178 - Silverstone RV02B-EW ATX case
$190 - Corsair Obsidian Series 650D ATX Case
$230 - Silverstone FT02B ATX Case
$270 - Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW Full Tower ATX Case

 

[xmanius]

Thanks for the input.

If I want to play the recent crop of games (MW3, Skyrim, etc) at 1080p with max settings, would the GTX560 suffice or do I need to go higher?
Do I need to do SLI?
Looking at benchmarks online, I seemed to get the impression I would need a GTX580 or HD6970. But I could be way wrong.

If I have to choose between the AMD cards or the Nvidia ones, which have the edge?
Or does it come down to the best price/performance?

 

[Deleted member 88227]

If it was me, I'd spring for a 6970. I recently built a rig for a friend of mine, paired with a 2500k. It is a LOT faster than my i7 870 w/ 470 GTX. So if the budget is there, go with the 6970 for 1080P gaming the latest games with all the eye candy turned up.

 

[Dangman]

If I want to play the recent crop of games (MW3, Skyrim, etc) at 1080p with max settings, would the GTX560 suffice or do I need to go higher?

Do note that there are three different GTX 560 cards: the regular GTX 560, the GTX 560 Ti, and the GTX 560 TI 448 Core. The first two are not fast enough for max settings at 1080P whereas the last one is good enough for 1080P at max settings with the two games you mentioned. However if you plan on adding a ton of 3rd party mods for Skyrim or plan on playing BF3 on high to Ultra settings, grab the HD 6970 instead

Do I need to do SLI?

Only if you need really high FPS and high settings at the same time.

If I have to choose between the AMD cards or the Nvidia ones, which have the edge?
Or does it come down to the best price/performance?

Nvidia has the slight edge in that their day-one drivers for new video games allow certain slower yet more expensive Nvidia cards to outperform their AMD counterparts. However given enough time, usualy a month to two months max, AMD usually releases fairly decent drivers that allows their current cards to outperform or at least perform as well as more expensive Nvidia GPUs.

So best price to performance really comes down to when you're buying and using the card: 1st day release or a few months later.

 

[xmanius]

Thanks, guys.

IF it came down to a choice between the HD6970 or the GTX580, which is the better card in terms of performance, price, heat, noise, etc?

 

[Forceman]

The GTX 580 is faster, but the 6970 kills it in price, at least in the US. The 6970 is a much better deal.

 

[Dangman]

The GTX 580 is faster, but the 6970 kills it in price, at least in the US. The 6970 is a much better deal.

This. In addition, the HD 7950 is faster than the GTX 580 while being a tad cheaper. Hence why I said this earlier: "the GTX 560 TI 448 Core is pretty much Nvidia's highest end bang for the buck video card."

 

[xmanius]

Thanks guys.
Appreciate all the advice.
Everyone's been most helpful.