Looking to build a new gaming PC

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stevecamp09

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 27, 2009
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I'm looking to build a new PC around March/April and have a budget of around 2.5 - 3k. I haven't built my own machine before but would definitely like to do so and have a couple of work pals who I know will help out. This machine really needs to be as "future proof" as is realistic to be...i'm coming from a single core P4, 2GB RAM, 7800GTX...all were pretty close to cutting edge 5 years ago when I bought my current machine but seriously starting to creak now. So with that in mind:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming, Web, some photo editing
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
around 2.5k but would go up to 3k
3) Where do you live?
Central Connecticut
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
Everything bar keyboard, mouse, monitor
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
have a recently acquired Geforce GTS250 which I haven't yet used, might like to use as a Physx card. Also will be re-using keyboard, mouse and monitor
6) Will you be overclocking?
Possibly, but no experience of and will need a little guidance there
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
24in NEC2490WUXi...therefore planning to game at 1900x1200
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Around late March...so if there is newer tech that would be recommended within my budget (6 core, fermi etc), please advise
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Probably would like dual GPU's so SLI/Crossfire certainly, unsure about others
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
Yes

As you can tell from the above info, i'm not one to be continually upgrading individual components, simply looking for an excellent, stable, quiet gaming rig that will last me a good 3 years or so. If I missed anything pertinent, please let me know.

Thanks for any advice!
 
Last edited:
Late March or April? Thats too soon to start planning a PC build as a ton of parts can be out of stock, outdated, outpriced, outperformed, and out of date in the 2 1/2 months till late March. I recommend asking again a week or two before you buy for any build list you get today or within the next month.

Also what OS will you be using? Oh and thanks for helping me update the questions. Should have added a followup question in the FAQ as to what OS you'll be using.
 
Danny Bui said:
Late March or April? Thats too soon to start planning a PC build as a ton of parts can be out of stock, outdated, outpriced, outperformed, and out of date in the 2 1/2 months till late March. I recommend asking again a week or two before you buy for any build list you get today or within the next month.

Also what OS will you be using? Oh and thanks for helping me update the questions. Should have added a followup question in the FAQ as to what OS you'll be using.
Click to expand...

Updated with OS license, I thought I had put that in there, my apologies! Also, per your advice, I will submit a follow-up in March. Thanks
 
for 2.5-3 grand you can build pretty much any kind of PC you want

i7 920
best mb
a 5970
new 24-30 inch monitor
a HAF 932
6 GB of Ripjaws
OS
a decent HSF
some more fans to keep everything cooler
you can buy one of those computer panels that go on the front of your case where you'll be able to see all the temperatures and how fast your fans are going, which is what i'd' do with that kind of unlimited budget, it's neat to see and practical too
you could get a SSD easily, one of the 80 GB's or 160 GB's from Intel

could even get 2 of the 80 GBs and RAID them, enginurd has a FAQ on that, i think

sky's the limit

but don't forget one thing most people don't think of when they have budgets that big

you CAN build a file server or HTPC with that budget as well in addition to one max'd out rig


there's obvious benefits to doing that
 
Fail said:
for 2.5-3 grand you can build pretty much any kind of PC you want

i7 920
best mb
a 5970
new 24-30 inch monitor
a HAF 932
6 GB of Ripjaws
OS
a decent HSF
some more fans to keep everything cooler
you can buy one of those computer panels that go on the front of your case where you'll be able to see all the temperatures and how fast your fans are going, which is what i'd' do with that kind of unlimited budget, it's neat to see and practical too
you could get a SSD easily, one of the 80 GB's or 160 GB's from Intel

could even get 2 of the 80 GBs and RAID them, enginurd has a FAQ on that, i think

sky's the limit

but don't forget one thing most people don't think of when they have budgets that big

you CAN build a file server or HTPC with that budget as well in addition to one max'd out rig


there's obvious benefits to doing that
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the info...if I decided to go with a 5970 (or crossfired 5870's) would there be any issues/caveats to know about if I also wanted to put the GTS250 for Physx at some point?
 
physx won't work with ATI cards

there used to be a hack to get around that, but I heard NVIDIA patched that

i'm not sure what the status of that is now

really though the best possible solution is to buy the best single GPU you can afford

crossfire and SLI are good and all but they are only good for so many more frames per second over a single card GPU that it seems like the cost outweighs the benefits you get on your investment, the return on it, so to speak
 
Fail said:
physx won't work with ATI cards

there used to be a hack to get around that, but I heard NVIDIA patched that

i'm not sure what the status of that is now

really though the best possible solution is to buy the best single GPU you can afford

crossfire and SLI are good and all but they are only good for so many more frames per second over a single card GPU that it seems like the cost outweighs the benefits you get on your investment, the return on it, so to speak
Click to expand...

I would imagine in addition to the extra cost, also the extra power and cooling needed for 2 or more GPU's might make the single GPU more attractive too. i'll probably wait for the fermi-based cards to appear unless I hear that it's going to be a lot longer, then i'll consider the 5870 or maybe the 5970. Either way, i'll probably post again in March to ask for help when the time comes.
 
if you don't NEED this rig now, then it's probably wise to wait for Fermi, if nothing else, prices will go down somewhat on most of the components you'll want to buy anyway, and if Fermi turns out to be any good, it could force ATI to drop prices on their cards to stay competitive

as always the consumer wins in situations like this, SSD prices might fall some more by then and you could squeeze in a good sized SSD into your build, cheaper too, maybe

I really wanna build something next month, i'm considering just saving my money and socking away more money so that I'll have a bigger budget by the time March or April comes around

or i might not build at all, I'm wanting to get a Cisco CCNP lab setup here at my house
 
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