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New build input

D

digitalgunfire

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 26, 2008
Messages
317
My current ring:

Q6600 @ 3.2GHz
5850
4GB RAM
Antec P182 case, 650W Corsair supply, 1x500GB drive, 1x400GB drive

I have a friend who I can get $400-500 for the PC from.

I'm looking to build a new system and I'm just looking for some input on whether it's a worthwhile upgrade. I'll be playing BF3, Skyrim, Rage, Guild Wars 2, also do a decent amount of web development. I figure it will be but I want it to be a significant upgrade otherwise I'll wait until next year.

Here's the answers to the questions + the build.


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

Mostly gaming, some programming/web design

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

Hoping to stay around $1000 but should be able to sell my old rig for $400 or so

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

US, Wisconsin

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, ram, video card, case, power supply, HD, motherboard

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

N/A

6) Will you be overclocking?

Yep, hope to take the CPU to 4+GHz, doubt I'll touch the GPUs.

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?

24" 1920x1200

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

By November

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.

Crossfire support would be nice, don't care about firewire, must have USB 3 and SATA6

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

Yep, 64bit Win7

Here is my build, please note the dual 6870s, I'm interested in input there.. they seem like the best option right now. I want to be able to run Skyrim, BF3 etc at max at 1920x1200. I understand we don't know the exact specs required yet but I'd like to make a good guess at requirements.

  • Corsair Carbide Series 400R Graphite grey and black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Gaming Case
  • ASUS P8P67 (REV 3.1) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
  • XFX HD-687A-ZHFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card x2
  • CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power ...
  • Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
  • G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM
  • Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
  • COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel ...
 
Bump this thread when you are going to be building this within a week or two. November is too far out to be making any recommendations for builds.
 
Even if you were buying today, I still wouldn't recommend dual HD 6870 cards. Yes they are faster than many single GPUs out there right now. However, that comes at the cost of increased heat and power consumption. In addition, there's no guarantee that the two games you mentioned will actually scale that well with HD 6870 Crossfire judging from what happened with AMD, DICE, and BFBC2 when it was first released.

So in other words, go for a single HD 6950 2GB if you were buying today. Less heat, less power usage, and significantly lower chance of scaling issues. Granted it is a drop in performance.

However that may all change by the time November hits. Maybe BF3 or Skyrim has awesome Crossfire scaling. Maybe BF3 or Skyrim requires a lot more VRAM than 1GB for high settings. Maybe AMD will release their new HD 7xxx series cards.
 
So, I'm looking at doing this sooner now, as my friend is ready to buy my Q6600 system for $500.

So what do you think about doing dual 6950 2GB cards? I'd really like to be able to max some games out.
 
J Macker said:
dual 6950 is way overkill for 1920x1200.
Click to expand...

Really? I looked at some benchmarks and it looked like they were only around 60FPS running Metro in DX11 with settings maxed. What would you suggest as a single GPU then that would be a significant upgrade over my 5850?
 
digitalgunfire said:
Really? I looked at some benchmarks and it looked like they were only around 60FPS running Metro in DX11 with settings maxed. What would you suggest as a single GPU then that would be a significant upgrade over my 5850?
Click to expand...

You should read this review then:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/01/11/amd_69706950_cfx_nvidia_580570_sli_review/1

In the above review, with HD 6950 2GB Crossfire, they reached an average FPS of 37.5 FPS at high settings at a resolution of 5760x1200 in Metro 2033. An average FPS of 47.2 FPS was reached at high settings in BFBC2 at 5760x1200. So if HD 6950 2GB Crossfire can provide such great settings and performance at a significantly higher resolution, it's fair to say that the HD 6950 2GB CFX would provide massive, almost overkill performance at a lower resolution of 1920x1200.

If a 22% performance increase over your current HD 5850 is a significant performance increase to you, then get a HD 6950 2GB.
 
Sorry, I missed the part where you said "a significant upgrade" in the first post and you listed your 5850. I guess dual 6950 is the way to go in your case.

I upgraded from a single 5850 to a single 6950 2gb for my 3x22" lcd setup and I noticed a significant boost. I can't play metro 2033 on max at the high resolution (3150x1680), but metro runs much smoother on my setup than when I had the 5850.

I'm willing to turn the details down a little to run with one video card for now; I find it interesting that Anand's review differs so much than [H] on the 6950 performance http://www.anandtech.com/show/4061/amds-radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950/15 at 1920x1200.
 
J Macker said:
I'm willing to turn the details down a little to run with one video card for now; I find it interesting that Anand's review differs so much than [H] on the 6950 performance http://www.anandtech.com/show/4061/amds-radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950/15 at 1920x1200.
Click to expand...

Different testing, measurement methodology, and different drivers more than likely accounts for most of the difference. AT uses the build-in benchmark tool whereas [H] actually plays the game. Then there's the difference in drivers: AMD Catalyst 10.10e + AMD Catalyst 8.79.6.2RC2 for AT while Catalyst 10.12a Hotfix + Cat 10.12 CAP for [H]. And possibly the differences in CPU OC maybe.
 
Interesting stuff. Thanks for the input guys. I guess I could go with a single 6950 and just get a decent board that I can CF on in the future if needed.

Now my conundrum is whether or not to get an SSD.
 
Cool, that's what I was looking at. So here is my updated build, any input?

  • Corsair Carbide Series 400R Graphite grey and black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Gaming Case
  • MSI P67A-G45 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
  • XFX HD-695X-CNFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
  • CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power ...
  • Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
  • Intel 510 Series (Elm Crest) SSDSC2MH120A2K5 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
  • G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM
  • Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
  • COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel ...
 
Swap out the hard drive for this equally fast but cheaper drive:
$60 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
 
I ended up using some of the Newegg specials and replaced the GSkill with some slightly slower GSkill ram for half the price. Switched the CPU to a PCP&C 650W for a decent amount less, switched out the HD as recommended.. squeezed it down to $980. Decided against the SSD for now but I'll probably add one later. Pretty good deal for this upgrade, I think! Thanks a lot for your suggestions.
 
Danny Bui said:
I think you meant "PSU", not 'CPU". Which PC P&C PSU did you get? Some of PC P&C PSUs are not that good for the money.
Click to expand...

I did indeed. I didn't order yet so if you have a better suggestion, let me know - I've used Seasonic and Corsair exclusively in the past but I heard PCP&C were good.

This is the one I was looking at - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703026

Newegg says 46A but the manufacturer says 52A 12v. You think I should just stick with the Corsair? This one is down to almost $60 after rebate + code
 
Yeah stick with the Corsair 650TX V2. That PC P&C PSU isn't as good as the Corsair.
 
I think I'm going to spring for the 128MB Crucial M4 as well, once it comes back into stock.. I figure if I'm going to upgrade, might as well do it right. I can either pass my 6950 along to my wife once the 7000s come out or something.. I can't see needing to replace the CPU for a while.
 
The GTX 560 Ti or the HD 6950 would be the bare minimum that I would recommend for 1080p gaming. If you can afford to, however, consider "upgrading" to the GTX 570 or HD 6970.
 
tiraides said:
The GTX 560 Ti or the HD 6950 would be the bare minimum that I would recommend for 1080p gaming. If you can afford to, however, consider "upgrading" to the GTX 570 or HD 6970.
Click to expand...

I ended up going with the GTX 570, I found one at Newegg for $269 after MIR so I jumped on that.
 
digitalgunfire said:
I ended up going with the GTX 570, I found one at Newegg for $269 after MIR so I jumped on that.
Click to expand...

We don't like to include the prices of products based on MIRs simply because they aren't guaranteed.
 
Skillz said:
We don't like to include the prices of products based on MIRs simply because they aren't guaranteed.
Click to expand...

I know but I was willing to take the risk, I've generally had good luck with them in the past, they just take forever :)
 
To me, that's a bad reason to consider a video card. What's the specific (brand/model) card that you bought?
 
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