Buying New Gaming System...

[breezer265]

Hey Guys,

I am about to buy this system for heavy-duty gaming. Any advice on this configuration? Anything I am missing? Any opinions on CyberpowerPC? Thats where I am ordering it from. Thanks

* CASE: Apevia X-SniperG Mid-Tower Case (Black Color)
* Neon Light Upgrade: NONE
* Extra Case Fan Upgrade: Default case fans
* Power Supply Upgrade: 1, 000 Watts Power Supplies (Azza Gaming Active PFC Power Supply SLI/CrossFire Ready)
* CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-950 3.06 GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA1366 with Factory OverClocked to 3.8GHz
* COOLING FAN : Asetek Liquid CPU Cooling System (Extreme Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA)
* MOTHERBOARD: (3-Way SLI Support) GigaByte GA-EX58-UD4P Intel X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFireX Ultra Durable™3 Mainboard Triple-Channel DDR3/1600 SATA RAID w/ eSATA, Dual GbLAN, USB2.0, IEEE1394a, &7.1Audio
* MEMORY: 12GB (2GBx6) PC1333 DDR3 PC3 10666 Triple Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)
* FREEBIES: None
* VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX285 2GB 16X PCIe Video Card (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
* VIDEO CARD 2: None
* VIDEO CARD 3: None
* Free Game: FREE GAME - Battle Stations ** Pacific **
* MULTIPLE VIDEO CARD SETTINGS: Non-SLI/Non-CrossFireX Mode Supports Multiple Monitors
* LCD Monitor: NONE
* 2nd Monitor: NONE
* HARD DRIVE: Single Hard Drive (1TB (1TBx1) SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)
* Data Hard Drive: NONE
* USB PORTABLE DRIVE: NONE
* Optical Drive: LG GGW-H20L 6X Internal Super Multi Blue Blu-Ray Disc Rewriter & HD DVD-ROM Drive (Black Color)
* Optical Drive 2: (Special Price) LG 22X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Dual Layer Drive (BLACK COLOR)
* SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
* SPEAKERS: 120 Watt Stereo Speakers (Black Color)
* NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
* MODEM: NONE
* KEYBOARD: Microsoft® Wireless Desktop w/ Wireless Internet Keyboard & Mouse
* MOUSE: XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Buttons Gaming Mouse
* Extra Thermal Display : NONE
* Wireless 802.11B/G Network Card: NONE
* Flash Media Reader/Writer: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)
* VIDEO CAMERA: NONE
* PRINTER: None
* PRINTER CABLE: None
* IEEE CARD: NONE
* USB PORT: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
* FLOPPY: NONE
* OS: Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium w/ Service Pack 1 (64-bit Edition)
* Windows 7 Upgrade Coupon: None
* FREEBIES: None
* Media Center Remote Control & TV Tuner: Avermedia AVERTV Bravo Hybrid (ATSC/ClearQAM/NTSC) PCIE Media Center TV Tuner with Remote Control
* SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
* RUSH SERVICE: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 5~10 BUSINESS DAYS

 

[mallball]

it seems like a good system for gaming you don't need 12gb of ram unless your going to do some serious video and photo editing. if your not then i would get something like 6gb and that's more than enough for a gaming pc. Also with the saved money you might be able to get another HDD, or a better vid card

 

[breezer265]

Thanks for the advice. I am a bit of a noob when it comes to computers. Not sure about advantages to dual hard drives or video cards. Here I changed the hard drive to 2 500 GB. Is this better for gaming than 1 TB? And the video card below is 2nd only to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX295 1.7GB 16X PCIe Video Card option, but this adds 160$.


* CASE: Apevia X-SniperG Mid-Tower Case (Black Color)
* Neon Light Upgrade: NONE
* Extra Case Fan Upgrade: Default case fans
* Power Supply Upgrade: 1, 000 Watts Power Supplies (Azza Gaming Active PFC Power Supply SLI/CrossFire Ready)
* CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-950 3.06 GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA1366 with Factory OverClocked to 3.8GHz
* COOLING FAN : Asetek Liquid CPU Cooling System (Extreme Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA)
* MOTHERBOARD: (3-Way SLI Support) GigaByte GA-EX58-UD4P Intel X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFireX Ultra Durable™3 Mainboard Triple-Channel DDR3/1600 SATA RAID w/ eSATA, Dual GbLAN, USB2.0, IEEE1394a, &7.1Audio
* MEMORY: 12GB (2GBx6) PC1333 DDR3 PC3 10666 Triple Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)
* FREEBIES: None
* VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX285 2GB 16X PCIe Video Card (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
* VIDEO CARD 2: None
* VIDEO CARD 3: None
* Free Game: FREE GAME - Battle Stations ** Pacific **
* MULTIPLE VIDEO CARD SETTINGS: Non-SLI/Non-CrossFireX Mode Supports Multiple Monitors
* LCD Monitor: NONE
* 2nd Monitor: NONE
* HARD DRIVE: Extreme Performance (RAID-0) with 2 Identical Hard Drives (1TB (500GBx2) SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)
* Data Hard Drive: NONE
* USB PORTABLE DRIVE: NONE
* Optical Drive: LG GGW-H20L 6X Internal Super Multi Blue Blu-Ray Disc Rewriter & HD DVD-ROM Drive (Black Color)
* Optical Drive 2: (Special Price) LG 22X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Dual Layer Drive (BLACK COLOR)
* SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
* SPEAKERS: 120 Watt Stereo Speakers (Black Color)
* NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
* MODEM: NONE
* KEYBOARD: Microsoft® Wireless Desktop w/ Wireless Internet Keyboard & Mouse
* MOUSE: XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Buttons Gaming Mouse
* Extra Thermal Display : NONE
* Wireless 802.11B/G Network Card: NONE
* Flash Media Reader/Writer: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)
* VIDEO CAMERA: NONE
* PRINTER: None
* PRINTER CABLE: None
* IEEE CARD: NONE
* USB PORT: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
* FLOPPY: NONE
* OS: Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium w/ Service Pack 1 (64-bit Edition)
* Windows 7 Upgrade Coupon: None
* FREEBIES: None
* Media Center Remote Control & TV Tuner: Avermedia AVERTV Bravo Hybrid (ATSC/ClearQAM/NTSC) PCIE Media Center TV Tuner with Remote Control
* SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
* RUSH SERVICE: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 5~10 BUSINESS DAYS


Thanks again for your help

 

[rockyjohn]

Do you plan to use the computer for applications beside gaming? Do you plan to overclock? Later add a second video card? What size monitor now and in future? Is it important to play games at high settings?

Your PSU is much more than you will ever need - get 850w if plan to OC, 750w if no OC but plan SLI or crossover, if none of the above - only need 600w at most - 500w probably ample if not too many other extra components. But your brand is not one of the recommended ones. Quality is important in PSU. For 750w get Thermaltake ToughPower 750W (+$70) or for 850w get Thermaltake W0131RU ToughPower 850w (+$99) Might also be worth paying the extra $29 to get the larger PSU even if not going to OC - a small increase in the total cost of your system.

I agree with poster above, go with 6GB RAM and save $117 unless have heavy video encoding or editing applications – certainly more important to have the better PSU than added memory. Few games now effectively take advantage of 3GB, and you have the slots to add more later when and if needed - hopeflully at substantially reduced prices. Adding memory is about the easiest upgrade you can make yourself.

On the video card – what games do you want to play at what resolution with what settings? The card you selected is a good one – and very powerful. But also, depending on your answers to the earlier questions – it is probably more than you will need unless you are into very high powered gaming where milliseconds matter. The 275 is also a good gaming card that will play most games on medium to high settings with room to spare and save you about $120. In most situations you will not notice the difference. But only you can decide if the $120 is worth the marginal increase in game play. If you stick with the SLI mobo – which is a good idea – later you can drop in another GTX 275 or 285 when games demand more power.

Which ever card you get, pay the $5 extra to get EVGA card.

Regarding your question on dual HD in raid - it may add a little in gaming, more in system loading time. I would not normally consider it myself - but then I am not a hardcore gamer. Only you can decide if it is worth the extra $57 - which is a resonable charge for the extra HD. I would think that in most instances it will have little affect. Any hardcore gamers want to disagree? I would pay the extra for (or keep) the GTX 285 video card before getting the second HD.

Do you need Blu-Ray disk writer? Has nothing to do with gaming and could save $157 by going to standard DVD writer. Or save $90 and get a drive that reads but does not write Blu-Ray if want to also see movies.

For $29, I would get the Windows 7 upgrade coupon.

Off course you could save $90 by not buying the TV tuner. The better tuner is Haupage – but not the USB model on the list. I would get none and buy a good Haupage which I think runs about $90 for a single tuner and $120 for dual – for one of their near top of the line models

But of course – the bottom line depends on your preferences. It seems to me that you might need to read a little more about graphics card performance – at least review the THG charts and consider the questions I asked above – to know what you really need – unless budget is not a significant issue.

If I calculated correctly, your system will cost about $1.930. Certainly if you are willing to spend that amount you can afford some of the extras noted above (the PSU upgrade is not an extra).

You might also consider that the GTX 285 is the bottleneck in your system. It provides all the gaming power that most need - but not the hardcore gamers. However, you could get a system for probably $1,200 that will fully support that card - just not have your extras like Blu-Ray and other. For somewhere in the $1,200 to $1,400 range you can fully support the card and have it SLI ready. With that or your system, - you can easily increase game performance (in the highly competitive margin) by adding another GTX 285 card when ready - or when game requirements increase. In short - if you really want to maximize gaming performance - you could cut back on some things and get a better graphics card - the 295 even - if maximizing gaming performance is the primary goal.

The question is - do you want an Aston Martin (with twin GTX 285) or a Corvette (single 285). With the Corvette you will have all the power you need for driving around town and on the highways - including quick acceleration - with a reserve you will seldom use. But the Aston Martin will still be a fraction faster in accelerating at all speeds - and for this you pay a premium. Your build already has most of the leather upholstery of the Aston Martin - you can decide when and if you want the faster performance.

 

[breezer265]

Thanks for your reply. It is very helpful. My main goal is simply to be able to play anything that comes out. Dual-logging WoWarcraft is a must.

 

[rockyjohn]

An update on PSU - if you decide to go with the 750w PSU, you might consider the Corsair 750w PSU which is as good as the Thermaltake and costs $55 less plus you get a $20 rebate.

I missed it the first time because it is not listed with the other 750w PSUs but is in the drop down menu below the Corsair 650w one - and you have to triple click to see it.