Need Advice on Building Gaming PC - Budget $2K

[bgarner]

Hello,

I have been doing extensive research and ready to purchase a new PC to replace my old one.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: this week
BUDGET RANGE: $2K

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, Day to Day, Video Editing

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS

OVERCLOCKING: Yes

SLI OR CROSSFIRE:

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: (e.g.: Need to have a window and lots of bling, I would like a quiet PC)

So far I am looking at purchasing the following:

RAM: Corsair SMS3 Dominator 8GB DDR3-1600
CPU: Intel i7 860
CPU FAN: NO IDEA WHAT TO PURCHASE
MotherBoard: Gigabyte P55-UD6 ATX
CASE: Coolmaster Haf 922 Mid Tower
Sound Card: ASUS Xonar HDAV1.3 Slim
Video Cards: XFX ATI Raedeon 4870 (already purchased 2 of them)
POWER: NO IDEA WHAT TO PURCHASE, leaning towards a CoolMaster 750Watt PS

Where I need some advice is:

What type of PS should I purchase?
What type/brand fan should I purchase for the i7 860 and Gigabyte 1156 board?
Is the RAM above good for Overclocking?

I plan on sticking with the Intel i7 860 and the Gigabyte board.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Brian Garner

 

[obsidian86]

well this board has all you need at a better price http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131405, i've found mid range corsair ram dont clock too well you could get this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231279 a good solid set , a good quality 750watts or greater is recommended for 2 graphics cards this is well praised http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006, the best legitimate 1156 cooler is this http://www.amazon.com/Prolimatech-Megahalems-Intel-Heatsink-1156/dp/B002EJ3TNK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1254864219&sr=1-3 but you need to buy a seperate fan for it

 

[arrghushakaboorga]

I've found the corsair power supplies to be amazing, they typically rate the PSU's wattage at a higher temperature than others. The type of cooler that is all the rage now is HDT (Heatpipe direct touch). I don't know much about the 1156 chipset, mine is 1366, but I'm using the Xigmatek Dark Knight Heatsink fanless at 4GHz in an Antec 900. Looks like all the info provided by obsidian is excellent as well, though I have never used G.Skill so I cannot comment on that. I personally have OCZ which runs well at 1600. You could also look at RAM that runs up to 2000MHz and not have to worry as much as the RAM being the bottleneck in an overclock, however that can boost your price a bit

 

[overshocks]

For your budget, get the i7 920 because since you have two 4870 already. the x58 supports x16 x16. the p55 only supports x8 x8 , that means you will lose performance in graphics. i7 920 build is much better with your budget, the i7 860 sucks against it using multi graphics card like you said.

What 2 4870s did you purchase both 512mb or 1gb?

Also, what settings you plan to game at, max? with AA and AF max?

Get a corsair 750W if you plan on using 2 4870s. Get a 850W if you plan on using 3 4870s.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

For PSU's - Corsair HX / Antec Signature series (850W) is the top end and will run you $200+....followed by the Corsair TX / Antec TP series $100 - 125ish at 750w). Lean towards the Antec's in an Antec case otherwise it's a tossup.

The Prolimetcah Megahalems Rev B (for 1156) or Mega Shadow which is just a prettier version of the Megahalems for an extra $20....it does come with thermal paste and twin fan clips....Megahalems only has single fan clip but extra set is like $3.

Also agree that the 920 is the way to go w/ your budget

 

[bgarner]

Thanks for pointing out that the board only supports 1 PCIe x16. Since I can get this chip for a very good price, I would rather stick with getting the i7 860 and will change my motherboard to a better motherboard that supports 2 PCIe x16.

Anyone have any comments regarding this Asus board:

http://ca.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=189&l3=975&l4=0&model=3297&modelmenu=2

 

[obsidian86]

there currently isn't any p55 board that supports dual x16/best is single x16 or dual cards at x8/x8

 

[bgarner]

So if I decided to go the p58 board route, are their any boards that allow dual x16 cards? I just checked the Gigabyte high-end board, Gigabyte GA-EX58-Extreme LGA 1366 i7 Motherboard and even this doesn't support dual x16 graphic cards.

 

[dndhatcher]

The GA-ex58-ud3r supports x16/x16 SLI/crossfire.
The GA-ex58-ud5 supports x16/x16 or x16/x8/x8 triple SLI/crossfire.

The extreme does support x16/x16 crossfire as long as the x8 slot is not occupied with a GPU. Three way crossfire is x16/x8/x8.

The PCIEX8_1 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16_2 slot. When PCIEX8_1 is populated with a PCI Express graphics card, the PCIEX16_2 slot will operate at up to x8 mode.

 

[bgarner]

Thanks,

Guess I should of visited the website to confirm to begin with.

Seems that this card will work.

I may now decide to go the x58 route. I have had Gigabyte MB's before and they have always performed flawlessly. Not sure about MSI products, but they have a competing product called the Eclipse Plus that seem to have the same features.

Going to research the difference, but if anyone has an opinion on why one might be better than the other, I would be interested in hearing.