Gaming PC, ~$2500 AUS

lelongt

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Nov 10, 2009
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I'm looking to build a new gaming system which will hopefully last at least a few years for about $2500 or so $AUS. If it's worth it I can go a few hundred dollars beyond this though. Looking for advice regarding whether or not this is an appropriate choice of parts, whether or not certain parts are too powerful/not powerful enough. I'm hoping I'll be able to keep up with graphical advances in gaming for at least some time before having to upgrade. Also, regarding SATA 6Gbps/USB 3 -- is it worth the wait? I can wait things out a bit if it's worth it for newer hardware but not sure if this is one such upgrade worth waiting for.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE:
Late November/Early December

BUDGET RANGE:
$2500±200

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT:
Gaming, 3D Modelling/Animation, (Very) Basic Video Editing, Coding

PARTS NOT REQUIRED:
Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor, Speakers, OS

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS:
www.pccasegear.com.au
www.netplus.com.au
Will buy parts from a combination of both depending on pricing/availability of parts.
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Australia

PARTS PREFERENCES/CURRENT BUILD:
PROCESSOR: $348
Core i7 920

MEMORY: $329
Corsair Dominator GT PC3-12800 C7 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3

GRAPHICS CARD: $589
ATI Radeon HD 5870 1Gb

MOTHERBOARD: $399
ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 Motherboard

CASE: $399
Corsair Obsidian Series 800d

HARD DRIVE: $79
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB

DVD RW DRIVE: $75
ASUS DRW-24B1ST DVDRW Black

POWER SUPPLY: $275
Corsair HX-850

OVERCLOCKING:
Probably not, at least not in the short term.

SLI OR CROSSFIRE:
Most likely in future, several months are build.

MONITOR RESOLUTION:
Will be 1920x1200 or 1920x1080 when I buy the monitor but in the short term I'll be using a 1440x900 + 1280x1024 setup. Will probably use the 1400x900 in conjunction with the larger monitor when I get it.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
Non-negotiable points are X58 chipset and buying parts from Australia.
I am uncertain if my power supply is too much/too little and whether or not a CPU cooler is necessary.
Also, if the chance of overclocking is slim, is the motherboard chosen necessary?
I am considering two hard drives in RAID 0 for the speed improvement. I've been told by a friend RAID 0 helps significantly, anyone else's experiences with this would be useful. I will likely purchase a 1TB hard drive if I only use one disk.

If there's anything missing or if I haven't been precise enough, please let me know and thanks for reading.
 

sonic-boom

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Oct 9, 2009
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Your PSU is overkill for that. I would recommend a 650-750w psu for the 5870. ATI says only 600w is required.
A CPU cooler is only needed if you want to overclock.
The motherboard you picked is nice but you still could tone it done a bit. All you REALLY need is a crossfire supported board but its always nice to have more features.
A per the RAID, I suggest just getting this 1tb HDD: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=12711
Even if you do raid, I still recommend that HDD as it is faster, it does come ina 500gb version but that site doesn't have it.
 

lelongt

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Nov 10, 2009
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Hey,

Thanks for the reply although I've actually ordered parts already but everything except the case got delayed so I have a chance to change things still. I realise the PSU is currently overkill but given that I'm almost certainly going to go crossfire later I wanted to get something a bit bigger, or is the 600 W the recommendation for crossfire?

I realise the motherboard could go down a bit but I think I'll stick with it still.

I actually had ended up changing to two of those 1 TB HDDS for RAID 1.

Thanks for the suggestions :)