Building a rig to run Crysis on Very high. Need advice

Hi everybody, first post here and it has been a few years since I have been real good with the PC scene, my rig was so outdated that I couldn't run any of the new games so I abandoned my beloved PC for the 360 for quite some time. I am looking to change that very soon.

My question is simple.

What specs are required to run Crysis on its highest settings on a pretty decent widescreen resolution for preferably around $1000? (I know this may not even be possible, but I have heard the prices have gone down drastically,so i'm prayin)

Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated as I am a bit lost in all the new dual cores and SLI's and all of this. I was good for anything hardware PC related back when the Radeon 9800XT was the top of the line. So it's been a while.

Short and simple if you do not want to read the above

Hardware that could run Crysis on max settings, 1680x1050 (or so), w/ 4x AA and 8x AF. I'm planning on building it myself but am a bit lost at the moment. Any advice, much appreciated. Go! Thanks in advance.

P.s. - sorry for double post, my first was in the wrong section

EDIT: Realized my first post was a bit general so here is the proper way hopefully it's easier to read.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: End of December

BUDGET RANGE: Around $1000

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Solely for Crysis, I figure if I can get Crysis down I will be able to handle anything else that comes in the next couple years anyway

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Keyboard, mouse, monitor

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Cheapest! I have a microcenter near me, I hear it is a good/cheap place to build a computer

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States

PARTS PREFERENCES: Leaning towards an Nvidia GPU

OVERCLOCKING: Yes \\\\ SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1680x1050

Yea, it's a rather tight budget for such high aims.


CPU/Mobo/Gcard/RAM is already around 1'000$.
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/ [...] r=16102668
$954.96


i5
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/ [...] r=16103048
$865.96


I think both system would satisfy your demands by a narrow margin. Though, you can add a second 5870 later on once the prices have come down a bit. http://geekdictionary.computing.net/define/crossfirex

If you dont mind stepping back to the old LGA775 intel's, you can pick up the 45nm cpu's on newegg for pretty cheap now. a good board with a Q9650, 4gb of RAM, and a GTX 275 or a HD4890 would easily fit that budget...
its a tough time to do this right now though, if the project is in a few months expect even lower prices as soon as the GTX 300 series hits shelves, DX10 cards will be dropping in price real fast then.

The crysis target is a difficult one to hit for the price. I have a strong 'affordable' pc right now, and I play at 1920x1080... It hits the very high settings, but not with no AA on.

Don't go with a core2quad system.. i5 is the best way to go unless you go the bucks to drop on a i7 920 overclocked with sli/crossfire

If you have done extensive research you would know that the i7 x58 mobo that has 2x PCI-E 16GB/S is the only thing faster than a overclocked i5 single card system. The p55 mobo has the BEST architecture for a single GPU, despite its low pricetag. Proof is in the fps.

You would be really losing to buy a C2Quad system at the current i5 prices. Go i5 and buy a high end graphics card if you want. I personally would buy a i5 system and buy a gtx260 or radeon 4890 for under 200$. Have you compared the framerates of those cards on very high settings? Then you could save the 300$ you would spend on a 5870, and buy a card much better than a 5870 for that 300$ in a couple years, but thats coming from a gamer who is not made of money

Thanks Android, 18, Jack and anyone else I missed... much appreciated. That's a very good starting point and gave me a lot to think about was a bit lost w/ the new tech and all... didn't know whether I needed a dual core of quad core or if SLI was needed or not. I still have a lot to think about, but this is very helpful.

I had no idea you could get CPU/mobo/Gcard/RAM for under $1000, well i'm sure you could but not that good of hardware. That beats my macbook pro here 10x hah.

If I may, what else would I need besides CPU/mobo/Gcard/RAM? Just a case and cooling? What do you all think about water cooling... is it worth it?

Also, any thing to say about Microcenter? That is what I was planning on, but if the internet is gonna be a lot cheaper i'll get it from there.

Thanks!

O, and about Crysis... the only reason I want to play it is for the graphics. I've played every other fps you have mentioned there Android, all of which are probably better than Crysis gameplay wise, but you can't top the Crysis graphics. I've been itchin to see it in it's full glory for years now, if the $1000 price barrier has to be breached it will.

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/ [...] r=16103048

• Intel Core i5-750
• COOLER MASTER Hyper 212
• GIGABYTE GA-P55-UD4P
• HIS H587F1GDG Radeon HD 5870
• G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600
• SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB
• LITE-ON Black 24X DVD Writer
• CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W

$1,132.91

This would be my suggestion.
Do you actually need the DVD/CD Burner? What about Blu-Ray?

What you still need though is a case. Now, make sure the heatsink as well as the graphics card will fit into it.