First gaming rig/build $1500 budget

[JoshM20]

Hey guys,
This will be the first time I have actually built a rig from the ground up, not just upgrades and swaps. Anyway, looking to build a nice gaming rig for around 1500.

More that likely I wanna go AMD/ ATI Crossfire.

Would love advice on build and cpu's, case, so on. I would like to have a case that you can see in and has some led action

looking at around 1500 for the tower then w/e I need to get a good monitor, or tower and monitor for 1500. Can do either. Anyway, I was thinking about putting multiple HDD's in RAID.

I wanna be able to overclock this rig and have good cooling with fans, not water. I'm not sure which aftermarket cpu heat sinks are worth there weight.

Anyways, Thanks everyone
Looking foward to the suggestions.

Josh

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Check out some of these:

http://www.tomshardware.com/search.php?s=%241500

 

[JoshM20]

Thanks

 

[JoshM20]

OK After reading the top I will do this correctly or try to at least.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: ASAP (2-3 days)

SYSTEM USAGE: Gaming, 3D Modeling, CAD, Movies, Surfing.

PARTS NOT REQ: Mouse, Keyboard

PREFERRED WEBSITE: NewEgg, TigerDirect

PARTS PREFERENCE: I was thinking AMD/ATI Not sure about MOBO, 22-24 Monitor

OVERCLOCKING: YES

SLI/CROSSFIRE: YES

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1200 or 1920x1080

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I would like to have a CPU for gaming, I was thinking the Phenom II X4 955, or the i5. I definitely wan't Crossfire or SLI, I'm not sure which brand to go, I was thinking ATI. Would love advice on which cards work well together and are not the baddest MF's on the market but will last a while and hold there on. I would like to get 6-8 gigs of ram. I was thinking of Ballistix Tracer. For my HDD's I wanna set up a RAID0 with around 4 HDD, around 250-500 GB each. I was thinking about getting the Antec 900 2 case. I want something that will have plenty of room, great airflow and Looking pimperish, (LED's). I wanna get a good aftermarket cooler for the CPU (not liquid) Not sure which PS to get either.

Anyway thanks for the help. I will update as needed.

Josh

 

[ajdef3]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.335367

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0302727

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128423

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102856

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236059

Thats what I would get if I were you

 

[saint19]

Hi. Maybe this can help you.

CPU i7-920 $ 288,99
MOBO Asus P6X58D $ 309,99
HDD Spinpoint F3 1TB $ 89,99
GPU 5850 $ 299,99
RAM Mushkin 3x2GB $ 239,99
PSU Antec 550W $ 89,99
CASE ANTEC 300$ 61,99
CPU COOLER Hyper 212+ $ 29,99

Total: $ 1.410,92 + MIR + SHIPPING

If you want change something, fell free to do it.

 

[ryan2258]

Get the i7 920 from microcenter. It periodically goes on sale for $199 every few months.
The Asus P6t x58 mobo is a good deal at amazon.com for $230. Solid/stable OC'er.
The HAF 932 Case is a great tower for cooling but it's got a small side window and a mesh side where the 200mm fan is mounted that is only partially see through. Still a great case imo. $139 w/ free shipping at tigerdirect.com. I nabbed it for $99 on sale. Grab a few OEM 500GB WD Caviar HD's for 55 bucks a piece and a samsung optical drive for $25 at tigerdirect. I got two HD 5870's for 400 each and I don't regret it at all. One would be plenty of power for awhile. The Nzxt sentry fan controller is 65 bucks and it makes the case look AWESOME. For the monitor I got a Dell 3008wfp for $800 off eBay that was still under warranty. If u don't want to spend too much u can get a pretty decent 26-28" from tigerdirect for around 300. Get the cooler master hyper 212 plus for 30. OCZ 6GB 1600MHz RAM is 150 at amazon. SVC.com has an OCZ 1000w psu for $80. The total comes to around 1700 but I think these products are all well worth the price.

 

[JoshM20]

Thankx for all of the advice guys, So is the i7 920 the better gaming cpu, I've heard that the i5 or AMD 955 are good as well. Is the i7 920 like the best out of these three?

 

[coldsleep]

Some people will claim that the i7-920 is the high-end value processor right now...and they're sort of right.

The i5-750 offers similar/slightly better gaming performance than the i7-920, and it's cheaper, the 1156 mobos are somewhat less than the 1366 socket, and you generally go with 4 GB of RAM for them as opposed to 6 GB, saving about $200-300 in the process. What it does not offer is hyperthreading, which is useful to editing software, large number-crunching apps, etc.

The i7-860 is also somewhat cheaper than the i7-920, as it is also on the 1156 socket. It does, however, offer hyperthreading, and from a value standpoint, it's a better application workhorse than the i7-920, and it offers nearly the same gaming performance as the i7-920, I believe.

What neither of the above 1156 socket chips have is a performance improvement in SLI/Crossfire configurations. The i7-920 should be considered for builds above $1500 that are going to do both gaming and intense multi-threaded application stuff, but for most builds below that budget, it's not worth it, and for some builds above it, it makes more sense to go with the 1156 chips.

 

[saint19]

The i7-920 is a bets gaming CPU IF YOU WANT OC, if doesn't, get the i7-860.

 

[JoshM20]

I do want to OC, I've heard that it is more difficult to OC than the AMD. Is this true or does it just take a little more know how.

If I go with the i7-920 can I use a board other than the x58?

 

[saint19]

Th i7-8xx series and the i5 use the P55 chipset, the I7-9XX series use the x58 or less chipset.

Now, the OC depends of the componentes for the rig, I have AMD and is easy to OC, but the i7-920 is a veru good OC procesor and can hit the 4.0GHz with a hyper 212+.