Gaming RIG Budget : 1500 $ - 1700$

[elricthefullmetal]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: End of this month.
BUDGET RANGE: 1500$-1700$

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, Gaming, Gaming, Gaming,Movies, Surfing. Games I play ( WOW WOTLK, Crysis, Call of Duty 4, Street Fighter 4, White Knight Chronicles, Dragon's Age, Clear Sky: STALKER.)

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor (BENQ 2420HD 24"), Speakers

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Local Vendor

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: India

PARTS PREFERENCES: Intel I7, Asus Board, XFX or Asus GPU, Cooler Master PSU & Cabinet / Second Priority! However won't mind trying a AMD build for first time(As long as it beats Intel build in terms of performance vs pricing)

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe (Just to experiment, not on regular basis)

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: May be (best value for money in terms of performance vs price / Won't mind 2x260, can shell out extra bucks for that.)

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Silent cabinet!!! Water cooling I want to try, can shell out some extra bucks for that. Future proofing if possible.

MAX BUDGET: 2000K with water cooling if required and CrossFire or SLI!

My choice of rig:

Intel I7 920, Asus Rampage II gene, Corsair C9 6GB Tripple channel 1600MHZ, Asus 295 GTX, Western Digital velociraptor 300 GB 10000 RPM

Sorry I don't have actual prices for above, Please help me out with this. Also I am concerned about bottlenecks.

 

[MadAdmiral]

Here is the best $1,500ish gaming build you can get. If you want a decent i7 gaming build, you'll need at least $1,800-$1,900. I know you can't use the links, but they're there for a reference...

CPU: i5-750 $200
Mobo: Gigabtye GA-P55A-UD3 $135. The Rampages are overpriced.
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws 2x2 GB 1600 mhz CAS Latency 7 $115
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB $90. Or the Seagate 7200.12 1 TB. VelociRaptors are three times more expensive than the 500 GB platter drives and slower. Yes, really.
GPU: HD 5970 $700. This is the best GPU out there. Period. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Stay away from nVidia (at least until Fermi's prices come down. Crossfire would never be necessary with this card (hence the board that doesn't allow it.
PSU: Corsair 750W 80+ $100 after rebate
Case: HAF 922 $90
Optical: Cheap SATA DVD burner $25
HSF: Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus $35

Total: $1,490.

Water cooling is a waste of money. Stick to air. It can get just as much of an overclock with less noise and no chance of sprining a leak and losing everything.

Now, if you had the $1,800 for the build, here's what you'd change:

CPU: i7-930 $295
Mobo: Asus P6X58D Premium $310
RAM: G.Skill Pi Series 3x2 GB 1600 mhz CAS Latency 7 $180

Total: $1,835.

 

[builderbobftw]

1. The i7-930 is the same price as the i7-920 at Newegg, if you plan on buying there, get the 930.

2. Water cooling is overrated, and not needed.The only appeal of WC is that it looks realy, realy awesome.

Uh, MAd later in the OP he posted that he can bump the budget to 2k$ to get CF in there. Also, i'm going ot have to disagree with MAd on the GPU choice. This is faster,a nd only 60$ more.

Get 2 5870s.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161301&Tpk=5870%201gb%20his'

The 5970 used to be a good eral, as it was 150$ cheaper than the 5870 CF, but now it's only 60$ cheaper. Also, he doesn't mean best gpu out there. What he means is best grpahics card. The 5870 GPU is faster than one of the GPUs in the 5970.
5970=5850 x2.

So if you want, keep mad's build, adding 2 5870s, or go i7-930 at 2k$ budget.

 

[MadAdmiral]

@bob: The 930 is ~$10 more. And the OP is in India, so Newegg doesn't apply. But I agree on getting the i7-930 instead...

Crossfire at the start of the build is stupid. You pay more, get less return and lose an upgrade path.

As for the dual 5870s, they're EXACTLY THE SAME as the 5970. The 5970 is two 5870 GPUs on one card. They have only been downclocked, which can be undone for free with 3 mouse clicks. So save the $60 and get the 5970 with the possibility to add a second later. Not that you'll ever need it.

Just because the OP can go to $2K doesn't mean he wants to. It might be worth more to pick up a SSD as the boot/app drive instead of a second GPU or water cooling.

A quick note on the i7 vs. i5. You would not see any difference in gaming applications. The LGA1366 socket will be more future proof, but it is nearly $300 more expensive for similar parts. That's a large price to pay for the possiblity of dropping $1,000 on a six core CPU when it comes out...

 

[elricthefullmetal]

@Mad,@Bob
Thanks for the quick reply.

So with Mad's Second build I get 1366 with CF/SLI support Mobo along with the best GPU in the price range, Awesome.
However I am concerned more about bottlenecks due to HDD, Is that going to be a problem?
Also does Asus P6X58D Premium provide manual voltage settings? I read few posts where people had trouble with Ram voltage settings when it comes to Tripple Channel Memory.
Thanks again.
P.S.: More alternatives highly appreciated.

 

[builderbobftw]

@bob: The 930 is ~$10 more. And the OP is in India, so Newegg doesn't apply. But I agree on getting the i7-930 instead...

Crossfire at the start of the build is stupid. You pay more, get less return and lose an upgrade path.

As for the dual 5870s, they're EXACTLY THE SAME as the 5970. The 5970 is two 5870 GPUs on one card. They have only been downclocked, which can be undone for free with 3 mouse clicks. So save the $60 and get the 5970 with the possibility to add a second later. Not that you'll ever need it.

Just because the OP can go to $2K doesn't mean he wants to. It might be worth more to pick up a SSD as the boot/app drive instead of a second GPU or water cooling.

A quick note on the i7 vs. i5. You would not see any difference in gaming applications. The LGA1366 socket will be more future proof, but it is nearly $300 more expensive for similar parts. That's a large price to pay for the possiblity of dropping $1,000 on a six core CPU when it comes out...

Doesn't the 5970 have some things 4 SIMDS disabled on it? So you're basicaly paying 15$ per SIMD. Also, a OC'd 5970 lose to an Oc'd 5870 CF right?

 

[MadAdmiral]

Not the best GPU in the price range. The ABSOLUTE best GPU on the market.

The HDD won't be a bottleneck in game, with the exception of load times. However, the only way to improve that would be to get a SSD, and they're really expensive right now.

All board support manual voltage settings. It's in the BIOS.

 

[builderbobftw]

Not the best GPU in the price range. The ABSOLUTE best GPU on the market.

The HDD won't be a bottleneck in game, with the exception of load times. However, the only way to improve that would be to get a SSD, and they're really expensive right now.

All board support manual voltage settings. It's in the BIOS.

Lol, the 5970 isn't a GPU. You should know that MAD. It's a dual GPU chip, made up of 2 5870's with uderclocks and SIMDS disabled. The Radeon 5870 is the current fastest GPU on the planet, untill march 26th. The 5970 is the fastest card on the planet. GPU= Graphics Proscing Chip. And also, if you buy a 5970 and OC it to 5870 levels, you lose the warrenty. In addition, you still will have lower FPS due to the loss of 4 SIMDS.

 

[MadAdmiral]

True, but I'd rather not type out video card everytime I talked about it...

And that's false on the warranty. ATI even provides the software to do. Anything outside of that may be true. You also don't HAVE to tell them you overclocked...

And you won't have lower FPS with the 5970 over dual 5870s. You'd have the same, if not more.

 

[builderbobftw]

Uh, but doesn't the 5850/5970 have some SIMDs disbaled, wich is why a 5850 Oc'd to 5870 levels still loses to it?

 

[shortstuff_mt]

The 5970 doesn't have any SIMD's or anything else disabled. It's exactly like MadAdmiral said, two underclocked full 5870's. I know you won't take my word for it though, so here's a link for you:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3679

 

[MadAdmiral]

EDIT: That's what I was just looking for...

 

[elricthefullmetal]

Best answer selected by elricthefullmetal.