Check/Advice on a $1800 - 2000 Gaming PC

[Elemak204]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Next week

BUDGET RANGE: 1800 - 2000

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, surfing the internet, programming

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: keyboard, mouse, OS

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: newegg.com COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: US

PARTS PREFERENCES: Intel i7 cpu

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe SLI OR CROSSFIRE: In the future

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080 or 1920x1200


COOLER MASTER CM690 II Advanced Black Steel body / Plastic + Mesh bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $89.99

ASUS P6X58D Premium LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $294.99

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready $109.99

Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz $288.99

G.SKILL PI Series 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) $189.99

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM $89.99

ASUS VW246H Glossy Black 24" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor $229.99

ASUS DVD Drive $24.99

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus $26.99

Total $1,435.90

Still looking for a video card. I am leaning toward a ATI Radeon 5870. Any suggestions on specific cards?

Any changes that need to be made or recommendations?

 

[asteldian]

If you are going all out and getting an i7 (I will assume your programming will involve hard use of the CPU otherwise I would drop to i5 750) then get the 5870 ATI (the 1gig version, not the eyefinity 6). It is the best out there unless you want that oven GTX480, which or its price does not offer enough performance (if you are blowing your money on that you may as well just find the extra money on top and get a 5970).

5870 will do the job nicely for a long time and then you can always XFire it in the future

 

[cmc893tx]

That is a pretty awesome build, it seems like you have got it

One thing that I would personally change would be the way you do your Hard Drive Setup.

I would get the Velociraptor 600Gig that just came out and throw that in there. It will increase boot times, load times - it just makes your computer fly.

If you are not down with spending $280 for your boot drive, I would really do either a Raid 0 or 5 to increase read times significantly. The hard drive is by far the slowest part of your computer and one of these solutions will ease that pain drastically.

Also, I just want you to keep in mind - 100% of people building a new machine want to Xfire or SLI their cards together at some point. 2% of the time do they actually ever go through with it. If you want to XFire, do it when you are first building it or chances are you won't ever do it.

Just my two cents.

Good luck and have fun with the new build, whatever you decide to do.

Also, side note here, Newegg is amazing. Spent upwards of $40,000 there over the years, and I don't plan on stopping .

 

[Silmarunya]

Why on earth would you use an i7-930? For gaming, it's equal or even slightly inferior to the i5-750 and AMD's Phenom II 965. Or you could get a Phenom II X6-1090 at the same price, giving you 6 cores (handy in programming) and equal gaming performance, paired with cheaper motherboards and better upgrade paths (1366 will be replaced by 1355 when Sany Bridge is released, AM3 still has years to go).

For short:

- Save some money and get an AMD Phenom II X4-965
- Spend equal money and get better performance in threaded apps, equal gaming performance, better upgrade paths and cheaper and in many ways better motherboards by getting the AMD Phenom II X6-1090

It's also a shame to get a powerhouse like this and still not get an SSD.

As for graphics card, the 5870 is indeed the best option by far. Maybe a custom cooler model like the 5870 Vapor-X by Sapphire would be nice rather than the standard version. Less noisy, cooler and slightly overclocked for a minor price difference. But it's up to you of course!

 

[cmc893tx]

It's also a shame to get a powerhouse like this and still not get an SSD.

I forgot to mention this possibility as well. But if you don't want to use multiple drives, my above reply still holds. If you are looking for speed, regardless or drive number, raid or go with a SSD.

Also, with regards to the processor, I will have to agree with Silmarunya wholeheartedly.

 

[Elemak204]

Thank you all for your help. Lots to think about.