$1500 gaming PC

[Tsubanosa]

Hi im building a gaming rig and just wanted your honest opinion on it with the ff criteria:
1. Will this pc last me a long time? (do you think i can run games at full 1 year from now? just an estimate would do nicely)
2. Should i wait for a better gpu or should i stick with this? should i wait for the 6970? do you really think it will be a drastic change in performance?
3. If i were to overclock, add liquid cooling, and crossfire my video card will my power supply hold?
4. if you have any suggestions to improve on my rig please add it

Here is my Rig's specs
Motherboard : LGA1366, GIGABYTE™ X58A-UD3R
Processor: Intel I7 950
Video Card: Sapphire Vapor x hd5870
Ram: 3 sticks DDR3 Kingston 2GB PC3-10600
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower XT 875w
Case: Antec 902 (got it for 50% off looked at the specs seems quite nice air cooling dunno if much space for liquid cooling though)
Hard Drive: WD Caviar Blue 1TB
Optical Drive: liteon DVD RW 24x

Approximate Purchase Date: 4 days from now

Budget Range: $1300-$1500

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Heavy use on Gaming, Watching movies, Internet

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS

Parts Preferences: No Real Preference i just want advise on what you think i can improve on with my
build, i'm open to looking into brands u suggest

Overclocking: In the future

SLI or Crossfire: In the future

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: if you have any suggestions to improve on my rig please tell me

Thanks in Advance

 

[etk]

If you plan to CF in the future, I would wait on the 69XX, CF is much improved. That will push you pretty close to your budget though.

 

[syxxnyne69]

the 6870 and 6850 are awesome cards in their own right, they are not the successors to the 58xx series but they perform extremely well and have features that the 58xx series does not have and a 6850 cf setup comes out to about 340 and will out perform a 5870
AMD 6850 Crossfire Review and Benchmarks (XFX & ASUS)
AMD Radeon 6800 Series HD 6870 and 6850 Overview and Benchmarks

 

[Frizzo]

if you're going to oc get better ram. try these if the motherboard likes them since you mentioned kingston:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104190&cm_re=kingston_cas_7_1600-_-20-104-190-_-Product

 

[Raidur]

Definitely wait for the 6970.

If you get too close to / over budget you could look into an i5-760 to save a little cash.

ASUS P7P55 WS SuperComputer with NF200 - $189

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131594&cm_re=nf_200-_-13-131-594-_-Product

i5-760 - $209

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067&cm_re=i5_760-_-19-115-067-_-Product

This combo would give you the virtually the same performance in games. And the 760 is still very OCable.

 

[calmstateofmind]

This combo would give you the virtually the same performance in games. And the 760 is still very OCable.

That's very true. I have one myself stock 2.66Ghz and I'm OC'ing it at 3.8GHz with a peak of 45c, using a Noctua heatseak that only set me back $45. This is a great idea if you're wanting to cut back your budget, but then again, if you're wanting a rig that you won't have to upgrade for 1 or 2 years then you should obviously go with the i7.

I'm with you on the case. You should definitely get a full size considering the potential (and expected) expansion of your system (CFx2/3, RAM, LCS).

Let us know what you ended up getting and good luck deciding.

 

[Tsubanosa]

That's very true. I have one myself stock 2.66Ghz and I'm OC'ing it at 3.8GHz with a peak of 45c, using a Noctua heatseak that only set me back $45. This is a great idea if you're wanting to cut back your budget, but then again, if you're wanting a rig that you won't have to upgrade for 1 or 2 years then you should obviously go with the i7.

I'm with you on the case. You should definitely get a full size considering the potential (and expected) expansion of your system (CFx2/3, RAM, LCS).

Let us know what you ended up getting and good luck deciding.

Well in terms of the Processor i want to build it to the maximum that my budget would allow, and people were telling me its a pain to change motherboards and processors in comparison to other parts of the rig.

With regard to the case do you think it would be big enough for CFx2 and liquid cooling? or did you mean i should get a full tower case? i got the antec 902 at a promo for 50% off now im thinking if it was a mistake...

 

[calmstateofmind]

Well in terms of the Processor i want to build it to the maximum that my budget would allow, and people were telling me its a pain to change motherboards and processors in comparison to other parts of the rig.

With regard to the case do you think it would be big enough for CFx2 and liquid cooling? or did you mean i should get a full tower case? i got the antec 902 at a promo for 50% off now im thinking if it was a mistake...

Yeah, your motherboard is going to be the most time consuming/difficult part to remove/install due to the fact that everything is connected to it. Because of this, and that your mobo is mounted directly onto your case, if you want to ever upgrade your case you'll need to take out the mobo too, along with everything else.

What I meant was to go with the full size case, as it offers a lot of room for additional parts (like CF and liquid cooling, as previously stated). Also, even if you don't upgrade for a while, the extra room in the case will give nice airflow for your system. I can tell you right now that it'll be a tight, tight squeeze if you ran CF, not to mention a LCS. If you get a full tower that'll give you another 3" or so for each dimension (except width) which should be enough if you're looking to go down that road, somewhere down the road.

It can be a real pain trying to install/remove parts in really tight quarters.

 

[enigma067]

You're better off going with a Phenom II 965 BE 3.4Ghz & an
ASUS Crosshair IV Formula AM3 ATX AMD Motherboard

You'll save money over Intel. I'm building two rigs next month.

 

[abswindows7]

Just stick to intel, you are not on a thight budget ...

 

[mrhoshos96]

i'm too lazy to post a build .

 

[abswindows7]

Not enough to post your lazyness thought

 

[Shadow703793]

If you don't need this system ASAP, I recommend waiting for Sandy Bridge and/or ATI 69xx cards.

If building now:

1. Swap motherboard to ASUS Sabertooth (X58): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131665
It is cheaper and imo better. I'v used both boards and I preffer the Sabertooth. If you so choose to, you also get the ability to QuadFire/Quad SLI or use a PCIe SSD down the road with this board. If you go LGA1156, there is a P55 based Sabertooth also.

2.

With regard to the case do you think it would be big enough for CFx2 and liquid cooling? or did you mean i should get a full tower case? i got the antec 902 at a promo for 50% off now im thinking if it was a mistake...

Depends. If you are only running a CPU loop with a 360 rad, the 902 should be enough (may require a bit of modding). If you plan to run dual loops or add a 2nd rad, you probably want a full tower case.

3. Consider adding a 80GB+ SSD for the boot drive. I recommend the Vertex 2, C300 and the X25-M G2. The Intel is older but still a good drive and can be found reletively cheap during sales.

4. TX Review: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story4&reid=172
Consider swapping the PSU to a XFX 850 or Corsair 850. The XFX 850 is ~$130 after MIR: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207001
Review: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story5&reid=165

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/XFX-850-W-Black-Edition-Power-Supply-Review/808/7

The XFX is better Price vs Performance than the Thermaltake.

5. Ditch the WD Blue and get a WD Black or a Samsung F3. The "Blue" series is WDs mainstream version. You want the "Black" version which is faster.

 

[Tsubanosa]

If you don't need this system ASAP, I recommend waiting for Sandy Bridge and/or ATI 69xx cards.

If building now:

1. Swap motherboard to ASUS Sabertooth (X58): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131665
It is cheaper and imo better. I'v used both boards and I preffer the Sabertooth. If you so choose to, you also get the ability to QuadFire/Quad SLI or use a PCIe SSD down the road with this board. If you go LGA1156, there is a P55 based Sabertooth also.

2.

With regard to the case do you think it would be big enough for CFx2 and liquid cooling? or did you mean i should get a full tower case? i got the antec 902 at a promo for 50% off now im thinking if it was a mistake...

Depends. If you are only running a CPU loop with a 360 rad, the 902 should be enough (may require a bit of modding). If you plan to run dual loops or add a 2nd rad, you probably want a full tower case.

3. Consider adding a 80GB+ SSD for the boot drive. I recommend the Vertex 2, C300 and the X25-M G2. The Intel is older but still a good drive and can be found reletively cheap during sales.

4. TX Review: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story4&reid=172
Consider swapping the PSU to a XFX 850 or Corsair 850. The XFX 850 is ~$130 after MIR: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207001
Review: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story5&reid=165

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/XFX-850-W-Black-Edition-Power-Supply-Review/808/7

The XFX is better Price vs Performance than the Thermaltake.

5. Ditch the WD Blue and get a WD Black or a Samsung F3. The "Blue" series is WDs mainstream version. You want the "Black" version which is faster.

Thanks I'll look into these.. i just noticed that i did not have an SSD is this really crucial? is the speed difference that noticeable? WD caviar black will exchange that blue... just waited for someone to confirm the speed of the black for me.

 

[Shadow703793]

^ Imo, yes. You will notice a difference with a good SSD as a boot drive. A G2/SF 1200based drive has about 50x+ more random 4K read/write performance than a Velociraptor. This matters a lot for a boot drive. See AnandTech's SSD relapse,etc. to understand why this matters.

 

[Tsubanosa]

i see.. hmm been checking around the forum and some are saying that ud3r is having problems with ssd+hdd so i went to look into sabertooth asus x58 and did get to look into Asus P6X58D-E X58 any real difference with these mobos that you know.. thanks you've been really helpful and due to the recommendations i've been getting here it seems i'll be pushing back my purchase date for my rig not that its a bad thing if its improving thanks again

 

[Shadow703793]

^ As for P6X vs Sabertooth: The P6X58D-E has 3x PCIe x16 slots. This mean you can Tri-SLI and/or use the 3rd PCIe slot for a PCIe SSD down the road with out giving up SLI/CrossFire. That's the only major difference. Everything else is more or less the same. But yes, DO wait if possible.

 

[whitey_rolls]

As some have pointed out already, but to save money I'd look at the 1156 Socket and go with a 750/760 CPU.

Those CPU's are nearly as good as the I7's and you will save quite a bit of money on the chip and the motherboard. Normally I wouldn't suggest this but since we know the next round of processors from Intel are on a new socket you might as well go the cheaper route now because the 1156 and 1366 won't be upgradable in the future.

 

[Tsubanosa]

i read on a review somewhere that the asus P6X58D Premium is actually gulftown 32nm compatible if that is what you meant by intel's next round of processors. please correct me if im wrong

hey do you guys know if it's worth changing my ram into 1600mhz? there is a big difference in the cost and c9? c8? c7? even more cost... any take on this?

 

[Shadow703793]

Yes, Intel will offer a refresh for the LGA1366 i7s built on 32nm. Currently, only the Xeon LGA1366 are 32nm.

As for RAM, DDR3 1600 is pretty much the standard now. As far as latency goes, it doesn't matter much in real world performance. Just get the cheapest DDR3 1600 kit.