Rate My Rig - Update

[mcflabby]

This system is intended for general use and moderate gaming.

case - Cooler Master HAF X
mobo - ASUS Crosshair III Formula AM3 AMD 790FX ATX AMD
cpu - AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core
cpu fan - Thermaltake - Spin-Q Universal CPU Cooler
memory cooler - Kingston HyperX Memory Cooler
ram - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit
gpu - 2 x GIGABYTE GV-R577SO-1GD Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready in CrossFireX
psu - Thermaltake TR2 RX 850W
hdd - 2 x Western Digital-Caviar Black 1TB Internal Serial ATA Hard Drive in RAID 0 & 2 x Seagate Barracuda 160 GB SATA in RAID 0
optical drive - ASUS 24B1ST DVD RW
monitor - SAMSUNG T220HD Rose Black 22.5" 5ms HDMI Widescreen LCD - 300 cd/m2 DC 10000:1(1000:1) Built-in Speakers
sound - SupremeFX X-Fi
os - Windows 7 64 Bit

 

[1000FPS]

Thats awesome - more than capable of "moderate gaming"

 

[mcflabby]

Thanks! Glad you approve...

 

[masterasia]

Pretty decent for moderate gaming. Enjoy. I wish I had time for gaming. My 2 rigs are collecting dust.

 

[itouchedyou]

your power supply is overkill and you could probably knock off some costs getting a solid 650W one, which is still more than enough for your system. also, the 955 be is often cheaper than the 965, and im assuming you're overclocking since ur getting an aftermarket cooler. both models overclock the same so you can save some $ there too. i wouldn't go for the 5770's in cf since that pretty much means you cant upgrade your gfx system without ditching both cards in the future, and with an 850W psu thats a LOT of headroom for upgrade. a single 5850 would suffice at your resolution and you will have space to xfire them in the future.

 

[samk]

Seems like you had the money for an SSD, did you decide not to buy one?

 

[mcflabby]

your power supply is overkill and you could probably knock off some costs getting a solid 650W one, which is still more than enough for your system. also, the 955 be is often cheaper than the 965, and im assuming you're overclocking since ur getting an aftermarket cooler. both models overclock the same so you can save some $ there too. i wouldn't go for the 5770's in cf since that pretty much means you cant upgrade your gfx system without ditching both cards in the future, and with an 850W psu thats a LOT of headroom for upgrade. a single 5850 would suffice at your resolution and you will have space to xfire them in the future.

Thanks for your sound advice. You make some valid points. Unfortunately, I've already put this system together. I wish I would have known about the minor differences between the 955 and 965 when I bought it. I've not been able to overclock beyond 3.8 GHz on the 965. I was hoping to get closer to 4GHz. With a family to take care of, by the time I have the resources/time to upgrade again, everything will be obsolete. I suppose a single 5850 may have served me well, but I bought the factory overclocked 5770s, so I'm pretty pleased with how they run. Like I said, an upgrade in the foreseeable future is very unlikely, so the choice was between living with one 5850 or two 5770s. Your point about the power supply is a bit of a downer. I suppose that's where my rookie build experience shines through the most. I've built several systems, but my last build was four or five years ago. This allowed time for me to lose touch with what is standard/appropriate with PSUs. I saw all these 1000W+ PSUs around and thought 850W was a decent compromise. Again, thanks for the tips!

 

[mcflabby]

Seems like you had the money for an SSD, did you decide not to buy one?

I suppose SSD wasn't a priority. Should it have been?

 

[gordon_81]

your power supply is overkill and you could probably knock off some costs getting a solid 650W one, which is still more than enough for your system. also, the 955 be is often cheaper than the 965, and im assuming you're overclocking since ur getting an aftermarket cooler. both models overclock the same so you can save some $ there too. i wouldn't go for the 5770's in cf since that pretty much means you cant upgrade your gfx system without ditching both cards in the future, and with an 850W psu thats a LOT of headroom for upgrade. a single 5850 would suffice at your resolution and you will have space to xfire them in the future.

i agree

 

[gordon_81]

and rather get a samsung spinpoint hdd

 

[itouchedyou]

Re: ssd's.

TOTALLY WORTH THE MONEY! i went from a 300gb velociraptor to the 60gb vertex and the difference is night and day. it's probably THE most noticeable upgrade other than upgrading graphics cards that you can do with your system. after owning one i'm NEVER going back to regular hard drives.

 

[samk]

I suppose SSD wasn't a priority. Should it have been?

Yes. Here are a few sales on a few decent SSDs.

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?sduid=748009&t=2187067

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?sduid=748009&t=2182581

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?sduid=748009&t=2182525

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?sduid=748009&t=2180629

(under 100) http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?sduid=748009&t=2182207

 

[mcflabby]

Best answer selected by mcflabby.

 

[coldsleep]

SSDs are awesome, but they shouldn't be a priority at this point. Eventually, you run into diminishing returns with the rest of the system, and then you should consider getting an SSD.

For gaming builds, SSDs shouldn't be considered at all below $1500, and only really seriously considered around $2000+. The technology is still maturing, so people that are buying them now (me included) are likely to fall behind the curve before we're ready to upgrade again. A number of people got burned with the first gen SSDs, which weren't really ready for primetime...no word yet on whether the 3rd generation is going to be a ton better/cheaper than the current generation.