Building $1000 gaming pc need advice

[carsoncb]

Approximate Purchase Date: any date from now until Christmas when the sales are the nicest(let me know when the best time would be to buy this system)

Budget Range: approximately $1000

System Usage from Most to Least Important: games, 1080p movies

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS(windows 7 64bit)

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg, microcenter

Country of Origin: United States

Parts Preferences: whichever is best for fast-action type games

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Monitor Resolution: 1920*1080

Games I plan to play: Dragon Age 1+2, SC2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Fallout 3+ Fallout: New Vegas, and Mass Effect 2


Here is my hypothesized setup. I believe it will run my games in 1920*1080 on my monitor in high settings

case$77
Seems like this case provides good overall cooling so I don't have to add anything. It also has a side panel, which I like.

graphics card$295
I plan on buying a second one when I see fit.

I'm not sure how much of a difference the i5 vs the i7 have for gaming performance
i5 cpu$170
i7 cpu$200

motherboard$130

I'm considering choosing one of these 4gb ram sets
ram1$95
ram2$96
The only difference I see is the volt usage, what is the deal with that?

I'm considering one of these 750w psu
psu1$102
psu2$82
The difference I see here is one is 80+ certified while the other is 80+ bronze certified. Which of these 2 is the better one for my setup. Is 750w enough for 2 gtx 470s?

hard drive$85
I already have two of these and plan to add a third. Does my system support this setup?

cd/dvd burner$20

Total cost including discounts, rebates and shipping is approximately $960

I was checking out the i5 cpu and I'm not 100% sure if it is compatible with 1600 speed ram, if it isn't can you suggest a good 1333 speed ram? How much of a difference would I see in the i5 vs i7 in terms of gaming, and what items would I have to change if I decided the i7 over the i5? Would I need a 750w or an 850w psu for the 470 sli setup? I need to know specifically if this system is compatible with everything. I also need to know if I will have heating problems, because I heard the 470 runs hot, especially if I get two of them. I figured the case I picked would cool everything efficiently. Should I wait for something new coming out before Christmas that falls in my price range? When does newegg have the best sales? Thanks for leaving your input.

 

[sp12]

Definitely get the lower-voltage ram.

 

[wielander]

You can get an Antec Nine Hundred Two case for $65 after a $30 rebate if you act fast. It's like the case you linked only better.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129058&cm_re=antec_nine_hundred-_-11-129-058-_-Product


Neither of those processors is going to be stressed by gaming; they will offer about equal performance in that respect. They run at the same frequency and have the same number of cores. The i7-930 has twice as many threads and supports triple channel memory, but games don't really benefit from either of those differences.

Intel chipsets aren't supposed to by run DRAM at over 1.5v without overclocking. The 1.65v ram basically comes designed for a slight overclock (you can't run ram at above DDR3 1333 without overclocking or using XMP). You can always use higher frequency ram; it will run just fine at frequencies lower than what it is rated for. The lower voltage requirement of the Eco series ram is also a sign that it's higher quality.

Using only a 750W PSU for two GTX 470s in SLI would be pushing it. Usually we recommend an 850W power supply for that.

An 80 plus power supply is certified to be at least 80% efficient at loads between 20 and 80% of its power rating (83% at a 50% load). An 80 Plus Bronze power supply is certified to be at least 83% efficient at loads between 20 and 80% (85% at a 50% load). 80 Plus Silver and Gold power supplies are even better yet.

http://80plus.org/

You won't have any problems adding another hard drive.

Newegg seems to have good prices all the time, but there might be some especially good deals on Black Friday. You might be able to get a better deal on your graphics card(s) after the Radeon HD 6XXX series cards are introduced in the next month or two. The prices on Intel processors at Micro Center are really low and probably won't come down any time soon. Once Intel's new architecture "Sandy Bridge" is released early next year, LGA1156 motherboards should quickly fall in price.

 

[carsoncb]

Thanks for all the help wielander!

This is the 850w psu that seems the best, it's also silver certified ^^850w psu, this looks like it is compatible with my system

I also looked up 1333 speed ram and came up with three different ones:
9cas, 1.5v ram
7cas, 1.5v ram
7cas, 1.35v ram
Will I notice a difference between any of these, and which would you buy if you were to buy one of these three, or would you choose a different one that I didn't list?

I also plan on getting the antec 900 case.

Would the graphics cards in SLI overheat with the stuff I listed, or is my system good to go?

 

[wielander]

Thanks for all the help wielander!

No problem!

This is the 850w psu that seems the best, it's also silver certified ^^850w psu, this looks like it is compatible with my system

That power supply is one of the best around. It's a great choice for $140 after the rebate and promo code. If you aren't going to buy right away, I would also consider the XFX Black Edition 850W power supply. It's equally good so just choose whichever one is the best price.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207001&Tpk=xfx%20850w

I also looked up 1333 speed ram and came up with three different ones:
9cas, 1.5v ram
7cas, 1.5v ram
7cas, 1.35v ram
Will I notice a difference between any of these, and which would you buy if you were to buy one of these three, or would you choose a different one that I didn't list?

DDR3 1600 is a better deal than DDR3 1333. It often can be set at lower latencies if you underclock it to DDR3 1333 (Maybe DDR3 1333 CL6); it will also overclock better if you decide to do it later. The G.Skill Eco Series DDR3 1600 CL7 1.35v kit you linked before is definitely the best and also probably the best value.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231321&cm_re=ddr3_1600_4gb-_-20-231-321-_-Product

I also plan on getting the antec 900 case.

Would the graphics cards in SLI overheat with the stuff I listed, or is my system good to go?

The Antec 900 case should do a fine job keeping your components cool. I would go with a different motherboard for a high end SLI setup, though. That motherboard puts the two PCI-E x16 slots right next to eachother so the top card's fan intake will be blocked by the bottom card.

One of these would be better (All have USB3.0, SATA III, and better spaced PCI-E slots):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=Property&Subcategory=280&Description=&Type=&N=100007627&IsNodeId=1&srchInDesc=&MinPrice=&MaxPrice=&OEMMark=0&PropertyCodeValue=705%3A49182&PropertyCodeValue=717%3A49184&PropertyCodeValue=4943%3A34967&PropertyCodeValue=4943%3A46138&PropertyCodeValue=4943%3A40640&PropertyCodeValue=4943%3A48038&PropertyCodeValue=4943%3A34966&PropertyCodeValue=4943%3A57235&PropertyCodeValue=7968%3A74809&PropertyCodeValue=7968%3A55465&PropertyCodeValue=7968%3A49719&PropertyCodeValue=7968%3A56407&PropertyCodeValue=7968%3A57760&PropertyCodeValue=2368%3A14898&PropertyCodeValue=2368%3A44488&PropertyCodeValue=2368%3A14899&PropertyCodeValue=2368%3A20724&PropertyCodeValue=2368%3A14897&PropertyCodeValue=2368%3A15839&PropertyCodeValue=8110%3A50511&PropertyCodeValue=8110%3A57730&PropertyCodeValue=8110%3A57761&PropertyCodeValue=757%3A7618

 

[carsoncb]

I found 2 motherboards that I think are good from the list you gave me

motherboard 1
motherboard 2

I believe the 2nd one is better, but then again I'm not 100% sure. Which one would have better spacing for the SLI 470s?

I guess I might as well list my mouse and keyboard:G11 keyboard and G500 mouse both are logitech
I also plan to use headphones instead of speakers, my headphones are Sennheiser HD 595's
I assume these are compatible, I don't know why they wouldn't be...

 

[wielander]

I found 2 motherboards that I think are good from the list you gave me

motherboard 1
motherboard 2

I believe the 2nd one is better, but then again I'm not 100% sure. Which one would have better spacing for the SLI 470s?

I guess I might as well list my mouse and keyboard:G11 keyboard and G500 mouse both are logitech
I also plan to use headphones instead of speakers, my headphones are Sennheiser HD 595's
I assume these are compatible, I don't know why they wouldn't be...

Both of those motherboards have an extra space between their primary PCI-E x16 slots so they're both equally good and better in that respect. One of the PCI-E x16 slots of the first motherboard only runs at 4x, thouth. That would bottleneck a GTX 470. You want to make sure that you get a motherboard with a 8x/8x PCI-E mode. The second one is fine all around.

Other comparable motherboards would be:

ASRock P55 EXTREME4
$153
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157206

ASUS P7P55D-E Pro
$180
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131621

These three all have very similar specifications. It's hard to distinguish the differences between their overclocking features and utilities.

There are some differences in port selection and included extras. Only the ASUS has an onboard firewire port, and only the MSI has dual LAN NICs. The ASRock motherboard includes a 3.5" bay front USB3.0 adapter with two ports. All three come an SLI bridge and 4 SATA cables.

The ASUS motherboard has a 3 year limited warranty; the warranties on the other two are only 1 year.

 

[Snipergod87]

hard drive$85
I already have two of these and plan to add a third. Does my system support this setup?

Avoid 7200.11 they have a very high failure rate get a 7200.12.

 

[carsoncb]

Comparing these two motherboards
mb1
mb2


mb1: 1 more SATA 3Gb/s
mb2: 1 more PCI Express x1, 2 more SATA 6Gb/s, slightly better onboard audio(shown from higher number I believe),1 more USB 2.0

I don't see from this comparison why the big difference in price, why would the mb 1 be more expensive than the mb2?

It seems like either one of these would be good choices, pretty much the same things so I'll buy the cheaper one when the time comes.

I also decided to change my hard drive to this

according to this website it is the best 1tb+ hard drive that can be bought for under $100
http://www.harddrivebenchmark.net/high_end_drives.html

 

[shineon2010]

+1 for the Hard drive, and that Asrock is a newer board so not much on that. Other choices....

Asus P755D pro-evo
Gigabyte GA P55A UD3
MSI P55-GD65

 

[carsoncb]

I found 2 different types of motherboards and both of the types have 2 choices. From each type, are one of these better, the same, or worse than the others, and why?

SATA 6Gb/s and USB 3.0 motherboards
motherboard 1
motherboard 2

NOT SATA 6Gb/s and USB 3.0 motherboards
motherboard 1
motherboard 2

This would help in the final decision of my last part, all help is appreciated!!!

 

[wielander]

I found 2 different types of motherboards and both of the types have 2 choices. From each type, are one of these better, the same, or worse than the others, and why?

SATA 6Gb/s and USB 3.0 motherboards
motherboard 1
motherboard 2

NOT SATA 6Gb/s and USB 3.0 motherboards
motherboard 1
motherboard 2

This would help in the final decision of my last part, all help is appreciated!!!

The only difference that stands out is the brand/warranty. The first ASUS motherboard has a 3 year warranty and the second has a 5 year warranty while both of the MSI boards come with a one year warranty.

The second MSI motherboard has a PCI-E x4 slot which would offer more bandwidth to expansion cards later than the PCI-E 1x and PCI slots on the other motherboards.

The ASUS motherboards have firewire and the MSI motherboards have dual ethernet NICs.

 

[carsoncb]

Thanks again wielander, I learned a lot from putting this system together and can't wait to get it. I hope to buy the whole system around black friday taking advantage of all the savings I can.
Here is the final product:

I will buy whichever is cheaper on the day I buy it, unless I see another big sale for the antec 900 two
antec 900 two case $130
antec 600 case $85

I will buy one for now, and when I need a 2nd one, I will buy another
gtx 470 gpu $295

i-5 760 cpu $170

I will buy whichever is cheaper on the day I buy the final products

motherboard 1 $180
motherboard 2 $140

4gb of 1600 gskill eco series ram $96

I will buy which is cheaper on the day I buy the final products
corsair 850w psu silver certified $140
XFX 850w psu silver certified $150

I currently have 2 1.5tb harddrives and will get a
samsung spinpoint f3 1tb hard drive $75

cd/dvd drive $22

Total cost is approximately $1025

 

[carsoncb]

Best answer selected by carsoncb.