[Solved] $1500 Gaming PC

I thought I would repost this using the template supplied, sorry I didn't see it earlier.


Approximate Purchase Date: Within the next month, is now a good time to buy?)


Budget Range: $1500


System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming


Parts Not Required: Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor, DVD Drive


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: www.itsdirect.com.au, newegg(do they ship international or will I need a mail forwarding service?


Country of Origin: Australia


Parts Preferences: Must use a 60gb SSD and 1TB Hard drive


Overclocking: Maybe


SLI or Crossfire: Maybe


Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080 (using 2 screens)


Additional Comments: Using the itsdirect site, would like to keep the build around $1600 AUD

No you will want to shop locally.

Last time I looked MSY had the selection and prices, and you can pick up locally if you are near:

http://www.msy.com.au/

The full list:
Australia
MSY
Techbuy good selection?
PC Superstore
PC Case Gear
Mwave Australia
Umart
Scorpion Technology
IT Estate

Here is the actual parts list:
http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/PARTS.pdf

AsRock X58 Extreme
i7-950
6G Kit ddr3 1600 G.Skill-NQ
1G GTX460 Gigabyte (X2 if it fits in the budget... if not perhaps a 5850 instead.)
Cooler Master RC-690 case
Antec TP-750 PSU

There's a start for ya.

When I have used itsdirect their prices always seem to come up on top, I had compared with about 5 other Australian based sites and itsdirect came out on top in price each time, some things would be slightly more expensive, but a lot of parts came out a lot cheaper. I couldn't get a close enough price comparison with MSY because I couldn't find a lot of the things I had selected on itsdirect. Here is the list of what I had on itsdirect, came it at $1645:

Antec Dark Fleet DF-30 Case (No PSU) - $135.30
Antec Earthwatts 750w Power Supply Unit - $147.40
ASROCK X58 Extreme3 Intel X58 Chipset Socket 1366 Motherboard - $236.23
G.Skill 6GB (3 x 2048mb) DDR3 1600 (PC12800 - F3-12800CL7T-6GBPI) RAM Module Kit (Suits Core i7) - $182.60
G.Skill Phoenix Pro Series 2.5" 60GB Solid State Hard Disk Drive (FM-25S2S-60GBP2) - $163.35
Intel Core i7 i7-950 3.06ghz Quad Core Socket 1366 CPU (8mb Cache) - $352.00
Sapphire ATI Radeon 5850 1GB VaporX PCI Express Graphics Card - $339.46
Samsung 1TB Full Speed SATA Hard Disk Drive 32mb Cache 7200RPM (HD103SJ) - $88.39

I can wait for the new tech to come out, but I have a friend looking at upgrading his PC soon and he was interested in buying my current setup which makes things a lot easier on me, my current setup is:

Q6600
EVGA nForce 780i SLI mobo
MSI 8800GTS (never got around to upgrading)
4GB RAM (RMA'd 2 sets of OCZ SLI so now it's just some random kingston stuff)
Thermaltake Toughpower 750w
WD 320gb hd

I know I would see a huge improvement adding an SSD and a new gpu to my current setup but I would much rather a brand new system.

Think I've come to a decision if I plan on buying before the new tech comes out, had a look at umart and came up with this:

Antec Dark Fleet DF-30 Gaming Case - $125.00
Intel Core i7 950 Processor LGA1366 3.0GHz 8MB Cache CPU - $333.00
ASRock X58 Extreme3 Intel X58 ICH10R ATX MB, DDR3 2000 (OC), PCI-Ex1 - $235.00
Sapphire HD5850 Vapor X_OC 1G GDDR5 PCIE - $339.00
G Skill 6G(3x2G) DDR3 PC12800 8-8-8-24 (6GBRM) - $165.00
Antec ATX EarthWatts 750W - $135.00
G.Skill Phoenix Pro 60G SSDHD 2.5 inch SATA2 - $162.00
Samsung 1TB Spinpoint F3 SATA II 7200RPM 32M - $66.00

Now I'm just unsure if I should pay them to assemble it, get it done locally or have a crack at it myself. Thanks for the advice, but I think I'm a bit too impulsive to wait until early next year for this .

Ok then how about this as a revised list:

ASRock P55-Extreme4 Motherboard - $184.00
Intel Core i5 760 - $229.00
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD5870 Vapor-X 1GB - $499.00
G.Skill Phoenix PRO 60GB - $165.00
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB HD103SJ - $69.00
G.Skill ECO F3-12800CL7D-4GBECO (2x2GB) - $132.00
Antec EarthWatts 750W - $135.00
Antec Dark Fleet DF-30 Case - $125.00

Going with PC Case Gear since I can't find that mobo on umart, reason I picked it is because I want USB/SATA 3 and only skimmed over the range, are there any other boards at a similar price offering similar? Would I be better off buying 2 cheaper 460 cards and running them in SLI or running a single 5870?

EDIT: These are the 3 scenarios with the i5-760 I'm seeing now,
Keep the 5850, wait for 6xxx series to be released and pick up a second 5850 (saving $170 at the moment)
Get a 5870 without any plans on going Crossfire (saving no money)
Get 2 x 460's (costing around the same as a single 5870)

This is doing my head in...

Thanks for the link, that was really helpful. I was reading another article which compared 2 x Galaxy GTX 460 Overclocked cards to 2 x 5870 cards and the 460's came out on top, now I'm thinking for $60 more than the single 5870 I can get 2 of those 460's and have a pretty nice setup that is still within my budget.

the price diffrence between the 5850 and the 5870 in your country doesnt justify the performance gain,
I have the 5850 and I easily overclocked it to 850 mhz the same clock rate as the 5870, if you are looking at a difference, you can either get SLI GTX 460 which are awesome or one GTX 470 if its priced similarly to the 5850

You can't pickup from PCCG either? Are you not in Brisbane?

I think going with a single 5850 now would be the best option.

Finally decided on a final setup that I'm happy with.

ASRock P55 Extreme4 - $184.00
Intel Core i5 760 - $229.00
2 x Galaxy GeForce GTX 460 Superclocked 810/2000Mhz - $561.00
OCZ Vertex 2 60GB - $159.00
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB HD103SJ - $69.00
G.Skill ECO F3-12800CL7D-4GBECO (2x2GB) - $132.00
OCZ Fatal1ty Series 750W Modular PSU - $139.00
Antec Dark Fleet DF-30 Case - $125.00

That looks pretty good, you should be happy with it. Good luck!