Need help to build a new mid gaming rig

fjnv

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Apr 19, 2011
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Hey guys I'm trying to build my first mid gaming rig and I'm really confuse on the parts that I should buy because there are so much to choose from. My budget is from $600 to $800 at least. I'm hoping to run the following games on max settings with this rig: Black ops, World of Warcraft, Crysis 2 and Star Craft 2. I'm planning to buy the parts from new egg I heard they have good deals but is it safe and reliable? I'm also planning to crossfire and overclock the rig in the future.

I hope to hear your recommendations soon, thanks in advance!
 
Solution
Both are good builds but Straws has a motherboard the restricts crossfire to 4x and the Phenom 965 would be a big bootleneck for 2 x 6950s. Wise crackers build has the same problem with the CPU not being enough for 2 x 6950s but supports bulldozer CPUs when they are released so you could upgrade the CPU at the same time as adding a second GPU. Other things to consider are a 2500K CPU & a P67 board but for one that supports crossfire at 8X will cost around $375 just for CPU and board but its the only way to not need a CPU upgrade to run croosfire without a bottleneck unless you lower the GPU to 6850s or lower and even then you will need an overclock.

Straw1239

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Mar 29, 2011
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All that for only 800$ ?
Thats going to be a little hard, but I cannot recommend newegg enough. they are great.
But probably possible with some tweaking. I would get a not too expensive quad core,
and then spend the rest of the money on graphics.I would get radeon, as they crossfire scale better.
for example:
CPU: Phenom II 965 BE can overclock with unlocked multiplier , and will handle all your games fine.
Graphics:Sapphire(I would recommend them) Radeon HD 6950, and you could add a second one in the future for 90+% scaling.
Mobo: ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G has usb 3, and SATA 3, and is not too expensive. It works great for me.
RAM: G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) good ram, will be enough for any game, and cheap for 8gb.
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s enough for all your games, fast.
total for those parts:720$, and many areas could be reduced, for example, the graphics card and RAM and HDD.
As for your case, i would reccomend the centurion 5 II.
and, for your PSU COOLER MASTER GX Series RS750-ACAAE3-US 750W ATX12V is 110$ and should hadle even 2 of the 6950s on crossfire.

 
MSI 890FXA-GD65 AM3 AMD 890FX: $145
(read this)

Go with either a AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition for $140 or the AMD Athlon II X3 450 Rana 3.2GHz if you wish to save $60-$80 toward your video card.

The Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB is $25 less than the above HDD and much faster.

A dual-BIOS Radeon HD 6950 2GB is going to cost $275 up front before a $20-$30 rebate -- it is probably worth the difference between the PhII 955 and X3 Rana if it comes down to that on your money.

The Corsair 750TX 750w is $110 before a $15 rebate.

You don't need 8GB of RAMs -- choose a 2x2GB kit off your mobo QVL -- should save you another $30-$40.

Probably hard to top the CM Elite 430 at $40 after rebate for a budget build (except you may need to purchase a case fan or 2). The CM HAF 912 is another $10

That's around $770 with the X3 Rana (before $55 in rebates) before your optical drive (and OS).

 
Both are good builds but Straws has a motherboard the restricts crossfire to 4x and the Phenom 965 would be a big bootleneck for 2 x 6950s. Wise crackers build has the same problem with the CPU not being enough for 2 x 6950s but supports bulldozer CPUs when they are released so you could upgrade the CPU at the same time as adding a second GPU. Other things to consider are a 2500K CPU & a P67 board but for one that supports crossfire at 8X will cost around $375 just for CPU and board but its the only way to not need a CPU upgrade to run croosfire without a bottleneck unless you lower the GPU to 6850s or lower and even then you will need an overclock.
 
Solution

fjnv

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Apr 19, 2011
14
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18,510
Thanks for the suggestions guys but i think I'll consider what simon12 suggested, I've compared the processors and I'm impress with the i5-2500K. So I guess I'll raise my budget and wait for a while until I get the money for it.