Call of Duty PC

[shihaab]

Approximate Purchase Date: It'll take me the entire year to build (Saving Up Money)

Budget Range: $800-$850

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming (Mostly Call of Duty Games), Once in a while Video Editing, Dreamweaver CS5

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

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg.ca, NCIX, CanadaComputers, TigerDirect.ca

Country of Origin: Canada,Toronto.

Parts Preferences: Intel Sandy Bridge or AMD Phenom II Quad Core. ATI HD Series.

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe in the future
Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: This PC should be able to handle Max Settings on games and should be able to handle more than 3-4 programs. PC should be quiet and shouldn't really be hot (Heat up)

For Case and PSU I've seen the following:
Please tell me which is the best from the following Cases:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133092

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119196

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119216

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066

Please tell me from these cases which has features of Air Flow, Space for Big Video Cards.

For PSU tell me from these 2 which is the best to handle Crossfire:

http://www.corsair.com/power-supplies/non-modular-psus/gaming-series-1/gs800w.html

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256034

BTW which can handle the stuff i need better, i5 2500k or AMD Phenom II X4 975 Black Edition

Thanks

 

[Guest]

Things change pretty darn fast in the computers' and IT sphere(s).
If you take a whole year to build your PC, the config. you originally decided on will almost certainly not remain the best bang-for-your-buck by the year's end.

For instance in H2 this year, AMD will release Bulldozer and Llano. Bulldozer's a completely new architecture and it is speculated that it will be able to compete with Intel's i7.

I suggest you come back when you've saved up enough - then we'd be in a better position to make suggestions.

BTW, I've heard some complaints about TigerDirect. "They don't care about you once you've paid.", was the view of one irate customer, if I remember correctly. I wouldn't buy from them if I could help it. Newegg, on the other hand has a solid reputation, so it has my vote.
Maybe Micro Center Online as well, if they ship to Canada.

The HAF 922 is one fine case. On a budget, the Antec Three Hundred Illusion is supposedly the best value, while the Antec Nine Hundred competes with the HAF 922. The shipping on the Thermaltake Element V is crazy ($47), so I'd avoid that. I would not suggest the CM Scout unless you desire portability - go to LAN parties and the like. They're all good cases and satisfy your criteria, but the HAF 922 and Antec 900 lead the pack IMO. Pick whichever one you like - you can't really go wrong.

From the looks of it though, it'd probably be an i5-2400 build. Here's a draft of what your build might look like:

> Processor: i5-2400 -- $190

> Motherboard: MSI P67A-GD53 / Asus P8P67-M Pro -- $150

> RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws 4GB x 1 @ 1333MHz -- $41

> HDD:Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 / Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB -- $65

> ODD: Asus DVD-RW -- $21

> GPU: XFX 6850 1GB -- $190
Have a look at this and this. You'll want to overclock it a bit, I think... possibly snag another card down the line. Alternatively, you could forgo the Crossfire and grab a 6950, unlock it to a 6970 and OC it a bit to match the real specs of the 6970. But that's only if you think you might want to play games other than COD (Metro 2033 and Crysis). If you look here, I think you'll find that a single 6850 has you covered. I tend to favour XFX as it has a (double) lifetime warranty on its cards. MSI and Sapphire are also pretty good.

> PSU: Antec Earthwatts EA650W -- $90
Here's a review.
Use this to calculate your PSU requirement.
A 650W PSU should be sufficient for a 6850 Crossfire. I'd have suggested the Corsair TX650W V2, but the price has gone up.

> Chassis: Your call -- ~$100

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL: ~$847 + shipping
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hope you meant USD when you specified your budget...

Hmm...looks like Newegg has increased its prices across the board.
Ah well... I suppose one can't have everything.
TTFN.

 

[shihaab]

Sorry i sort of exaggerated on how long it'll take me but in the next couple of months i should start to have most of the parts

Isn't the 975 BE better than i5 2400?

 

[aznshinobi]

Not even a little bit.
i3 2100 vs 970
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/186?vs=289

BTW The i3 2100 is a dual core.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu-core-i3-2100-phenom-ii-x6-1075t,2859-10.html

 

[Why_Me]

Other than the cpu which is free shipping, every thing in this build is located in Toronto or a short drive from there.

This build is set up so you can add another one of those factory over clocked gtx 560's later on for SLI.

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=6_112&item_id=033559 $54.99
Cooler Master HAF 912 Mid Tower ATX Case (RC-912-KKN1)

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=26415&vpn=CMPSU-750TX&manufacture=Corsair&promoid=1302 $89.99 CAD Savings Code 26415-1302. SAVE $25.00 off our regular price of $114.99 if you buy today! Special price ends 03/30/2011
Corsair TX750W 750W ATX 12V 60A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 140MM Fan

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=59093&vpn=P67A-GD53%20%28B3%29&manufacture=MSI%2FMicroStar $150.14 CAD After Mail In Rebate: $130.14 CAD
MSI P67A-GD53 (B3) P67 ATX LGA1155 DDR3 2PCI-E16 3PCI-E 2PCI SLI CrossFireX SATA3 USB3 Motherboard

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072 $219.99 FREE SHIPPING
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=58303&vpn=N560GTX-TI%20Twin%20Frozr%20II%2FOC&manufacture=MSI%2FMicroStar&promoid=1302 $249.99 CAD
MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozr OC 880MHZ 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI Mini-HDMI DX11 PCI-E Video Card

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=24_311_312_611&item_id=026153 $39.88
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series DDR3 1333MHz (PC3-10666) 4GB (2x2GB) Dual Channel Kit (F3-10666CL9D-4GBRL)

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=15_210_212&item_id=030967 $64.99
Western Digital Caviar Black (WD6402AAEX) 640GB SATA3 7200RPM 64MB Cache (OEM)

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=3_61&item_id=029356 $24.99
ASUS DRW-24B1ST Black SATA 24X DVD-Writer 24xDVD+R/-R 24xDVD+/-R DL 8xDVD+RW/6xDVD-RW 48xCD-R OEM

Total: $894.96 CAD *not including mail in rebates

 

[aznshinobi]

Why_Me, the GD55 may actually be a valid suggestion now. While looking for Asrock Extreme4 replacements I saw that only that was within the price range. IT's actually a sweet board. I say this because the Extreme4 is rarely in stock anymore.

 

[Why_Me]

Why_Me, the GD55 may actually be a valid suggestion now. While looking for Asrock Extreme4 replacements I saw that only that was within the price range. IT's actually a sweet board. I say this because the Extreme4 is rarely in stock anymore.

They had that asrock board on that canada computers site but it was going for $175 CAD and it was out of the price range. I'm thinking that board and a few other popular ones...asus pro,..gigabyte ud4 will be out in full force within the next few weeks or so. They might still be playing catch up atm.

 

[aznshinobi]

Yeah most likely. Still, I'm suprised how many people treat MSI as an underdog.

 

[sanseven]

i like this game

 

[sanseven]

i like it

 

[shihaab]

The PSU's you guys are showing me, will they support SLI or Crossfire?

Here's what i've been looking at:

i5 2500K
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072&Tpk=i5%202500k

COOLER MASTER RC-692-KKN2 CM690 II Advanced Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119216

Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104173

Sapphire HD6870

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102909&cm_re=6870-_-14-102-909-_-Product

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533

LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289

Gaming Series™ GS800 — 80 PLUS® Certified Power Supply

http://www.corsair.com/power-supplies/non-modular-psus/gaming-series-1/gs800w.html

I'm just missing a Motherboard, Asus i prefer or MSI

 

[need4speeds]

The first call of duty will not run on the modern cards, dont know why its some glitch. I only have the first one, then black ops.
It ran fine on my old athlonxp/9600xt.

You don't need much to run cod black ops. I am running it just fine at 1080p on my living room pc that is a old 939-x2-4400+@2.4ghz/4870 underclocked to 670/930. I am getting around 35fps to 50fps.

I am running winxp-pro so that might help too.

A athlonIIx4 upgrade kit for $199.99 that comes with 2gigs of mem and a mb,
cheap case that comes with a 550watt generic for $59.99.
a couple of case fans $25,,, hd-5870 $230 or hd-6950. non-unlockable 1gb.$245.
seagate 1tb $50 or 500 gig $35,,, dvd burner $25,,,,
These are aprox prices.

 

[shihaab]

Im only going to play call of duty games that include COD4 and after
so i want the computer to handle future call of duty games too

 

[need4speeds]

The phenomII x4 is about 3 times faster than my old 939 x2, and the 5870 has 1600 shaders so its about double the 4870. that should last for a few more generations of call of duty past the current black ops.

If you dont have alot of cash you are better off buying more video card than cpu, because in the vast majority of games the card is more important than the cpu.
Most games use the gpu more than the cpu. There are some games however that favor intel cpu's like dirt2 and GTAIV.

anything higher than the under $120 phenomIIx4's than its better to jump to the i5-2500k and forget the amd.

 

[need4speeds]

Black ops is known to run poorly on windows7, if you read in the games blogs, people are saying they have glitches in windows7. You will want a winxp pro partition since not all games run well in windows7.

If you want faster fps, dropping to winxp-pro dx-9.0c still gives you decent quality but faster framerates than with windows7.

 

[aznshinobi]

^ Like it matters though? A 6870 handles Black Ops just fine. Win7 as well.
For instance this review: As you can see they used Win7 and a 6870 from the link below.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6870/6.html
From this link we see that Win7 & the 6870 handle even the old COD4 w/ DX9 just fine.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6870/10.html

Yes that is correct though, 6870 would probably last you a few generations of CODs down. It isn't really that graphically intensive because IW and TA both build from the consoles up. So the games are ported instead of built for the PC like Dice does with BC2.

You don't know how much that GS800 is, but this is a better buy with a high efficiency. Basically anything above 700w and a good efficiency should be able to run 6870's in CF.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207003&Tpk=xfx%20750

Drop the WD Black and get a Samsung F3, cheaper and practically the same speed. Its a mechanical HDD so you won't even notice a difference.

Wait for this Asrock Extreme4 to be instock.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157229
Reviews:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1098/pg2/asrock-extreme4-p67-and-fatal1ty-professional-p67-vs-x58-with-core-i7-950-review-asrock-p67-extreme4.html
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4080/welcome-to-sandy-bridge-with-the-asrock-p67-extreme4/7

 

[shihaab]

How is the silverstone PSU?
Modular PSU's are a bit expensive aren't they?
All of the stuff comes down to about $800-850?
Im mostly familiar with Asus and MSI
Any good boards from them?

 

[aznshinobi]

Yes but they are rather expensive. What is wrong with the Asrock. It is a subsidiary from Asus.

As for modular PSUs you could go for this PSU.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171037&Tpk=silent%20pro%20700

 

[shihaab]

I'm not really familiar with Asrock
700w is enough to handle Crossfire or SLI in the future?

 

[Guest]

Yes, for most cards I think. But I think a 750 watter would be better. Most brands I know don't offer 750W PSU's, they offer 750W ones.
You can use this to calculate your PSU requirement.

 

[aznshinobi]

Ok so does that just mean you aren't familar with them, or you'd rather stick with Asus/MSI. Because if that is the case, the benchmarks in the reviews I put show that it beats out an Asus board that is 30$ more than the Extreme4 P67 (Asus P8P67 Pro)

 

[shihaab]

Yes i means im not fmailiar with them, but if some benchmarks showed proof i would be convinced and have thought to buying it.
Can you guy's reccommend a good motherboard from Asus/MSI/Asrock that supports SLI/Crossfire and is not expensive?
sort of $150 and lower?

 

[aznshinobi]

There is the G45 but that's about it.

As for benchmarks, I posted them with my links....
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1098/pg2/asrock-extreme4-p67-and-fatal1ty-professional-p67-vs-x58-with-core-i7-950-review-asrock-p67-extreme4.html

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4080/welcome-to-sandy-bridge-with-the-asrock-p67-extreme4/7

Why would you not even look at them...

 

[shihaab]

Ok i've taken a look at it, the Asrock mobo looks great but i've even come across this MSI Motherboard and Biostar Motherboard (and again im not familiar with this either) and Asus

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=13-138-298&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=2#scrollFullInfo

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130582

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130574

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131707

they all support SLI/Crossfire don't they?
Take a look at them, i'm confused..

 

[aznshinobi]

Yes they all support SLI/CF.

Asus = bad, mATX is a fail for current day just because of card size.

Biostar, not a big fan

MSI, G45 looks good, Not a fan of the GD65, more expensive than the Asrock Extreme4 for about the same perf.