Need advice on $1700 gaming rig.

[Durrtan]

Approximate Purchase Date: This week


Budget Range: 1,700 can go up to 1,800 if need be.


System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, music, internet


Parts Not Required: monitor, speakers, mouse, keyboard


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg, amazon, tigerdirect


Country of Origin: United States


Parts Preferences: by brand or type: Intel processors and NVIDIA graphics


Overclocking: I will be overclocking


SLI or Crossfire: I'm open to SLI or Crossfire if it is called for


Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080


Additional Comments: I'm new to building my own computers, and using a helpful British website I put together a preliminary build which I want you guys to let me know if it's good for what my use will be, if there is anything I should change, or if there is a better build for the price.

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 912 PLUS MID TOWER GAMING CASE

Processor
Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics

Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67 DELUXE (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ / SLI

RAM
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)

Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 590 - 2 DVI,mHDMI - DX® 11, 3D Vision Ready

Memory - Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE

DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
4x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ROM

Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W PRO SERIES (HX750) 80+ MODULAR PSU

Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO A.L.C

Sound Card
Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Xtreme Gamer

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

 

[mosox]

The GTX 590 has issues, get a GTX 570. Get a bigger case anyway.

 

[Durrtan]

Would the Coolermaster 922 case be large enough or should I go up to the 932? And would a single 570 be good enough for the games I will be playing (Starcraft 2, Shogun 2, Crysis 2, fallout NV). If not, would going SLI with two 570's be a good idea?

 

[mosox]

The 922 is large enough. A single 570 should be good for any game on max settings except for Crysis and mostly Metro 2033. If you plan more than one monitor get a HD 6970.

For SLI in the future get a 850W PSU - XFX, Corsair, Seasonic, Antec.

 

[Durrtan]

After deciding on SLI and making a few changes (for many reasons) this is what I've got, let me know if this is any good or even if it works.

Case
COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP Black Steel + Plastic and Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case ($99.98)

CPU
Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor ($314.99)

Graphics
ASUS ENGTX570 DCII/2DIS/1280MD5 GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card ($699.98, $349.99 each)

RAM
Kingston HyperX Grey Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 Desktop Memory ($99.99)

MOBO
ASUS SABERTOOTH P67 (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard ($219.99)

Cooling
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler ($34.99)

PSU
CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply ($139.99)

Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive ($94.99)

Disk Drive
HP 8X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA BD Combo Model BD240I-h01 LightScribe Support ($98.99)

OS
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM ($99.99)

Total $1,894.88
I'm lucky to be able to raise the price this much, I got more money than I thought I would off a old computer. So let me know if there is anything I should change, or remove.

 

[boiler1990]

Pass on the i7, unless you really need those few (~0.3) GHz out of your OC. The i7-2600K only brings hyperthreading to the the 1155 socket, and for games that's useless. It'll also drop your build down $100.

Also, I would drop that WD Black and go for the Samsung F3 1TB. It's just as fast (the F3 might actually be a little faster), since the WD Black doesn't have the speeds to take advantage of the 6Gbps bandwidth. It's very misleading, but it will save you $30.

 

[SteveGP]

What kind of speakers do you have? A lot of people find that the onboard sound on the mobo is more than enough, especially for gaming. My speakers aren't very fancy so I saved money by not buying a sound card.

If you're looking for speed, then you definitely need to get an SSD. You will be amazed at how much faster everything loads. I'm waiting for the OCZ Vertex 3 to be back in stock so I can get one.

 

[Durrtan]

This may be a dumb question, would a SSD replace a standard hard drive or would I have to get a SSD with my hard drive?

 

[SteveGP]

Load your OS and the main games & programs onto the SSD. Movies, music & pictures should be stored on a secondary HDD. A 128 GB SSD would be sufficient for most people and I use a Samsung 1 TB HDD for storage. The time frame from when you push the power button up until the Windows screen comes up will be 30 seconds or less. I have an older SSD on my laptop and I don't like to use my i5 2500K gaming computer b/c it doesn't have an SSD yet.

 

[boiler1990]

^+1
I have a WD SiliconEdge Blue SSD, which I believe is either late 1st gen or early 2nd gen, and it boots in maybe 45 seconds max. I'd recommend at LEAST 64GB; I have W7 64 and Office 2010, along with all my drivers and such and still have ~10GB free space. My older 500GB HDD provides storage for all of my games and programs.

 

[SteveGP]

I not an expert in regards to building a computer, but this is what I put together for my gaming rig:

i5 2500K
MSI P67A-GD65 mobo
8 GB Kingston memory
MSI Geforce GTX 570
Corsair H70 cooler
Antec 850W PSU
Samsung 1 TB HDD

I plan to get the OCZ Vertex 3 SSD once it's available and another Geforce 570 for SLI to play Battlefield 3 when it's released later this year. I figured this computer should last me about 3-4 years or so before I would need to upgrade again.

Good luck with your build.

 

[Durrtan]

Thanks for all of your help, I'm going to order my parts now.

 

[Durrtan]

Best answer selected by Durrtan.