Need advice on Mid-range gaming PC

devon64327

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Approximate Purchase Date: Within the next 3 months, so any soon to be released products are welcome

Budget Range: Somewhere around or under $1000

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming (eg: Minecraft, Portal/Half Life, Maybe some newer games like Call of Duty. Internet, movies, downloading large files, School work AND I plan on going to college for a degree in information technology and I want a capable workstation for programming and possible rudimentary 3d rendering. However this is not my greatest priority and price should be considered first

Parts Not Required: Mouse, Keyboard, Monitor(?) speakers,

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: NewEgg, Amazon

Country of Origin: U.S.A.

Parts Preferences: Intel i7 SandyBeach, Nvidia Graphics, SLI(?)

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: SLI Cost prohibitive

Monitor Resolution: I have a 1080P HDTV with HDMI, but I don't know if that's just a terrible idea

Additional Comments: Windows 7, Need advice on 64bit, I don't think I need to bother with SSD, Size and sound isnt an issue, and niether are looks.


I have a newegg Wishlist set up with some items I picked out and put a little bit of research into, but I'm not sure if their are some incompatibilities or poor choices in there.

CPUIntel i7 Sandy bridge
Motheroard Biostar TH67
Graphics Nvidia Geforce GTX460
Memory G.Skill Ripjaw8gigs DDR3
Harddrive WD 500GB Sata 6.0gb/s
PSU Rosewill 1000W continuous
case Umm this case

Thank you for your help
 
Solution
The 560 Ti is the coolest running card out of all cards available currently. The scaling is also one of the best which is why I recommend it. Buying a high powered psu now would save you the hassle.

My build guide would give you all the info you need.

residentdean

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scrap that biostar th67 its a real turd. Check out this board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157229. It has good memory controll and oc capabilities. Aslo I would go with a good psu, like a corsair or ultra. I have had a couple of rosewills go out on me and I find that corsair is the most stable for ocing and dual video cards
 

devon64327

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I read that the H67 doent support OCing but I wasnt sure if OCing was really that beneficial. Also whats the difference between the EXTREME4 and PRO3 models for ASROCK?
 
H67 Doesn't support OCing however, it does support quick sync. That'd be beneficial in video editing however you want to game so H67 is a bad choice.

The Extreme4 has 2 extra PCI Express 16x 2.0 vs the Pro3. But also it has better OCing ability and just better overall board for upgradability.
 

devon64327

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How good of an idea is it to SLI? It would double the cost of the card (obviously) but does it deliver enough extra bang for my buck? And If I dont want to upgrade to SLI now will buying a better PSU in the future end up being more convenient?
 
Graphics card:

The GTX 4xx cards run far too hot. Google that. You should get the GTX 5xx series. You should spend somewhere between $150 to $250 depending on your budget.

The graphics card in all modern systems is the bottleneck. If you spend $500 on your CPU and graphics you'll get about 2x the gaming performance with a $300 graphics card + $200 CPU then you will with a $300 CPU and $200 graphics card.

When on a budget, you should not spend more than $200 on a CPU and put any extra money towards the graphics. Even for RAM. The small difference in price between 4GB and 8GB when applied to buy a slightly better graphics card will mean better gaming performance.

There's an optimal balance on a budget for the core processing elements (RAM, CPU and Graphics); a balanced, budget sysem goes something like this:
- 4GB DDR3 1600MHz
- $250 Graphics card
- $150-$200 CPU
 
The 560 Ti is the coolest running card out of all cards available currently. The scaling is also one of the best which is why I recommend it. Buying a high powered psu now would save you the hassle.

My build guide would give you all the info you need.
 
Solution
about SLI:

There three main reasons to do SLI:
1) a single card isn't fast enough
2) a dual-gpu card runs too hot (split the cooling to two cards)
3) Price/performance ratio is better with two cards

However, SLI introduces it's own problems. Games with poor SLI performance would run better on a faster, single card. You also require a CPU and motherboard SLI bandwidth both capable of keeping up with the graphics cards. A better CPU can add at least $100 than what you need for a single GPU card. Add an additional $100 for a better PSU and it starts to get expensive for processing power that many games don't even need since they're maxed out.

Unless you have $800 or more to spend on graphics alone I wouldn't bother. Actually, for as little as $400 a 2xGTX 560Ti might be a great deal, but remember you'll need at least $200 more for a better CPU and PSU.

Summary:
A high-end single-GPU card is usually more than adequate for most people. The cost, heat/noise and compatibility issues are good reasons to avoid SLI. $250 can get a very good graphics card which can run most games at the highest settings with AA.
 

devon64327

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I'll take your advice on the GPU.
For the 560 TI there are these two with the highest rating and even though one is more expensive it has a 30$ rebate that makes it cost just as much and then with free shipping less then the cheaper one, but I don't know about the brand as far as customer support and quality.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127565&cm_re=GTX560-_-14-127-565-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130610&cm_re=GTX560-_-14-130-610-_-Product
 

devon64327

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I read about that Samsung Spinpoint HDD you like so much on your guide, but it is only 3.0GB/s and the other is 6.0GB/s. I read that most systems won't really achieve 6.0GB/s right now. What is the bottleneck for writing to the HDD? Also as I've made due with less then 100 GB of memory for the past 10 years combined, im not sure If i can use a whole TB, do you think software and games have been growing and taking up more space, and eventually I'll end up filling more than 500 GB?