Need help building a gaming rig for under $1000

Hey guys,
I used to be a bit of a techie a few years back, but I've since lost track of what's the latest and greatest in PCs (in fact, I barely remember any of the old lingo). I'm looking to build a new gaming rig. I'd like something I could possibly upgrade down the road, so it doesn't have to be an i7, liquid-nitrogen-cooled, 6 monitor, self-aware gaming machine right off the bat. I have an older machine I'll probably cannibalize the PSU off of (it's a 750w) and I'm all set for the HDD and case (large mid tower).

I'm thinking about going with two SLI'd EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti graphics cards, an AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Blk Ed processor, and probably 8 GB of Ram (not sure which make or model yet). I figure the cards and the processor will run me around $700-750, so that just leaves the memory and a motherboard that can hold the AMD chip. I'd really appreciate any input you guys might have. I'd hate to put together a Frankenstein and have it melt/die/not work.

I'd like to be able to play Crysis 2 and say "Oooh that's pretty!" as stuff blows up. So I guess that's medium-high settings. I remember when Crysis came out a few years back (I was working at CompUSA at the time) and no one had a rig that could run it. In fact, meeting someone who DID have a rig that could run it was kind of like meeting a celebrity. Afterwords you'd go to your friends and be like "Dude! that guy can run Crysis!". I realize that tech has come a long way since then and the cost of gaming rigs has come down considerably, so I'm hoping my price range is sufficient. I'll probably be buying the parts over the next 3-4 months so if you know of a better part coming out please let me know, time is not an issue for me.

Thanks in advance!

-Ben

The AMD 6 core is not a good gaming processor , and AMD is about to replace them with a new range of processors in a few weeks .

Right now the smart money buys you an Intel 2500k , a p67 motherboard [ not all models support sli so choose carefully ] , and 4 or 8 gig of RAM
Add a midrange cooler since the cpu is cool running anyway
A 750 watt psu for your sli set up

and a 500 gig or 1 terabyte Samsung F3 hard drive and/or a SSD hard drive to boot from

A lot of people like the Hyper 212 .

http://www.coolermaster.com/produc [...] ct_id=6603
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] -_-Product

Its a decent cooler , and reasonably quiet .
The new 32 nm cpu's run very cool compared to the last generation cpu's so there's no reason to use the very large coolers like the scythe Mugen . Those 2500k's overclock massively even with the stock intel cooler .

AMD's new line of processors are coming in a few weeks and should have all the same advantages . Since you have time then wait and see which is better . It might be the AMD

Building a new machine is like buying a new car. You have to do your homework on parts – read read read…

I can suggest:

2600k
16gb RAM 1600mhz
1tb drive
850 watt psu
P67 mobo
6850 2gb ddr5 video card

The biggest dollars will be spent on Video card and CPU… But that’s the heart of gaming… So do your homework.. And watch for sales online.

You have done the research so Im sure you can show us some benchmarks where the 2600k is worth the extra spend over the 2500k

and also where 16 gig of RAM improved gaming performance

I will check back later . Looking forward to your links

I saw this on NewEgg.com as one of their daily deals. What do you guys think for this machine?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] _-Homepage

At $95 I figure it's not a bad deal.

Okay, so I took what Snakej said and ran with it. I have a mid tower that the new one should fit into, a hard drive to use, and I don't need the DVD burner, so I thought I'd give you guys my build. Let me know what you think...

2x EVGA 01G-P3-1380-KR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) SSC+ 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
= $379.98

1x CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-850HX 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
= $164.99

1x ASRock P67 EXTREME4 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
= $159.99

1x XIGMATEK Gaia SD1283 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler bracket included I7 i5 775 1155 AMD and dual fan push pull compatible
= $29.99

1x Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
+
1x G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM
= $296.98

Total: $1,031.93

I run three monitors, so I need either one card that can support it or two that I can SLI. If anyone has any recommendations on how I can strip the price down a bit without sacrificing performance, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks again in advance!

-Ben

What would you recommend in an Nvidia card? I've never really been an ATI guy.

I've had driver issues with ATI cards before and I'd like to avoid them in the future. I don’t mind paying a little bit more for the stability. Plus I'm thinking about doing 3D down the road and the Nvidia setup is pretty nice. I got to try out their 3D glasses and whatnot at PAX East and I liked it. So if I can, I'd like to stick with Nvidia.

The Nvidia setup only requires a monitor that can refresh at 120Hz, that's all. I know for a fact that a lot of people with ATI cards had an issue playing Brink. Below is one website's fix for the general problem ATI users were having with Brink.

http://segmentnext.com/2011/05/10/ [...] d-fps-fix/

If I did go with the ATI card, should I go to an AMD processor as well? I know AMD has some equivalent to Intel's SandyBridge (I think it's called their APU or something), but I'm not sure which processors have it.

I like nvidia because of the physx engine that amd doesn't have. Tell me why that shouldn't be a big deal and i'll consider giving amd a shot. I'd rather pay the extra few bucks for physx realism in my games wouldn't you?

@aznshinobi

So what would you recommend for parts for a build around $1000? I appreciate any and all input.

Antec EarthWatts EA750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V version 2.3 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC "compatible with Core i7/Core i5" Power Supply
= $89.99

ASRock P67 EXTREME4 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
= $159.99

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel ...
= $27.30

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
+
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM
= $276.98

XFX HD-687A-ZNFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
= $187.99

TOTAL: $742.25

I figure for now I'll use the 6870 to run two of my monitors and an older Diamond card to run my third. I'll just play my games full screen on my 23" main monitor. Then, down the road when I can afford it, I'll grab another card and CrossFire them. Is the motherboard I chose CrossFire compatible? I'd like to make sure so I can run both of the cards down the road. Also, does anyone with a similar system know what average framerate they can run Crysis 2 at? (I'm not a Crysis fanboy, I just try and use it as a reference point lol)

Yes the mobo is CF compatible. I honestly just suggest getting 2x6870's now. I mean you were willing you pay 380 for 2x460, 2x6870 would only be 380 as well.

If you don't get 2 6870's now for better performance you should be getting a single 6950 2GB.