~$1500 Gaming PC

[Alxrymnd914]

So I'm finally putting together my own pc. This will be my main pc that I use daily for school(so it must be very stable) and web browsing. However, It will be built for gaming.

Approximate Purchase Date: This week(Preferably by Wednesday night).
Budget Range: 1400-1600
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Surfing the Web, Media Management(Syncing With iPhone), Documents
Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS(school discount: free)
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com, amazon.com
Country of Origin: U.S.
Parts Preferences: Sandy Bridge

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: Yes

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080


Parts so far:

Fractal Design Define R3 Black ATX Mid Tower Silent PC Computer Case

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

2 x MSI R6950-2PM2D2GD5 Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-750HX 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active ...

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K

OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL

ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM

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

ARCTIC COOLING Arctic Cooling MX-4 AC-MX4 4 gram (g) All-Around Thermal Compound


That's everything. A bit pricey but I want this computer to go a long way and be ready for the games that aren't out yet. Please give me any advice you have about my picks or any incompatibilities. I have been going crazy coming up with builds and have finally settled for this. The price has gone up a lot because i originally wasn't going to get an ssd but decided to after watching videos of their performance.

Thanks!

 

[attackllama]

Looks great. If you plan on heavy overclocking for CPU/GPUs (or unlocking to 6970) bump that power supply up to 850w so you will have some headroom.
Also look for a z68 chipset motherboard as you will be able to take advantage of SSD caching

 

[Alxrymnd914]

Looks great. If you plan on heavy overclocking for CPU/GPUs (or unlocking to 6970) bump that power supply up to 850w so you will have some headroom.
Also look for a z68 chipset motherboard as you will be able to take advantage of SSD caching

Thanks! I don't think I'll look at the z68. The reason is because I am going with a 120gb SSD. So i can install enough games on it directly instead of caching. If i were going with a smaller SSD i would probably look at z68 i think.

Im think I'm going to change to a Corsair HX850 to be safe.


Also, I've noticed that some of you are good at finding combo's and deals. If you can find any to save me some money on this build that would be great.

 

[mgf derp]

The 750w will be enough even with overclock. As 6950's are 200w tdp 2500k is 95w P67 is 7w and the rest is usually ~100w less for you because your using an SSD. So thats ~ 600w which leaves 150w for overclocking headroom, more then enough imho.

 

[attackllama]

If you live near a microcenter, you can pick up a 2500k for $179.99
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0354589

Looking now, I didnt see any combos for those items on newegg. It also looks like the hyper 212+ has gone out of stock

 

[Alxrymnd914]

The 750w will be enough even with overclock. As 6950's are 200w tdp 2500k is 95w P67 is 7w and the rest is usually ~100w less for you because your using an SSD. So thats ~ 600w which leaves 150w for overclocking headroom, more then enough imho.

Oops, forgot that I will be also adding a f3 spinpoint that I have. Is that still okay?

 

[mgf derp]

Should be fine. I just checked what watts would be with a 2500k at 5Ghz and 1.5v and its only 192w which is about 100w above stock and still within the 750w range. Considering the 212+ can really only get a 2500k to 4.5Ghz and probably with less voltage you should be fine.

 

[Alxrymnd914]

About to pull the trigger on this build. Any last words?

 

[CasualNinja]

COWABUNGAAAAA!!!!!

 

[JackNaylorPE]

1. I wouldn't be happy w/ Asrock's substandard warranty (2 years on B3 boards / 1 year on Z68).

2. At 1920 x 1200, twin 6950's (751 fps), and even 2 6970's(825 fps) get substantially beat by 2 560 Ti's- 900Mhz (862 fps) ... and are $70 cheaper. At 2560 x 1600 though, I'd get the 69xx series.

Guru3D uses the following games in their test suite, COD-MW, Bad Company 2, Dirt 2, Far Cry 2, Metro 2033, Dawn of Discovery, Crysis Warhead. Total fps (summing fps in each game @ 1920 x 1200) for the various options in parenthesis (single card / SL or CF) are tabulated below along with their cost in dollars per frame single card - CF or SLI:

$254.00 6950 (479/751) $0.53 - $0.68
$285.00 6950 Frozr OC (484/759) $0.59 - $0.75
$210.00 560 Ti (455/792) $0.46 - $0.53
$355.00 6970 (526/825) $0.67 - $0.86
$220.00 560 Ti - 900 Mhz (495/862) $0.44 - $0.51

EVGA 900 MHz 560 To w/ 10 year warranty
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130651

3. If stuck on Corsair, I'd get the AX series over the soon to be retire HX series. However, the XFX Black Edition is much cheaper and gets the same 10.0 performance rating from jonnyguru that the HX and AX series does.

4. This Corsair RAM is $10 cheaper and same specs:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145324

5. Scythe Mugen 2 runs 7C cooler than Hyper 212

6. MX-4 is good stuff, but Shin Etsu is the top performer
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=150&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=12
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835150080

 

[Alxrymnd914]

Best answer selected by Alxrymnd914.