Opinions needed on gaming PC components

[jloc707]

So i have finally taken the time to save up for a decent gaming rig, and pretty much the only thing in my way is choosing my components. I intend to be playing games in 1080p on a 50' Samsung flat screen, and i would like to be able to run some of the hardware hogs like Metro 2033, and the Crysis series, with little compromise on graphics quality and frame rates.

I am looking for opinions, suggestions, expected performance, unforeseen problems and any advice i might not have come by that would be helpful.

Note: I am too excited to wait so in the near future i intend to get a second identical GPU for an SLI setup, as well as a SATA-III Solid State HHD (by then the price will probably be down and the size will probably be up)


Potential Setup
-GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128514
-G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory Model F3-8500CL7D-8GBRL
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=20-231-308&SortField=2&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=%28keywords%29&Page=1#scrollFullInfo
-AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition Thuban 3.3GHz, 3.7GHz Turbo 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDE00ZFBGRBOX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103913
-PNY VCGGTX560TXPB-OC2-S GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133380
-PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk II PPCMK2S650 650W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703026
-TEAC Black 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM IDE/ATAPI DVD-ROM Drive Model DV516E/B/S
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827139040
-Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAKX 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136770
-XIGMATEK LOKI SD963 92mm HYPRO Bearing CPU Cooler bracket included I7 i5 775 1155 AMD and dual fan push pull compatible
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233081
-The operating will be an extra windows 7 Home Premium i have laying around.

Thank you for your opinions.

 

[beenthere]

Looks good to me! Read Tom's SSD review for reliability and compatibility issues.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-solid-state-nand-reliability,2998.html

 

[slcmike]

Superior over the PNY card:
- MSI N560GTX-TI Twin Frozr II/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127565

Try this HDD:
- SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

 

[inzone]

If you plan on picking up another video card for sli then you might want to think about getting a bigger PSU , at the very least a 750w. What is your budget and do you have a case in mind .

 

[popatim]

You dont need the 1100T for a gaming rig, switch to a higher clocked X4 or wait a months and see what bulldozer brings to the cpu table.

For nearly $10 less you can change tha teac read only dvd drive to a dvd burner.
I have LG, lite-on, Samsung, and Asus - all working well and around $20 apeice.

If you're thinking of the samsung hard drive, you need to research if you need the patch with that chipset your motherboard uses. But otherwise its a good drive. I've two in my FX890 system (did not need patch) and two in my windows home server (880 chipset and needed the patch)

Now that I think about it, if you're willing to spend $190 on an 1100T then $220 for an I5-2500k shouldn't be to far out of the budget at $220 and it surely outperforms even the 1100T. The motherboard can get a bit expensive but there are some in your price range.

 

[jloc707]

You dont need the 1100T for a gaming rig, switch to a higher clocked X4 or wait a months and see what bulldozer brings to the cpu table.

So you don't see six cores being superior for gaming in the foreseeable future?

 

[Jay_83]

So you don't see six cores being superior for gaming in the foreseeable future?

AMD hex-cores NEVER score more than AMD quads in gaming benchmarks- they basically score the same, if run at the same clocks. In fact, there are a few (very few, fortunately) games that perform WORSE on these hex-cores than on the quads. So yeah, a higher-clocked quad would do a better job. But if you're dead set on running more than four cores, wait for the Zambezi CPUs. Like popatim says, they're just around the corner.