Please help with my new build!

[apav]

Hey guys! I'm building my first pc ever for gaming(Skyrim and BF3 mainly). I have some questions about the parts I'm getting. Here is my build so far:

Parts I have bought:

Case:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119194

PSU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139011

CPU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

Memory:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233180

Optical Drive:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136238



Parts I have NOT bought yet:

Motherboard: Not sure yet, looking at this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131729

GPU- I know for sure I want to 6950's CF. Not sure which brand though, looking at the Sapphire one with the 3 fans, and the MSI Twin Frozr. I want 2gb to be future proof.

Hard drive: I am getting either a Samsung Spinpoint or Seagate Barracuda 1TB drive, whichever one goes on sale first. I will be buying an SSD at a later time to store my OS on.



What do you guys think in my choices so far? I have some questions about the parts I haven't bought yet though:

1.) Which 6950's do you recommend I get for crossfire? Again, looking at Sapphire and MSI, but really am not sure. I hear this stuff about unlocking the card to 6970 shaders, but I doubt any of these cards are reference cards. I'm also wondering if my case is long enough to fit some of the longer 6950's. I like the ones I listed because of the superior cooling they offer.

2.) I hear the motherboard I linked (from some the reviews) has some posting issues. I really don't know what kind of motherboard I need. I liked that one because its Asus, it has 3 PCI-E slots(2 in dual x8/x8) and has newer BIOS. Will the gap between the PCI-E slots fit 2 6950's into? I might also get a low entry sound card as well(~$20).

3.) 850W is more than enough to supply a healthy amount of wattage to my system right?

4.) The optical drive I bought is OEM. It is SATA, so would I need to buy some sort of separate cable? There's the SATA cable and the SATA power cable, do I need to get both or do they both come with the PSU or...?

5.) If I plan to overclock or unlock my gpus would that need an aftermarket CPU cooler as well(like the Hyper 212+) or can I just stay with the stock fan? Or do I only need that if I am overclocking my cpu?



Thanks for the help guys, I appreciate it so much!

 

[rvilkman]

1)
The sapphire toxic 6950 would be the way to go, at least if you feel lucky with the unlocking.
It actually comes with the bios switch and at least for reviewers it came with pre-flashed 6970 bios.
Check www.hardocp.com for the review.

MSI TwinFrozrIII 6950 is great, but somewhat pricy, so when getting two it's not the cheapest alternative.
I am very happy with the cooler myself though, nice and quiet.

Also unless you plan on doing an eyefinity setup, you will probably do fine with 1GB cards instead of 2GB.
GIGABYTE GV-R695OC-1GD Radeon HD 6950 1GB would be a pretty good one for that $239


2) Mine posted right up. Only 'issues' I have had with it are that it doesn't have any ps2 connectors so need both USB keyboard and mouse.
And that the front panel connector that makes it easier to connect all the cables isn't very tight fitting to the mobo, so i ran into some issues.

You could also check out Asrock Z68 Extreme 3 Gen3 and Asrock Z68 Extreme 4 Gen3.

3) correct, 750W would be fine, but i can't fault you on the choice. I have 2 of those Corsair HX850's - no problems whatsoever.

4) The motherboard usually comes with at least 4 Sata cables, so if you intend to buy a lot of hard drives, you can grab a few extra SataIII cables.
But for most setups you don't need one. Sata power cables come with the PSU.

5) Just for the sound profile I recommend getting the Hyper 212+ instead of the one it comes with. But also it's so easy to OC to 4GHz these days that it's quite worth it to spend that $27 on a cooler.

I would get the Samsung Spinpoint F3, have a few of those and generally they have impressed me more than the Seagates I've worked with.

 

[apav]

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