Your thoughts on my 1st homebuilt pc

[Krao9850]

Hello, so ive been saving up 1500-2000 bucks for 2 months now planning on building a pc for BF3 and here is what ive thought , all parts will come from newegg canada.
Components:
-CPU Intel Core i7-960 Bloomfield 3.2GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80601960

-GPU 2xEvga 560 Ti FPB(fermi)1gb

-Mobo GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

-PSU COOLER MASTER Silent Pro RS850-AMBAJ3-US 850W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.92 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified

-RAM CORSAIR DOMINATOR 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMP12GX3M3A1600C9

-CASE Haf-932 advanved RC

-Hard Drive Wester digital caviar 1gb and planning on getting an ocz 120gb SSD.

-Heatsink COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler Intel Core i7 compatible

These are my thoughts altough im not really sure about appropriate cooling for this kind of rig , i would like any feedbback since i dont want to order all these components and ending up none of these fits together.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Krao9850]

sorry for mistakes , god knows i mean 1TB when i speak about harddrives and not 1gb

 

[FinneousPJ]

Don't go 1366, it's EOL and not really worth its price in performance vs. Sandy Bridge. As always, the best gaming CPU (for the money) ATM is the i5-2500K. Obviously with that you'll want to change the mobo and get a dual 4 GB kit of RAM.

 

[Krao9850]

oh really? , only thing why i was going for a 1366 is because ive heard good things about triple channel kits.

 

[FinneousPJ]

Yeah, really.

 

[IH8U]

Look at the 1155 boards, and the i5 (2500k), or i7 procs. Save a bit of cash, and get a better PSU.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207011
$120 XFX Core Edition PRO850W (P1-850S-NLB9) 850W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128502
$124 Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
$220 Intel i5 2500k

 

[JackNaylorPE]

$1,508 build

Case $ 140 Antec DF-85 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129087
PSU $ 140 Antec CP-850 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371024
Case Fan later Antec Red 120 mm http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209013
MoBo $ 440 ASUS WS Revolution http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.738317
CPU inc Intel Core i5-2500K
Cooler $ 50 Scythe Mugen 3 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185168
TIM $ 5 Shin Etsu 751 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835150080
RAM $ 58 (2 x 4GB) Corsair CAS 9 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233196
GFX $ 250 Asus GTX 560 Ti 900 Mhz http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121425
GFX later as above
HD $ 75 Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200 rpm http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185
SSD $ 190 Vertex 3 120 GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227706
DVD Writer $ 60 Samsung BR Combo Drive w/ LS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151222
OS $ 100 Win 7-64 Home Pre http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

Adding the 2nd GFX card and extra fan puts ya just over $1750.

That's a 10.0 jonnyguru rated PSU and case / PSU combo that's got an "unfair advantage" that ya can read about it here:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article971-page7.html

Alternate Case / PSU combo would be the HAF-X w/ Corsair AX850

 

[g-unit1111]

Seriously - skip the SLI and use that money for a better single-GPU and an SSD, the SLI isn't really worth it in the long run.

 

[Jackharrer]

Seriously - skip the SLI and use that money for a better single-GPU and an SSD, the SLI isn't really worth it in the long run.

Please explain your logic because at best I find it circular and inconclusive. I see no true reason to skip SLI/Crossfire. Why is it not really worth it in the long run? Because if he gets a single 580 now he'll be able to get an additoinal one in the future and run them in SLI for improved performance? This is circular being as in the future you'd be able to say the very same thing against getting a second 580.

I just built a rig with 2 HD 6950 2GB Twin Frozr in crossfire. Runs like a dream, easily maxing out anything and everything I throw at it, and I'm pitching hardballs at it as we speak (Full AA and AF, filtering, post processing, 1920x1200 res) with my CPU running stock at 3.3ghz, always getting steady 60+ FPS with beautiful quality imaging. Certain games run att around 65 with spikes to 85, other games run at 80-90. If I drop my AA and AF just abit I've seen 90+ with negligible and unnoticable changes to visuals. Be that as it may I still normally run it with everything maxed out, simply because I cannot tell the difference between 60FPS and 80FPS. It makes no difference to my experience.

This is now with things such as Crysis and BF3. I will have no problem running whatever comes out in the coming two years and even then I will be able to compensate by lowering special effects by just abit. The heaviest games are using 1.3GB VRAM and doing this due to it being early versions with poor optimization. It will take awhile before games break the 2GB barrier and even then i'd still be covered.

The smoothness and stability I'm enjoying now with Crossfire is unparalled to any experience i've previously had with single card setups, and that to me is a fact. I would be willing to sacrifice items in my rig such as the case or SSD or anything over 8GB Ram just for the sake of getting that second GPU if I had to, It was that much of a positive influence on my experience.

In two years when something that demanding comes along that you feel outgunned, you will be able to either buy a new motherboard the supports 3 PCI express cards, and then buy another identical card and at a cheap price, and run 3way SLI/Crossfire to jump start your setup. Alternatively you could buy a new set of cards because in this field, 2 years is a long time.

I say get the 2 cards without a doubt. If you're an Nvidia guy run the two 560 Ti in SLI, if you like AMD go for the 6950s in Crossfire. You won't regret it. Make sure you get a good card from a good maker and I highly suggest one with the Frozer cooling unit, simply because it does make a difference. It significantly decreases your cards temperatures and this is important in SLI/Crossfire being as many times the combination of 2 cards generates additional heat. The Frozer keeps my cards nice and frosty throughout hours of gaming.

I went with MSI HD6950 2GB Twin Frozr III + MSI HD6950 2GB Twin Frozr II and I havent looked back since.

 

[Jackharrer]

Furthermore, the SSD is inferior in importance than a second GPU. The SSD's only influence on the gaming experience is quicker map loading times and instance loading times. The best reports i've seen reported 10 seconds faster than a 7200 RPM HDD. In reality the systems I've seen were only around 6-7 seconds quicker. I would never give up the added stability and processing power my second GPU gives me throughout hours of gameplay just shorten my 7 second map loading time in BF3 to 2 seconds.

Invest in that which most greatly influences your gameplay experience. And according to that line of logic, GPU beats cases, water cooling, SSD, additional HDDs, and RAM beyond 8GB (some say 4 but I like a little leg room).


A 2 GPU and high VRAM setup will also allow you to maintain high performance whenever you choose to get a multi-monitor setup, such as 3 monitors running Eyefinity at extremely high resolution. Nearly all single cards will choke in such an environment (short of units such as 6990 or 590 that include more than 1 card packaged together).

Buy the 2 cards man, You can thank me later.