<$1500 Gaming system for BF3 and D3 - should I do this?

[hwnoob]

Based on some comments I received from another post, I decided to up my limit to $1500 before taxes for my gaming system. I am looking to play BF3 and diablo3 on maximum settings on a 22inch 1080p monitor. Please let me know what you think of the components I decided on so far. I am looking to buy be end of day tomorrow. Thanks in advance.

Mobo:
ASUS Sabertooth P67 B3 TUF Edition Motherboard - ATX, Socket H2 (LGA 1155), Intel P67 Express, 1866MHz DDR3, $189.69

CPU:
Intel Core i5-2500K BX80623I52500 Unlocked $214.79

Case:
C283-1223 ::Cooler Master HAF 922M ATX Black Mid-Tower Case $89.68

RAM:
Corsair Vengeance Blue 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz CL9 1.5V DIMMs (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B) $54.99

GPU:
ASUS GeForce GTX 580 DirectCU II Fermi 782MHZ 1536MB GDDR5 2xDVI Mini-HDMI PCI-E DX11 Video Card $449.79 bestdirect.ca

Power:
Corsair CMPSU-750TXV2 Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 Power Supply - 750 Watts $120

DVD/Memory reader:
cheap dvd and memory stick reader $50

OS:
windows home premium $95.79

Hard drives:
OCZ (OCZSSD2-2VTXE60G) Vertex 2 SATA II 2.5" 60GB Solid State Drive $102.47
2x 1TB 7200RPM SATA2 in RAID 0 (Western Digital WD10EARS Caviar Green 1TB SATA 64MB Cache 3.5IN Hard Drive OEM) $62 each

$1487 before tax.


Any opinions on this selection of GTX 580? This one is on sale so it looked nice, any other better performing cards people recommend?

 

[jmsellars1]

Looks good, only thing is I would change the PSU to around 600W because I don't think GTX 580 SLI is recommended with the 3 slot ASUS one and 750W.

 

[morgoth780]

i'd change to a single gtx 570 or sli if you can afford it, especially because there isn't a huge performance difference between 570 and 580. If you oc a 570, you can sometimes get better performance than a stock 580.
And if you plan to sli 570s, an 850w power supply would be better.

 

[hwnoob]

I decided not to go SLI due to the microstuttering people have experienced. So I want to stick with a single GTX.

Some others have mentioned to me that I should not get a P67 based mobo but instead get a Z68, and possibly one that supports IVY. What does everyone think of that? I do not see anything available that supports IVY.

Also i might change to GSKILL as someone else said the corsair spreaders can interfere if I put a big CPU cooler in someday. Is the stock CPU cooler enough?

 

[koolman007]

I decided not to go SLI due to the microstuttering people have experienced. So I want to stick with a single GTX.

Some others have mentioned to me that I should not get a P67 based mobo but instead get a Z68, and possibly one that supports IVY. What does everyone think of that? I do not see anything available that supports IVY.

Also i might change to GSKILL as someone else said the corsair spreaders can interfere if I put a big CPU cooler in someday. Is the stock CPU cooler enough?

ivy bridge suported motherboard including PCI 3.0
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=Z68%20Extreme3%20Gen3

I use hyper 212+ with 2500K along with G.Skill Ripjaws without any clearance problem. Get a decent aftermarket CPU, your 2500K will thankyou for it

 

[morgoth780]

I decided not to go SLI due to the microstuttering people have experienced. So I want to stick with a single GTX.

Some others have mentioned to me that I should not get a P67 based mobo but instead get a Z68, and possibly one that supports IVY. What does everyone think of that? I do not see anything available that supports IVY.

Also i might change to GSKILL as someone else said the corsair spreaders can interfere if I put a big CPU cooler in someday. Is the stock CPU cooler enough?

then I still think you should get a gtx 570, as it's barely weaker than a 580, $200 less, and you can do major oc'ing on it.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

HAF-922 was a great case in its day, but the lack of front USB3 ports has knocked it off my build list.

Sabertooth is an absolutely fantastic MoBo w/ a 5 year warranty. However today, most peeps want Z68 Gen3 boards ..... to my mind, P8P67 boards are just fine but that's a decision you have to make for yaself. I listed a solid MoBo in my base build below that comes with a standard 3 year warranty.....I won't use a board w/ less than 3 years (Asrock is 1 or 2 years)

RAM - The only cooling effect of these big coolers is that they "look cool". While they served a purpose (when they were effective) w/ DDR2, they are absolutely useless on DDR3.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=773&Itemid=67&limit=1&limitstart=1

At more than 2" tall in certain areas the Corsair Vengeance could pose a problem for users like me who use large coolers such as the Scythe Mugen 2. I was able to use the Corsair Vengeance only after I mounted the fan on my cooler on the backside. Size is definitely a concern with heat spreaders of this size and therefore I encourage users to check that they will have enough space under their heatsinks before purchasing the Corsair Vengeance kit.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=773&Itemid=67&limit=1&limitstart=6

The problem I have with the Corsair Vengeance is the same I have with many kits of RAM on the market. Companies insist on putting large coolers on their RAM and it limits the choice in CPU heatsinks that can be used within users system. DDR3 does not require these elaborate coolers with its lower voltages which translate to lower temperatures then RAM saw during the DDR, and DDR2 era. Corsair is correcting this with low profile versions of its Vengeance line but ultimately I would like to see the average size of coolers drop instead of having to look for specific low profile versions of a memory line.

Get the same RAM w/ the silly heat sinks:

$49 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233186
$52 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233196
$66 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233199

GFX - Evaluate cost versus performance:

That 580 will get ya 616 fps in Guru3D's test suite for $480
A 570 will get ya 524 fps in Guru3D's test suite for $320, two will get ya 873 fps for $640
Two 900 MHz 560 Ti's will get ya 862 fps for $410

Microstuttering seems to be more a subject in the lab than in the game room. Most of my builds leave the bench after 2-3 days so they're gone but my son no. 3's box has twin 900 MHz 560 Ti's and a 120 MHz monitor and I'm not seeing any issue son any game as yet. Son No.2's box has the 580 and 60Hz monitor and I'd much rather play on the twin 560's box. It seems to be more of an issue of concern in the < $200 segment as is explained here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,2995-15.html

And it's much more of a concern on AMD cards than it is on nVidia

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,2995-5.html

http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/232917/GV%2DN560OC%2D1GI/Gigabyte/

I won't be on long enough to provide all the canadian links for ya , but here's my base $1500 build

Case - $ 155 - Antec DF-85 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129087
Case Fan - Later - Antec Red 120 mm http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209013
PSU - $ 115 - Antec CP-850 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371024
MoBo - $ 220 - ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131790
CPU - $ 205 - Intel Core i5-2500K http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
Cooler - $ 50 - Scythe Mugen 3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185168&Tpk=Mugen%203
TIM - $ 5 - Shin Etsu http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835150080
RAM - $ 50 - (2 x 4GB) Corsair Vengeance http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233186
GFX - $ 230 - Asus GTX 560 (900MHz) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121425
GFX - $ 230 - Same
HD - $ 60 - Spinpoint F3 1TB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185
SSD - Later - 120 GB Vertex 3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227706
DVD Writer - $ 59 - Asus 24X DRW-24B3L w/ LS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135247
Game Free Batman incl w/ GFX Card
OS - $ 100 - Win 7-64 Home Premium OEM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

Total $1479