~1500 Skyrim, BF3, WoW Gaming Build

Consider this motherboard (only draw back is the 2 year warranty):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813157271

Case (though this depends on taste/what you prefer):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811139010

Everything else looks good. However a GTX 580 with 1.5GB of VRAM is more than enough (3GB is really for high resolutions). Having 3GB is a bit more future proof as some games tend to be very demanding (Crysis 2 is known to use over 2GB of VRAM).

Pros of SLI (GTX 580 SLI):
-Approx. 30% performance boost
-Futureproof (SLI GTX 580 will probably last a good 3 to 5 years)
-Bragging rights

Cons (GTX 580 SLI):
-Heat
-Noise
-Power consumption
-Not all games work well with SLI (though a single GTX 580 will max out most if not all games)

So harsh and don't be so quick to judge the 600T, 650D, 400R and 500R are all based off mostly the same structure. and I really like the window to show off my eventually dual GTX 580s.

The reason I am getting the 3 gigs of VRam is because I forgot to mention this but I have a huge projector screen in my house, and would like to sneek in there every so often and play BF3 with full HD surround.

Thank you Abdul I like that mobo, and the twin frozr III cards are known to do pretty well on cooling and since i am WCing my CPU, the cards should work just fine.

Any recomendations on cases Im open, I really like rubber grommets for cable management and the case will have to have space for a dual 120mm rad.

I really like the 600T. But there is a special on the 650D that comes with the same HX 850 PSU
Combo So I don't know which would be the better way to go.

There's one for the 600T as well:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.761478

I can't recommend that HDD. It's just not worth close to $160. I bought 4 myself (6 if you count ones for work) between $53 to $58 and I can't justify suggesting that at $160 to anyone.

Instead, why don't you spend $160 for a 120GB SATA III SSD? That'll be big enough for you to use for now and you can leave all your data on whatever disks they're already on. That's ideal anyhow since you'd want to install your OS to the SSD anyways.

Then when HDDs drop in price in a couple months, you can just move your Steam folder to the new drive or reinstall your other games. I just cannot, in good conscience, recommend something that costs so much with no performance benefit. In terms of extravagance, at least the Corsair H100 is the best self-contained water cooler out there. But the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB isn't nearly as fast as a good SSD.

Honestly though, I'd get the Antec Kuhler 920 or Corsair H80 since both can keep an i5-2500K at 5.2GHz under 60C--which is plenty low to prevent CPU damage: http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revi [...] clock.html
I'd only bother with the H100 if you don't air condition your house (like me).

Until you tell me what monitor(s) you're using, I have to question the GTX 580 decision. $600 for a GTX 580? A $300 GTX 570 can OC and match that performance. You could argue that a GTX 580 can OC too...but many have been known to barely OC and the benefit of making that card faster is very situation-dependent.

If you're playing on a single monitor at 1080p, I can't think of any reason two GTX 570's for $600 (then you OC them too!) is not better than a single GTX 580. If this is a BF3 build, as you said, then the GTX 570's will get you better performance. Now if you play at larger resolutions than 1920x1200, the 3GB GTX 580 may yield benefits. But the merits of that card are still very specific and not easily justified if this build is focus driven at BF3.

I'd go to Micro Center for the i5-2500K + one of these mobos:
$270: Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 http://www.microcenter.com/single_ [...] id=0366192
$305: Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4 http://www.microcenter.com/single_ [...] id=0366192
$300: ASUS P8Z68-V http://www.microcenter.com/single_ [...] id=0364996

The ASUS has 3x full lenght PCI-e slots, which is good for triple SLI/CFX, or dual CFX w/ PhysX.

Also, I've seen GTX 570's for $250. If I were you, I'd keep an eye on slickdeals.net and wait for some good November sales this month.

The projector is 1920 x 1080, thanks for the input. I will change it up then. So GPU options come to a GTX 570, HD 6950, HD 6970, I will be CFXing or SLIng if I go this route. Please no flame wars and I dont think I will be using physX much as I will be playing mostly BF3, WoW, and Skyrim(skyrim is DX9 I'm pretty sure there is no physX involved there hehe. But it's still a great game.)

And I will go for the corsair H70 now because I aircondition my house and my house temps are around 75F most of the time. Oh and also I have seen this gainward i think company that makes Nvidia cards. Are they worth looking into?

What if I CFXed and unlocked 2 6970s? wouldn't that amount to greater performance than the 6950s? I most likely won't 3D game It just has never crossed my mind and I don't care for it that much. I will eventually be upgrading to 3 monitors so that is what makes me want to lean to the Radeon HDs. Does anyone have an estimate on the prices of the HD 7xxx? I don't think i will get one I would just like to know the price points for comparison reasons.

For clarification, it would be CFX'ing 2 unlocked 6950's. The 2GB will matter if you do three monitors (but not on one) and 2GB is a MUST if you plan on unlocking. Most of the cards no longer unlock, so you'll have to do your research. You could buy two that should unlock and crossfire them right now. Or you could buy one now and a second when 6000 series prices bottom out in Q1 2012 when the 7000 series launches. But then your chances of finding an unlockable card go down.

As far as the motherboards...Is there a reason you're partial to MSI over Gigabyte? Typically Gigabyte is regarded as a higher-end brand than MSI (still very solid).

The Corsair HX850 you linked earlier is a great PSU, but more than dual 6950's need. a 750W would be safely adequate if you'd like to save some cash. Also, it gets a lot cheaper than that, so keep your eyes peeled for a sale. Any Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, or XFX PSU is good enough. I'd probably get this XFX PRO850W XXX for $125 AR: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817207017

EDIT: Mobos... The ASRock Z68 Extreme 4 is an excellent choice as well. I'd probably just go with the $149.99 Gigabyte (linked above) because it's the cheapest one from a good manufacturer (ASUS, Gigabyte, ASRock, MSI) that will facilitate decent overclocking. I figure it doesn't matter if you go to 4.7GHz with one or 4.9GHz with another. If that matters to you, then you should be looking at the $190+ mobos.

And also what are some good gigabyte boards for gaming.

Honestly, your motherboard's not going to impact your gaming beyond stability and max CPU overclock. And once you're at 4.0GHz with an i5-2500K, you probably can't find a game that will dip under 60fps due to a CPU bottleneck.

So all you really need is a motherboard that's SLI/CFX capable and has adequate slot spacing to facilitate cooling (most are fine nowadays). I'm pretty sure every single one we've linked had adequate spacing. They used to put slots only two spaces apart so that dual slot graphics heatsinks would be right up against each other.

At the end of the day, you'll just want to focus on your graphics cards and what allows them to run at top speed.

RAM can make an fps difference from 0%-7% or so, depending on what tests you look at:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503 [...] est-ddr3/6
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/m [...] html#sect0
I generally say get 1600CL9 or a little faster if it's about the same price.

Don't see the SLI board, 580 and 850 watt PSU ...... the 850 is good for everything up to a 570. Check nVidia SLI zone and you wont see a single certified PSU under 900 watts....and that's stock 580's, not OC'd ones.

http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html

The HX850 gets a 10.0 jonnyguru performance rating which is nice for an OC'd CPU and 2 OC'd 560's or 2 570's. The XFX Core Edition saves a bunch of money for a 9.5 rating. The HX1050 is not in the same class

As for the GFX, at 1920 x 1200, two 900MHz 560's (862 fps) beat the single 580 (616 fps) by 40% .... they also substantially top the OC'd 6950 (759 fps) and the 6970 (825 fps)....at $430 - $460 for the pair depending on branbd, the price / performance ration is tops.

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:

$ 240.00 6950 Frozr OC (484/759) $ 0.50 - $ 0.63
$ 320.00 6970 (526/825) $ 0.61 - $ 0.78
$ 215.00 560 Ti - 900 Mhz (495/862) $ 0.43 - $ 0.50
$ 340.00 570 (524/873) $ 0.65 - $ 0.78
$ 480.00 580 (616/953) $ 0.78 - $ 1.01

Don't get the water cooling thing on SB processors.....the better air coolers take a SB CPU over 5 GHz ....what's the point of the WC.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index. [...] mitstart=5

Jack, I read your comment but your like a terms of service agreement, not to be rude, what are you trying to say? you don't really put any points forward all you do is state facts, and what you have read. Please restate what you were trying to suggest.

I also have the TX850 (1st Gen), which I picked up for $90 AR. I think the HX850 is more expensive than you really need, IMO.

I guess a high-end air cooler actually costs the same as a water cooler though--at least if the water coolers have rebates or go on sale. In that case, it's hard to say one or the other. I guess I'd go with water because it sounds cooler?

You're right though, I can't knock a Corsair Force GT (although I'm not certain the GT is worth much more than non-GT) or the RAM at that price.

And also the force GT is a $300 SSD on sale for $200, $100 discount? I'm down with that.

I was thinking more along the lines of the Thermalright Silver Arrow. The Noctua colors are too ugly for me. Mwave's got the Silver Arrow for $75 right now. Although I'd probably pay $90 and get a Antec Kuhler 920. How hot is your house and how high do you want to OC? Personally, I push it as far as my cooler will let me.

Like I said earlier, I'd go with the XFX PSU, not the Corsair, because of the price difference. And I'd get a cheaper case--but that's your call more than anyone else's since your games would have the same framerate with a $40 Thermaltake V4.

I own corsair stuff too though--it's great if you get a sale.

@OP--My bad, with that $25 off for the Corsair PSU + Case combos with the $25 rebates, you're getting that PSU for $135 and a great case for $125 or so (depends on which case). You won't find a case cheaper than that without sacrificing something in usability. I don't have my machine in a $40 case and it's not as nice as yours will be, so I really can't justify me talking you down on a nice case for a decent price.

Then I will probably get the white 600T

Dalauder thanks for your concern. and YAY Emelth I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE!

So the current build list

CPU - Intel Core i5 2500k

GPU - MSI HD 6970

MoBo - MSI Z68A-GD65

CPU Cooling - Still open*

HDD - Screw you HHD prices, sticking with a Corsair Force GT 120 GB until prices drop.

PSU - Corsair HX850

RAM - Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB)

Case - Corsair 600T White

DVD Writer - Asus 24x OEM

I'll post links if it is just so necessary, and I almost forgot does the HX 850 give me enough headroom for OCing?

Still looking for cooling options. The h100 fits well in the 600t as shown here and also the fans are hidden here under the top grill so it seems like a good idea.

But go for it it sounds sick.

Picture of case Emelth?

This is my current case no changes to it yet
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811129066

Lol I'm gonna research into modifying cases to see what I can do with it or on my new rig that I am gonna make begining of next year