Building New Gaming Computer For Holiday Season

[Willasap43]

Hi, i want a new gaming PC for Christmas and have chosen some parts i would like to use, i thank you for your advice

Approximate Purchase Date: Around Christmas

Budget Range: $1500

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Photo and Video Editing

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: http://www.ple.com.au/ and http://www.austin.net.au/ also http://www.pccasegear.com

Country: Australia

Parts Preferences: Full tower case, Intel CPU, AMD Graphics, G.Skill ram

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: Yes

Monitor Resolution: 1920X1080

Additional Comments: Reasonably Quite, good looking case and head room for future upgrades

Chosen parts:

Case: COOLERMASTER STORM TROOPER GAMING CASE
http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=608332&CategoryID=227 $199

Motherboard: ASROCK Z68 EXTREME4 GEN3 DESKTOP MOTHERBOARD
http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=607892&CategoryID=302 $185

Power Supply: FSP Aurum Series 750W Modular Power Supply
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_1291&products_id=18459 $139

Graphics: 2X XFX HD6870 900M PCIe/1GB/DVI/HDMI/DP
http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=607400&CategoryID=259 $378

Processor: INTEL CORE i5 2500K 3.3GHz 6MB RETAIL BOX
http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=606549&CategoryID=235 $235

Storage: SEAGATE BARRACUDA 3.5" GREEN 2TB 5900/64MB/SATA3
http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=606191&CategoryID=243 $149

Optical Drive : ASUS 24x SATA DVD-R/RW/DL BLACK
http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=606507&CategoryID=376 $32

Memory: G.SKILL 8GB KIT DDR3 RIPJAWS X C9 1600MHZ
http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=606692&CategoryID=282 $69

CPU Cooling: COOLERMASTER HYPER 212 EVO CPU COOLER
http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=608259&CategoryID=231 $39

SSD: SILICON POWER VELOX V30 2.5" 60GB SSD SATA3 550/500
http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=607534&CategoryID=355 $122

TOTAL : $1547

 

[Emelth]

Couple things I would change are the:

PSU: never heard of that brand name before, could work perfectly fine could crap out on you in a couple months.
Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, and OCZ are the brands I would go with

HDD: Its a 'Green' type which means slower then normal HDDs go with a normal one or one that is 7200 RPMs

SSD: Again never heard of of brand Crucial M4s, OCZ fixed their SSDs so they should be good to go now as well

GPU: 6870 is good, slightly better than a 560 Ti, for your Res at 1080p one would enough, but if you still want to CF/SLI i would go with a 6950

 

[Willasap43]

Ok, thanks for the advice, from what i have heard fsp power supplies are excellent, if you want to learn about them you could watch the newegg YouTube video about them. I could get a 1tb cavier black drive instead of the 2tb green drive. Would having 2 6950's really be worth it? The ssd has a good 3 year warranty so it should be fine. Is the power supply enough to power the cf setup?

 

[Emelth]

Very little differences between the GPUs from what Ive seen on the benchmarks
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU11/188

PSU is good enough to handle, OCing and the two GPUs

 

[Willasap43]

WOW awesome sight i will defiantly go with 6870 cf

 

[Formata]

All looking good. CF 6870 are a formidable GPU setup.

60GB SSDs become painful pretty quick.

Personally I'd scale back the case to something like:

CoolerMaster HAF 912 Advanced
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=15892

OR even

CoolerMaster Storm Enforcer
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=25_31&products_id=17170

to free up the budget for a:

OCZ Agility 3 120GB
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=17311

 

[Willasap43]

I really should of mentioned i was planning to upgrade to water cooling and the trooper can support 2 dual 120 mm rad's also should i go for a single 6870 for now and save money there to get a bigger ssd?

 

[cutebeans]

Yeah, FSPs are good.

 

[Willasap43]

Do you know if the Silicone Power ssd's are any good?

 

[Formata]

I wouldn't compromise the 2 x 6870 GPU setup back to a single for a bigger SSD. I think you'll get a lot more out of having those CF cards. HDDs are such a rip off at the moment. Could you get away with something like this for now:

Seagate Barracuda 500GB
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=18357

And keep the dual GPU's and bigger SSD ( with a little stretching )

 

[Willasap43]

That sounds like an awesome idea thanks

 

[Willasap43]

The only problem with getting a case from pccg is they cost $80 to ship so if I went with the 812 advance it would cost the same as the storm trooper anyway

 

[Emelth]

Ouch that sucks

 

[Formata]

If you decide to go that way over the Storm Trooper... Just grab the 922 instead (PLE don't stock 912) and you'll be way in front. And the 922 is better too!

Are you in WA?... You don't want to pay to ship a case from one side of the country to the other if you can help it.

http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=601192&CategoryID=440

 

[Willasap43]

Yes' i live in perth and i think i will get the CM Storm enforcer, it looks really good in my opinion with the side window i can show of the dual graphics cards!

 

[Willasap43]

JUST GOT SOME AWSOME NEWS! I will be able to stretch that budget allitle more to aorund $2000 which will need to include moniter, keyboard, mouse and headset. So i will get a 2600k, 120gb ssd and a blu ray burner.

 

[Willasap43]

Worked it out $1800 FOR TOWER ONLY!

 

[Emelth]

Congratz

 

[Formata]

Have fun with your build!

 

[Willasap43]

Thanks for all your help guys, i will be going with
Case: Cooler Master CM Storm Trooper
Power Supply FSP Gold Series 750w
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD4 B3
CPU: Intel 2600k
Graphics: 2x VTX3D Radeon HD6950 2GB (Any good?)
Memory: 16gb 1600mhx g.skill
Storage: 1tb Segate Baracuda
SSD: 120gb Silicone Power
Optical: Blu Ray Burner And dvd Player
Cooling: Not Sure maybey a nocta nhd14 or a cooler master v8 (Any Suggestions?)


Note i am paying for the actual computer myself, just getting peripherals for Christmas, i got the extra cash because i got a temporary, reallly well paying job

 

[Willasap43]

Do you think i should wait until the 7000 cards come out from AMD ?

 

[Formata]

Do you think i should wait until the 7000 cards come out from AMD ?

AMD have said they will release more details on the 7000 series this week. I'd at least hold off and see what that is.


With your revised list there... nothing wrong with shifting the goal posts a bit if you have the money... but I'd still stick with the 2500K
and an 8GB RAM Kit.

The Noctua NH D14 really is an epic CPU cooler, but pricey! For the money I still love the CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO

 

[Willasap43]

Do you know when the ivy-bridge cpu's are coming out ? I will defiantly wait until AMD announce the new cards

 

[madchemist83]

Ivy doesn't come out till april so don't wait on those. Imo get single more powerful gpu then 2. Get gtx570 or hd6970. Heard of micro stuttering? I would wait for new gpus from ati and nvidia

 

[Willasap43]

Semi-Final list
Case: COOLERMASTER STORM TROOPER GAMING CASE
Storage: SEAGATE BARRACUDA 3.5" 1TB 7200/32MB/SATA3
Memory: G.SKILL 8GB KIT DDR3 RIPJAWS X C9 1600MHZ
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD4 B3 DESKTOP MOTHERBOARD
Optical: LG BLU-RAY 10X WRITER (BH10LS30) RETAIL
Power: FSP Aurum Series 750W Modular Power Supply
SSD: SILICON POWER VELOX V30 2.5" 120GB SSD SATA3 550/510
Cooler: COOLERMASTER HYPER 212 EVO CPU COOLER
Graphics: $400, Maybe 2x 7870 or 1x 7970 Depending on performance, may go either or 2x 7950 also depends on price
CPU: INTEL CORE i7 2600K 3.4GHz 8MB RETAIL BOX or 2500k
Extras: Arctic silver 5, generic card reader and antistatic wrist band

Total: Around $1900 with postage.