Building a new gaming rig

[cakezxc]

First off i am gonna put it straight off. I am an AMD fanboy. Intel fanboys who only know how to preach people into using intel processors without a single reason can gtfo.
However i am also the rational type of fanboy,tht means i can acept intels with valid reasons.

Alright. To the planned setup.
Budget: 1k+ USD
(I have most of the miscellenous parts in my casing already. Only missing.....everythng that mounts on the motherboard and a SSD)

Motherboard : MSI 990FXA-GD80
Reason behind this: MSI has excellent built quality and usually runs things cooler than other vendors. And i simply cant resist the sexy looking mosfet heatsinks. also the PCI lanes with uniform X16 is also a huge plus for me cuz i will be running cfx

CPU:AMD Bulldozer FX6200
RBT: this is the "new" bulldozer that just came out yesterday. I want to see how well it goes and also buying it for the great oc headroom FX cpus have.

CPU cooler: Antec H2O 620
RBT: like i said, i am gonna oc the cpu over 4 gigahertz. This cooler fits in my budget.

RAM:Kingston HyperX 1600mhz CL9 4gbx2
RBT: Kingston quality and the color fits the motherboard. Nuff said.

GPU: MSI R6870 hawk crossfire
RBT: the hawk is nearly the perfect gpu for me right now as two of them fits my budget and its better than a single GTX580. Also the Twin Frozr III cooler is great for multi card setups.

SSD:Corsair Force 3
RBT: at where I am living, the force 3 is having a major price drop. And who can resist corsair products with price cuts anyways?

HDD: Seagate Baracuda 500gb sata 3
RBT: I already own this

PSU:ThermalTake ToughPower 750W
RBT: Onwed

Case: ThermalTake Commander MS-I
RBT: Owned

Opitcal Drive: Asus 24x
RBT: Owned. And dosent actually matters anyways.

Screen: BenQ 21.5 inch FHD
RBT: Owned.

Tell me what you think for this setup and if there is still space to optimise within my budget, please enlighten me.

 

[Headspin_69]

6870 HAWK FTW good choice.

 

[vitornob]

I know that FX CPUs have a great OC headroom and you're an AMD fan like I was before (with Athlon X2 series). But even with OC these CPUs do not have a superb performance, and it consumes a hella lot of electric power. I would say a stock i3-2100 would be faster than your FX @4ghz. Why not get a Sandy Bridge?

If you check the lastest system builder marathon you gonna see that the FX architecture, even heavily overclocked holds a lot the GPUs performance. (Two stronger cards slower than a single weaker card due to CPU)
System Builder Marathon, Dec. 2011: System Value Compared

 

[vitornob]

The reasons I would give to stick with Intel is the same reasons that made me go for it.
Lower power consumption, great performance even stock, if OC this thing simply flies. Sandy Bridge is the best CPUs for SLI/Crossfire machines since it don't hold the performance (check TH review above, or any other comparative benchmark).

It's already know in any forum, TH reviews, anandtech, xtremesystems, guru3d and many others websites that Sandy Bridge is the best CPU for games. Saying this I would ask, do you really want to stick with something cause of the name of the compary that produces it, even that the other one provides a better product? (applicable to Intel, AMD, Nvidia, etc etc etc)

 

[de5_Roy]

before you go through with the fx 6200, could you wait a bit and see how it performs in real life testing/benchmarks?
i say this because you seem to have chosen some good components.
the following link is from this month's sbm where they used fx 6100 and it bottlenecked (quite severely imo) 2x 6950s.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fx-overclock-crossfire-ssd,3098.html
value compared to other sbm systems;
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i5-fx-6100-overclock-benchmark,3099.html
can you use your existing card and try one of the upcoming 7000 series cards to debut from january 2012? launch prices would be high, though.
this is a page from tom's best gfx card for money, december edition:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fastest-graphics-card-radeon-geforce,3085-5.html

 

[cakezxc]

Hmm. But a Z68 chipset mobo is rather expensive and if I would buy an intel cpu I think it would be at least an i5 2400 lol. I really doubt if an i3 will even come close to a 6 core fx ._.

 

[de5_Roy]

990fx chipset motherboards offer native 40+ pcie 2 lanes at prices intel motherboards cannot/will not match (comparing against x58 and x79 motherboards). but for gfx cards to efficiently utilize those lanes, you'll need a cpu that won't hold the cfx cards back.

 

[cakezxc]

I have no setup except for a 2008 macbook and a workstation (xeon+NVS) lol

 

[cakezxc]

Alright. Seems noone likes the fx6200. Any suggestions for that price range?
If I really has to go intel it will be Asrock Z68 Extreme3 or MSI Z68A-GD55 G3

 

[interloper96]

Get an i5 2500k. AsRock Extreme3 Gen3 is good , and the best for your money. GPUs are very goo until you want to upgrate , so youll need to change them.

 

[cakezxc]

New setup planned.
Intel core i5 2500K
MSI Z68A-GD55 Gen3
Coolermaster V6
Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz 8gb
MSI R6870 CFx
Corsair Force3
Seagate 500 S3
TT Toughpower 750w
TT commander ms-I

Looks good to me imo

 

[de5_Roy]

Alright. Seems noone likes the fx6200. Any suggestions for that price range?
If I really has to go intel it will be Asrock Z68 Extreme3 or MSI Z68A-GD55 G3

imo right now is not really a good time to recommend an sb build as in a few months, ivy bridge comes out (around march/april 2012 if intel delivers on time).
anyway, a core i5 2500k will be a good cpu with a z68 motherboard. if you can use newegg/microcenter...
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I52500K $210
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
microcenter deal:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0354589 $180
core i5 2400:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115074 $190
microcenter deal:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0354590 $150
[strike]a cooler for the 2500k in case you overclock:
cooler master hyper 212 plus $30
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065
cooler master hyper 212 evo $35
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099[/strike]
lastly, in case you stick with amd:
AMD Phenom II X4 960T Zosma 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor HD96ZTWFGRBOX $110
phenom ii x4 970 $140
edit: saw your latest post.

 

[cakezxc]

Lol I haven't played any computer games for the past month except for css on my macbook cuz mw3 and BF3 refuses to run on it. Only buying this setup once I got enough money by end of jan. The rest of the buckies will go to my iphone funds when I recontract in march lol. Btw I live in singapore (I am taiwanese) so I can't use newegg or any other US based websites cuz the postage will eat my budget alive lmao

 

[de5_Roy]

aw that sucks... i don't think that the 2500k is cheaper anywhere else than it is in microcenter ....
check your local shopping sites/stores i guess.

 

[cakezxc]

Yea I got a shop here that sells crazy low bundled combo prices.
Pretty sure its lower than newegg and superbiiz tho

 

[urbancamper]

Are u sure this isnt a hoax. I cant find this cpu anywhere. I went to the Amd homepage and for some reason there is no serial # next to the fx6200. http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUResult.aspx I also want to do an upgrade from my 965be to this cpu. I posted about it a couple of days ago. As i said earlier no where to be found.

GA-970A-UD3
965be@4014; 18x223mhz 1.475v
hyper212+ p/p 53c max under load
8gb/4x2 Adata@1486mhz
5850xtreme@785/1100
msi hybrid tv tuner+fm
Antec 600 case
Antec earthwatts 750w
Asus cd\\dvd burner
Caviar Blue 500gb hddx2

 

[cakezxc]

Yea its the newest amd cpu on the market. Jut came out on 26th dec.
http://www.techpowerup.com/mobile/156781/AMD-Gives-Bulldozer-6-core-a-Speed-Bump-with-FX-6200.html

 

[urbancamper]

That same thing is floating all over the internet. Still as i said this cpu has no serial # on the amd website even though it is listed in the cpu comparison charts. It is no where to be found in the marketplace. I am not saying that this cpu will not be available at some point. This I do not know. What I am saying is that at this point it has not been released and that article that you just gave the link to which can be found on at least a hundred websites. Who knows maybe it will be in stores tomorrow but it is not in the stores today. If you can find it in a store as of 12/27/2011, post the stores link. So i can purchase it myself.

 

[cakezxc]

Lol I have a store here in SG selling it.
Weird tthing is they've been selling it since the 24th

 

[de5_Roy]

can't find fx 6200 on sale anywhere....
if it was released in this region, at least one or two reviewers would have gotten their hands on it and got it tested.
besides, speculation says that cpus like 4170-something, 6200 will be revised versions of current 4100 and 6100 which will increase performance.... i don't think amd would release the revised cpus so soon - which might hurt sales of their current cpus. the current fx cpus are crap though, a successful revision would be welcome.
check your local store if it's a fake or engineering sample. amd's set date is dec 26. according to techpowerup.. how can it go on sale on dec 24?

 

[urbancamper]

can't find fx 6200 on sale anywhere....
if it was released in this region, at least one or two reviewers would have gotten their hands on it and got it tested.
besides, speculation says that cpus like 4170-something, 6200 will be revised versions of current 4100 and 6100 which will increase performance.... i don't think amd would release the revised cpus so soon - which might hurt sales of their current cpus. the current fx cpus are crap though, a successful revision would be welcome.
check your local store if it's a fake or engineering sample. amd's set date is dec 26. according to techpowerup.. how can it go on sale on dec 24?

I agree 100% This store that your talkng about is giving u a line of baloney no one has actually tested this cpu out. If it was for sale anywhere in the world i am sure that the major search engines would have found it. Meaning we would have found it. What is the name of this store that you keep mentioning? Please give me the name and location so i can check out your STORY myself.
GA-970A-UD3
965be@4014; 18x223mhz 1.475v
hyper212+ p/p 53c max under load
8gb/4x2 Adata@1486mhz
5850xtreme@785/1100
msi hybrid tv tuner+fm
Antec 600 case
Antec earthwatts 750w
Asus cd\\dvd burner
Caviar Blue 500gb hddx2

 

[cakezxc]

You do not have to get aggressive about this.
Even if the store DOES not sell this core it would be my loss as i am unable to buy this core too.

http://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/retailers/view/mynext-com-pte-ltd/node:3903

this is a Singaporean website with all the scanned pricelist of the shops in singapore as they are all gathered in a single building.

*we have pricelist printed out for us given out by the vendors to achieve transparency
*this shop have especially low prices