Building Gaming PC 4 under $1000

[TehIrish]

Approximate Purchase Date: Before Jan 1/12

Budget Range: Less than $1000 After Rebates

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Watching Movies, Downloading, Web Surfing (Generally w/ min 6 tabs open), Excel & Word

Parts Not Required: Mouse, Keyboard, Speakers, and Monitor ( for the time being I will be using an HDMI cable to utilize my TV as a monitor )

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: ncix.com
Country: Canada

Parts Preferences: Full Tower, AMD

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Yes

Monitor Resolution:

Additional Comments: This is my first Build, I've been reading up ona few different forums on how to approach this and this is the list of parts I've come up with. What I need is some one experienced to tell me if these parts will all work, and if I should improve on some parts. I will be wanting to spend more money down the road to expand on this computer but I need some thing to start off with. Thanks a bunch in advance. - TehIrish

Below are the Listed Parts.

Azza Solano 1000 Black ATX Full Tower Case 10X5.25 1X3.5 8X3.5INT 2X230MM LED Fans & Window No PSU http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=37876

Samsung Samsung DVDRW 22X SATA Lightsc Retail http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=62050

Western Digital WD15EARS Caviar Green 1.5TB SATA 64MB Cache 3.5IN Hard Drive OEM http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=48813

ASUS Sabertooth 990FX AM3+ DDR3 4PCI-E16 1PCI-E1 1PCI SATA3 SLI CrossFireX USB3.0 GBLAN Motherboard http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=61765

Corsair TX750 V2 750W ATX 12V Single Rail 60A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 80PLUS Bronze http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=58382&promoid=1301

Diamond Radeon HD 5670 775MHZ 1Gb GDDR5 4.0GHZ HDMI DVI VGA DIRECTX11 PCI-E Video Card http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=50180

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Quad Core Processor 3.2GHZ AM3 8MB Cache 125W Retail Box http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=47459&promoid=1301

Kingston Kingston 6GB 1600MHz DDR3 NON-ECC CL8 DIMM (Kit of 3) XMP http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=52742

 

[fb39ca4]

You do not have your priorities straight. You should be able to get a sandy bridge i5 and an HD 6950 or a GTX 560ti in that budget. Spend less on the case and motherboard, and don't get a Caviar Green drive, they are slow. You also want to get a dual, not tri-channel kit of memory.

 

[fxdoggy]

Approximate Purchase Date: Before Jan 1/12

Budget Range: Less than $1000 After Rebates

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Watching Movies, Downloading, Web Surfing (Generally w/ min 6 tabs open), Excel & Word

Parts Not Required: Mouse, Keyboard, Speakers, and Monitor ( for the time being I will be using an HDMI cable to utilize my TV as a monitor )

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: ncix.com
Country: Canada

Parts Preferences: Full Tower, AMD

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Yes

Monitor Resolution:

Additional Comments: This is my first Build, I've been reading up ona few different forums on how to approach this and this is the list of parts I've come up with. What I need is some one experienced to tell me if these parts will all work, and if I should improve on some parts. I will be wanting to spend more money down the road to expand on this computer but I need some thing to start off with. Thanks a bunch in advance. - TehIrish

Below are the Listed Parts.

Azza Solano 1000 Black ATX Full Tower Case 10X5.25 1X3.5 8X3.5INT 2X230MM LED Fans & Window No PSU http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=37876

Samsung Samsung DVDRW 22X SATA Lightsc Retail http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=62050

Western Digital WD15EARS Caviar Green 1.5TB SATA 64MB Cache 3.5IN Hard Drive OEM http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=48813

ASUS Sabertooth 990FX AM3+ DDR3 4PCI-E16 1PCI-E1 1PCI SATA3 SLI CrossFireX USB3.0 GBLAN Motherboard http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=61765

Corsair TX750 V2 750W ATX 12V Single Rail 60A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 80PLUS Bronze http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=58382&promoid=1301

Diamond Radeon HD 5670 775MHZ 1Gb GDDR5 4.0GHZ HDMI DVI VGA DIRECTX11 PCI-E Video Card http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=50180

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Quad Core Processor 3.2GHZ AM3 8MB Cache 125W Retail Box http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=47459&promoid=1301

Kingston Kingston 6GB 1600MHz DDR3 NON-ECC CL8 DIMM (Kit of 3) XMP http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=52742

I agree with above, you need to decide whether you're going to be an intel or a amd fan. From what I've gathered you're a AMD fan. With that I'd HIGHLY suggest getting a bulldozer processor instead of a BE.

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=64407&vpn=FD4100WMGUSBX&manufacture=AMD

Also, dual channel absolutely unless you have a very unique motherboard with tri-channels then I'd get

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=42745&vpn=F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL&manufacture=G.Skill&promoid=1301

I don't exactly "love" your choice in video card either... I'd get a radeon 6000 series.

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=64182&vpn=R6950%20Twin%20Frozr%20III%201G%2FOC&manufacture=MSI%2FMicroStar

Power supply is a brilliant choice! Thumbs up ;3

Get a SSD with your budget and preferably a OCZ vertex also for the extra space you could grab a cheap $60 1tb drive from hitachi.

Motherboard is fine... NOT Personally I use this board and it's overclocking is amazing.

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=61850&vpn=GA-990XA-UD3&manufacture=Gigabyte

Case is astonishingly fine, it allows for some great airflow and is remarkably similar to my case. (which is fan cooled doing 3 degrees Celsius better then my h60) Although I do have a hyper 212+ which should absolutely be on your list if you're fan cooling.

 

[azeem40]

Change the Phenom to an i5-2500k (as Intel is currently the best company for CPUs of gaming), the 5670 to a 6870 or a 560Ti (Fermi), spend less on the case (the only thing a case needs is good airflow and nice cable management, but if you can get a good looking cheap case that has all the main things a case needs, go for it), change the HDD to a drive that has 7200+ RPM, and the RAM to a dual-channel kit like the 2 x 4 GB G.Skillz Ripjaw DDR3 1600 MHz kit (your MOBO doesn't support triple-channel RAM).

EDIT: The MOBO should be able to support OCing if you want to OC and SSD Caching helps too (if you plan on getting an SSD ofc.

 

[fxdoggy]

We're trying to be friendly to what he wants and I'm pretty sure he wants to stick with AMD.

BTW! Azeem, AMD is coming back with the bulldozer processors that processor I recommended beats my i5-2500k sandy bridge

 

[drumsrule786]

I don't know where you got the idea that bulldozers are faster than sandy-bridge. Sandy bridge CPU's are much faster than anything AMD currently has, just look at any of the benchmarks done. For a gpu though AMD is fine. 6870 or 560ti would both be great mid range choices.

 

[fxdoggy]

.... I have both processors just I can tell a performance increase in BF3 when running Ultra compared to my 2500k
benchmarks don't tell *** especially when the 4100 isn't optimized for windows 7 atm which I ran my benchmarks on I'll come back when the SMT patch comes out :3

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1766/14/

Pay attention to the resolutions, and how the 4100 is $120 and the 2600 is $300?

 

[drumsrule786]

A faster CPU would not matter if you are running the game on ultra settings it would be all dependent on your GPU horsepower, also it is a know fact that the sandy-bridge chips are faster than the bulldozers. Please do not give people false information regarding building a system because something "feels" faster to you.

 

[drumsrule786]

That benchmark you just put on your post just proved me right, the sandy-bridge chips are faster at both resolutions, EVEN when they are both clocked lower than the bulldozer. Also the 2500K is only around $200 and can easily be overclocked to 4.5Ghz with proper cooling.

 

[fxdoggy]

I guess it might be because my setup is a scorpius platform or that I can see lag by the 2500

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhn4GE3KtME

 

[TehIrish]

Okay thanks every body for the great feed back, when I get home from work today I will take a look at those intel chips, drop down the price on a mobo, and look for a cheaper case. Regarding the case, do I need to run a full tower or will a mid tower work fine for airflow? The only reason I was going to spring the extra cash intially on a full tower was because I stated above I plan to build on to this set up farther down the line and thought that the Full tower would allocate for that where as the mid tower wouldnt? Let me know your opinions. Thanks.

 

[fxdoggy]

Full tower preferably check your desk measurements first to see if the case will fit though. Your price was fine and these guys are complaining about a $20 extra price then you could get a great antec for... as for me I went with a NZXT phantom allows for some great airflow and my 965 BE is overclocked at 4.2 ghz sitting arround 24-26 celsius. Really what your case is, is a antec with a different name it's got almost everything exactly the same as an antec 900

 

[drunkducki]

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=12200BD1527&vpn=BX80623I52500K&manufacture=INTEL - $228.70
Intel Core i5 2500K Quad Core Unlocked Processor LGA1155 3.3GHZ Sandy Bridge 6MB

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11830BD1817&vpn=GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3&manufacture=GIGABYTE - $159.69 - $10MIR
Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3 ATX LGA1155 Z68 DDR3 1PCI-E16 3PCI-E1 2PCI HDMI SLI SATA3 USB3.0 Motherboard

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=1946101809P&vpn=RR-B10-212P-G1&manufacture=Cooler%20Master - $24.38
HYPER 212 PLUS CPU COOLER FOR INTEL & AMD

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=57953&vpn=F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL&manufacture=G%2ESkill&promoid=1301 - $39.77
G.SKILL Ripjaws X F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24 Memory

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=16950AC0275&vpn=ST500DM002&manufacture=Others - $95.04
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB 3.5IN 16MB Cache SATA3 Internal Hard Disk Drive HDD

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11130AC0700&vpn=RC-912-KKN1&manufacture=COOLERMASTER - $59.23
Coolermaster Haf 912 Black Mid Tower ATX Case 4X5.25 1X3.5 6X3.5INT No PS Front USB Sound

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=14040AC2431&vpn=SH-S223L/RSBS&manufacture=Samsung - $21.89
Samsung SH-S223L/RSBS DVDRW 22X SATA Lightscribe Retail

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=58382&vpn=CMPSU-750TXV2&manufacture=Corsair&promoid=1301 - $94.99 - $8MIR
Corsair TX750 V2 750W ATX 12V Single Rail 60A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 80PLUS Bronze

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=64181&vpn=R6950%20Twin%20Frozr%20II%20OC&manufacture=MSI%2FMicroStar&promoid=1301 - $239.99 - $30MIR
MSI Radeon HD 6950 Twin Frozr II OC 810MHZ 2GB GDDR5 2xDVI 2x Mini DisplayPort HDMI PCI-E Video Card

Total: $963.68 - $48MIR

ncix will price match directcanada

 

[TehIrish]

Okay guys here's the new build, I7 and other intel processors seem a little costly, plus the Dozer seems like it will match my needs.. My max is $1k, doesn't mean I want to spend that much

Azza Solano 1000 Black ATX Full Tower Case 10X5.25 1X3.5 8X3.5INT 2X230MM LED Fans & *IR-$25* http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=37876

Corsair TX750 V2 750W ATX 12V Single Rail 60A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 80PLUS Bronze http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=58382&promoid=1301

G.SKILL Ripjaws X F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24 Memory
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=57953&promoid=1301

Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 7200.12 1TB SATA 32MB Cache 3.5IN Internal Hard Drive *IR-$10* http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=58746

AMD Bulldozer FX-4100 Quad Core Processor 3.6GHZ Socket AM3+ 95W Retail Box
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=64407

MSI Radeon HD 6950 Twin Frozr II OC 810MHZ 2GB GDDR5 2XDVI 2x Mini DisplayPort HDMI PCI-E Video Card http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=64181&promoid=1301

Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 AMD 990X AM3+ ATX DDR3 3PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 2PCI SLI SATA3 USB3.0 Motherboard http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=61850