(AUS) $2000 BF3 "Beast"

[Willasap43]

Hi, i need a new gaming machine that can play Battlefield 3 on Ultra, i have built a system before and know a fair amount about computing.


Approximate Purchase Date: 2-4 Weeks

Budget Range: (AUS) $1800-$2100

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

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

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: http://www.ple.com.au/ & http://www.pccasegear.com/

Country: Australia

Parts Preferences: Intel CPU, High-performance AIR COOLING.

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: Yes (If needed to run ultra)

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Here are the parts I have chosen and am happy to listen to your comments and make changes accordingly.

Case: Antec Eleven Hundred
http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=608550 $145

Memory: G.SKILL 8GB KIT DDR3 RIPJAWS C9 2133MHZ (I know its OTT but i like it because it will go with my colour sceem (BLUE)
http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=608272 $115

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD4 <----------- Need Help Here.
http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=607433 $235

Storage 1: SEAGATE BARRACUDA 3.5" 1TB
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=16679 $109

Storage 2: OCZ Agility 3 120GB SSD <----------- Need Help Here.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=17311 $189

Optical: PIONEER 24x SATA DVD-R/RW/DL BLACK OEM
http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=601237 $29

Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Plus 850W ST85F-P <----------- Need Help Here.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=13278 $159

CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K
http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemId=606549 $232

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14
http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=608477 $99

Graphics: 2x MSI Radeon HD6950 2GB Twin Frozr III PE/OC <----------- Need Help Here.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=18330 $638

Sound: CREATIVE X-FI TITANIUM PCI-E SOUNDCARD <----------- Need Help Here.
http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=601758 $105

Thanks in advanced for who ever helps
Total: $2055 + $40 Shipping from PCCG

 

[a4mula]

It'd be difficult for me to assist you in picking actual parts as I'm in the US and I'm not sure how well the parts and prices translate to AUS. What I would recommend however is reading these two articles as they pertain to exactly what you're trying to do:

Battlefield 3 Performance 30+ Graphic Cards Tested

and also

Microstuttering and GPU Scaling in SLI and Crossfire

Gluck.

 

[Willasap43]

Ok i have looked through them and it seems 2 6950's is the way to go, but i am worried about the problems with crossfire do you know if they have been fixed ?

 

[a4mula]

If you're speaking of microstuttering, then no. That's not to say that AMD and nVidia won't address the issue at some point by offering a different type of rendering other than Alternate Frame Rendering which is the culprit at play.

With that being said I wouldn't hold my breath. I cannot speak for nVidia as it's been years since I owned one of their cards, but AMD has always been slow to address the issues of the small user base. Eyefinity is over two years old now and there are still issues that haven't been ironed out because they just don't give it much priority.

The only good solution is to add a 3rd card to the mix which seems to negate the AFR issue by disrupting the two way cycle associated with a 2 card solution.

A single 580 is capable of pushing near 60 fps on ultra with AA. This is probably your best solution short of adopting a trifire or 3x sli setup.

 

[Willasap43]

Ok then. How about one of them new 7970 3gb cards ?

 

[a4mula]

Initial benchmarks have it outperforming the 580 pretty easily. If you don't mind waiting till Jan 9th and the $550 USD pricetag it will represent the most powerful single gpu on the market w/o a doubt.

 

[Willasap43]

Ill probobly grab one of them then.

 

[a4mula]

Sounds good. Best of luck with your build and sorry I couldn't be of more assistance elsewhere.

 

[a4mula]

One other thing of note...

The OCZ Agility 3 120GB

If you can get your hands on the OCZ Vertex 3 120GB for close to the same price it offers better performance due to the asynchronous nands ability to handle non-compressible (video, music ect) data at a much higher rate than the synchronous nands of the Agility.

For compressible data they'll perform almost identically, and non-compressible doesn't represent a large portion of reads and writes so if the price difference is significant then the Agility 3 is a decent choice.

Also depending on the price difference picking up 2x of the 60GB versions and then running them in RAID0 will offer increased performance over a single 120GB. This again comes down to how much of a price difference the two options represent.

 

[Willasap43]

Ok that sound pretty good. Ill be going with the Vertex 3 if you think its worth $40 more then the Agility


Will a 750w Power supply be able to power all this (with a single video card)

 

[a4mula]

No, I wouldn't say it's worth $40 in price difference. $10-15 perhaps, but with non-compressible data being such a small subset of reads and writes unless you're just doing a ton of video editing work I wouldn't bother with it.

I'm not sure if AMD has released the TDP of the 7970 yet, but yeah 750w will be more than capable. I know it uses a 6 and 8 pin, which puts it at a max draw of 300w, but the reality is probably closer to 225-240w.

 

[Willasap43]

I might just go with it anyway, are there any other benefits to asynchronous nand flash?

 

[a4mula]

Here's a pretty good look at the differences:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/08/07/nand_flash_faces_off_synchronous_vs_asynchronous

edit: This is the first review I've seen where there's a pretty major gap between the two in virtually every aspect. It was quite the insightful read. This is why I love talking things out with people, I get to stumble upon new info all the time that I might have otherwise missed. Also I was confusing the two as synchronous nand is what's available in the Vertex 3, not asynchronous.

 

[Willasap43]

Ill probobly go with the agility then

 

[Willasap43]

Ohh the 7970 has 230w tdp

 

[jacknhut]

Ill probobly go with the agility then

I would go with the Vertex 3 or its equivalent (Kingston Hyperx or Patriot PyroSE) if I were you. Agility 3 is slow and you will see the difference.

 

[droozel]

Well I have Agility 3 and if you compare it to hdd it so freaking fast Would love to compare it to Vertex to see the difference.

 

[Willasap43]

Well if you think its worth it, ill just get it