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Gaming rig help, 1200 cap

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Hey!
I'm looking to build a new computer, I've built several in the past but they were pretty much prearranged part buys from Newegg, which is the site I prefer to deal with.
I'm working with a hard cap of 1200 before tax, and looking for free shipping on everything I can, since shipping is obviously factored into the prices.

I'm going to be gaming with it, I play WoW, SWTOR, SC2, and do a lot of emulation with my favorite N64 games, and I switch between a 40" TV and a 24" monitor for gaming. I'd like to play everything at max settings on the 24" at least, higher settings on the TV would be awesome too if its available in my budget. I don't really plan on OC, but would dabble if its easy to set up. I don't really have a brand preference, but the AMD stuff I've listed below seemed to be the way to go for the prices.

I've already got a very good keyboard/mouse/monitor and case. The case is a COOLER MASTER CM Storm Series Trooper full ATX, if that matters.

I'm essentially looking for the most bang for my buck, here are the parts I've got so far, please critique!

Video Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... " target="_blank"> Radeon HD 7950
I've been really debating on whether it would be worth it to try and drop 100 bucks from somewhere else and get a 7970, since it seems to be a somewhat significant jump with all OCing aside, thoughts?

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... " target="_blank"> AMD FX-8120 Zambezi 3.1GHz

MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... " target="_blank"> GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3

SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... " target="_blank"> 120GB SSD

Wireless Adaptor (required): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... " target="_blank">ASUS PCE-N15

PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... " target="_blank"> Rosewill 1000w ( the partially modular design preferred)

Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... " target="_blank"> G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB 1600


This build puts me at $1150 before tax, so I've basically got 50 to play with, would like to drop another 50 somehow and get the HD 7970 instead of the 7950 I've got. I've thought about going with intel CPU/mobo but for the prices it seems like AMD is better, but I'd only consider myself intermediate tech level.

Looking to purchase asap, any advice is GREATLY appreciated! :-D

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Like hellfire said the 1000W is way overkill for what you have currently, I would look at getting the i5-2500k, overclocking it is easy and is great bang for your buck. Do you have another hard drive or just going to use the SSD? I currently have a 120GB SSD in my rig which filled up fast while I'm waiting on HDD prices to drop.

Thank you for the input!

I'm looking at getting the PSU that hellfire linked, it dropped the price overall significantly.

Yes, I have 2 other 1TB samsung HDDs. Was just looking to load the OS and games onto the SSD.


I've heard a lot of good things about that i5, and it seems intel is better for performance on their higher end chips but, it looks like for the mid range I'm shopping, AMD is going to work better. The i5 is $230 compared to the quad core AMD hellfire linked which is at $109, and the speeds and cache are similar.
The i5 does have 8 virtual cores and the AMD only 4 physical, but if I was going to upgrade in that regard I could stick with the original 8 core AMD I listed and still pay less. Is my thinking wrong there? All I know about CPUs are clock speed, power consumption, and number of cores so I could be missing something vital.
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well having those system with me, i can say it comes down to preference, but the fx-8150 is not as bad as what others say,

i don't really give out recommendations without testing them, well except for htpcs, but if you really wanted to go with the 8core amd go with it, it ain't bad in gaming, all it comes down is your GPU.

fx-8150
am3+ mobo (ASUS)
7970 XFX/Sapphire
G.SKILL Ripjaws/X (2x4GB)
Corsair force GT 120gb sata3 6gb/s
if your going for cooling then some nice h80/70 is good or a noctua nh-d14 and replace the fan with some red colored ones or what not.
nzxy phantom (red)

since we might as well go red/black looks cool, performs good in games but not as good as intel but good enough for your gamingi needs, specially with 7970.

but with the bang for buck, then an i5 2400 (no overclocking) i5 2500k,
with gtx560ti 1gb or an HD 6870 1gb. 4gb-8gb of ram, 750w-850w 80 plus gold of seasonic or corsair. 500gb hdd and 120gb ssd,

Alright, this is a learning experience for me! lol


So how does this sound.

i7 2600, not unlocked because I don't plan on OC
HD Radeon 7970
Asus p8z68 mobo
8GB Gskill sniper DDR3 1600
Corsair 750w PSU

That puts me around $1150. So I'd have to stick with 2x Samsung HDDs, could put them in Raid0 until I can upgrade to SSD later on down the road.

That is a really nice rig, I personally would recommend the FX Series because they seem fast enough for me and they run insanely cool. I have a FX 6 core that ran at 25c at stock cooling and 59 on full load for a 4 hour prime 95 test. also the Gigbyte mobo you recommended is the same one I have and is really great for OC'ing. the gpu seems like overkill but you can never have enough power in your gpu (Since they become outdated in a few years)
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