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Should I buy this prebuilt home build?

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-Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000
-16 GB Gskill Ripjaw X DDR3 1600
-ASUS SABERTOOTH P67 (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0
-SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB 512-bit (256-bit x 2) GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support
-500 GB SATA 3 HDD
-24 X DVD Burner
-LIAN LI Lancool PC-K58W Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case w/ Side Window
-730 Watt Enermax Power Supply
-Windows 7 Ultimate X64 W/All updates

The guy is asking $600 for it. I was hoping for a z68 board, what would i lose with the p67? Is it worth upgrading to a z68 board for 3.0 pcie or should I wait for IB for that? Basically, Will a 3.0 pcie GPU be limited by the 2.0 board (anymore than a 3.0 board with SB is already)?

From what I can gather, upgrade the GPU, get a 212 EVO Hsf, and I should be good to go. Should I definately consider an SSD since p67?

Im probably going to get 7850 or 6970 gpu. Factoring in that, is this still a good deal? Or am I not really saving that much after buying the upgrades?

I know it's a few questions and I'm a little buzzed and on my iPhone, so I hope it at least makes sense.

Thanks guys!

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Homebuilt system Master

Is the windows install legit? With original disk?

The performance of the P67 is identical to Z68 , but Z68 allows for SSD caching and to run quick sync even when you have a graphics card installed .

Enermax is a good PSU brand . Is that fairly new as well?

Its a decent deal IMO [ if those questions have the right answers ]

I think that it's a pretty good deal but you should consider upgrading the GPU because it's bottle-necking other components like your CPU. As for the SSD that's up to you. An SSD will make the computer boot up faster and it will improve overall computer speed. Finally if you get a better GPU then you might need to upgrade to a better PSU but i'm no expert when it comes to PSU's som don't quote me on it.
Homebuilt system Expert

Seems like a pretty good deal to me. The only oddball component is the 4870X2. Any new card you buy will use less power than that. Even the gtx 680 (currently the top-performing gaming card) is a 195 Watt TDP card.

Currently, PCIe 2.0 x16 is not a bottleneck to any card.

Quote:
From what I can gather, upgrade the GPU, get a 212 EVO Hsf, and I should be good to go. Should I definately consider an SSD since p67?


Yeah, that's probably it. And a 120/128 GB SSD to boot from and store a couple games is a worthwhile investment, in my opinion. Prices are pretty reasonable now.
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Correct me if I'm wrong but a 4870 X2 is a dual GPU card, and performance is rougly on par with SLI GTX 550 Ti from what I can tell. While it's not shiny and new that's still a good bit of performance and should be able to max out any game around at 1080p, and it definitely be on par with either of the single GPU's you list.

Buying other people's homebrew stuff always makes me a bit nervous, but make sure it runs first without issues and that it comes with a REAL copy of Windows, and offer the guy $500 (worth a try right?). $600 is a pretty fair price considering that the CPU and MB would run you $400 alone brand new. Then add in the GPU, case PSU, Windows, HDD, and you'd easily be in the $800-1000 range to assemble a comparable PC.

You read about SLI/Crossfire issues all the time, but I've never personally seen them either. The worst problems I've had are issues with games not being compatable at release, but that's usually fixed within a matter of weeks.

Other that that you've typically got higher power consumption and more heat issues. But Lian Li's are well built cool running cases, and the power consumption things shouldn't be a big issue unless you run it 4+ hours a day and don't bother to shut it down between sittings (who wants to wait 30-60 whole seconds for Windows to load right?).

At any rate, when Crossfire is working the 4870 X2 is still a very capable GPU and the single card solutions wouldn't represent much of an upgrade and kind of look like a waste of another couple hundred bucks to me.
Homebuilt system Expert

4870x2 is an old card but still a good card.for $600,you are getting a great cpu and mobo with a decent case and psu,i think it's a good deal.you can get a really high end rig to max out every game on ultra if you adda gtx 680(when you have cash for it).
Homebuilt system Expert

I used to own a 4870X2; microstuttering and driver issues made me replace it with a gtx 580 about a year ago.

The microstuttering, you can't get rid of. Just a matter of how sensitive you are to it.

4870X2 ~ 5870 < gtx 480 ~ gtx 570 < gtx 580 < 7970 < gtx 680

Ideally. But for consistent performance with fewer issues, I would upgrade to a nice single card. Maybe even hold onto the 4870X2 until the gtx 670 is released. Should be about $350.

EDIT: The 7850 you mentioned is also a good choice. Sits between 580 and 570 most of the time.

Quote:
You forgot to also say that it may bring some issues to the table.
Crossfire or SLi sounds good until it starts to show issues.
However i have never experienced any as of yet with my 2 480's in SLi, so i would think it is a rare thing and also down to user error.
The 4870 x2 is on par with a 5870/GTX 480/GTX570


4870x2 is at best similar in performance to GTX280...Lets digest the costs...
i5 2500...$210
P67 board ...Asus P8P67 Pro...$125
16GB Memories...$90
Emermax PSU...$130
All above are all new
4870x2...$120
Case...$80
...................i sthat all? So total is $755
for each moth of usage deduct 2% so in 1 year aproximately the value is down by 24% = 755*.24 = 181 so the system is worth at best $574 after one year

Quote:
Power consumption is wildly overblown all over the place and rarely actually affects the end user.
This is coming from a guy with 2 of the most power hungry gpu's in history...


I wholly agree. I don't think my sarcasm transferred to text very well.

Quote:
You are completely wrong.

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=628...


That actually shows you that this card sucks and it is by any means not good for quality play...Anyway my point is that the card is old and it is not able to handle games on high period. Gtx 480 is on average 20% faster than 4870x2 look it up if you like facts so it is not on pair with it at all

Anyway the system is not bad for $600 if it includes legit win7...it is a good platform ...you can sell4870x2 and get something newer like 7950 or 7870...GTX680 would be the best but they are impossible to find

Thanks for the input everyone. In the end, I decided not to buy it since he wouldn't budge on the price. After factoring it all in, it would cost me almost as much to upgrade it to what I want as it would to buy all new hardware and build the one I want.

Thanks again
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