Building a new 900$-1000$ gaming rig, would like advice!

seb1234

Honorable
Aug 21, 2012
5
0
10,520
Hi there!

Been wanting to experience the full extent of BF3 (for which I have the PS3 version), so I've decided that for the upcoming armored kill expansion (September) I'll be building myself a new rig within the coming weeks. I'd like the total cost to be 900-1000 CND (preferably towards the lower end of the budget) with all the taxes/shipping/etc.

I'd like to be able to run BF3 on high-ultra settings on a 21" 1680x1050 monitor (and possibly eventually a 1080p one, roughly same size)

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Here is the current build which I have figured out:

Case: Rosewill CHALLENGER-U3 Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case ,comes with Three Fans-1x Front Blue LED 120mm Fan, 1x Top ...

PSU: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power ...

Mobo: ASUS M5A99X EVO AM3+ AMD 990X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

GPU: EVGA SuperClocked 02G-P4-3662-KR GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

RAM: Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model PGD38G1600ELK

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX

CPU Fan: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler Compatible with latest Intel ...

SSD: Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Internet: Rosewill RNX-N180UBE USB 2.0 External 5dBi Antenna Wireless Adapter
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I will re-use the HDD I currently have as well as my optical drive (save a bit where I can). All the parts are from Newegg.ca, total cost being 1007,25$ (-40$ in mail-in rebates). Keep in mind that I also need to buy the OS off my brother (70$) as well as get BF3 Premium edition (another 70$). So, that would bring total cost to 1107,25$ CND. (BTW shipping costs me about 40$)

It's a bit above my hoped budget, but considering i'm including a game that I absolutely LOVE, not too much so. I'd also be interested in eventually purchasing GW2 as well as FC3 and running them high-ultra as well.

Questions:
1) Would any of you have recommendations that could help bring the total cost down/increase performance?
2) I'm pretty sure it can, but just to be certain, can it run BF3 at the settings I'd like it to?
3) The graphic card comes with Borderlands 2, pretty sure it's a coupon. If it is, any way I can sell it? Wasn't a huge fan of first, so making 50$ off that could be nice :p


Thanks for any and all help guys,

Cheers :D ,
Seb
 

seb1234

Honorable
Aug 21, 2012
5
0
10,520
Interesting post, thanks! But would you, or anyone for that matter, have any imput on an AMD chipset? I see a lot of builds with intel parts, but I find that the CPU is simply way too expensive for my tastes.

Appart from that, from what I could see in the build, my parts are relatively comparable to those in the build, Gtx 660 just under 670, etc. which seems promissing since the system posted absolutely destroyed BF3 :D!