3D gaming rig

[Wraith03]

So, my glorious gaming computer is now old, and I'm planning to retire it to actual productive work and build a new one. I'm enamored with 3D technology and figure this is a good time to jump on that bandwagon.

The games I play these days tend to be a year old or more, in part because my computer can no longer run everything on nice settings, but mostly because limitations on my gaming time have left me with a backlog of games I want to play (just starting Dragon Age: Origins). This is probably good, as I don't want to spend a silly amount on my video card.

Budget is always an issue; my goal is to keep the system at or less than $1200 all in (not including case, PSU, mouse, keyboard, and including only OS for software). I haven't built a computer in 4 years and am out of the loop on hardware developments.

Current system is overclocked on stock cooling, and I'd likely want to overclock this one assuming it enhanced the performance/price ratio. Being out of the loop, I don't know what components are good (or even capable) for this.

I've put together a "current build" for today, but I'm not planning to pull the trigger for a month or two. I would need a compelling reason to wait for Christmastime, such as an updated part release (saving $100 bucks or so on deals would probably not be enough).

Upgrade path would be a possible GPU update/addition in a couple of years to extend its life as a gaming platform, Blu-ray drive at some point (3D movies!), then probably a big & noisy HTPC or 2ndary gaming computer for the kids.

This is very much a rough draft, and several components were chosen because they were the first thing I saw that met criteria. I'm starting to educate myself on what's happening in the computer world (and figured it would go faster if I let you good people help educate me), so I don't really know what I should be looking for yet.

I'm interested in comments on the current build, information on what people think will be happening with relevant hardware releases and prices, advice on OS (not sure what the relevant features of the various Windows 7 releases are), general advice on stereoscopic 3D (no experience here either), overclocking comments/substitutions (components on current system were not chosen based on overclocking ability), and any other comments y'all want to throw at me.

Here is what I'm looking at if I were to buy today. Prices were pulled from newegg without combos or shopping around and don't include shipping (I'm aware this is over my $1200 target):

Display - ASUS VG236H 23-inch 3D Display 120Hz w/ Nvidia 3D vision kit - $500
CPU - Core i5-750 Lynfield quad-core - $210
Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3P - $160
Memory - CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) - $115
GPU - MSI N470GTX-M2D12-B GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 - $300
HDD - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s - $95
DVD - cheap DVD-RW
OS - Windows 7 Home Premium OEM - $100

I went with the Nvidia 3D Vision route because it seemed like it would be less of a hassle to set up and use, because of the glowing review for the display on this site, and the list of "Excellent" compatable games includes a number of titles on my to-pay list. Arguments to the contrary are welcome.

Thanks for sticking with me through the wall of text, and thanks in advance for your comments!

 

[mfenn]

Seems like a very reasonable 3D build to me. You didn't list a PSU, are you planning to reuse an existing one?

There are a few places that you can save some cash and keep the same performance.

• The MSI P55A-G55 has a very similar feature set to the UD3P, but is only 125 - 20 rebate
• This G.Skill kit is better for Nehalem parts (due to its lower voltage). It's CAS 9 instead of CAS 7, but that doesn't matter very much.
• The Samsung F3 1TB is pretty much equal to a WD Black, but is $35 cheaper.
• You can save $60 on the GTX 470 if you get the one mentioned in this thread before tomorrow. Even if you don't jump on that deal, you can get GTX 470's for $270 any day of the week.

 

[Wraith03]

Thanks for the response mfenn.

Yes, I will have a PSU after the case/PSU musical chairs game I plan. I should have mentioned and will edit.

I will check out that mobo and hard drive, and appreciate the tip on the memory.

I did see that thread/card after posting. Since I'm not ready to pull the trigger yet, I won't be able to take advantage of that deal. I'll remember to hunt for something cheaper when the time comes.

 

[Davidh373]

ASUS MoBo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-634-_-Product

$109.99

This G.Skill kit is better for Nehalem parts (due to its lower voltage). It's CAS 9 instead of CAS 7, but that doesn't matter very much.
The Samsung F3 1TB is pretty much equal to a WD Black, but is $35 cheaper.
You can save $60 on the GTX 470 if you get the one mentioned in this thread before tomorrow. Even if you don't jump on that deal, you can get GTX 470's for $270 any day of the week.

What he said

 

[mfenn]

EDIT: whoops

 

[Wraith03]

I noticed the Samsung F3 is 3 GB/s and that the ASUS board recommended by David notes that if either the USB 3.0 or SATA 6 GB/s are active, the bandwidth to the GPU gets cut down (as I understand it, the mobo in the OP only limits the PCI bus when both of those features are used).

I like the savings on those components, but I wonder what the performance trade off is. Twice as fast on large disk access operations, but there's still physical seek time, etc. so maybe it's not very noticeable in normal use without a SSD?

 

[Sp12]

Performance trade off for Sata3? Nothing for mechanical disks. Trade off for x8 PCIe link? Somewhere below 5% for current GPUs.

 

[mfenn]

I noticed the Samsung F3 is 3 GB/s and that the ASUS board recommended by David notes that if either the USB 3.0 or SATA 6 GB/s are active, the bandwidth to the GPU gets cut down (as I understand it, the mobo in the OP only limits the PCI bus when both of those features are used).

I like the savings on those components, but I wonder what the performance trade off is. Twice as fast on large disk access operations, but there's still physical seek time, etc. so maybe it's not very noticeable in normal use without a SSD?

It's not technically possible to change the bandwidth of the PCI bus. According to the UD3P's manual it does the same thing as the ASUS board with the PCIe bandwidth.

As to your other question, you should never use a normal HDD with the Marvell SATA 6Gb/s controller. It is actually a slower implementation that the Intel ICH10.