Building a gaming PC now, good or bad idea?

[BoomerD]

so i went back to frys and made them price match the i5 for 169.99, i bought it yesterday for 209.

then i picked up the gtx570 FTW edition and they price matched it to a regular gtx 570 that was on amazon so it cost 349.49 and the mobo they didnt have so i picked up the msi p55-gd65 for 149.99(let me know about this one)

total for those 3 was around ~740. but my friend works there so an additional 10% from that so it came out to like 665 and some change

I'd have recommended an ASUS board over the MSI, but that's just me. I know some folks here seem to like MSI.

 

[mfenn]

yeah, except for the PSU.

Most good(~100USD) PSU's are all capable and cert'd for sli/xfire.

Why on earth would you spend $100 on a PSU for a single GPU rig? You really don't need any more that a quality ($50-60) 550W to 650W.

 

[bubapapua]

Of course, building a gaming PC is a good idea, and $1,200 is enough to make a gaming system. If you want to play the latest games (2009-2011), at least you need a dual core processor, 3-4 GB of RAM, and GeForce 9800 GT or GeForce GTS 250 (minimum choice).

 

[Tequila]

I was looking at going dual GPUs this time also, would it be worth it and possible in that price range?

See http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_560_Ti_SLI/24.html for the most bang for your buck. I'd get the gtx 580 if it fits in your budget otherwise a 5870 is probably the next best deal if you can still find one.

I went with my first SLI setup ever with two MSI 560gtx Ti Twin Frozr. While it is pretty amazing I don't feel it was worth it. Sure it does provides me with some future proofing, but currently I do just fine with one of them. By the time I feel like I really need both there will be a much better single card solution out there. Total cost for me was $249(Amazon) + $259 (Fry's). If I had to do it over I'd go for the gtx 580 now and in the future get the next upgrade. I'll probably end up giving one away to a friend of mine.

To give an example, the game I play most is BFBC2. On all high settings with DX11, 8xAA, 16AF, HBAO ON I get 90-110 fps with SLI enabled, dropping to 70s sometimes and on rare occasion in the 50s with lots of explosions around me. With SLI disabled, I get around 30fps less with those same settings but if I settle for DX10 then then I'm back up to 100fps again. I haven't bought a more demanding game like Metro 2033 so I can't comment on something that requires more GPU juice.

The thing I do like about the card is it is very quiet and cool but with SLI enabled it gets about as loud as the 4890 I used to have(but still cooler

 

[sour07]

right now with this set up, im running bad company 2 at 100fps with just one GTX 570.

If i need to get another one its going to be next year:biggrin:

 

[mfenn]

Glad you like it! Next year you'll be drooling over the GTX 680 though.

 

[Tequila]

right now with this set up, im running bad company 2 at 100fps with just one GTX 570.

If i need to get another one its going to be next year:biggrin:

DX10 or DX11? 8xAA? Like I said in the previous post I can hit 100fps with DX10 with just one 560 ti. Not a very scientific test however I will get Metro 2033 and do some more realistic testing and try to put together a post on this. Then again, the techpowerup link covers it pretty well.

Anyway, the 570 should be all you need and one 560 Ti is all I really need

 

[sour07]

yea man dx11 8xMSAA 16xAAF at 1080p it looks amazing.

i cant wait to try metro 2033 either and deadspace 2.