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Building a new gaming rig

M

MechD

Junior Member
Hey guys,

My current gaming rig has put in several years of faithful service, but sadly is starting to show it's age pretty badly in recent game titles. Combine that with the fact my monitor is slowly giving up the ghost, and it is time for me to build a new gaming rig.

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing. Gaming (BF3 Skyrim etc)

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread. $1000-$1200

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from. USA/Newegg

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc. No brand preference

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are. Nope

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads. Of Course

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds. Planning to OC the CPU and unlock the GPU

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with. 1920x1080

9. WHEN do you plan to build it? ASAP


So this is what I'm currently thinking to purchase:

CPU: i5 2500K $295 AR (Bundled with Mobo)
MOBO: GA-Z68XP-UD3
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws 8GB DDR 1600 $30
GPU: Sapphire HD 6950 2GB $260 AR
Hard Drive: Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.D 750GB $110
Case: CM HAF 912 $60
PSU: XFX Core 650W $60 AR
CPU Cooler: CM Hyper 212+ $26
Monitor: Asus VG236HE $290 AR

Thoughts? Critiques? I'm all ears!
 
MechD - Love the majority of your build however I would change a few things personally. First up I would switch the hdd out for a SSD. The current hard drive prices are horrible. Either buy a used hard drive or buy a SSD currently. Those are my 2 pennies on storage. Personally, I would go with a 64 gig crucial m4 for the same price, then use a random HDD laying around for storage, or grab one from a member for a cheap 20-40 bucks 🙂.

As far as the rest of the build goes, I would switch the power supply too, but that is just me. I personally don't like the xfx name brand from bad experiences so I recommend the corsair brand as I am using it now and have been over the years and have never had an issue. They have GREAT deals on the cx430, tx650 and tx750. I would go with the tx650 as it can run any single card on the market, if you want the option for SLI later on, go with the tx750.

Other then that the build looks amazing. Just dont be to surprised if you can't unlock the GPU as they are getting harder and harder to find 🙂

I'm not a big fan of the looks of that case either but thats pure preference lol.
 
XFX 650W is only $50AR shipped from us.ncix, and you can get Antec 300 for $35 AR if you want to save a bit. Sapphire 6950 non-dirt3 is only $245AR. The rest of the build is all :thumbsup:.

fastamdman said:
or grab one from a member for a cheap 20-40 bucks 🙂.
Click to expand...

His postcount is insufficient for browsing the FS/FT forum...

I would go with the tx650 as it can run any single card on the market, if you want the option for SLI later on, go with the tx750.
Click to expand...
TX650 V2 is limited to two PCI-e connectors, while XFX 650W has four so it can actually handle 6950 crossfire, and it costs less after rebate.
 
I would not buy a disk right now. Get an old disk from somewhere and use it the next couple of months, until disk prices are back to normal.
 
SSD drives do very little for gaming. There is one area it does help. I think the game was Crysis: something about loading textures, but all the SSD did was stop the dips in frames per second when the textures were loaded. IIRC this was one of maybe 2 or 3 games that did this. WOW might be another. An SSD is nice but if the machine is for nothing but gaming you won't be missing anything. I use an HDD in my game rig. I use to use an OCZ Vertex 2. That Hitachi drive is an amazing drive off-the-rip.
 
BTRY B 529th FA BN said:
SSD drives do very little for gaming. There is one area it does help. I think the game was Crysis: something about loading textures, but all the SSD did was stop the dips in frames per second when the textures were loaded. IIRC this was one of maybe 2 or 3 games that did this. WOW might be another. An SSD is nice but if the machine is for nothing but gaming you won't be missing anything. I use an HDD in my game rig. I use to use an OCZ Vertex 2. That Hitachi drive is an amazing drive off-the-rip.
Click to expand...

Actually you couldn't be more wrong. SSD's are a HUGE help when it comes to gaming, especially with games that experience a lot of loading. For example take a look at this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47dt-y27eYk

This loading is done A LOT in game and is much much quicker with a SSD vs a HDD, same thing with a lot of other games.

For EVERYTHING ssd>hdd.
 
"SSD drives do very little for gaming." "but if the machine is for nothing but gaming you won't be missing anything."

To me, those statements are false. There can be HUGE differences between ssd and hdd while gaming.

Load times are important to gamers, just like fps is. No one wants to wait x amount of time for that level to load 🙂 SSD's minimize load times drastically.
 
for the sake of not arguing i did mention WOW, aka World of Warcraft and it's texture loading times as with Crysis

I will not mention that HDDs are currently better for storage on a storage-space per dollar basis.

Good luck OP
 
With the current HDD prices, it makes sense to go with a SSD if you don't need a lot of storage space. I would personally use a SSD for a boot drive with a few games and then find a used HDD for storage. The flooding in Thailand created horrible hdd prices.
 
OP, it looks like you've done your homework. I agree with lehtv that you should get the non-Dirt3 edition of the 6950 2GB. They are the same card, just without the game.
 
Hey guys,

Thanks for the prompt replies, it looks like I'm heading in the right direction! I will definitely consider tossing in an SSD, I keep hearing very good things about them.

Couple more quick questions, this isn't the first place that has mentioned not getting my hopes up about being able to unlock the 6950 cards due to rarity, I'd be curious to know if this warning is more in the tone of "not every i5 2500k can OC to 4GHz" or are we talking "yeah, good luck with that"?

I was browsing Newegg and noticed the Asus GTX 570 that includes a copy of a game I was already planning to buy (Batman Arkham City) for $320 AR. Since I already own a copy of the game that AMD is offering (Deus Ex: HR), and don't really have any interest in Dirt3, I'm thinking the extra $25 for a sure thing is looking kinda good... Thoughts?
 
I was browsing Newegg and noticed the Asus GTX 570 that includes a copy of a game I was already planning to buy (Batman Arkham City) for $320 AR. Since I already own a copy of the game that AMD is offering (Deus Ex: HR), and don't really have any interest in Dirt3, I'm thinking the extra $25 for a sure thing is looking kinda good... Thoughts?
Click to expand...
That's actually not a bad idea. Overall $25 more for a pretty big increase in NVIDIA biased games (see here). The Asus card, being a huge triple slot monster, runs cool and quiet and is very overclockable at least to some accounts I've read. It would probably OC to 580 speeds with a bit of voltage increase.

The only thing I'd fault that choice for is only 1.3GB VRAM and higher power consumption. 6950 2GB is better if you ever go dual-GPU, for those two reasons and the fact that the asus 570 takes 3 slots. XFX 650w could handle 6950 cf.
 
Last edited:
MechD said:
Hey guys,

Thanks for the prompt replies, it looks like I'm heading in the right direction! I will definitely consider tossing in an SSD, I keep hearing very good things about them.

Couple more quick questions, this isn't the first place that has mentioned not getting my hopes up about being able to unlock the 6950 cards due to rarity, I'd be curious to know if this warning is more in the tone of "not every i5 2500k can OC to 4GHz" or are we talking "yeah, good luck with that"?

I was browsing Newegg and noticed the Asus GTX 570 that includes a copy of a game I was already planning to buy (Batman Arkham City) for $320 AR. Since I already own a copy of the game that AMD is offering (Deus Ex: HR), and don't really have any interest in Dirt3, I'm thinking the extra $25 for a sure thing is looking kinda good... Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Nothing is guaranteed of course, but the chances are good that you will be able to unlock the Sapphire dual-fan 6950 2GB. If you don't want Dirt3, get the non-Dirt3 edition for $245. The GTX 570 is in no way worth $75 more than an unlockable 6950 2GB.
 
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