Gaming Build (First time)

C

ChongDOTcom

New Member
I've never bought a high-end computer, but I plan to with my next one. My budget is around $3200 and under (excluding monitor, keyboard, speakers, etc; which I've calculated for my choices to be an extra $1300 or so). I've been studying a ton of custom gaming PC websites, looking for great specs at a good price.

Here's the one I'm leaning on right now from CyberPower at $2967 with free shipping (Most of these prices are upgrades from the least expensive options):

Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 800D Full Tower Gaming Case (An addition of $223, I want a great looking case for such an investment)
Fans: Maximum Enemax 120MM Case Cooling Fans (Addition of $45)
CPU: AMD Phenom™II X6 1090T Six-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology (An addition of $246)
Cooling system: (All Venom OC Certified) Asetek 510LC Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (An addition of $20)
Motherboard: GigaByte GA-790XTA-UD4 AMD 790X Chipset CrossFireX Support for Socket AM3 AMD Phenom II CPU DDR3/1333 Mainboard ATX w/ 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, IEEE1394a, USB3.0, 2 x SATA-III RAID, 2 Gen2 PCIe, 2 PCIe X1, & 3 PCI (An addition of $69)
Memory: 8GB (2GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Module A-Data Gaming Series with Heat Spreader(An addition of $176)
Video card: ATI Radeon HD 5970 PCI-E 16X 2GB GDDR5 Video Card [DirectX 11 Support] (An addition of $876)
Power supply: 850 Watts Power Supplies CoolerMaster Silent Pro (An addition of $112)
Hard Drive: 640GB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD Raid 0 (An addition of $88)
Data Hard Drive: 500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD ($59)
Hard Drive cooling system: Vigor iSURF II Hard Disk Drive Cooling System ($21)
Optical drive: Samsung SH-B083L 8X Blu-Ray Player & DVDRW Combo ($104)
Sound card: Creative Labs X-FI XtremeGamer 24-BIT PCI Sound Card ($95)
Network card: Killer™ 2100 - Gigabit Maximum Network Performance Online Gaming Network Interface Card (An addition of $139)
Card reader: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer ($3)
OS: Microsoft® Windows® 7 Ultimate 64-Bit Edition ($209)
Ultra care: Ultra Enhanced Packaging Solution - Protect Your Dream System During Transit ($19)
CoolerMaster Thermal Fusion 400 Extreme Performance CPU - Thermal Compound Optimized for Thermal Dissipation ($10)
Professional Wiring for All WIRING Inside The System Chassis - Minimize Cable Exposure, Maximize Airflow in Your System ($19)

Please give me any advice on what I need to add/take off, and any other computers around my specs. How would this fare in gaming? Crysis above 70fps?

P.S.- I'm too scared to build one myself. I could definitely try, but I'm just worried that it's way too complicated (I've seen the guide here, but still) and it's definitely not going to look as good as a custom computer from a manufacturer (Like the superfluous lights and professional wiring).
 
Fully agree with linkin about building your own because with that money you could build a system that needed a small nuclear reactor (just kidding on the reactor part).

Seriously, you could save yourself cash by building it yourself or having a friend do it with you who has experience. For example on NewEgg they do offer two ATI Radeon HD 5970 cards for $1,230 and $1,099 (though they are out of stock). The next one in expense is $750 + $8.50 in shipping.

Seriously look into the Corair power supply line. Excellent.

Nice motherboard but the 890FX series with that cpu is top notch.

What is the make of the harddrives? I hope one isn't a Seagate 11 series because the fail rate on them is high. Their 12 series are fine. Have you run RAID before?
 
Wow that Newegg deal for two video cards is an absolute steal! I think 2 of the most high-end video card is unnessecary for me... do you think one of those cards would be possible to run a game like Crysis at optimal settings very smoothly?

I'll be wary of that hard drive then...

Hmm... if I can really save that much, I think I could try building one. Do you have any idea how much money parts for a system with similar specs would cost?
 
ChongDOTcom said:
Wow that Newegg deal for two video cards is an absolute steal! I think 2 of the most high-end video card is unnessecary for me... do you think one of those cards would be possible to run a game like Crysis at optimal settings very smoothly?

I'll be wary of that hard drive then...

Hmm... if I can really save that much, I think I could try building one. Do you have any idea how much money parts for a system with similar specs would cost?
Click to expand...

With your system specs and one of those cards you will definitely run Crysis. Another possibility is to to buy two lesser cost cards but still of high quality and Crossfire but a single card will do you very well.

There is all kinds of solid configurations for the money avaliable to you plus you could get one serious monitor with the money you save.

* Look into the CoolerMaster HAF cases.

* I personally love dedidicated sound cards particularly HT Omega's offerings and the Asus Xonar line. But onboard audio has come a long, long way. Many are of the position that unless you are doing music recording and are an audiophile the onboard should do you fine for gaming. That will save you $ right there.

* To be fair and if what you list from Cyberpower on the 1090T cpu the cost to you is less than what Newegg sells it for but do you really need the Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit edition? 64-bit is the way to go, but you can get 7 in a less expensive OS offering and still do you very well.

* Here is the thing to do: Play! Have fun researching and post here what you have found and are considering. There are plenty of knowlegeable folks here that will lend good advice.
 
I think you are paying way too much. For 1 the AMD 6 core CPU is not faster than even the i5-750 for gaming, photo shop maybe, maybe.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-phenom-ii-x6-1090t-890fx,2613-9.html

Why a sound card? No SSD? The 5970 is $699 with no avalability issues on Newegg for the last week, $876 to add it??? What did it come with a negative card?

I would want a Corsair PSU before I paid for a CM PSU.

You can do way better than this for that much money.
 
I agree that is way too expensive for what you are getting. If your built it yourself you'd have a much better system. For $3200 you could easily do an i7980x instead of the 1090T.
 
Slacker7 said:
With your system specs and one of those cards you will definitely run Crysis. Another possibility is to to buy two lesser cost cards but still of high quality and Crossfire but a single card will do you very well.

There is all kinds of solid configurations for the money avaliable to you plus you could get one serious monitor with the money you save.

* Look into the CoolerMaster HAF cases.

* I personally love dedidicated sound cards particularly HT Omega's offerings and the Asus Xonar line. But onboard audio has come a long, long way. Many are of the position that unless you are doing music recording and are an audiophile the onboard should do you fine for gaming. That will save you $ right there.

* To be fair and if what you list from Cyberpower on the 1090T cpu the cost to you is less than what Newegg sells it for but do you really need the Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit edition? 64-bit is the way to go, but you can get 7 in a less expensive OS offering and still do you very well.

* Here is the thing to do: Play! Have fun researching and post here what you have found and are considering. There are plenty of knowlegeable folks here that will lend good advice.
Click to expand...

Gabe63 said:
I think you are paying way too much. For 1 the AMD 6 core CPU is not faster than even the i5-750 for gaming, photo shop maybe, maybe.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-phenom-ii-x6-1090t-890fx,2613-9.html

Why a sound card? No SSD? The 5970 is $699 with no avalability issues on Newegg for the last week, $876 to add it??? What did it come with a negative card?

I would want a Corsair PSU before I paid for a CM PSU.

You can do way better than this for that much money.
Click to expand...
Thanks a lot for the input!

I have thought about using two video cards, but the power consumption seemed a bit high. Would two lesser cost video cards have a better overall effect than one ATI HD 5970? I'm a little confused with the many different brands of the ATI HD 5970 on Newegg, but if I do go with this card then I'll purchase the best reviewed brand (Which is Powercolor).

I looked into the Cooler Master HAF cases, and I really like the 922, which is a medium-sized tower. The big reason for this one over it's larger cousin is that it's much better looking in my opinion. Do you think I will need extra cooling support even with this case that seems to have cooling as one of its major function?

I looked up Windows 7 versions and realized that the Ultimate edition really doesn't have an effect on games... my amateur self just believed the text beside that version on Cyberpower: "The ultimate gaming OS!" I'll just go with Windows Home Premium, which is perfectly fine for my needs and will save $100!

For video cards, I'll have to say I do care a deal about sound. I'm a bit of an audiophile, and I need great sound not just for immersive gaming but also for occasional music. I believe I'll be going with the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional, which seems to have a very good rep.

I found this Corsair power supply, which looks good.

Also, is a solid-state drive really necessary? I know they're way faster, but they're extremely expensive for the low storage. I forgot to answer your question Slacker7, but no, I've never used RAID.

I've looked at these two Intel processors: The Core i7 975 and the Core i7 960. The 960 is about $400 cheaper than the 975, so I believe I'll go with that. What do you guys think?
 
ChongDOTcom said:
Thanks a lot for the input!

I have thought about using two video cards, but the power consumption seemed a bit high. Would two lesser cost video cards have a better overall effect than one ATI HD 5970? I'm a little confused with the many different brands of the ATI HD 5970 on Newegg, but if I do go with this card then I'll purchase the best reviewed brand (Which is Powercolor).

I looked into the Cooler Master HAF cases, and I really like the 922, which is a medium-sized tower. The big reason for this one over it's larger cousin is that it's much better looking in my opinion. Do you think I will need extra cooling support even with this case that seems to have cooling as one of its major function?

I looked up Windows 7 versions and realized that the Ultimate edition really doesn't have an effect on games... my amateur self just believed the text beside that version on Cyberpower: "The ultimate gaming OS!" I'll just go with Windows Home Premium, which is perfectly fine for my needs and will save $100!

For video cards, I'll have to say I do care a deal about sound. I'm a bit of an audiophile, and I need great sound not just for immersive gaming but also for occasional music. I believe I'll be going with the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional, which seems to have a very good rep.

I found this Corsair power supply, which looks good.

Also, is a solid-state drive really necessary? I know they're way faster, but they're extremely expensive for the low storage. I forgot to answer your question Slacker7, but no, I've never used RAID.

I've looked at these two Intel processors: The Core i7 975 and the Core i7 960. The 960 is about $400 cheaper than the 975, so I believe I'll go with that. What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

If you are an audiophile, I won't recommend X-Fi card. They are not very good for music.

Also, Since SSD is expensive, most ppl would get a 60 - 100GB for OS + Programme. Then get a normal HDD for storage.

For CPU, core i7 980X for $1000 budget. BTW, I personally don't see the point of spending extra $280 to get core i7 960 than getting core i7 930/ 920...
 
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ChongDOTcom said:
I have thought about using two video cards, but the power consumption seemed a bit high. Would two lesser cost video cards have a better overall effect than one ATI HD 5970? I'm a little confused with the many different brands of the ATI HD 5970 on Newegg, but if I do go with this card then I'll purchase the best reviewed brand (Which is Powercolor).
Click to expand...

two hd 5870s are about an hd 5970 (in fact an hd 5970 is just two hd 5870s, so crossfiring an hd 5970 with an hd 5870 is like tri-firing three hd 5870s). i personally would go for an hd 5970, possibly waiting until the powercolor hd 5970 12 comes out, which is a beast of a card (although i really want to see the reviews). a 5970 should be able to handle anything out there right now and in the near future. in a couple years if you don't like the performance anymore, you can always tri-fire with an hd 5870 for a little extra performance (but that should be way down the road).

the best brands are probably xfx, asus, and sapphire. i would try to go for one of those. xfx has a nice double lifetime warranty which comes in handy in a number of ways.
 
daisymtc said:
If you are an audiophile, I won't recommend X-Fi card. They are not very good for music.

Also, Since SSD is expensive, most ppl would get a 60 - 100GB for OS + Programme. Then get a normal HDD for storage.

For CPU, core i7 980X for $1000 budget. BTW, I personally don't see the point of spending extra $280 to get core i7 960 than getting core i7 930/ 920...
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I looked up the HT Omega Striker, and it looks good for music, but not really for gaming, which is my main priority. If an X-Fi card does games very well like many people say, then I'll be fine with music suffering a bit. Just as long as my games sound amazing!

That SSD idea sounds smart, I'll try that.

The 980x seems like a good option, but I won't do video editing or anything other than browsing the web and a lot of gaming, so it seems unnecessary.

joh06937 said:
two hd 5870s are about an hd 5970 (in fact an hd 5970 is just two hd 5870s, so crossfiring an hd 5970 with an hd 5870 is like tri-firing three hd 5870s). i personally would go for an hd 5970, possibly waiting until the powercolor hd 5970 12 comes out, which is a beast of a card (although i really want to see the reviews). a 5970 should be able to handle anything out there right now and in the near future. in a couple years if you don't like the performance anymore, you can always tri-fire with an hd 5870 for a little extra performance (but that should be way down the road).

the best brands are probably xfx, asus, and sapphire. i would try to go for one of those. xfx has a nice double lifetime warranty which comes in handy in a number of ways.
Click to expand...
Thanks, then I'll go with an HD 5970.
I'll keep an eye out for the Powercolor HD 5970 12 since I won't be getting the computer parts this instant.
 
not sure if it has been mentioned yet but 8 gb of ram is overkill. you only need 6 at most if you are only gaming and not doing ram intensive things. if you have a dual channel motherboard, go with 4 gb. if you have a tri-channel motherboard, go with 6 gb.
 
I think you should get an i7 930 and a top end mobo and ati hd 5970 CF and 12Gb DDR3 2000MHZ RAM and a case by your choice but a full tower one and a good quality 1000+W PSU and also A high end CPU cooler like Prolimatech megahelms or a Noctua NH-D14 or a thermalright venomous or Liquid cooling if you are ok with installing it and maintaining it and an SSD.Go for a good sound card since you have a really good budget,

About the monitor get an IPS panel
 
for a case, i would go with the antec 1200. i think they look great, have plenty of space, and have great airflow.

mihir said:
I think you should get an i7 930 and a top end mobo and ati hd 5970 CF and 12Gb DDR3 2000MHZ RAM and a case by your choice but a full tower one and a good quality 1000+W PSU and also A high end CPU cooler like Prolimatech megahelms or a Noctua NH-D14 or a thermalright venomous or Liquid cooling if you are ok with installing it and maintaining it and an SSD.Go for a good sound card since you have a really good budget,

About the monitor get an IPS panel
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not worth it at the moment. often times that setup performs worse than a single hd 5970. for now, go with a single one.

mihir said:
I think you should get an i7 930 and a top end mobo and ati hd 5970 CF and 12Gb DDR3 2000MHZ RAM and a case by your choice but a full tower one and a good quality 1000+W PSU and also A high end CPU cooler like Prolimatech megahelms or a Noctua NH-D14 or a thermalright venomous or Liquid cooling if you are ok with installing it and maintaining it and an SSD.Go for a good sound card since you have a really good budget,

About the monitor get an IPS panel
Click to expand...

overkill.

mihir said:
I think you should get an i7 930 and a top end mobo and ati hd 5970 CF and 12Gb DDR3 2000MHZ RAM and a case by your choice but a full tower one and a good quality 1000+W PSU and also A high end CPU cooler like Prolimatech megahelms or a Noctua NH-D14 or a thermalright venomous or Liquid cooling if you are ok with installing it and maintaining it and an SSD.Go for a good sound card since you have a really good budget,

About the monitor get an IPS panel
Click to expand...

i would also go with something like a 1000w GOOD BRAND psu.

mihir said:
I think you should get an i7 930 and a top end mobo and ati hd 5970 CF and 12Gb DDR3 2000MHZ RAM and a case by your choice but a full tower one and a good quality 1000+W PSU and also A high end CPU cooler like Prolimatech megahelms or a Noctua NH-D14 or a thermalright venomous or Liquid cooling if you are ok with installing it and maintaining it and an SSD.Go for a good sound card since you have a really good budget,

About the monitor get an IPS panel
Click to expand...

with that budget, i would also consider liquid cooling. that way you can just ramp up that cpu :good:

mihir said:
I think you should get an i7 930 and a top end mobo and ati hd 5970 CF and 12Gb DDR3 2000MHZ RAM and a case by your choice but a full tower one and a good quality 1000+W PSU and also A high end CPU cooler like Prolimatech megahelms or a Noctua NH-D14 or a thermalright venomous or Liquid cooling if you are ok with installing it and maintaining it and an SSD.Go for a good sound card since you have a really good budget,

About the monitor get an IPS panel
Click to expand...

yeah, but only for the os. get another for files and other things.

mihir said:
I think you should get an i7 930 and a top end mobo and ati hd 5970 CF and 12Gb DDR3 2000MHZ RAM and a case by your choice but a full tower one and a good quality 1000+W PSU and also A high end CPU cooler like Prolimatech megahelms or a Noctua NH-D14 or a thermalright venomous or Liquid cooling if you are ok with installing it and maintaining it and an SSD.Go for a good sound card since you have a really good budget,

About the monitor get an IPS panel
Click to expand...

like (insert name) said earlier, you really don't need a sound card if you have a motherboard with onboard 8-channel audio.
 
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yes dont go for the gulftown it is practically useless for gaming go with the i7 930 it is more than enough
 
Just because you have that much money does not mean you need to spend it. The i7-930 and 1 5970, a Corsair 850TX, 160g SSD, 6GB Ram, 1tb HDD, and any good MOBO and parts will make you a very fast gaming computer. Get a good cooler, the case you want etc.
 
Gabe63 said:
Just because you have that much money does not mean you need to spend it. The i7-930 and 1 5970, a Corsair 850TX, 160g SSD, 6GB Ram, 1tb HDD, and any good MOBO and parts will make you a very fast gaming computer. Get a good cooler, the case you want etc.
Click to expand...

I think he should go with a 1000w so he has ample space for CF and overclocking

@john06937
I didnt know about the 5970 CF performing lower than the 5970 single card.
thanks
 
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