Buying a new gaming rig, need an advice

King of Hell

New Member
my cost budget: $1,800, of course the less the better

primary use: Gaming & HD Movies

a MUST for my rig:
-3D support
-USB 3.0
-a huge full tower case
-VERY HIGH storage

now I wanna make it as cheap as possible, just because my budget is 1,800, doesn't mean I have to spend all of it.

CPU:
-I'm stuck between intel Core i7 & AMD Phenom II X6, some people say i7 is better for gaming, while others say the AMD X6 WILL be better for gaming once the new games hit with support of hexa cores. I also heard that the AMD X6 bottlenecks in SLI.

GPU:
as much future proof as possible.
now what I want is, a nice integrated nVidia card, but I'll buy 2 GTX 480 in the future for 3-way SLI with the integrated card, is that possible? if not, can I buy a cheap card that supports SLI, so I can add the 2 480s later?

cooling:
do I have to get a liquid cooling kit to overclock my CPUs & GPUs? & by overclocking, I mean seriously raising the numbers. the PC would be on 24/7, a reboot once a week, & a full night break a month (roughly).

the case:
does aluminium keep the parts cooler? what's the best case that can hold 3 GPUs, & as many HDDs as possible. I use my HD camcorder extensively, & I want a safe place for all my recordings. I also pretty much record all cutscenes of my games, make my own parodies for most of my games & movies, add in the best moments of my gaming time, & keep ALL my games installed & ready to be used any time I'm in the mood....etc. the point is, I'm very heavy on data.

Hard Drives:
so does a 1 SSD 64GB primary hard drive for the windows set up really make a difference? SSDs are really expensive, & if the change isn't worth it, I'm not gonna bother.

Power Supply:
According to my setup, how many watts do you think I need?

Monitor:
the cheapest HD 3D-ready monitor, how much is it? & 3D glasses, how much are they?

online gaming:
I've heard about a Network card that is specifically designed for online gaming, is it worth the cost?

Gamepad:
I want one gamepad, Wireless, RECHARGEABLE, & looks exactly like the 360 controller, too bad that controller needs stupid batteries.

Headset:
Wireless, surround sound headset, it doesn't have to be high-end, it just needs to be very good.

that pretty much covers my issues, I don't want to rush into things, I wanna stay cool & pick my system without regretting it later.
& try not to break the Budget, in fact, I'd be happy if it costs 1,000...my budget just means I don't mind spending 1,800 if I have to.
 
CPU - Core i7 is faster. By the time popular game support 6 core, it would be few years later. However, Intel is planning to change the platform again, so if you want 'future proof', get AMD AM3.

On the other hand, if you want to run SLi, intel would be better choice as AMD don't have much choice on motherboard for SLi.

Video card - I don't recommend running GTX480 in SLi. It is purely due to they are too hot and too costly. If you want NVIDIA, I recommend GTX 460, but it can't compare with GTX480
BTW, I don't think you want a mobo with integrated video card, they are usually low end and useless. If you want intel core i7, get X58 chipset. AM3 with SLi will be 980a, while AM3 with crossfire with 890FX

HDD - SSD drive do make a difference.
 
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Use The AMD proccesssor, use LAN as that is quicker than wireless, u can get a 2tb hard drive for about $70 so that will be good. You either need to water cool or phase cool. Get a decent gaming card or mabye even get dual graphics. Very fast dvd drive which will support almost all games. Use the 360 controller but get the usb charger which u can use while playing. I reckon about 700 watt PSU.

Thats about as much as i can help you. :)
 
the PC would be on 24/7, a reboot once a week, & a full night break a month (roughly).
For this ^ reason I'd say to think about hdd raid instead of an ssd. Altho navigating within the os on ssd may be a bit snappier than a single hdd, the boot and shutdown times don't really apply. And there are modes like sleep/hibernate/etc that you may want to use, that are not ssd friendly.
 
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