Gaming Computer Build #1

C

conscript232

New Member
Hey all,

I'm looking to build a good gaming computer to replace my laptop now that I'm done school and have some disposable income. I'm looking to spend between 1500-1750 CAD not including the monitor. Bear in mind this is my first build so theres probably some bad choices in the parts :P

Case - INWIN Maelstrom Gamer Case (Black)
Processor - AMD FX-8120 Processor 3.1GHz w. 16mb cache
Motherboard - ASUS Crosshair V Formula w. Dual DDR3 1600, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit LAN, SLI/CrossFireX
RAM - Patriot Extreme Performance Sector 5 Series DDR3 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-10666 Enhanced Latency Kit
Memory - Seagate 1TB Barracuda SATA III w. 64MB cache & OCZ Vertex 2 E Series 2.5" SATA II Solid State Drive 120GB
Video Card - 2x Sapphire Raedon HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E w. Dual DVI, HDMI DisplayPort
Power Supply - Corsair Enthusiast Series TX850 V2 Power Supply
Sound Card - Creative Labs Sound Blaster XF-I XTreme Audio PCI-E Sound Card
CPU Cooler - Scythe Ninja 3 CPU Cooler

Then there were just some cheap fans and a DVD drive. Like I said though this will be the first machine I've built, so if there are glaring problems, thats probably why. Let me know how far off the mark I am as far as a good gaming machine and what I should change

Thanks!
 
is there a reason for that case, it doesn't have any form of cable management whatsoever, and it isn't very nice looking to me either.

FX cpus are a nono. for the price a 2500k will kill it at everything, especially since nothing but fsx will even get a single frame extra from 8 cores, and its 8 cores actually perform a good bit lower than the 2500k's 4.

Motherboard is decent but ASUS aren't doing too well atm, right now gigabyte is the way to go man, just as good or better quality but it has better support and reliability right now.

you want a sata III ssd, they are a ton faster, almost 2x.

a single gtx 570 can still max almost anything out to date and will leave you more open to upgrading instead of having to replace 2 cards you can just buy one. plus sli and crossfire have driver issues in a good number of games at launch at least, but they are normally patched i believe

for the fx 850 was prob smart, but for 2 570's and a 2500k and all that you could easily get by with 750-800w

unless you have a 200 or more buck surround sound audio system there is absolutely no need at all for that sound card.

iu'm guessing you plan to overclock? not sure how good that cooler is.

For a first try that's overall pretty good though. Also you need an operating system

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986
 
As has been said, go for an Intel 1155 build.

Also, it would be slightly foolish to buy a pair of 6850's now. The release of the 7xxx series gpu's is just around the corner, which will at least push down the price of current kit.
 
Spesh said:
As has been said, go for an Intel 1155 build.

Also, it would be slightly foolish to buy a pair of 6850's now. The release of the 7xxx series gpu's is just around the corner, which will at least push down the price of current kit.
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forgot about those, for right now i'd spend like 70 on a 5670 which rebate around 50, then in a few months go up to a 7950 or 7870, or whatever the GTX600 equivilent is, save some money and only have to deal with lower res gaming for a month or 2
 
So, I'm gonna do my best to answer the questions and respond to the suggestions given.

I really like the look of the case, which is why I chose it. As far as the lack of cable management goes, how big of an issue is this? I don't even know what cable management refers to at this point :(

After looking into the processor, I decided to replace the FX series one I originally chose with the i5 2500k.

As far as the motherboard goes, I want to stick with Asus simply based on the fact my friends have always had great luck with them and I don't want to go to far away from familiar territory. I will look into gigabyte motherboards though if the overall consensus is that they blow the Asus boards away.

I replaced the SSD with a slightly smaller one (90GB instead of 120GB) but it is SATA III rather than II so that should help.

I reduced the power supply to an 800watt rather than the 850. I'd rather have the buffer there and not need it than need it and not have it.

With regard to the video cards I need to get all of this out of the way in one go, as come spring I'm going to be dropping my savings on a new car, and can't afford to be putting more money into the computer. I'd rather just get a good setup now and not worry about it down the road. I've replaced the crossfireX cards with Intel compatible ones (2 GTX 560) If the response is overwhelmingly to go with a single card though I think that I would go with a eVGA GTX 570 Superclocked card.

After revisions, the new setup is this

Case - INWIN Maelstrom Gamer Case (Black)
Processor - Intel Core i5-2500k Processor, 3.3GHz w. 6MB cache
Motherboard - ASUS P8Z68-V Pro/Gen 3 w. DDR3 1600, 7.1 audio, Gigabit LAN, 1394, PCI-E, Quad Crossfire/SLi
RAM - Patriot Gamer 2 Series, Division 2 edition, DDR3 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-12800 Enhanced Latency Kit
Memory - Seagate 1TB Barracuda SATA III w. 64MB cache & Corsair Force Series 3 SATA III, 90GB
Video Card - 2x Gigabyte GV-N56GOC-1CI GeForce GTX 560 OC 1GB PCI-E w. Dual DVI, HDMI, Display Port
or
eVGA GeForce GTX 570 SuperClocked 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI
Power Supply - Corsair Gaming Series GS800 Power Supply
CPU Cooler - Scythe Ninja 3 CPU Cooler

Better? Worse? Comments are all appreciated!
 
Where in Canada are you?

Also, I would go with the OCZ Vertex3 120GB SSD. !!

Depending on price of the 570 superclocked...you could get one like mine a 570 with 2.5GB ddr5 and just over clock the card yourself!
 
looking pretty good.
RE the case, cable mangement is pretty darn important. My case was a cheapie, about $40, and it has no proper cable management. You can sort of get away with it by having a modular PSU, but it's better to spend a little extra dosh and have a tidy build.
 
@Laquer Head - I'm in Calgary, Alberta. As far as the GTX 570 goes, the superclocked one is a good 50 dollars cheaper at the moment, and all of this needs to be bought so I can start saving for other stuff. If they had any of the 2.5GB in stock anywhere I'd get one in an instant.

@Perkomate - I'll have to have a look for some other case options I guess.
 
conscript232 said:
@Laquer Head - I'm in Calgary, Alberta. As far as the GTX 570 goes, the superclocked one is a good 50 dollars cheaper at the moment, and all of this needs to be bought so I can start saving for other stuff. If they had any of the 2.5GB in stock anywhere I'd get one in an instant.

@Perkomate - I'll have to have a look for some other case options I guess.
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Sweet man, that's where I am...

Have you been to Memory Express? They are building a new one in the NE off 32nd--used to be a car dealership so it'll be huge!!!
 
Memory Express is where I'll be building the computer. As much as I would like to head up to the new one and check it out, I live literally out of the city to the SW, so getting anywhere is kind of a pain...

Had a look at some more cases, and one of the ones that stood out is the Cooler Master HAF 922 mid tower in black. It does have cable management, and I think it should still fit everything. Better case or not?
 
I live right beside Spruce Meadows / 22x, so yah the NE location is like 30 minute drive away at best..but there is a location on 58th by Chinook Mall.

Anyhow, yah the HAF cases are great.. you wont be disappointed.

I use a Corsair 800D but it's massive--great case--but huge and heavy.
 
So it looks like the new case is gonna be the cooler master HAF 922. As far as cooling requirements go, how should I proceed based on the setup I'm looking at?
 
unless you plan to overclock you're set, if you do then grab on the lower end a cooler master hyper 212 plus, on the upper end go for a antec kuhler or corsair h series water cooler.
 
you make the cpu run faster than it was designed to run. If you look in the signature of sever forum members such as Laquer Head, this is what he has "Intel Corei7 2600K, 5.007Ghz--Corsair H100 Liquid Cooler," but that cpu is made to run at 3.4ghz. But truly overclocking any sandy bridge processor is just to show off, there is no real need for it at all, and defenitely in gaming you will see 0 benefits and if you are not experienced and let the temps get too high you can end up damaging the cpu and shortening the life of it.
 
jonnyp11 said:
But truly overclocking any sandy bridge processor is just to show off, there is no real need for it at all, and defenitely in gaming you will see 0 benefits and if you are not experienced and let the temps get too high you can end up damaging the cpu and shortening the life of it.
Click to expand...

not true. You get higher frames per second. Day-to-day performance is faster. Boot times decrease. Want me to continue?
 
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