Need help with gaming builds

a) Is the extra cooling not needed for the 500 dollar build?

b) Also, I was looking at the specs of the 500 mobo. It does feature 2 PCI 2.0 slots, however, the second one only runs at x4 (Newegg lists it as x16,x4). How will that affect performance if I add a 2nd gfx card?

c) What is the difference between having a K at the end of Intel process (i5-2500k) and not having (i5-2500)?

d) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...na&AID=10521304&PID=4169961&SID=1nj7j0vgk73td

vs.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10440897&PID=3067296&SID=

e) Would I also need this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233038

If I end up getting the XIGMATEK cooler?

f) for the $1000 mobo, I have 3 different choices:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-na&AID=10521304&PID=4169961&SID=emmejaf8fw4v - $160

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10440897&PID=3067296&SID= $160

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130583&Tpk=MSI P67A-G43 $130

g) GTX 570 or 2x Radeon HD 6870 Crossfire?

h) I found a much cheaper SSD, with favorable reviews. Do you think 64GB of space is enough for the most important programs? I think 120GB is a bit overkill, no?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10440897&PID=3067296&SID=

i) slightly cheaper case for the 1500 build?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10440897&PID=3067296&SID=
 
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i was just wondering for the $600 build how effectively will it run starcraft. like what graphics settings do you think it will support? i am also soon going to building my first computer and that is the game i am focusing on. i am trying to spend around 850 but that includes monitor and some other things
 
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a i5/7 with a k has an unlocked multiplier, meaning it is easier to achieve a much higher overclock, and no extra cooling is needed if you aren't overclocking, and as for the x4 and x16, yes it will hold the second back, i would say if you plan to sli or xfire then go for at least a x16 that changes to 2 x8's i think that's the norm, some go x16 and x8, and for the best mobos they keep 16's. i'm almost positive there is no need for the brcket set, and the rest or most of it is more preference.
 
well the 580 isn't worth the price, it's for the people he have to have some of the best, not for value, any Xfire or sli'd card's will kill any equal value single once you pass the 3 or 400 buck mark.
 
a) Is the extra cooling not needed for the 500 dollar build?

b) Also, I was looking at the specs of the 500 mobo. It does feature 2 PCI 2.0 slots, however, the second one only runs at x4 (Newegg lists it as x16,x4). How will that affect performance if I add a 2nd gfx card?

c) What is the difference between having a K at the end of Intel process (i5-2500k) and not having (i5-2500)?

d) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...na&AID=10521304&PID=4169961&SID=1nj7j0vgk73td

vs.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10440897&PID=3067296&SID=

e) Would I also need this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233038

If I end up getting the XIGMATEK cooler?

f) for the $1000 mobo, I have 3 different choices:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-na&AID=10521304&PID=4169961&SID=emmejaf8fw4v - $160

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10440897&PID=3067296&SID= $160

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130583&Tpk=MSI P67A-G43 $130

g) GTX 570 or 2x Radeon HD 6870 Crossfire?

h) I found a much cheaper SSD, with favorable reviews. Do you think 64GB of space is enough for the most important programs? I think 120GB is a bit overkill, no?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10440897&PID=3067296&SID=

i) slightly cheaper case for the 1500 build?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10440897&PID=3067296&SID=

a) no. It is an extra that will allow you to overclock further if you choose to do so, but isn't essential

b) It depends on which card you use. With the 460 of the $500 build, it would be bottlenecked, however you will still be seeing a very big leap in performance.

Looking on Newegg now, you would be better off with

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157262

if you plan on going SLI or CrossFire in the future

c) k processors are unlocked, meaning they are overclockable. The non-k processors with the locked multiplier won't overclock.

d) 6950 every time

e) No, however I would change the cooler for both builds which feature a CPU cooler with

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835108122

It achieves much better performance, yet works out cheaper

f) The Gigabyte board

g) GTX 570. It will be able to play everything, but will run cooler, quiter and with less power draw than the 6870's. 2 x 6870's will outperform the 570 though

h) If you don't feel you would have enough to put on a 120GB drive, I would instead take

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227737

than the one you listed, both for price and for performance

i) I would take the 932. It is much larger, has better cable management, and, less importantly and you may disagree, aesthetically looks a lot better
 
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oh yeah, if you plan to get a cooler than look into the cpu's bundles, can almost guarrentee there will be a good cooler and you can get about 10-20 off it. idk bout that, do you not have an audio cord, think newegg has them and they're pretty cheap.
 
Meant to post Elm Crest

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167042

Could alternatively go for a Vertex 3 too



Your OS, games and regularly used programs go on there, with all other programs, music, films, files etc going on the hard drive.

The SSD is substantially faster than a conventional hard drive, meaning you will see much, much faster boot times and load times.

You wouldn't, however, put programs like your web browser on there, because although they will load quicker, it won't be a substantial enough difference in speed to justify the used space and used write/erase cycles

Bah, not at all. I install my browsers and ms office onto the SSD, everything else gets stuck on the hard drive.

The whole read/write cycles and degredating thing is IMO over-exaggerated. Along with disabling the page file. It's needed for the system and some games/programs to work properly and not crash, again, putting a small 1GB pagefile onto the SSD does wonders for system speed and responsiveness.
 
yes, but why you would want to, I don't know, the sound quality will be very poor in comparison to a sound card, or even your onboard audio

oh ok, I was just wondering about that, I'm not really planning to even do it that way.
 
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