New Comp for BF3

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whatagaff

New Member
Longtime lurker, first time poster.

Looking to build a new comp with the goal of playing Battlefield 3, SW:TOR and Diablo 3 with high fps and performance. Would like to keep the pricetag under $1500. I've picked out some components for what I think would make a pretty nice machine. I haven't built a computer for 6-7 years so if some of my parts don't go together that would be why. No doubt there are some hardware choices that would be better, let me know what you think! Thanks in advance.

Mobo - Gigabyte Z68A-D3H-B3 Intel Z68 Motherboard
 replacing MSI Z68A-G43 (B3) Intel Z68 Motherboard

CPU - Intel Core i5-2500K BX80623I52500 Unlocked Processor

GFX - MSI R6950 Twin Frozr II Radeon HD 6950 Video Card
 x 2 I'm thinking running these 2 in CrossFireX would be better than a 6970, thoughts?

Case - Cooler Master RC-932-KKN5-GP HAF 932 Full Tower Case

RAM - Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B Vengeance Desktop Memory Kit

Power Supply - Corsair TX850W 850W Power Supply

Hard Drive - Western Digital WD10EALX Caviar Blue Hard Drive
replacing Seagate ST31500541AS 1.5TB Hard Drive

Water Cooling - Corsair CWCH80 Hydro H80 CPU Liquid Cooler


Optical Drive -Sony Optiarc AD-7260S-0B 24x DVDRW Drive
 
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Really, I can't find anything wrong with this. Only thing I would do is add a SSD. But I would get a 580 before crossfiring two 6950s.
 
You are right 2 6950's will outperform a 580 IF there are no bugs with using multiple cards. I think you will be fine there. The only thing that I have to bring to your attention is that the twin frozr cards will give off heat into the case. So with be sure that your case gets the hot air away from the GPUs or get a model that will blow the air out of the case.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone. Definitely changing the HDD and the motherboard based on the suggestions.

Now for my GFX card dilemma, I'm leaning towards the dual 6950's because they will perform better and be cheaper. Upgrading is a different story. I'm hoping these will last me for at least a couple years of solid gaming. At that point I may have to upgrade, and when I do I'll have to upgrade both cards to get optimal performance.

I've read that SLI does not support cards that aren't the same kind, e.g. 580 + 590 won't work. By the time I will have to upgrade cards the 600 series will probably be out and I'm not sure I could SLI a 580 and a 600 series. Therefore, going with a 580 doesnt really provide me with any better upgrade ability. Is this sound reasoning?
 
whatagaff said:
I've read that SLI does not support cards that aren't the same kind, e.g. 580 + 590 won't work. By the time I will have to upgrade cards the 600 series will probably be out and I'm not sure I could SLI a 580 and a 600 series. Therefore, going with a 580 doesnt really provide me with any better upgrade ability. Is this sound reasoning?
Click to expand...

While this is true, at the point that you need an upgrade a 580 will come down in price a lot. So you can get another 580 cheaper and get a good performance boost without replacing your whole setup.
 
and you can't crossfire different hd's can you either, so it's the same with the 6950's. also with the 6950's i just wanted to add in if you only get one now or get a better mobo and a third later, then it is best to get the same model or brand but if either card has a different setting both will opperate at the lower i think, i know this applies to vram and i think it does to the mhz's too.

also you may want to look at these pci-e x16 3.0's, really even the gpu's with the 3.0 prob won't use all the bandwidth of a 2.0 but it can't hurt for the price and this is aa great company too, and also if you want to be able to get a third, then a mobo will be closer to 3-350

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271
 
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any particular reason you don't want to order from newegg?

but any of these will do, and if you an get it i'd recomend the lightning extreme as many games in the next year will be using over 1.5gb's vram maxed out if available, so these will do better, and this one comes with way higher clocks tan the others too, but all will max everything for a while, that is just a luxury really and when you add a second it will limit this one down to the others amount of vram and still unsure if it lowers the clocks.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127589

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127579

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130590

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127567
 
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll probably go with that first one just to last me a little longer before I would have to get a second one. I'll end up ordering from wherever has the cheapest prices, just wanted to consolidate all my parts to 1 website for easy checking. Thanks for the help!
 
also caviar blue isn't the best, they are fine but not great from what i've heard, but if you can it is much better to get 1 caviar black or even better to get 2 blacks/blues/barracuda's or f3's from wd, seagate or samsung, and yes newegg tends to have the best pricing.
 
Decided to take your guys' advice and go with a GTX 580. The upgrade ability in the future will be nice.

Here's the rig as it currently stands :

Mobo - GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128502

CPU - Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

GFX - MSI N580GTX Lightning Xtreme Edition GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 3072MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127589

Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1501FASS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136592

Power Supply - Corsair TX850W 850W Power Supply
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4352342&sku=C13-2508

RAM - Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B Vengeance Desktop Memory Kit
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=40739&sku=C13-5720

Case - Cooler Master RC-932-KKN5-GP HAF 932 Full Tower Case
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4146085&sku=C283-1187

CPU Cooler - CORSAIR H80 (CWCH80) High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181016

Optical Drive LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model iHAS124-04 - OEM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289

Unless you all see any real glaring holes or mistakes then I'll probably end up getting this rig. The only real question I have is if a SSD for my OS is worth it, I'm a real novice when it comes to those. I know that will help with boot speed but is there a real noticeable difference when I'm in game? Oh, and I'll have to get a 64 bit windows 7, any reason to go with pro over home?
 
home premium will be fine, just make sure it's the 64-bit oem version. also for the ssd, all it does is increase load times, once in game you will load levels faster but once the level is loaded it goes to the ram so the ssd has no effect.
 
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