New Gaming Computer

S

So1dier

New Member
Hi everyone :)!

So I finally decided to save up money and buy a new computer, because my current computer is finally starting to slow down and it can't handle the newer games and expansions for games I'm playing. (World of Warcraft, Modern Warefare 2, Team Fortress 2, Starcraft 2) And I play on the lowest settings.

I've been researching as much as I can about computers recently so I can make a smart purchase considering I plan on spending at least $2,000 on a computer, which will take me a few more months to save up for. I'm definitely headed in the right direction but I NEED your help. I'm going to start off by providing the specs to my current computer and the items I made a wish list of on newegg, and then tell you my intentions with the new computer so you can help me out.




This is my current computers specs. It's 5 years old. I spent about $1,100 on it buying parts from newegg and a friend helped choose all the parts and helped me build it. Also the graphics card, RAM, and power supply were upgraded about 2 years ago in an attempt for me to (fix it) play some of the newer games I liked.



Current Computer
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Operating System
Microsoft Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 3)

Motherboard
Abit AN8 Series(NF-CK804)

Processor
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3800+ (A single Processor)
2.41GHz

Graphics Card
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT <---Upgraded

Memory
G.Skill NS 1 GB DDR (x2) <---Upgraded

Hard Drive
Seagate ST380817AS (80GB, SATA150, 3.5", NCQ, 8MB Cache)

Monitor
Older flatscreen monitor with max resolution 1280 x 1024 Max resolution.

Power Supply
~650W <--- Upgraded
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So you can see my computer is starting to get outdated. It actually runs some games surprisingly well(at minimum settings) for how old it is. Here is the computer I made with pieces on newegg.



New Computer
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Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium

Motherboard
EVGA P55V 120-LF-E651-TR LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Processor
Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80605I7860

Graphics Card
EVGA 015-P3-1482-AR GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) SuperClocked 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI

Memory
G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory

Hard Drive
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Monitor
ASUS MS227N Glossy Piano-Black / White 22" 2ms Ring Stand & Ergo-Fit Widescreen LCD Monitor

Power Supply
Rosewill Xtreme Series RX950-D-B 950W Continuous @40°C ,80 PLUS Certified, ATX12V v2.2 & EPS12V v2.91, SLI Ready CrossFire

Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI Interface Sound Card

Case
COOLER MASTER HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Keyboard
Razer Lycosa Mirror Special Edition

Mouse
Razer Orochi

Mouse pad
Razer Sphex

Headset
Sennheiser PC 350
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So this is what I have come up with. Right now the Keyboard, Mouse, and Mousepad are pretty much fillers because I know Razer is a popular gaming brand and I will most likely love what they provide.



My intentions for this computer...
To have a computer that can run all the games I play at a very minimum of 30 fps at max if not near maximum settings(Hopefully 60+ fps). I would like to have a computer that can also run these games flawlessly while running the web browser in the background so I can stream Pandora, and consistently alt + tab(keeping browser tabs open) without it effecting gaming performance. I want to have a computer that can also run Fraps so I can record game play footage and make videos, so I need it to be able to run all these applications at a minimum of 30 fps, and have enough space to store and edit these very large clips.

Games I plan on playing...
(World of Warcraft: Frozen Throne/Cataclysm, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, Warhammer Online, Team Fortress, and any new amazing FPS or RPG games in the near future)




If I'm spending all this money I want exceptional performance, so I'm willing to spend the extra money for a better monitor with faster refresh rates or better visual quality for gaming(and quality is better then size so anything in the 20" through 22" area is perfect). This also means I would love to have exceptional audio so I can enjoy listening to high quality music, in game music and sound effects, and use Ventrilo or other VOIP software with a quality mic.



Concerns/Reasoning for the pieces I chose:
-I wanted to make sure my power supply had enough watts to power my system.
-Will all the pieces fit in a mid tower? Will the air flow be sufficient to keep the system cool?
-Is the system powerful to run on a monitor with a max resolution of 1920 x 1080, I heard it can affect the performance of your system/video card quite a bit which is why I chose a lower resolution monitor.
-If I choose a higher resolution monitor should I use SLI or Crossfire? Is it worth the money?
-I heard a high contrast ratio is very important, but there aren't a lot of monitors with this.(60,000:1+)
(When I think of more I'll add them)




If you respond and can help me make better choices on my new system please try and respond with not only which piece is better, but a link to the piece, an explanation on why it's better, the cost difference from the piece I have and the "better piece", and the possible performance increase/decrease if I switch pieces. I'd would love to keep learning so any additional information you can provide would be awesome.




If you would like to know anything more about me, the computer, or have questions about the thread just ask about it in your reply and I'll gladly update my thread with more information. Just a reminder, it will take me a few months to save up enough money so if you guys know of any new processors, video cards, etc. that will be released soon and are worth waiting for I would love to see them cause I will most likely end up waiting for their release if it seems worth it. Just leave links to articles or anything talking about it.


Thank you guys so much for your help.
 
your build is really good. just 3 small things. dont get 6 gigs of triple channel memory because lga1156 boards only use dual channel. if you want to run triple channel (I recommend doing so) get an x58 board and an i7 920. secondly you seem to have forgotten a cpu cooler. I recommend an h50 in a push/pull config. keeps my i7 920 at 4ghz at 28C idle and 50C max load. finally go with a corsair hx1000w for a GREAT psu thats fully modular. also consider getting an ssd to run ur os. I have an ocz vertex and it takes 17 seconds to boot into vista
 
RAM - P55 chipset run dual channel. 2 x 2GB or 4 x 2GB

CPU + Mobo - Are you going to SLi/ CF, if yes go for core i7 930/920 + X58

Video card - I doubt if GTX 480 really worth the money. I suggest getting 5870. It is slower, but with less power and heat.

sound card - Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio is not good.
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer for gaming, ASUS Xonar D1/DX for general use

PSU - Rosewill is not are really good brand. For single GTX 480, 700W PSU. Dual GTX 480 probably 1000W

Case - HAF 932 is a full tower...

Monitor - Blacklit LED would have higher contrast ratio

HDD - SSD harddrive worth investing if you got the cash
 
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1) i would also recommend a different mobo with a different chipset (the perviously mentioned one is good) and the i7 920.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128423&cm_re=x58-_-13-128-423-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131641&cm_re=x58-_-13-131-641-_-Product
those two seem to be good boards.
2) i would go for an hd 5870. less power consumption and produces less heat. it can handle all modern games and should be able to last for a couple more years as a good gpu. plus you get the other nice features of the hd 5xxx series. for now, i wouldn't crossfire but down the road you may do it to gain that extra edge over the games. for that card, i would probably look into getting a board with 2 16x pci-e slots. i believe the performance lost in 8x 8x mode is minimal though so it isn't an extremely big deal.
3) that case should be good for your rig. the haf 932 is a great case. you might also consider maybe the antec 1200 case, which is a massive tower with plenty of room and great airflow (has up to 5 intake/outtake fans and 2 more inside to blow on the cpu and/or gpu).
4) i would get a better brand psu with fewer watts. 950 is a bit of an overkill for that rig, especially if you go for an hd 5870. i would go for a corsair brand psu and something like 750w-850w. that should allow you to crossfire in the future without any problems.
 
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750W PSU is more than enough, Orion, Antec or OCZ's are pretty good value and provide good warranty

others have mentioned the dual/triple channel ram that's a common mistake, if you do keep that board the AData gaming is great performing and value.

If you go with a triple channel i'd go with Corsair or OCZ ram (ive said it before, don't go value ram on an expensive build, you'll regret it)

devenatley second using an ati 5750 will be less performance, but less money 5830 or 5850 will cost a few bucks more but judging by your build you'll want the better video

that will all fit into a half tower, full tower will keep you a bit cooler (if you're going to overclock or add more video down the road)

The ASUS monitor is a nice one, if you're really lookin to push video go for a super high spec LED, they're not much more expensive for what you get
 
oh yeah i forgot the cpu cooler. if you are going to overclock (which i would highly recommend with that cpu and that rig) then you'll DEFINITELY need some aftermarket cooler. as mentioned the h50 is a great, non budget-busting way to cool your cpu. i would go with that or possibly some air cooler, though that won't work as well.
 
Going to start off by saying thank you for all your replies. I'm posting on a couple forums so I'm trying to keep up as much as I can in my free time, but I have work tonight so I won't have free time to update this until tomorrow during the day.

I will be editing my original post and adding a section for the upgrades/changes to pieces I am making based on your responses.



RAM
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So the first mistake I made was the getting the triple channel memory on a dual channel board. I'm deciding between 6 GB's and 8 GB's of RAM now, and I'll have to look into this thing. Not sure if there is such thing as quad channel memory, and if not should I use triple channel memory on a triple channel board and buy 1 extra stick of 2GB RAM, or should I use 2 sets of dual channel memory on a dual channel board.

Processor
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I'm not sure what the number after i-7 means but the 920 on Newegg was actually slower, and the other ones are 930 and 960 and such. (i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz is the one I found.)

My friend also told me that processors faster then ~3.2GHz don't really improve performance because that's the limitation on how fast a computer can think or something, and it's the reason they switched over to dual/quad cores, so I probably won't be overclocking.

I most likely will upgrade my processor to 3.0 or 3.2 GHz though if someone can link me one that isn't too much more expensive, cause the ones on newegg cost about double(~$200) to upgrade by that .2 GHz.

Hard Drive
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I'm not sure how Solid State Drives effect gaming performance.(Faster loading times? Faster game installs?) But if the upgrade is worth it and it improves performance I would probably switch to a SSD. One problem is that they either don't sell them on newegg or I don't know the official name of them cause there is no searching option on newegg for them.

Another thing is I chose a 7200 RPM hard drive, and I might upgrade to 10000 RPM or 15000 RPM if it effects video game performance and is worth the upgrade.

Power Supply
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Will upgrade to a better brand, so far I heard from you guys Corsair is a good brand. (Orion, Antec or OCZ's a good value? Not sure about brand quality)

Monitor
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Look into super high spec LED monitors.



When I get time I still start updating my post. Thank you guys for the help, and ttyl.



Also someone replied with a combo deal...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.418963

It's funny how close it is to what I chose.
 
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8 gb is overkill at this moment in time. go with either 4 gb or 6 gb.

ssds only do what you said (installs/load times) when it comes to gaming. i would just go with a 7200 rpm drive or a 10000 rpm drive.

ocz is also a good brand.
 
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