First gaming pc, need advice.

[CarlosGrosso]

Hello
Approximate Purchase Date: April-summer 2011

Budget Range: $1300 Before rebates (For everything including OS, monitor,etc)

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming,surfing the web, schoolwork, video editing.

Parts Not Required: speakers/headphones.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg or Amazon ( I have no access to microcenter)

Country of Origin: US

Parts Preferences: I5 2500k, a quiet case with good airflow and dust filters (im not interested in fancy lights) I want a psu that can run 2 cards (gtx 560 sli, radeon 6950 2gb crossfire), no water cooling

Overclocking: In the future


SLI or Crossfire: Yes planning to add another card on 1 year or so. (Im not crossfiring/sli more than 2 cards)

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080 or any resolution that looks good

Additional Comments: I would like a quiet PC with good airflow and to be able to play current games

Thank you

Here is what im planning to buy so far, im open to suggestions and will appreciate them:

CPu: I5 2500k $224

Mobo: Asus P67 pro, Asrock P67 extreme4 ( I want to sli/crossfire)

Case: Fractal Design Define R3 Black ATX Mid Tower Silent PC Computer Case (open to suggestions) $110

GPU: XFX Radeon HD 6950 2GB or MSI Twin Frozr II/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB (Open to suggestions also considering the gigabyte super overclock series of the gtx 560, and im going crossfire/sli in the future so the one that scales better will be my choice) $250-300

PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply (sli/crossfire in the future, open to suggestions) $140

HDD: Samsung spinpoint F3 1 TB $65

Ram: 8gb low voltage (open to suggestions) $100 max

Optical drive: any $20ish drive (open to suggestions)

OS: Windows 7 home premium oem $100

Monitor: 24 monitor 1920*1080 resolution, open to suggestions samsung monitors look nice $200 max.

Total comes around $ 1300 right now.

 

[_dangtx_]

howdy and welcome. your build date will be close to the bulldozer release date so you might want to take it a bit easy.
regardless,the 2500k is a nice chippie.
for motherboard, i would suggest a giga board. ud3,also some people will tell you to get a sabertooth from asus,nice boards too.
gpu,6950 2gb all the way
psu,850 will be fine with two cards and overclocking on them+cpu. a bit of an older design,still good though.
case, 912/922 see which one is in special.
monitor, look forward a sammy 24 incher,theyll be cheap.
the hdd you chose is decent,optical drives are more or less all the same,save if you need a special firmware one or such.
for ram,look at gskill,corsair,mushkin...

 

[dma0991]

You have all the parts that are suitable but you've missed the motherboard. :biggrin:
Here is some recommendations so that you can have a little bit of budget for a motherboard. You can save a little on the PSU. Here are some options and you don't need a 850W PSU for a HD6950 CFX

Newegg.com - SILVERSTONE OP800 800W ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready

Newegg.com - SILVERSTONE Strider Essential series ST70F-ES 700W

Here is a motherboard that I think will suit your needs as it is the cheapest P67 motherboard with 8x8x that I could find. Unless of course you're willing to pay more for a Asus P8P67 Pro.

Newegg.com - MSI P67A-G45 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

You'll still be $100 over budget because $40-50 can be saved from buying the PSU that I mentioned above as the motherboard costs $140. You can save a little bit more from getting a cheaper case and the cheaper HD6950 1GB version instead.

 

[CarlosGrosso]

howdy and welcome. your build date will be close to the bulldozer release date so you might want to take it a bit easy.
regardless,the 2500k is a nice chippie.
for motherboard, i would suggest a giga board. ud3,also some people will tell you to get a sabertooth from asus,nice boards too.
gpu,6950 2gb all the way
psu,850 will be fine with two cards and overclocking on them+cpu. a bit of an older design,still good though.
case, 912/922 see which one is in special.
monitor, look forward a sammy 24 incher,theyll be cheap.
the hdd you chose is decent,optical drives are more or less all the same,save if you need a special firmware one or such.
for ram,look at gskill,corsair,mushkin...

Thank you for your reply, does the 6950 2gb scale better than the gtx 560? and if so wich model/brand you recommend, and for the monitor any special model that you recommend?

 

[ZZLEE]

120 Hz 3D Capable "Benq" if not 3d Capable 120 Htz fore sure 2 Ms refresh.

Edit : NCIX.com - Buy BenQ XL2410T 23.6IN Widescreen 120HZ LCD Monitor LED 1920X1080 2MS DVI HDMI HAS Pivot 3D Ready - BenQ - XL2410T - in Canada

nice one :biggrin:

 

[CarlosGrosso]

120 Hz 3D Capable "Benq" if not 3d Capable 120 Htz fore sure 2 Ms refresh.

Edit : NCIX.com - Buy BenQ XL2410T 23.6IN Widescreen 120HZ LCD Monitor LED 1920X1080 2MS DVI HDMI HAS Pivot 3D Ready - BenQ - XL2410T - in Canada

nice one :biggrin:

Thats more than I can afford, I can spend around $200 USD max in a monitor.

 

[Stock]

Well thought out. :thumb:

Something to consider: Corsair has the 750W AX PSU (Gold efficiency) line for around the same price as what you've listed. It will easily handle SLI/Crossfire in the future.

 

[Luay79]

Welcome aboard!

ASUS P8P67 PRO, Gigabyte UD4 (sorry but the UD3 does not support dual 8x cards), The MSI board that DMA recommended is good and the price is awesome, Asrock Extreme4 or intel boxdp67bg. All in all this is the minimum that you can go with HD69xx CF because any board that provides less then 3 slots per card as the ones mentioned above will suffocate the top card (block the fan and heat up) $150

No luck on the RAM, G.SKILL ECO 8GB for $150 is low voltage, but quite a bit over your budget so might want to settle with normal 1.5 voltage for $100

SILVERSTONE RV02B-EW $220 ( An out of budget case suggestion to better accommodate HD 6950 CF, 90 degrees rotated motherboard with cards facing down, and fans blowing from the bottom to top to leverage heat's natural dissipation upwards for better cooling)

OCZ Vertex 2 60G $130 or 90GB $180 (for your OS and even a few games, will change your PC experience entirely)

MSI R6950-2PM2D2GD5 Radeon HD 6950 2GB $244.99 x 2 = $490 (you only need one because 1920x1080 is low res for this card, so a CF upgrade would be justifiable with a 2560x1600 or low res eyefinity)

ASUS Black 24X DVD+R $26 (highest rating on new egg so you might find better

Good luck with your build!

 

[_dangtx_]

youre actually right, the ud3 has a second 4x slot, my bad

GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 1155 - GA-P67A-UD3P (rev. 1.1)