Please give me feedback on my plans for a new PC

[Chihlidog]

Hey guys, new member here, lurked for a good while but never signed up. I'm hoping to get some feedback on my planed build.

I have a hard limit of $1200 (wife's orders lol). I did post over on Tom's Hardware as well, but all the input I can get is appreciated. Last time I built a gaming rig was in '07 so it has been a while.

Here's what I've got in mind:

i5 2500k http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4-B3 LGA 1155 Intel P67 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128478

RAM - 8 gigs of corsair vengeance http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145345

Case - (I'm spending too much on the case, I admit that. But I love the clean look and the ability to change colors. I look at the case every day so it's worth it to me to throw money at it to make the PC look as good as it runs.) Xclio WTBK http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811103019

OS - Windows 7 64 bit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754

Hard drive - Seagate Barracuda 1.5 TB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148337

Power Supply - Corsair 750 Watt. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006


Grand total is $965. You'll notice I dont have a video card included. My plan right now is to use the 2 4850s I have here already and crossfire them. I dont care about DX11 yet.

I dont see benchmarks on the X-fired 4850s vs. say a 6XXX series, however, it seems to me that they'll run nicely. AM I incorrect in this thinking? My monitor's native res is 1600x900 and I dont plan to exceed that. Do you guys think I'm going to need a new card with this build or can I throw the extra money at the case and run the 2 I already have?

I also dont know if the SATA issue with the Sandy Bridges has been resolved yet. Is this something I should be expecting to deal with or have they got it worked out by now? Like I said, it has been a while since my last build and I'm slightly out of touch on the latest gen hardware. I'm long overdue for an upgrade.


Any thoughts, feedback, or suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

 

[Extreme Edition]

hey, ur build looks good, and you wont need anything abouve ur two graphics cards for ur resolution... in fact, it's overkill already.

SATA issues were resolved with B3 stepping.

Think about getting a SSD as a boot drive for the system, will complement your build

GL,
EE

 

[Theocnoob]

two 4850s compared to a 6950 is not very impressive. Even without DX11 taken into consideration. You will be ok but don't expect to run Metro 2033 or anything.

 

[tool_462]

two 4850s compared to a 6950 is not very impressive. Even without DX11 taken into consideration. You will be ok but don't expect to run Metro 2033 or anything.

At 1600 x 900? Even Metro 2033 would run pretty well at that small of resolution I would think.

 

[Extreme Edition]

two 4850s compared to a 6950 is not very impressive. Even without DX11 taken into consideration. You will be ok but don't expect to run Metro 2033 or anything.

remember though, that he is only running a resolution of 1600x900 not 1080P, he'll be O.K.

 

[Extreme Edition]

At 1600 x 900? Even Metro 2033 would run pretty well at that small of resolution I would think.

yep, just not @ DX11

 

[Chihlidog]

Well, here's the thing, I have up to 1200 total to play with. I could sell the 4850s for maybe 80 dollars, and I have about 200 leftover from my budget. So I could spend around 280 on a card if necessary even without skimping on any of the other components. However, since I'm running fairly low res I thought I'd be OK.

If I'm wrong (though from the comments above, I'm not) then I can certainly work one in. I could save 190 dollars on the case alone by re-using my current one, though I'd prefer to get the flashy new one. Performance is king, though, and I'm not going to sacrifice speed for looks. If I cant afford both, then the money goes to a 6XXX ATI over a blingy tower.

 

[Knufire]

Reuse your old case, sell your old cards, and get this. If performance is king, this is the best you're going to get

 

[Theocnoob]

Well, here's the thing, I have up to 1200 total to play with. I could sell the 4850s for maybe 80 dollars, and I have about 200 leftover from my budget. So I could spend around 280 on a card if necessary even without skimping on any of the other components. .

Git 'er done. More power is always

 

[psionic98]

8GB of ram may be more than needed, if so drop it down to 2x2GB of G.Skill Pi or Ripjaw X series Cas6 for $80 @ newegg

 

[Chihlidog]

Knufire - checking the benchmarks, it seems like if I were to go for a new card I'd be better with the 6950 as opposed to the 560 ti. I've always been partial to AMD/ATI (though that didnt stop me from choosing the i5 for this build). Is there any reason to go with the Geforce over the 6950?

Psi - Like I said, I'm a bit out of touch. I know conceptually that 8 is considered way more than enough, but I dont know the technical reasons why. I went with 8 gigs and 64 bit to ensure I'd have enough no matter what since not only am I building this for current games but also for upcoming stuff (skyrim looks killer). Is 8 really that overkill?


Forgive the n00bish questions, I just dont trust myself at this point. I really appreciate all the feedback!

 

[Theocnoob]

The amount of RAM you need depends on your usage model.

Some people want to leave word, photoshop, powerpoint, 3 chrome windows and a video editor open while they play a demanding game. Some people close everything first. Depends on you and your uses for your pc.

6950 outscores GTX 560. The 560 has, in my opinion, less annoying drivers (I hate AMD drivers), and also supports PhysX, and CUDA.

If you don't care, and you just want a few more frames, get the AMD card.

 

[Chihlidog]

I dont mind catalyst at all. I've had AMD cards for a while now. My last nvidia was a GeForce 4 ti lol.

 

[Theocnoob]

Geforce has come a long way since then .

If you like Catalyst go AMD. If you get the AMD reference pcb 6950 you can flash the bios and make it think it's a 6970 and get a free boost in performance. The 6950 has some locked shaders that you can unlock. Sneaky/lazy AMD buggers..

 

[Chihlidog]

I just might do that.

I havent planned on OC'ing the i5, though I see it's a great platform to do it with. I'm thinking I should get a cooler though since I can get it in the budget in case I ever decide to try. So on the subject of OCing, can anyone reccomend a cooler that's easy to install? (My current build was a NIGHTMARE to get on, it's still only halfway clipped and it bent the MoBo).

Also, is the Gigabyte board I picked a good choice for OCing?


Once again, I apologize if these answers are obvious. It all looks good to me but I just want to be extra sure.

 

[Chihlidog]

No comments on the OCing or on the cooler install? Thanks!

 

[alexdt256]

If I were you I would get 4g of ram instead of 8 and maybe try to have an SSD it make a big difference. It always depend of your use... What kind of game you play... if your the kind of person who have a lots of media... do you want to play your game at max setting... But I think that what you have choice right now is a good general PC. What you will change in your list have to be affect by what you want to do with your computer.

Let me know your choice if you finally build it

 

[Chihlidog]

I want to game at the best setting I can, but only at a res of 1600x900. That's my current monitor which is PLENTY big for me, I cant see wanting to upgrade that for the next 4-5 years.

I do like eye candy no matter what game I'm playing. I enjoy all sorts of stuff. Lots of CPU intensive stuff like FSX, GTA IV, rts games, etc. But I also love a ton of others that are more GPU dependent. Assassin's Creed, Oblivion (and I want to be ready to run Skyrim of course). Im not a big FPS fan but Crysis was fun.

Some MMOs interest me as well. I played LOTRO for a while, I may end up playing SW:TOR for a long time. Basically, I love to game, and I want this PC to run everything I throw at it without a hiccup.

I do watch movies on my PC (streaming on Netflix), and I use it to record music, etc. But those are secondary, any performance good enough to game will give me far more power than I need for anything else I ask it to do.

I dont have a ton of interest in the SSD right now, I dont mind waiting a bit for it to boot as long as it runs what I ask it to run, it's a cool concept but not worth the extra price for me right now.

I will be ordering sometime within the next week, so for sure I'll let ya know what I end up with. I only get to do this every 4 years so I tend to agonize over every little detail before I order.

 

[alexdt256]

Yeah seriously in that case because you want to do everything you have a good build ! Cause MMO and media use too much space and are costy on ssd even with another hdd it become too complicated for nothing. Actually yeah 8g of ram is a good guess for someone who want to have his computer for 3-4 years and if you like MMO they with the time take more and more rams.... haha 4850 xfire will be enought (REALLY) with your resolutions soo have fun with your build