Building a brand new rig. Would love advice :)?

Little Miss S. · #1 (**permalink**) 06-22-2010, 06:03 PM

I want it to be able to play games for several years on high settings and resolutions. I plan on over cloaking my CPU as well. Also is hooking up the PC to a TV a good idea? I am going to use this for games/movies/TV

Does this look like a good setup?
($150) ASUS P8P67-M PRO
($230)Processor: Core i5-2500K 3.3 GHz Quad-Core
($100)RAM: CORSAIR XMS 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
($130)Power Supply: 850 watt Corsair TX850W
($60)Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Drive
($210)Internal Hard drive: Samsung Spoinpoint F3 1TB
OCZ Vertex 2 SATA II SSD 50GB
($560)Graphics card: 2 x Radeon HD 6950 in CrossFire
($180)Case: Cooler Master HAF X Full tower
($120)Operating System: Windows 7 64-bit Home Edition
($30)Cooler: Scythe Mugen 2

Total PC cost= $1770

($550)Monitor/TV: LG - 42LD450 - 42" LCD TV - 1080p
(free)Speakers: Logitech Z-5500 Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
($65)Keyboard: Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard
($50)Mouse:Logitech G5 Laser Gaming Mouse

Total Perpherial Cost= $650
Total Cost= $2420
Also I am overcloaking the CPU to about 4.5 Ghz

Originally I had planned to get a HP LP3065 - 30" - widescreen TFT active matrix LCD. It would be able to do 2560x1600 resolution. But its about $1100. Do you know any TVs that can put up those sort of resolutions but are less than $1100?
I am using this to play all my movies, tv and games. So blu-ray is important for me. Also I am building this rig myself. Lastly in benchmark tests the Core i5-2500K 3.3 GHz Quad-Core
blows everything out of the water at its price range, including a Phenom II X4 Black Edition 975. especially after it has been overclocked. There also almost the same price, so your math logic is flawed. a i5-2500k is only about 30-40 bucks more. Also all games play on Nvidia and ATI the same. The last decade has seen very few Nvidia only games. So that advice logic is also flawed.

MrBojangles · #2 (**permalink**) 06-24-2010, 06:03 PM

Looks very nice indeed! Should manage all games at the 1080p resolution maxed out.

TV is good for some games, but those crossfire graphics cards won't really be able to shine until you start pushing the resolution up a bit!

sriram007007 · #3 (**permalink**) 06-29-2010, 06:03 PM

First of all, don't go Intel, they shift CPU sockets so often you can never upgrade.

In addition, for the price of that CPU you can buy an AMD mob AND a shop overclocked 4.3Ghz Phenom II x4

Ram seems a bit over the top but then it *is* windows... Only get a power supply as much as you need for the system, more isn't help full.

If you are going to get $560 worth of graphics card, go for Nvidia, it's slightly less stable than ATI but every game out there uses PhysX (So they won't run fast, or at all on ATI cards)

Disc drive... How many BD games are there? DVD drive is fine. Salvage from your old machine to save cash. (Standard HD too, by all means get an SSD but keep the old HD ftw)

In addition, you can get a TV tuner for your PC and buy a cheapo 1080p screen (Yes it's half the size but you save 300 bucks)

Keyboard: Plain old crappy keyboard works just as well as a "Fancy" one, as for the gaming mouse, go laser, go lots of buttons and most importantly, go for something that feels right in your hand.

And last but not least: PUT IT TOGETHER YOURSELF

There, just saved you $800...

BIG W · #4 (**permalink**) 06-30-2010, 06:03 PM

looks great but i would go for a blurry but that's just me
also go for Nevada i find them cheaper and if you do get a cheap 3rd card as a physics
most people dint really need 1TB go for 600-700GB and faster

other wise looks great

½™ · #5 (**permalink**) 07-04-2010, 06:03 PM

No matter how much money you throw at hardware, any high-end gaming rig by today's standards is going to be lower-mid-level (or worse) within two (2) years. Build what you need for now, don't try to max out the games that haven't been released yet. That's impossible.

It overall looks like a fantastic system though. The last system I built is hooked up to a 42" 1080p LCD TV, and it works fantastic. That is the only monitor on that system. But the last system I built is a Media Center system I'm using as a DVR.

I would NOT recommend a 42" 1080p LCD TV as the only monitor for a gaming system. The problem is one of ergonomics. A 42" monitor is great if you're going to be sitting like ten feet from it. But if you're going to be sitting that far away, you chose the wrong mouse and keyboard. You'd want like wireless mouse and keyboard, and a "laptop desk" to put the keyboard and mouse on so you could play your games from your easy chair!

I'm not saying you shouldn't buy the 42" monitor/TV. You can still use the system you are building to watch TV, play movies, whatever. The 42" LCD will be great for that. For gaming though, you'll want a 23-24" maximum wide screen LED back lit monitor. My wife's system has a 23" wide screen monitor and it's ricking huge. If I was gaming on it, I'd have to pull the desk chair back a ways. If you want a big monitor for gaming though, a 23" wide screen is a pretty good choice. IMHO

You can use two monitors on the same computer system, no problem.