$2500 Super Gaming System

[jaxom101]

Thanks to good things happening for a change I have a $2500 Budget to build a Super Gaming System. A few things may seem Overkill but im also looking to make it as expandable as possible for the future.

I was also wondering if I should get everything from one place or shop the best price piece by piece. I did alot of reading and priced most off of NewEgg and here is what I have so far. This come right in at $2500 with Rebates and I have another $500 for OS and Monitor beyond this.

ASUS Rampage III Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard ROG, Support SLI/CrossFireX, SATA 6 Gb/s+ USB 3.0
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131642

Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80601930
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115225

COOLER MASTER Intel Core i7 compatible V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103055
(Or Should I get Water)

Kingston HyperX 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820104127

COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119225

XION Power Real XON-1100P14HE 1100W ATX 12V v2.2 / EPS 12V v2.91 / SSI 2.92 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817190025

Corsair P128 CMFSSD-128GBG2D 2.5" 128GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820233087

MSI N470GTX-M2D12-B GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127501

[faint545]

I would get this motherboard instead. The specs are pretty close to identical, same brand but much cheaper.

MB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131614

Also, the PSU, I would go with quality not quantity. Use this as reference: What Power Supply should I get? How many Watts? Who made it? Guide Inside.

I'm not sure about the RAM but it seems OK and same with the SSD.

GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130550

[jaxom101]

Originally Posted by faint545 I would get this motherboard instead. The specs are pretty close to identical, same brand but much cheaper. MB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131614 Also, the PSU, I would go with quality not quantity. Use this as reference: What Power Supply should I get? How many Watts? Who made it? Guide Inside. I'm not sure about the RAM but it seems OK and same with the SSD. GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130550

I took your advice on the Motherboard and GPU but Im still confused on the PSU. With the savings on the MOBO could you recomend a PSU from newegg?

[glc]

Are you sure you know what you are getting into with X58? It's a lot of money for no real improvement over a P55 platform, and it's not particularly user-friendly.

You need more than just a 128gb SSD, it's going to run out of room pretty quick. You also need an optical drive.

Your priorities are a bit off for a GAMING system. It's all in the video card, not the CPU and hard drive. 12gb ram is gross overkill, and 4gb modules are very expensive. Your video card is not particularly high end.

[Nikon]

470s are up there, but you could do better with a 480, even SLI them, you have a HUGE budget.

the x58 chipset IS a huge can of worms just for a few extra pci lanes, and the p55 chipset still has 32, giving you full x16 on a card or 16x/8x SLI. (you cant use all of the lanes on video cards, else no other usb/sata device would work. they all use pci lanes)

if you want that i7 ( i know its a 'bling' thing, who doesnt want to say they have one.) go with the 870 on a p55 chipset. youll be much better off, and have alot less headaches.

[jaxom101]

Originally Posted by glc Are you sure you know what you are getting into with X58? It's a lot of money for no real improvement over a P55 platform, and it's not particularly user-friendly. You need more than just a 128gb SSD, it's going to run out of room pretty quick. You also need an optical drive. Your priorities are a bit off for a GAMING system. It's all in the video card, not the CPU and hard drive. 12gb ram is gross overkill, and 4gb modules are very expensive. Your video card is not particularly high end.

Well the whole thing is a present from my Wife. If I dont spend the whole $3000 shes not going to give me the difference so I have to spend it. (Who Understands Women?)

Here are my thoughts. I wanted something I could expand on for years to come. The system right now totals $3100 and that includes OS, Monitor and a Seagate 2t Drive for storage. I wanted the 3x4gb Memory cards to leave 3 slots for later use and to be able to Max out Memory when needed. I also plan on droping a 2nd Video Card down the line when needed. As far as Non User Friendly, I built Computers for 10 Years Starting with XTs. I remember being the first person around that had a 386 and 9600 USR Modem. But I been out of the loop for 5-6 Years and I thought this would give me something to keep me busy.

I cant wait to start Over Clocking this baby and see what I can get.

[Kidd]

Originally Posted by jaxom101 Well the whole thing is a present from my Wife. If I dont spend the whole $3000 shes not going to give me the difference so I have to spend it. (Who Understands Women?)

You're a lucky man.

Originally Posted by jaxom101 I wanted the 3x4gb Memory cards to leave 3 slots for later use and to be able to Max out Memory when needed.

With this big budget that you have to spend ("use it or lose it", right?), how about bigger or multiple monitors? I can run Revit, Autocad, firefox, IE, Opera, Comcheck, Acrobat, Outlook, Excel, Word and a few others simultaneous without using more than 4GB RAM. The only time having 8GB has been justified was when using XP mode with dedicated 3GB RAM, while running everything else. And dual 24" set ups look pretty sweet .

Just my $.02

[glc]

I'm trying to steer you to something like an ASUS P7P55 WS SuperComputer with an i7-875K. Two 2x2gb ram kits will be all you need, spend the bucks on a monster video card instead - which would be a Radeon 5970, the fastest card on the planet. Crossfire 2 of those and you could just about fly to the moon.

For a power supply, get a Corsair 1000HX.

[jaxom101]

kidd

Dont think for a minute shes doing out of love because she has a motive. She used to tell me I was stupid when I spent 4-6 Hours in a game. About a year ago she got Hooked on Wizards101 and has been running 2 accounts 4-6 hours a day for the last year. Shes tired of the load times.

She inherited a tidy sum and the 3k is all I get. Kinda like shes going to Cancun and all I get is a T-Shirt that says "My Wife went to Cancun without me."

You bet im spending every dime.

glc

I was wondering about the CPU. On Newegg right now the the 930 is the cheapest I7. Im looking at the MOBO for sure because the difference with that and 2x2 Memory would be enough to jump the Video Card up.

And thanks for the PS tip Im going with that one.

[glc]

The 875K has an unlocked multiplier for easy overclocking. The Socket 1156 platform is a lot easier to work with and is a lot more stable than the 1366.

[David M]

You don't need to spend anywhere near that much to get a very fast gaming computer. At $2500 for just the computer you have gone beyond the threshold of sensible to a huge waste of money. Spend that money more wisely on screen real estate.

If you want to get really immersed into your games then get three identical 24 inch monitors running under Eyefinity with a single 5970 graphics card powering them. Two screens are not good because then you are always looking at a bezel when shooting or looking directly ahead. A plain old i-7 870 with 4 Gigs of RAM would be good enough. Get a 750 watt Corsair or Antec PSU to power that particular graphics card. You don't need the aftermarket CPU coolers overclock your CPU because even with your CPU at factory speed with a 5970 for games your GPU is still your bottleneck.

More and more games are being written to be compatible with Eyefinity. Nvidia is too far behind the curve with multi-montor gaming setups to bother with them. They require two cards for three screens.

If you do this then use a monitor with a thin bezel which Dell monitors tend to have.

http://sites.amd.com/us/underground/...eyefinity.aspx

[ChoboSeki]

why not buy 2 systems? or give me money to buy a ssd

[Khalil]

Only thing super about this build is how super expensive and wasteful it is.

Socket 1366 is nothing but brain damage if you are not a true geek who is very knowledgeable with Bios and motherboard manipulations you are in for a world of hurting.

[jaxom101]

Well Im sorta sorry I came here hoping to find a Freindly Board to ask questions. Ive done alot of reading and pricing and here is what I see.

1366 MB + CPU = $600
1156 MB + CPU = $400 ($500 for a Decent Setup)

So everyone wants to make usless Comments because Im thinking about wasting less then $200 out of a $3000 budget on MO + CPU.

Im also trying to look at Upgrades a few years down the road. I dont see anything more coming out for the 1156. But they still have some bigger Chips and the 6 Core that would make a decent Upgrade down the road.

Keep in Mind im Building totaly from Scratch and not just upgrading something. Not one person has commented on any other part other then the MB and its only a $200 difference.

I do understand the whole Stabilty issues and I am good enough to work things out and honestly I enjoy that more then anything. I do play alot of Games but Im not a Hard Core Gamer and I dont immersed in Games.

So Please a few people have gave me some good info and I have been doing more studying and pricing. But if all you want to tell me is Im wasting money dont bother.

[glc]

Apparently you are misunderstanding people here. We try to get every bit of value we can for the dollar. You can build a computer where the only speed differences you will see will be with benchmarks for half the price. If you don't like this philosophy, perhaps you are at the wrong board. I think a forum oriented toward the hardcore performance geeks may be more suitable for you.

[jaxom101]

Originally Posted by glc Apparently you are misunderstanding people here. We try to get every bit of value we can for the dollar. You can build a computer where the only speed differences you will see will be with benchmarks for half the price. If you don't like this philosophy, perhaps you are at the wrong board. I think a forum oriented toward the hardcore performance geeks may be more suitable for you.

Understood

[jaxom101]

I wanted to apoligize for my comments earlyer. I worked as a system builder from the first days of the XT through the first Pentium in Ann Arbor Michigan. I hav'nt kept up with anything after that. Back then you never thought about anything but getting the latest CPU. Now I see there is a huge difference and nothing im currently doing would even begin to use any advantage an I7 has to offer.

I have decided to build 2 Systems now. Again my Wifes giving me this money because she wants something better to play on also. If I build a Huge System and leave her with the Dell 8200 she will just play on the new one anyways and I still wont have anything myself.

So my plan is to Build an I3 and an I5 System. Keep them as close to the same as I can and when I upgrade the bigger one I can pass the Old parts down to Hers. Mine will also have Dual Monitors and an SSD drive.

My Questions are

Should I start a new Post on this because nothing is even close to the same?
I need to know the best way to hook the 2 together. I have a Cheap Wireless Lan now for my WII and a Notebook Computer. But the 2 Systems will be in the Same room about 10 Feet Apart.

Again

Thanks for the help and Sorry for sounding ungratful and poor Typing.

[Kidd]

I think everyone before was trying to keep you out of the hassle of the 1366 socket chipsets, and steer you towards the more reliable 1156. Paying more for any headache is wasteful, regardless of how much more you've paid for that headache. Not only that, but the largest factor in a gaming machine's performance isn't the CPU's multi-core, hyper-threading or price tag, it's the video card's performance that matters. So using an i5 with the right motherboard and GPU could build a very respectable gaming machine.

Try searching for a 1156 MOBO, and if it's at the right price, snag two, then go for an i5-760 (based on recent recommendations from the experts, not me) and an i3, but the i3-550 is only $60 less than the i5-760, so you may just want to build two of the same machine, and simply choose different cases for you and your wife.

[David M]

I would keep it simple and build the exact same rig with the difference being the graphics card. For a gaming rig, that's the major difference anyways. If you want to run CPU intensive applications then make it the difference between a multi-threaded CPU and not. Definitely use the same RAM and same CPU socket so your hand-me-downs will be compatible with your wife's computer. Definitely stick with the 1165 socket. If you don't think the 1366 is having its own problems then you can Google "1366 problem" and see for yourself what they are.

[glc]

I'd recommend in this case you start a new thread - and title it accordingly - 2 systems for $xxxx or something like that.

Connecting them together is simple - if they are in the same room with your router just connect them both with patch cables.