Help Building new PC.

[Jpotter20]

I'm currently looking to build myself a new PC. I'm mainly using it for gaming but it will be used for a variety of other things. I'm looking for something that is future proof.

This is what I have came up with.
Suggestions and help needed as i'm fairly new to this. Oh, and I have a budget of up to $2,500.00

Case:In-Win Dragon Rider Full Tower Case

CPU:AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Six-Core CPU

Coolin Fan:CoolerMaster V6 GT CPU Cooler

Motherboard:Asus Crosshair IV Formula AMD 890FX

Memory:Corsair Dominator 8GB (2GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz

Video Card: Dual ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 16X PCIe Video Cards

PSU:950 Watts - Corsair CMPSU-950TX 80 Plus Power Supply

Hard Drive:30 GB Kingston 2.5 inch SATA Gaming MLC Solid State Disk

Data Hard Drive:WD Black 1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD
Hard Drive Cooling Fan:Vigor iSURF II Hard Disk Drive Cooling System

Disk Drives:Samsung SH-B123L 12X BLU-RAY Player & DVDRW Combo
Sony 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW

OS:Windows 7 Home Premium

[glc]

1. I don't think 30gb is big enough for an OS drive. It's going to fill up REAL quick. I'd recommend at least 64gb, and you want one that supports TRIM - which would be Intel.
2. I don't think you need a hard drive cooler.

[Jpotter20]

Okay I will upgrade my Hard Drive.

Another question.

I have never used a PC in Crossfire. Would it be worth running two? Or should I just go with one.

Are there any real performance differences between the 5870 1GB and the 6970 2GB?

[glc]

Determine your video card budget and look here for the best for the money:

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: December 2010 : December Updates

[David M]

Oh boy...a $2500 rig!

First, do you want more than one monitor? What sized monitor do you have or plan on purchasing? Do three monitors interest you?

No, the 5870 and the 6970 are not much different in speed. In some game benchmarks the 6970 is slower! The 5970 still kicks butt on the 6970 by a wide margin. AMD has made the number designation for their new cards worthless for determining relative speeds. You have to look at the benchmarks to determine relative speeds. With a 5870 being around $300 and the 6970 being around $370, I think its nuts to buy a card that is another $70 for pretty much no gain in performance.

I think its fun to discuss bang for the buck for graphics cards because sometimes these card manufacturers have some pretty wacky pricing strategies and this is one of those cases.

[ChoboSeki]

Originally Posted by glc 1. I don't think 30gb is big enough for an OS drive. It's going to fill up REAL quick. I'd recommend at least 64gb, and you want one that supports TRIM - which would be Intel. 2. I don't think you need a hard drive cooler.

I have a 120GB Corsair SSD and I installed maybe 2 games on it, running Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit. All my temp files are located on my secondary drive to save read/write from my SSD.

Currently: 86.8 GB free of 111 GB

Used over 30 GB just for Windows and 2 games, VLC, and random programs like AIM and Ventrilo.

Get at least an 80 GB if you can't get a higher one, either that or switch to a regular SATA drive.


Windows: 13.7 GB
Program Files: 1.46 GB
Program Files (x86): 10.5 GB
Users: 1.03 GB
ProgramData: 836 MB


and fff my google chrome folder is over 300 mb haha

[Jpotter20]

Originally Posted by David M Oh boy...a $2500 rig! First, do you want more than one monitor? What sized monitor do you have or plan on purchasing? Do three monitors interest you? No, the 5870 and the 6970 are not much different in speed. AMD has made the number designation for their new cards worthless for determining speed. You have to look at the benchmarks to determine speed.

Currently I have two 24" monitors.
I may or may not go with three in the future, but for now I'm going to stick with 2.

Oh I see.
In your own opinion, would you run 2 6970's or 2 5870's with this build?

[ChoboSeki]

Originally Posted by Jpotter20 Currently I have two 24" monitors. I may or may not go with three in the future, but for now I'm going to stick with 2. Oh I see. In your own opinion, would you run 2 6970's or 2 5870's with this build?

1x 6970 will definitely take the upper hand in performance going against 1x 5870.

[David M]

Originally Posted by Jpotter20 Currently I have two 24" monitors. I may or may not go with three in the future, but for now I'm going to stick with 2. Oh I see. In your own opinion, would you run 2 6970's or 2 5870's with this build?

Rather than buying two 6970's or two 5870's, I would buy a single 5970 or wait for the 6990 to become available in Q-1 2011, if is not overpriced. But since it is new, chances are it will be overpriced at around $700 or more....which is my guess.

You don't want to run two monitors for gaming unless a big black line down the middle of your screen does not bother you.

With your $2500 budget, a single 5970 at around $600 I think is the most suitable card for your rig. With that card on a single large monitor, you will have no problem running any game at maximum settings, except for perhaps Crysis, which had an inefficient graphics engine.

[Jpotter20]

Alright I've decided that i'll probably go with one 5970 for now.
Could some one please send a link of which brand of 5970 they'd recommend
.
And i'm going replace the other hard drive with this one Newegg.com - Intel X25-M SSDSA2MH120G2K5 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Also I've decided that I would like to go with this case if at all possible.
Newegg.com - LIAN LI ARMORSUIT PC-P50R Red Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

But would it fit the 5970 and Coolermaster V6 Gt (which i've heard is quite huge)?

[ChoboSeki]

SSD - good
CASE - too expensive for my taste
VIDEO CARD -

Could some one please send a link of which brand of 5970 they'd recommend

Newegg.com - XFX HD-597X-ENFN Radeon HD 5970 BLACK 4GB 512 (256 x 2)-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 CrossFireX Support Eyefinity 6 Edition Video Card

Alright I've decided that i'll probably go with one 5970 for now.

[Jpotter20]

Originally Posted by ChoboSeki SSD - good CASE - too expensive for my taste VIDEO CARD - Newegg.com - XFX HD-597X-ENFN Radeon HD 5970 BLACK 4GB 512 (256 x 2)-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 CrossFireX Support Eyefinity 6 Edition Video Card

Yeah i guess could get a less expensive case and use the saved money to go toward that video card.
Haha

Oh and is there any point in looking into Liquid Cooling?
Or is it just a PITA?

[Jpotter20]

Okay here is what I've got.
I think I got everything but any corrections or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.


Case: Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF 932 AMD Limited Edition AM-932-RWN1-GP Red Steel / Plastic / Mesh bezel ATX Full Tower Computer Case

CPU: Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Thuban 3.3GHz, 3.7GHz Turbo 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDE00ZFBR BOX

Graphics Card: Newegg.com - XFX HD-597A-CNB9 Radeon HD 5970 Black Edition 2GB 512 (256 x 2)-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Hard Drive: Newegg.com - Intel X25-M SSDSA2MH120G2K5 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Date Hard Drive: Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Mother Board: Newegg.com - ASUS Crosshair IV Formula AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Memory: Newegg.com - CORSAIR XMS 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMX8GX3M2A1600C9

Power Supply: Either this one-Newegg.com - CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-850HX 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Or this one- Newegg.com - COUGAR SX850 COUGAR-SX850 850W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Never really heard of Cougar before, so I don't know the quality, I just thought it would look nice and it didn't have any bad reviews on Newegg

CD Drives: Newegg.com - LG WH10LS30K 10X Blu-ray Burner - LightScribe Support - Bulk - Blu-Ray Burners

Newegg.com - LG Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM SATA DVD Burner - Bulk - CD / DVD Burners

CPU Cooler: Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER V6 GT RR-V6GT-22PK-R1 120mm DynaLoop CPU Cooler w/ Universal bracket & Dual Fan

OS: Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - Operating Systems

Wireless Adapter: Newegg.com - Zonet ZEW1642D IEEE 802.11b/g, IEEE 802.11n Draft 2.0 PCI Wireless Adapter w/Low-Profile Bracket Up to 300Mbps Wireless Data Rates 64/128-Bit WEP, WPA, WPA2

Thermal Compound: Newegg.com - Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - Thermal Compound / Grease

Comes out at around $2,300.00
Also will I need any extra case fans?
Expansion card?

[glc]

Get the Corsair power supply.

Do not get a XFX 5970 - yes, I know that's all Newegg has right now and it's not worth over 700 bucks. Get this Sapphire:

Compuvest Corp.

[Jpotter20]

Originally Posted by glc Get the Corsair power supply. Do not get a XFX 5970 - yes, I know that's all Newegg has right now and it's not worth over 700 bucks. Get this Sapphire: Compuvest Corp.

Yeah it thought that was pretty pricey.
And i'm guessing since its you posting, that's a trustworthy website?

Or do you think i should get two 5870's and wait for the 6990 to come out?

[David M]

Right now Amazon has 6 Sapphire 5970's in stock for $580. For me, Amazon has been very reliable. You may want to find out who is less after taxes and shippping, Compuvest or Amazon.

Amazon.com: Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 ATI Video Card - 2GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0, CrossFireX Ready, Dual DVI, Mini Display Port: Electronics

I think the big picture right now is that 5970 inventories are down because of Christmas causing the prices to be higher now than what we saw a couple weeks ago with the Sapphire 5970 selling for $500.

I would not buy the two 5870's because they would cost more than a single 5970 at a good price plus they would not scale as well as a single 5970.

[Jpotter20]

Originally Posted by David M Right now Amazon has 6 Sapphire 5970's in stock for $580. For me, Amazon has been very reliable. I would go for that deal right now before they run out. Amazon.com: Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 ATI Video Card - 2GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0, CrossFireX Ready, Dual DVI, Mini Display Port: Electronics I would not buy the two 5870's because they would cost more than $580 and they would not scale as well as a 5970.

Okay thank you very much.
And do you think i'll need any extra cooling fans?
Or and expansion card?

[glc]

Coolermaster cases do not need additional cooling. What "expansion card" are you talking about?

I cannot vouch for Compuvest.

[David M]

Originally Posted by Jpotter20 Okay thank you very much. And do you think i'll need any extra cooling fans? Or and expansion card?

I made a change to my previous post you may want to read.

[Jpotter20]

Originally Posted by David M I made a change to my previous post you may want to read.

Okay, and yeah that is most likely it.
I won't be ordering this for another 3 weeks at least, so maybe by then it'll be back in stock.

Thanks for all the help, i'm sure i'll be back on here for additional questions and when the building process actually begins.

This is by far the best forum I've been on. Your help has been greatly appreciated.

[Jpotter20]

Okay, so i just ordered my new build last night, which obviously, I haven't received yet.
Anyways, I got the Asus Crosshair Iv Formula AM3 AMD motherboard. I also got the Coolermaster V6 GT cooler for my CPU.

After looking around the internet some more I found out that all of the reviews of this cooler says that it covers at least two of the RAM slots on an AMD board.

The memory i picked for my build was Corsair Dominator GT 8GB (4 X 2GB).

So i'm guessing the cooler is going to cause a problem?

[glc]

Threads merged. Please don't open new threads on the same build. Thank you.

Why didn't you buy the 2 X 4GB kit you speced out? You don't need Dominator GT ram unless you don't care how you spend your money.

[Jpotter20]

Originally Posted by glc Threads merged. Please don't open new threads on the same build. Thank you. Why didn't you buy the 2 X 4GB kit you speced out? You don't need Dominator GT ram unless you don't care how you spend your money.

I'm not sure really, I think I went with it because of the color matches the rest of my case. Stupidity on my part I guess...