NEW gaming build $1500

[fadedfury]

hello guys!

Trying to build a rig for gaming purposes... mostly World of Warcraft and Diablo, came here for my last build and it lasted me 8 years, thought i'd come back here for an upgrade. Im hoping to build a good machine and stay under 1500 and im linking the important stuff here to start out with. appreciate ALL of the help in advance... so here it goes:

AMD FX-8150 Zambezi 3.6GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8150FRGUBOX
Newegg.com - AMD FX-8150 Zambezi 3.6GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8150FRGUBOX

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9Q-16GBXL
Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9Q-16GBXL

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition OC 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102983

ASUS Sabertooth 990FX AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
Newegg.com - ASUS Sabertooth 990FX AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

ZALMAN CNPS7X LED 92mm Long Life Bearing V-Shaped Dual Heatsink, Direct Touch Heatsink CPU Cooler
Newegg.com - ZALMAN CNPS7X LED 92mm Long Life Bearing V-Shaped Dual Heatsink, Direct Touch Heatsink CPU Cooler

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

APEVIA X-TELSTAR-RD Red/ Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer CaseNo Power Supply
Newegg.com - APEVIA X-TELSTAR-RD Red/ Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer CaseNo Power Supply

AZZA Dynamo 850 850W ATX & EPS 12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply
Newegg.com - AZZA Dynamo 850 850W ATX & EPS 12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 32-bit - OEM
Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 32-bit - Operating Systems

So... i was THINKING about doing an SLI rig cuz i havn't done it before and also 2 hard drives for a perfomance raid cuz.. well havn't done it before either and my friends say its worth it so this is where i stand... at this point i am just a bit over 1500 with two of the vid cards and 2 of the HDD linked above. any and all input on how to reduce cost or stay in budget and get better parts... thank you guys once again in advance.

[jdeb]

Drop the Ripjaws and go with the Corsair Vengeance 1.5V for reliability and stability. You do not need 16 GB, total waste of money at this time.
Newegg.com - CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CML8GX3M2A1600C9B

I assume you did not mean SLI as you have selected an AMD GPU. AMD calls their cross-fire. The board you selected would be an excellent choice for that.

You will want a certified crossfire power supply and for reliability and stability, Seasonic is my choice
Newegg.com - SeaSonic M12II 750 SS-750AM 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Semi-modular Power Supply

I would change the hard drive to a sataIII 6Gbs. Much faster and better warranty. I am not into the raid scene for gaming so your on your own.
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

You are gonna want to get the 64 bit version of Windows when installing more than 3.25 GB of memory.
Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - Operating Systems

If you think you are going to add more memory than 8GB, than get the Windows 7 Professional 64bit.
Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit - Operating Systems

[fadedfury]

Yes i did intend to write sli/crossfire sorry about that. After thse tweeks what else can i change add substract to reduce my cost and get the best for the price. Thank you for your input ive made the changes from ripjaw to.corsar and a 64bit os. Hos much of a reduction in performance and gaming quality would i see if I don't do a crossfire. And if I only put in 1 hard drive.

[birddog_61]

Well in all honesty Sandy/ivy bridge game better than bulldozer.
AnandTech - The Bulldozer Review: AMD FX-8150 Tested
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5771/t...3770k-review/7

[jdeb]

Originally Posted by fadedfury Yes i did intend to write sli/crossfire sorry about that. After thse tweeks what else can i change add substract to reduce my cost and get the best for the price. Thank you for your input ive made the changes from ripjaw to.corsar and a 64bit os. Hos much of a reduction in performance and gaming quality would i see if I don't do a crossfire. And if I only put in 1 hard drive.

I think the one GPU is fine as I am not into multi GPU gaming all that much. I have built quite a few for others who insisted and I did not see the value in it honestly. The drop off depends on the game, maybe David M can chime in on it as he is running a multi GPU setup. As far as the hard drive raid, here again, I do not see the value in it as the performance gain seems minimal at best.

If you want to reduce your cost further, go with a different board and CPU. Use a single GPU solution. This allows you to bump up the video card and reduce the power supply. Your still getting an excellent CPU that will handle all the games and then some. Essentially your reducing cost by getting what is only necessary while maintaining high quality and excellent performance.

Newegg.com - ASUS M5A99X EVO AM3+ AMD 990X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Newegg.com - AMD FX-4100 Zambezi 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor FD4100WMGUSBX

Newegg.com - SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Post your new list in this thread and we can tweak it a little more if necessary.

[David M]

The graphics card you chose is plenty adequate for a single 1920 x 1080 monitor. You only really need a second AMD card in Crossfire if you are running three monitors. You can't really run games on two monitors because the cursor that you use for aiming is always at the bezel. jdeb is right in that different games scale differently with systems with two GPU's

I would first buy the single card and see if it is good enough. Consider a second card if you plan on going with three monitors or you find that a single card is not fast enough for you.

These days you are better off buying a SSD and using it as a buffer or for running your OS and a game or two from it as opposed to going RAID 0 (striping). RAID 0 doubles your chances of a drive crash taking down everything.

[glc]

These days you are better off buying a SSD and using it as a buffer

AMD motherboards don't support that.

[fadedfury]

Allright, well firstly thank you guys for your help. And looking into bulldozer and ivy brdge rigs a bit more.. am i, for performance sake, justbetter off getting an i5 or i7 rather than an amd? And i did decide to go with just one vid. Card rather than two per what has been said. And i guess also one ssd and not bothering with raid0. So j guess at this point i just need to knw to go the intel route or amd route. And the second i wanted o knw was would i gain only a small performance boost if i go from a quadcore to a six core so its not worthwhile for me?

[glc]

Anything over 4 cores is a waste for gaming.

The most reliable SSD would be an Intel 520.

[fadedfury]

So overall since SSD are a bit more expensive, is it worth while getting a smaller SSD rather than the HDD i have right now?

[glc]

I would not get just a SSD - you should also have a conventional hard drive for data. We recommend a 120gb SSD for OS and programs - but if you get an Intel rig with a Z68 or Z77 chipset, you can get a 60gb SSD for caching a conventional hard drive as a compromise.

[fadedfury]

I havnt installed an ssd before. Is it installed in the same sata slot or do i need compatible MB for it. Sorry for silly question. Last rig was 8 years ago.

[glc]

Standard SATA.