Building a new PC, but I need some input/suggestions.

[crimsonedge]

I have the funds, I plan on spending between $1400-$1800 on just a tower.

First of all I am thinking of the I5 2500k (sandy bridge) processor. I don't see the point in paying $100 more for the I7 for only some extra threads, and hyper threading, which I understand is basically useless for gaming anyway. And when the I5 is overclocked, it will leave most I7s in the dust.

I am considering getting this board here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128500

It says it has 2 PCI express slots, I was planning on getting 2 Radeon HD 6950's and running them in crossfire, and also flash the bios to make them 6970. Is this going to work on this board or am I going to need more room or more slots?

I know the Radeon HD 6950 is a pretty huge card, around 10.5 to 11 inches, will I have any issues fitting that in a mid tower? Or should I just go with a full? A friend gave me a really nice Lian Li mid tower case for free, and I was planning on using it, only if it will fit 2 6950s though.

I do plan on overclocking the I5 to about 4.3-4.5 GHZ so I am going to need an aftermarket heat sink, or maybe a liquid cooled setup to do that, but I am not really sure which would be the best for the price that will still get me what I need to do that. The easy thing to do would be to just overpay for a liquid cooler and not worry about it, but it might not be required. I do want my PC to run really cool, not just the CPU but the video cards as well, I need to make sure they will also have adequate ventilation.

I am also going with a 64MB SSD to put my OS on it, and essential programs. Possibly a couple games depending on how much room I have left. The games would run faster off the SSD right?

Also what kind of power supply am I going to need to run this? Will a 750W cut it? I already got one of those, or do I need to go even bigger to like 850W? I definitely don't want to be having any problems in this area when everything else is fine.

This will also be the first PC I ever built. I want it to run games for at least 2 years on max settings with good FPS. That setup with just one 6950 could probably do that now on any PC game to date, or in the near future, so depending on if I have to buy a new case, and power supply I might hold out on buying the second 6950 until a later date.

[Constipated Rat]

If this is the first pc you say you've built, then you shouldnt blow your wad on too much... what sort of performance do you want from your games?.. all maxed out with filters to max and at highest res?.. or just something that is pretty playable and still looks very good?

I mean, 2 6950's?.. even one may give the performance you're after and save you a good deal of cash.... if you say you want it to be future proof then all you really need to worry about is the motherboard. And that board is good to go.

It is a bad move buying 2 of those cards now, because they wil drop in price soon. But you should really just buy one first and see how it goes,you probably will be surprised at the performance of one and be glad you didnt fork out on another. Also, not ot start an argument but nvidia is a better choice because they have better technology built in with cuda and physx and better tessellation handling and an overall better core design for the future games.. you will see a big performance boost in the newer upcoming games on an nvidia card. GTX 560 Ti is a good card I think.

Also you can use the SSD as a cache drive for super fast system performance on that motherboard with smart response... hard drives dont really affect game performance now with the 4 or 8gb of DDR3 ram most systems have, so no big deal

[Slacker Magician]

I have the funds, I plan on spending between $1400-$1800 on just a tower.

First of all I am thinking of the I5 2500k (sandy bridge) processor. I don't see the point in paying $100 more for the I7 for only some extra threads, and hyper threading, which I understand is basically useless for gaming anyway. And when the I5 is overclocked, it will leave most I7s in the dust.

I am considering getting this board here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128500

It says it has 2 PCI express slots, I was planning on getting 2 Radeon HD 6950's and running them in crossfire, and also flash the bios to make them 6970. Is this going to work on this board or am I going to need more room or more slots?

I know the Radeon HD 6950 is a pretty huge card, around 10.5 to 11 inches, will I have any issues fitting that in a mid tower? Or should I just go with a full? A friend gave me a really nice Lian Li mid tower case for free, and I was planning on using it, only if it will fit 2 6950s though.

I do plan on overclocking the I5 to about 4.3-4.5 GHZ so I am going to need an aftermarket heat sink, or maybe a liquid cooled setup to do that, but I am not really sure which would be the best for the price that will still get me what I need to do that. The easy thing to do would be to just overpay for a liquid cooler and not worry about it, but it might not be required. I do want my PC to run really cool, not just the CPU but the video cards as well, I need to make sure they will also have adequate ventilation.

I am also going with a 64MB SSD to put my OS on it, and essential programs. Possibly a couple games depending on how much room I have left. The games would run faster off the SSD right?

Also what kind of power supply am I going to need to run this? Will a 750W cut it? I already got one of those, or do I need to go even bigger to like 850W? I definitely don't want to be having any problems in this area when everything else is fine.

This will also be the first PC I ever built. I want it to run games for at least 2 years on max settings with good FPS. That setup with just one 6950 could probably do that now on any PC game to date, or in the near future, so depending on if I have to buy a new case, and power supply I might hold out on buying the second 6950 until a later date.

The 5970 out performs a 6950, in terms of raw power anyway.

[crimsonedge]

Yeah but its around $600, and I guarantee x2 6950s flashed to 6970s can beat it. And they are all sold out of 5970s on newegg. I don't see why they are so popular considering there is the 6990 now that is superior to it.

[Slacker Magician]

Yeah but its around $600, and I guarantee x2 6950s flashed to 6970s can beat it. And they are all sold out of 5970s on newegg. I don't see why they are so popular considering there is the 6990 now that is superior to it.

Whatever works . You should go with a full tower, it will probably be pretty hard to fit two large cards in a mid-size.

[Knightshade]

also I would spring for a larger ssd as windows updates take a good chunk of space.

[Russ]

Crossfire arrays are more complicated to set up than a single card, so if it were me i'd want all my graphics processing going through a single card solution. Less of a fuss finding and installing crossfire drivers for certain games, too.

[Slacker Magician]

Crossfire arrays are more complicated to set up than a single card, so if it were me i'd want all my graphics processing going through a single card solution. Less of a fuss finding and installing crossfire drivers for certain games, too.

The case will run a lot cooler too.

[crimsonedge]

1

LIAN LI PC-A70F Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case
Item #: N82E16811112243

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$199.99
$189.99

1

ASRock Z68 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
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$189.99

2

SAPPHIRE 100312-1GDP Radeon HD 6950 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
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Seasonic SS-850HT 850W ATX12V v2.31,EPS12V v2.92 80Plus Silver Certified, Active PFC Power Supply - OEM
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$129.99
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Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
Item #: N82E16819115072

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Kingston DataTraveler 100 Generation 2 4GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive Model DT100G2/4GBZ
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$119.99

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Item #: N82E16820231445

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Pwnage? Toward the higher end of my budget, and I am pretty sure just one of those 6950 cards will run max settings on pretty much any game to date. When Skyrim comes out I want to be able to run that on maximum settings and get great FPS and I might need 2 6950s unlocked to 6970s to do that. If it is anything like the brutal system spec requirements I remember for Oblivion when it first came out. Lets hope none of my stuff is DOA, cause I will be nerd raging like a mofo.

I should have no problems overclocking the I5 2500k to at least 4.5 GHZ and keep it adequately cooled. That board I got is one of the top tier boards for overclocking stability.

That Lian Li case, and the power supply both, I should be able to reuse on builds for years to come.

My brother in law who is a computer engineer is going to help me put all this together and get it setup the way I want.

[Constipated Rat]

To save yourself a little more cash you should consider just using two 500gig hard drives in raid 0. This will still give you very fast system response time for very little cash.(2 hard drives working as one)

Everyone nowadays is using stand alone disk arrays, external drive bays for their storage and only connecting it when needed, like to move/backup files or just run it connected, since they are usually using esata to connect them, so it is just the same as if it were in the tower.. That is the way to go especially in a sata 6gb board.

I would never recommend SSD, intel are just finding ways to promote them since they manufacture tham too(like with their smart response into MB's). But they are just too damn small in the disk space department. Also by the way SSD will die on you wether you like it or not, as they only read and write so many times before dyng, old cumbersome drives can last 10+ years if you are lucky... my mate is an apple tech and the SSD drives in mac laptops have about a 2-3yr life span before needing replaced...

Just something for you to think about that may save you some cash... although if can afford it and are wanting a smart response setup, then you may as well go for an SSD.

[crimsonedge]

I never thought about a raid setup, I completely overlooked that. I have a lot of space in my full tower, and plenty of connectors with that board that I could probably have 4 HDDs connected if I wanted. I will probably buy a couple more down the road and do a raid setup.

And if I can get 2-3 years out of my SSD, then I consider that reasonable. By the time I need to buy another one I could probably get a larger one for cheaper than I paid for this one. I actually heard the complete opposite about SSDs and their durability, they are not supposed to get corrupted as easily which makes it perfect for putting an OS on. I am pretty sure 64 GB is going to be plenty of room for Windows 7 professional, and that is really all I am going to need it for.

Also I have been shopping around looking at monitors, does anyone have or know of a good 26"-28" monitor that is good quality and reasonably priced? I know once you get into the 30" range the prices start getting into the 1k range, and I am looking at spending around $300-$350 max on a monitor.

[kaliber64]

quite a line up. I wouldn't be too happy about the sata position on the board they would run into the front of my case. I think your looking to do SLI. Crossfire isn't the accurate term, no harm. I wouldn't go with radeons all I've seen personally are driver issues that cause incompatibility with some games. I have no faith in ATI.

The board capability compared with the price is great but you'll make up for it in the processor. I know Intel is always the best but they are higher priced. I have an Asus board M4n78pro with phenom II 4 core 3.5 ghz. Where Intel's equivalent would cost 20% more.
I don't overclock-amd's don't much anyways-but its not just the processor, the board needs to be able to handle such an OC. Unless u can find someone with the exact same setup your going to have you wont know if u can OC the I5 like you say. I've taking my 3.5 to 4.2 but there's no need

I got a pretty generic non raved video card nvidea 250 gts 512mb, nothing special. Highest settings on everything from COD to Crysis. $150 now its like $100 and better things for $150 sadly about 6 months ago.

I wont need any new hardware for a long time. Without hard drives(assuming u allready own some) is about $600. $200 processor $80 MB $150 vid card. My power supply is bare minimum from my old comp 300 watt kinda want a 450. If your going with what u got there it'll be about 600 watt min. slice that by 150 with only one card getting performance beyond acceptable. having two cards doesn't mean faster its just means more. The difference between one and two is one talks to one thing(MoBo) and two talks to two things, it can do more at one time but you get the same speed. IMO. also imo your ganna spend way too much.

[Constipated Rat]

Well no harm to you either kaliber64...but

You say you wont have to buy hardware for along time, well your GTX250 is only a DX10 card and most modern game releases -even going back a year ago- are DX11.

Also he is thinking of running Radeons, so Crossfire is the right term, SLi is the Nvidia term. Certain older chipsets only support one or the other, even though there are some hacked drivers to let you run either on unsupported boards. But Z68 supports both nativily

And multi card setups work by rendering different parts of an image/game in seperate portions, that is how it gives the faster performance in games. What do you mean talks to the mobo?. If you're talking about a 16 lane board that has to run at 8x 8x.. or 8x 4x 4x then yes that means the motherboard chipset controls the other cards, but the p55 cpu controls the main card at 16x if alone. But multi card setups are worth it if cheap and efficent enough, as drivers are prety good and some games do benefit.