Building high-end pc. needing ideas and advice

Zefie

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2010

Dark Emperial Legion

D/Mo

Ive Decided to invest about $2000 max on building a new pc. I suppose the main reason I'm building it would be to play GW 2 (with max graphic settings) but I plan on using it for various reasons (I want to get into OC'ing as well). I want it to be fairly future proof and I am open to ideas on which parts I should choose. This is my setup so far:
Motherboard:ASUS P6X58D Premium (adusted this from the P6TD Deluxe)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131614

CPU:Intel Core i7 950 Bloomfield Quad-core
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115211

GPU: Asus Geforce GTX 570
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...SUS-_-14121412

RAM:Corsair x3 XMS3 6GB DDR3 RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145236

HDD: Seagate 500GB HDD (Chose this because I dont feel I really NEED a TB of space)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148395

Tower: Antec 1200 (adjusted from the Rosewill Armor Gaming Tower)
http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=Njkz

PSU: Corsair HX 850w (adjusted from the OCZ 850w)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139011

Im also getting a 20" HD monitor from dell and windows 7 64 bit. I mainly want to know if all this is compatible. If anyone has better ideas for some of the parts I'm all ears (or eyes since im reading)

killerbot3009

killerbot3009

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Oct 2007

the beaster

the Gold Fish [GOLD]

W/

well i can say one thing u got the future proffing thing down

the only thing i could suggest appart from all that is investing in a SSD as that would definatly future proof ure pc.

plus the tower looks cool, so thats always a good thing for gaming PC's.

only downside i think is you are way overshooting for a PC which will be able to run GW2
this is the sort of rig i would expect to see at Festivals and stuff. but it should handle GW2 without a doubt. also having a good rig does open up to a lot more high-end gaming/ new games. interested to seeing other peoples opinions though as my PC needs a rebuild atm xD

KriiV

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Jan 2011

Melbourne, Australia

The Luxon Jadites [Jade]

N/Rt

Go for bigger than 500gb. You might not need it at the moment, but HDD's are so cheap, go for it.

If you are going to be overclocking, try finding an i7 920 on the internet. They overclock much better and are definately cheaper.

Rosewill dont exactly make the best cases. Try Antec, Lian Li, Corsair or NZXT. Also if you like the clean finish look, check out some Fractal Designs cases. Great build quality.

OCZ make great RAM, but they're PSU's arent amazing. Do some research on the electronics behind PSU's and you'll find Corsairs HX range are the best bang for buck.

Great motherboard considering the price. I currently have the Rampage II Extreme. Asus make great boards so good pick. Also have a look at EVGA but definately go with Asus if thats what you want.

Let me know if you need to ask anymore questions etc. I can definately help you with a lot on this topic.

Cheers,
KriiV

Iron Monkey

Academy Page

Join Date: May 2006

New Dragons [NDR]

Mo/Me

if you go high end, a SSD will make the system work respond much quicker (program load, windows start / shutdown, basically anything accessing the SSD). Nothing fancy, something like a Crucial C300, or the up and coming new Intel SSDs, just for OS, programs, and of course GW2 Although if it's anything like GW, it will be one of the fastest loading game around.

I would seriously consider SandyBridge for the system though, even a i5 (K series) over a bloomfield i7. Insane overclock potential.

A GTX 560 / HD6950 are better price-performance cards. It's hard to speculate on GW2, but these cards should play it maxed no problem.

I would get a 1TB drive (or two), and I would personally go with WD Caviar Blue / Black from reputation.

Corsair makes ace PSUs, they are worth a look. ANtec and Corsair are the go-to manufacturers for the enthusiast. 750W would be ample, even with OC (at least SandyBridge).

I would also recommend a case by top designers. Corsair, Fractal Design, CoolerMaster, Antec, Lian Li... A case can be a personal thing, and are loads of good ones out there.

20'' monitor is rather small. Of course it depends on your budget, but I'd consider at least 22''. I really like Dell Monitors, I have a 2407WFP at home, and a Dell 2209WA at work. Both really nice to work with, but I wouldn't go below 22''.

I don't see any obvious incompatibilities.

If you gonna overclock, you may want to consider an after market cooler, although I don't know how good the Sandybridge coolers are for overclocking.

Quaker

Quaker

Hell's Protector

Join Date: Aug 2005

Canada

Brothers Disgruntled

You didn't say what CPU you were planning to use, and the Mobo link doesn't seem to work - but it is a socket 1366 mobo.
In which case, I'd say - stop - get yourself a newer Sandy Bridge setup. An i7-2600K or i5-2500K CPU and a socket 1155 motherboard. (In which case you will only need 2 (or 4) RAMs, not 3.) The i7-2600K even outperforms the i7-980X (6 core) in many things.

Grenths Ire

Grenths Ire

Academy Page

Join Date: Feb 2007

Lexington, Ky

N/

I disagree with the others regarding the drive, in part. If you are planning on storing media, ie. songs, photos, and video, then you should definitely buy at least a 1TB drive IN ADDITION to the HDD you plan on running software from. If it were me, I would buy a smallish HDD for only my OS and critical software and a 500GB HDD for all my other software + a Large HDD for Media storage.

Also, I too am curious as to which CPU you are planning on using on that P6 MoBo?

Zefie

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2010

Dark Emperial Legion

D/Mo

The CPU I'm using is an i7 950 bloomfield quad-core 3.06 ghz. Its right in the first post lol. I also fixed the motherboard link. Isn't the sandybridge setup more expensive? Everyone keeps saying its better but im trying to keep my price down. Also for some reason I'm just more comfortable with the 1366 socket. Also I'm not completely sure but isnt the 1155 socket sandybridge is on an older socket anyway?

Nevermind. I just checked and realized the 1155 socket is more current. I suppose it would be more "future proof" for me to get sandybridge so if anyone has any ideas on what cpu and motherboard I should get feel free to post your idea.

Elder III

Elder III

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jan 2007

Ohio

I Will Never Join Your Guild (NTY)

R/

your budget is overkill - unless you give more information about what you want to do.... maxing out GW2 on a 20" lcd and future proofing can be accomplished for about $1000-1200 if you really want to spend money just for the sake of spending money.

Can you give us a little more information about what you actually plan to do? ie. what games, what programs, how many years until any major upgrades etc...

Zefie

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2010

Dark Emperial Legion

D/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by Elder III View Post
your budget is overkill - unless you give more information about what you want to do.... maxing out GW2 on a 20" lcd and future proofing can be accomplished for about $1000-1200 if you really want to spend money just for the sake of spending money.

Can you give us a little more information about what you actually plan to do? ie. what games, what programs, how many years until any major upgrades etc...
Well I would rather not have to update any major components for a few years or as long as possible while still being able to maintain high end performance. I plan on playing games that require much more than guild wars 2 will such as crysis, CoD, and need for speed. I also have full intention on OC'ing as its something I've become very interested in but can't do with my current piece of crap P4. I do realize it's a little overkill but that just comes down to the fact that I want to splurge since its my first time building my own pc

Also Im likely to be running multiple power sucking programs at once as more often then not I leave GW(GW2) on while i do other things like downloading bittorrents, creating character mods with adobe photoshop, and other such things.

Elder III

Elder III

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jan 2007

Ohio

I Will Never Join Your Guild (NTY)

R/

sounds good Will you be doing any encoding, large amounts of ripping, or massive data compilations? If not I would go for a 2500k based system with 8 GB RAM (DDR3 1600 is the sweet spot) either MSI, ASUS, or Gigabyte for mobo, a SSD for the OS, a 1 TB for everything else (they are $20 more than a 500gb so you might as well) - the biggest case you can fit in your house from a name brand manufacturer (anything over $200 is probably not worth the cost) and then spend the rest on the biggest/baddest GPU you can afford ... with an appropriate PSU of course.

*if I wasn't sick and grumpy I would help you with the legwork... maybe tomorrow...

Zefie

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2010

Dark Emperial Legion

D/Mo

Cool. The 2600k isnt too much more expensive so I am more than likely just going to spring for that but everything else I pretty much agree with. Thanks for all the input

Jumping Is Uselss

Jumping Is Uselss

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Sep 2005

-... . .... .. -. -.. / -.-- --- ..-

A 570 is a waste on a 20" monitor. At least find a 22", but a 23"-24" is preferred. If you want to use a 20" get a 460 gtx 1gb.

For your budget i'd go with an SSD for the OS and other main programs you use often.

For the other stuff like movies, games, and music get this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-185-_-Product

Quaker

Quaker

Hell's Protector

Join Date: Aug 2005

Canada

Brothers Disgruntled

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zefie View Post
Nevermind. I just checked and realized the 1155 socket is more current. I suppose it would be more "future proof" for me to get sandybridge so if anyone has any ideas on what cpu and motherboard I should get feel free to post your idea.
If you look up tests and reviews, you will see that the i7-2600K easily outperforms the i7-950 in gaming.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/t...2100-tested/20

As far as motherboards go, they all use the same Intel chipset(s), so the only real difference is price and features. Find one that has the features you want at a price you are willing to pay, and don't fret about it too much.

Hard drives - get an SSD if you want the speediest system. And/or get a 500gig and partition it into an OS partition and a "working" partition. Also get 2 500gig (or larger) drives in a RAID1 (mirrored) array for storage/backup.