New Gaming Rig

Status
Not open for further replies.

supercadet

Solid State Member
Messages
6
I am tentatively looking at putting together a gaming rig this summer. My target range is ~$2000. Don't really want to go up to $2500 but hey, this is why I am looking around now.
I really am only partial to Intel and Nvidia in terms of parts, due to their "upper hand" in their respective markets (i7 processors and GTX video cards). Small stuff (keyboard, mouse, etc) will be decided upon if I do build this setup.

If I were to upgrade the processor from the i7 920 to the 940, what sort of performance gains would I see?
If I were to upgrade the video cards from the GTX 260 to GTX 270 or 275, what sort of graphical performance gains would I see?

Case: Thermaltake Armor Series Newegg.com - Thermaltake Armor+MX VH8000BWS Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases

Power Supply: Thermaltake Tough Power 650W Newegg.com - Thermaltake Toughpower W0128RU 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Power Supplies

Mother Board: ASUS P6T X58 Newegg.com - ASUS P6T SE LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

CPU: Intel i7 920 Newegg.com - Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops

Video Card: EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 (2 in SLI setup) Newegg.com - EVGA 896-P3-1257-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Hard Drive: Western Digital Velociraptor 150gb 10k RPM (2 in RAID Stripe 0) Newegg.com - Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive (bare drive) - Internal Hard Drives

RAM: Mushkin DDR3 1600 (3x2gb) Newegg.com - mushkin 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

CPU Cooling Unit: Cooler Master V8 Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - CPU Fans & Heatsinks

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi 7.1 Newegg.com - Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card - Sound Cards

Disc Drive: LG Blu-Ray/HD DVD Drive Newegg.com - LG Black 6X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM & 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Model GGC-H20L - Blu-Ray Drives

Monitor: Samsung 22" widescreen LCD Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 2232BW+ Black 22" 2ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 DC 8000:1(1000:1) - LCD Monitors

OS: Windows Vista 64bit Home Premium Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders - Operating Systems

Feel free to abuse and mutilate this list, within reason :)
 
for 2k.. we can do alot...

Personally.... swap the RAM for some OCZ platinums 1600
Ditch the sound card.. not needed, mobo sound is fine for most people..

Swap to cooler out, TRUE.. Dark Knight, Core Contact, Thors Hammer... all better coolers...

I would do watercooling with the budget.. but if you arent ready to take that on... pick up an antec 1200, haf 932, TJ07, or any Lian li case... if doing mid-tower.. perhaps an antec 902...

a GTX285, or HD4890.. even a 4870X2 can fit into that budget for GFX cards....

I don't have time ATM, but im sure someone else will link up similar stuff... i'll come back when i can
 
Thank you for the quick responses. I tweaked second list a little to double the size of the SSD to 120gb and add a second GFX card for SLI, and it still ended up right at $2000. Will consider my options... Thank you for the help. Any other feedback definitely welcome.
 
Barons build is pretty slick.. I might go for a TRUE or Thors Hammer with a push/pull fan setup ... with your price range, why not?

Otherwise.. I have a hard time finding anything wrong with that build..
 
On a 22" monitor you won't see the gain from GTX285s in SLI. That won't do you much good until you hit 1920x1200 res. Even there, one GTX285 will handle everything just perfectly.

I would get a better monitor than Acer with that budget. They are (atleast in my experience) a budget monitor brand. Mine (which I only have because my other one died, and I couldn't afford a new nice one) has some pretty severe backlight bleeding that bothers me and the viewing angles are horrid. Get a samsung or an NEC
 
I would get a better monitor than Acer with that budget. They are (atleast in my experience) a budget monitor brand. Mine (which I only have because my other one died, and I couldn't afford a new nice one) has some pretty severe backlight bleeding that bothers me and the viewing angles are horrid. Get a samsung or an NEC

Acer arent the best, however, they use similar screens to even alot of samsungs these days. All the cheaper range models use TN panels so the viewing angles will be very similar. The backlight bleeding is going to be alot better on a Samsung though. NEC are extremely good screens, but really for professional use and are quite expensive, also they suffer from alot of input lag.

If you want to get a 24" to use with SLI the Benq G2400W apparently is very good for a TN panel, great colour reproduction and at a great price. If you want something a bit more stylish the Samsung 2493HM is quite good too. The dell ultrasharp series are extremely good monitors because they use better tech in their panels, but they are more pricey as again.

As already mentioned there is no point going SLI GTX285s if your only going to use it at 1680x1050. My single GTX285 plays anything with AA at full settings at that res. Even at 1920x1200 it only sees minor noticable drops in fps in crysis warhead at full settings with AA.
 
As already mentioned there is no point going SLI GTX285s if your only going to use it at 1680x1050. My single GTX285 plays anything with AA at full settings at that res. Even at 1920x1200 it only sees minor noticable drops in fps in crysis warhead at full settings with AA.

Ok that is definitely helpful. Saved me a couple pennies. So on terms of screens, Dells and Samsungs seem the way to go?
Also, if I were to go with the Thor's Hammer CPU Cooler, would any 120mm case fan work?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom