Building Another High-End Gaming PC

Status
Not open for further replies.

zandre88

In Runtime
Messages
241
Location
Cincinnati, OH
Hey everyone,

So I am a bit impatient and well I have gotten pretty excited over the Sandy Bridges even with the early problems they had. So I've basically decided to build another computer. Luckily I have been able to get a little extra money so I can probably spend about $2,000 possibly and possibly a little more. I kind of plan on buying the parts over the course of the next month. I don't think I'll be ordering everything at once. Anyways, I'm still pretty new to this so I'm looking for some suggestions. Right now I know I want the Intel i7 Sandy Bridge 2600k. The only thing I could get above that I believe is an 980x or 990x and I don't think I honestly need that much power. It'd be fun but yeah I don't LOL. I also have a Corsair 850watt PSU so I'm set there. However I will need everything else.

So I was wondering if anyone could give me some ideas. I think I'd like to get the new ASUS MAXIMUS IV EXTREME Mobo but it seems to be sold out everywhere I look. Is there any news on when that might get back on the market or is there somewhere I could buy it?

I'll also be wanting an SSD. I don't think I want to go with a RevoDrive as I did before because I just found it to be a hassle to get Windows installed properly. I think I'd prefer a SATA version. Suggestions there would be nice. I guess around 200ish GB is what I'm looking for.

Basically I just want another powerful gaming PC. Part of the reason is my girlfriend is actually kind of getting into gaming so I figure she can use my current PC once I build this new one.

Thanks in advance for any help. Sample builds would be appreciated.
 
Zalman just released a series of Solid State Drives on newegg. N series and S series. N series is overall better and is the the price of the S series for the same capacity. although they dont have 200gb+, buying two 128gb appears cheaper than buying 200GB+ SSDs.

Newegg.com - Zalman S Series SSD0128S1 2.5" 128GB USB 2.0 & SATAII MLC Internal / External Solid State Drive (SSD)
Newegg.com - Zalman N Series SSD0128N1 2.5" 128GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

That is the 128GB Zalman S-series and N-series. Check em out. they have SATAII as well as USB connector if u want to make it potable. i would personally get 2 of these... the two of them combined are about 439$ and 256GB while buying a 256 GB would be closer to 500$ on newegg.

i'm not an intel guy, but since Radeon videocards actually work quite well with intel processors, i'd recommend Crossfiring 6850s or 6950s since they are cheap, fast, and dont suck up alot of power.
 
Zalman just released a series of Solid State Drives on newegg. N series and S series. N series is overall better and is the the price of the S series for the same capacity. although they dont have 200gb+, buying two 128gb appears cheaper than buying 200GB+ SSDs.

Newegg.com - Zalman S Series SSD0128S1 2.5" 128GB USB 2.0 & SATAII MLC Internal / External Solid State Drive (SSD)
Newegg.com - Zalman N Series SSD0128N1 2.5" 128GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

That is the 128GB Zalman S-series and N-series. Check em out. they have SATAII as well as USB connector if u want to make it potable. i would personally get 2 of these... the two of them combined are about 439$ and 256GB while buying a 256 GB would be closer to 500$ on newegg.

i'm not an intel guy, but since Radeon videocards actually work quite well with intel processors, i'd recommend Crossfiring 6850s or 6950s since they are cheap, fast, and dont suck up alot of power.

Thanks for the suggestions on the SSDs. I will definitely check those out. I am kind of partial to OCZ even with the headache I had with the RevoDrive at first. But once I found the proper installation procedure it wasn't too bad. Plus it is a wickedly fast SSD.

I like ATI/AMD anyways so I was probably going to go with one anyways. However I was thinking more about the HD 6970 although I am intrigued by the GTX 580. I know outside of the HD 5970 it is one of the top dogs. Anybody had experience with either or even better with both of them? Would I get better performance with the HD 6970 and/or the GTX 580 over crossfiring HD 6850s or 6950s or vice versa?

I have a decent list so far which I'll post once it is more complete but in the meantime any more suggestions would always be appreciated.

Also does anyone know anything about that ASUS Motherboard I linked in my original post. It looks great but it seems to be sold out just about everywhere I look. Was this due to the Sandy Bridge recall or is it just because they sold like hot cakes way too fast?

Thanks again all!
 
the msi p67 offerings are pretty weak for the enthusiast market, they've got low PWM and not a lot of overclocking options. The maximus extreme is a good board, the gigabyte UD7 is a great board, the asrock fatality and extreme6 are also great boards. Most of them are off the shelves though so you'll have to wait for the b3 revision to come out to really sink your teeth into a lovely board, and by then a lot of new boards will be out.
 
the msi p67 offerings are pretty weak for the enthusiast market, they've got low PWM and not a lot of overclocking options. The maximus extreme is a good board, the gigabyte UD7 is a great board, the asrock fatality and extreme6 are also great boards. Most of them are off the shelves though so you'll have to wait for the b3 revision to come out to really sink your teeth into a lovely board, and by then a lot of new boards will be out.

Do we have any idea when that will be? Or how long I should say. I don't plan on building this immediately but thought in around a month I'd have all my components and go ahead with the build.
 
yeah about a month or two we'll start to see b3 revision boards. on the egg some b3 boards are already out there and the other manufacturer's will start to filter their b3 boards in. just keep an eye out and search forums and stuff for some more firm release dates.
 
yeah about a month or two we'll start to see b3 revision boards. on the egg some b3 boards are already out there and the other manufacturer's will start to filter their b3 boards in. just keep an eye out and search forums and stuff for some more firm release dates.

Cool. In the mean time I guess I'll wait and look for discounts/sales that Newegg drops all the time.

By the way just a thought do we have a forum or a thread where people could post hot buys/sales/discounts that are legitimately good? I'm not talking the $5-10 off a $200 component but the occasional one that is very good. If not I think that would be a cool idea.

Thanks for the help Peter.Cort. Hopefully those boards will be out sooner than later.

Also, as far as the video cards go still wondering what would be the best way to go. Whether it be the HD6970, GTX 580, or Crossfiring a pair of 6850s or 6950s?
 
6970 is my pick...medium price, can play most games on highest settings, plus eyefinity if you ever chose that path..
 
yeah the the Buy/Sell/Trade section there's a hot deal section, but most of them aren't more than like $20 bucks off, it's rare that there's a mega sale on stuff. If you've got a 2k budget for a build I'd look into even SLI 580's or Crossfire 6970's. It would be about 1k for sli'd 580's or 600-700 for 2 6970's, but your system would scream along, and you could easily do everything else you need for 1k - 1.3k depending on what you go with for cards, especially if you don't need a PSU. the i7 2600k is 300, spend 250-300 on a board, 50-100 for ram, hard drive and optical is another 100, 150-200 or so if you're gonna do a SSD on top of main storage. That'll put you around 2k if you go sli 580's, or 1.6-1.7 with crossfire 6970's, throw in a nice after market cooler and a case and you're looking at max of like 2.15k - 2.2k and that build will last you easily 4 years no questions asked I would think, or would put you in a situation where you can sell the parts off and upgrade for quite cheap in a year or so.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom