Buying new computer help

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Demented Avenger

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Lebanon, CT
Hello,

I am new here and in the market for a custom built gaming machine. I investigated a lot of company's and settled on Cyberpower. I have built rigs in the past but the new technologies have left me in the dark on a number of fronts. Below is my tentative build. It seems a little expensive and was wondering where I could cut corners. The base build can be found here:

AMD Quad Core Configurator

My build is as follows, please feel free to tell me where I can cut a few corners and save some dough or put my money towards better components. I play mostly FPS's, COD(All Titles), HL2, and want a machine that will have no problem eating up Crysis. Final price on this is $1967.00.

Thank you

BUNDLE:None

BLUETOOTH:None

CD:LG 22X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Dual Layer Drive (BLACK COLOR)

CD2:NONE

CAS:Raidmax Sagitta II Mid-Tower Gaming Case w/ Side-Panel Window [+3] (Silver Color)

CASUPGRADE:NONE

CS_FAN:Maximum Enemax 120MM Case Cooling Fans for selected case (Maximum Silent Operation) [+29] (1,000 RPM Black Color with No LED Enlobal Magnetic Barometric Bearing 17 dBA)

CPU:AMD PhenomTII X4 965 Black Edition Quad-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology [+104]

FAN:Asetek Liquid CPU Cooling System (Extreme Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA) [+54]

FREEBIE_RM:FREE! 4GB USB Pen Drive

FREEGAME_VC02:FREE! (Stormrise) Game

FA_HDD:Vigor iSURF II Hard Disk Drive Cooling System [+21] (2 x Systems [+27])

FLASHMEDIA:INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)

FLOPPY:NONE

FREEBIE_OS:None

HDD:Single Hard Drive (300GB Gaming Western Digital VelociRaptor 10,000RPM SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache WD3000GLFS [+223])

HDD2:NONE

IEEE_CARD:NONE

KEYBOARD:NONE [-4]

MOUSE:XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Buttons Gaming Mouse

MULTIVIEW:Xtreme Performance in SLI/CrossFireX Gaming Mode Supports Single Monitor

MONITOR:NONE

MONITOR2:NONE

MOTHERBOARD:Asus Crosshair III Formula AM3 DDR3 790FX CrossFire Chipset with Quad PCIE slot SATA RAID MB w/GbLAN [+132]

MEMORY:8GB (2GBx4) DDR3/1800MHz Dual Channel Memory Module [+210] (Kingston HyperX [+72])

MODEM:NONE

NETWORK:Onboard Gigabit LAN Network

NOISEREDUCE1:Sound Absorbing Foam on Side, Top And Bottom panels [+29]

NOISEREDUCE2:power Supply Gasket [+5]

NOISEREDUCE3:Anti-Vibration Fan Mounts [+9]

OS:Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium [+104] (64-bit Edition)

OS_UPGRADE:None

PRINTER:None

PRINTER_CABLE:None

POWERSUPPLY:Corsair Power Supplies [+101] (750 Watts CMPSU-750TX - Quad SLI Ready [+8])

RUSH:NO; READY TO SHIP IN 5~10 BUSINESS DAYS

SERVICE:STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT

SOUND:HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO

SPEAKERS:None [-5]

TEMP:Xion XON-MTR001B Color LCD Thermal Control Panel Display [+28]

TVRC:None

USB:Built-in USB 2.0 Ports

USBHD:NONE

VIDEO:ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB DDR5 16X PCIe Video Card [DirectX 11 Support] [+143] (Major Brand Powered by ATI)

VIDEO2:ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB DDR5 16X PCIe Video Card [DirectX 11 Support] [+189] (Major Brand Powered by ATI)

VC_PHYSX:NONE

VIDEOCAMERA:NONE

WNC:NONE

_PRICE:(+1967)
 
the biggest corner you could cut would be by building it yourself. there have been people that have come here without ever building one, and we hav helped them, so if youve built a few systems in the past, you would need a little refreshing in pc building at the most to help you out.

plus youd be saving money while picking up some nicer parts.
 
I am not afraid to build but do I really need all this stuff for FPS's? I kind of went all out on a few things on this config and am very confused about mobo's and the reviews I read. A number of criteria must be met though.

# 1 - I am looking for stability as the most important feature of this build. I'm not much into OC'ing, but not afraid to try with the right assistence.
# 2 - Needs to be a viable FPS rig for about 3 or 4 years
# 3 - Would like to stick with AMD but if there is a reason to switch to Intel, I am all ears
# 4 - RAM used to be easy but HOLY CRAP, there is like 50 differant types of RAM and mobo makers are iffy as to what is best to use in a gaming rig.
# 5 - Water cool or not. This was way out of my league when I built systems. I just made sure that fan said Zalman on it and would get the warm fuzzys.
# 6 - SLI/Crossfire, do I really need it?
# 7 - Raid or not to Raid. Velicorapter anyone? Or just a plain old Seagate terabye SATA?
# 8 - To many cases to choose from. Antec was my favorite back in the day. What to use?
# 9 - Do I really need 1000 watt power supplies. I don't plan on ever running 4 video cards. Me thinks more than 2 is just ego. :)

I know that is a lot of questions but if a few of you "Much more informed than me forumites" could steer me in the right direction, I think I'll take a stab at building my new puter.

Current 4 1/2 year old rig
AMD socket A 3000+
Asus K8V SE Mobo(best Mobo ever made IMHO)
3 gig corsair DDR 400 ram(New)
ATI 1 gig 4750 AGP(New)
200 gig IDE Maxtor
100 gig IDE Maxtor
Lite-on burner
Sony DVD
Zalman fans everywhere
Antec case and PS

Don't laugh to loud, I get 30-50 FPS on COD MW2 except online. :( But I need/want more
 
Answering as many questions as I feel comfortable (and out of order cause im just weird like that).

#2: Those specs should keep you pretty good for at least 2 yrs if not 3. The 5770 is (according to reviews) a very good card for the money.

#7: Raid is not really needed (for speed...redundancy is a different matter). Velocirapters are also not needed, pick up a good SSD and use it for OS and Apps/games if you want speed.

#8: Ive heard good things about the Antec 300/900 depending on price range

#6: Up to you, depends on what performance your looking for. For short term one card should be plenty, but you may want to look into sli/crossfire later (if you keep it for 3-4 yrs like you say you want to).

#4: DDR3 is a good choice, I *personally* would go Intel if I had the money (i7 920) and go with triple channel memory (6gb)
 
Like muffin man said, the biggest corner you can cut is by building it yourself. For nearly $2000 you can build something way better. For $1500 you can go i7 and a 5870, which will be a lot more powerful than what you have there.

You don't need a raptor. A good ol' caviar black should do the trick. If you really need fast load times, you can get an SSD. But that won't really affect your gameplay. Save some money and go for a regular hard drive. Also, 8gbs of ram is a lot. Stick to 4gbs if you're gonna go AMD, or 6gbs if you go i7, since i7s utilize triple channel. Last but not least, no need to go SLI/Crossfire off the bat, go for a good single card solution for now, then later (a yr or 2 down the road) you can add a second. A 5870 will be more than enough for a couple of years. Also, you don't need 1000watt PSU, a good 650 antec, or the 750 corsair that you have is plenty.
 
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