Building a good quality gaming rig - help please!

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I've been speaking to a friend, and he thinks that if I am going to clock the CPU to 4, I should liquid cool it... here is what he suggested (different Mobo, Case, PSU, GPU's, and liquid cooling - rest is the same, although he thought a 60GB SSD would be better as a games+OS drive... will 60GB be enough space? Games are pretty big these days)

Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 Motherboard

XFX Radeon HD5770 1GB XXX Edition two of them

Corsair HX-850 Power Supply CMPSU-850HX

CoolerMaster CM 690 II Advanced

Corsair Hydro Series H50 CPU Cooler

Also, the Siberia is around 90 - 110 everywhere I looked, and the V2 is between 150 and 170... I can get a Razer headset for 107 from the same site as these (cheaper on Umart, it's 99 there) ... what should I do?

Also just realised the mouse i chose is an optical mouse... is that sufficient? Or should I find a laser mouse?
 
The Corsair H50 is a waste of money. Your friends suggestions suck, I recommend upgrading to a smarter friend :D
 
aw cmon, I haven't see nore spoken to him in 5 years.. I'll keep this one... however, is he in fact correct when he says that dual 5770's would be better than a single 5870? Cause it is about the same price

EDIT: What about the other parts? Case, Mobo, and PSU? Also, what do you think about getting a 60GB SSD (about the biggest I can afford, might stretch to a 128 if I get a 500GB Storage drive, rather than 1TB)?

Also, mouse question... I'm an impatient guy when it comes to questions, and i've got a lot of them... sorry

I really can't thank you guys enough for the help, if I'd tried to do it myself I would have screwed myself over majorly
 
back on the subject of the mouse and mouse pad. if you dont want to spend very little on a mouse pad that works very well and any size you want. just use some wax paper and tape it down with clear packing tape. when i needed a really big and cheap mouse pad thats what i did and it worked great. the only issue i had was when it got dirty i had to untape and retape it.

and as for a mouse. ive had my Logitec mx518 for 4 years and it is still a beast. and you can tell that it is a nice mouse because the price has only gone down like 5 dollars in these past 4 years.

but both options are up to you :)
 
No, your friend is wrong again.

If you get (2) 5770's that's what your stuck with. If you want to upgrade your stuck with no slots or you have to get rid of (2) cards. Plus (2) cards don't always scale good in every game ( in one game (2) 5770's may play as well as (1) 5870, but in a different game they may not).

Stick with the 5870. If you need more power you can buy a 2nd card later or you can sell the 5870 (it's easier to sell just 1 card) and buy a completely card.

I like the build you had before any of your friends suggestions.
 
2x 5770's may be as fast as a 5870 (if even), but it will not be as good. It isn't just the clocks that make the card.
 
Ok, so the build I am looking at right now, is the same as the V2, but I will get a 30GB SSD (I think that is the lowest) for my OS and major programs, and a 1 or 1.5TB Sata 2 (or 3, if my mobo is compatible with that) HDD for storage. Another friend suggested getting a 32GB SSD for OS only, and then 2 250GB or 500GB secondaries and put them in a RAID 0 configuration: It's still fairly cheap, ~200 (175 with 2 250's) all up for the three HDD's, but I am concerned about how difficult it is to RAID hard drives, can anybody help me with that?

Thanks for the help with the mousepad, I'll see if I can find a decent cheapo one first though, although I have also been told they are mostly useless unless you are playing on glass, any help there?

I have had the suggestion of buying a G15, which I can get for the same price as the Lycosa. Which is a better buy? I have heard good things about both really.

The Logitech mouse looks like a decent mouse, it's only a little bit cheaper than my current one though. Am I going to notice a difference between 1800dpi and 3600 dpi? If not, I'll get the logitech, but if I will, I'll pay a tad extra for the Razer mouse.

Case and PSU? Same as above, or what my friend suggested, or a mix?

Finally, what makes the H50 such a waste of money, and If I ever do go watercooled, what is a good system to get?
 
The Corsair H50 is a waste of money. Your friends suggestions suck, I recommend upgrading to a smarter friend :D

I happen to be the OP's friend you talk about, and although i do not claim to know everything i know enough to know that the H50 is a fair choice. Since it is essentially using water cooling, it gives lower load temps than its air cooling counterparts and my friend said that he was ready to get the best (without going straight into the deep end with full on water cooling, i'd assumed at least. Otherwise a venomous X ect. would do)

No, your friend is wrong again.

If you get (2) 5770's that's what your stuck with. If you want to upgrade your stuck with no slots or you have to get rid of (2) cards. Plus (2) cards don't always scale good in every game ( in one game (2) 5770's may play as well as (1) 5870, but in a different game they may not).

Stick with the 5870. If you need more power you can buy a 2nd card later or you can sell the 5870 (it's easier to sell just 1 card) and buy a completely card.

I like the build you had before any of your friends suggestions.


This was a mistake on my part, although i will defend the CF 5770's, i know that the 5870 has similar performance (in most cases the 5770's have the upper hand though) and it will overclock better. The reason i had recommended them was because of the almost $100au price difference between two 5770's and one 5870. If i were to recommend it again, i would probably choose the 5870 since it seems there is no price limit and a single card probably is easier to handle for a first timer (and easier to sell as you'd said slaymate).

All i'm doing by posting here is defending my recommendations but they have changed now i have got a bit more info/changed my judgement about what my friend wanted to do :)
 
You'll notice that as the RES and AA/AF get higher and the real stress is put on the crossfire the margin of performance gain is much less, albeit still regularly about 10% better. It's realy up the the OP but i would recommend single card solutions anyday, less power (in most cases), less heat, and plus you can overlock the single card more effectively. And the 5870's go quite well.

Don't get the h50 though, it's a waste, air is fine.
 
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