Whole new PC for games, please help me choose it

[DZimmy]

Greetings,
next month or October I will buy whole new PC, I am so excited even now, so I wrote this post to ask you guys for help so I would have some brief info what's coming.

1) What do I have now?
MB: Asus M2N-E - nForce 570 Ultra
PROC: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+
RAM: Kingston DIMM 2048MB DDR II 800MHz
GC: Sapphire HD 5770 (21163-10-20R) 1GB, PCI-E
PSU: Seasonic 500W
Case: Eurocase Q3

2) What do I want?
Completelly new computer. I will probably use only burner.
Or should I keep even the PSU? It's like one year old.
I do have monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers...

3) Reason?
I want to play games maxed out. For instance:
GTA IV, Battlefield 3, Dead Island, Crysis 2 and possibly some near future games.

4) Budget?
My budged is around $1400.
IMPORTANT thing you need to know is, I can go beyond the budget, so if you get some way better HW for a bit higher price, then shoot.

5) Conditions?
Run all mentioned games.
I'm not fan of ATI/nVidia or something like so.

6) Suggestion:
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K + CoolerMa​ster Hyper 212+
MB: Asus P8P67 PRO (rev 3.1) - Intel P67
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 580 Superclocked 1536MB, PCI-E
RAM: Corsair Vengea​nce 8GB ​(2x4GB​) DDR3 1600
HDD: WD Caviar Black ​- 1TB
PSU: Corsair Professional Series HX650 650W
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium CZ 64bit OEM
Case: CoolerMa​ster HAF 912 PLUS, black



7) System?
Another dilemma of mine is new OS. Should I go for Win7? What do you guys say? Is WinXP even able to use all that power?
Also, what's the difference between Win7 32bit and 64bit? Wich one should I go for?
Anyways I am pretty much ready to go for Win7.

8) Questions:
Isn't there something coming (like new technology) for what should I wait?
Is there any good reason getting 6 core processor? Isn't 4x better for games?

Sorry for sutch a long post, just wanted to let you know everything, so it's easier for you to help me.

Thanks a lot for further replies.

DZimmy

 

[Roark]

I'm not even sure you can still buy Win XP. Difference between 32 and 64-bit is the amount of RAM it will recognize, 32 is limited to about 3GB. Your best bet is to get Win7 64-bit so you don't have that low ceiling.

I haven't heard of anything amazing for a gaming system coming out in the next 1-2 months, and yes 4-core is all you need for gaming, by the time games will utilize 6-core you'll be ready for an upgrade anyway.

Where do you buy your parts from? I'm not familiar with computer buying in the Czech Republic, but with a link I'm sure that members of the community would be more than willing to give specific suggestions for possible purchase decisions.

 

[DZimmy]

I already own WinXP, but I'm ready for Win7 anyways. Windows7 Pro 64bit OEM be it.

I am shopping at www.czc.cz, but I'm fine with getting links from newegg.com or something, I'll look for it on my shop.

 

[Roark]

Hahaha, I didn't even look at the part about getting links from Newegg and tried to shop that link, my Czech is rustier than I thought, but thank god for Google Chrome's easy translate. Only problem was price conversion, so here are some suggestions from Newegg.

CPU: $220 Intel i5 2500k.
MB: $170 Asus P8P67 Pro (REV 3.1).
GPU: $490 EVGA GTX 580 Superclocked.
RAM: $70 8GB G.Skill Ripjaws X 1600.
HDD: $65 750GB WD Caviar Black.
PSU: $120 Corsair HX650.
ODD: $20 Sony Optiarc DVD/CD Burner.
OS: $100 Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit OEM.

Total = $1255 $1235 + A case of your choice to hold it all.

This is a pretty generic mid/high-range gaming build with the option to do a mild overclock to the CPU. If you want to do any serious overclocking then an aftermarket CPU cooler should be added to the list.

*Edit - Forgot you want to reuse your ODD.

*Edit 2 - Might as well throw this out there as well.
You can switch the GPU to an EVGA GTX 570 Superclocked, save $150 on it and put that $ into a 120GB OCZ Agility 3 SSD ($190).

 

[DZimmy]

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K - Czech Computer | czc.cz
MB: Asus P8P67 PRO (rev 3.1) - Intel P67 - Czech Computer | czc.cz
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 580 Superclocked 1536MB, PCI-E + ZDARMA 3DMARK 11 Advanced po registraci na EVGA v hodnot
RAM: Opera
HDD: WD Caviar Black EX - 750GB - Czech Computer | czc.cz
PSU: Corsair Professional Series HX650 650W - Czech Computer | czc.cz
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium CZ 64bit OEM - Czech Computer | czc.cz
Case: Sk - my selection. ATX I guess...

Without RAM it's 24 121Kč = $1419 wich is fine.
$1 = 17Kč

Few things:
CPU: Is this one a big difference? Intel Core i7-2600K - Czech Computer | czc.cz
HDD: I'd prefer 1TB instead. Or it wouldn't be that fast?
RAM: Unfortunatelly I couldn't find that one there, could you please choose one of those from link?
Case: Is there anything that I could choose wrong? I guess better case is better cooling and stuff.
Don't wanna sound like a total moron, but what's Internal SSD good for?

 

[Roark]

The main difference between the 2500k and 2600k is better integrated graphics (you're using a separate video card, so unnecessary) and hyper-threading which is for serious multi-tasking and irrelevant for gaming.

Go for a 1TB if you'd like, size shouldn't really impact speed. I just find that many people get a 1TB for the fact that its a 1TB, when they only use less than 500GB of space. Doesn't seem worth it to me to pay for something you'll never use, but each person's storage needs are different.

I'd probably get this RAM, I couldn't sort by voltages on that site, but I found it on newegg and should work fine for you.

For the case you want it to be ATX compatible, that is what size the motherboard is. I would also get a tape measure and plot out the size to make sure you aren't buying a huge beast that you won't have room to put somewhere. I saw they do offer the Cooler Master HAF 912/922/932 cases, if you like the look of any of them they will work great.

Internal SSD is used for a boot drive and, with 120GB, you can put some games or other programs on them. They read/write much faster than a mechanical hard drive, so things like Windows load much faster. They are rather expensive compared to a regular hard drive, and have much less space so you get a regular HDD for storage, but people I know that have them absolutely love them.

*Edit - Realized you're already over budget without RAM and a Case. While it is less powerful, you will still be able to play the games you're looking at at high (if not maxed) settings with the GTX 570 I linked.
Here is a side-by-side comparison of the two from AnandTech.

I'd skip the SSD considering where you are in the budget.

 

[DZimmy]

Amazing help from you, mate.
Case: CoolerMaster HAF 912 PLUS, black - Czech Computer | czc.cz Probably.
And HDD...I guess 1TB would be better, I have 300GB now and it's still full.
Being over the budget isn't a problem, so let's stick with 580.

Anyways, with 1TB HDD ( WD Caviar Black - 1TB - Czech Computer | czc.cz ) it's 27 152Kč = $1597, wich is still fine.
Because the $1400 buget was without OS, so I was counting with price like so.

EDIT: Thing that bugs me is CPU, they say it's kinda lower range processor, mainly for office work?

 

[Sean W.]

the core i5 2500k processor is far from a " kinda lower range processor ". it is a straight beast of a processor that can reach 4.5+ghz with a decent to higher end CPU cooler that will smash on any game that is currently on the market... as far as an comparing the i5 2500k to other intel processors, it is one of their slower processors, at factory settings, over clock the snot out of it and it will wedge its way up there as one of the best bang for your buck processors on the market. take the same processor and compare it to AMDs highest 6 core processor, and the i5 smashes on it with ease. you can sleep sound at night knowing that whith an i5 in your rig, you dont have anything to worry about

 

[DZimmy]

Wow...even without over clocking? (never done that)

 

[Sean W.]

even with out overclocking the core i5 2500k processor at stock speeds smashes on anything AMD can bring to the table. however, if you do not overclock your i5 2500k, you are a fool. we will walk you through step by step how to do it not to mention there are many guids on youtube and google showing you in depth how to do it. its very very easy to do, especially with an unlocked processor like the 2500k