Suggest me a new build

[willsko87]

Hey guys.

I am looking at a building my second computer but I have fallen behind in the latest pc technology. I used this forum to build my first computer and it was a great help to select the right parts.

For my new build I am looking at spending about $1500 Australian Dollars, which at the moment is at a healthy $0.99 USD so pretty much exactly the same. I want to do a bit of gaming so I am after something with a bit of grunt. I have monitors that I'll already be using so I don't need to include them. Basically, I need a CPU, MB, RAM, GPU, HDD, PSU and a case.

Don't really need much help choosing a HDD I suppose, a 2TB SATA would be fine, but if you could suggest me the rest that would be great.

The following is what I found to be decent when researching my last build, so I assume they are still good? I am happy for you to suggest any other brands too.
CPU - Intel
MB - Asus
RAM - Corsair
GPU - XFX
HDD - Seagate/WD
PSU - Corsair/Antec
Case - ?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Trotter]

I'm not familiar with the Aussie shops, so I will leave that part to someone else. I will comment on your hardware thoughts.

Intel is the king of the hill for speed. If you have the money you can't go wrong with a socket 1366 i7.

Asus is still killer with mobos. The new Sabertooth board is all the rage right now and with good reason.

Corsair is still in there, but G.Skill has come on strong. I am currently reviewing some Crucial Ballistix Tracers that are right sweet and have eye candy LEDs.

XFX is still awesome with GPUs and offer the same double lifetime warranties with AMD (ATI) graphics cards. It looks like Nvidia is freezing them out with the Fermi cards, though, because XFX dared to make AMD cards. EVGA still offers lifetime on SOME cards, but be sure to check before you buy as it is not on all anymore.

Seagate has stumbled in their quality and now only offer a three year warranty. WD has brought out the Black series that are blazing fast and have five year warranties.

Corsair and Antec are still champs for PSUs.

For cases, check out the HAF series from Cooler Master.

 

[willsko87]

Awesome, thanks heaps for that. It seems that most of the brands I used last time are still up there so it should make it a bit easier picking parts.

As the prices Australian dollar is pretty close to the US dollar at the moment I am happy for you to post US links if you want to suggest me some parts, I will just look up the Aussie shops myself.

Going by what you have said and looking at a few other threads this is some stuff I have come up with:

CPU: Intel Core i7 950 - A$329 ($325 USD) - Is there a better value one?
MB: Asus P6X58D-E - $248 - What are the Sabertooth ones?
RAM: Gskill 6GB 1600 C9 - $164 - No idea about RAM really...
GPU: XFX HD5850 1GB - $365 - Do I go Nvidia or ATI?
HDD: WD 2TB Green - $122 - What's the diff between Black and Green?
PSU: Antec Truepower 650W - $128 - Is 650W enough, will only really have 1-2 HDD, 1 DVDRW and the GPU
Case: Antec Nine Hundred - $122 - I remember this being the craze a few years back, is it still decent? The HAF looks good but a bit more expensive.

TOTAL: $1478

Feel free to suggest better options!

 

[Trotter]

The i7 920 is the one you want, but Intel cut it off when they realized people could overclock the crap out of them.

Here's the Sabertooth:
Newegg.com - ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

I am currently reviewing the 2x2GB version of these and they are very nice so far:
Newegg.com - Crucial Ballistix Tracer 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory w/ Red & Green LEDs Model BL3KIT25664TN1608

The 5xxx series is good, the new GTX 4xx series is good, and the 6xxx series is just around the corner. Have fun deciding.

650W will be fine unless you want to run two or more GFX cards.

 

[willsko87]

Hmm, doesn't seem like the Sabertooth is available in Australia, but there is something called Rampage that might be the equivalent. Here is the link to the Australian Asus site - ASUSTeK Computer Inc. - Motherboards

That Crucial RAM is a lot more expensive here for some reason. Geez I wish Newegg would do international shipping

Always a tough decision on the GPU. Will probably only have one card so 650W should be fine then.

Thanks again for your help.