[bhaktjano]

Hiyas,

I was recommended to this tech forum by a friend of mine and she said I could probably get some good pointers on how to build a new computer. I'm in the market, as it were, for a new gaming computer with a total price tag up to 1500 dollars. I've got a few ideas on where I want to go with it, as well as what I've found so far. But I need everything, and any help anyone could provide would be awesome. I don't speak a heck of a lot of "computer speak" so plain terms are going to benefit me the most. To give you a ballpark of the kind of things I want to push, I play things like World of Warcraft, Crysis, Gears of War, Dawn of War 2, etc. Here's what I've got so far. Recommendations or help would be very much appreciated.

Processor - $279.99 Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor - Retail
Processor Cooling: NEED ADVICE
Motherboard - $187.00 ECS X58B-A (1.0) Core i7/ Intel X58 / DDR3/ A&GbE/ ATX Motherboard
RAM - $82.99 OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1800 (PC3 14400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
Video Cards - $269.99x2 BFG GeForce GTX 280 Video Card - OC Edition, 1GB GDDR3, PCI Express 2.0 x16, SLI Ready, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDTV, HDMI Support, VGA Support
Sound Card: On Board
Fans: $2.99x2 GlacialTech 120mm Case Fan
Case: - $39.99 Power Up Black Gamer ATX Mid-Tower Case with Front USB, Audio Ports and 450-Watt ATX Power Supply (Swap out for 600W power supply?)
Power Supply - $28.99 New V2 Viotek 600W 20/24 Pin High Quality Power Supply with PCI Express & SATA - New Revision for Advanced Cooling
Monitor: - $149.00 Acer V223WBD 22inch Black Widescreen LCD Monitor #16780
Keyboard - $28.99 Logisys KB608BK Black Multimedia Pro Backlit Illuminated Keyboard
OS - $95.00 Vista 64bit

Final Price: $1437.91 (Before shipping)

I'm big on price-saving (who isn't?) and advice, so if you've got a comparable killer rig, please let me know. I'm not quite to the "ordering parts" phase, so advice right now could make or break this thing. Thanks a ton in advance!

Jimmy

[4D(Fordy(Ford) Ollie]

Have you read Carbon's Fourth Guide?
http://www.computer-juice.com/forums...posting-23819/

It's very up to date, because he's only just finished it a few days ago.

As for the CPU cooling, are you planning on overclocking the 920?

If you're not, or not very far, then you won't need any cooler other than the stock cooler.

And you won't really see any benefit from having an i7 in a gaming rig.

You'd be better off with a faster Dual Core, and spending more on the GPU - which you can fiond out more about if you read the aforementioned thread.

Basically, games don't use all four cores of an i7, so it's a complete waste.

They rely much more heavily on the proccessing power of the video card.

[4D(Fordy(Ford) Ollie]

This is his top reccommended gaming build.


CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 720 & Motherboard: Gigabyte 790X-UD4P ($218 with combo deal) (FS)
Video: Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 (FS) ($220) (R -$20) (FS)
RAM: OCZ Gold 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 ($45) (FS)
PSU: Corsair 520HX ($108) (R -$20) (FS)
Optical: Sony Optiarc 24X ($24) (FS)
HDD: Western Digital 640GB ($70) (FS)
Case: Antec P182 ($145)
HSF: Xigmatek HDT-S1283 ($39) (R -$5) (FS)

TOTAL: $869 before $45 in rebates = $824



That would certainly save you some money, and if you read the thread Carbon goes on to say that it's not really worth spending more than that, in terms of price to performance.

From here, there is not much to improve performance for gaming. Here are some additional options in order of preference:

Case: Replace P182 with Coolermaster Cosmos 1010 (D4)
HDD: Add a OCZ Vertex 60GB (C3) or Intel X-25M (C4)
Optical: Add a LG Black Blu-Ray reader (E2) or writer (E3)
PSU: Replace 520HX with 620HX (D4)

Adding another 4890 is possible but not recommended. At this point, save your money for another build down the road.

[Bubba]

You have the wrong type of RAM for an i7 processor and your PSU sucks. Not only does it suck, but if you read the technical specs, it does not have the proper connectors to run 1 of your Video cards much less 2. Also, it only has 2 SATA power connections. That means you can plug in 1 hard drive and one DVD player and then you are done. No more of either.

[4D(Fordy(Ford) Ollie]

Oh yeah, didn't notice the RAM there.

You need DDR3 in sets of threes for an LGA1366 proccessor.

Either way, you don't need an LGA1366 CPU.

PSU is shoddy as Bubba said, get a 520HX or 550TX

Mobo is a crap brand too.

Monitor isn't a great range, the P or X Acer ranges will do better for you if it's a high-end gaming rig.

Here's something more worthwhile, and a bit higher budget than Carbon's:

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DQ6 -- $179
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 Wolfdale -- $270
RAM: G.Skill 2x2GB DDR2 PC2-9600 -- $190
PSU: Corsair 750TX -- $120
GPU: 2 x XFX GTX285 GDDR3 1GB -- $330 each
ODD: Lite-On BD 4x SATA drive -- $75
HDD: WD Black 640GB -- $75
HSF: Zalman CNPS9500 -- $33
Case Fans: 2 x Apevia CF12S-UBL -- $4.50 each
Case: Broadway Com Corp R-410 -- $30
Monitor: NEC 22" 1080p HD V221W-BK -- $200
Keyboard: Razer Lycosa Mirror SE Gaming keyboard -- $80
OS: Windows 7 x86 -- Free

Differences between the above system, and your original one:
This one costs $1553.50 - slightly over your budget, but not much.
It would actually work
Faster proccessor - that could be OC'd further with the HSF I linked. (You won't use the extra cores in gaming)
A PSU that won't explode.
Capability to play High Definition films.
A Full HD monitor.

Thats $120 more for a massive performance increase, Full HD capabilities, and safety of all your expensive parts.

How does that seem to you?