<$1000 Gaming PC. Need advice

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xtrmerik

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May 15, 2011
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18,510
Approximate Purchase Date: ASAP

Budget Range: Trying to stay around $800, but flexible if it means getting the right components.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Primarily WOW on a 27" monitor under Max settings with 50+ FPS (with a second monitor for browser, skype, iTunes, etc.) Occasional Final Cut Pro and Photoshop.

Parts Not Required: Case, keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com, Amazon.com, anywhere that I can get cheaper and free shipping!

Country of Origin: U.S.A.

Parts Preferences: Looking for the best combination of parts that will let me play with zero fps issues while giving me a measure of future proofing. Newer tech so that upgrading is easy with minimal part replacement for several years. This is why I am leaning to the Z68 Motherboard

Overclocking: Maybe. I haven't in the past, but it seems that having the option is a good thing. Sounds like the combo of motherboard and chip that I have chosen so far will allow massive overclocking for huge performance gains at this price range.

SLI or Crossfire: Probably not right now, but want a system capable of it so that if I need more gpu power, dropping in a second card is easy and done.

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1200

Additional Comments: Let me know what you think. I need to be sure that all these are compatible, a good fit, and that I didn't screw up my logic somewhere. I was/am considering a SSD as my system drive with wow to increase performance, but I read a ton of reviews that make them sound horribly unreliable. Seems like they have a bad habit of completely failing within months.

This is what I have so far:

ASRock P67 EXTREME4 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813157229
$159.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157229

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
Item #: N82E16819115072
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL
Item #: N82E16820231314
Combo deal $296.98 (promo code for memory -$19) =$278
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.644254

XIGMATEK Gaia SD1283 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler bracket included I7 i5 775 1155 AMD and dual fan push pull compatible
Item #: N82E16835233082
$29.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233082

GIGABYTE Super Overclock Series GV-N560SO-1GI-950 GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI
$259.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125369&cm_re=gtx_560_ti-_-14-125-369-_-Product

CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible
Item #: N82E16817139005
$89.99 - $10.00 Mail-in Rebate Card = $80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

LG CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS70 OEM - OEM
Item #: N82E16827136238
$19.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136238

Samsung Desktop Class Spinpoint F3 1 TB SATA 3.0 Gb-s 32 MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare-OEM Drives, HD103SJ
$59.99
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Spinpoint-3-5-Inch-Internal-HD103SJ/dp/B002MQC0P8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1305519913&sr=8-2

Total in Baskets- around $906.00

This post has been edited to show the build of what I ended up choosing after all the help and suggestions.
 
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Very good build for the money, but i would definably pick the Asrock p67 because you can save $40 and i would also pick a 6950 instead, for gaming that would make a huge difference. those changes would bring you around $900 but IMO it would be worth it, if not what you have its just fine.
 
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The z68 motherboard is supposed to give you a larger overclocking multiplier (review says up to 5.7GHz) giving increased performance over the p67, it also has technology to speed up cacheing as well as some other stuff that I don't really remember. I have a lot of info rolling around in my head after all the reading I did, but the z68 seems to have more future proof technology so for the $40 it seemed like the way to go. Check Tom's review for all the info: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-z68-express-smart-response-technology-ssd-caching,2938.html

I thought about jumping up to a more expensive GPU, but most of the posts I read say that wow, even on the highest settings doesn't require that powerful of a card. I read people talking about the 5770 actually being overkill. By that info, the 6950 seemed like nuke overkill and just throwing away money. Tom's review of GPUs said that the 460 was more powerful than the new 6850 but that they recommended the 6850 because it was cheaper. I found this 460 for cheaper than I could any 6850 so I figured it was the way to go. Please let me know if my logic is flawed or if I missed something. If the recent expansion has made a more powerful GPU a truly good idea for wow, I will get whatever I need.

Thank you for the feedback. Keep it coming people!
 
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if all you gonna play is WOW the by all means what you have its okay, yes the z68 has some advantage over the p67 but not all 2500k are getting to 5.7 on air, have that in mind, most chips are doing pass 4.5, some can get well over 4.7 on air, very rare ones hit pass 5.0 on air, so that unlocked multilplayer will be a feature for the cpu to decide. just some thoughts to have in mind
 
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4.5GHz still seems like a sizable increase over what the p67 board can offer me. Purchasing a processor that could pull that speed on a p67 board would certainly cost me a lot more than $40.

Right now all I play is wow, but I certainly don't want to handicap my setup if I decide that a game that comes out interests me. Spending an extra $100 on a GPU that I don't need right now seems like a lot. That's why I was building a system capeable of SLI/Crossfire. I could probably buy a second GTX 460 in a couple months for $100 if some other game catches my eye.

So the question is, will 2x GTX 460 in SLI outperform the 6950? Or is the 6950 still better and I should get that and then have longer "future proofness", with the capaility of adding a second 6950 down the road?
 
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^ Not true. The overclock is only as good as the grade of the CPU. All the P67 boards can overclock a 2500K to 4.5ghz, and although Z68 offers up to 5.7ghz, it's useless if the CPU can't be stable that high. P67 boards can overclock close to that anyway, why does it matter.

Z68 also is pretty stupid since the chips aren't going to be cheap. X58 was 280$+ how high can the Z68 get? Probably $400-$500. So It's smarter for you to save and put it towards the graphics rather than getting a more expensive motherboard.

In regards to SLI/CF, the Extreme4 P67 can do all of that. And has 3 PCI slots. The 6950 is a smarter choice. WoW is a game favoring single gpu cards as apposed to dual gpu or SLI/CF setups. Better card now, CF/SLI later.
 
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Ahh, I didn't realize the SE was less powerful. So this one is better even thought it's the 768MB instead of the 1GB?
 
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Ssd caching on z68 is only useful if you can only afford a small ssd which if you're at this budget, would go for a bigger sdd without caching for much better performance. Z68 is really just for people who need both the, igpu for quicksync and overclocking.
 
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460 SE=450 GTS<460 768mb<460 1GB<6850 1GB<5850

The 460 SE is better than the 450 GTS, but not by much, making basically on the same tier. The 460 1GB from the 768mb version only has a deviation of 2-4% in performance. But the 460 1GB costs $170 while the 768mb is only $150. Honestly I don't suggest getting a 460 at all. The 6850 is better than the 460 1GB but costs the same.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121419

 
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Thank you so much for the clarification. I thought I was getting more performance out of my chip because of the motherboard. The motherboard might be a little more futureproof, but what do I care if the chips that really take advantage of it are going to be stupid expensive. I guess I need to scour the internet and find a good deal on a 6950. Based on you saying that it's a smarter choice I'm also assuming that the price difference between it and the 5850 isn't so much to justify it as a good choice. Is that correct? I no experience with current GPUs. Been a while since I built a system.
 
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I was asking about both, value for what I want to accomplish. Basically is the 6950 worth paying $250? Would I see a noticeable difference in wow? I want Max settings in Max resolution, and I don't want the frame rates ever dropping below 30 at any time. Can the 5850 do that comfortably. If so, how would the 6950 perform any differently for what I am currently doing?

I didn't see a 5850 for $150 on Newegg. The cheapest I see is $185 but it seems like they are all out of stock. Where did you find it for $150?
 
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Is the Samsung drive a better choice because the physical drive itself is faster? Does the 6GB/s interface vs the 3GB/s interface really not matter because both drives don't even run fast enough to max out the 3 GB/s?
 
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The sapphire 5850 is not stocked at newegg anymore. Check Amazon and Tiger Direct. As for the HDD question, a mechanical HDD will NEVER (lets hope I didn't jinx it lol) make use of the 6GB/s lane. 3GB/s is PLENTY for a mechanical. It's a different story entirely for SSD's though.
 
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I found the 5850 at Amazon for $150! Downside is I have to wait 1-4 weeks for it to ship. 🙁

So now I have to decide if I get that and stay on budget, or if I get the 6950 for an extra $110.

Newegg has the HIS for $260. I "assume" this is the one I would want to get if I am jumping up to this price range for a card? I know there is a 1GB version, but doesn't really seem cheaper. I think this is one that I have read that you can flash the FW to make it perform like the 6970.

HIS H695FN2G2M Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161368&cm_re=radeon_6950-_-14-161-368-_-Product
 
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$400-$500!!!! Yo! z68 is only $10 more expensive than their p67 brothers.
 
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Spending an extra $130 to get to the next tier seems like a bit much for wow, so I am leaning toward the 5850.

Also, I was reading some reviews and someone was recommending a lower cas latency memory. Is the memory that I have at a Cas Latency of 9 good, or is it worth $20 to get the 8 or $35 to get down to 7? Anyone have some technical insight on this?
 
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for the graphics card, I recommend getting at least a 6870 which is $30 more. instead of spending $20-$40 on better ram, you will see better performance by getting this graphics card.
 
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