$1000 Gaming System, Please critique

[furlongsd]

Hello,

I think I finally have a system picked out from your help and studying. I'm looking to build primarily a gamer and FPS are my favorites. Crysis is the game I would like to go after next. I don't really care if the case is mid or full sized. I'd like to run full settings on games and resolution up to what a 22" monitor will allow. Crossfire or SLI to add a card later. Do I really need an 850W supply or can I go lower? Newegg.com is fine with me. Thanks! Just looking over this it looks like I messed up on the MoBo/CPU socket type.


Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

$69.95 -$10.00 Instant $59.95

GIGABYTE GA-MA780G-UD3H AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

$89.99 $89.99

SAPPHIRE 100259L Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card

$184.99 -$5.00 Instant $179.99

Tuniq Potency PSU-POT650-BK 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

$86.99 $86.99

AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor Model HDZ720WFGIBOX

$147.00 $147.00

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL6D-4GBNQ

$49.99 -$7.00 Instant $42.99

Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive


$79.99 $79.99

Logitech Deluxe 660 920-000492 Black USB Cordless Standard Desktop

$26.99 $26.99

ASUS VW224U Black 22" 2ms(GTG) Widescreen LCD Monitor

$189.99 -$20.00 Instant $169.99

LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model GH22LS30

$25.99 $25.99


Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders


$109.99 -$10.00 Instant $99.99


XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler

$36.99 $36.99

Logitech S-220 17 Watts 2.1 Multimedia Speaker System

$22.99

I don't really care if the case is mid or full sized. I'd like to run full settings on games and resolution up to what a 22" monitor will allow. Crossfire or SLI to add a card later. Do I really need an 850W supply or can I go lower?

 

[WR2]

A good 650W PSU could run 2x 4870 in Crossfire mode.
I'm not too sure you've picked a good 650W PSU though. It should certainly run 1 well.
Tuniq 650W w/ 552W +12V power
CORSAIR 650W w/ 624W +12V power
Technically the Tuniq 650 could power 2x 4870s but it's going to be working closer to it's limit than we like to recommend.

 

[MykC]

The motherboard you picked out is a good mATX board and doesn't support crossfire. To move up to a crossfire board you going to spend $140 to get a decent 790gx board. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131331


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131330 Asus 780v $75

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102801 1GB 4780 $189
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125256 1GB 4870 $199 - $30MIR

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703016&Tpk=dell 500W PC Power PSU $75 - $25MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145590 Corsair XMS2 DDR 800 $44 - $25MIR

Difference in motherboards, the Asus has no esata or no hdmi (displayport instead), but the customer reviews are better on this board as it seems to work out of the box with a Phenom II where the Giga might need to be flashed (and you need a non-phenom II CPU to do this). I actually order one of each board myself on Friday.

The PSU and RAM changes are simply, why spend more? Save about $50. Think about upgrading to the Phenom II 940BE with that savings.

The GPU change is simple. Your getting more for $10, or even better $10 less.

 

[MykC]

Also, if you are buying a new monitor I would strongly consider a 16:9 1080p monitor. I personally feel the 16:10 format is awkward and will be phased out in a couple of years since it looks more and more like the PC LCD and HDTV markets are converging.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=Property&Subcategory=20&Description=&Type=&N=2010190020+1301919996&srchInDesc=&MinPrice=&MaxPrice=&PropertyCodeValue=1099%3A17843

 

[furlongsd]

Also, if you are buying a new monitor I would strongly conside a 16:9 1080p monitor. I personally feel the 16:10 format is awkward and will be phased out in a couple of years since it loook more and more like the PC LCD and HDTV markets are converging.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=Property&Subcategory=20&Description=&Type=&N=2010190020+1301919996&srchInDesc=&MinPrice=&MaxPrice=&PropertyCodeValue=1099%3A17843

thanks MykC, and an excellent point on the monitor. I am confused over the DVI port. The Asus mobo you reccomend doesn't have a DVI port, but don't the GPU's you reccomended?

 

[MykC]

The Asus mobo has vga, DVI and displayport (its essentially the samething as HDMI except certain manufactuers didn't like the royalty fees on HDMI). There is a displayport -> HDMI cable if need be, but I highly doubt that you'll need be doing this.

The Gigabyte 4870 has DVI, HDMI and Displayport.
The Sapphire 4870 has DVIx2 and HDMI through an DVI->HDMI adapter (included)

 

[furlongsd]

The motherboard you picked out is a good mATX board and doesn't support crossfire. To move up to a crossfire board you going to spend $140 to get a decent 790gx board. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131331


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131330 Asus 780v $75

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102801 1GB 4780 $189
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125256 1GB 4870 $199 - $30MIR

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703016&Tpk=dell 500W PC Power PSU $75 - $25MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145590 Corsair XMS2 DDR 800 $44 - $25MIR

Difference in motherboards, the Asus has no esata or no hdmi (displayport instead), but the customer reviews are better on this board as it seems to work out of the box with a Phenom II where the Giga might need to be flashed (and you need a non-phenom II CPU to do this). I actually order one of each board myself on Friday.

The PSU and RAM changes are simply, why spend more? Save about $50. Think about upgrading to the Phenom II 940BE with that savings.

The GPU change is simple. Your getting more for $10, or even better $10 less.

One more - what do you recommend for a cpu? Thank you.

 

[MykC]

The one you picked out a great CPU, if you wanted to upgrade to the 940BE ($53 more), you'd get your money's worth but either way you can't go wrong.

Also, I might go with this PSU instead http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341010 600W OCZ, its the same price but an extra 100W, its not the same quality of brand but the price is right. If you aren't going to crossfire, which IMO is the better move for most people.

Also, since you'll probably OC this CPU look at this tomshardware article http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/phenom-overclock-athlon,2161.html