$1500 CDN Gaming/Editing PC - Review and Critique

[blind_synergy]

Processor:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4240166&Sku=CP1-I7-920
Intel Core i7 920 Processor BX80601920 - 2.66GHz, LGA 1366, 4.8GT/s QPI, 8MB L3 Cache, Quad-Core, HyperThreading, Bloomfield, Retail
Price: $309.97 CDN

Video Card:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130486
EVGA 02G-P3-1185-AR GeForce GTX 285 2GB 512-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail, Free Call of Duty: World at War
Price: $439.99 CDN

Motherboard:
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10530BD5597&vpn=P6T%20Deluxe%20V2&manufacture=ASUS
ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 X58 ATX LGA1366 DDR3 LGA1366 3PCI-E16 PCI-E4 2PCI CrossFire SLI SATA2 Motherboard
Price: $336.00 CDN

PSU:
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11180AC3663&vpn=CMPSU-850TX&manufacture=CORSAIR
Corsair TX850W 850W CMPSU-850TX 12V 70A 24PIN ATX Active PFC 140M Fan Power Supply
Price: $123.15 CDN

RAM:
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=34654&vpn=TR3X6G1600C9&manufacture=CORSAIR
Corsair XMS3 TR3X6G1600C9 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1600 CL 9-9-9-24 Core i7 Memory Kit
Price: $132.63 CDN

Case:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Price: $108.49 CDN

HDD:
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=25350DR4749&vpn=WD6401AALS&manufacture=Western%20Digital%20WD
Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB 7200RPM 32MB Dual Proc 3.5IN Sata Hard Drive Oem 5YR Mfg Warranty
Price: $77.88 CDN

Total: $1539.07 CDN or 1,355.17 USD

Questions:
1. Am I getting good deals?
2. Is everything compatible? Is the PSU good enough?
3. Will this let me play say Crysis relatively smoothly (25-30 FPS) at highest settings with say x2 AA?
4. Will it all fit in that case easily?
5. What could I downgrade or change to knock the cost down while maintaining relatively similar performance?
6. What kind of cooling system would be good for this setup to allow me overclock things to a reasonable level? Links please.

Thank you, and if you have any other suggestions I'd love them. This is my first build I have ever made.

 

[Proximon]

Just SLI two GTX 260 core 216s:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130434

Far better bang for the buck.

Combo deal on the board a CPU... depends on shipping and such in your case, but here it is:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130434

Pay less for faster timings:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227381


1. As I listed
2. Yes the PSU is good for most two card setups. An excellent choice.
3. At what resolution?
4. Well, it will, but I would prefer the roominess of the CM cases:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137
5. The motherboard. Plus I already saved you some.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128374
6. Scythe Mugen
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=35847&vpn=SCMG-2000&manufacture=Scythe
Thermal paste
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=26895&vpn=MX-2T&manufacture=Arctic%20Cooling

 

[blind_synergy]

Thanks for the quick reply, Proximon!

I'm nervous about SLI-ing, as some people have told me (I'm a noob pretty much) it can cause instability issues and it isn't as effective as a single more powerful card. I wouldn't mind spending an extra $30 on the single card. Um the combo deal leads back to the video card. I really like that RAM, thanks. Sounds good about the PSU. How's the airflow in that case you mentioned? Like the looks of that motherboard, but I've heard really good things about Asus from some people. I've also never heard of that brand, so I don't know what kind of reputation they have.

 

[Proximon]

Ooops here's the combo:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.202199

Gigabyte and Asus are considered the two top brands of boards. Either will be good.

The Cooler Master 690 case is really the case all others are compared to for cooling. The Cooler Master HAF is even better and overall the better case, but of course it's more:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160&Tpk=HAF

SLI is not the issue it once was. Most modern games support it and drivers have come a long ways. You didn't say what resolution you need.

I have a big problem with GTX 285 because the math shows it to have a very poor dollar to framerate ratio. The worst except for the older GTX 280. I read that and spent several hours with spreadsheets myself to confirm it. I reviewed several different reviews to compile my numbers.

GTX 275 might well be enough for your needs. That and the 4890 are pretty good buys.

 

[blind_synergy]

Whoops on the res.

Resolution: 1920 x 1200 but I could lower it need be (anti-aliasing 2x) if I want to play the game in very high (i.e. Crysis), although I would like max resolution and anti-aliasing in anything that's not made by the Crytek 2 engine.

I know what you're saying about the gtx 285. A guy on youtube matched it benchmark for benchmark with a overclocked 280. So you wouldn't even suggest SLI-ing the 280s (they seem to be getting pretty cheap), you'd go all the way down to 260 and that would be superior to that 285 I picked out? The one I picked might be a bit different, it seems they stuck it with 2GB compared to the standard 1GB. And my bad on Gigabyte, I'm a hardware noob like I said.

I'd like to go for at least two years of very-high-to-high settings before an upgrade. Current games maxed out, future ones (like a year and half from now) on at least high. I don't want the frame-rate to dip below 30 on anything that's, again, not Crytek.

Thanks again.

 

[Proximon]

Have a look at the video card recommendations produced every month right here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-price,2323-4.html

If you want to go with a single card, get a 4870X2:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150349

Faster than a GTX 285 and great bang for the buck.

 

[blackhawk1928]

Blind...if your monitor supports 1920x1200 you have to play on that even if it means disabling AA because if you play lower then native res it will look horrible no matter what settings you have. Also...disregard my last post on your other topic about a GTX280 since you are playing crysis then go with a 285 and you will be able to play crysis on max on full res and AA with a good FPS.

Everything else looks really good....enjoy your new system

 

[blind_synergy]

Wow that ATI HD Radeon X2 looks like a really nice card. Would I need special cooling for it (i.e. liquid), as it seems like its one of the hottest cards out there? I don't know where to start with liquid cooling, but I do know I'd prefer a quieter system. Do you think with the set-up I have, replacing my card with the ATI one and the RAM with the RAM you showed, it will hold up and behave like I want it to over the next few years? What's your view on this card hawk?

Interesting. I never knew scaling down a display looked that bad. So I can't just go into the game settings and tone it down a little bit?

To be honest, I'm probably only gonna borrow Crysis from my brother to play it once. It wasn't that fun for me. I'm just using it as a benchmark b/c it looks so good and is an industry standard. I just want mys system to be able to hold up over the next few years.

 

[Proximon]

The 4870X2 is fine thermally, the fan should only ramp up when you have the speakers loud or have headphones on.

Generally, you want to run an LCD monitor at native resolution.

 

[blind_synergy]

That card is real nice. I think I'm set on that now. What do you think the increase is over that GTX 285 2GB I was looking at? Wow that looks like such a steal.

 

[Proximon]

From a recent, somewhat flawed TH article:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-radeon,2326-8.html

This Anandtech article is a bit older but still good:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3517&p=1

 

[blind_synergy]

Thanks. my mind is made up now.