Hey Community!
I'm a first-time poster here at Tom's Hardware just wanting to reach out to the community to get your thoughts on a new gaming rig I'd like to put together. I fully admit I am not an expert when it comes to hardware but this is what I've come up with so far.
First and foremost, I do not need a monitor, keyboard, mouse or case as I already am set on all those. That said, here is what I have so far for my build. I realize it is incomplete thus far:
HDD: Western Digital WD1002FAEX Caviar Black HD
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6076939&sku=TSD-1000FAEX
RAM: Corsair CMX8GX3M2A1333C9 XMS 8GB DDR3 RAM
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6611013&sku=C13-6165
Motherboard and CPU: B69-5260 ::MSI X58M Motherboard and Intel Core i7-950 Processor BX80601950 Bundle(3.75 lbs)
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7301577&sku=B69-5260
Graphics Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 6970 2GB GDDR5. miniDP/HDMI/DVI
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7073911&sku=A271-6970
With the $55 in mail-in rebates, the above comes in just under $1000. That gives me $500 to play with for a power supply, cooling, disc drive and (possibly) a small SSD drive just for the OS and my primary game. I've chosen the graphics card I did because I am primarily interested in playing the game Rift which shows benchmarks of 28 FPS on the absolute maximum possible graphics at 1920x1280 resolution on a 6950. My research has shown that a 6970 is reasonably priced at the moment for the performance. In the future, I would like to grab another 6970 and run in Crossfire which the motherboard I've chosen supports.
In addition to the above, I'm going to need a good power supply but I'm not sure which to buy. Also, I'd like your thoughts on cooling. For the above system (with whatever updates/changes you would make) would you recommend anything beyond just a few fans in the case?
Thanks in advance!
I'm a first-time poster here at Tom's Hardware just wanting to reach out to the community to get your thoughts on a new gaming rig I'd like to put together. I fully admit I am not an expert when it comes to hardware but this is what I've come up with so far.
First and foremost, I do not need a monitor, keyboard, mouse or case as I already am set on all those. That said, here is what I have so far for my build. I realize it is incomplete thus far:
HDD: Western Digital WD1002FAEX Caviar Black HD
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6076939&sku=TSD-1000FAEX
RAM: Corsair CMX8GX3M2A1333C9 XMS 8GB DDR3 RAM
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6611013&sku=C13-6165
Motherboard and CPU: B69-5260 ::MSI X58M Motherboard and Intel Core i7-950 Processor BX80601950 Bundle(3.75 lbs)
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7301577&sku=B69-5260
Graphics Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 6970 2GB GDDR5. miniDP/HDMI/DVI
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7073911&sku=A271-6970
With the $55 in mail-in rebates, the above comes in just under $1000. That gives me $500 to play with for a power supply, cooling, disc drive and (possibly) a small SSD drive just for the OS and my primary game. I've chosen the graphics card I did because I am primarily interested in playing the game Rift which shows benchmarks of 28 FPS on the absolute maximum possible graphics at 1920x1280 resolution on a 6950. My research has shown that a 6970 is reasonably priced at the moment for the performance. In the future, I would like to grab another 6970 and run in Crossfire which the motherboard I've chosen supports.
In addition to the above, I'm going to need a good power supply but I'm not sure which to buy. Also, I'd like your thoughts on cooling. For the above system (with whatever updates/changes you would make) would you recommend anything beyond just a few fans in the case?
Thanks in advance!