$3000 extreme gaming build

[TNTNTN]

Hey everyone,

to cut the extremely long story I had written I have now shortened my thread and use the template. I built a extremely high spec computer (money was no object) and my friend loved it. He has given me a budget of £2000 or $3000 to build him a computer that will play Battlefield 3 on the new ''Ultra'' settings.

Approximate Purchase Date: Purchase and built by 1st October

Budget Range: £2000 or $3000.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: For Extremely high gaming use. Must be able to play Battlefield 3 on the highest mode, ''ultra''.

Parts Not Required: Monitor, keyboard, mice - basically everything that is outside the chassis.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: if you use any American website I will have to try and find the same part in the UK.

Country of Origin: United Kingdom.

Parts Preferences: Shoot me with the best build for £2000

Overclocking: Yes, I shall give it a go myself but I got my co-worker to do mine who has since moved.

SLI or Crossfire: Yes / No / Maybe

Monitor Resolution: 1920 x 1080

Additional Comments: If you could try to get somewhere around the budget that would be great, if you manage to do it cheaper even better. The only rule is ---- ''Dude, it has to play Battlefield 3 on Ultra.''

 

[geekapproved]

$3000 to play games? Makes no sense, you could do an overkill setup for half that.

 

[TNTNTN]

See I didn't know that. All I have is the budget and the capacity to build it. I came to the forum to ask what would be the best so if I could ask, can you tell me what you would build with half the money then?

 

[PartialGenious]

I am an ASUS fan so this is my choice for mobo.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131729

Two choices for processor depends on your price range
CORE I7
$314
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070
COREI5
$220
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
Both unlocked and easily overclocked.

Memory 16gb again I am a corsair fan because of their reputation and warranty. Many other options available probably at faster speeds and better CAS timings.
$105
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145347


Again Corsair probably better options but 7 yr warranty and 80 plus silver for the price ain't bad.
$170
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139011

SSD is an option I highly suggest. If your going to game my rec is over 100gb. I currently have an 80gb and wish I would have got the bigger options available. Anyways can never go wrong with Intel SSD's supposedly the most reliable with one of the best warranties. It may be slower than others with any ssd for a boot drive you will not know the difference.
$315
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167054

Backup/Secondary HD Western Digital 2tb
$155
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136830

AMD 6970 XFX another reputable brand IMO
$350
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150517

Cooler Master HAF 922 Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197

Then add a dvd rom/burner of your choice maybe and aftermarket cpu cooler, possibly another fan or two for the case, although I have this case and it works well. You should be set to go with the price of parts i gave you coming in at $1574 USD with the Core I7 according to my cart when I was finished.

All links and prices were from newegg from the USA website.

I am sure better alternatives will be posted to certain items but this is what I would build if I had the money. Might even throw in another 6970 or just opt for a 6990. Personally from what I have read the AMD cards are typically cooler than the Nvidia cards right now. Also there are probably other cases that may be a bit quieter. Happy hunting

Hope this helps.

 

[rvilkman]

Well if you want to go all out at that budget that will do the job:
From dabs.com:

CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz LGA1155 8MB £239.98
CPU cooler: Noctua NH-D14 £66.04
Mobo: ASRock Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3 1155 Intel Z68 DDR3 PCIE3 ATX £199.99
Memory:Corsair Memory 8GB (2 x 4GB) Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz DIMM 240-pin CL9 Low Profile x2 £79.99
GPU:Zotac GeForce GTX 590 607MHz 3GB DDR5 PCI-Express 2.1 DVI miniDP (Inc Assassin's Creed BrotherHood) £549.99
SSD: OCZ Technology 240GB Vertex 3 Series SATA III 2.5" Solid State Drive £379.99
HDD: Samsung 1TB Spinpoint F3 7200rpm SATA 3Gb/s 32MB £41.98
Bluray: LiteOn 12x BD-RW Blu-Ray re-writer SATA black inc Cyberlink BD software £72.99
CASE: Corsair Memory Obsidian 650D Mid-Tower Black Case £129.99 ( or something similar in the pricerange of 100-150 HAF 932 / HAF X)
PSU: Corsair AX850 £139.99

Total: £1900.92

But honestly you can save a lot by downgrading just a bit and getting roughly the same performance.
By going:
CPU: i5 2500k 169.99
CPU cooler: same or Arctic cooling one in the 25 range.
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 LGA1155 Intel Z68 DDR3 ATX 120.00
Memory: Only one kit 39.99
GPU: Same or SLI with 560Ti,570,580 - from 360-700 depending on how much kick you really want.
SSD: Downgrade to 120GB 179.98
HDD: same
Bluray: get a DVD instead 20.00
Case: About this price or slighly lower for a good ventilated case
PSU: Corsair HX850 ( 120 ) or AX850 ( 140 )for SLI setups & GTX590 (or AX1200 ( 210 ) for SLI GTX580) depending on the graphics card setup.

So saving up to about 600-700 by using 560SLI and the cheaper alternatives.

Anyway there are my 2 pence on the matter.

 

[TNTNTN]

Wow thanks for the replies everyone, I thought this thread was dead because no one was responding. It seems as though you all are roughly telling me the same thing so this seems like a hard choice.

The only problem is that are you guys sure it will be able to play Ultra? I have heard Battlefield 3 will be very demanding.

 

[TheGuardian]

Anything running a modern day i5 or i7 CPU paired with 560 Ti's in SLI or better should play BF3 maxed at 1080p. I would recommend going with an Nvidia card however, since it seems BF3 is optimized for Nvidia. (Unless it all has been show)

With that budget two 580s is easily within reach, and you'll still have money left over.

 

[ozzy702]

I don't think Battlefield 3 will be all that demanding since it will likely be coded much better than a pig like Metro 2033. Nobody knows yet but a 560 TI SLI setup or better on the NVIDIA side or 6950 Crossfire setup for AMD and you should be golden.

I run a 2600k with a mild overclock to 4.2ghz and SLI 570's and it breezes through every game out there with the exception of Metro 2033. Even Crysis 2 with the DX11 and high texture packs runs buttery smooth at above 60fps.

One thing I will say about SLI 570's is they get HOT and I've got them in a HAF 932 case. AMD cards seem to run a bit cooler and use less power so that might be an option for you as well.

 

[TNTNTN]

I am thinking about getting an i7 with CrossFire 6970's? They have a sale on in the UK for a 6970 around £175 ($275ish) so if I manage to get 2 do you think it will handle BF3 then? I just watched a few videos on YouTube of Crysis 2 Ultra and it seems to get around 40 - 80 fps.

Ozzy, what type of FPS are you getting on Metro 2033?

 

[ozzy702]

I am thinking about getting an i7 with CrossFire 6970's? They have a sale on in the UK for a 6970 around £175 ($275ish) so if I manage to get 2 do you think it will handle BF3 then? I just watched a few videos on YouTube of Crysis 2 Ultra and it seems to get around 40 - 80 fps.

Ozzy, what type of FPS are you getting on Metro 2033?

Most of the time it sits around 54-57fps with eye candy maxed out at 1920x1200 but occasionally dips to 40ish for a second.

Honestly the only reason I went with an i7 2600k over an i5 2500k is because I do a ton of encoding and hyperthreading helps a lot. If I were just a gamer I'd go with the i5 2500k since it performs the same as the i7.

Crossfire 6970's rock out and shouldn't have a problem with BF3. They seem to scale very well and are great cards.

 

[TNTNTN]

Thanks Ozzy, I think Im going with an i7 2600K and CrossFire 6970's. I have also chosen the Ram, Case and motherboard and I even managed to save a bit. I just want to thank everyone for the help.

Now all I need to do is the learn to overclock...

 

[ozzy702]

Thanks Ozzy, I think Im going with an i7 2600K and CrossFire 6970's. I have also chosen the Ram, Case and motherboard and I even managed to save a bit. I just want to thank everyone for the help.

Now all I need to do is the learn to overclock...

Overclocking can be difficult at first if you don't know anything about it or understand the fundamentals. That being said Sandy Bridge chips are a piece of cake to get to 4.2-4.4ghz as long as it's a K model with an unlocked multiplier.

 

[TNTNTN]

Just really quickly, do you think I can play Battlefield at ultra with my i7 2600k and CF 6970's without overclocking? I just want to learn more about it before I do it?

 

[ozzy702]

Just really quickly, do you think I can play Battlefield at ultra with my i7 2600k and CF 6970's without overclocking? I just want to learn more about it before I do it?

Yes, no problem whatsoever. Like I said before, I think they'll do a very good job optimizing code for BF3 which means it should run smoothly. My guess is even one 6970 should play the game very well and with crossfired 6970's it'll run it maxed smooth as butter.