<$700 Gaming System with future upgrading options

[f3ral]

USB or SATA?

USB. I have this Western Digital:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1682213646

Also, should I really cut back and get a much more minimal motherboard just to move up to an HD 6950? Just curious, cause if I have to upgrade a year later either way, I might as well just save money now, or at least spend it on a mobo that won't need an upgrade next year, right?

EDIT: And thank you for the tip about H67, I didn't even realize that.

 

[ch3rok33jo3]

USB. I have this Western Digital:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1682213646

Also, should I really cut back and get a much more minimal motherboard just to move up to an HD 6950? Just curious, cause if I have to upgrade a year later either way, I might as well just save money now, or at least spend it on a mobo that won't need an upgrade next year, right?

EDIT: And thank you for the tip about H67, I didn't even realize that.

The MSi P67 has crossfire 16x, 8x - any other board in it's price range chokes one of the cards at x4

I don't think that motherboard is 'basic' at all, it competes with the $200 gaming motherboards...there will be no reason to upgrade it probably even two years from now, as it supports Ivy Bridge. Why would you have to upgrade?

Like I said your best future proofing is i3 sandy bridge P67 chipset so you can move up on CPU later, and that particular board has crossfire which is the other thing needed for future proofing

 

[ch3rok33jo3]

Also, just youtube a tutorial on removing the drive from your USB enclosure, then you can use it as internal and it will perform much better.

And we can sit and argue about these parts all day but Core i3/i5/i7 Sandy/Ivy bridge is the only way you will have a decent upgrade path, and with the parts I selected you can do it all with a high-quality motherboard and 6950, really the only place I skimp is power supply which in reality that particular RAIDMAX unit is very good

The 6870 is great and all, it's just that you could have nearly top-tier performance in your price range, there's no reason not to do it.

 

[f3ral]

I prefer Intel anyway, so I plan to do that. It does make sense. And having a better graphics card makes sense, too.

Between you and cutebeans, I have two options: a Z68 mobo and an i5-2500k and HD 6870, or a P67 mobo and an i3-2100 and HD 6950. The motherboards are comparably priced, though I'm not sure which chipset would be better. I'm also unsure which processor/graphics card combination to get. Honestly, I have no idea which would be a better decision for now and for future upgrading.

 

[ch3rok33jo3]

The Z68 chipset has smart response technology and gives more breathing room for overclocking GPU, so it's a better chipset. As long as you stay away from Q65, Q67 and B65 chipsets, which would kill your upgrade path and leave you on Sandy bridge.

In my personal opinion, you'd have to Crossfire two unlocked 6950 cards to meet the headroom provided by the i3 2100 CPU, so there's no real reason to pick an i5 over an i3 until you have some real hardcore video power to meet the CPU's headroom (when you upgrade).

Either way, be it i5, i3, 6870, 6950, as long as you go with a combination of one of those four options, you'll be getting the best bang for your buck and leaving plenty of upgrade potential.

LVL 1 - i3 + 6950
LVL 2 - i7 + 6950x2 Crossfire

or

LVL 1 - i5 + 6870
LVL 2 - i7 (assumed) + 6870x2 or..?

The only disadvantage I see with 6870 is limited performance with 6870x2 Crossfire. It's less expensive, but leaves a weaker upgrade path as well - if you plan on using crossfire.

But like I said as long as you do a Sandy/Ivy Bridge + AMD card, you'll be getting a good deal. It will really boil down to cyber monday prices, I assume.

 

[f3ral]

Why thank you. I'll just look for whichever mobo, cpu and graphics card is cheaper when the sales come in.

One quick question, though: The case I'm planning to get (NZXT Source 210 Elite) has a USB 3.0 header on the front of the case. Does either board have what I need to benefit from that, or would I need another part or something? I've never had a case with front ports before, so.

 

[ch3rok33jo3]

I'm certain it will have some jumpers that extend up to the USB 3.0 header, and motherboards will vary on the number of available USB 3.0 measures

At least that's how it's worked with USB 2.0 in all my builds, there were just jumpers on the motherboard into which you plugged the header

 

[ujaansona]

ch3rok33jo3's configuration is nice. I would like to suggest two changes in it :

1.Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W CrossFire Certified Active PFC Power Supply - $69.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371044

2.BIOSTAR TZ68A+ LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - $109.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138319
Read the review at http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Biostar/TZ68A_PLUS/1.html
or at http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z68xp-ud3-dz68db,2980-4.html

 

[calguyhunk]

Firstly, you can use your USB drive as your internal drive. Just open it up. In all probability it will be a 5400RPM SATA drive.

@ ujaansona - The Earthwatts PSUs don't come with all the requisite connectors. New builders might have a problem even knowing which cable to get from their local store.

@ OP - Do you have a microcenter anywhere in your vicinity?

 

[f3ral]

Sadly, I'm right in the middle of Arizona-- no Microcenter nearby. Closest thing to a Microcenter I have is a Fry's Electronics. And to be honest, I'd have no idea what connectors I'd need to get, you guessed correctly.

 

[calguyhunk]

OK, so the way I see it, you need a ~$700-ish build without the HDD and without access to MC.

CPU: $140 AMD Phenom IIX4 970

Mobo: $45 GIGABYTE GA-M68MT-S2 AM3+

RAM: $32 CORSAIR XMS3 8GB

HDD: Not Required.

GPU: $350 EVGA SuperClocked GeForce GTX 570

PSU: $60 SILVERSTONE Strider Essential series 600W

ODD: $20 SAMSUNG DVD Burner with LightScribe Support - OEM

Case: $50 COOLER MASTER Elite 430

Total: $697 Including Rebates Plus Shipping. See if you can find these components listed cheaper on Amazon/Tigerdirect/us.NCIX or anywhere else.

EDIT: Do you need Windows to go along with this? If so, drop down to the $270 (After Rebates) ASUS Radeon HD 6950. Windows 7 Home Premium costs 100 bucks for an OEM copy. You can also get it for free, but I'm not allowed to tell you how

P.S. - If you don't intend to upgrade your monitor in the next couple of years, all these cards will be way too OTT. But if you do intend to upgrade to a Full HD monitor, or want to play on your Full HD TV, you'll appreciate the bigger cards.