Need a little advice on my build.

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Stratagos

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Sep 4, 2011
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Hello tomshardware.com forums, this is kind of a big post, but shouldn't be too hard to read, here we go.


Approximate Purchase Date: About a week from now

Budget Range: 550 before rebates

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming and then everything else

Parts Not Required: monitor, keyboard, mouse, case, dvd drive, OS (have win 7), hard drive, power supply

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com

Country of Origin: USA

Parts Preferences: whatev

Overclocking: maybe

SLI or Crossfire: not now

Monitor Resolution: 1680 x 1050


-----------------------------------------


Here is my current PC:

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115029

Motherboard - ECS G33T-M2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135050

RAM - OCZ Platinum Revision 2 2GB (2 x 1GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227139

Video Card - MSI NX8800GTS-T2D640E-HD OC GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127280

PSU - COOLER MASTER Real Power Pro RS-650-ACAA-A1 650W ATX Form Factor 12V V2.3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171023

Hard Drive - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148262

Case - COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-KKN2-GP Black Aluminum & Mesh bezel / SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119106

DVD/CD Drive - SAMSUNG 18X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151141

-----------------------------------------

Here is what I'm thinking about purchasing:

GPU - XFX HD-695X-ZNDC Radeon HD 6950 1GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150524

CPU - Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Boost)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115074

Motherboard - ASRock H61M-VS LGA 1155 Intel H61 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157241

RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311

-----------------------------------------

My Questions:

Do you think my PSU and HD will continue to perform admirably for a while longer until I can purchase new ones? I've had them both for about 4 years now and haven't had any problems.

I've been having trouble deciding between a HD 6950 1gb, and a GTX 560 ti. There seems to be a lot more factory OC'd 560 ti's than 6950's, but I think that particular 6950 looks like a pretty good deal. (not really in the form of a question)

Should I find a different motherboard that supports ddr3 1600? Does 1600 make a difference for gaming compared to 1333? Because that motherboard seems like a killer deal.

I'd like to be able to play BF3 on a mix of medium and high settings while maintaining close to 60 fps. Think this will do it?

-----------------------------------------

Comments:

I don't plan on upgrading my monitor to 1920 x 1080 anytime soon, I'm happy with 1680 x 1050.

I'd like to purchase in about a week, because while I want to play BF3 (oct. 25), I also want to play Red Orchestra 2, which releases on the 13th. Also, I heard something about a BF3 beta in September. And there's some other games that have come out recently or are about to come out real soon that'd I'd like to play as well.

Looking for any last minute tips and recommendations.

Thanks in advance for the help!
 
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Tough call on the PSU since its 4 years old id say be safe and replcae it before the new parts. A psu failing can ruin everything in your system (whereas the hdd failing just means u lose all your data). A new HDD wouldnt be a bad idea and the Samsung Spinpoint F3 is a pretty good drive and its on sale for a killer price

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $59.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185


As for the GPU id recommend

MSI N560GTX-TI Twin Frozr II/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $245
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127565

It comes factory OCed as well and is $5 less. Either card will do everything you need so its up to you.

No 1600 doesnt make a noticeable difference IMO so your 1333 is fine. Otherwise I don't see any problems.
 
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Ugh, new psu and hdd bumps the price up another 150 bucks. Was hoping to go just a little while with my current ones. You think they would be okay for 2 months with the new stuff?
 
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At that resolution your update is largely wasted money

A 6950 or 560 ti is more than your screen resolution will be needing any time soon .
A 6870 makes sense , and will probably max out any game

I would keep the psu . It will still be fine for those levels of current draw , whether you use a 6870 or 6950
 
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Hmm, I just looked at some charts on tomshardware.com at 1680x1050 with max quality settings and I'm not quite sure that a 560ti or 6950 1gb would be wasted money. In BFBC2 there's about a 7 fps difference between the 6870 and 6950. 7 fps is a decent jump. Are you sure that a 6950 1gb or 560ti is overkill at 1680x1050?
 
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LCD monitors refresh at 60 Hz . That is literally 60 times a second the screen is refreshed . This is also identical to 60 fps

Sure you dont want frame rates to dip in detailed sections
but if a card can run a game at your resolution at 60FPS you will experience exactly the same thing appearing in front of you as you would with a card producing 70 or 80 or 200 fps

 
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GTX 560Ti or 6950 are both solid choices.

They are overkill for most current games (other than METRO and CRYSIS which run maxed out at around 25-40 fps mark). However future games like BF3 look fairly demanding in terms of graphics, so to avoid needing another card in a few months because your lacking in FPS, id say just go with a 560/6950.

Also, im not sure what would be wrong with your PSU....650w is plenty for a single card, even taking into account some capacitor ageing... I really wouldn't worry too much about needing a new one.

Same thing applies to your HDD...just keep running it. If your concerned about it breaking/data loss, create a backup somewhere and just run the HDD until it dies. No point in spending more money before you have to :) You could easily get another 2-3 years out of those components.
 
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