Need advice on $1000 gaming PC

[varunner]

OK, so its been 7 years since I've built my last pc (its time to update, right now using a pentium 4 133mhz FSB with AGP graphics card, 2gigs PC3200 sdram, etc). Anyways, have created what I think will be a powerhouse for about 1000 bucks. Do you see any potential bottle necks? Let me know if you have any suggestions!


APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Tomorrow (June 29th)

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: gaming

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: keyboard, monitor, mouse, speakers


PARTS PREFERENCES: Intel processor is my only requirement

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe


Motherboard: $120. ASUS P5Q-E LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131296

Processor: $220. Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz 12MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041&nm_mc=OTC-pr1c3watch&cm_mmc=OTC-pr1c3watch-_-Processors+-+Desktops-_-Intel-_-19115041

PSU: $40. XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029

Case: $95. COOLER MASTER Storm Scout SGC-2000-KKN1-GP Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119196

Power Supply: $110. PC Power & Cooling S75CF 750W EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341011

Ram: $130. 2x G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1100 (PC2 8800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8800CL5D-4GBPI http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231194

Graphics Card: $160. EVGA 896-P3-1255-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130434

Hard Drive: $100. Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

DVD Drive: $32. HP Black 22X DVD+R 22X DVD-R SATA 22X DVD Burner with LightScribe http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827140034

 

[varunner]

There are 2 other graphics cards I am considering as well:

$160: SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102801

$220SAPPHIRE 100270SR Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB 512-bit (256-bit x 2) GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102809

 

[tidefan94]

If you are willing to pay for it the 4850x2 is incredibly powerful, but a 4870 is still really powerful, but so is the 260, so it's really just a personal preference.

 

[Proximon]

Your RAM choice is really for serious overclocking in this build. Intel LGA 775 builds don't need anything faster than 800 Mhz, unless being overclocked a good bit.

Unless you are very serious about squeezing the last bit of speed you can out of overclocking, you would be better off with an AMD build. LGA 775 is going away, but socket AM3 is going to be around a bit. An X4 955 will perform just as well, whether overclocked or stock, and the socket will be around for a while with the prospect of a future upgrade.

 

[varunner]

Your RAM choice is really for serious overclocking in this build. Intel LGA 775 builds don't need anything faster than 800 Mhz, unless being overclocked a good bit.

Unless you are very serious about squeezing the last bit of speed you can out of overclocking, you would be better off with an AMD build. LGA 775 is going away, but socket AM3 is going to be around a bit. An X4 955 will perform just as well, whether overclocked or stock, and the socket will be around for a while with the prospect of a future upgrade.

That's great advice, thank you! Also, I'm thinking about going with a 10,000RPM velociraptor hard drive from western digital; would this give me a significant boost in performance? I don't mind the price jump (only 40 dollars more, but will have a much smaller drive). I'm thinking I would run my OS and a few games from the raptor and use a secondary drive as storage space for music, etc. Also I'm planning on doing 8gigs of the DDR2 ram (may switch over to a Mushkin 800 chip); would this be a good idea to do 8 gigs instead of 4? Thank you so much for all of your help!!

 

[hunter315]

The performance differences between a 640 Caviar Black and a velociraptor are minimal in most scenarios, and in games the Caviar Black will come very close for significantly less. If you have the 40 extra to spend you could get 2 640GB drives and do a RAID 0 or just have 1280GB of storage if you want.

Also for games you dont need any more than 4GB of RAM, unless you are using a bunch of adobe programs often you wont get any significant difference.

 

[Proximon]

The performance differences between a 640 Caviar Black and a velociraptor are minimal in most scenarios, and in games the Caviar Black will come very close for significantly less. If you have the 40 extra to spend you could get 2 640GB drives and do a RAID 0 or just have 1280GB of storage if you want.

Also for games you dont need any more than 4GB of RAM, unless you are using a bunch of adobe programs often you wont get any significant difference.

There you go.


Here's what I would do instead:

X4 955 and Asus 790GX
OCZ DDR3 CAS 7 1600mhz 4GB You might get CAS 6 out of these at 1333mhz, making them an even better deal.


Vapor-X edition is on sale atm:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102825
Since it's a crossfire board, grab this one and upgrade in a few months to a second. Should give you good performance for a while.

 

[varunner]

There you go.


Here's what I would do instead:

X4 955 and Asus 790GX
OCZ DDR3 CAS 7 1600mhz 4GB You might get CAS 6 out of these at 1333mhz, making them an even better deal.


Vapor-X edition is on sale atm:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102825
Since it's a crossfire board, grab this one and upgrade in a few months to a second. Should give you good performance for a while.

Thanks for the help!