Need Advice on my gaming system

[mccaffery]

Hey I'm building my first system and need some advice on how to optimize it. I live in Canada so I'll be ordering from Direct Canada.

Case: Antec Twelve Hundred 1200 -175$

Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 470 Superclocked 625MHZ Fermi 1280MB -- 270$


Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 -- 100$


SSD: Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB -- 130$

Motherboard: Asus P6X58D -- 225$


Processor: Intel Core I7 950 -- 300$

Ram: Corsair XMS3 TR3X6G1333C9 6GB DDR3 (Get 12gigs total) -- 200$


OS: Windows 7 Pro 64Bit -- 140$


Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST 24X SATA DVD Writer -- 25$

Power: Antec Truepower Quattro 850W Power Supply -- 150$

Total is ~1800$
Is this a good build for my new gaming pc? Also, do you think I need additional cooling?

The reasoning behind the 850W and motherboard is to give me the flexability to upgrade my system in the future with additional video cards.

Thanks for the input

 

[Flamingtodd]

6 built in fans on the case, Looks quite good my friend

 

[Proximon]

The CP-850 is just as good, costs less, and is designed specially for the Antec 1200 case.
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10370AC2557&vpn=CP-850&manufacture=ANTEC

Or get the Corsair 850HX, a better PSU than either of those and has more 12V amps:
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11180AC2373&vpn=CMPSU-850HX&manufacture=CORSAIR

There are very few games that will use more than 4GB of RAM. I can't think of a single game that will use over 6GB.

Spend the extra on a pair of GTX 460 1GB cards, or a single 5870, or wait a few weeks and get a 6970.

 

[mccaffery]

Great, thanks proximon. The CP-850 looks like a better choice for my system.

Do you think I would be better off with dual GTX 460 cards over the 470? Is there a noticable difference?

Finally, if I was going to get the 6GB of RAM what do you think is the best deal/brand to go with?

 

[Proximon]

Yes the SLI 460s would be way faster in 90% of games. here is a recent review with some comparisons... it's for the GTX 580 but look at the charts.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4008/nvidias-geforce-gtx-580/8

This RAM is a good deal:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227506&cm_re=DDR3_1600_6GB-_-20-227-506-_-Product

If it were me I might spend an extra $20 for Kingston
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104190&cm_re=DDR3_1600_6GB-_-20-104-190-_-Product
Because OCZ has had some issues recently.

 

[mccaffery]

Do you think I will need additional cooling and power with dual 460's or should the 6 fans from the Antec 1200 and the 850W be sufficient?

 

[55Range]

It should be sufficient, But if you plan on ocing the cpu, a cooler will be necessary, CM hyper 212 + is great perf/price-

 

[Proximon]

CP-850 will be plenty. The system will never pull more than about 500W.

Cooling is fine for the GPUs.

 

[graemevermeulen]

Or you could get the GTX 470 and then put another one in later down the line, you can also Tri-SLI the 470's for a further upgrade but if you go with the GTX 460 option you'll never be able to SLI more than 2 cards. Just a thought.