[New System Build] Review My Gaming System Before I Purchase!

Sigleaf

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APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: July 2009 BUDGET RANGE: ~1500

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming Only

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: All should be covered, let me know if I am missing anything!

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg

PARTS PREFERENCES: Going to stick with AMD and an ATI card on this one.

OVERCLOCKING: Yes SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Yes

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080, 1920x1200

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I wanted a decent computer for gaming that I can upgrade easily in the future. Not doing crossfire right now but I plan on doing it in the future so I want a computer that is very upgradable for awhile to come. My direct questions I suppose are whether or not my video card is sufficient, will it work with the mobo and psu I have selected? Is a 1000W power supply sufficient for a 2nd video card down the road? Will my mobo support two video cards even? Will my mobo have room and work with the wireless network card I have chosen? If anyone can answer these questions and also comment on the parts I have chosen it would be most appreciated!


--PARTS--

Case: Black ATX Case

Mobo: Asus DDR3 Motherboard with 4x PCI express slots

Processor: Phenom II X4 955 3.2ghz

Videocard: Sapphire Toxic 4890 OCed Video Card

Memory: OCZ 3x2gb DDR3 Ram

PSU: Corsair 1KW PSU XFire Ready

HD: Western Digital 7200 RPM 640GB

DRIVE: Sony Optic 24x Write Speed Disc Drive

Wireless Card: Wireless card that fits into PCI

The rest of the cost for my machine entails a keyboard, mouse, monitor, and speakers which brings my overall price to aprox 1600. I don't really want to go any higher than that! Please leave comments and answer my questions if you can! Thanks!
 

Fuzzbutt

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Jul 17, 2009
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The motherboard is fine for the parts you've selected. The only thing I wonder about is the 4 PCIe 2.0 slots. The 790FX chip allows for Crossfire at x16+x16 instead of x8+x8, which should be an improvement in performance, but you're paying for it, too. A lot of people are fine with x8+x8. It's really up to you and your budget, but it sounds like you've made it fit.

A smaller wattage will be fine for the power supply, it just has to have at least four 6-pin connectors to crossfire with the card you chose. You might need the 1000w for quad crossfire, but it sounds like you're interested in the regular 2 card crossfire.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006&Tpk=750tx

Your mobo is also fine with the wireless adapter, but wireless gaming is generally a bad idea. The speed is much lower over wireless than it would be if you were wired.

If you don't have your heart set on the Sony optical drive, you can switch it out for a less expensive one. $5 savings for the same performance--just make sure it's still SATA.

You probably don't absolutely *need* the 6GB of memory. 4GB is plenty for gaming and you can always pick up another 2x2GB pack when you upgrade to Crossfire.

The video card is that much because it comes overclocked. It's possible to OC a card yourself, if you want to cut your price.

Also decide if you really want/need a full tower. A mid-tower would work. Get a tower you like aesthetically, but changing your tower is an easy way to drop your price if you want more wiggle room for better parts.

I would also suggest checking out the combos on Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.212581
That's your original mobo/cpu bundled for $85 less. You probably already knew that, but that would put your "extra parts" budget for monitor, keyboard, speakers, etc. to over $500 dollars.

For those other parts remember that you don't necessarily need gaming components. They look pretty, but you don't have to pay $90 for a mouse with a lot of buttons. Figure out your playstyle and get a mouse/keyboard with an appropriate amount of buttons and save yourself some money instead of buying features you'll never use.
 

spinny

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Looks all good to me. Once you have a second 4890, you will have performance on par with a GTX 295, so plenty of power, especially for that resolution.

That PSU is plenty of power for anything you are going to be putting in here.

Yes the mobo supports crossfire and yes there will be room for your wireless card. The two video cards will go in the blue pcie slots and block the adjacent slot on each one, leaving a pcie 8x and a regular pci slot in the middle exposed. The pcie 8x may be a tight fit if you are putting anything in it, but the pci should be no problem.
 

Sigleaf

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I read that the Sapphire Vapor X 4890 video cards draw a lot of power. I just wanted to be safe with the 1000W however your saying that 750/850 will be sufficient for those two cards in the future? Also would I need to worry about buyying heat sinks etc? I am not very experienced with that kind of stuff

BTW Thanks for the replies! Very very helpful!
 

tecmo34

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Yes... you will need a heatsink if you do plan on overclocking like you listed originally. Pick up one of these two...

XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler - $44.98 or Scythe MUGEN-2 SCMG-2000 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler - $36.99

PSU... I would go with this one... CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply - $124.99 ... It gives you a little wiggle room over a 750w PSU...
 

Sigleaf

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The heat sink that comes with the dark knight, is that what directly fits over the processing chip? I thought a fan was suppose to go there and does that fan come with the processor/mobo? Also will that 120mm fan with the dark knight work in the back of a case to pull air out?

Also, you are sure that 850W will be sufficient for me eventually going to XFire configuration?

Thanks!
 

tecmo34

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Here is a pic of my PC, so you can get an idea of how the Dark Knight looks on a MOBO & how it is setup.

ComputerPic5.jpg


The heatsink goes on the CPU and the fan attaches to the heatsink to suck cool air through the heatsink to help cool it down. The heatsink that comes with the CPU is not used & is put back into the box or your "spare parts" bin.

Also, the 850w PSU will be plenty of power for Crossfire 4890's.
 

Sigleaf

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Thankyou, that clears things up! Also for the optical drive, I was told to use SATA configuration as opposed to IDE. Is there a reason for this? I'm having a hard time finding a non sold out SATA optical drive with decent speeds
 
Get 2X2 GB of Ram.

Also for the price of your PC, you could get a way better case. If you plan to SLI or Crossfire... you need space... a lot of space for heat dissipation and power supply cable management. For example, I use a Coolermaster Cosmos S... damn impressive. I hear a lot of praise about the Coolermaster HAF 932 and it was my second choice.

You can get a 850HX instead of a 1KW... also, the 850HX is 80plus gold which is a big advantage.

If I were you, I would switch my cards to two 4870 and get a great sound card instead. Personally, I don't really like these cards. They feel like it was a move made by ATI to please the enthusiasts.
 


I would recommend this one instead... of course you need the space and to use memory without handles HS. The fan exhaust air at the top of the case.

My cores are running at 23C at idle.

Hardware canucks charts are telling everything.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/19383-cooler-master-hyper-212-plus-cpu-cooler-review-9.html

temp.jpg


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835202007
 

imapc

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That looks a little too cool to be true, so to speak. At any rate, you're running a Phenom II X3 720, not an X4 955 BE, and I'd guess that those temps arent taken after the computer has taken load and then dropped it back down to 2% usage for an hour or so.

These are more realistic temps for a modern quad core:

43_diagr_temp.png


I use the Scythe Kabuto since it was cheap and pretty damn efficient if I do say so myself. After some rounds of UT3, I'm running at 46C for the core temp. I have two 1TB HDD's, two DVD drives, two 4890's in Crossfire, 6GB of memory with heat pipes, and a 1200W power supply. I'd say my temps are fair for the hardware. I can also add two more fans if I want extra cooling, but I'm not worried currently.

But one note on the 4890's: 1080p resolution is hard to pull on max details in certain games. You have no idea how much that second card really helps when you have a monitor above 22" in size.
 

Sigleaf

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I really have no idea of what heatsink to go with for the Cosmo S. It would seem that most if not all tall heatsinks do not work with it. Can anyone suggest a very good one that will?
 

Sigleaf

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Will the Dark Knight Cooler even work for my mobo? I notice none of them say AM3? Does AM2 imply that they will work on AM3?
 

tecmo34

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Moderator
Yes, the Dark Knight will fit on your motherboard.

Here is a picture I found on the internet showing the Dark Knight in a Cooler Master Cosmo...

img0544vk5.png


Image may be subject to copyright. Below is the image at: www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?t...