System price question

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kinetyk

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Hi guys,

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, but here it goes.

What is the general consensus among the Tom's Hardware forum users around what is the 'best' amount of money to spend on a new system to get the most performance for a given time period?

I see a decent number of people saying that spending money on SLI (ie: 2 x GTX580) is basically a waste if you are not planning on using a 3 monitor/3D setup.

I am looking at building a new system (will be my first build), I don't really have a price limit but I see no point in spending money on a system that doesn't really need to be spent. I am comfortable spending $1500-3500, but I generally have been seeing that most people seem to say that anything beyond $2000 can be kind of a waste.

Is it more cost effective to build a 1500-2000$ computer with 1 mid-high end video card (GTX580 for ex) and just replace that card in two years, or would a more pricey SLI setup (GTX580 X 2) last longer?

I am thinking:

1. get a 1500-2000$ system, replace video card at year 2, replace GPU/CPU at year 4, build new system at year 6?
OR
2. get a 2500-3500$ system and see if it lasts 5-6 yrs?

Either option viable? Would one likely perform better than the other in the long run?


Thoughts?


Thanks.
 
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inzone

inzone

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The trouble with asking the forum questions is you are always going to get a variety of answers , and basicly what it comes down to is what do you want. I usually don't ask anyone what I should get because I generaly look around and end up getting what I want, and I can pretty much guarentee that if I posted my system spec's a lot of people would think I am crazy , but it is what I want and I am the one paying for it.
So if you still want to know what I think I will tell you. Two GTX 580's in SLI is great and if you have the money I think you should get them. 16gb of ram is more then you will ever need and you probably won't use more than 6-8 of it but if you can afford it then go for it otherwise 8gb will do just fine. The most popular cpu right now is the i5 2500k it's all you will need unless you are doing large file transfers and serious work with you computer then get the 2600k , but for gaming the 2500k is great. The power supply is another part that you should get more than what you need because it is always a good thing to have too much and you don't have to uas it if it's not needed. A 1000W is what you would go with if you get the two 580's. A good motherboard with at least two or more x16 slots running at x16 or x8 would be what you need. Sometimes a case is a personal preferance because you do have to look at it all the time and you do want to like it. The Cooler Master Half-X is a great case. A 120gb SSD for the OS and a one or two teragyte hdd for storage is good. I think you can get all that for around $2500. The two 580's would be good for at least three years , maybe more depending on the games that come out and what they require to run at med to high settings. If you like I can post a bunch of links from Newegg to show you what the compnents would be.
 
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K

kinetyk

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Thanks for the opinions, I appreciate the response.

Dont go through the effort of posting any links or anything. I more or less know what components I would buy for any price range I choose to go, just not sure which way to go yet, debating spending 1500-2000 now and 700-1000 2+yrs from now for upgrades or 2500-3500 now and ride it as long as I can...
 
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kinetyk

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Thanks for the link, but I wasnt really asking about what components to buy (Im not really at that point yet), more or less was looking for what people generally thought in terms of what is more cost effective for long term gaming on one system, ie. Spend lots now and not much on upgrades over time VS spend less now and upgrade more often.
 
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Emelth

Emelth

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I would say a $1500-$2000 is a good target for people who are going to be playing the latest games, for me I dont play too many graphic intensive games on PC (just WoW) so a $1000 build would work perfectly for me and it will last for 3-4 years (if I start getting slower performance I can easily attach another GPU in there to make it more then capable
 
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inzone

inzone

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COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case $179.99 and free shipping

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119225

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K $219.99 and free shipping

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

COOLER MASTER Hyper N 520 RR-920-N520-GP 92mm Sleeve CPU Cooler Intel Core i7 compatible $33.99 and free shipping

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103057

Western Digital Caviar Black WD2002FAEX 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $199.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136792

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7D-8GBRH $104.99 and free shipping

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231401

ASRock Z68 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $184.99 and free shipping

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157250

Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-900 900W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply $139.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371050

Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F120GBGT-BK 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $203.99 and a $30 rebate = 173.99 and free shipping

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233191

2X EVGA 03G-P3-1584-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 3072MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $589.99 = 1179.98

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130655

2x LG CD/DVD Burner 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black IDE Model GH22NP21 - OEM $21.99 = 43.98

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136222

This all comes to $2461.88 and you would have a top quality computer to last a few years , you most likely would not have to upgrade anything for about three years . I was just sitting around thinking it would be fun to see if I was close to my estimate of $2500 , and it was close.
 
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K

kinetyk

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I am likely going to wait for the 2011 Intel chipset and the 600 series Nvidia cards actually... but that system does make me drool... heavily.
 
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