New computer gaming build - need advice

syrup

Solid State Member
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Hi all this is my first gaming build and after doing a bit of research I have come up with the following:


1 x Cooler Master - CM 690 II Advanced Mid Tower, Black $89.99
1 x GSKILL - 4GB Ripjaws X Series PC3-12800 Dual Channel DDR3 Kit (2 x 2GB) $39.99
1 x Seagate - 500GB Barracuda 7200.12 SATA III w/ 16MB Cache $39.99
1 x Corsair - Gaming Series GS 700W Power Supply $99.99
1 x Microsoft - Windows 7 Home Premium x64 (64-bit) DVD - OEM $119.99
1 x Intel - Coreâ„¢ i5-2500K Processor, 3.30GHz w/ 6MB Cache $214.99
1 x Scythe - Mugen 2 Rev. B CPU Cooler $34.99
1 x Asus - P8P67-M Rev 3.0 w/ Dual DDR3 1600, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, 1394, Quad CrossFireX $129.99
1 x Samsung - SH-S223C 22x SpeedPlusâ„¢ DVD-Writer, SATA, Black, Retail $22.99 1 x Asus - EAH6850 DirectCU Radeon HD 6850 1GB v2 PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort $189.99
Total cost= ~$1000CAD

-I plan to use crossfire in the future (maybe 2 years).
-Plan to overclock a little bit
-Already have monitor, keyboard, mouse


How does this build look? Any suggestions for improvement that will keep my budget roughly the same?
 
Looks ok, but I'd up the hard drive to a 32MB cache version instead of 16MB, and what kind of monitor are you pairing this with? CrossFire isn't really useful until you start to scale up in resolutions.
 
Looks ok, but I'd up the hard drive to a 32MB cache version instead of 16MB, and what kind of monitor are you pairing this with? CrossFire isn't really useful until you start to scale up in resolutions.

1680 x 1050. I say I might plan to crossfire in the future as it only costs about ~50 (slightly more for mobo + psu) to ensure that it is xfire ready incase I want to upgrade or add another monitor.
 
Mobo & PSU aren't a concern. Just the cost of the GPU you're getting, which I don't see here...
 
Mobo & PSU aren't a concern. Just the cost of the GPU you're getting, which I don't see here...

EAH6850 DirectCU Radeon HD 6850 1GB v2 PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort 189.99
 
Should be more than enough horsepower for 1680x1050. CrossFire will help with things like AA and Aniso, but you have to ask if the cost is really worth it.
 
Instead of a 16mb or 32mb cache for your HDD, I would get a 64mb cache 7200rpm drive or keep your current selection and grab an SSD to boot from and use your HDD for storage.
I would also go with a better graphics card. I have a 6850 and it just isn't cutting it.

Since you plan on using crossfire for future upgrades, I would also get a power supply with at least 850w.
 
64MB cache drives won't benefit as much as people think them to be, otherwise I would have recommended it as well. The thing that matters most is aureal density and spindle speed these days.

850 watts is overkill for CrossFire on a new GPU generation. You can easily get away with 700 watts if the system isn't loaded up with hard drives, fans and an overclocked CPU.
 
Thanks for the responses guys. From what it sounds like you guys are recommending I not go the crossfire route (is that correct?). Like I said I only considered it since it is relatively cheap to make the system xfire compatible. Grumpy, what card do you think I should consider instead that is ~200?

Also I had considered getting an SSD but figured it probably wasn't worth my time or money. I think I'll go for the 500gig Western Digital black 32mb cache for 10$ more instead.
 
SSDs are great for boot drives - even the 64GB models are big enough for a base Windows install and a few apps before you have to revert to something else. I have a 40GB here at work and it's got about 5GB free, so it's a tad small. I have a 120GB in my laptop at home and I love it (Corsair 120GB based on Sand Force)

But you aren't missing a whole ton if you just go the platter route for now, can always do it later.

The video card you picked is fine, if you can, bump it up to a 6870 or higher, but either card should be fine to start with.

CrossFire is a fine technology, but you have to have the monitor for it. If you're going to be gaming at 1680x1050 for a bit longer, just put as much money as you can into a single fast GPU card and stick with that. Then if you upgrade your monitor later and you want just a bit more performance, the same card type should be a lot cheaper and you can CF it then to gain a boost until you are ready for the next big GPU. Up to you however, just hate seeing folks blow money on it up front. (My 5870's were purchased a year apart from each other, and I only got the second card because one card in Rift was a little laggy at the detail I wanted to play with)
 
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