New build-help please

[NexRedshirt]

Hey guys.
I am completely new to building gaming pc's and would like your guys opinions/help.

1. My pc will be used primarily for gaming. I would like to be able to run crysis on ultra high.

2. My budget is 2000-2500 USD

3. I will be buying my parts in the USA.

4.The only preferences i have is that i use an nvidea graphics card and an intel processor and i would like to buy a full tower case.

5. I do not plan on overclocking/buying over clocked parts.

6. I plan to build it as soon as possible.

7. I am not including monitor/speakers/mouse/keyboard.

Also i am planning on running 64bit windows 7.

If you could please help me out and list all of the parts to buy i would be extremely grateful.

Thank you.

[Dwayne]

Hi there,

Lots of choices out there. Your budget is fairly high so it will be easy to make something. One thing you could do is look in the forums here for other gaming builds to get ideas for parts, after that look at the reviews on the parts and make sure it shows well.

Here are a few picks:

MB - NCIXUS.com - Buy ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 X58 ATX LGA1366 DDR3 LGA1366 3PCI-E16 PCI-E4 2PCI CrossFire SLI SATA2 Motherboard - P6T Deluxe V2. $285.38 it will do x16/x16 for SLI
CPU - NCIXUS.com - Buy Intel Core i7 920 Quad Core Processor LGA1366 2.66GHZ Bloomfield 8MB LGA1366 4.8GT/S - BX80601920. $304.13
RAM - NCIXUS.com - Buy Mushkin XP XP3-12800 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1600 CL 7-8-7-20 Triple Channel Memory Kit - 998679. $167.47 working well for me
PSU - NCIXUS.com - Buy Corsair HX1000W CMPSU-1000HX 1000W ATX 20/24PIN ATX 80A 12V Afc Modular Power Supply W/ 140MM Fan - CMPSU-1000HX. $239.62 modular to keep it clean
Video - NCIXUS.com - Buy BFG GeForce GTX 285 OC B Edition 666MHZ 1024MB 2.484GHZ GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDMI Video Card - BFGEGTX2851024OCBE. $670.30 two of these for SLI
CPU Cooler - NCIXUS.com - Buy Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink AM2 AM3 LGA1366 LGA775 LGA1156 120MM - RR-B10-212P-GP. $23.74 excellent for general use, not for extreme OC
Case - NCIXUS.com - Buy Silverstone Temjin TJ07B-W Black E-ATX Aluminum Case 7X5.25 6X3.5INT No PS W/ Window - TJ07B-W. $373.57 Beauty case, but cases are all subjective.
DVD RW - NCIXUS.com - Buy Samsung SH-S223B/BEBE 22X DVD+-RW SATA DVD Writer Black OEM - SH-S223B/BEBE. $28.84

Total $2099.05 without tax or shipping.

Sound if you want to add a card - NCIXUS.com - Buy ASUS Xonar D2X 7.1 Channel PCI-E Sound Card 24BIT Dolby Digital DTS Connect SPDIF 118DB SNR - XONAR D2X. $180.65 but a MIR brings it down. You have one PCI-e in the MB running x1 for this card if you use the Asus MB.

[Safearus]

Well, based on what you're looking for I wouldn't advise an i7 920. Without overclocking it's only a 2.66Ghz quad, where for less you could purchase a quad AMD 3.2Ghz CPU, and spend the saved cash on other parts like video card and/or ram. Just my opinion

[jwebby]

What Dwayne said except, if you're not going to overclock maybe go with the i7 950.

[Dwayne]

Safearus has a good point, but I would encourage you to try and OC a touch. It is painless and the i7 920 is a champ with minimal worry on hurting anything. You could even us the OC tools from Asus to keep it simple as well.

I am not that conversant with AMD builds, but I do know that if you are going to SLI a couple of big cards the have the dual x16 lanes is a good thing. The LGA 1156 i5/i7 MBs are all x8/x8 PCI-e lanes. Now, it may be that 2 GTX 285s will not bottleneck on x8/x8, but what I have read around the net seems to indicate that it does happen. If your research indicates otherwise then an i7 860, which runs at faster clocks than the i7 920, may be your answer.

But for me, those are the parts I would go with, and I could bump the CPU speed up to around 3.0. All it would take is to increase Bclk to about 140 x 21 up from 133 x 20. Or 150 x 20. there are a ton of guide on the net for OCing and just a quick read would show you that it isn't all that difficult or a thing to be afraid of trying.

Just my opinion :)

[NexRedshirt]

Thank you all for your input i really appreciate it.
I was also looking at the atcs 840 case.
I read some reviews and it seems like a good full tower.
If you have any other tower suggestions let me know. Thanks.

Also, how can you tell if all of the parts will be compatible with each other?

And will cooling be a problem?
I would prefer to stay away from watercooling for the time being until i become more experienced. However, I don't want the computer to overheat.

I have also decided that i will overclock a tad, thanks to dwaynes convincing.

[Dwayne]

Cases are a personal thing. the ATCS 840 has pretty good reviews, but make sure you check them out yourself to see if there is something in there that you like, or dislike. The case will really determine the cooling factor, so when you read the reviews see what the reviews have to say about airflow. The better reviews try and test under controlled conditions and post the results of heating/cooling too.

Compatability problems are few nowadays, but you never can tell. Motherboard manufacturer's will have a list of memory, but I find that most good quality sticks work just fine.

OCing is easy! make sure you do some reading and you will feel comfortable. Always run your machine up stock and do some testing first though, don't jump right in! If something is a little off it is best to catch it stock and fix it up rather than stressing it a lot and maybe having it get damaged!

Good luck with your build, and make sure you start a worklog in that section of the forum and gets some pictures and let us know how it goes! We all love pictures here, good old technology porn for the discerning computer geeks!