Battlefield 3 Build Help?

[Kommie986]

Originally Posted by simsin

...
asus 6950 2gb reference
....

Please do share where you will be getting a reference 6950 from.

[Hills]

Originally Posted by Kommie986

Please do share where you will be getting a reference 6950 from.

Was going to say the same thing...

[simsin]

Originally Posted by Hills

Was going to say the same thing...

Was able to find the last one which was part of clearance stock :D

otherwise was going to go with a sapphire toxic 2gb which is supposed to come preloaded with 6970 bios on switch position #2

[Hills]

So after reading up on the Bulldozers (well rumours) and a bit on the 7000 series. I am going to buy it soon. That is unless someone comes on here and says NOOOOOO DON'T DO IT.

Anyways, so far I added these. I also need a bit more specific advice.

Cooler Master Storm Sniper Case

ASUS P8Z68-V PRO OR ASRock Z68 EXTREME4 GEN3
HD 6950 2gb (haven't looked into which one quite yet, I am open to suggestions.
~60gb SSD for boot
~1tb for programs.
Corsair PSU (don't know how many watts though...guessing 750-850?) Open to suggestions.

[southbay]

Originally Posted by Hills

So after reading up on the Bulldozers (well rumours) and a bit on the 7000 series. I am going to buy it soon. That is unless someone comes on here and says NOOOOOO DON'T DO IT.

Anyways, so far I added these. I also need a bit more specific advice.

Cooler Master Storm Sniper Case

ASUS P8Z68-V PRO OR ASRock Z68 EXTREME4 GEN3
HD 6950 2gb (haven't looked into which one quite yet, I am open to suggestions.
~60gb SSD for boot
~1tb for programs.
Corsair PSU (don't know how many watts though...guessing 750-850?) Open to suggestions.

My advice would be get an AM3+ board, from my experience anyway. Personally I am not going to be upgrading straight away because 70% chance that the first series of Bulldozers will have some errors with all 8 cores. I'll wait till the price comes down.
P.S 60gb for a boot? An O.S only needs around 20? So if you're going to use up the other 40gb with games then you should opt for a 500gb drive. I've survived on a 500gb drive for 4 years, I have so many games it's unreal for the size.

Get the 6950, eventually upgrade into Crossfire.
From experience, 6950 CF > 580 SLI.
If you're from Canada(presume you are) Get an XFX 6950 2gb.

Also, get the corsair 750w PSU, if you do decide to go CF with 6950's at full load you'll only be hitting around 600w? Minus the 100 odd watts for CPU, etc etc. So as a 80+ at full load it'll be slim but nice. If you plan to upgrade I'd suggest a 800+. It's all personal reference.

[Hills]

Originally Posted by southbay

My advice would be get an AM3+ board, from my experience anyway. Personally I am not going to be upgrading straight away because 70% chance that the first series of Bulldozers will have some errors with all 8 cores. I'll wait till the price comes down.

Why would I get an AMD mother board if I am getting an Intel chip?

Almost completed list:
Cooler Master Storm Sniper $139.99-15MIR
WD Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 6.0gb/s $89.99
Corsair Professional Series HX750 $149.99-10MIR
Asus P8Z68-V PRO Z68 $209.99-$20 combo = $184.99
i5-2500K $219-20 combo = $199
Patriot Pyro 60GB SSD $119.99-$20MIR
XFX HD695X CDDC HD 6950 2gb $289.99-$30MIR
Asus DVD Burner $20.99

Total = $1377.43 after tax... I wanted to keep it under 1K... any ideas?

[test tube]

I would personally get a cheaper power supply (TX series or Antec's mid-line) because I have heard of roughly the same amount of HX failures as I have TX failures/Antec failures... I have a 500w Antec Basiq that I've run loaded for months with a 6950 and a quad core without any failure, and that only cost me $50. I'm sure you could find something nice in the $75-85 range that could allow you to crossfire in the future (and all you need for crossfire of two 6950s is 650w on the 12v rail).

I would also get the 2600k because BC3 will probably be heavily multithreaded/physics intensive. $89 for a 1tb hd seems kind of steep too, I paid $60 five months ago for a 1.5TB WB green (which has given me no problems whatsoever, aside from being a little slow). NCIX also has a 120GB Solid 3 for $120 AR in their sale section if you want a larger capacity SSD

[Hills]

Originally Posted by test tube

I would also get the 2600k because BC3 will probably be heavily multithreaded/physics intensive. $89 for a 1tb hd seems kind of steep too, I paid $60 five months ago for a 1.5TB WB green (which has given me no problems whatsoever, aside from being a little slow). NCIX also has a 120GB Solid 3 for $120 AR in their sale section if you want a larger capacity SSD

There is a BIG difference between a 1tb Caviar Black and a 1.5tb Caviar Green. I bought 2tb Greens 4 months ago for $50 each. Would never use them as a drive to run programs off of. On top of that the Black gives me $20 combo off. So it makes the black $69.

So... I made some changes... and just bought it. All NCIX but the case, as that had a MIR that NCIX didn't. I believe that was the cheapest I could find everything (for the specific product). Case was on Newegg.

i5 2500K $199.99
XFX HD 6950 2GB $279.99-30MIR
Patriot Pyro 60GB SSD $99.99-20MIR
Cougar CMX 700W $79.99
MSI Z68A-GD65 B3 $190.74-40MIR
DVD $19.99
Seagate 7200.12 1TB 32MB $59.98
Cooler Master Storm Sniper $139.99-15MIR
Total $1070.66
Tax $1209.85-105MIR
$1104.85

So...pretty close.