New gaming rig, need help!

[Rootsy]

Hey all, just building my own PC for the first time ever!

My budget is between $1600-$1700 AUD (Australian Dollar)

This PC will used for alot of gaming, mainly FPS and frapsing also.

Note that I'm building for the first time so I need "guidance" lol.

Just need people's opinions to help me make the best choice

Here are my final specs:

MOBO - Asus P6X58D-E - $240

CPU - Intel i7-950 OC'd to ~4GhZ - $319

CPUCOOLER - CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ - $35

RAM - 6GB (3x2GB Trip Chan.) Corsair Dominator 1600 - $179

GFX - 1GB ATI RADEON Gigabyte 6870 - $315

HDD - Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB HD103SJ - $59

DVD - Samsung SH-B123A Blu-ray DVD - $69

CASE - Coolermaster Sniper Black Edition - $199

PSU - Corsair AX750 Gold Power Supply - $234

TOTAL - $1649

1) How easy with this setup is it for me to reach 4+GhZ on my i7-950 and is the 950 easily overclocked?

2) Are there any parts that you can think of that would perform better for less cost?

3) With the CPU Cooler, what is a good fan to mount either side (120mm x 120mm, preferably blue LED to match case )

Thanks for help guys, great community here!

[alicarve]

MOBO - Asus P6X58D-E - not sure what this mobo is like but the asus sabertooth is good look into it

CPU - Intel i7-950 OC'd to ~4GhZ - good choice

CPUCOOLER - CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ - don't waste money on this go for a noctua nh-d14

RAM - 6GB (3x2GB Trip Chan.) Corsair Dominator 1600 - $179 - go for mushkin ridgebacks ram if you can get it there

GFX - 1GB ATI RADEON Gigabyte 6870 - gd enough choice, though i'm an nvidia fan, have a look at the gtx 460's too

HDD - Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB HD103SJ - gd choice but also if you have the cash look at an ssd to run an os on?

DVD - Samsung SH-B123A Blu-ray DVD - if you want blueray drive seems gd enough

CASE - Coolermaster Sniper Black Edition - go with whatever you like but look into the xigmatek utgard, or for style and performance the nzxt phantom

PSU - Corsair AX750 Gold Power Supply - gd choice

and with oc'ing I have a 920 and it can be easily done just need to play around and get used to your mobo

[Xochielt]

CPU - good choice

Cooler - NH-D14 is top, but it is a little bit more expensive...

RAM - Mushkin Ridgeback is perfect, but the dominators are good to

GFX - GTX460 ( nvidia fanboy! )

PSU - Corsair!!!

[Jamzieth]

COOLER - NH-D14 it's masive, it's silent and it works.

RAM - Mushkin

GFX - GTX460 nVidia ftw XD

PSU - Corsair Spot on

Just a few observations i've learned from posting my proposed build on the forum resently. This is the advice they gave me. Since then i've made some changes to my and could be happier. I'll post it on when it's 100% finished XD

[Rootsy]

Ok so I have finally decided what I want!

Thoughts everybody? ?

NOTE: MONEY IN AUD (Australian Dollar)

MOBO - Asus P6X58D-E - $240

CPU - Intel i7-950 - $319

RAM - 6GB Corsair Dominator 1600 - $179

GFX - ASUS EAH6870 1GB RADEON - $347

HDD - Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB HD103SJ - $59

DVD - Samsung SH-B123A Blu-ray DVD - $69

CASE - Coolermaster Sniper Black - $199

CPUCOOLER - Noctua NH-D14 - $108

PSU - Corsair AX750 Gold Power Supply - $234

SSD (For O/S) - OCZ Vertex 2 60GB E Series SSD - $149

TOTAL - $1904

I decided to go with the Corsair RAM, just because I dont plan to overclock my RAM, and I'm quite sure standard clock with timings will be the same with most RAM sticks/brands? Am I right?

The NH-D14 is quite similar to the Megahalems actually, and since I can customize the fan on the heatsink (love my blue LED fans!) I am quite happy to pick this heatsink.

Also I chose the ASUS EAH6870 simply because I am an ATI fanboy. (Actually mainly because my first ever graphics card was an Nvidia 8500gt and it brings back memories of terrible FPS lol...)

Is the SSD really worth the extra money? I've heard it offers better boot time etc.. but from peoples experience does it actually help?

Lol so much for $1700 budget :<

[Rastalovich]

This is helping me point somethin out to a mate of mine, but I went to NewEgg for 20 mins or so (so appreciate there's no research into the individual items, just instinct), converted $1700 AUD to approx $1670 USD, and selected him a rig that would play games a whole load nicer than the examples you'll get here.

To be fair, I slacked off a bit as I got to $1000 and lashed on some things I'd not normally buy just to fill up the money value.

COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Black RC-932-KWN3 Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case with Side window

Item #: N82E16811119230

$139.99

Western Digital Caviar Green WD15EARS 1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Item #: N82E16822136513

$59.99

MSI N580GTX-M2D15D5 GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Item #: N82E16814127542

$524.99

CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 ...

Item #: N82E16817139005

$89.99

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2G 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1200 (PC2 9600) Desktop Memory Model F2-9600CL6D-4GBRH

Item #: N82E16820231283

$109.99

GIGABYTE GA-EP45T-USB3P LGA 775 Intel P45 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Item #: N82E16813128433

$139.99

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor BX80570E8400

Item #: N82E16819115037

$167.99

Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler

Item #: N82E16835608018

$89.99

LG Black 10X Blu-ray Burner - Bulk SATA WH10LS30 LightScribe Support - OEM

Item #: N82E16827136181

$99.99

Red/cyan 3D Glasses For 3D Viewing On 3D Ready Television

Item #: N82E16800991111

$0.00

CyberLink PowerDVD 9, 3D edition

Item #: N82E16800991112

$0.00

Corsair Nova Series CSSD-V128GB2-BRKT 2.5" 128GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Item #: N82E16820233107

$219.99

Subtotal: $1,642.90 USD = More or less $1700 AUD

It aint a piss-take, and I'd not suggest buying 775 over i7/i5 cos of future-ability, heck even the present sockets are due a replace, but just as a point in fact of how slow tech is for the gamers. Professionals are having all the fun

Loads of overclocking headroom in there too

[Rastalovich]

In all seriousness tho. If you're buying a gaming rig and have $1700 max to spend, your highest priority is the graphics. Solid quality psu around 650w or so if you're not xfire/sli. Then mobo/ram/cpu, possibly in that order. Harddrives are here and there. Cooling can be the basic retail one, then a beefy one in the future when you fancy some oc'ing. Cases are just for looking pretty mostly

[rprotos]

Im rebuilding a new rig and from everything Im hearing and reading for gpu and cpu cooler, Nvidia and Noctua NH-D14 are the way to go. I hope to get mine soon! Good luck dude!

[Jamzieth]

Budgets are made for breaking. My original budget was £600 but i'm spending more like £1,200 now XD oooops

[Jamzieth]

WOW double postage XD, Remove this one please guys my internet connection cut out and so...2 posts XD

Sorry Guys