Questions about my gaming build

Hey guys. I'm building a new gaming desktop. Last time I did this was about 7 years ago, so as you can imagine some things have changed. I really haven't kept up with the latest, but this is what I am looking at.

Tell me what you think. Is this going to run all the games I wanna play for a while? Anything you would change?

Also, I have a radeon 6850 in this build that is crossfire ready. Will I be able to add a second 6850 in the future with this particular motherboard? It says 2 16x pci express slots, but they are 8x when both are used. Is that okay?



ASUS P8P67 PRO (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
$189.99 -$53.00 Instant $136.99


Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
$224.99 $224.99


CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TW3X4G1333C9
$45.99 $45.99


XFX HD-685X-ZDFC Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
$174.99 $174.99


Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
$59.99 $59.99


ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM
$21.99 $21.99


COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP Black Steel + Plastic and Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
$109.98 -$10.00 Instant $99.98


COOLER MASTER GX Series RS650-ACAAE3-US 650W ATX12V v2.31 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
$99.99 -$20.00 Instant $79.99

Subtotal: $894.90

Thanks for the info. I may go ahead and up the ram like you suggested.

I've got a crap monitor at the moment, but I'm gonna ask for that as a birthday gift at around the same time I get the PC.

Would dual 6850's even be necessary for a while? I've got my eye on BF3 late this year, that's why I want to be able to keep my options open.

Okay. I'll look into those other power supplies. I'm in no real hurry, so I'm planning on taking my team and hopefully finding some of these during some sales or something. I'm trying to stay under a thousand because my company gives no interest loans up to $1000 to us for computers.

With my current build plus an OEM Windows 7, I should be able to stay right under $1000 before tax.

Edit: About the i7, when I was reading comparisons on the i5 and i7 the price they had listed was a pretty big difference. Looking at newegg though, shows they are only about $40 apart, so I may look into that also. From what I read, both can be overclocked easily though.

So I decided to just completely throw out my old build (and budget). I figured that I don't do this very often and I want to make sure this one will last and is upgradable. Besides, if I'm not happy with the performance, no matter how much it costs, I'm not going to feel like it's worth it.

Here's my new build http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Pu...umber=12999334. Comes in at $1300 and that includes windows 7 and a monitor. This if final for sure. I'm just buying piece by piece when I see parts go on sale. I stuck with the i5 2500k processer. With everything I've read, it's easy to overclock and outperforms an i7 after it's overclocked. The Radeon 6950 is easily flashed to a 6970 and even has a reset button if you screw it up.

I'm thinking for Christmas I may buy myself a second 6950 if needed and an 80gb SSD.

I actually bought the case and Windows7 through a combo deal. I just wish it was easier to search for combo deals on the components you want. That part of the site isn't put together very well.

The only reason I got pro was because of the combo deal. With the combo, I got it for the same price as home. I didn't see any combo deals I could use for home.

Got all of my parts in last night. I also went ahead and bought a 120gb ssd.

Had a couple of frustrating moments. First, I was about to put on my cooler master heat sink and realized they shorted me one very important nut. Without it I couldn't mount the bracket on one corner and the thing was very wobbly. I went to Home depot and of course they had screws in the place they were supposed to have the metric nut so I had to go to lowes. Worked out in the end but very frustrating.

The second is when I had everything put together and was about to plug my monitor in and realized that I didn't put that metal labeling plate in the back of the case where the motherboard ports stick out. FACEPALM. I didn't go back in and put it in because I had everything installed and tied down and it would have been a major pain. Just kind of rigged it to stay on from the back of the case.

Got windows loaded and my video drivers installed but by the time I was finished I was too tired to mess with anything else. I will say I'm glad I got the SSD. The clean windows 7 boots in 3 seconds and one of those seconds is the bios screen giving you the opportunity to push a button.

I'll let you guys know how it runs a couple games later.

I went with the Intel 510 which is a sata3. I had it narrowed down between that and the Vertex 3 but from pro reviews they usually recommended the Intel because of reliability and small scale read times.

Just wanted to give a quick update for anyone interested in building a similar system.

I downloaded the Witcher 2, which everyone is saying is one of the prettiest games to come out in a long time and will push your system more than any other game out (maybe even Metro 2033). I downloaded it last night and played it for about a half hour on my lunch break today.

I put the graphics settings all on their max value (except for ubersampling, even people running sli cards aren't running that well) and I get about 50fps which is more than playable and a min of 30 on the really intense parts. Game looks gorgeous too.

Only changes I've made is I overclocked my cpu to 4.2mhz from 3.5. I was going to try to unlock the shaders in the 6950, but after reading most people don't see more than 1-3 fps difference and it's just not worth it to me.

I'm still planning on adding a second 6950 around the time BF3 comes out. From everything I've read, the crossfire on 6900 series works very well and gives you almost double the performance of a single card.