Completely Brand New Gaming System

I'll have a look at what is available later, I cant do it right now.

The very first thing that should be considered is the screen size and resolution that you plan on playing the games in.
To give you an idea if you are running these games on a single screen (regardless of the size) one GPU is more than enough
The reasons behind running multiple GPUs is because each screen (again size dependant) effectively requires the raw processing power to produce the graphics on that screen.
Unless you are running small screens, 3x 22" for example then you can get away with using a very high powered card for all 3

I would stick with the 2600K due to the fact that the chip has the ability to overclock in the future should you need or want to
With the RAM you are always better off having more at a lesser frequency
Case is a weird one because you not only need to cater for your needs now but also in the future, I now always recommend that people water cool the CPUs because the cost of a watercooling unit is only double the cost of a decent air cooler, obviously the cooler the chip the longer it will last.

any questions please ask

 

Thanks for responding dalo !
Okay, so you reckon 1 gtx560, or I could get one gtx 580 for the same price
Yes I decided today to go for the 2600k as i might want to oc in future.
I think i will be going with either 12 or 16 gb of ram..
thanks again for reply
p.s do you think i would be fine without a CPU cooler initially as I don't want to overclock right now?

 

No, you cannot use a CPU without a cooler, the temps these things run at is high enough.
GPU depends on the screen you plan to use

 

A good air cooling solution should be good enough, the motherboard has ports for 4 case fans plus a CPU fan, so should provide ample cooling, I would have thought water cooling would only be need if the CPU was going to be oveclocked quite high like over 4GHz, which would be nearly a 20% iincrease at that, from what I've read anything over 4.5GHz for that processor would require water cooling.

 

I was under the illusion that when you buy a cpu it came with a fan? - if not could i just buy a relatively cheap one? like this
http://www.scorptec.com.au/computer/36138-cac-sxhh3-ck1

 

The cooler you keep the CPU the longer it will last, simple as that.
Air cooling is ok, but again you need a decent cooler and they are £30+ you can get a watercooler now for £60-£70 which is decent.

for the extra it's a no brainer...

You only get a cooler if you buy a retail version of the chip, if you buy OEM you only get the chip, and the money you save going OEM is better used to upgrade the cooler

 

ehh well thats a bit annoying, ohwell its obviously for the best - Also what do you think, about getting a single gtx580 as opposed to the dual 560's?

 

Okay so I put together what I have got so far, and Its reallllly stretching my budget this is what it looks like so far ...

CPU : Intel i7 2600k ($325)
MEMORY : Cosair Micro CMZ12GX3M3A1600C9 (crazy number thing) 12gb ($160)
MOBO : ASUS P8Z68-V PRO ($240)
HDD : Samsung HD103SJ ($60)
CASE : Nzxt Phantom ($185)
DRIVE : Samsung SH-222ab ($40)
GPU : Asus gtx580 ($555)
PSU : Antec Truepower 750W ($150)
CPU COOLER : Antec Kuhler-h20-620 ($100)

That ends up coming to, including them building it, $2014, which is kinda pushing it..... what i want to know is what can i change to lower this price..

thanks again )

 

Building it your self would save $200, though it's whether you want to try or are confident enough to do that.

You'd save $40 going with the 16GB of G.skill RAM, I mentioned earlier in the thread, the 2600 (minus the k) CPU is $20 cheaper I think or maybe even the top end i5 would save you more but would lack hyperthreading compared to the i7's but s still quad core and about the same speed from what I remember.
And obviously the decision on which graphics card solution to choose is still in limbo but $50 could be saved there, so possibly $110 in parts, maybe more could be saved on the case, HDD, DVD etc but didn't look into that.

So lets say between $100-$400 could be saved depending on the parts choices and if you build it yourself.

 

haha it's funny how i can save money by buying more ram lol...
I would build it myself, i know how to do it roughly i built my other (sh**) computer, but this computer is just too much money for me to risk it.
I think the biggest problem is the $555 of Gpu, would it make that much difference if i got a gtx 570

 

GTX 570 is around a 10-15% performance drop over the 580 card, overall it offers what Americans call better bang for your buck since the 570 is a reasonable amount cheaper than the 580.

 

Okay now I think I'm just about ready to order the parts (EXCITING!!) but I just wanna double check everything.
This is the final build -- I'm just gonna write questions after the part is specified ->

CPU: i5 2500k

GPU: 2x gtx560 TI's

MOBO: ASUS p8Z68-V pro

RAM: Corsair 12 gb 1600mhz

PSU: Antec Truepower 750W (Once again im paranoid - is this enough )

HDD: 1tb Samsung HD103SJ

CASE: Nzxt phantom (My main concern now, I wanna know if this will big big enough for everything - the last thing i want is a case that is too small!!)

OPTICAL: Eh anything ill just buy a $20 one

CPU COOLER: Antec Kuhler h20 620 (Does this need any maintenance at all, do i need to replace water or something!?!?!?!)

Thanks for all the help guys, I seriously would be completely lost without you!!!

 

Looks good, the PSU will provide enough power, that setup will draw about 600W top end.

The case should have more than enough room, it's a full tower case so I would be surprised if it didn't.

Not sure about the water cooler though, never had one but I'd hazard a guess that the water may need replacing/adding extra water every so often as it would evaporate at higher temps or even evaporate just sat there.

 

Good, good and good. I've read that the cooler is apparently 'Maintenance free', apparently..

 

Okay I just realised my ram is triple channel and my motherboard is dual channel, so I think i have to change my ram, Im thinking of this
http://www.scorptec.com.au/computer/41639-cml16gx3m4a1600c9
thoughts

 

The Watercooling is an enclosed loop so no maintenance is needed.

Going back to the GPU's, just buy one of the highest spec cards that you can, SLI drivers are a joke and you wont see that much of an improvement having 2x lower cards as opposed to one faster one. SLI yields at MOST a 20% increase in FPS, and thats only on games that have been optimised to death..and they are few and far between

RAM - just check that the speed and capacity is ok for the board, it will tell you the max on the specs

Just make sure that the case has a 120mm fan on the rear (near where the CPU is) or at least a space for one as this is where the watercooler would go, if its the double radiator then you will need the 2x 120mm mounts in the roof