My power supply failed on me the other day so that signals to me that I need to craft a brand new pc!

I want to make a pc that can play Oblivion + Skyrim(I know its not out yet) in stereoscopic 3D with Nvidia 3D vision.
I haven't built a computer in about 5-6 years so I'm a bit out of the loop of technology at the moment, so if you guys have any
suggestions for improvement or change, let me know. Ideally I want to minimize bottlenecks as much as possible...
I also plan to SLi in the future when I get an extra bit of cash.

Right now I'm looking at this setup:

Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070

Motherboard:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131682

Graphics Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130595

Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277

Hard Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148433

Operating System: Debating between 64 Bit Win 7 and 64 Bit Win 7+32 Bit XP in Dual Boot.



If you guys have any suggestions or comments...(especially on power supply since I'm still a little unsure about 650W), let me know, I want to try to make some sort of decision this week since I have no pc right now @_@ Thanks for taking the time out to read this =]

Looks great, except the hard drive. Seagate has kind of dropped the ball in terms of quality over the years. These days Western Digital's Caviar Black drives or Samsung's F3 model are excellent hard drives to consider.

Make sure to check combo deals so that you can save some extra bucks.

CPU+MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.575880

PSU+OS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.591041



Also, Amazon ships free and charges no tax for most people if items are bought directly from Amazon.

Samsung F3 1TB: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Spinpoint-Cache-Desktop-HD103SJ/dp/B001U3S5S0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1295606674&sr=8-1

EVGA GTX 570: http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Superclocked-PCI-Express-Graphics-012-P3-1572-AR/dp/B004EYSMGW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1295606866&sr=1-1

Thanks a lot for your response! I'll check out those Hard Drives when I make my final build. Also I didnt know about those combo deals that really helps tons!

I want to know though, do you think that PSU will be sufficient for 2 570s in SLi?

Appears most folks are recommending 850 or better for two 570's.......

IMO, that's cutting way too close for a 650W unit for two of those cards. I'd recommend 750W in your case if you're just a casual gamer and not necessarily stressing your system all of the time. If you're doing something like folding 24/7, and OCing that 2600K, and have a bunch of case fans/HDD's/etc....should get a 850W to be safe. Capacitors do degrade over time regardless of brand. Corsair or Seasonic units highly recommended.

What monitor(s) are you planning on using with all that?

Also, definitely go for 800/850w+ if you go with 570s in SLI.* Particularly as that model is OCd, by default, and you might want to OC them (further) and/or your CPU. Probably at least the latter, given that it's the "K" version, and therefore overclockable much at all. If you aren't going to OC the CPU, don't bother with the "K". Spend the little bit of money you'll save, elsewhere.

Speaking of which, I would strongly consider a SSD for boot/apps, and maybe for games. They're cheap enough now, that you really may as well - especially seeing you're spending quite a bit already! Doesn't need to be huge, just fast and reliable. For example, the OCZ Vertex 2 is still good value. But whichever.

Just my advice, of course. Whatever works for you, is what matters.

* Power supplies tend to be happiest, and live longest, if used around the 50% load mark (roughly). This is why.


edit: Win7 x64 ftw, btw. I upgraded from WinXP x32, and haven't looked back ever since.

You've obviously done some research and have picked a decent combo. I agree that your proposed rig would benefit from a higher wattage PSU, and maybe a SSD too though I've no personal experience with those. And yes, Windows 7 64-bit should do you fine. Just don't install Oblivion in the default directory. Create a special one outside of Program Files.

G.Skill makes decent quality memory for the cost and has, by modern standards, excellent tech support and customer service. I run G.Skill in both my rigs (4gb DDR2-800 in one, 6gb DDR3-1600 in the other) with nary a problem. Your only potential snafu, other than just getting a lemon, is mobo compatibility. My DDR2 would not run at 800 with all four modules installed. Three modules at 800 ran fine. Four modules at 667 ran fine. In the end I went with four at 667. Luckily a mobo BIOS update fixed this some six months later. If you haven't already done so, you might want to visit but the ASUS and G.Skill forums and see if anyone is reporting issues with that combo. Most likely you'll be fine, but better safe than sorry.

Thanks so much for the suggestion!



Ah thanks so much. I'll definitely be getting an 850W from both of your recommendations. I do plan to OC and get one or two more case fans ontop of what's already there...BUt in regards to SSD drives, I dont know much about that technology...I remember when they were first coming out a few years ago, they were really quick but it was said that there were some drawbacks from their usage...Not lasting long or something? Do you know any of the particulars?

Thanks so much again everyone for helping me choose, I'm looking forward to making this!

The Asus P67 boards have bios problems and cause a lot of crashes, shutdowns and boot failures. I have a Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4 and it works a dream. I have a Intel i5-2500k, 4GB RAM and a GTS250 with Windows 7 x64. Oblivion runs at a constant 75fps and it's awesome. Far better than what my last 6 year old PC could handle.

Just a heads up before you end up with and issues. Best of luck though.

Plus if you need a 850W PSU I highly recommend the Corsair HX850W PSU. Really good PSU with many of good writeups from all PC hardware websites.

From what I gather, their lifespan (now) is so great, you'd be upgrading - many years away - before it would ever become an issue anyway. And it's more a (very) slow degradation than "sudden death", if I understand correctly. Something to investigate further, perhaps? For example, some people swear by Intel drives instead. :shrug:

But, then again, *I* don't have one. Mind you, that's only because I'm waiting to upgrade the whole system in one go, later this year. So, I don't have one yet.

Talking to people who've invested in one, the impression is overwhelmingly - in fact, universally! - positive. Not to say there aren't folks out there with issues - like say, on the internet. But then, I believe the same goes for any kind of hardware. I've not at this stage seen or heard any evidence that SSDs are overly worrisome in this regard.

As for OS integration, Windows 7 handles them paricularly well, IIRC. Certainly, new tech + new OS is generally the best way to go.