Building a new computer!

[Chesterfield Snapdragon McFisticuffs]

I wasn't sure where to put this thread, but I'm getting the rig to play games, so I guess this goes in Gaming Discussion. I'd also put this up on another forum since I don't see many threads of this type, but I don't belong to any other community.
Right, I don't have an awful lot of friends that are particularly tech-savvy, and this is my first time building a new computer. I'd state i have a price range but since I live in New Zealand saying I have X amount of dollars to spend is rather redundant. So instead I've decided to go about getting the parts I want and I'll post them here, and perhaps some of the community could help to improve what I've picked. I'd like to keep the prices the same (cheaper if possible actually) but im happy to go about $5-$10 above how much each item I've picked costs.
Motherboard - MSI P55-GD65 P55 Dual Channel DDR3 LGA 1156 ATX i5/i7
CPU - Intel core i5 750 2.66GHz Socket 1156 box
RAM - G.Skill 4gb kit(2gbx2) DDR3-1333
PSU - Cooler master eXtreme power plus 650w ATX 12v
DVD drive - BenQ DW 240s 22x Dual Layer SATA DVD rewriter
HDD - Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200.12 SATA2
Video Card - I already have a powercolor 5770 but i'm planning to crossfire. It's hard to find powercolor at a good price and I was wondering if it's possible to xfire it with an (XFX HD 5770 HDMI Dual-DVI 1gb)
Monitor - LG W2261V Black 22" 1920x1080 2ms 20000:1 HDMI DVI LCD
Case - Cooler Master Storm Scout ATX midtower Black gaming case
Any help would be appreciated, if I've left anything out etc

 

[e2density]

Looks great, I also have a 5770. Performs great.

And yes, you can Crossfire two different brands of the same card. All 5770's are the same size/height/width and they ALL adapt with the same Crossfire bridge.

Everything else looks great. You'll be very happy with a PC like that.

 

[Brok3n Halo]

Sounds like a pretty good setup, Don't know much much about the i5 CPUs personally, but I'd imagine they'd be good for games. I do have a few additional suggestions though.

If you want surround sound, I'd pick up an X-Fi or at least a Audigy 2. I find a lot of game's sound is funky when doing 5.1 in software. As for hardware though, selection is pretty limited to Creative Labs cards as they have a stranglehold on EAX.

Another thing you may want to look at is 3D displays, they're are a lot of announcements being thrown around CES about them and it looks like it's going to be the next trend in gaming and movies.

Blu-Ray drive is another possibility, depends on if you plan on buying movies or not.

Also you may want to wait a few months before picking this up. If I heard correctly the new 6 core i7 CPUs are about to come out, and that should lower the prices of the weaker chips. Worth looking up when that's going to happen and seeing if you can wait that long anyway.

 

[SpAc3man]

Where abouts are you living in Auckland?

Everything you have picked all sounds great for a decent gaming rig so all you really need to do is shop around and maybe find alternatives that are better value for similar performance.

I noticed the monitor you have picked is the one with the HDMI port along with the DVI. If you are looking for a monitor with HDMI then you have made an excellent choice but if it's something you can live without you will be able to save money by going for the LG W2253TQ-PF which is exactly the same apart from a higher 50000:1 contrast and the exception of an HDMI input. You should save NZ$40 with that one

 

[llafnwod]

Intel? Unless you want absolute top of the line (which the i5 isn't), go AMD. They're always just hanging on to their market share, so they're dirt cheap for their quality.

 

[Darktau]

Sounds good, I am not a big fan of ATI though, as they ALL have a tendency to break on me... very quickly.

Not advertising, but if your in the UK try www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/ for cheap parts, I get all my crap from there .

EDIT: Intel quads have faster clock speeds by the way. (And a Q6600 can be overclocked to 3.x with air cooling.)

 

[Chesterfield Snapdragon McFisticuffs]

Where abouts are you living in Auckland?

Everything you have picked all sounds great for a decent gaming rig so all you really need to do is shop around and maybe find alternatives that are better value for similar performance.

I noticed the monitor you have picked is the one with the HDMI port along with the DVI. If you are looking for a monitor with HDMI then you have made an excellent choice but if it's something you can live without you will be able to save money by going for the LG W2253TQ-PF which is exactly the same apart from a higher 50000:1 contrast and the exception of an HDMI input. You should save NZ$40 with that one

Epsom. I'm planning on buying the majority of my stuff from Playtech, from my experience they're reliable and I don't have to deal with a bunch of suspicious asians. Not saying that racistly but some of those stores are too hard to deal with. Also yeah I am gonna be going with the HDMI it's just one of those things I prefer to have.

 

[Chesterfield Snapdragon McFisticuffs]

Intel? Unless you want absolute top of the line (which the i5 isn't), go AMD. They're always just hanging on to their market share, so they're dirt cheap for their quality.

Yeah I looked at that too, I'm actually unsure whether I want to go with the i5 or the 965 Black Edition. They are exactly the same price but I'm not really clued up in that department. I read somewhere that the amd consumes more power and is hotter?

 

[llafnwod]

Intel? Unless you want absolute top of the line (which the i5 isn't), go AMD. They're always just hanging on to their market share, so they're dirt cheap for their quality.

Yeah I looked at that too, I'm actually unsure whether I want to go with the i5 or the 965 Black Edition. They are exactly the same price but I'm not really clued up in that department. I read somewhere that the amd consumes more power and is hotter?

It does and it is. AMDs are almost always better for overclocking though. If you're willing the shell out for a decent Zalman fan, they cool well and last forever, but even with stock cooling AMDs go up pretty high. Honestly though, you're starting to get to the point where the margin of improvement is getting pretty slim compared to the increases in cost...

EDIT: Oh yeah, and Darktau is right about ATI. As much as I'd like to support AMD, go nVidia.

 

[veloper]

If you want i5 performance (or better) there is no AMD alternative. A phenom 955 can compete with intel core2quads, but not with core i5.

So the CPU is fine.
(and the GPU is great)

What is not fine for a gamer with his budget is not adding a solid state drive and a sound card.

A kingston SSDnow is an affordable SSD that uses quality Intel MLCs. I suggest installing windows on one of those and set the swap file and the internet cache to the basic HDD. Very demanding games go onto the SSD. This will do more for overal performance than any highend CPU or GPU will.
Soundcard should be the cheapest Audigy SE you can find. M$ nolonger allows hardware sound acceleration in windows (everything must be done on the CPU), but you'll still want a quality DAC and not mainboard integrated noise and pops.

The PSU is also wrong. Get a Tagan SR. Silent, reliable, long cables. 500W should be enough.

 

[Arikarin Aririkamei]

Sounds decent, I have a 5770 aswell.

I upgraded my PC this christmas just gone and it performs great, and the one you've picked to upgrade to will be a better setup then mine.

 

[llafnwod]

A solid state drive? Maybe I'm wrong, but isn't the idea here to build a computer to run a game smoothly and at high settings, not to top compression benchmarks?

 

[veloper]

A solid state drive? Maybe I'm wrong, but isn't the idea here to build a computer to run a game smoothly and at high settings, not to top compression benchmarks?

very short loadtimes and minimal hitches during gameplay.

 

[llafnwod]

A solid state drive? Maybe I'm wrong, but isn't the idea here to build a computer to run a game smoothly and at high settings, not to top compression benchmarks?

very short loadtimes and minimal hitches during gameplay.

Indeed. Infinitely superior to a high RPM/transfer-rate HDD, which merely has very short loadtimes and minimal hitches during gameplay

 

[veloper]

A solid state drive? Maybe I'm wrong, but isn't the idea here to build a computer to run a game smoothly and at high settings, not to top compression benchmarks?

very short loadtimes and minimal hitches during gameplay.

Indeed. Infinitely superior to a high RPM/transfer-rate HDD, which merely has very short loadtimes and minimal hitches during gameplay

and random reads and writes that are only over 1000 times slower than the SSD. It makes a huge difference.

 

[llafnwod]

and random reads and writes that are only over 1000 times slower than the SSD. It makes a huge difference.

Okay, but 1/1000 of a hardly noticeable delay is an unnoticeable delay. Is that difference really worth the increase in price? SSDs are the superior technology, I know. But it's also an option to buy an air liquefier and pump nitrogen into your chassis to up your clock rate some more. At some point, everyone has to draw a line between performance and price. Obviously that line runs differently for different people; I'm merely saying that an HDD is the better choice if he simply wants a great computer rather than the best one.

Also, this thread is getting incredibly geeky.

 

[Scott Castle]

Yeah decent system dude and if you'd like to join a gaming clan try APG,just google it!!!

 

[Diserasta]

That's a nice setup but I doubt a 650W can handle Xfire, maybe 750 or 1KW. I mean my 420 can barely hold my 4850 and even that dies when I game for 3 or 4 hours. And I seriously doubt that your need to Xfire 5770s I have a single 4850 and I run Dragon Age: Origins at highest quality at about 34 fps. It'll be extreme overkill for at least a year. But then again the question you should ask is: is being able to run anything at highest quality worth the extra 200 or so dollars. Another point to be made is that GPUs make heat, alot of it. If the PC is going to be in a small room, you may find it a bit stuffy after gaming.
And, honeslty the price difference between an i5 and an i7 is about $100 (AU, around 90 US), for two extra cores (I'm comparing the 920 to your proposed 750, they're both clocked at 2.66). A reasonably good deal if you feel up to it. Other than that the setup looks fine. Should work like a charm.

 

[SpAc3man]

Where abouts are you living in Auckland?

Everything you have picked all sounds great for a decent gaming rig so all you really need to do is shop around and maybe find alternatives that are better value for similar performance.

I noticed the monitor you have picked is the one with the HDMI port along with the DVI. If you are looking for a monitor with HDMI then you have made an excellent choice but if it's something you can live without you will be able to save money by going for the LG W2253TQ-PF which is exactly the same apart from a higher 50000:1 contrast and the exception of an HDMI input. You should save NZ$40 with that one

Epsom. I'm planning on buying the majority of my stuff from Playtech, from my experience they're reliable and I don't have to deal with a bunch of suspicious asians. Not saying that racistly but some of those stores are too hard to deal with. Also yeah I am gonna be going with the HDMI it's just one of those things I prefer to have.

Good choice with Playtech I get all my stuff from there and I find they generally have the best prices and best quality stock.

That's a nice setup but I doubt a 650W can handle Xfire, maybe 750 or 1KW. I mean my 420 can barely hold my 4850 and even that dies when I game for 3 or 4 hours.

The system requirements for Xfire 5770 is a 600W PSU so it should hold out fine. The only thing I dont like about the PSU is its low efficiency of 70%. Low efficiency means higher temps and louder fan noise which may get irritating. My recommendation is the Corsair TX-650 ATX 650W. It is $50 more but is 80 plus certified and I've dealt with one before when helping a friend build his pc and have nothing but good things to say about it.