New Rig - Options

[Syphoncom]

Hey guys, I hope it's cool to put this thread here; I did notice the computers and technology forum but figured this was more geared towards gamers (obviously). If not, please move and apologies!

I'm building a new comp for gaming (after 4 long years) and right now I'm looking at 2 options (1 of which I can customise). I've been perusing tomshardware, but I figure mots of us here are aussies, so it might be better to post here too.

Anyway:

Really hoping someone can help shed some light on what I should do! It's time to get a new rig and I've decided to spend a little bit extra and get something decent. I've got a quote for a new computer (and monitor) with the parts I've selected, but I was told about a special (it's actually.. decent!) and it's thrown me.

I do want to play BF3 and Skyrim (I'd like Ultra on 24/27inch) btw.

So, here are the two comps:

1) Just under $2300 (AUD)

Z68XP-UD3
i5-2500k
GTX570 OC x2
8GB 1600 RIPJAWS CL9
120GB OCZ S3 SSD
1TB WD CGreen
DVD Burner
Antec P183 V3 Case
Antec 850W
W7 Home Premium
BenQ 27" M2700

That's the first Comp, got SLI and I can customise anything in there atm. Price is AUD and although I could get some parts slightly cheaper, those prices aren't too bad for around here. That includes build price (it's ~$70 and I don't have the time nor desire to put it together myself).

Here's the alternative:

2) $2100

Processor: Intel Core i7 2600 3.40GHz
Chipset: Intel H65M
Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz Gaming Ram
HDD: 2TB
SSD: 115GB
Optical: Blu-Ray Reader/DVD Burner Combo
Graphics: ATI 6970 2GB Graphics Card
Case: Antec Nine Hundred
Power Supply: Thermaltake 700W Litepower
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium OEM


PLUS:

Monitor: BONUS: 24" Widescreen LCD
Keyboard and Mouse: BONUS: Razer Deathadder V2 Mouse and Razer Arctosa Keyboard


Now, to weigh it up:

Pros/Cons/Comparisons:

i7-2600 vs i5-2500k
2TB HD vs 1TB HD
ATI 6970 vs GTX570(x2) in SLI
Blue-Ray Reader vs No BR Reader

Razer Deathadder and Arctosa (I have a G15 and a G5, but I could sell some peripherals?)

Cons:

The 24 inch vs 27inch
6970<2x570s
I don't know the exact ram/hdd/mobo.

So!

Any information regarding these rigs would be GREATLY appreciated

<3

Thanks so much to anyone who can help.

 

[St 07]

The brand new Pentium 4 processor range is worth looking at if your looking at a gaming rig. The bottleneck will then be on your GPU, for which I suggest one of these badboys.

Keep in mind that if your going to be playing either Skyrim or Battlefield 3, then your going to want to purchase at least a 1 gig HDD.

Glad I could help.

 

[JR#8]

The brand new Pentium 4 processor range is worth looking at if your looking at a gaming rig. The bottleneck will then be on your GPU, for which I suggest one of these badboys.

Keep in mind that if your going to be playing either Skyrim or Battlefield 3, then your going to want to purchase at least a 1 gig HDD.

Glad I could help.

What's he going to do with a 1 gig HDD?

 

[FGMPR]

Rig 1:

I'd try and stick to a single card solution instead of SLI. A standard 1.5 gig GTX 580 will be cheaper and can run BF3 on all ultra settings with post processing AA @ 1680x1050 and keep 50+fps (I know because that's what I use). Unless your determined to run Metro 2033 in 3D maxed out, then going above a 580 is kind of overkill, and by limiting yourself to the one card, you are leaving headroom for a possible second 580 in the future (as long as you have a good, 80+ power supply at around 1000watts, otherwise you won't be able to draw enough power to run them properly). That 850 antec should be able to handle 2x 570's, but it will go close. Everything else is nice. Its a ****ing nice rig, either way, though one would expect so for that price.

edit: One more thing to consider is the fact that 570's have 1280megs of video ram compared to the 1.5gigs (or the 3 gig model) for the 580. Even though there's 2 of them, video cards don't 'share' their video ram and ultra on BF3 is known to chew up almost the full 1.5 gigs at 1080p. In other words, though 2x 570's have more grunt than a single 580, the 580 will run BF3 better. Just food for thought...


Rig 2:

I'll prob cop some shit for this, but I can't really recommend AMD cards over nvidia ones. They stack up very well when you look at a price/performance ratio, however AMD are nearly always second best when it comes to drivers. Being able to run games in Physx at a reasonable framerate is nice too, along with the fact that nvidia 3D solution is miles ahead of AMD's (if that is something you might be considering in the future).

Bottom line is, they are both nice rigs and you'll get a good experience from Skyrim and BF3 on both.

 

[Syphoncom]

Hey thanks guys, FGMPR especially for the detail mate.

I did a bit of reading here http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063-6.html regarding benchmarking for BF3 and from their tests, the 570s seem to scale quite well in SLI.

I've read a few things regarding SLI and Crossfire and there being some issues with some games/software and I've never done it in the past. I get the single 580 idea as I was originally going to go with a single 570, but figured this setup in SLI really should last a significant amount of time anyway (my old rig which is 4 years now can still do quite well, it's just once you need to upgrade 1-2 things, it spirals quickly).

The benchmarks for BF3 suggest the AMD cards suffer considerably at ultra and I've always been a bit of an Nvidia fanboy myself, so I get where you're coming from.

The only other thing with #1 is that the case and psu (obviously) are fairly costly, but apparently it's decent for heat and sound, which I'm a little concerned about.

At the end of the day, ~$200-300 over the course of a couple (or more) years for the amount of use I'll get out of it, it's really not that excessive. Looks like I'll probably end up grabbing the 1st rig tomorrow.

Oh, last thing, with those benchmarks I was looking at the results for BF3/Ultra/1920x1080 for a 27inch monitor.

The difference between 1680x1050 and 1080 might warrant the SLI, or at least that's what I was thinking