Alright, I get the hints. Time for a new PC

[kingloser]

well u can get away without having to crossfire. I have a single 260 gtx and can play bc2 on med/high and getting like 50 fps avg. i went with amd 955 BE, msi motherboard and 4 gigs ddr3 ram.

Ok here are my thoughts on ur selection.

Mobo - Im willing to bet u can get that price down to around $100. now it obviously depends on which cpu u go with but here are a cpl options.
AMD - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813130265 ($89.99)
ONly issue i see is its only DDR2 Memory but does support crossfire
This one - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813130309 ($94.99)
supports DDR3 and has 2X Pci-e slots. and is Crossfire ready

Intel
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813130239 ($159)
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131604 ($109)

Cpu - are u married to an i-7?
i-5 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115215 ($199)

Amd
955 BE - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103808 ($152)

Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820220436
this memory is for Intel, however Patriot has memory for AMD as well. just check it out cause its designated by the last 3 letters of the memory. i think amd might be ela instead of this elk.

or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820220503

both are Patriot who offer a lifetime warranty which is a plus. Just remember to register everything u buy within 15 (or is it 30?) days of receiving it. i made the mistake of not registering my video card soon enough and lost out on my lifetime warranty.

[kingloser]

sorry for the dbl post but jsut thrwoing some figures together

If u go amd

case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811119197 ($90)
cpu http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103808 ($152)
Mobo http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813130309 ($95)
Memory http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820220503 ($130)
HDD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822148395 ($38)
Vid card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814150506 ($260)
DVD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6827136147 ($19)

Total $785 plus shipping and odds and ends (sata cables arent usually included)
oh forgot PSU, do u have one? otherwise http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817152036 ($60)
That one is modular so $845.

I dont know what kind of DVD drive u were going for since its the same link as ur HDD. So i just went with a normal DVD RW.

Thanks a bunch, king. That'll save me $400 from my original build. If it'll play BC2 like I want, then I'm game. Once I'm absolutely sure that I can get the next $1,000 for my scholarship, I'll go ahead with that build. (still have the laptop to pay off).

I dont know what kind of DVD drive u were going for since its the same link as ur HDD. So i just went with a normal DVD RW.

GAH I did it twice apparently..lol. I was working in the comp lab at pellissippi when I was typing this out. Had to jump up every few seconds to grab people's printed papers out. I had done the same thing with the GPU (set gpu link on hdd. lol) and yea, it was just a $20 LG dvd burner.

[kingloser]

yeah u could trim a lil off that price too if u go with just the 4 gigs instead of the 6 gigs i selected. u could also go with the case u had originally sleectede which was liek 30-40 and i chose u the haf 922 that was the case for that pre built one u showed. i was just throwin out ideas. if u want u could also check ur local craigslists for stuff. i found my case locally for like $20 and then sanded and painted it. there was also a guy selling a 260 gtx locally for 150 after i had just paid 200 for mine. so keep that in mind.

[kingloser]

dang dbl post again oh well. Anywho keep ur eyes open because newegg is doing BLack Friday sales all November so u can probably get some killer deals. Also dont rule out Tigerdirect. i was gonna do a price comparison across both sites but was just too lazy. when i built mine i ordered half from each place and saved myself $100 if i would have just ordered form one place. Hey 5 or 10 bucks here and there adds up. plus i got free shipping from TD. Just remember to make sure everything is compatible. the first memory that i had chosen for mine wasnt compatible with my mobo but luckily i caught it before i had bought and and had shipped.

Yep just looked lol and the case is same at TD but the cpu is 3 or 4 bucks cheaper.

MY hints?

A good PSU.

A good MOBO / fairly good.

Quick Ram, x 4gb.

CPU: Duel-core, ~3Ghz. Quad? Um.. methinks 2.66ish and up is sufficent.

GPU: I went with Nvidia 285 GTX. That could run BC2 without hiccups for the most part. Imo, avoid crossfire/SLI/ multiple as they add $$ fast. In my opinion, benchmarks are great measures, but go with what makes a real-world difference.

If a card will benchmarks significantly higher, but used 1920 x 1080, x16AA and the whole shebang and the the score is WAY higher, but the difference in frames is from 130 to 100, I don't think dropping $100 to get the card that got 130 frames would be worth it.

Imo, avoid crossfire/SLI/ multiple as they add $$ fast.

Yeah, but I'm going high-end on the GPU. I want the 6870, and 2 of them are the same price as one GTX 480, and when in crossfire they outperform the 480 by a huge margin.

oh and king, I love modular psu's. won't have tons of wires I'm not using just laying around.

Only modification I made was I put that $40 case back in, and put a 4gb (2 x 2gb) ram set in instead of the 6gb. 4 should be enough for now..I can always buy another set like that later on and have 8gb total. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220481

total after shipping and tax would be $866.87 after tossing in a couple SATA cables and thermal paste. also found a site that has newegg promo codes so once I go to buy (probably next week) i'll use them and get a few dollars chopped off the total

newegg is doing BLack Friday sales all November

Yeah try to take advantage of this. I bought mine last year the same way and got an extreme processor for the price of a regular one.

I'm looking out for those. also, I'll have to buy a new PSU if I wanna crossfire these cards. lol. each card takes 2 PCIe connectors and that psu only has 2. not a biggie though, crossfire is at least (if i get the setup next week) 4 months away. also, the ASUS model 6870 is $20 cheaper from newegg than the XFX one and sports a slightly higher core clock speed. Tigerdirect has it for the same price as the XFX, in stock, but newegg is sold out with an ETA of the 5th.

*EDIT*

hit a bump. mom's paranoid I might not get the scholarship money to pay off the laptop and her credit's going to take a hit. she always assumes the worst. I'm fully eligible for it, I even got the first round this semester, but she's still paranoid about it. now buying this rig might not happen till january. gonna talk to her more about it later. *sigh* might have a solution though. Newegg uses Bill Me Later. That's what I used for the laptop, but on my mom's account. so I might be able to do bill me later on my account and just gradually pay it off with work paychecks. It would work.

Sign up for Newegg's mailing list and they'll email you all the promo cards. You'll also want to keep an eye on the deals of the day. As for the RAM, I've got 4 Gb DDR2 and never ran into any memory issues. You'll really only need more if your doing high resolution graphics rendering or video converting. Even then most of it is processor demanding. You can still get that PSU as long as it's pushing enough power, as you can buy molex to PCIe power plug converter's. Or, in the case of my 5770, you'll get them with the card itself. Most motherboards will come with 2 SATA cables and I've got a butt ton laying around, so you could just PM me your address and I could mail you a few. You also don't need to get thermal paste if your going with the build that King suggested. That CPU will come with a little pack of it that will get the job done. The only reason you would want to buy thermal grease would be for OC'ing, and then I would recommend getting Arctic MX-2, but you'd also want to buy an after-market heatsink, which would add another $40 plus for a good one. You really shouldn't need to OC with that rig though.

Sign up for Newegg's mailing list and they'll email you all the promo cards. You'll also want to keep an eye on the deals of the day. As for the RAM, I've got 4 Gb DDR2 and never ran into any memory issues. You'll really only need more if your doing high resolution graphics rendering or video converting. Even then most of it is processor demanding. You can still get that PSU as long as it's pushing enough power, as you can buy molex to PCIe power plug converter's. Or, in the case of my 5770, you'll get them with the card itself. Most motherboards will come with 2 SATA cables and I've got a butt ton laying around, so you could just PM me your address and I could mail you a few. You also don't need to get thermal paste if your going with the build that King suggested. That CPU will come with a little pack of it that will get the job done. The only reason you would want to buy thermal grease would be for OC'ing, and then I would recommend getting Arctic MX-2, but you'd also want to buy an after-market heatsink, which would add another $40 plus for a good one. You really shouldn't need to OC with that rig though.

thanks for the tips. dropped off the sata cables and thermal paste (you were right, the mobo pic shows 2 sata cables). price is now at $838.49 total.

Meh. Im telling you Intel is better....
King posted this Intel CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115215
^^Thats the exact processor I have in my computer and its amazing........ :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Ya Crimson I think without clicking on all the links to the stuff you need that overall your choices are excellent. AMD is the way to go buck for buck. And its more that that now.. AMD is a statement. Asus parts are another excellent choice. Modular PSU again another excellent idea. Video card choice X2 excellent. CPU is good however the 965 black edition should be considered. Ill have to check out the links more when I have time but dont let anyone talk you out of what you have mapped out.... it all looks good.

CS what about water cooling???? save lots of space in that thing.

CS what about water cooling???? save lots of space in that thing.

and throw down another few hundred bucks to get ~5C - 10C cooler? not worth it lol