New rig advice needed

I built my last computer over 3 years ago and I am looking to get into a new gaming pc. I run 1900x1200 resolution monitor and will use the pc for games mostly.

I play EVE online, ARMA 2 and a lot of the total war series the latest being Shogun 2. I need the pc to be able to handle these type of games where there are hundreds or thousands of objects rendered at a  time.

I have a great xfi creative card I just bought for sound that will install when I get the rig.

I am trying to stay at or below $2,500.

I have been looking at other builds on this forum to try to get a good build started. This is what I have so far. I think it is looking good, just a bit over budget.

http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=502928

Any feedback will be appreciated.

Originally posted by Treelox "Our logs show nothing"   Why did you go with a X58 instead of a P67?

Originally posted by ironmb Originally posted by Treelox "Our logs show nothing"   Why did you go with a X58 instead of a P67?   I really dont understand this flavor of the month i7 2600 from this forum. I dont doubt someone on here who is DST fanboy will say "it runs cooler, it runs lower voltage blah blah". Makes me laugh honestly.   If i got 5000$ to spend im not gonna go with a budget computer that DST offers to everyone. Why would i? Bandwagon at its best.

If you don't understand then you may wish to do some quick research for yourself.

Unless you would like to take a shot at proving that all the benchmarks on the whole of the internet are somehow in error, then the fact remains that the Sandy Bridge 2000 series CPUs are significantly faster than the X58 900 series CPUs. Not only are they faster clock for clock, but they do, in fact, use less voltage and run cooler, and can be overclocked noticeably higher than the 900 series.

And no, I'm no DST fanboy. Quite the opposite, I butt heads with him constantly.

@ the OP, the build looks decent, but the SSD 80gbs is probably gonna be too small. After installing windows, few games, and other crap you'll be very limited.

So from what you're saying the 990x old? Interesting.

Originally posted by ironmb Originally posted by Dragoonseal Originally posted by ironmb I really dont understand this flavor of the month i7 2600 from this forum. I dont doubt someone on here who is DST fanboy will say "it runs cooler, it runs lower voltage blah blah". Makes me laugh honestly.   If i got 5000$ to spend im not gonna go with a budget computer that DST offers to everyone. Why would i? Bandwagon at its best. If you don't understand then you may wish to do some quick research for yourself. Unless you would like to take a shot at proving that all the benchmarks on the whole of the internet are somehow in error, then the fact remains that the Sandy Bridge 2000 series CPUs are significantly faster than the X58 900 series CPUs. Not only are they faster clock for clock, but they do, in fact, use less voltage and run cooler, and can be overclocked noticeably higher than the 900 series. And no, I'm no DST fanboy. Quite the opposite, I butt heads with him constantly. No you dont butt heads with him, you just copy his information and then think you know what you're talking about. Once again you're on this bandwagon where you think the 2600k CPU is FASTER than a 990x lol its so hilarious. Please link me webpages of information showing LC'd CPU's of all your vast amounts of information.   Show me benchmarks show me everything where a 990x is so much inferior to a 2600 chip. Surely this will be a funny debate. As of all you DST fanboys usually get mad when someone criticizes your 2600 build.

If there is any similar information that both I and DST give, then it's either something he has learned from me or something we've both learned from another source (such as Justin, or The Internet™). No offense to DST, but I rarely even read his posts, I can't think of any information off the top of my head that I've learned from him, and I certainly don't parrot him. He's generally good folk and helpful, I just tend to equate him with a sponge; he soaks up information both good and bad, so when he wrings it out for people it can be murky sometimes. Plus he has personal biases that not everyone agrees with.

Click my profile name and then "Find Members Posts" link and search for the term DST4ME, you'll find that if I'm responding to him the vast majority of the time it is either to inform him of something, correct something he's said, disagree with him, or outright argue with him. I am pretty much the anti-thesis of a DST fanboy, so to continually try to call me one makes you look pretty foolish.

Anywho, benchmarks showing the 2600K faster at most things than a 980X or 990X is easy enough, here is a pretty good collection of some for an example:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/142?vs=287

A few things here and there can manage to utilize the extra cores/threads of a 990X well so it's still faster for some specific tasks like rendering and encoding, but since the 2600K is faster clock for clock, and can be overclocked higher, it's faster for the majority of tasks. It's also hundreds of dollars cheaper, as a bonus.

This information is not hard to find, like I suggested before do some simple research and you'll find the same story everywhere.

Originally posted by JStones X58=release Nov 2008 X58 is still viable, I own one and its still fast for my needs, however. If I were to get another pc there would be no reason not to spend the same amt of money on a newer faster model. 990 is new, fast, but very expensive for what you get on an old chipset 2600 is new, fast, inexpensive, on a new chipset that will have a longer lifespan than x58. It seems you believe $=performance, which is not always the case for computer hardware.

Edited by ironmb - 17 Mar 2011 at 10:08pm

@Lothaar, you should go with a 2600k, for your money its faster runs cooler and oces higher easier.

As you can see, everybody here understands the facts except for one person, I have a 980x and I'm telling you get the 2600K its much faster and better and cost much less:

Here you go Ticket# 503376 --- $2643 (To see this build click here)

Copy of Specifications:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master 942 HAF X
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 2600K 3.40GHz (Unlocked CPU for Extreme Overclocking) (Quad Core)
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 Deluxe (Intel P67 Chipset) (New & Improved B3 Revision Without SATA 3G Issue)
System Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 1000W Corsair (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible)
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (1TB Western Digital Caviar (7200 RPM) (64MB Cache) (Model: Black Edition WD1002FAEX)
Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 1.2GB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 1: Noctua NH-U12P SE Dual 120mm Fans High Performance Cooler
H20 Tube Color:- Not Applicable, I do not have a FrostChill or Sub-Zero LCS Cooling System Selected
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (Red)
Enhancements: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: FREE: Overclock the processor between 3.6GHz to 3.9GHz
Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Boost OS: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition)
Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows 7 CD)
Virus Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Install/Test Game: - No Thanks
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
External Storage: - No Thanks
Exclusive T-Shirt: - No Thanks
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty

To be honest with you, I would go with one gpu and see if I need the extra power, if so then I would drop in the second card myself.

intel gen 3 ssds are coming out, so go with 1TB BC now and then add the ssd later yourself when they come out.

Ask DS specifically for this fan to be added to the top, so you endup with 4 x 200mm fans:

haf 200mm non led fan

Edited by DST4ME - 18 Mar 2011 at 12:04am