Demon Forge

Just a quick update, got everything here, but the mobo was DOA, bought another and Newegg is gonna refund the defective one when they get it back.

2500k and Corsair Vengeance 8gb 1.5v 1600 ram 264.98

Asus Maximus iv Gene-Z/Gen3 and 2tb WD caviar Green 6.0g/s 269.99

Corsair Force Series GT 128g CSSD 179.99

Antec HCG 750w 99.99

Evga GTX 570 Superclocked 354.99(got this for the dual fans)

ASUS VH236H Black 23" Full HD 169.99

Antec 1100 Black Case 119.99

Picked up a Hyper 212 evo and an Asus DVD RW in the clearance stuff from best buy for a total of 40 bucks.

Total Price: 1499.91 -80 in MIRs.

Went with the 570 so I could SLI them if I ever get in a spot where I'm not happy with the performance. Found a couple of combo's that saved me tons... and with the money I saved, I'm getting a new desk to put it on :-)

Yeah, it's ordered, as of wednesday morning. I actually made quite a few changes in what i finally ordered, I'll get it posted here in a few minutes.

Could be the infamous memory leak ? More likely that than drivers, since the issue comes after a few trials, instead of all the time.

Well I finally made up my mind and decided to go with the 580, and the 60g ssd to use for SRT. Went to order everything..... and of course the 2500k is now out of stock :-/. Will wait till tomorrow to see if newegg has it by then, if not I'll find one on Amazon, and hopefully my sister can add me to her Amazon Prime.

I think it would be pretty safe to add the 7970 to this list :-)

I don't think that I was clear enough in my original post. My budget is $1500 I've got W7 already, so don't need to buy it.

My main concern is would it be a better to get the 580, or the 570 and SSD. I realize that this is going to be based mostly on my personal preference of a few FPS in most games, or less waiting times for the games to start, just trying to get other peoples' opinions on the matter.

Over the reference gtx 570, the gtx 580 has~10% performance increase(according to the benchmarks I've read). While this isn't a big increase for 150 bucks, the highest iteration of video cards can usually perform quite well for 4-5 years, which is what I'm trying to accomplish.

I'm kind of on the fence about the whole SSD issue. I know it will greatly improve boot times and the time from clicking the CoH shortcut to my ingame time, but other than that, is there any noticable improvement over a good sata 3 hard drive for in game loading?

How would using the motherboards SRT capability compare to using an SSD for a straight boot/gaming drive? This feature seems like it would be very good for gamers who don't have the big budget required for the big SSD's, but I've not found any hard data about how much of a speed increase it actually is, and would probably shorten the lifetime of the SSD with a lot more writing than would normally be done with a boot drive.

Would it possibly be more feasible to wait until the HDD prices stabilize again, and then upgrade to a ~120g SSD ? Paying almost 200 bucks for a 120g drive just irks me for some reason.

No matter what I choose in the end, it's going to be a huge upgrade. I'm gaming on a dual core amd with a 9800gt, and the new system is going to be a beast. I'm really considering going over my budget by ~150 bucks, and getting the 120g SSD and a 580, just don't know how much my wife would like it :-)

I've finally gotten permission from my wife to spend some money and upgrade my computer. Here is the build I've come up with :

CM Storm Enforcer 89.99
Seagate Barracuda 500g 84.99
Asus 24" Monitor 209.99
EVGA GTX 570 SuperClocked, lifetime warranty 339.99
Corsair Enthusiast Series 750W PSU 104.99
Gskill Ripsaw Ram 8gb 46.99
ASUS P8Z68-V/GEN3 179.99
CM 200mm red led case fan 22.99
Aerocool Shark Red Led Fan x2 29.98 (for push/pull on the CM 212 evo)
CM Hyper 212 Evo 44.99 (also comes with free 10ft HDMI cable to attach computer to my HD TV)
Corsair Force Series 3 60g SSD 99.99
I5-2500k with Asus Sata DVD burner 236.98

Brings my grand total to 1491.86, and I'll join ShopRunner for the free 2 day shipping.

My question is would I see a better performance increase by dropping the SSD and the 3 fans(which are mostly for looks), and getting a GTX 580 ?

One of the great things about EVGA is their step-up program. If you buy a 5 series card(which would be recommended), and the 6 series version comes out within 90 days, you can get a huge discount on the 6 series card, and the 6 series cards should be released any day now.
This card http://www.buy.com/prod/evga-02g-p3-...222943639.html would be better than the 8600 you're using now, and is only about 65 dollars. And being a 5 series,would be eligible for the step up program( you might have to buy an extended warranty for this, which would be about 10 bucks for a card under 200).

You can do it the ghetto way, just unplug the fan on your card, and buy a 80mm fan that has the same plug, and wire tie it to the card. This would get you out without spending more than 15 bucks or so, but again, is really ghetto.

http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloa.../overview.aspx

That link takes you to the download page for amd fusion, a great little program that shuts down unneeded background programs with a single click of a button, and turns them all back on in one click as well. I use it on my backup computer when I'm doing any kind of gaming, and it makes a huge difference.

It doesn't sound to me like your programs in the background are having any kind of bearing on the problem you're having.

My first suggestion would be to use driver sweeper to get rid of every remnant of your the old video card drivers. It sounds like it is loading up the old drivers when you log into windows. After using driver sweeper, install the new drivers like normal and see if that makes a difference.

If you are in fact concerned about the back ground programs causing slowdowns in COH, AMD makes a great little program called Fusion, it automatically shuts down background programs( up to and including windows updates,virus/malware software, and those sort of things) with a single click, then can turn them all back on in a click when you are done playing for the day. Here is a link to the site to download it if you're interested:
http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloa.../overview.aspx

If you ordered the same motherboard that Hyper posted, it will be fine for the ssd, it lists 2 6g/s sata ports and 4 3g/s. Make sure and plug the ssd and your data drive into the 6g/s ports, and your cd/dvd into one of the 3g/s ports. Just make sure the case you're ordering doesn't require an adapter to mount 2.5 inch internal drives.

This is probably to combat the people who get invited to the team only for the "Speak to the Latin Student" portion of the arc, and get midnighter access for doing nothing.

The system you've linked looks like it would be strong enough to handle pretty much anything out there, but coming in at about 500 bucks beneath your budget, why not get a better video card? The 570's and 580's offer a pretty large performance increase over the 560, and would still put you a couple of hundred dollars short of the $1500 you've quoted as your budget.

Before you start replacing parts , try removing your ram and cleaning the contacts with isopropyl alcohol and some cotton swabs, might also do this with your video card, i seem to recall reading somewhere that there was some kind of problem with some of the sapphire cards having an issue with some of their thermal paste leaking and coming out clear.

If cleaning the ram makes no difference, I would buy ram first to try, based almost solely on the fact that it's so cheap. If that doesn't work, the next step would be the motherboard. You might also try moving the ram to the second set of slots to see if that makes any kind of difference.

A 60 or 120g ssd should give you plenty of space for anything you want to do, and some are pretty cheap right now. Make sure you spend some time researching the brands/models you are looking at, some have been known to die or slow down significantly very quickly

Other than the aesthetic appeal, there are only a few things you really need to pay attention to when you buy a case. I'm assuming you're looking at cases on Newegg or Tiger Direct, you can learn a lot about problems you might face with a cases' overall craftsmanship from reading the customer reviews.

Other than that, check to see if it's a top or bottom PSU mounting case, while it's not always an issue, it really sucks to get your machine together and find out you need to buy an extender because a power supply cable is a little too short because that awesome new case you just bought mounted the PSU on the bottom instead of the more traditional top mount. Don't let this scare you away from getting a case with a bottom PSU mount, just research to be sure your PSU has long enough cables if you get one.

Make sure the case has as many USB and Audio ports on the front as you want, having to move the computer to plug your mp3 player, or cell phone, or whatever you want to attach, is sometimes a pain. This is a case you're planning to have a few years, so if you're kind of on the fence between 2 cases based on the number of USB slots, go for the one with more.

Make sure the case is big enough for your video card. This is sometimes easier said than done, it's hard to judge how much clearance you're going to have just by the pictures and dimensions given on a website, though in MOST cases, with a mid or full sized tower, you should be able to fit almost any video card you like.

Get a case with at least a couple of 120mm fans in it. While your system shouldn't run hot(based on the parts that Hyper suggested), unless you decide to start overclocking, its always best to have a little bit more than you actually need, hot components don't last nearly as long, or perform as well.

Personally, I try to stay away from toolless cases. In my experience with toolless cases ,the efforts to make them faster and easier to build usually accomplish the opposite, and even if they work perfectly, would save you a maximum of 15 minutes on building a system,(and that's a very conservative time,in most cases you could mount and dismount 3 hard drives in about a third of that time).

There are literally thousands of cases to choose from, so take your time and look at a lot of them. There are also a couple of other sites other than Newegg that have some great deals on cases. Geeks.com and tigerdirect.com usually have some good deals, and while they aren't always lower than newegg, you can sometimes catch the particular component you're looking for on sale from one of these other sites.

This DIY combo might save ya some money: has pretty much the same components.(you would still need to buy the missing pieces obviously), but seems like you can save about 45 bucks buying this stuff together:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...t=Combo.755265

The system I linked would be able to easily run CoH on ultra(at whatever res you wish), with either the AMD or Intel processor. That is pretty much a given. My whole intention on replying to this thread was to offer a slightly less expensive system. There are a lot of people who simply refuse to acknowledge that AMD processors are a viable alternative. For the x% increase in performance, you are paying 50% more going from a 970be to the i5 2500, and that's not including the price of the motherboard. I'm offering a lower cost solution, and that is it in its entirety. I'm not saying by any means that the AMD processors are better, they are not. The fact that he said he would have to buy it a piece at a time makes me think that this is not someone who has 1200 dollars laying around, and might like something that would meet his demands without spending quite as much. Hyper, I apologize for the fanboy comment, a lot of people just seem to have the opinion that Intel is the answer for everything, regardless of the cost to performance ratio.You are obviously more informed than that, though we obviously have different approaches for computer building. I didn't mean to step on anyones toes, and I'm not trying to start a"I know more about computer building than you" war, just trying to give the guy some options, and to let him know that you can build a very nice system with an AMD processor.
There are good parts and points in all of the posts in this thread, and if nothing else this will give the OP something to research before building his system.