New system, need help deciding.

[logikwolf]

Hi guys, I am considering buying a new system from cyberpower on black Friday, as I cant beat their price building my own. My budget is $1500 +/-$100. I want a x58 platform with i7 cpu. Can you give me any advice on what components to select within the budget? What would be the fastest configuration? The PC would be used for gaming. Any help appreciated!

[David (PassMark)]

What is fastest will vary somewhat from game to game.

Defintely pick Windows 64bit, 6GB+ of RAM, and SSD boot drive. Combined with the i7 you almost can't fail to have a fast system.

[logikwolf]

Thank you, I'll definitely go with your advice!

[wonderwrench]

If you can stay away from water cooling as its more trouble than its worth. The only good air cooler I see on their website is the Cooler Master V8. The base X58 board looks to be a Gigabyte GA X58A-UD3R. Its a very nice board I have one myself. It looks like they have an optional Asus Sabertooth motherboard for the same price. Its has been getting good reviews and would also be a good choice. IMO there is no reason to pay for a higher end board than the two listed above. The Nvidia GTX 465, 470 and 480 are hot running power hogs. A 1 gig GTX 460 runs cool and would save some money that could be spent on upgrading other components. Another good choice would be the new AMD HD 6870 also cool running. Make sure the case has plenty of cooling so add any fans that are missing in the default config.

Oh the Power supply they use by default is questionable. I'd opt for any other one listed. Best I see listed are Corsair models. AX850

If you get an SSD do not get anything smaller than 60 gigs.

Ops late for work! gota go!

Bill

[Idonno]

If you can stay away from water cooling as its more trouble than its worth

Well I almost agree with you 100% with the exception of the CORSAIR Hydro H70 & H50 CPU Cooler.
They are completely sealed maintenance free solutions for CPU (only) water cooling.
I have the H70 cooling an Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition Six-Core Processor and I couldn't be more pleased.