Planning my New Gaming PC!

So I'm planning a gaming PC. I haven't built a PC since 2008. I've done some minor upgrades to it but it can't really go on anymore with upgrades, as it's DDR2 and an AM2 AMD processor. I do love it though, she's lasted me 5 years and I've been able to play games all the way up until recently on max quality. But she's starting to lag behind.

Currently she's a got a Foxconn a79-s mobo, Phenom II X950 OC'd to 3.85GHz per core, and an OC'd ATI 5850. She's watercooled, though not the cleanest install, still decent, in a Lian li v2000B case.




(In the photo I had an older mobo, I didn't like it so I upgraded to the foxconn, and upgraded from two 3870's to a single 5850.)


So the next one I'm building is from ground up. I'm going to be doing an SSD for the main drive, 240GB should be fine, as it'll only be programs and games. I'm wondering if I should do bigger or smaller. tend to like having games load fast, but that's just a luxury, play rate matters more than quick loads. I have at least 250gb worth of games on my PC right now. That one I'll have to figure out.

I'm going AMD again because it's a little cheaper than intel and pretty fun to play with as far as overclocking. I'm going for an octa-core and going to overclock it as much as i can from it's 4.0Ghz/4.2GHz range to whatever I can reach (I hear 5.2GHz is possible with water). I'm going with 16GB RAM 8GBx2 sticks so I have the option to get more, and I'm going with an ATI 7950 GPU, though this might change if the 8xxx series comes out and they discontinue the 7xxx series.

Here's what I have setup so far.


LIAN LI PC-V2120B Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case $399.99
I wanted to go with a large case again for watercooling. I may go with the V2120X which has an anodized black interior as well, but it's 450$.

Rosewill TACHYON -1000 1000W ATX12V v2.31 & EPS12V v2.92, SLI/CrossFire Ready, Modular Active PFC Power Supply $219.99
Have any other suggestions for power supplies for this setup? I do plan on getting another videocard.

ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX UEFI BIOS $214.99
Between this and the Raptor, I figured this would suit me better for heavy overclocking.

SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100352VXSR Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card $279.99
Again, if they drop in price or the 8xxx series is this price, we'll see what happens. Oct. 2013 is the release date.

AMD FX-8350 Vishera 4.0GHz (4.2GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8350FRHKBOX $199.99
I was looking at the FX-9xxx series and then I read reviews, basically this can overclock to the same speeds that the 9xxx series can overclock to, they're pretty much the same processors. Meh, might as well pay $150 less.

G.SKILL Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200) Desktop Memory Model F3-2400C10D-16GTX $169.99
Any tips on RAM? I've heard the timing is flexible on this RAM.


Corsair Neutron Series GTX CSSD-N240GBGTXB-BK 2.5" 240GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $219.99
Any suggestions for SSD drives? This will be a first for me as far as SSD.

2x Seagate NAS HDD ST2000VN000 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive ($139.99 each) Total $239.98
For my photography and ridiculous collection of downloaded TV series, movies anime, programs and games, music etc.



So this is getting into the $2,000.00 range, and including probably $400-$600 in watercooling equipment, it'll be a good $2,400 PC, but it should last me a long time, especially if I invest an extra $300.00 and add another videocard and some more ram (then I'd have to add in another waterblock and tubing though, but that'd probably be what an extra $60-$100).

All in all this is going to be my most expensive PC. Though when I tried to design one with intel I was still about $1,000 more for what I wanted...


What do you guys thinks?

It's a personal preference. I like the Lian Li cases. I really don't care for other designs much. Again, personal preference. Also I do a lot of moving. It's nice to have a sturdy case when you're moving between states.

Carbon I'll check out the powersupply. I would go intel but the setup I want would cost another $600-$1000, and I just don't have that kind of money. Plus I'm comfortable with overclocking AMD's stuff.

If prices for the i7's drops this fall and winter, then I might consider it.

Ben, I won't be dismantling my current PC. In fact it will be used constantly, but it will become more for music (playback) and internet browsing as well as hosting a website.

I know the case is a lot, but I will be getting something similar to that. I like that case and I've wanted it for years. It's like telling someone who wants to buy a porsche to go buy a Prius because they're the same. Of course I'd only be buying the porsche and not the ferrari because well, it's more expensive.



But I'll look into the i7's if they drop in price. How are they for overclocking? That's another hobby of mine. If I can't play around with a PC I'm going to be bored with it. I don't know anything about intel motherboards and overclocking intels.

And I'll wait a little longer for those hybrids to really get into the market, I want to see how they perform in the long run. They're probably fine but I don't need any extra speed out of the two 2TB drives, they're for data that doesn't need high speed reads, and I always keep my OS and primary stuff on a completely separate drive from my data.