[Red Haze]

Hi all, I've been looking into getting a high-end gaming PC capable of running Crysis (as stated in title) at a consistent 30fps on medium settings. I apologize for having to post here, I don't have much to do with gaming forums at all, so I was hoping a few Head-Fier's would be able to help me out.

These are the PC specs I'm looking at:

Video Card -
ATI Radeon HD5770

Case -
Thermaltake V3 Black Edition ATX Gaming Chassis

Motherboard -
ECS MCP61M-M3 mATX MB, AM3, NVIDIA GF6100/nF430, 2000 MT/s, DDR3 1333, PCIe2.0 x16, SATA II

Power Supply -
TAGAN PLATINUM SERIES 800W, 80 Plus, SLI & Crossfire Certified EPS Power Supply

Processor -
Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz Quad Core

Memory -
8GB CRUCIAL Low-Latency PC3-10600 DDR3-1333MHz Memory in Dual-Channel Configuration

Hard Drive -
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB, 32MB Cache SATA II 3Gb/s

DVD Drive -
LG GH22 SATA DVD+/-RW Dual-Layer DVD Burner

How would this setup perform overall as a gaming rig? And would it be able to handle Crysis on medium @ 30fps smoothly?

 

[Shark50521]

Sounds like a solid setup, if you can I'd go for a little higher end card, but it doesn't seem terrible. Your processor is fine, if anything, I would spend a little bit of money and grab an SSD. I just got one and while they are very expensive still, the load times are almost zero for most things I do. If I were you I'd go with 4 or 6 gb of ram and get a higher end graphics card, but thats just me, might also use some of that money to go for a better board than ECS.
 
Also if you spend more money now on your case, it will last you for more than one build because you will be satisfied with it. Be aware that Sandy Bridge and Bulldozer are on the horizon though.

 

[Red Haze]

Thanks a lot for your feedback. If you don't mind, what would you suggest as a better motherboard? 
 
Edit: I should also add I'm trying to keep this as affordable as I can.

 

[s2odin]

4GB of RAM would be fine for gaming.  And you should get 1066, not 1333.  Higher speed RAM is only for OC'ing and stuff like that.  There's literally like a 4-7% increase between speeds of RAM.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5770,2446-7.html - benchmarks for the 5770 (crysis in particular)
As stated above, a SSD is always the biggest improvement, but will show little improvement in FPS games.  SSD's benefit RPG's and games that have lots of loading screens (The Witcher, Dragon Age, etc)
A different mobo would be good if you wanted USB 3.0 as that one only supports USB 2.0

 

[Kirosia]

Here's a rough guide for gaming PC builds:
 
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4025/holiday-2010-system-builders-guide
 
Also, is the Crysis thing just for benching purposes, or do you actually want to play the game? Cause it's not particularly that fun. 
 
EDIT: I should mention my PC pales in comparison to your list (HD4850, 3.0ghz Core Duo, 2GB ram, XP), and I can handle Crysis with low-medium settings at 720p. Not sure about framerate,  but it was playable. 

 

[Red Haze]

Thanks s2odin. I'm in a bit of a grey area about SSD's and their use with storage. If I was to buy a 1TB/128GB HD SSD hybrid, would games be stored on the SSD and everything else on the HD or something to that effect? And is it a pain to manage the memory that way?

 

[Red Haze]

Quote:

Here's a rough guide for gaming PC builds:
 
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4025/holiday-2010-system-builders-guide
 
Also, is the Crysis thing just for benching purposes, or do you actually want to play the game? Cause it's not particularly that fun. 
 
EDIT: I should mention my PC pales in comparison to your list (HD4850, 3.0ghz Core Duo, 2GB ram, XP), and I can handle Crysis with low-medium settings at 720p. Not sure about framerate,  but it was playable. 

Thanks. I'm just using Crysis as a benchmark, if I can play that on medium/high with a consistently good framerate I should be able to play whatever else I want on medium and higher settings.

 

[Shark50521]

Hmm, I have used Asus and Gigabyte boards now with no problem, MSI also tends to be good, but I am an Asus and Gigabyte fan, to each their own though. In terms of recommending another board, it just depends what you want it to do. To be more future proof, look for a board that has USB 3.0 and Sata 6.0, other than that its down to what size board you want, crossfire, etc. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130275 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128443 for example. Once again, just my two cents, every piece of the build is important, but spending correctly in the right places makes a difference.
 
Also, looking at the benches that s2odin provided, the 5770 should be fine for what you wanted in crysis high details, and still decent with no AA, but getting a better graphics card never hurts.

 

[Shark50521]

Quote:

Thanks s2odin. I'm in a bit of a grey area about SSD's and their use with storage. If I was to buy a 1TB/128GB HD SSD hybrid, would games be stored on the SSD and everything else on the HD or something to that effect? And is it a pain to manage the memory that way?

What I did is just have like a couple bigger drives a 750 and a 500 as "storage" drives and my 64gb ssd runs my OS and a couple games like HON and a few others. I put my music on the other drives and I think my steam client is on there. 64gb may not seem like a lot, but if you are careful with what you put on there, it works like a charm.

 

[s2odin]

Quote:

Thanks s2odin. I'm in a bit of a grey area about SSD's and their use with storage. If I was to buy a 1TB/128GB HD SSD hybrid, would games be stored on the SSD and everything else on the HD or something to that effect? And is it a pain to manage the memory that way?

Yea, you would just choose where to install everything.
You would want the OS on the SSD and RPG's on the SSD.  Since FPS games don't access the hard drive as often as RPG's you might want to save yourself some time and throw FPS's on the normal HDD.  

 

[Red Haze]

I'm really not up to speed with today's hardware. Would this motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131647 be compatible with all the parts I mentioned? Changed my decish on the case to a Thermaltake V9.

 

[Red Haze]

You guys have probably noticed by now this is my first PC build too.

 

[s2odin]

Quote:

I'm really not up to speed with today's hardware. Would this motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131647 be compatible with all the parts I mentioned? Changed my decish on the case to a Thermaltake V9.

Yea, that's a pretty decent mobo.  USB 3, SATA 6, and crossfire.
You can cut money on RAM as well, starting out with 4GB of 1066.  And I notice you got an 850w PSU.  You could probably get away with a 600w PSU unless you want to stick with the current 800w for future crossfire use.  I would also personally recommend a Coolermaster case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160).  A Lian Li would be nice but they're usually pretty expensive.  Antec 900 is a very popular case although it can be somewhat small.
 
 
Nevermind on the RAM speeds.  1066 and 1333 for 4GB are virtually the same.

 

[Red Haze]

So to revise:
 
Video Card -
ATI Radeon HD5770

Case -
Thermaltake V9

Motherboard -
ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Power Supply -
TAGAN PLATINUM SERIES 800W, 80 Plus, SLI & Crossfire Certified EPS Power Supply

Processor -
Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz Quad Core

Memory -
4GB CRUCIAL Low-Latency PC3-10600 DDR3-1333MHz Memory in Dual-Channel Configuration

Hard Drive -
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB, 32MB Cache SATA II 3Gb/s

DVD Drive -
LG GH22 SATA DVD+/-RW Dual-Layer DVD Burner
 
Is there anything particularly weak on this setup that needs changing?

 

[s2odin]

Quote:

Case -
Thermaltake V9

Which V9?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133074&cm_re=thermaltake_v9-_-11-133-074-_-Product  That one?
Imo you should look and see (if possible) where the PSU mounts, because some have top mounting (stupidest idea ever) PSU's.  And check the comments about space inside.  The reviews of that one are 50/50 for 5 and 4 stars.