Yo, so I'm getting my first ever gaming PC. I told the dude in store I want a PC for games and games only and here's what he suggested. Please tell me if this configuration will last 2 years... is it good for right now?

this'll last you five years

no real budget limitation. I count it as a personal achievement. :)

The i7 is overkill as most games are not CPU bound. Watercooling is really not worth the cost/hassle unless you want to push the CPU really hard or want to try to build a silent machine (my i5 @3.3ghz ran at 40c on the stock cooler and 60c when I used the "turbo" button on the MSI board to run it at 4.2ghz - which when I put on an Arctic Freezer 13 on it dropped 10c for each of those - a fine temp to run at long term).

I'd go with an i5 2500 (sure, get the k version if you want to poke around with overclocking - but it's only going to buy you 1-3 FPS in 90+% of the games you play)... quoth:

"Take the Core i5-2500, add 2 MB of L3 cache, Hyper-Threading, and a 100 MHz bump across the board. What do  you have? The Core i7-2600K

It doesn't sound like much of an improvement, and frankly it will make remarkably little difference when it comes to gaming. The $100 spread between the Core i5-2500K and Core i7-2600K is only recommended if you want to brag, because you're probably not going to notice any appreciable frame rate difference. The Core i7's strength is only really exploited in heavily-threaded workstation applications, rather than games."

This is from here.

8gb of RAM is nice, but hell if you are going to need it. 4gb will be fine for just gaming. Like OldGuy said, get the 2500k and save yourself a 100 bucks, drop the Water cooling unless you want to mad overclock, a $25 third party heatsink/cooler will do you fine for just messing about, and will be better then stock.

if you buy it get it on sale. new cpus coming out in the summer so price reduction will probably happen

I have an overclocked 2600k. I'm still trying to find a game that will push the thing past 50% usage on a consistent basis. Nothing does. It's a great chip that runs cool as hell. It will last a LONG time. I agree that it's a bit overkill for only gaming, but the price is insanely good IMO.

The Ars Technica System Guide is a really good place to get some pointers if you're building it yourself. I bought all the components for the Hot Rod machine from that edition of the guide and it's great - fast enough to smoothly play any current game at 1920x1080 on max settings. It only cost around £800 too (about $1300 at current rates, assuming components are priced similarly on both sides of the Atlantic).

alright I'm gonna get to it then. thanks yall. :)

As others have said 4GB of RAM is plenty right now and I wouldn't bother overclocking that processor, it won't really be used.  The upside of the consoles lasting so long this generation is that us PC gamers are getting a nice break as far as requirements to max games out.

AMD...

If you're going all out might as well throw a GTX 590 in that beast rather than the 580.

One more thing guys: this is a pretty decent system, I'd say, what game should I get to really push it to see what it's worth? Crysis 2?

" @Chavtheworld said:

" If you're going all out might as well throw a GTX 590 in that beast rather than the 580. "

That's not a great idea. It would probably cost less to put two 560ti in there and get the same level of performance. Dual-GPU cards are never worth it.  "

" @Chavtheworld said:

" If you're going all out might as well throw a GTX 590 in that beast rather than the 580. "

That's not a great idea. It would probably cost less to put two 560ti in there and get the same level of performance. Dual-GPU cards are never worth it.  "

Intel will probably lower their prices a lil bit. Besides didnt someone comment he shouldnt get the OC version? Which would be the only cpus likely not to be affected.

Misleading thread title. Sorry.

But to answer your question: Yes.

Don't get water cooling, you don't need to OC, and get a PS3 for blu ray. You said you wanted it for gaming only, why did he suggest a blu ray?

" @ShaunassNZ: No, I want blu ray cuz I'm gonna be using this in my office room when nobody will bother me (my wife is a loud motherfucker, can't watch movies with that woman.)

@rebgav: Are you saying I'm gonna be able to play any current game on the highest settings?

"

" @OracleXIII said:

" @ShaunassNZ: No, I want blu ray cuz I'm gonna be using this in my office room when nobody will bother me (my wife is a loud motherfucker, can't watch movies with that woman.)

@rebgav: Are you saying I'm gonna be able to play any current game on the highest settings?

"

Dude you'll be playing current games at the end of 2012 and still be on highest settings. "

" @ShaunassNZ said:

" @OracleXIII said:

" @ShaunassNZ: No, I want blu ray cuz I'm gonna be using this in my office room when nobody will bother me (my wife is a loud motherfucker, can't watch movies with that woman.)

@rebgav: Are you saying I'm gonna be able to play any current game on the highest settings?

"

Dude you'll be playing current games at the end of 2012 and still be on highest settings. "

Well that's pretty much the point of getting a high end PC, right? "

Do I need the case with the knobs to regulate fan speed? I know it's a dumb question, but as I said, no actual knowledge of PCs here. 

" @ShaunassNZ: I am gonna follow your advice, no liquid cooling and regular i7. I'm so happy! "

" Do I need the case with the knobs to regulate fan speed? I know it's a dumb question, but as I said, no actual knowledge of PCs here.  "

If you dont play Maxed everything all the time. Then this should last more than 5 years.

It will last you at least 2 years, more like 2.5 years.

Metro 2033 will put your rig to the limit. You will get averagely 27-35 frames per second. With sli of that card, you will get like 60 at all times.

You still can't play crysis at 60 frames with 16X AA regardless.

" Yo, so I'm getting my first ever gaming PC. I told the dude in store I want a PC for games and games only and here's what he suggested. Please tell me if this configuration will last 2 years... is it good for right now?

Core i7 2600K overclocked to 4.5ghz

8GB ram

Intel P67 motherboard

GeForce GTX580 1.5gb

water cooling, Blu ray, all the bells and whistles.

"

I got a 580 a couple months ago or so and put it in the tower i've had for 2+ years already.  It has one generation under the i-series, it's a core 2 duo and 4 gigs of ram and with the new video card I plan on that lasting me 3 more years. 

Hmm, most of the time I have no idea what you guys are talkin about. :) And I was just about to ask whether there's a difference when plugging in thru DVI or HDMI...

It will last you at least 2 years, more like 2.5 years.Metro 2033 will put your rig to the limit. You will get averagely 27-35 frames per second. With sli of that card, you will get like 60 at all times. You still can't play crysis at 60 frames with 16X AA regardless.

@ribeye said:

 " i5's are good processors and they have a great price/performance ratio, but they are considered a budget line."

That's crazy talk. i5s are comparable to i7s minus a couple of features, notably hyper-threading. They're marketed mainly for gaming and media center systems. I've never heard them referred to as a budget line before. 

i7s are the high-performance range, i3s are the base range for low-power systems. 

I am just going to ask, what games do you play?

I remember you buying the witcher 2, maybe you should wait to let know which card can play it at max?

amazed that no one has even mentioned noise level yet

If you have the money you definately should try to noise proof the PC as much as possible. Look at noise levels of video card, CPU cooler, Case fans, Power unit as well HDD dampeners and quiet cases

I strongly urge you to check out this guide.

The Premium Player build seems to be exactly what you want.

I strongly urge you to check out this guide.The Premium Player build seems to be exactly what you want.