Building a Gaming PC

[Franzchise]

sorry if this is the wrong forum, I am new to this site and PC building as well. So I would greatly appreciate any suggestions or help or places I can find help.

I have a budget of about $3,000. I want to keep it single screen. I really want to be able to run top of the line games like BF3 at full ultra and very high smooth frame rates.

I've been attempting to research for the past few days but I'm kind of feel like as soon as I get comfortable with something I want I read about something else. If someone could guide me or give me some suggestions it would be much appreciated. thanks a lot!!!

[ShyguyXPC]

do you need everything, Mouse, Keyboard, Monitor, speakers, etc? Or just the core tower system part?


If no one else posts by tomorrow sometime, I'll try and post a list of parts.

[Franzchise]

thanks for the help.

I will need everything, all the old stuff will be staying with my older cpu. I've always used a wireless Microsoft keyboard and mouse are the devices built with a gaming focus much better.

As for the monitor I wanted to go 3d at 32" or around there. But I'm not sure how expensive it is to achieve.

Again thanks for your help, I look forward to your advice.

[ShyguyXPC]

meh, 3D is pointless at this stage in gaming, for those you'll need a Display with 120Hz or 240Hz refresh rate and those displays aren't cheap.

add in, you'd still need to spend a good $100-200 on something like Nvidia's 3D vision Glasses kit as well.

There have been a couple LCD Displays made with 3D and not need glasses for, but they are expensive as well.

for 32" and 3D, you've be better off just getting a dedicated 32" LCD HDTV with 120Hz or better refresh than a PC monitor, since the latter tends to cost more than a dedicated TV these days.


32" LED backlit LCD display with no 3D function is very feasible though given your budget.

needless to say, for $3000, it shouldn't be hard to piece together a top end performing rig.

Not sure on BF3 with Full Ultra Settings & Smooth very High frame rates, as that can easily take nearly a Grand of GPU Hardware, but at Full Settings with decent Frame rates it can be possible to piece together a good system.

[Franzchise]

Appreciate the info, Ya I have a 3d plasma, I never use the 3d viewing. Ever. I didn't know if pcs had done 3d better but with the added cost its a bit much.

What it would take to get up to insanely high frame rates on ultra in BF3? how much more added expenses. thanks again

[ShyguyXPC]

not sure, but I know right now, BF3 is like Crysis was years ago, it can eat and eat and eat as much resources as you throw at it.

at least a single Geforce GTX 670 or 680 would be enough to run the game on Ultra settings with decent frame rates. If not great frame rates in offline mode or LAN games. For larger player servers, from what I hear, like 64 players, and I forget the map name, but its one of the BIG ones, even with that much GPU power, it can get a bit sluggish at times.

a Single Geforce GTX 690 (Dual 680's on a single card), would be enough I would think, but unfortunately their hard to find, and they cost an easy grand when they came out a couple months ago.

yeah they still go for a good K or so: Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, Video Cards & Video Devices, Desktop Graphics Cards, GeForce GTX 600 series, GeForce GTX 690



A couple GTX 680's will cost more actually: Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, Video Cards & Video Devices, Desktop Graphics Cards, GeForce GTX 600 series, GeForce GTX 680

what I'd consider doing is building a rig based on the GTX 670, which isn't that far off the 680 in performance, for $400 per card (estimate), and then build the PC so a 2nd card can be added in later, if needed, to be run in SLI, while trying to save as much on budget as possible to accomodate the 2nd card.

a bit busy at the moment, but will piece together a list of parts a bit later, couldn't do much last night/this morning with the weather we were having.

[Franzchise]

yes, I was just reading reviews and benchmarks on the GTX 690, it looks like it is a beast. But would running 2x GTx 570s be better.

Also, are the AMD built cards better for certain games? Just seems when I part together items on cyberpowerpc.com just messing around, I get a higher frame rate in SCII with certain AMD cards. Just curios. Thanks a loot for the help, there is a lot of diff parts when going for your first build...

[ShyguyXPC]

no, the GTX 570's are less performance than a GTX 680, and thus a 690 would be more powerful than 2x 570's.

you could run 2x GTX 670's, which would be close to a 690 or Dual 680's, but would still cost a good $800 or so at least.


Some games do favor AMD over Nvidia, or vice versa, but its usually little difference that really matters.

SCII is hardly that demanding graphically, a good $200 range card would be more than enough for a game like that, same with D3 and other similar games.

For BF3, $200 should be the minimum range to be looking at.

[Franzchise]

thanks, Originally I was planning on buying an i7-3960x, which seems would have been a waste of money for my cpu purpose. So with that extra money I didn't spend on the i7x, I am now leaning towards the GTX 690. I really want a beast machine.

[ShyguyXPC]

the "X" series are the top end Extreme series CPU's, those are for people with money to burn, or just not wise enough to NOT buy them and get a lower priced more than adequate performing CPU and invest that money else where.

So its a good idea you decided not to get one.

I know of a couple friends that stupidly bought into the Core 2 Extremes, 2 of them in fact, and paid more than double the price for only a mere insignificant increase in CPU performance, over what the rest of us got from our $200-300 range Dual cores back then LOL.

Add in a $250 Case, with more room than they ever needed, and then a 1200W Ultra Brand PSU (Tiger directs crap name brand). Total system power consumption on their rig? a mere 400-500W max. LOL.

he liked to spend big money on over kill parts, to make his rig look big and powerful, but wasted the money on useless stuff, and could of gotten more for his money, or even bankrolled the extra costs.

[SoloCamo]

not sure, but I know right now, BF3 is like Crysis was years ago, it can eat and eat and eat as much resources as you throw at it.

at least a single Geforce GTX 670 or 680 would be enough to run the game on Ultra settings with decent frame rates. If not great frame rates in offline mode or LAN games. For larger player servers, from what I hear, like 64 players, and I forget the map name, but its one of the BIG ones, even with that much GPU power, it can get a bit sluggish at times.

Just wanted to chime in here.

Even on ultra, my rig in my signature never gets below 30fps at 1080p... for the single player campaign.

The level you are referring to I believe is caspian border. Throw in 64 players and my rig comes crawling to a halt w/ AA and ultra settings at 1080. However, I'm good to play with over 30fps at high settings on it, and only 2x aa instead of 4x.

That said, a 670 should have no problem for the game at high, if not ultra settings for the resolutions talked about here even on 64 player maps like it.

I will note one thing that did help though, bumping my 8gb of ram to 16gb. It sped up general level loading and in game loading during the map especially when a new game starts (as the map is cached), so something to consider though it's hardly necessary as 8gb is still enough.

[ShyguyXPC]

Newegg.com - Corsair Carbide Series 500R Black Steel structure with molded ABS plastic accent pieces ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Newegg.com - Acer HN274Hbmiiid Black 27" 2ms Full HD HDMI WideScreen LCD 120Hz 3D Monitor w/Speakers & 3D glasses 300 cd/m2 ACM 10,000,000:1

Newegg.com - EVGA 02G-P4-2670-KR GeForce GTX 670 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Newegg.com - SeaSonic X750 Gold 750W ATX12V V2.3/EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Newegg.com - Microsoft SIDEWINDER X4 Keyboard

Newegg.com - Logitech G700 Black 13 Buttons Tilt Wheel USB RF Wireless Laser 5700 dpi Gaming Mouse

Newegg.com - Arctic Silver CMQ2-2.7G Céramique 2 Tri-Linear Ceramic Thermal Compound - Thermal Compound / Grease

Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL10D-16GBXL

Newegg.com - Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770K

Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit - Operating Systems

Newegg.com - CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100) Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

Newegg.com - LG Black 10X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal 12X Internal Blu-ray Drive 3D Playback & M-DISC Support Model UH12LS29 LightScribe Support - Blu-Ray Drives

Newegg.com - Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F180GBGT-BK 2.5" 180GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Newegg.com - Logitech G930 USB Connector Circumaural Wireless Gaming Headset

Newegg.com - ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Subtotal: $2,783.84



a 30-32" LCD was going to cost too much, $800-1000.

27" isn't too bad, its LED backlit, 1080p, 120Hz, and includes Nvidia 3D Glasses.

if you don't think you'll need that, and hook it up to your Plasma, then thats a massive chunk of savings out of the budget, easily enough for a 2nd GTX 670.


Keyboard is wired, its a good keyboard, nice back lit keys, Anti Ghosting keys (can hit more than 3 keys at once with out having problems in games or having the PC beep at you, like most basic keyboards do). I actually have 2 of these.


Wireless Mouse, is a good mouse, but you could save a chunk of change with a wired model instead.

Headset, wasn't sure on these as I don't use one, I have a 5.1 Home Theater I use for my audio. But should be a good headset for speakers, and what not with USB, and size of ear pieces, also has good battery life.

but if you use actual speakers instead, that could be some savings or even more spent on those depending on what you need.


OS is Windows 7 Professional, since Home 64-bit is limited to 16GB max of RAM, Pro and Ultimate can use 16GB and beyond, up to 192GB.

The G Skill ram was selected, for its 1600Mhz rating for Overclocking, 1.5V for OCing, and it has a $20 off Promo code, making it the cheapest and best 16GB kit on newegg right now.

extra tube of thermal paste, in case you need to reapply the CPU heatsink.

Corsair H100 Liquid cooler kit, the 120x240mm Radiator will fit in the top portion of the Corsair Case, and was only a few bucks more than the single 120x120mm H80 model with Push/Pull fan config.

There's more surface area on the H100 for cooling than the H80.

The Seasonic PSU is more than enough for the whole setup with Dual GPU's, but it is a bit pricey, a good Bronze Certified unit for about 33% less would be enough, Modular, or non Modular.

But Seasonic is the best brand out there. And its a decent priced Modular and Gold Certified Unit.

CPU is the top of the line for the Main Stream Socket 1155 platform, its not a Hex core, but its more than enough for gaming.

for a Hex core, you'd have to go to Socket 2011, with a good $200 range Mobo, and a $500+ Hex Core CPU.

As far as gaming goes, it'd be wasted resources, as Quad cores are barely utilized for games, let alone 6 cores.

A Larger HDD could be added, but I didn't want to over extend on that when I first put the list together, a 3GB model I think costs around $150-170 or so.


the Solid State Drive, was debating between Intels Maple Crest, Cherryville SSD's, or OCZ Vertex 3 240GB, or this Corsair GT 180GB, they all use the latest Sandforce Controller chip, but very in price.

the OCZ for around $200 price tag, you get more storage, the Corsair is a good balance between storage and price (180GB), and the Intels, are higher in Price, for 180GB on the Cherryville 520 Series, but they're more rigorously tested, and have better Firmware Upgrade options (Special deal between Intel and Sandforce) for both the 520 and 330 Maple Crest series drives. The Maple Crests were only 120GB, but was still nearly $150.

Really only need 60GB or so, for the OS, and the odd 1 or 2 games with some space to spare, but 120GB is kind of the sweet spot for storage on SSD's right now, still pricey, but if you can afford it, 120-240GB range is where to look. 180GB is about half way, and for the price, the Corsair GT is a compromise between the OCZ 240GB, and Intel 180GB. All of them are close to the same read/write speeds as well.

a portion of the SSD, up to 40GB, can be partitioned for use with Intels Smart Response Technology that functions like a Cache for the regular Hard drive, to speed up access times and reading of files, still leaves plenty of space left over for the OS, and some games to be loaded on the SSD.

One tip about SSD's, its recommended to move the Windows Swap file or Virtual Memory to a regular HDD, and not on the SSD, to reduce the wear and tear of read/writes to the SSD.

Also don't Defrag an SSD, does the same "damage" to it, good SSD's have various features such as garbage collection, and other features that reduce or eliminate the need to Defrag and whatever else.

The list above can easily be tweaked or modified for more or less in stuff, but most of the core system and everything else needed is there.

If you deleted the monitor off the list, you could easily add a 2nd GTX 670 and still save $200 more off the total... or, you could add Two GTX 680's for the system and still be under budget.

[Franzchise]

Thanks a bunch with that parts list. That helped big time. I'll probably stick to that exact setup.

I'm going to have to decide between running off my 54' plasma or getting an additional monitor. I think Id like to run 2x 680's.

If I could find a good monitor at Best Buy that would help because I can put it on my BB credit card and absorb some of the cost through that.

I will start ordering parts by the end of the week once I start finalizing the plan. It will be my first build, so far my experience is limited to simply installing power supplies and GPU's. But it doesn't seem to be too complicated.

Building your self seems to save a lot of money rather then purchasing from a site like cyberpowerpc.com

Ive been a console gamer since I was 5 (28 now) and I've always had a solid cpu, never anything custom and built solely to game though. My pc now has the i5 650 and a GTX 560ti 1gb GPU, I like it but I want more capability for gaming. Also I love the idea of having multiple, capable PCs for group gaming.

Again you have been a huge help and in all honestly I would have been in a bad way if I had gotten what I originally thought necessary for a beast rig.

[ShyguyXPC]

self built, well, maybe not saving a lot of money as much as it is getting MORE for your money.

just a heads up, CPU is the actual Processor, the PC is the entire system.


Meh, i5 650 isn't all that bad really, budget range system performance.

I'm currently running a 560 Ti as well. but my CPU is a Socket 1366 i7 940 instead.

plan on getting a 2nd 560 Ti for SLI, though once the damned Geforce 650/660 series finally comes out, depending on performance and price I may get one of those instead.

but seems Nvidia keeps putting those off.


Yeah, got a couple sets of parts for systems here, as well as a nice collection of cards to use, from Budget to high end, so wouldn't take me long to put together some systems for group gaming as well.

its nice to have some back up parts to replace the main rig with in case its needed, is my excuse LOL.

I used to be a console gamer as a kid as well (35 now), was always into PC's and stuff, but was console gaming on friends Atari 2600's, and CollecoVision systems.

Didn't really start console gaming at home until late 80's early 90's with the family's atari 2600, then in early/mid 90's I got an SNES when all my friends still had NES, and few of them had Sega Genesis.

Added Gameboy to the bunch, and by mid/late 90's when I Graduated High School in 1995 I moved to Atari Jaguar, and then a year or so later N64. played those for a while, and then moved to Sega DreamCast in early 2000's after it had ceased production. We'd tried PS2 and some other systems as well, my brother had a revised Genesis, but never really caught on.

by the time the DreamCast was around in the House, I had already been heavily into PC gaming, which was around 1998-2000, when I built my first PC from scratch in 1998.

Aside from the Family PC's we had before this, one was factory made, the other my Uncle Custom Built, but every PC I've ever had has always been custom built, aside from the odd junk systems someone gave me, or I bought online for cheap for spare PC's for whatever, or my Mom Netbook, we've/I've never owned a Prebuilt (new, or slightly used/old), has always been custom built.

In between then and now, I have tried out Gamecube, all the Gameboy Advance systems, even picked up a 2nd Jaguar system for old school games, bought a Wii, and Sony PSP over the years too.

but I just don't seem to stick to Console games much these days.



I was hooked on Delta Force, Rainbow Six, Half Life and some other games of the time, especially Need For Speed 2, 3 and 4.

Can't remember exactly how many times I've upgraded the PC's over that time frame, but its been quite a few times.



now days for myself instead of spending big bucks right away, I try to find deals on refurbished, Open Box, and clearance parts and deals on stuff that is maybe new-ish, but not brand new. save some money and get better performance for less. I had a socket 1366 i7 920 setup for the last 3-3.5 years now, and upgraded to a slightly better i7 940 system this time around, refurbished SLI capable Mobo (old one was CrossfireX only), refurbished, but newer Case, refurbished GPU that runs a tad better and cooler than the last card (new Card EVGA GTX 560 Ti FPB, old card MSI GTX 470), refurbished Hard drives (Western Digital drives, 74GB Velociraptor and 750GB Black Series, and new in box, 1.5TB Green Series on sale on Amazon last year before the HDD price hikes). I think the only brand new parts in my new PC, is the Fans, H60 Liquid Cooling kit, RAM, one HDD, DVD Drive, and cables, along with the new PSU. Rest is all Refurbished parts, including the CPU I bought from someone on another forum.



Looking at Best Buys Site:

Acer - 27" Widescreen Flat-Panel LED HD Monitor - S271HL BID

Acer - H274HLbmd 27" LED LCD Monitor - 16:9 - 5 ms - Black - H274HLbmd

LG - 27" Widescreen Flat-Panel LED HD Monitor - E2742V

Asus - 27" Widescreen LED HD Monitor - Black - VK278Q

Samsung - 27" Widescreen Flat-Panel LED HD Monitor - S27B550V

might have to read up the models, whether their 60hz or 120hz refresh, if your thinking any of the 3D stuff, which honestly is still a gimmick you'll need 120hz or better, for most Plasma TV's this isn't a problem since they're usually well over that for refresh rates.

but for LCD's or DLP's you'll want 120 or 240Hz for refresh.


But again its still a bit of a gimmick, it works, but most people can't play in 3D for that long, 20 minutes, half hour, or so before they start getting tired or headaches or stuff like that.


Hell, my Phone has 3D on it, HTC Evo 4G (same as the HTC Evo 3D), uses Parallax Screen for 3D effect when taking pics or 720p HD video in 3D mode, and it does work, but its still a gimmick, images won't show as 3D on regular monitors unless it uses the same type of Screen.

But half the time I can look at the pics, but its kind of trippy and then trying to refocus your eyes back to regular real life 3D LOL.

Its almost like those old Baseball Cards as a kid growing up, where you tilt the cards at certain angles and the image can show in 3D, or for example a 3D Hologram sticker or image.

it does get disorienting at times watching in 3D video mode.



honestly, as cool as it may be, 3D is still a gimmick for gamers, wasted money, much like the Killer NIC Cards were years ago. Ageia PhysX (later Nvidia PhysX) was a gray area for Gimmicks, the dedicated Cards did work, and improved performance, but only a select handful of apps and games, and even then, it was hit or miss. Add to the fact it came about during a time with GPU performance was increasing exponentially with Nvidia's new GF 8000 Series cards. by the time the 9000's came about it was starting to be a moot point, and the GTX 200's were out, there was enough processing power on the cards to do PhysX and regular GPU Processing.

You could use dedicated 8000 or newer series cards for a dedicated PhysX card, which you can still do, and maybe gain a few fps extra in games, but the GTX 400 series was so powerful it really made little to no difference running PhysX on or Off on the same card.

as it is, I don't even bother with a dedicated card in my rig to run PhysX anymore. I did when I had my GTX 285, I had a 9800GTX along side it, but once I moved to the GTX 470, there was no need for it, I had the 285 along side it for Folding@Home, but since it was there I enabled PhysX on it anyways.

now with the 560 Ti, there's no need at all, once I get a 2nd card in for SLI, thats about it.

though my mobo has 4 PCIe x16 slots, I can run 3 Dual Slot cards, or 2 Dual, 2 Single, or 3 Dual and 1 single, depending on the slots I put them in. So I can run extra cards for Gaming, as well as dedicated cards to do F@H processing in background while gaming.


but back on topic with 3D, you'd be better off investing in multiple monitors for spanned screen gaming instead.

If I'm not mistaken, the GTX 600 series is the first Nvidia cards to natively support Triple Monitor support, AMD has had it since the 5000 Series Radeon's already.

its recommended that all 3 monitors run the same resolution though.


as to the mouse, the G700 is nice, but even the G500 Wired mouse is nice as well, and costs about $50-60 instead.

So if your not opposed to having wired peripherals, could save some money with that as well.


I'd recommend having some money on the side for things like a UPS, Uninterruptible Power Supply. You may need to get a P3 Kill A Watt meter to find out how much power draw your system has, and then base the UPS on how much power it draws from the wall.

basically its a Surge Protector with Back up Battery for power outages, I have yet to get one for myself, I had one years ago that I gave to a friend that I never used, but my system now wouldn't even run that one for 2 minutes before the power was drained.

Also, a Wireless Network card might be handy, unless your like some of us, stuck (stuck, as in refuse to go to wireless for quality PC gaming) on Wired network for gaming.

[Franzchise]

Ya, my PC lingo is still lacking lol. thanks!

yes, that seems to me one of the plus's of pc gaming, which is being able to upgrade essentially when you feel like you need better performance. There seems to be a lot of tech always being released which I love and after gaming primarily on the Xbox 360 or ps3 for the past years, I am getting very tired of the same ho hum graphical performance.

The original Rainbow six was the first pC game I really played. I remember it seeming so hard when I was 10 or so. haha. Ohh and Half life, I loved that series. Waiting for more!!

If you feel 3d is just not up to par yet, maybe I should avoid paying the extra for it right now and focus on getting a great 2d monitor instead.

Ya I end up saving parts (buying extra) for everything and I fear building a PC will be no different. Which I guess is some of the fun. Like you said having th e spare parts to put together group gaming is pretty cool.

After checking out the selected monitors from Best Buy the only one that seems to be above 60Hz's is the asus which says it refreshes at 85hz. If I'm not so into the 3d then I'm not sure how much the refresh rates will matter. My plasma is at 600hz. Is there anything above 1080p that isn't ridiculous in price or gimmicky. I heard about (1440p maybe)

Ya I'm deciding whether to run 2 cards in SLI or one GTX 690, which I found for 1150 on Amazon. Im not sure if that would be complete overkill though.

As far as the 3 monitor setup, Im not really sure it would work for me. Any thing (black bars) running through part of my gaming screen will distract me way more then it should lol. At least I think it would.

Yes a UPS was something I read about and thought would be a good pick up. Haha nah I definitively prefer to game on a wired connection.

Wow, I just learned a lot right there. Thanks a lot!! Do you work in the PC industry some way or just know a ton about it haha. thanks again. I should have my machine up and running in a cpl weeks. Ill post up what I planned on ordering tonight when I get home form work. It will be, I;m guessing about 99% of the stuff you recommended. Then I'll wait to hear back before I start spending cash. Thanks again man, you are making an intimidating process for a new comer much smoother and enjoyable!!

[ShyguyXPC]

yeah, 3D is good now, but its really wasted, most people I know that have tried it, the wow factor seemed to wear off after a while.

and depends on the games running it.

I'd look at maybe getting a 120Hz Monitor, and then at least this way if you want to can add the Nvidia Glasses kit for 3D later if you want.

its just another $150 for the kit really: Newegg.com - NVIDIA NVIDIA 3D Vision 2 Wireless Glasses Kit Model 942-11431-0007-001

if you want you can get it, but IMO, 3D just isn't there yet. Might be fine for some games, but still a gimmick, same thing for Movies, its a cool Wow thing, but I wouldn't want to watch every movie in 3D.

The Asus monitors 85Hz is its Vertical refresh, all monitors have a vertical and horizontal refresh rate.

but for 3D you need at least 120Hz (screen refreshed 120 times per second, or same as 120 frame per second)

the Human eye can usually only perceive 24-60fps, or similar Hz rate, so this allows them to manipulate every other frame to add the 3D effect, and not be recognized by the human eye, more or less, or to cause massive headaches, like a strobe effect.

little simpleton in explanation, but...


No, not much over 1080p, or over 27" in size thats not ridiculous in price. 1920x1200 is about as high as it goes before prices spike significantly.



Dual GTX 680's can be had for the price of that 690 on Amazon. for a tad less, at about $500-525 a piece on Newegg, you can spend about $100 less.

if the PSU can handle it (Yes), then might as well save some for the same basic performance.

Dual GPU cards are nice, but Dual cards is nice as well, if one goes bad, you can fall back on the 2nd, a single Dual GPU card, might not fare so well.



3 monitor display isn't too bad, if you get monitors with thin edge bezels, and the games field of view can be modified, its not too bad. you can have most of whats in front of you on middle monitor, and your peripheral view on the side ones.

or if your playing a game like for example a Flight sim, or some other game, like the ArmA 2 series I play, you can have your action on one screen, Map/GPS systems on another, and whatever else on the other (ArmA 2 is a Military FPS Sim game)

Dual Displays would be annoying for FPS to span the game screen, unless it was used like the statement above, with multiple uses for a single game.


I just know a ton from working with them for years on my own, building my own, and for other people.

I went to school for Computer Science/Programming, but never finished.

Got bored with Programming, if I go back I want to go for 3D graphics/Animation type stuff, maybe Computer Repair or similar as a fill in job/career, since I know the 3D stuff is kind of a select field for job oppurtunities.

[Franzchise]

ya I def want to get a monitor that is 120Hz. Keeping 3d an option in the future.

I usually prefer 2d films and always have preferred 2d in gaming as well. I just did not like the downfalls from it, (darker screen, some ghosting) although after recently watching Prometheus in 3d, I was very impressed with the resolution and use of 3d in that film more then any other I've seen in 3d.

So if the extra cash for the 690 did not matter, you would still recommend Dual GTX 680's? I was leanin towards the 690 but I see your point with the card going down. (Although it has never happened to me)

Arma 2 is one of the games that Im getting this PC for. I love military Sims and I heard Arma is a great realistic series. I just don't get enough from the free for all lack of team work in most games like BF and COD. But its a lot is who you play with but Arma would seem to me to draw a crowd favoring teamwork and strategy.

How is Arma? From what I've read seems to be a great game for me.

With 3 monitors, how much slow down on FPS would u see?

[ShyguyXPC]

Its a great game, we've been playing it for 2 years now, and have a server we host, small one, not the most secure, but its because of one of the mods we run, Loki's Lost Key, which is a Mod intended for map developers to use to test maps and missions, but can be used as a "Hack" in game for spawning just about any vehicle, weapons, etc, and helps when stuck on missions. Plus some of our players don't like to hike it 20KM across a map, so they tend to teleport a lot. If its not too far, I use a vehicle to get there, or fly some aircraft.

Its a great game, so many options, so many features, and capabilities its insane sometimes, one of the most moddable/customizable games out there, at least in this genre.

You should be able to play on max settings with the build your going for. Myself, I can't even run on high settings even with my hardware, with out taking a massive hit in frame rates in multiplayer.

But we play our server with a combination of realism and BF/COD like game play.

If enough of us are in playing, we try to turn off some of the "Magic" from that one mod and play as a team much more so than when its just 2 of us in.

Having one person on the ground with a Laser Designator (neat thing about this, is you have to equip one, and also equip a 9V battery to be able to use the laser part, other wise its only good as a spotting scope with out the battery), lase a target, and one of us (usually me) WAAAAY up in the air, a good 3-7KM over the target, up out of the range of most AA and weapons fire, dropping a nice payload down on the targets, usually armor, but have taken out whole groups of enemy as well.

I've gotten better at dropping free fall bombs, like 1000 and 2000lb Paveways on targets using the F-16 Falcon addon, and smaller bombs using the stock SU-25 Frogfoot on targets as well.

I still suck at free fall bombs with the A10, and some other craft, but luckily some of those have Mavericks, Hydra Rockets, and the A10 with its Avenger Gatling.


In our server, I have a habit of Hot Dogging in the Aircraft IN combat as well, especially if I have a passenger along, like in an apache, or C130, or something like that.

Purposely flying Inverted over hostile area, performing some sort of aerobatics, etc.

I had fun messing with a friend a month or two back one night, I didn't realize he was using headphones at the time, but he was sniping about 1KM or so down a valley at our next objective, and I was flying one of the faster fighter jets, I had managed to get down at the end of the valley about 10KM away, and build up my speed, I blew over his head by about 10M, at Subsonic speeds, I think it was the Harrier jet, but was max airspeed, and all I heard on Teamspeak was a loud "HOLY SH*T!!! What the hell was that" LMAO.

I didn't realize he had headphones on, and all he heard was the roar of the fighter over head "inches" from his ears LOL.

But when I'm flying the smaller fighters I like to come in fast and low through valleys, following the terrain and only popping up once I've made my run through an area, or if I'm coming in for a bomb run. Otherwise, sometimes I'll come down a valley and near full speed, fire some rockets, missiles or fire my main gun, and then disappear into some other valleys or gorges a little ways past the objective, and come out somewhere else.

I do the same thing in the choppers as well, have even evaded an enemy AI Fighter jet on my tail doing the same thing, pulled up to avoid a mountain top, the AI (sometimes the AI forgets to pay attention) and fighter slammed into mountain top, feet from making it over the peak.

can usually find me in the Fighters and attack choppers in our server though.

If I'm on foot, I'm usually equipped with at least one weapon with Thermal Scope, usually Sniper rifle, or similar, and at least one Anti Tank weapon, usually unguided (Carl Gustav launcher, SMAW or AT4) or manually guided like a TOW or M47 Dragon, or similar.

Recently we've been using the RQ-11 Raven Drone Addon in maps, Using one of these over an objective and let it circle the area, this way all targets and hostiles in an area will show up on mission map, and we can pinpoint where they are. Even if we die, and respawn and get back to objective their still on map. At least until the Drone is shot down, Runs out of battery, or is recalled by one who launched it.


Overall its a great game, but does have some bugs, some of the most annoying is some physics snafu's...

We have had fun with this before, like one time a teammate had their tank flipped on its side some how, well obviously you can't just get out and push the tank over, like you could a car...

so I backed up in my Abrams and got a good head of steam and rammed their tank... My tank came to a dead stop, then a fraction of second later their tank got launched over 500M across the battlefield tumbling end over end, and landed up right.

Problem solved LOL.


But I've attacked light vehicles like jeeps and cars from the air with Mavericks in a high speed dive, and the missile hits with so much force, that the flaming wreck goes flying several hundred meters into the air. I was able to do this one time, fly past the wreck in the air, and literally see the occupants still sitting in the vehicle, only falling out after the vehicle was on its way back down.

The farthest I have seen a vehicle fly up in the air was over a Kilometer.

I was using the F14 Tomcat Addon and hit a vehicle with an AIM-120 AMRAAM (yeah I know its an Air to Air, but the game allows you to lock on to ground targets with it as well), and hit the vehicle at over Mach 3 (I think the max speed is Mach 4), and that was the end of that vehicle, went WELL over 1KM into the air, as I was already flying level at over 1200M when this happened.

Done the same things with AGM-88 HARM missiles and Phoenix Air to Airs as well.

The Physics can be annoying sometimes, but sometimes it adds a bit of humor, like when you hit a group of soldiers and bodies going flying over a KM away LOL.

The thing I'm amazed at with this game, is the fact its DirectX 9 only, has no DX10 support.

ArmA 3, hopefully end of the year, will be DX10 and 11 Supported.


But we came from playing Joint Operations, and a bunch of the group went on to play BFBC2, and BF3, as well as COD BO, and even Home Front. those of us that still valued the team play and more strategic tactics in JO, went on to play ArmA 2.

most of the ones that went on to play BF3, were the ones in our clan that were team players but were more aggressive in their play style and occasionally would have little regard for their team mates. Ones like me and the others were usually the ones, cleaning up objectives, healing every one, taking out enemy that had the group pinned down, etc.

It got real old with always having to clean up after everyone else and find all objectives at a given Spawn point, while the rest of the group kept Steaming full speed ahead on to the next PSP, and by end of the map, no one could figure why the map would not end... so it was tedious back tracking to find what they missed.

most of those went on to BF3, the rest of us stayed with ArmA 2.

between the 2 games, BF3 looks great, and plays fine, but it has more in common with Counter Strike players usually than the type of game play I loved with the original Rainbow Six games (up to the RavenShield series), and the First Ghost Recon game, as well as Swat 3 & 4 series.

I started on BF1942, and loved it back then, but when BF2 came out, the way you had to Unlock weapons after a given amount of time and stats achieved, and some of the physics sucked.

I hate games like these that give you basic weapons and you have to Earn the weapons to use them. JO, and ArmA 2, you have access to what ever there is from the get go (Depending on what the map was made to use with), some servers have the option to unlock vehicles at certain stats levels, or limit flight time, so someone can't rape a base with aircraft, or even enable certain capabilities only after achieving a certain point level or rank in server.

We usually have it set so everything is unlocked and enabled.

Though this is where Loki's mod comes in to play, some maps/missions only have Air transport vehicles, and nothing with good weapons on it, so we'll spawn an attack chopper into the map and fix that LOL.

[ShyguyXPC]

With the cards your looking at, you shouldn't have much problem with 3 Displays and near everything maxed in ArmA 2.


When you get the game, grab the ArmA 2 Combined Operations Pack with ArmA 2 and its Stand Alone Addon Operation Arrowhead.

I currently run about 60 Mods/Addons in addition to the main game content, and there's so much more I could add, but with what I have right now, its enough really.

If you ever get into the game, stop By the "Synergy Breed Gamers" ArmA 2 server, if you see some in name ShazGT, that's me, otherwise one of the other 3 that regularly play when they can, 1st Marine, Ranker or Laidback. The latter 2 only come in once in a while, usually me or 1st Marine in there playing though. Only Addons needed to get into our server is the CBA addon (Community Base Addon), and what ever Map we currently have a mission running for.

For example, the Map or "Island" as its called in the game, like Fallujah, CLAfghan, Pantera, Lingor, Isla Duala, are all downloadable Maps to run the missions in, we're usually running one of those, since we've played out the stock maps most of the time LOL, but usually running a Domination or Evolution Style Mission, which are continuous "Persistent" maps that run while no one is in the server, and sometimes can take days or longer to actually complete.

one of the coolest recently is CLAfghan, its a HUGE map, not so much in Square KM area, but the height of some of the mountains in the map can reach over 2KM high.

ArmA 2 OA CLAfghan Map Messing around - YouTube

Was messing around in our server with Loki's in the CLAfghan Map, as you can see some of the scale of some of the mountains. the city I was bombing was actually too far away to even snipe, or hit with Anti Tank Rockets, or effectively hit with standard Tank Rounds and such.

If I had had an MLRS artillery, or some artillery emplacements (which you can take down, and hitch up to some vehicles and tow around if needed as well), I could of done some damage.

One of the latest really complex addon's I've used is the M109 Paladin

M109 howitzer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have to actually use a firing solution computer and various other things in order to effectively use it, which I have yet to do. Took me forever to figure out how to use the GPS targeting systems in some of the fighters to use JDAM bombs to take out ground targets, but this thing is so far over my head, I'd need to study up on how to use it before trying it again.

[Franzchise]

That is some cool stuff. I have never been much at flying in games like the BF series. But I can imagine some of those moments, they sound badas*. I love watching jets fly over head and lay some serious firepower.

I am a huge fan of ultra realism so I hope they hammer out some of the physics bugs by Arma III. I read most of the maps are huge and much of the infantry ground fighting is done at rather long range. I enjoy that style of methodical game play plus teamwork required to survive.

I have never really tried playing a game in a a modded mode, as I said, I will sometimes let the realism get in the way of the fun. lol. Are the game modes mainly objective based? How many people generally play in a game. Like I know BF3 supports up to 64 players.

I heard the weapons systems in some of the vehicles were extremely in depth and take skill and know how to be good? Sounds pretty cool.

Is there a good deal of ground fighting between infantry in the games? The map on your youtube clip was HUGE!! I can't imagine surviving too long on foot out there once your gun fires haha.

Well I can't wait to get my PC put together and check out the power. Currently I've been playing Rift...pretty fun.