Opinions On Gaming Build

MarkJD

Hey All,

This PC is actually being sold on Adverts so the seller might actually tune in but i just wanted to check with others if this was a good buy for gaming and if it will stand up for the forseeable future?

The only thing that stands out to me is the low 450w PSU. Not sure why its so low for a current build but either way just wanted opinions.

Honest opinions please.



CPU - Intel core i5 750 2.66Ghz

MOBO - Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R

RAM - Corsair XMS3 1600Mhz 2x2GB

GFX - Sapphire HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 DirectX® 11

HD - Seagate Barracuda 500GB

HD - Samsung 120GB HDD

DVD - SAMSUNG SH-S223C 22x DVD±RW

Cooling - NZXT Sentry 2 Touchscreen Fan Controller

Cooling - CoolIT ECO Advanced Liquid Cooling CPU Cooler

PSU - Corsair VX 450W psu

Case - NZXT M59 Classic case

Fans - 4x120mm Case Fans (2 blue led)

OS - Windows 7 Ultimate x64

Temps for cpu according to Everest 5.50.21 is 18 degrees at idle, less than half than with original HSF. Seller says it has not been oc'd but it's waiting to be! 4Ghz will be easily attainable according to him.








Thanks for any help!

Deano12345

Its a good build alright, that PSU is nothing to be worried about either, I actually have the HX model of that PSU (also a 450W) and it would run my setup no problems. It will last you a long time.

And 4GHZ should be easily done on that i5.

Provided the price is right, I'd go for it

MarkJD

Thanks for the reply!

Ahh ok well thats good to know, just wasnt sure if the PSU was rather low. Do you know if Crossfire would be possible with that PSU / MOBO? Would setting up Crossfire offer me much better performance gaming wise or i wouldnt see that much of an increase?

Deano12345

MarkJD wrote: »

Thanks for the reply!

Ahh ok well thats good to know, just wasnt sure if the PSU was rather low. Do you know if Crossfire would be possible with that PSU / MOBO? Would setting up Crossfire offer me much better performance gaming wise or i wouldnt see that much of an increase?

Yeah, Crossfire 5770 would be possible, and the performance of 2 is excellent

MarkJD

450W would be enough for Crossfire?

According to Gigabyte website it says the second card would only run at 4 x What implications does that have on performance? God im terrible with this stuff

marco_polo

MarkJD wrote: »

450W would be enough for Crossfire?

According to Gigabyte website it says the second card would only run at 4 x What implications does that have on performance? God im terrible with this stuff

I think that the VX450 is not enough for crossfire 5770 as it has a 33 amp 12V rail. Allowing roughly 9 amps for each 5770 and about 8 amps for the i750 @ stock, would be cutting it far too close for comfort IMO.

superneat

Hey MarkJD, i thought i'd post the results of the FF14 benchmark here for you to keep the advert clean. I'm just home from work so excuse the bad grammer/spelling/whatnot


First Bench
stock settings - Core Clock 850MHz Memory Clock 1200MHz
Score = 4542
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/8346/benchmarkao.jpg

My screen's native resolution is 1360x768 so i can't "see" the result of the 1080 test as the result is near the bottom and "off" of the screen.

So using MSI afterburner software and just moving the memory and clock sliders up a bit to get a small overclock, i did the test again.

This small overclock poses no threat to the card as the "Voltage" slider has never been touched - but can be used to achieve better overclocks.
Second bench
settings - Core Clock 950MHz Memory Clock 1325MHz
Score = 4990
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/9286/benchie.jpg

I'd say with a higher overclock getting past 5K is no trouble. Then you can always overclock the cpu and apply more voltage if you want an even higher score. :cool:

MarkJD

Thanks for the replies guys!

Thanks again for running the Benchmark superneat appreciate it! Good scores there id say i wont have any trouble playing anything on high for this thing for a while!

Ill get back to the advert soon with my offer, just waiting to finalise funds!

hare05

Just noticed... Is that a 120GB SSD in there? Nice.

I will point out that synthetic benchmarks are not the best way to gauge gaming performance... whether or not those benchmarks are from a specific game or not.

Best way to bench a system on gaming performance is to load up a few differently built games on different resolutions alongside FRAPS/equivalent software and find your minimum frame rates.

Anyways, for reference, here's the score chart for FF14's benchmarks:

[8000 and over] Extremely High Performance
Easily capable of running the game on the highest settings.

[5500–7999] Very High Performance
Easily capable of running the game. Should perform exceptionally well, even at higher resolutions.

[4500-5499] High Performance
Easily capable of running the game. Should perform well, even at higher resolutions.

[3000-4499] Fairly High Performance
Capable of running the game on default settings. Consider switching to a higher resolution depending on performance.

[2500-2999] Standard Performance
Capable of running the game on default settings.

[2000-2499] Slightly Low Performance
Capable of running the game, but may experience some slowdown. Adjust settings to improve performance.

[1500-1999] Low Performance
Capable of running the game, but will experience considerable slowdown. Adjusting settings is unlikely to improve performance.

[Under 1500] Insufficient Performance
Does not meet specifications for running the game.

You can easily get that system into the 5k range. Bear in mind that 6k+ would probably be 5850 / dual 5770 region, 7k+ would be 5870 + i7 region, and 8k would probably be achievable by a single 5870 too.

Overheal

The power requirement does seem pretty tight to me. Especially with Watercooling and potential overclocking. Trying to Crossfire or add additional Drives is going to really cut it close.

Does the seller have a way to test the Wattage @ the plug under load? I would bench it in a game (like Crysis) making sure to load the CPU and the Card using full settings, AA and AF on a hi res.

superneat

hare05 wrote: »

I will point out that synthetic benchmarks are not the best way to gauge gaming performance... whether or not those benchmarks are from a specific game or not.

The reason i posted that benchmark was because the op had previously asked me to, as it will be the main game played on the system, so they wanted an overall view of how it fared.

hare05 wrote: »

The power requirement does seem pretty tight to me. Especially with Watercooling and potential overclocking. Trying to Crossfire or add additional Drives is going to really cut it close.

As far as this is concerned, i'll quote myself from my advert.

SUPERNEAT on Adverts.ie wrote:

As for 450W being low..


This system, at 90% peak load, pulls 221W.


With the CPU overclocked to 3.6GHz, which hasn't been done, it draws 246W.


Check here for a proper valuation of power supply needs.


http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

http://thermaltake.outervision.com/


At 50% load it draws 91W.


This system was built to be energy efficient and extremely powerful.


Everything you need to know about PSUs
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/181/1

Here is a detailed look at the efficiency of the supply itself, judging by which, at 50% load, the supply will pull 105 watts from the wall and use 91 of them = 86% power efficient.



Just to add to this in case anybody else may browse through, there are many misconceptions in the world of PSU's. Have a read through the hardwaresecrets article and you will be surprised at what you learn, and what you could save on your next psu purchase!

/end.overly.long.post]
:cool:

MarkJD

Thanks for the input guys!

I had asked super to do the benchmark as he says! Wanted to get a view on what it would be scoring. I was originally worried about the PSU being a low wattage as i always go for more than i will ever need 750w+ but from info provided and speaking to lots of people its a good PSU and ample for the system as it is.

I dont think i will be going crossfire on the system should i be upgrading at any point ill just buy a new card.

Its not a SSD its just an additional 120gb HD.

MarkJD

Sorry for another bump..

Just want to look into ordering my monitor just curious what you think is better?

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/2701048/art/lg/w2361v-pf-23-tft-widescre.html

or

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/3100646/art/lg/w2353v-pf-23-widescreen-t.html

Will these offer full HD 1080 & maxed out resoultions etc?

Thanks they both look the same but wondering why the different prices even before the special discounts.

marco_polo

MarkJD wrote: »

Sorry for another bump..

Just want to look into ordering my monitor just curious what you think is better?

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/2701048/art/lg/w2361v-pf-23-tft-widescre.html

or

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/3100646/art/lg/w2353v-pf-23-widescreen-t.html

Will these offer full HD 1080 & maxed out resoultions etc?

Thanks they both look the same but wondering why the different prices even before the special discounts.

Identical in every respect that is really important (resolution, refresh rate, inputs, contrast ratio etc)), except the 53 series has a few extra nice touches that the 61 series lacks, any of these worth the extra tenner to you?

http://asia.cnet.com/explains/lg/monitors/w53/

MarkJD

Cheers for that article, good read.

So essentially the 53V is slightly better because of the features outlined in that article? Suppose a €10 wouldnt hurt if it had those little nice extra features.

Had a friend reccomend this one to me but he really does like Samsung which i have to be honest i do aswell but if its not worth the extra €40.00 then i wont bother but if its worth it i will.

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/3813008/art/samsung/syncmaster-p2370h-23-tft.html

marco_polo

MarkJD wrote: »

Cheers for that article, good read.

So essentially the 53V is slightly better because of the features outlined in that article? Suppose a €10 wouldnt hurt if it had those little nice extra features.

Had a friend reccomend this one to me but he really does like Samsung which i have to be honest i do aswell but if its not worth the extra €40.00 then i wont bother but if its worth it i will.

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/3813008/art/samsung/syncmaster-p2370h-23-tft.html

Quality monitor but I can't really see anything that it would justify the extra 40 euros TBH, but then again I quite like LG (and have the 22" version of the 61 series. )

MarkJD

So is the 61V better or the 53V better now in the LG?

I know the features in that article where for the 53V but isnt that and older model? Well im assuming that considering one is 61V and the other is 53V.

Sorry again haha!