Some advice for new overseas build

neonleon79

Hi all
Very new to this but wanted to try my hand at buildin my new pc. Been doin alot of readin, an comin up with a few questions if anyone can help

My main thing is I live in Vietnam, so i'm working off a shop catalogue right now, going out huntin around this weekend for proper specs but I have a few ideas of what i want and some opinions would be great

Lookin for a good machine in the 7-800euro bracket,, maybe a bit more if needed. one that will last a few years...gonna be pickin things up bit by bit so can afford good quality. wanted for gaming, watchin movies, some light video editing etc..

ok, what im lookin at is, and with added questions
CPU=I5-2500k roughly 180euro here,, read its good and will last me

MOBO=Asus P8p67 Pro 133 euro (the catalogue I got has Gigabyte and Intel boards,, no MSI,(Might be in other places, as I said, gotta go hunting soon) , can anyone tell me an equivalent board from these 2 brands? lookin for future proof as much as possible,, overclocking/adding VGU etc

Case lookin at 3, all cooler master
CM usp 100 = 45euro
cm elite 430 = 32e
cm Centurion 5 II = 50e

gotta decide on my SSD or HDD or a combination,, and same with the RAM and PSP, (got good ideas from the forum but its late here and just gonna do what comes to mind first]

VGU
Ok, more q's.. gona give a bit of a list and could someone tell me what they think,, again, gonna be thinkin of gettin a 2nd sometime in the future, or would i be better gettin 2 cheaper ones now??

ATI
HD 6950 2g= 285euro
6950 1g = 253e
hd 6870 = 2 versions listed, 192euro and 201e,, 2nd one has an X after the specs
hd 6850 =150 euro

Nividia
GTX 560 TI 1GB= 215e and one that says 'GI-950' =230euro
Gtx 570 128MB = 313e

Also There are named versions , ASUS and Gigabyte mainly,, what is the difference between the named and the original ATI or Nividia??

the numbers keep goin down for both brands as do the prices

I've read alot about all these cards and the more I read the more confused I get,,, any help would be great

Thats enough for now, still sourcing alot of things of course, but as i said ive got time. Ill be back in Ireland in August as well so can pick up some things then too if needed but gettin from in store here will help with any returns that may be needed and a bit extra cost for some bits is fine for that,, gotta figure out whats best first though

Any and all help/advise/criticism would be greatly appreciated
cheers

Monotype

Where's your PSU?

Those graphics cards are expensive enough. Some versions of the 6950 2GB can be modded to increase performance, but all of the cards are a bit steep in price. I'd just get the 6870 and it will run games at HD with high detail in most games. If you are very serious about your games, consider the higher cards.

The branding is mostly about warranty and cooling but also about software, free stuff and looks. If you're in Vietnam long term, you may want to look which ones have the best returns policy to suit you in case there's any trouble with it.

Skerries

i'd imagine you'd need some good cooling out there as well

neonleon79

Aint got a psu yet,, aint got much really except ideas and lots of numbers floatin round my head))
went pricin today and got some more catalogues,,, basically coolermaseter 650w extreme = 60 euro and the GX650 = 84euro,,
if i went with the 6870 and later decided to get another one, would 650w be enough?

what kind of increase would 2 6870's be compared to one 6950?
I,ve seen some of the charts but get kinda twisty eyed lookin at them!!

I dont't mind paying the money, its gonna be spread over the next few months anyhow, but wanna get something up to date games wise and that will last or can be added to

---

I can see they are a bit more expensive than at home/on the net, but i can just go straight back to the shop if needs be and thats a bit more reassuring at least.. and i know my estimate of 800euro-ish is a bit low,, my way of lying to my wallet!!

Def gonna get a decent case with extra fans, your right, gets pretty hot out here, something to look at a bit later) but any ideas on those cases??
they didnt have the usp version at the shop today but of the other 2?
would i be better spending a bit more on the case? there are alot of choices here!!

Found a shop doing MSI mobo's,, but they only got the P67 pro3,, if i remember correctly from my readin that doesnt support crossfire right??
As far as Asus goes, whats the difference between the P8P67, P8P67 LE and the Pro versions?? 40 euro diff in price here from P867 to pro... is it worth it, especially thinkin to the future??

Got a few more questions bout RAM and others but will do some more readin up first and get back here if needed,, as i said, i can always get some stuff back home in august,, might leave the ram till then and get some ripjaws,, seem a bit cheaper and better,, got corsairs here,,

thanks all

Monotype

Are there any other PSUs? Coolermaster are poor unless you buy their high end ones.
650W would be enough with a good quality PSU, even room for some light overclocking. If you are getting a lot of extras and heavy overclocking, you might need more - say 700 or 750.

Two 6870s would be a lot more powerful.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/301?vs=293

Isn't the P67 pro3 an Asrock board?

For case - a lot of it up to personal taste. Even many of the most basic cases such as Xigmatek's lineup have nice features which aid in building. I don't think that you're going to get a very quiet system as I think airflow will be pretty important. Get one that has plenty of fans or room to add more.

If you're over here, memoryc have good RAM and you could easily bring something like that back. If you buy over there, just get one of the major brands (corsair, crucial, mushkin, g-skill,... don't get OCZ) DDR3, 1.5V.

Edit: It's 300W maximum for two 6870s on their own, so 650W would be plenty even with overclocking.

deconduo

At those prices, the 560 Ti for €215 is by far the best bargain.

neonleon79

got a few brands,, again aint so sure bout which is good, just read alot about coolermaster,, brands i got here are,,, Arrow, SP, Acbel, and corsair,, most with varied w's and prices an 850HX form corsair is roughly 150 euro...
maybe i can get a psu at home too,, bit heavy but could sort somethin!

ur right bout the Asrock, saw the MSI in a new catalogue which had Asrock as well an wrote the wrong name,,,
they have an MSI P67A GD55 (B3) for 128 euro... how does this compare with the Asus?

u reckon the 560ti is the best deal... any resons why? not in the know too much bout these cards and any experience is wanted....

Cheers guys

neonleon79

one more quick q for now,, just looked at that link for benchmarks,, thanks for that, a nice simple bar chart comparision,,,, but looked at the gtx 56oti and it gave no option for sli,, does that mean i cannot get another later and have 2??

Mister Man

My advice is to save the money and not spread out buying things bit by bit, it's a waste, and by the time you have bought all the parts, new/better & cheaper stuff will come out.
Save the money, & buy it all in the one go.

Monotype

The MSI GD55 is a pretty solid board and supports SLI/crossfire. With only €5 of a difference, I think the asus has an edge having a third PCI-E slot and eSATA.

Anandtech don't have SLI 560ti because they're not going to cover every graphics card; there's a lot of cards there and you need to fill in the gaps yourself. The 560ti is usually measured against the 6950 1GB, so it's pretty powerful. If you want to have two of them, you might want a little more power, maybe 700W/750W as they would be about an extra 50W maximum between them over the 6870s, which would give you room for overclocking.

Pretty much any corsair PSU is good apart from their CX range. PSUs aren't especially cheap here, but you could get a good 750W for the €100 mark + postage from the UK.

neonleon79

Cheers guys, useful info,, course ur right bout gettin it all at once, didn think that gem through..... gonna bite the bullet then next week and go for it.....any final thoughts or recommendations

CPU=i5 2500k
MOBO=Asue P8P67 Pro
VGU= Ati HD 6950/Nvidia GTX560 Ti (will buy everythin else first an see how this goes, if it adds up to too much ill go for 6870 and get another in a few months, maybe,, cant see the point in that though)
PSU=Corsair 850w (will have a look to see if i can find the 750w but it aint in any catalogue,, would a 750w be enough for crossfire 6950s or GTX 560 ti's?

Case,, gonna look at a few
RAM,, another to figure out, might just go with the 4g corsairs and get 4 more later
HDD=Samsung 1tb F3
Monitor,, goin to look at a benq shop now, check some prices an then decide, want 1920 by 1080 at least, will it be better to try for 1920 by 1200?
Anything I'm missing????/?



Thats most of it but i or 2 final questions
Bout the VGU's
I can get Asus or gigabyte brands

there are 2 asus GTX's here are the specs as listed
1GB ENGTX560 TI DCII/2DI/GDS 194EURO
1gb ENGTX560 Ti DCII TOP/2DI/GD5 201EURO

Gigabyte
1GB GIGA N560OC-1GI 215EURO
1GB GIGA N560SO-1GI-950 230EURO
There is very little in the price of these two. Can either be put in SLI later?

The HD 6950 options are limited to ASUS
2GB EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5 (I'm not sure i believe the 2g part fully), this is 250euro
and Gigabyte
1BG GIGA R6950C-1GB at 253 euro

The games i usually play are BF2, Civ 5, Shogun 2, Arma 2, and the like,, building this is anticipation of Skyrim in Nov and will of course be gettin bf3!! so want the graphics to be excellent,, ill be lookin to crossfire/sli before the release of Skyrim so want to get this right now.....

Can anyone decipher the numbers and give some advice bout which to get considerin the games i play?? Please!!

Monotype

Make sure you buy the RAM in pairs.
1920x1080 vs 1920x1200 is really up to preference. The latter is being phased out in favour of standard tv HD resolution, but you do get quite a few extra pixels. I think other aspects of the monitor are more important first.

6950s should use slightly less power than 560tis, although they will use more with unlocked shaders. I think that 750W should still be enough (with a good PSU).
Be careful with the 560 and 560ti - they're not the same.

There's not a huge difference between the 1GB and 2GB versions, although some 2GB versions will unlock extra shaders.
That ASUS 2GB is huge and since it doesn't follow the reference design, It's chances of unlocking are lower. http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/AMD_Series/EAH6950_DCII2DI4S2GD5/
I think two of those would be almost touching each other which wouldn't be great for airflow, despite the good cooling. For one, it would be OK.

Those two Asus 560tis look the same except the "top" one appears to have a higher overclock and is higher binned. If it was me, I'd go for the cheaper one and the chances are that you could get the same overclock - But at €7 extra, you might find it more convenient to have it faster straight out of the box.

neonleon79

thanks Monotype, can all 560 ti's be put in SLI?
and the asus 2gb would not be a good choice for later crossfire configuration then! Too hot is what you're sayin right?

Considering my gameplay,, some FPS, some RPG some RTS/TBS some sports,, which brand do u think will be best for me,,, I get the idea that choice of brands is more subjective and/or based on what u play! being a bit random is my choice a toss of the coin??

Which do you use? any reasons? been readdin alot an it all seems tit for tat and just go for one.... i got an ati in my laptop at the mo and ive been able to play most new games with pretty decent fps, its only a hd4570 but its served me well,, kinda why im leanin to ati.... but 560 ti is cheaper!!

neonleon79

also,, when u said buy the ram in pairs did u mean to get 2 2gbs and another 2 2gs later,, or get 1 4g and later another 4 gb? the 2nd was what i was thinkin of/// bit uclear on the 'get ram in pairs'

Fluffy88

I believe getting RAM in pairs means get 2x2Gb rather than 1x4Gb.
It makes the RAM slightly faster because it is dual channel RAM and it's meant to be paired up. So get 2x2Gb now and another 2x2Gb later if you need it. Not sure though is 4x2Gb any better or worse than 2x4Gb

Monotype

neonleon79 wrote: »

thanks Monotype, can all 560 ti's be put in SLI?
and the asus 2gb would not be a good choice for later crossfire configuration then! Too hot is what you're sayin right?

It's not that it will run hot, but look at the size of it.
http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/AMD_Series/EAH6950_DCII2DI4S2GD5/
and the motherboard
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8P67_PRO/

That'll put one card pretty much facing the back of the second card. The fans can't get any air if they're up against a wall!

I think the asus 560ti would be the best. Check that warranties are okay for your country - asus have a Vietnam site, which is a good sign.
Actual performance differences between gigabyte and asus would be minimal and it's best to go for the cheapest unless the cheapest company has a bad reputation or a bad model.

As for 560 vs 6950 - both will do the job very well. The 6950 has a slight edge, in general, but it's not worth the marginal cost on the 560. 560ti will give you things like physx and 3d (if you have a 3d monitor etc) while one of ATI's main features is eyefinity (3 monitors with one card) although that is irrelevant if you get two 560tis.

Which do you use? any reasons? been readdin alot an it all seems tit for tat and just go for one.... i got an ati in my laptop at the mo and ive been able to play most new games with pretty decent fps, its only a hd4570 but its served me well,, kinda why im leanin to ati.... but 560 ti is cheaper!!

I've been using ATI more in recent years. This is not out of preference, it is just coincidence that they have always had a better deal for what I was looking for. If you are limiting yourself solely on the nVidia/AMD brand, you're restricting your choices. I could argue that I did experience more buginess with nVidia in games, but that's long in the past, several generations of cards ago and it would have little grounds to influence choice now.

About the RAM - it's what fluffy said.
If you want 4GB, get 2x2GB. If you want 8GB, get 2x4GB.
If you want 4GB now and think that you'll get 4 more later, get 2x2GB now and 2x2GB later.

2x4GB is advised above 4x2GB, mainly because you have two slots free for upgrades. Also 2 modules used to be more stable for higher RAM speeds and overclocking than 4, although I'm not sure how relevant it is now and probably has little or no impact to Sandy Bridge (the 1155 platform).

neonleon79

thanks guys, slowly conin to grips with these things. Guess I've gotta make another trip to the store and check the warranty on both and make a decision.. gotta get a new monitor as well so might look into the 3d with nividia choices

will also do some math on the ram and see which to go with,, i'm sure i could live with the 1 4gb stick for now and get a second in a few months... get my trip home outta the way first

can anyone spot any further issues with my choices?
im sure ill be back with more questions
thanks again