Comments/Suggestions

friedcircuits

Hi all,
Spent 2 days thinking of new gaming rig- have a look any comments/suggestions thanks.

Motherboard: Asus P8P67 Deluxe
RAM: Kingston 8GB 1600MHz
CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K
PSU: Antec HCP-1200
Chassis: Coolermaster HAF X
CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H60
Optical Drive: Bluray writer
HDD's: Seagate 1TB x2
GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 560Ti x2 (SLI)

Serephucus

PSU is way too much for what you've got. Stick with an 750W unit, absolute max. I'll recommend Cooler Master's Silent Pro M700. €100 from Komplett, bloody silent, and very efficient for what you pay.

2600K is a waste if you're going to be gaming 90% of the time on it; get the 2500K instead.

Those hard drives. If one or both are going to have an OS, you're going to want 7200RPM drives. If they are 7200RPM, you're going to want an SSD and a 2TB 5400RPM storage drive. :P

What monitor(s) have you got, and what resolution are they? What type of games are you going to be playing? What else are you going to be doing with the machine? What's your budget? Do you need an OS and peripherals?

friedcircuits

Serephucus wrote: »

PSU is way too much for what you've got. Stick with an 750W unit, absolute max. I'll recommend Cooler Master's Silent Pro M700. €100 from Komplett, bloody silent, and very efficient for what you pay.

2600K is a waste if you're going to be gaming 90% of the time on it; get the 2500K instead.

Those hard drives. If one or both are going to have an OS, you're going to want 7200RPM drives. If they are 7200RPM, you're going to want an SSD and a 2TB 5400RPM storage drive. :P

What monitor(s) have you got, and what resolution are they? What type of games are you going to be playing? What else are you going to be doing with the machine? What's your budget? Do you need an OS and peripherals?

The HDD's are 7200RPM I'll be using Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit. And I'll have 2 x Asus 27" Monitors 1920x 1080 res. SSD's are fairly expensive for small capacities? I also have Logitech gaming keyboard and HP laser gaming mouse. Dont need peripherals. mostly gaming but dvd films etc. budget around 2000euro. My list above comes in under 1680euro.

Serephucus

The idea with SSDs is that you put your OS (and your most-used apps, depending on the size) on the SSD, and everything else on a mechanical drive. This way you get very fast boot-up times, and your whole OS feels a lot snappier.


Total build cost: €1,238.62 + €30 shipping
ASUS P8P67 Rev 3.1, Sockel 1155, ATX, DDR3 €111.12
8GB-Kit G.Skill Sniper PC3-12800U CL9-9-9-24 (DDR3-1600) €45.82
Intel Core i5-2500K Tray, LGA1155 €186.69
Cooler Master Silent Pro Series - 700 Watt €94.13
Cooler Master HAF X, ATX, ohne Netzteil €171.35
Corsair Hydro Series H60 (Sockel 775/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1) €56.47
2 x Gainward GeForce GTX 560 Ti, 1GB GDDR5 €197.81
2 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1,5TB, SATA II (HD155UI) €53.56
LG BH10LS30 Blu-Ray Brenner bulk €70.30

Dunno where you were shopping... total is €1,240 + €30 shipping. That's with 2x 1.5TB hard drives. For the budget you've got, you could easily fit 2x2TB + 64GB SSD and two GTX 580s in there.

Fatal Except1on

If 2,000 is your budget you could do a hell of a lot better with that!

Instead of getting a HAF X, why not go for something like a Corsair Obsidian 800D?
1200w is never overkill, it would be great to have for future upgrades, if you have the money now - especially if you decide to go with 2x GTX580s or 3xGTX 580s, or include a PhysX Card, etc.

SSD would be essential, as a 7200rpm drive is fast, but nowhere near what you would want to be running. Get an 80 or 160GB SSD and slap your OS on it.

I would also be more inclined to get graphics cards with more than 1GB vRAM. It may not be needed now, but more recent/upcoming titles seem to favour 1.5GB-2GB vRAM.

The i5-2600K is a FANTASTIC processor. However, if you have the extra dosh an i7 2600K is a far better deal.

P8 series boards are superb, as are the Z68s. You can go for either/or, no real discernable difference.

If you have extra dosh left over you can also factor in other things, such as a discrete audio card, be it from Asus, Auzentech, Creative, etc.

Finally, a note about the Hydro H60 - this is a fantastic cooler, but if you are planning on pushing your i5/i7 past the 4.5Ghz mark you may want to get something with a dual radiator, perhaps the H100 series.

Other than that, fantastic choices and Serephucus is on the ball with getting a 2TB drive for storage.

Happy building!



EDIT: Another note, if you already have 2 x 27" Asus screens, why not get another and have a nice nVidia Surround/AMD Eyefinity rig?
I'm like Satan, giving you bad ideas. Lol.

Serephucus

Fatal Except1on wrote: »

If 2,000 is your budget you could do a hell of a lot better with that!

Instead of getting a HAF X, why not go for something like a Corsair Obsidian 800D?
1200w is never overkill, it would be great to have for future upgrades, if you have the money now - especially if you decide to go with 2x GTX580s or 3xGTX 580s, or include a PhysX Card, etc.

SSD would be essential, as a 7200rpm drive is fast, but nowhere near what you would want to be running. Get an 80 or 160GB SSD and slap your OS on it.

I would also be more inclined to get graphics cards with more than 1GB vRAM. It may not be needed now, but more recent/upcoming titles seem to favour 1.5GB-2GB vRAM.

The i5-2600K is a FANTASTIC processor. However, if you have the extra dosh an i7 2600K is a far better deal.

P8 series boards are superb, as are the Z68s. You can go for either/or, no real discernable difference.

If you have extra dosh left over you can also factor in other things, such as a discrete audio card, be it from Asus, Auzentech, Creative, etc.

Finally, a note about the Hydro H60 - this is a fantastic cooler, but if you are planning on pushing your i5/i7 past the 4.5Ghz mark you may want to get something with a dual radiator, perhaps the H100 series.

Other than that, fantastic choices and Serephucus is on the ball with getting a 2TB drive for storage.

Happy building!



EDIT: Another note, if you already have 2 x 27" Asus screens, why not get another and have a nice nVidia Surround/AMD Eyefinity rig?
I'm like Satan, giving you bad ideas. Lol.

I'm sorry to say, but I disagree with most of this.

800D doesn't add much over the HAF X except looks. If that's important, fair enough, if not, stick with something cheaper.

1200W is overkill in plenty of situations. If you can find one cheap on adverts or something, fair enough, but even with three GTX 580s, you'd be ok with a good 1kW PSU.

SSDs - yes, agreed there.

Graphics cards - yes, agreed there also, especially considering he'll be running 3840x1080.

The i5 2500K is the better option. Virtually no games use more than four cores; speed is still more important, and the 10°C you save on the 2600K by disabling hyperthreading and getting a higher overclock is worth more than the extra cores.

Boards; good point. Had forgotten about Z68 as an option. Mind you, for that money you might as well look at an SB-E setup.

Audio cards, hells yes.

Something more powerful than the H60, yes, except that a thin dual rad looks sort of crap in the HAF X / 800D. He'd be better off getting and RX360 and cooling his graphics cards.

Fatal Except1on

Oh, I know the 1200W is overkill, but what I'm saying is: if he has the money now, he should go for a 1200W and get a few years out of it.

In relation to 800D vs HAF X, I have had both. I found the HAF X to be good for air and the 800D good for both air and water. The 800D seems more spacious and more solid than the HAF X, but I guess it's down to personal preference. And yes, the 800D is a 'nicer' looking case

Serephucus

Fatal Except1on wrote: »

Oh, I know the 1200W is overkill, but what I'm saying is: if he has the money now, he should go for a 1200W and get a few years out of it.

In relation to 800D vs HAF X, I have had both. I found the HAF X to be good for air and the 800D good for both air and water. The 800D seems more spacious and more solid than the HAF X, but I guess it's down to personal preference. And yes, the 800D is a 'nicer' looking case

Well I took the same view when I was building my rig. That same PSU will be going on Adverts this weekend. The reason: I'm buying a 700W unit instead. I'm not saying that applies in every case, but it's not as if a 700W unit goes bad quicker than a 1200W unit. There's also efficiency to take into account. Most of the time you're not going to be drawing anywhere near that amount of power with either PSU, and you'll pay for it.

Yeah, the 800D is a nice one alright. Personally I prefer the looks of the 600T, but 700 does it for me; I'm not a fan of windows.

IrishMetalhead

€2000 budget aye? this is going to be hella fun to spec out =D.
Here's a rig that's completely insane:

Total build cost: €1,944.49 + €30 shipping
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155 €188.78
ASUS Maximus IV Extreme Rev 3.0, Sockel 1155, ATX, DDR3 €270.30
Corsair Hydro Series H60 (Sockel 775/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1) €55.72
8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-12800U CL9 €42.71
2 x Gainward GeForce GTX 570 Dual Fan, 1.25GB GDDR5 €285.96
2 x A-DATA S511 60GB SATA 6Gb/s 6,4cm (2,5") €106.52
2 x WD Caviar Green 2TB Sata 6Gb/s €64.88
LG BH10LS30 Blu-Ray Brenner bulk €70.93
Cooler Master HAF X, ATX, ohne Netzteil €172.37
Corsair Professional Series Gold AX1200, 1200 Watt €228.96

There's something right on the edge of the budget, but it's a hell of alot faster then the one posted originally i changed the graphic cards to 570's, added two 60gb ssd's to be used for the os in a raid0 configuration (2 ssd's in raid0 is hella fast).
went abit overkill on the psu but the efficiency on it is through the roof on it.
i also included 2 2tb hdds so you got more then plenty of storage.
and finally i included a motherboard that has more features then you can shake a stick at.

So can €2000 get ya a nice gaming pc? hell ya it can

Fatal Except1on

Serephucus wrote: »

Well I took the same view when I was building my rig. That same PSU will be going on Adverts this weekend. The reason: I'm buying a 700W unit instead. I'm not saying that applies in every case, but it's not as if a 700W unit goes bad quicker than a 1200W unit. There's also efficiency to take into account. Most of the time you're not going to be drawing anywhere near that amount of power with either PSU, and you'll pay for it.

Yeah, the 800D is a nice one alright. Personally I prefer the looks of the 600T, but 700 does it for me; I'm not a fan of windows.

I suppose, have to agree there. If he wants to get a 7-800W PSU now and upgrade down the line, thats not a bad idea at all. Again, I guess its personal preference. Ah, the joys of building.

Also, windows, agreed, not a fan normally as they serve no real purpose apart from allowing you to peer into the void where all your moneys went

friedcircuits

Hey great replies! Love the nVidia surround idea Fatal Except1on! Have to knock a wall down first! lol. Considering tho. I have looking at "hardwareversand.de" what are they like to deal with etc? any of you dealt with/purchased from? The OS on a SSD is really good idea never thought of that. Would the H100 cooler fit in HAF X or 800D? Which motherboard would be better? My choice-Asus P8P67 Deluxe or Irishmetalheads- Asus Maximus Extreme IV?

Fatal Except1on

nVidia surround is great, if you have the money to invest in it. Rarely deal with hardwareversand so cant say much there, but any experience I have had with them has been fine. H100 should fit in HAF X. Defintely fits in 800D as they are both corsair products and made to suit each other.

In relation to motherboard, the P8P67 is a fantastic board, as is the P8Z68-V Pro. The Asus Maximus Extreme IV may be better on paper, however if you dont need all the volting mods/whistles and bells, then the P8 series is the obvious choice.

Serephucus

Instead of the H100, have a look at the Rasa RS360 kit from specialtech. It's more expensive, but it'll fit a bit more cleanly in the HAF/800D, and you could probably run it passive if you're just doing the CPU, so it would be completely silent.

Monotype

That board is ridiculous. You're paying like an extra €100 on a second lan port and bluetooth. Something like the extreme4 Gen3 gives you PCI-E 3 with an Ivy Bridge CPU.
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?agid=1601&aid=50889

The Adata SSD is based on the sandforce controller and Crucial's M4s have a better track record so I recommend them instead.

If you really want to go mad on the PSU, 1KW is enough for two 580s and overclocking with a load of room. You could still get away with a lot less, 1.2KW is a waste of money.
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=38005

Spend the spare money on the third screen, or even on a 3D one.

IrishMetalhead

actually monotype has a good point, i did go abit overboard with the motherboard as you'd more then likely won't use most of it's overclocking features plus a 1200 psu is still overkill for a 2 sli configuration. so i went over what i specced out earlier and made those few changes and managed to squeezed a 27" Asus monitor with a display port in so 27" eyefinity much =D (or whatever nvidia calls it)

Total build cost: €1,960.85 + €30 shipping
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155 €188.78
Corsair Hydro Series H60 (Sockel 775/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1) €55.72
ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3, Sockel 1155, ATX €165.23
8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-12800U CL9 €42.71
2 x Gainward GeForce GTX 570 Dual Fan, 1.25GB GDDR5 €285.96
2 x Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5") €91.34
2 x WD Caviar Green 2TB Sata 6Gb/s €64.88
LG BH10LS30 Blu-Ray Brenner bulk €70.93
Cooler Master HAF X, ATX, ohne Netzteil €172.37
Super-Flower SF1000P14XE Golden Green Modular 80plus gold €143.10
ASUS VE276Q €237.65

friedcircuits

Ok how about this!!:

Motherboard: Asus P8P67 Deluxe
PSU: Super Flower 1k
Chassis: Corsair Obsidian Series 800D
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100
RAM: 8 GB Corsair Vengenace
CPU: Intel Core i7 2600k
Optical Drive: LG BH10LS30 Super Multi Blue - BD-RE drive
HDD: WD Caviar Green 2TB Sata 6Gb/s (Maybe 2)
SSD: Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")
GPU: Gainward GeForce GTX 570 Dual Fan, 1.25GB GDDR5 (2)
or maybe Gigabyte GeForce GTX 580, 1536MB GDDR5, PCI-Express (2)

All from hardwareversand.de for 1771.06 euro (2045.68 with GTX 580's) never dealt never heard of them untill this week. not taking credit card seems to be a pain any thoughts?

IrishMetalhead

i'd go with the 570's mainly because they work flawlessly in sli where as the 580's tend to have abit of an issue with screen tearing and just don't scale as well as the 570's

friedcircuits

IrishMetalhead wrote: »

i'd go with the 570's mainly because they work flawlessly in sli where as the 580's tend to have abit of an issue with screen tearing and just don't scale as well as the 570's

thanks 570's seem decent is that what you have? 580's still a bit pricey methinks!

IrishMetalhead

nah i'm running a single HD 5850, my comp is about 2 years old right now D=,
but i have built some comps with em for clients and out of the 500 series of cards i found the the 560ti's and the 570's scaled the best and out of those two the 570's are obvioulsy faster so there a clear winner imo

Serephucus

^ Nice build, except:

http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=46110&agid=1145

??

Fatal Except1on

Agree with Serephecus, go for the 128GB SSD!
Other than that, fantastique!

Serephucus

You're actually probably better off with a H60/H80. 2nd gen i5s/i7s don't really need a mad amount of cooling, and it leaves the top of your case free if you want to do something like this in the future.

friedcircuits

ok thanks all going with build on top ^ taking on board Serephucus - 128 GB SSD and H 60 and also IrishMetalheads preference of GTX 570's over 580's! Last chance for suggestion/comments!
Thanks.