New Build ~ €1,300

Yelnahs

Folks,

I've a bit of experience in making gaming rigs but I wanted to run my latest potential purchase by yourselves just for some input.

I'm just asking for a sense check to make sure there isn't any technology I'm missing, if there will be a bottleneck somewhere, if I could buy a similar machine pre-built and cheaper, if a new technology is coming out that might make something redundant soon enough etc...

Everything is coming in at around 1,300 Euro, my monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse, sound card and 2TB media drive are the only things making the cut from my previous machine

Much obliged.

Asus P9X79 PRO S2011 Intel X79 DDR3 ATX
Intel Core i7-3820 3.6GHz LGA2011 10MB 130W
Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz CL9
OCZ Technology 64GB Petrol Series SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Drive (For OS only)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 Pro CPU Cooler
XFX ATI Radeon 7950 HD 800MHz 3GB PCI-Express HDMI Dual Fan Double Dissipation (ATI man, difficult to talk me into NVIDIA)
Fractal Design Define R3 Black Pearl Mid-Tower USB 3.0 Case
OCZ Technology ZS Series 750W 80+ Bronze Power Supply
Sony 24x DVD-RW SATA Black Bare Internal Drive (Have a PS3, no need for Blu-ray)

1. What is your budget? [€1300]

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? [Gaming] - As future proof as possible.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [No]

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? [2TB 3.5" WD Caviar Green HDD, mouse, keyboard, Soundcard... SB Audigy Platinum or something like that?) and Samsung 27" HD, Logitech 5.1's

5. Do you need a monitor? [No]

5a. If yes, what size do you need.

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? [Can't remember, pretty high as it's brand new]

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Nope

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? [No]

8. How can you pay? [Credit Card]

9. When are you purchasing? [In 14 days]

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? [N/a]

frozenfrozen

wait a bit on the order since nvidia released the 680 today, should cause a little drop in price on all ati cards. (even though 7950 price point isn't directly affected.)

Yelnahs

Thanks for that. The order is going in late next week so that'll give DABS enough time to reduce their prices... hopefully.

Serephucus

Where are you buying from?

If it's a gaming rig, forget X79. Go with a 2500K instead. Much cheaper, and basically the same performance (it's actually better once you take into account overclocking)

That should allow you to bump up the GPU a good bit. Oh, and you can drop back to 8GB of RAM, as 16GB is overkill.

I'll spec you out a build later if one of the lads hasn't beaten me to it. You might also fill this out in the meantime.

srsly78

Drop to i5, save money for no performance loss. Get a blueray drive, they are really cheap now so might as well. Upgrade ssd to 128gb, 64gb will just end up annoying you. Don't bother with custom cpu fan unless you are gonna overclock (and you need an unlocked cpu for this, which you haven't specced).

Yelnahs

I'm getting it from Dabs as it currently stands. It's going on my cc so I can't go through hardwaregrave.... whatever their name is.

It is a gaming rig, besides gfx cards I was never a huge overclocker so I don't really mind.

So if I go for 8GB of a better DDR3 instead of a cheap enough 16 GB of DDR3 I'd be better off?

So if I go for a 2500k I might be able to stretch to a 7970?

Thanks for your thoughts folks.

Yelnahs

srsly78 wrote: »

Drop to i5, save money for no performance loss. Get a blueray drive, they are really cheap now so might as well. Upgrade ssd to 128gb, 64gb will just end up annoying you. Don't bother with custom cpu fan unless you are gonna overclock (and you need an unlocked cpu for this, which you haven't specced).

I'm grand for a blueray and 64GB on my SSD is fine as it's literally just applications and the OS.

That model of CPU doesn't come with a stock fan, hence the custom one being bought. I might be able to scale back on it but it would only save me 10-15 quid.

Serephucus

Actually just go for the cheapest 8GB kit you can find. Fast RAM means virtually nothing now-a-days.

srsly78

It's worth getting the 128gb ssd. Otherwise you will always be freeing up space. If you use steam for games, there is a splitter app that lets you have some games on ssd, and some on another drive. Prices have come down now, go for 128

Windows + applications fills up 64gb real fast!

Yelnahs

Sound advice. I'm not really tied to the 1,300 (trying not to sound like a douche) so if it makes sense I'll stretch it. Plus if I do drop to i5 and 8 GB I still might save.

Serephucus, if you could spec one out for me that would be great, when you get a chance.

Yelnahs

There is a nice 2500K bundle on Dabs... Is 6MB the max cache for the 2500k?

Asus Intel Performance Bundle (Includes P8Z68-V LX Motherboard, Intel Core i5-2500K & 8GB DDR3)

http://www.dabs.ie/products/asus-intel-performance-bundle--includes-p8z68-v-lx-motherboard--intel-core-i5-2500k---8gb-ddr3--7VJG.html?refs=42180000-48760000&src=3

Serephucus

Right, try this:

Item|Price
Total build cost: €1,257.27 (inc delivery €1.50)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz LGA1155 6MB|€210.18
ASRock Z68 Pro3 Gen3 S1155 Intel Z68 DDR3 ATX|€98.71
Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) HyperX DDR3 1333MHz DIMM 240-pin CL9 Blu|€43.19
OCZ Technology 128GB Petrol Series SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Drive|€122.85
QuietPC Noctua NH-U9B SE2 Dual Fan Quiet CPU Cooler|€50.67
MSI ATI Radeon 7970 HD 925MHz 3GB PCI-Express 3.0 HDMI|€506.00
Corsair Memory 650W Professional Series Gold AX650 High Performance PSU|€122.52
Fractal Design Define R3 Black Pearl Mid-Tower USB 3.0 Case|€85.69
Samsung SH-S223 22x DVD-RW SATA OEM (Black)|€15.96


Switched to 2500K and 8GB of RAM.
Added 7970
Added 128GB SSD
Added much more efficient PSU
Added better CPU cooler (if you don't overclock this I'll personally shoot you)
Kept most other things the same.

I'd take a serious look at a GTX 680 though. On average it beats the 7970 by about 15-20% (and this is only going to increase as drivers get better. It's literally just out the door today), has a bunch of features that the AMD line don't, and pulls less power.

Yelnahs

Knew it would be a good idea to post here

That ASRock Z68 is a serious looking bit of kit. I've never actually heard of them before, opinion?

Also, will the 680 be coming in at around the 500 Euro mark? I think I need to do some gfx cards research, I might have been blinded by my ATI/AMD loyalty.


Wow...

Serephucus

Depends. On Dabs they're quite overpriced at the moment. Hardwareversand has an EVGA 680 for €475. RRP is $499, so expect about €500. Komplett has them for around €520 with free delivery.

ASRock are good. They have the most reliable socket 1155 boards at the moment, with probably MSI coming second. They're very cheap for what you get though, that's why they get recommended here so much. For some reason a lot of reviewers don't seem to like them, but I spec a tone of builds here, and haven't heard any problems yet.

frozenfrozen

Yes 500 is approximately what it will be. Definitely a fantastic card. Throw fanboyism out the window, look at performance for your money. Nvidia drivers in the first few months tend to improve performance drastically as others have said. The 10% gap in performance between 680 and 7970 coupled with cuda and some other nifty features, should be enough to make you stop seeing red for at least this generation.

Yelnahs

You're a good man, thanks for the help.

Good point about Komplett having free delivery (How I wish they were as good as they used to be) so I might end up getting it through them.

I'll read a bit more into the 680 and then I reckon I'll go with the spec above.

Thanks for your help folks.

Yelnahs

Folks, just a quick update. I went ahead with the recommended build but I got the GTX 680 in the end

Thanks for the help folks. I nearly cried when Crysis 2 booted up, Ultra Graphics setting and everything. Looks amazing on my HD 27" screen!

srsly78

Download and install high res dx11 texture pack to run it properly. Also HD = low res

frozenfrozen

srsly78 wrote: »

Download and install high res dx11 texture pack to run it properly. Also HD = low res

From a distance the pixel density will be the same effectively, with the advantage that you're not downscaling anything to get playable framerates.

sli 680s would have trouble playing crysis 2 @ 1440p :P

srsly78

Works fine on 1600p for me with 6970. Ultra settings, but AA turned down enough to give good fps. Still looks amazing. Benchmarks with everything set to ridiculous mode are a bit silly really - you do NOT need x16 MSAA. AA makes the most difference at lower resolutions, the higher your res the less you need it.

Going even higher, when playing in 7680x1600 there is no choice but to turn off AA altogether, even with the most powerful rig.

Yelnahs

Folks,

Thanks again for your help with this build.

It's been running flawlessly for nearly a year now but in the last few days when I push the power button it takes about 10-15 seconds to boot up. Last night it just wouldn't turn on.

I checked all connectors and everything is fine. I removed the GFX card and my sound card, I tried booting it about 20 times and it finally booted. I reset the CMOS as well just in case (although I haven't changed the BIOS since day 1). The only change in recent weeks is I had to RMA my solid state and OCZ sent me a new drive but this shouldn't affect anything (this issue started a few weeks after I installed the drive).

Two things I've noticed are there is a constant 'fizz' sound coming from the PSU, you really have to put your ear up to it to hear it. I'm not sure if this is standard or not...

Secondly, I got myself a fancy 7.1 wired Corsair headset a few months back. Even when the machine is off if it is plugged into a USB port the blue backlight of the volume button lights up. I noticed that this is still lighting up which is my probably ineffectual way of determining that there is still power coming from the PSU.

I have no spare PSU so I can't check whether it is the issue or not, but I've a feeling it is. Apparently Corsair PSUs have a 5 year warranty so I can RMA it but I'd like to, if possible, confirm it is the issue.

Lastly, ASRock only give you a quick installation guide and their download section of their website appears to be down. Any ASRock owners have any tips on troubleshooting???

Specs are:

ASRock Z68 Pro3 Gen3 S1155 Intel Z68 DDR3 ATX
QuietPC Noctua NH-U9B SE2 Dual Fan Quiet CPU Cooler
Fractal Design Define R3 Black Pearl Mid-Tower USB 3.0 Case
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz LGA1155 6MB
Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) HyperX DDR3 1333MHz DIMM 240-pin CL9 Blu
OCZ Technology 128GB Agility Series SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Drive
Corsair Memory 650W Professional Series Gold AX650 High Performance PSU
LG Electronics 10x Internal BD Combo Retail Kit

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks guys.