Advice and ideas for €1500 gaming rig

Dara Robinson

Hi Guys,

So been saving for a while now but to be honest I am seriously out of touch with hardware at the moment and I am hoping for some ideas and advice

So I am looking to spend about 1300-1500 on a gaming rig.

Case is already decided, I am getting the Antec P280. It is a silent case and that really appeals to me, plus I have the 180 and I could not be happier with it. Although a nice cheap or reasonable shop would be nice

CPU, now there I need help. I currently have an AMD CPU and I am torn as to what to choose. I dont want to be spending crazy money on a CPU when the performance difference will be like 5% so some advice would be great.

RAM, probably 16gig (4x4gig dual channel) but again advice.

Motherboard, now here I really like the look of the MSI military class ones. I am looking for a good, reliable and preferably silent or at least a quiet case.

PSU, I am looking at a 80+ silver or gold and modular would be good

GFX, here I seriously need help. I have always liked the HD range and I was thinking of getting 2 and crossfireing those bad boys but yet again, advice and what not would be great. No idea whats the most reasonable.

No monitor, software, peripherals required at all.

So I'll just close by saying that while I am building a gaming rig I am looking for the latest of anything really. I am quite happy to buy hardware that is 3 or 6 months old and get a more reasonable price for it. I would rather spend 900 or 1k now and upgrade in a year or 2 than spend 2k now and not upgrade for a good while. I am also looking for future proof hardware, nothing on a dead or dying like of sockets etc. I do want to be able to upgrade when needed.
I am also not interested in playing Crysis 3 at 100fps, like I said, gaming rig but reasonable.

Thanks in advance

Serephucus

CPU: i5 3570K. Hands down the best value chip at the moment. If you're going to be doing a lot of threaded stuff, maybe consider a 3770K.

RAM: Whatever's cheap, though you might as well look at a 2x8GB kit, just to give you the option of adding more later on.

PSU: This. Can't get quieter than 0dBA.

Rule of thumb with GPUs is to get the highest single GPU you can afford, and go multi-GPU later, unless you're not going to be upgrading for a long time. Best value cards at the moment are the 7950 from AMD, or the 660Ti from NVIDIA, broadly speaking.

A couple of other very quiet cases you might want to consider are the Fractal Design R4 - the P280 is a none-too-subtle clone of the older R3 - or Corsair's 550D.

bernardamaac.

Serephucus wrote: »

CPU: i5 3570K. Hands down the best value chip at the moment. If you're going to be doing a lot of threaded stuff, maybe consider a 3770K.

Now thats where your wrong the AMD FX-6300 is far superior with a higher turbo frequency more cache space and 2 more cores.

[QUOTE: This. Can't get quieter than 0dBA. [/QUOTE] Nice power supply but id go for something with a bit more juice for the graphics card and the future proofing.

graphics card gtx 670

You can do the rest yourself its more fun that way research

Dara Robinson

Hey Serephucus,

Thanks for the quick reply. Firstly, I had a look at the Fractal R4 cause I like fractal stuff but tbh I prefer the Antec 280

The Super-Flower SF500P14FG looks great but would i not need something more powerful? Especially if I am using 2 gfx cards, no?

And actually your link brings up another question, where should I be buying this stuff? I was looking at Pixmania and hardwareversand.de

Dara Robinson

Hey bernardamaac. GFX cards are where I am stumbling. I have a huge black hole in my knowledge and not sure what to do.

So quick question that might help me move forward. the price of 2x 660's is around the same price as 1x 680. But if I go out and buy a 680 and then wait 6 months or year to upgrade to a second one... can I actually do that? I remember that when using dual cards working together, when I was reading up on this years ago, you needed to be very careful as to which ones you bought, if they were not exactly the same model and same line they would not work together. Is this the same case or is it just a case of buying one 680 and then just getting any other 680 later on when I have the money?

Tea_Bag

bernardamaac. wrote: »

Now thats where your wrong the AMD FX-6300 is far superior with a higher turbo frequency more cache space and 2 more cores.

Dara Robinson

Tea_Bag, something other than a Troll pic would have been nice. Why do you not agree? At least contribute :P

Serephucus

He doesn't agree because Bernardmac is completely wrong. Yeah, the FX processor has a higher frequency, more cores, and whatever, but he's making the very basic mistake of assuming that specifcations can be compared "apples to apples" as it were, across architectures, which they can't, because there's nothing to say that AMD's 1GHz single core architecture X processor will in any way compare to Intel's 1GHz single core architecture Y processor.

Have a look at reviews and see for yourself. It gets its ass handed to it in almost everything. That's not counting the fact that it uses far more power than the 3570K, or that it doesn't come anywhere close to overclocking as well.

As regards the PSU, yes, if you were going SLI or Crossfire in the future, then you'll want a more powerful unit, in that case I'd recommend an Enermax Platimax unit. They're expensive, but after a lot of research (I'm doing my own upgrade, hopefully ordering parts this weekend) it's the quietest PSU I can find. Typically, the fan doesn't start spinning until about 50% load, and even then it's only at about 350RPM.

Regarding SLI: It's gotten easier now. You can have different memory sizes, different brands, clock speeds, coolers, PCBs, the only thing that matters is that they use the same core GPU - so just make sure it's another 680, of any type, and you're good, basically. Something else to consider is picking up an EVGA card. I myself will be picking up a 670, with the intention of stepping up* to a 780 when it arrives around March.


*EVG's Step-Up program allows you to upgrade to another more powerful card by paying the shipping and the difference for it. It's usually within three months of purchase, but if you buy the card before December 21st, you can take advantage of a promotion they've got going that will allow you to step up within six months of purchase; plenty of time for a 780 to rear its head.

Dara Robinson

Serephucus wrote: »

Regarding SLI: It's gotten easier now. You can have different memory sizes, different brands, clock speeds, coolers, PCBs, the only thing that matters is that they use the same core GPU - so just make sure it's another 680, of any type, and you're good, basically. Something else to consider is picking up an EVGA card. I myself will be picking up a 670, with the intention of stepping up* to a 780 when it arrives around March.

I've never seen this before, who does this? Is it the manufacturer or a retailer? Sounds good actually

Serephucus

Any NVIDIA card will do it (assuming it supports SLI in the first place of course) I'm not sure about AMD cards though.

Dara Robinson

Serephucus wrote: »

*EVG's Step-Up program allows you to upgrade to another more powerful card by paying the shipping and the difference for it. It's usually within three months of purchase, but if you buy the card before December 21st, you can take advantage of a promotion they've got going that will allow you to step up within six months of purchase; plenty of time for a 780 to rear its head.

lol sorry quoted wrong part but actually that is also awesome, makes life easier.

no its this EVG's Step-up program I have never heard of before. who does this? Is it the manufacturer or a retailer? Sounds really good, might end up doing same as u

Serephucus

Ah right. EVGA is a vendor (manufacturer) who makes only NVIDIA cards.

Dara Robinson

Serephucus wrote: »

Ah right. EVGA is a vendor (manufacturer) who makes only NVIDIA cards.

Do you know if I have to buy direct from them to avail of this or can I buy from, lets say, hardwareversand.de and still avail of this?

Serephucus

Nope, you can buy from anywhere. All EVGA uses is the serial number on the card.

Dara Robinson

Guys, any thoughts on the Intel Core i7-3820? Is it worth getting this CPU simply because its on the 2011 socket and its only €270 or should i just go for a nice 1155 socket CPU?

Genghiz Cohen

i7's have Hyperthreading which, to the best of my knowledge, isn't used in games. So if it's a gaming rig, get an i5.

Dara Robinson

Ok, but that aside, is 2011 not intel's wave of the future? Cause if thats the case then a CPU for €270 is reasonable enough and when it its getting to the point where I need to replace it (in 3 or more years) socket 2011 won't be obsolete and I can give it new life, no?

Serephucus

Not really. Intel has recently changed there devolpment cycle so that sockets don't last nearly as long as they used to. It might last you two years, no longer than that. There's also the fact that 2011 boards are expensive compared to 1155, and they tends to draw a good bit more power too, as well as running hotter.

It's not worth it, really. 2011 is designed as a somewhat extreme platform; complete overkill for a basic family PC.

Dara Robinson

While this probably wont end up being the final rig, Any thoughts?

Special item: Antec Performance One P-280, ohne Netzteil
Single piece
105,75 €


EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW, 2048MB DDR5, PCI-Express
ready for dispatch
362,46 €


16GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance grün PC3L-12800U CL9-9-9-24
ready for dispatch (only 1 article)
101,84 €


ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77, Sockel 1155, ATX, DDR3
ready for dispatch
204,74 €


Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155
ready for dispatch
208,05 €


Super-Flower SF1000P14PE 80plus Golden King Platinum Modular
ready for dispatch
179,99 €

Total:
1.162,83 €

Genghiz Cohen

You shouldn't be spending more than €50 on RAM.
You don't need RAM faster than 1333MHz.

PSU is overkill, 500-600W is plenty.

Motherboard is probably overpriced too.

Stick a cooler in there too.

Dara Robinson

Cooler yea, looking in to that now. These guys don't supply good ones that I saw but then again while I like their prices their website would be easier to navigate

As for the PSU, well I will have about 5 or 6 HD's on there possibly plus I would like the possibility to expand to 2x GeForce GTX 670's later if I want. I was looking at a load calculator and it was recommending 750-800 so I was being safe.

When you say that the MB is overpriced, you mean that is not a good price for the SABERTOOTH Z77? Casue at the moment I cant find a better price

Genghiz Cohen

Dara Robinson wrote: »

When you say that the MB is overpriced, you mean that is not a good price for the SABERTOOTH Z77? Casue at the moment I cant find a better price

I have a Sabretooth and the only reason I bought it was that it was half price. I pretty much would have picked up a much much cheaper motherboard if I the Sabertooth didn't come along. I don't even use any of the features anymore.

Serephucus

The case you've selected is a boxed return item, might want to get a new one. (Denoted by "Special Item" in the title)

The Sabertooth line is a bit gimmicky IMO. The thermal armour doesn't really help all that much with temperatures, and any other decent board will have the rest of the features. Have a look at ASRock's Z77 Extreme6. Much cheaper, and probably a better board to boot.

The PSU calculated recommended 750W so you go for 1kW? :P 750 will be fine, really. You can run two 680s off a good 750. Hard drives ad, maybe, 5W each. If you really want to spend money on it go for a Platinum rated PSU instead. (HWVS is down at the moment, but they have cheaper ones)

HWVS have a tonne of coolers, they can just be hard to find. The best air cooler at the moment is Noctua's NH-D14, the best watercooler is Corsair's H100.

Genghiz Cohen

Sabertooth looks fantastic though
Get a case with a side window and appreciate the view.

Dara Robinson

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

Get a case with a side window and appreciate the view.

Nope, case is locked down. I have a thing with the Performance series of Antec. I have 2 of them already lol Love em, so silent and so very very well designed.
Had an issue with one of them years ago where cooling was an issue for a week or so where I needed to open up the side panel for gaming and I could hear the PC over the quiet bits in the game, even with headphones, until I got the part, fitted it and closed the panel, then nothing. With one of those cases, if you want to hear if its on, you have to typically stop moving as the movement in your clothes and walking around will over shadow the noise the PC makes

I'll have a look at what you guys are saying and back in a while lol

Thanks for the feedback so far btw

RoverZT

Dara Robinson wrote: »

While this probably wont end up being the final rig, Any thoughts?

Special item: Antec Performance One P-280, ohne Netzteil
Single piece
105,75 €


EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW, 2048MB DDR5, PCI-Express
ready for dispatch
362,46 €


16GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance grün PC3L-12800U CL9-9-9-24
ready for dispatch (only 1 article)
101,84 €


ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77, Sockel 1155, ATX, DDR3
ready for dispatch
204,74 €


Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155
ready for dispatch
208,05 €


Super-Flower SF1000P14PE 80plus Golden King Platinum Modular
ready for dispatch
179,99 €

Total:
1.162,83 €

I would be getting a 7870 over the 670 GTX, it's almost half the price @ 210e and not far behind.

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/2048+MB/65950/PowerColor+Radeon+HD+7870+GHz+Edition+V2%2C+2GB+DDR5.article

Dara Robinson

RoverZT wrote: »

I would be getting a 7870 over the 670 GTX, it's almost half the price @ 210e and not far behind.

I thought the competitor for the 670 GTX was the HD 7970, no? Which would be around the same price

Dara Robinson

This is probably it, unless someone has some good last min advice.
I know some of it is over the top but the Z77 just looks amazing plus 5 year warranty which is nice. The case is amazing so not changing that one.
Any thoughts on splashing for a higher spec CPU? I am quite happy with this one, the i5 cores have always been good for gaming, but just last minute jitters I assume, so any thoughts on CPU or in general?

HVR850XCDE XFX PRO850W Core Edition Full Wired Power Supply
ready for dispatch - 91,16 €

HV207G4BDE LG GH24NS Retail schwarz
ready for dispatch - 21,75 €

HV203E42DE Antec Performance One P-280, ohne Netzteil
ready for dispatch (only 1 article) - 117,51 €

HV20Y35KDE Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155
ready for dispatch - 208,05 €

HV13WG26DE WD Caviar Green 2TB Sata 6Gb/s
ready for dispatch - 91,05 €

HV1029EIDE EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW, 2048MB DDR5, PCI-Express
ready for dispatch (only 1 article) - 362,46 €

HV20TT27DE Thermaltake TG-1 (Extreme Thermal Grease)
ready for dispatch - 8,29 €

HV1143UNDE ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77, Sockel 1155, ATX, DDR3
ready for dispatch - 204,74 €

HV20G756DE 16GB-Kit G.Skill Sniper PC3-12800U CL9
ready for dispatch from 2012-11-16 - 75,33 €

HV30RE68DE be quiet!Dark Rock 2
ready for dispatch - 56,38 €

Genghiz Cohen

If you MUST have 16GB of RAM, get 1333MHz and save a few quid.

Dara Robinson

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

If you MUST have 16GB of RAM, get 1333MHz and save a few quid.

Personally I feel that the RAMis good. Few reasons, 1 would be the work I do which will use RAM and processing power (Photography editing and large volume batch work plus from time to time crazy large multi-layered images, I've had a few close or above the 1 gig mark before) and 2 the Ivy bridge core's can actually get the use out of better spec'ed RAM.


However, I have looked the build over and updated it after thinking about it a little and talking to some peeps and reading what you guys were saying.

HVR750CVDE Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750 V2
ready for dispatch - 100,46 €
HV207G4BDE LG GH24NS Retail schwarz
ready for dispatch - 21,75 €
HV203E42DE Antec Performance One P-280, ohne Netzteil
ready for dispatch (only 1 article) - 117,51 €
HV20Y35KDE Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155
ready for dispatch - 208,05 €
HV13WG26DE WD Caviar Green 2TB Sata 6Gb/s
ready for dispatch - 91,05 €
HV12SPP1DE Samsung SSD 830 128GB SATA 6GB's Basic
ready for dispatch - 79,99 €
HV1029EIDE EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW, 2048MB DDR5, PCI-Express
ready for dispatch (only 1 article) - 362,46 €
HV20TT27DE Thermaltake TG-1 (Extreme Thermal Grease)
ready for dispatch - 8,29 €
HV1136MADE MSI Z77 Mpower, Intel Z77, ATX, DDR3
ready for dispatch - 204,74 €
HV20G756DE 16GB-Kit G.Skill Sniper PC3-12800U CL9
ready for dispatch from 2012-11-16 - 75,33 €
HV30RE68DE be quiet!Dark Rock 2
ready for dispatch - 56,38 €

Total - 1312.49€


And thinking about making this change to the CPU
HV20Y37KDE Intel Core i7-3770K Box, LGA1155
ready for dispatch - 303,84 €
Making the total - 1.407,25 €

Any thoughts?

Gotham

bernardamaac. wrote: »

Now thats where your wrong the AMD FX-6300 is far superior with a higher turbo frequency more cache space and 2 more cores.

Excuse me, what?

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
No it's not. I knew this was wrong just by looking at the brand: AMD. They haven't been in the lead for years.

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

i7's have Hyperthreading which, to the best of my knowledge, isn't used in games. So if it's a gaming rig, get an i5.

Hyperthreading is transparent to the software, so the game sees double the cores the processor actually has.

On a further note, the platinum and gold ratings on psus are input/output efficiency ratings. They are only one aspect of quality you need to keep in mind when purchasing a PSU. It's possible for a silver to be better than a gold (and im not talking about the output plug types, im talking about quality and power for price and running cost).

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

You don't need RAM faster than 1333MHz.

WHAT? You need a minimum of 1600 for a decent gaming rig and that's being lax, try for 1800 or even a lot higher.
Speed is way more important that capacity for ram. It's the ram timings that matter less (especially for ddr3).

Genghiz Cohen

Gotham wrote: »

WHAT? You need a minimum of 1600 for a decent gaming rig and that's being lax, try for 1800 or even a lot higher.
Speed is way more important that capacity for ram. It's the ram timings that matter less (especially for ddr3).

I was working off info about Sandy Bridge. Didn't think there was too much of a difference between Ivy and Sandy in this regard.

Gotham

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

I was working off info about Sandy Bridge. Didn't think there was too much of a difference between Ivy and Sandy in this regard.

Well I understand It was a little less relevant for ddr3 than it was for ddr2, but on ddr2 the difference was noticeable (not that either Ivy or Sandy even support ddr2).
Despite what I see in those benchmarks, i thought that compression speeds differed quite a lot with different ram speed.
If you buy any K variant of the i5/i7 processors it's assumed you wish to overclock them - in those cases a higher ramspeed makes the process a lot easier.
I want to add that overclocking on modern hardware is easy, safe and it doesn't require additional cooling to add another 1Ghz to your i5/i7.

Fluffy88

Yeah I think Gotham's reaction to the lower frequency RAM was a little bit over exaggerated as with Sandy/Ivy the frequency doesn't have as big an effect as it did previously, especially for gaming. However there is a difference and the difference is bigger for other activities like compression or video rendering.
And Ivy is a bit more sensitive to frequencies than Sandy.

So if possible you should get 1600MHz especially if gaming isn't the sole use of the PC. But if your on a budget cutting the RAM frequency down to 1333MHz isn't the worst cut back you could make

tuxy

Dara Robinson wrote: »

However, I have looked the build over and updated it after thinking about it a little and talking to some peeps and reading what you guys were saying.


Any thoughts?

Your build is fine but you can have the exact same performance for less money

This motherboard will do the same job for much less
http://lb.hardwareversand.de/DDR3/57624/ASRock+Z77+Extreme4%2C+Sockel+1155%2C+ATX.article

The 670 gtx uses very little power compared to previous cards
This
http://lb.hardwareversand.de/600+-+700+Watts/24479/Super-Flower+Amazon+80Plus+650W.article
would run 2 of them in sli with a overclocked cpu and several hard drives.

Only get the i7 if you use applications that can make use of hyperthreading(most don't)


If you go with the better value hardware you could get a second SSD and have your operating system and programs on one and have another dedicated to games. Or get a more expensive case.