Advices for a decent gaming rig

[Da_Ghost_Qc]

Hi, I'm in the process of getting my nephew a decent gaming rig, he asked me about it as he thought about changing the graphic card only at first, but his current pc is made with the parts of one of my old build. Here are his specs:

- Antec Nine Hundred
- Motherboard: ASUS P5E
- CPU: Core 2 duo e8400@3.00ghz
- Graphic card: Nvidia 9600 gt PCI-E
- Memory: 4Gb DDR2
- Power supply: ANTEC 650 WATT

What I've come up so far by looking around a bit would be this:

- Motherboard: MSI B75A-G43
- CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K
- Graphic card: MSI GTX 680
- Memory: 8Gb G.Skills Ripjaws X

I need opinions about this setup, what would be better, etc. I'm a bit lost will all the different versions of the same stuff, etc. All in all, it would be in around a 1000$. The only restrictions are: Intel for cpu and Nvidia for the card (I had problems with three ATI/AMD cards in the past and never had a single issue with Nvidia since I've made the switch. Thank you for your help!

 

[blacknemesist]

Are you planning to OC?

If yes:
-Mobo ASRock extreme 4
-CPU i5-3570k
-Noctua D14

If no:
-CPU i5-3570
-Mobo ASUS P8Z68-V GEN3

Both ASRock and Asus support SLI.

Stay away from i7 for gaming,they are much more expensive and for the money they preform worst than the i5.Also if no CPU OC is going to be done dont get a 'k' series CPU as the difference is that the 'K' series has an unlock multiplier for OCing purposes.

What model is the PSU?

The MSI GTX680 is the lightning edition?
The GTX680 is getting better with the newer drivers but it was only slightly better than the GTX670 and not worth the cost.Now I dont know where it stands.

 

[iyzik]

Are you planning to OC?

If yes:
-Mobo ASRock extreme 4
-CPU i5-3570k
-Noctua D14

If no:
-CPU i5-3570
-Mobo ASUS P8Z68-V GEN3

Both ASRock and Asus support SLI.

Stay away from i7 for gaming,they are much more expensive and for the money they preform worst than the i5.Also if no CPU OC is going to be done dont get a 'k' series CPU as the difference is that the 'K' series has an unlock multiplier for OCing purposes.

What model is the PSU?

The MSI GTX680 is the lightning edition?
The GTX680 is getting better with the newer drivers but it was only slightly better than the GTX670 and not worth the cost.Now I dont know where it stands.

Lolwut? Stay away from i7 for gaming??? Sorry but you do not know what you are talking about...
Yes i7 is more expensive but I personally have both an i7 3770K and an i5 3570K and the i7 is definitely better at gaming, not to mention I can hit 4.7GHz stable on the i7 and only 4.4GHz stable on the i5.

As for the the graphics card here is the current general heirarchy with the latest drivers;
-7970GHz is the best
-7970 and 680 are about neck in neck, they trade blows quite evenly
-7950 Boost is in better than 7950/670 but not as good as 7970/680
-7950 and 670 are about equal also, 670 probably slightly in the lead

 

[voiidwulf]

Lolwut? Stay away from i7 for gaming??? Sorry but you do not know what you are talking about...
Yes i7 is more expensive but I personally have both an i7 3770K and an i5 3570K and the i7 is definitely better at gaming, not to mention I can hit 4.7GHz stable on the i7 and only 4.4GHz stable on the i5.

As for the the graphics card here is the current general heirarchy with the latest drivers;
-7970GHz is the best
-7970 and 680 are about neck in neck, they trade blows quite evenly
-7950 Boost is in better than 7950/670 but not as good as 7970/680
-7950 and 670 are about equal also, 670 probably slightly in the lead

GTX 690/Radeon 7990 are the best, though obviously they are way out of his price range.

Also: Your nephew is lucky. $1000 gaming computer as a gift.

 

[digitalmiget]

lol, for a gaming rig all you need is an i5-3570k as the i7 cpu has practically the same performance and is a lot more expensive- not worth it. As said before just get a 7970 as it outperformsn the GTX680 in everything except texel rate http://www.hwcompare.com/12351/geforce-gtx-680-vs-radeon-hd-7970/

 

[iyzik]

Ah yes forgot about the GTX 690 and 7990 hahah. I would also recommend the 7970 and personally with that budget I'd still get an i7 3770K. But otherwise an i5.

 

[Da_Ghost_Qc]

Nop, there won't be any overclocking done to it. I have no idea what model his psu is, I would need to look at it. Yeah, the GTX 690 is way out of price range.

I could simply build him the same rig that I have, but if I can get him something a bit better so he won't have to upgrade for a while, that would be good.

 

[simon12]

Just to confirm for you the i7 26xx series and 37xx series habe no advantage in gaming performance over the i5 25xx series & 35xx series at the same clock speed and do not on average overclock any better. The only i7 that beats the i5 3570K in gaming is the 39xx series (6 core) and even them its minor. This is common knowledge and anyone that doesn't know this should not be giving advice on what CPUs to buy.

 

[iyzik]

Just to confirm for you the i7 26xx series and 37xx series habe no advantage in gaming performance over the i5 25xx series & 35xx series at the same clock speed and do not on average overclock any better. The only i7 that beats the i5 3570K in gaming is the 39xx series (6 core) and even them its minor. This is common knowledge and anyone that doesn't know this should not be giving advice on what CPUs to buy.

I have to disagree with you for very high end rigs (two high end gpus in sli or cfx), although that may be true for medium-high end rigs. It takes a hell of a lot of cpu power to pump out constant 100% usage across my two 7970s in bf3. With an i7 3770K at stock clocks it will dip to high 50s, OCed to 4.5 it doesnt dip below 60. With an i5 3570K at stock clocks it dips to high 40s, OCed to 4.4 it dips to low 50s.

EDIT: The i5 will let the gpus drop to 70% usage giving that high 40s fps I listed. The i7 I have rarely seen usage below 80%, especially with an overclock. Unlessof course I am playing a game other than bf3.

 

[Sunius]

@OP:

I'd go for i5-3570K with a nice Z77 motherboard. Asrock Z77 Extreme4 comes to mind. There's no reason to go for Sandy Bridge CPUs when you can go for Ivy Bridge, they are priced the same today.

@iyzik:

Benchmarks don't agree with you. And I'd put more money on them being right.

 

[HEXiT]

Personally if i was going to upgrade, the 2500k or the 3570k would be enough fro a single 680 setup you may not want to OC just yet but if you get a K series then you always have the option if you want or need to.
asrock seem to have some decent boards but most don't need em if there gonna use just 1 gfx card. both i5's are limited by the pci-e on chip so getting a motherboard with three slots is a waste. just buy what you need. and save a bit cash for other things that may give a better balance.
for the psu seasonic seem to have the consensus here. 550w-650w will cost about 70 bux and well worth the piece of mind quality psu's bring.

 

[iyzik]

@OP:

I'd go for i5-3570K with a nice Z77 motherboard. Asrock Z77 Extreme4 comes to mind. There's no reason to go for Sandy Bridge CPUs when you can go for Ivy Bridge, they are priced the same today.

@iyzik:

Benchmarks don't agree with you. And I'd put more money on them being right.

Well, believe what you want, if I were in your position I'd probably believe the benches as well haha.

All I'm saying is I personally own both and have done quite a bit of testing and I find the i7 to give me slightly better performance on dual cards. Maybe not enough to justify the price difference if you're on a budget, but the different is there however slight it is.

On a single card I most definitely agree an i7 is a waste money now that I really think about it.