- Nov 9, 2010
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Hi,
I am planning to build a system that will be used for gaming and some general use (modding, compiling, applications, browsing, etc), maybe a 80/20% split is descriptive of performance targets, gaming vs general purpose. Cost for me is not just euros, but also noise, watts, heat and time required to study/build/maintain.
That's why I'm asking - which components in my plan should I spend some time to research and (re)evaluate - can I easily reduce noise somewhere, or push the performance bottlenecks and save a few euros?
Video: This seems to be an easy choice - the newly introduced 6850 from ATI/AMD provides nearly the same performance as a 5850, but with 20W less consumed under load. The price is attractive.
An option would be NVidia 460 1GB, but the power consumption would jump some 35W. The main advantage would be supposedly gaining better 3D drivers for Linux - NVidia has built a strong reputation of performing in that area.
ATI 5770 would offer passive cooling options, and as such would be a rather interesting option. I take GPU cooling is the worst single noise source. The performance loss is significant, though, so I'm of two minds here.
CPU: I built my first system 12 years ago, and have mostly been an AMD junkie since - the combination of price & performance is quite nice. I haven't been following the h/w scene too closely, but in the recent years the balance of power seems to have shifted. Intel has had a slight reliability edge all along, and nowadays they come ahead in terms of computing power vs. watts required.
The i5-650 with 2 cores should be a sufficient CPU and the TDP (thermal design power) of 73W seems rather acceptable (my AMD CPU in 2001 had a TDP of 72W as I recall).
The i5-750 would provide 4 cores with TDP of 95W. Quadcore is nice and dandy, but most of the time the benefit for gaming is slight, even with quad core support in games, because the bottleneck is the GPU and not the CPU. I can also work around the limitations of a dual CPU, for example by multitasking with multiple computers
Since it's primarily a gaming system, a i3 could be an option as well. This would save a few dozen euros but would only give a slight advantage in terms of TDP.
Case: Is there a reason to look beyond a cookie cutter case like Antec Sonata III? I know you can get a more serious case by throwing an additional 100eur to the fray, or get a case with a 200mm case fan, but is that just overkill for my system - the overall TDP should be fairly low.
I take cooling and noise generally are not a difficult problem in today's mid range systems. Better case design has improved things quite a bit, for example the Sonata III has 2x120mm fans which should produce only low noise. Also GPU cooling receives more attention from the vendors nowadays, so just going with all stock fans could be a viable choice for a lazy man
I know there's a number of very good water cooling kits available. However so far I've always gone air cooled - water cooling would increase the cost of the system slightly and I would have to do additional research.
I could look into replacing the stock CPU&GPU fans and heatsinks, depending a bit on my final choices - should I be looking to replace both to get a quiet system?
PSU: This system should be fine with a 500W PSU, even with some expansion - 450W or 400W might cut it if I go with the low-power options? My systems tend to grow very little during their lifetime, maybe add some disk or RAM.
RAM: The Intel CPU supports only up to 1333MHz for DDR3. 1600MHz costs only marginally more, and bigger is better, even if it runs just at 1333MHz
- is there an advantage to going with 1600MHz? Should I start with 4GB or 8GB? I could always upgrade to 8GB later, too.
Mobo: Whatever is suitable for the CPU and has all the features I need/want. I understand there are differences between power consumption and power management, from one mobo to the other? It would be quite nice if the system can reduce power usage when not at full (gaming) load!
HDD: Been thinking of a SSD - would improve booting, loading maps etc and overall performance. At some 100-200eur, might be a bit of an overkill considering the box is some 1000eur total. But getting a 120GB SSD would allow me to get along with just the SSD and my existing storage (one old 80GB HDD would probably go to this system) - I use disk space rather sparingly.
PSU: Clear choices here - Win7 for gaming and general purpose use, as it's already won over the hearts of the community; Debian GNU/Linux for a toy around system, administration, workstation use and possibly the primary desktop (been using this for some 11-12 years on and off).
I am planning to build a system that will be used for gaming and some general use (modding, compiling, applications, browsing, etc), maybe a 80/20% split is descriptive of performance targets, gaming vs general purpose. Cost for me is not just euros, but also noise, watts, heat and time required to study/build/maintain.
That's why I'm asking - which components in my plan should I spend some time to research and (re)evaluate - can I easily reduce noise somewhere, or push the performance bottlenecks and save a few euros?
Video: This seems to be an easy choice - the newly introduced 6850 from ATI/AMD provides nearly the same performance as a 5850, but with 20W less consumed under load. The price is attractive.
An option would be NVidia 460 1GB, but the power consumption would jump some 35W. The main advantage would be supposedly gaining better 3D drivers for Linux - NVidia has built a strong reputation of performing in that area.
ATI 5770 would offer passive cooling options, and as such would be a rather interesting option. I take GPU cooling is the worst single noise source. The performance loss is significant, though, so I'm of two minds here.
CPU: I built my first system 12 years ago, and have mostly been an AMD junkie since - the combination of price & performance is quite nice. I haven't been following the h/w scene too closely, but in the recent years the balance of power seems to have shifted. Intel has had a slight reliability edge all along, and nowadays they come ahead in terms of computing power vs. watts required.
The i5-650 with 2 cores should be a sufficient CPU and the TDP (thermal design power) of 73W seems rather acceptable (my AMD CPU in 2001 had a TDP of 72W as I recall).
The i5-750 would provide 4 cores with TDP of 95W. Quadcore is nice and dandy, but most of the time the benefit for gaming is slight, even with quad core support in games, because the bottleneck is the GPU and not the CPU. I can also work around the limitations of a dual CPU, for example by multitasking with multiple computers
Since it's primarily a gaming system, a i3 could be an option as well. This would save a few dozen euros but would only give a slight advantage in terms of TDP.
Case: Is there a reason to look beyond a cookie cutter case like Antec Sonata III? I know you can get a more serious case by throwing an additional 100eur to the fray, or get a case with a 200mm case fan, but is that just overkill for my system - the overall TDP should be fairly low.
I take cooling and noise generally are not a difficult problem in today's mid range systems. Better case design has improved things quite a bit, for example the Sonata III has 2x120mm fans which should produce only low noise. Also GPU cooling receives more attention from the vendors nowadays, so just going with all stock fans could be a viable choice for a lazy man
I know there's a number of very good water cooling kits available. However so far I've always gone air cooled - water cooling would increase the cost of the system slightly and I would have to do additional research.
I could look into replacing the stock CPU&GPU fans and heatsinks, depending a bit on my final choices - should I be looking to replace both to get a quiet system?
PSU: This system should be fine with a 500W PSU, even with some expansion - 450W or 400W might cut it if I go with the low-power options? My systems tend to grow very little during their lifetime, maybe add some disk or RAM.
RAM: The Intel CPU supports only up to 1333MHz for DDR3. 1600MHz costs only marginally more, and bigger is better, even if it runs just at 1333MHz
- is there an advantage to going with 1600MHz? Should I start with 4GB or 8GB? I could always upgrade to 8GB later, too.Mobo: Whatever is suitable for the CPU and has all the features I need/want. I understand there are differences between power consumption and power management, from one mobo to the other? It would be quite nice if the system can reduce power usage when not at full (gaming) load!
HDD: Been thinking of a SSD - would improve booting, loading maps etc and overall performance. At some 100-200eur, might be a bit of an overkill considering the box is some 1000eur total. But getting a 120GB SSD would allow me to get along with just the SSD and my existing storage (one old 80GB HDD would probably go to this system) - I use disk space rather sparingly.
PSU: Clear choices here - Win7 for gaming and general purpose use, as it's already won over the hearts of the community; Debian GNU/Linux for a toy around system, administration, workstation use and possibly the primary desktop (been using this for some 11-12 years on and off).
It seems nowadays one can be quiet and powerful even with mainstream components - I saw a link to this review of the ECS GTX460 Black, 
The shop I'm getting most of them has a flexible system though where you can change stuff around, practically until it's all ready and delivered 
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