New Rig Criticism

[Sumimi]

I've more or less narrowed my selection down to exactly what parts I need however, I'm still a little bit iffy on a few things.
The build is below, criticism would be welcome.

CPU: i7 2600k Unlocked
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 ATX LGA1155 Z68 Motherboard
Graphics Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 580 Fermi Windforce 795MHz
Memory: G.SKILL F3-12800CL8D-8GBECO Eco PC3-12800 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1600 CL8-8-8-24 1.35V Memory Kit

Power Supply: Corsair HX 1000w
Case: Coolermaster Haf X EATX Tower
Hard Drive: OCZ Vertex 3 120GB 2.5IN SATA 3

Monitors and other Accessories I have.

Thanks in advance.

Edit: I am planning on SLIing the Graphics card and finish using up the RAM slots, but I'm still thinking my PSU's too much of an overkill.

 

[mosox]

For gaming the i-5 2500K is the way to go. That motherboard can't run two video cards. If you don't need that you can get a much cheaper PSU. If you want it, get something like the Asrock Z68 Extreme4.

The GTX 580 has a bad price/performance score, you can get the MSI HD 6970 Lightning, it's overclocked and trades blows with the 580.

850W is plenty for two video cards - SeaSonic X-850 Gold

 

[Sumimi]

For gaming the i-5 2500K is the way to go. That motherboard can't run two video cards. If you don't need that you can get a much cheaper PSU. If you want it, get something like the Asrock Z68 Extreme4.

The GTX 580 has a bad price/performance score, you can get the MSI HD 6970 Lightning, it's overclocked and trades blows with the 580.

850W is plenty for two video cards - SeaSonic X-850 Gold

Thanks for replying.

When you say the Motherboard can't run two video cards, you mean that it'll downgrade the bandwidth to x8 each? Or that it simply just can't run it at all?

Link from the specs from the Gigabyte Site

Expansion Slots

1. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
* For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.
2. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8) * The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When the PCIEX8 slot is populated, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode.
3. 2 x PCI Express x1 slots
(All PCI Express slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
4. 2 x PCI slots

Multi-Graphics Technology

1. Support for ATI CrossFireX™/NVIDIA SLI technology
* The PCIEX16 slot operates at up to x8 mode when ATI CrossFireX™/NVIDIA SLI is enabled.

I'll definately be taking the advice for the Graphics Cards though, thanks again!

 

[fullofzen]

For gaming the i-5 2500K is the way to go. That motherboard can't run two video cards.

This is just completely incorrect. From Newegg, it claims the product features "2-Way SLI." So either newegg is correct or mosox is.

Gigabytes spec sheet claims crossfire and SLI support as well.

1000 watt power supply is likely overkill as well, even if you do plan to SLI/crossfire.

 

[mosox]

Yep, sorry for that I was looking at the UD3 or something. It doesn't have the Lucid Virtu though, if you need it.

 

[bullwinkel]

For gaming the i-5 2500K is the way to go. That motherboard can't run two video cards. If you don't need that you can get a much cheaper PSU. If you want it, get something like the Asrock Z68 Extreme4.

The GTX 580 has a bad price/performance score, you can get the MSI HD 6970 Lightning, it's overclocked and trades blows with the 580.

850W is plenty for two video cards - SeaSonic X-850 Gold

Why would an i5 be better for gaming vs an i7?

 

[Sumimi]

From what I understand.

The i7 clocks the roughly the same as an i5, before/after OCing. The only difference is that the i7 has 2-more cores to allow for faster multi-tasking and hyperthreading, not to mention the extra 2MB cache.

And to conclude this discussion, this is the revised rig (all prices are in Canadian)

CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K Quad Core Unlocked Processor LGA1155 3.3GHZ Sandy Bridge 6MB ($220.20)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 ATX LGA1155 Z68 Motherboard ($181.00)
Graphics Card: XFX Radeon HD 6970 2GB GDDR5 ($357.44)
Memory: 2x G.SKILL Eco PC3-12800 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1600 CL8-8-8-24 1.35V ($215.26)
- 16 GB Ram ^^

Power Supply: Corsair HX 850w ($219.69)
Case: Coolermaster Haf X EATX Tower ($178.25)

$1,486.38 after tax and shipping.

Thanks everyone, the previous estimate was ~1860 and I only had 8 gigs of ram.

 

[bullwinkel]

From what I understand.

The i7 clocks the roughly the same as an i5, before/after OCing. The only difference is that the i7 has 2-more cores to allow for faster multi-tasking and hyperthreading, not to mention the extra 2MB cache.

And to conclude this discussion, this is the revised rig (all prices are in Canadian)

CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K Quad Core Unlocked Processor LGA1155 3.3GHZ Sandy Bridge 6MB ($220.20)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 ATX LGA1155 Z68 Motherboard ($181.00)
Graphics Card: XFX Radeon HD 6970 2GB GDDR5 ($357.44)
Memory: 2x G.SKILL Eco PC3-12800 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1600 CL8-8-8-24 1.35V ($215.26)
- 16 GB Ram ^^

Power Supply: Corsair HX 850w ($219.69)
Case: Coolermaster Haf X EATX Tower ($178.25)

$1,486.38 after tax and shipping.

Thanks everyone, the previous estimate was ~1860 and I only had 8 gigs of ram.

The i5 and i7 SB are both quad core. The only difference I knew of was maybe additional cache along with hyper-threading on the i7

 

[Sumimi]

The i5 and i7 SB are both quad core. The only difference I knew of was maybe additional cache along with hyper-threading on the i7

I stand corrected

 

[mightymaxio]

I would still recommend a 1000 watt power supply for two cards in the future, i pull about 1150 watts with both my 470's and 4 hard drives.

 

[4745454b]

Then double check your meter maxio or get a newer/better PSU. The TDP of the 470 is 225(ish). Two in SLI would consume 450W. Lets toss in another 200W for a highly OC'd CPU and we are now at 650W. I'm not going to break out everything else, but even 75W should cover the board, RAM, drives, etc. This is only 725W. Any PSU that can output 725W on the 12V rail should be fine to use for such a system. Assuming you are using a killawatt (or other such device) remember that you are seeing what the PSU is pulling from the wall. Again assuming that you have an 80% efficient PSU that 725W should be 906.25W from the wall. If you are seeing 1150W then either your meter is off, you have some other high current devices I don't know about (12V water pump, etc) or your PSU can't do 80%.

I agree that getting the 2500(k) is the way to go. Its powerful enough for gaming, and allows more money to be spent on the GPUs. The 6970 is a good card, as is the GTX570. The Corsair HX 850W has 840 available on its 12V rail, so you should be ok with a CF setup.

 

[mosox]

^^(mightymaxio) Two 470 take less than 600W
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-470-2-3-way-sli-review/23

The games don't use HT. The 2500K and the 2600K perform the same in gaming in some games one is a bit faster, in some the other one. Only if you're doing very heavy video editing the 2600K is worth it.

The XFX is nice for lifetime warranty (you must register the card on their site within 10 days or so for that) but the non reference cards are quieter.

Get 1.5V RAM. 8GB is already overkill for gaming the rest will sit idle.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231445
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231440

 

[Sumimi]

I opted for the XFX because I am planning on OCing the rig as soon as I'm stable and the system is built.

Once again, thanks for the suggestions.

 

[bullwinkel]

^^(mightymaxio) Two 470 take less than 600W
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-470-2-3-way-sli-review/23

The games don't use HT. The 2500K and the 2600K perform the same in gaming in some games one is a bit faster, in some the other one. Only if you're doing very heavy video editing the 2600K is worth it.

The XFX is nice for lifetime warranty (you must register the card on their site within 10 days or so for that) but the non reference cards are quieter.

Get 1.5V RAM. 8GB is already overkill for gaming the rest will sit idle.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231445
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231440

That might be true but the i7 is still a better multi-tasker. If he's gaming and running other applications in the background he'll have better performance across the board.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been moved from the section CPU & Components to section Systems by Mousemonkey

 

[Sumimi]

Best answer selected by Sumimi.