Seeking Advice for i7-26000K First-Time Gaming Computer Build

[jguerrilla]

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[Pyree]

You will have better luck in the home brew section. I am going to make a request to move this thread there.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

This topic has been moved from the section Opinions and Experiences to section Systems by Area51reopened

 

[AdrianPerry]

That's one impressive build

Your motherboard allows for SLI if you ever wanted to add a second GTX580, however 900-1000w PSU is recommended for this.

16GB is overkill for your RAM. 8GB 1600MHz CL9 would be plenty for gaming.

If gaming is your primary use you could save yourself $100 or so by getting an i5-2500k. In terms of gaming performance, it is the same as the i7-2600k (since games don't make use of hyper threading).

Do you really need to sink $180 into a sound card? The motherboard comes with onboard 7.1 audio. Id at least recommend don't buy the sound card with the initial build, try the onboard audio, then if your not satisfied - buy a sound card after.

My Suggestion would be:

Drop to an i5-2500k
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
Comparison to i5: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=287

Up to a 1000w PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341045
Review Here: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story5&reid=238

Drop to 8GB RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314

Add a nice 60-120GB SSD into your build Something like Crucial M4 or Corsair Force GT.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442

 

[acasel]

forget intel BULLDOZER AMD will be released in a few days.

 

[johnners2981]

yeah i'm waitig for bulldozer benchmarks before making new build

 

[AdrianPerry]

The extra cores wont be to any advantage gaming. Its still the same 32nm chip as SandyBridge.

The only potential advantage is the cores will overclock a little higher. But since i5-2500k will already clock to 5GHz with the proper cooling, unless BullDozer is very competitive price wise, its unlikely to work out "better value for money".

 

[skratchmasta]

Awesome rig!

I would add a SSD as the ASUS P8Z68-V PRO has a SSD caching feature to get your mechanical HDD running much faster
I would recommend an Intel SSD

 

[skratchmasta]

Load your OS onto the SSD

 

[AdrianPerry]

Caching is over-rated. 120GB SSD, shove OS and all your applications on there and a few games as well and your away. Will provide leaps and bounds better performance than caching.

 

[AdrianPerry]

This Gigabyte Motherboard is comparable. They are more or less the same and the Gigabyte comes in at a cheaper price, usually.
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3912#ov

Windows 7 64-bit will take you for about 20GB, generally leaving about 30GB is recommended for your OS (leaves room for updates, patches, service packs ect). Another 10GB or so for applications, web browser and regularly used programs ect. then finally another 20GB or so for games. Leaving 60GB SSD a good budget choice.

Almost ALL in fact probably ALL motherboards (other than INTEL) for this sort of build will have UEFI BIOS.

 

[skratchmasta]

Great Advice Ill avoid using SSD caching Then .

I'm planning my 3rd build soon and The specs will be pretty much the same except with only 8gb DDR3 and swapping the GTX580 for a 570 as my budget is lower.
I'm exited about having Windows on a SSD though as it really shows how much of a bottleneck the seek time of a mechanical HDD is.
Read some reviews of SSD's though as I hear that some manufacturers build less stable ones that others particularly regarding the firmware.

 

[AdrianPerry]

That windows index score should start to show above 5.9! Haha!

 

[Sky03]

Save $30 on hdd http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

Save $100 (after rebate) on gtx 580 http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0364651

Save $25 with promo code http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157250

Review on that mobo http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4074/asrock_z68_extreme4_intel_z68_motherboard_review/index.html