< $4K Enthusiast Rig for Gaming

[Kierstad]

sorry, missed the template but here is what I have so far:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Approximate Purchase Date: 10/12/2011 (or sooner)

Budget Range: ~$4K USD

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming (hard core gamer), Movies (already have four other systems for development and testing) , Game Play Capture using a BlackMagic PCI Express card...worried about slot space on that one..

Parts Not Required: Monitor (unless I find one with a larger screen and higher res than 1920x1080 - 59" Plasma)

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg Preferred Account

Country of Origin: USA

Parts Preferences: Prefer Intel + nVidia (bad history with AMD drivers and support)

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Yes / Maybe

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080 (but open to suggestions)

Additional Comments: Needs to be somewhat quiet (but could always add noise dampening later), needs to be stable, modular for ease of upgrades and maintenance, good airflow in case

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



I'm struggling...

I'm trying to determine what the best route to go is for building a new system to handle upcoming games (BF3/Batman Arkham City/Skyrim/etc) and don't want to really deal with settling for something that will run ok at medium settings.

I'm looking at spending hopefully less than $4K USD, but I'm just not sure what direction to take...

I've had bad history with AMD, so I'm kind of hesitant to look at the ATI cards.

My initial thoughts were looking at getting the following:
Intel Core i7 2600k
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070

(2) Gigabyte GV-N590D5-3GD-B GTX 590s (unsure if I'd have room to throw a third card in for dedicated PhysX??)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125398

(2) OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SSD (1 for os/boot, 1 for game/apps) - Already have NAS data storage so not worried about extra
space
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227706


Titanium Sound Card (not sure if this is really needed as I game on a 59" 1080p Plasma with a Bose Surround sound
System...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102021


Any thoughts? is this viable, or is it overkill to get 70+ fps with these?

Updated to remove incompatible hardware...still trying to find replacement motherboard/memory. Will be updating video cards soon...
-Jason

 

[bloodcraze]

Personally, I wouldn't go with 590's, 3 580's would not only save you a bunch of money, but it also will give the same results.

 

[WR2]

Hello Kierstad;

Only the single 59" 1920x1080 resolution monitor?
No AMD EyeFinity or NVidia 3D Surround triple monitor setup?

 

[Kierstad]

Personally, I wouldn't go with 590's, 3 580's would not only save you a bunch of money, but it also will give the same results.

Any cards in particular that you would recommend?

Also, with three 580s requiring the space in between for air flow (I'm not entirely crazy about liquid cooling), would I have room left over for at least the Soundblaster Titanium? Doubt there'd be room for the HDMI Capture card :/

 

[Kierstad]

Hello Kierstad;

Only the single 59" 1920x1080 resolution monitor?
No AMD EyeFinity or NVidia 3D Surround triple monitor setup?

Heh, I used to use my (3) 24" 120hz 3d monitors, but it was more frustrating than it was worth. I spent hours trying to get the glasses configured right, only to run into performance issues with my current system:

Core i7 920 OC'd 3.4GHZ
12GB DDR3 1333 Ram
Velociraptor Drive
(2) GTX 460s in SLI

Just didn't have enough power to give playable frame rates for me.

 

[WR2]

Your ASUS P6T7 WS Supercomputer X58 socket 1366 motherboard is a type mismatch with the Core i7-2600K CPU which is a socket 1156 P67/Z68 CPU.

 

[WR2]

Since you mentioned 2x GTX 590s I thought you were headed in the triple monitor direction.
Still have the monitors?

 

[cmadrid]

You're going to need a Z68 or P67 motherboard to go with a sandybridge CPU..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157269

You should be fine with 2 580s, but if you really want something to spend your money on the Mars 2 is sexy

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.751418

you can only buy it in a combo at newegg.

 

[cmadrid]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121429

2x of those should run everything you throw at it

 

[Kierstad]

Your ASUS P6T7 WS Supercomputer X58 socket 1366 motherboard is a type mismatch with the Core i7-2600K CPU which is a socket 1156 P67/Z68 CPU.

Doh thanks for catching that. I'll have to find a different one...or possibly a different cpu? I think the main reason i was looking at that one was the number of pcie slots.

--- Edit ---
Details show that it's 1155?

 

[Kierstad]

Since you mentioned 2x GTX 590s I thought you were headed in the triple monitor direction.
Still have the monitors?

Yes, still have the monitors...one of which has been collecting some dust :/

 

[Kierstad]

You're going to need a Z68 or P67 motherboard to go with a sandybridge CPU..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157269

You should be fine with 2 580s, but if you really want something to spend your money on the Mars 2 is sexy

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.751418

you can only buy it in a combo at newegg.

I looked at the mars II but it just seems massively expensive for what you get out of it. And I don't necessarily like the combos they have built around it.

With the 2 580s though, would that get bogged down with trying to run things on high/ultra settings or worse yet if I did ever try 3d again?

 

[clarkjd]

The P6T7 will NOT work with the I7-2600k. The motherboard is a LGA 1366 board and the CPU requires an LGA 1155 board.


Edit... Boy thats what I get for not refreshing often enough. EVERYBODY beat me with the socket mismatch!

 

[Kierstad]

The P6T7 will NOT work with the I7-2600k. The motherboard is a LGA 1366 board and the CPU requires an LGA 1155 board.

Yes, that was pointed out earlier...updating it now so it doesn't add to my own confusion...thanks!

 

[WR2]

I looked at the mars II but it just seems massively expensive for what you get out of it. And I don't necessarily like the combos they have built around it.

With the 2 580s though, would that get bogged down with trying to run things on high/ultra settings or worse yet if I did ever try 3d again?

Just 1 GTX 580 should outperform 2x GTX 460 in SLI all by itself.

 

[cmadrid]

I wouldn't buy the Mars 2 either.. unless I had just recently hit the lotto lol

 

[WR2]

--- Edit ---
Details show that it's 1155?

1155 is correct - sorry about that 1156 typo.

 

[Kierstad]

1155 is correct - sorry about that 1156 typo.

No problem, just wanted to make sure I was seeing it correctly too.

So, I looked at the ASRock that cmadrid suggested, the only downside is it looks like I could only go 2-way SLI, not 3, nor would I be able to fit the Titanium and HDMI Capture card in...bummer.

 

[clarkjd]

No problem, just wanted to make sure I was seeing it correctly too.

So, I looked at the ASRock that cmadrid suggested, the only downside is it looks like I could only go 2-way SLI, not 3, nor would I be able to fit the Titanium and HDMI Capture card in...bummer.

Also the 1155 motherboards are only dual channel for the memory, so you need to get a dual channel kit and you would be limited to 16 GB of RAM.

 

[Kierstad]

Also the 1155 motherboards are only dual channel for the memory, so you need to get a dual channel kit and you would be limited to 16 GB of RAM.

Yeah, just noticed that...how much of a difference would that be though? i.e. Triple channel vs Dual Channel?

 

[Kierstad]

I'm starting to wonder why I should go with Core i7 2600k socket 1155?

Is it forwards compatibility with the new processors slated next year?

In my current system I have a Core i7 920 OC'd to only 3.2GHZ (haven't had time to really get deep into overclocking to know what the right settings are without frying it ).

 

[clarkjd]

Yeah, just noticed that...how much of a difference would that be though? i.e. Triple channel vs Dual Channel?

Performance wise, not much. most games won't use over 4 GB anyway,

 

[Kierstad]

Performance wise, not much. most games won't use over 4 GB anyway,

Hmm odd because a certain game I'm beta testing right now is swapping to RAM heavily (but maybe that's my outdated video cards causing that). I think my current cards only have ~1GB memory per card. Last time I was logged in for over three hours ram usage was over 4.6GB, not huge, but rather be safe than sorry lol.

 

[WR2]

Triple Channel vs Dual Channel RAM is less important than the overall performance of the CPU.
That's part of the reason a Dual Channel Core i7-2600K quad core can outperform a Triple Channel Core i7-970 hex core in many applications (games especially).

 

[WR2]

Hmm odd because a certain game I'm beta testing right now is swapping to RAM heavily (but maybe that's my outdated video cards causing that). I think my current cards only have ~1GB memory per card. Last time I was logged in for over three hours ram usage was over 4.6GB, not huge, but rather be safe than sorry lol.

The point of having RAM is to use it - which Win 7 does pretty well. That 4.6GB RAM usage is not limited to the game in progress.