Ideas for a system built for skyrim, mass Effect 3, and crysis

[thunderlord]

i am plaining on building a $1000 computer, but i really dont know where to really 2 start,

tho i am thinking of staying with with a AMD type of CPU i dono what type tho and atlest 8GB of ram, 1GB WD Hard drive thats 10,000RPM from Newegg, and staying with ATI because i always had troubles with nvida with not supporting meshes and crashes when playing MC

the case im thinking of going with is "Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case"

seems best rated... but im also thinking of doing water cooling.. (i am looking for sometihng more quite then fans... never liked them, and i wanted to keep it more so air tight so my small room dont become to hot..
(i was going after the dragon case but eh..)


thanks for reading this...
if any1 can help thanks..

 

[funguseater]

Hi Thunderlord...

While I also would like to stay with AMD the 2500k is just too good to pass up...so here are some suggestions..

COOLER MASTER Storm Scout $69.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119196

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 $159 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III 1G/OC Radeon HD 6950 $259 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127604

OCZ ZT Series 750W Fully-Modular 80PLUS $109.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341052

G.SKILL Sniper Low Voltage Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) $44.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231461

BIOSTAR TZ68A+ LGA 1155 Intel Z68 $109 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138319

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz $224.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO $34.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

Total about $1015

This will get you a PC that can overclock to around 4.4 if you wish, or run normally and the cooler will be whisper quiet. The GPU will take anything you throw at it unless you are using eye-finity then you may need to crossfire for maximum resolution. Another option is to buy a SSD (around 128GB) and just use that until HDD prices are lower next spring, OR buy a small SSD and use the cache function on the motherboard to speed up HDD performance.

Whatever you choose remember whether you use heatsink/fan or watercooling the heat is still going to vent into your room, and the small prefilled water units are sometimes louder than a traditional heatsink.

For an AMD option ----- ASRock 970 EXTREME3 AM3+ $84.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157280

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition $189 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103913

G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) $43.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231416

Total about $954

Have Fun

 

[thunderlord]

thanks, i would go with intel, but when i plain up up grading, i wantted to do with that new 8core that will b out next year.. and the risen y i was thinking water cooling even tho it is costly(?) is to keep my AMD cooler.. xD

unless u think the 2500K is more then worth it....

some say spend more like 1200 on a computer.. i dont not know y tho..
(i do want a system to last me longer then a year so i upgrade less.. =3

 

[Emelth]

Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $50.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153

Intel Core i5-2500K - $215.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 - $130.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128502

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 - $45.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428

MSI N560GTX-TI Twin Frozr II/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 - $245.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127565

Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200 RPM - $115.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148701

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus - $26.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

LITE-ON DVD Burner - $19.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289&cm_sp=Cat_CD_%26%2347%3b_DVD_Burners_%26%2338%3b_Media-_-72_Hr_Sale-_-27-106-289

CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified - $95.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - $100.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

Total: $1040 (w/o taxes/shipping/MIRs)

 

[funguseater]

If you feel the i5 might not be up to par you could get the 2600k but unless you are running heavily threaded programs (rendering/photo editing/CAD 3Dmodeling) you won't notice the difference. This system will definitely last you more than a year and as I said if you want the extra threads, its only +$100

As for water cooling... the sealed sets are ok but not tremendously better than air cooling. If you want to try out a real set up check out www.frozencpu.com

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/14183/ex-wat-182/XSPC_Rasa_750_RX360_Universal_CPU_Triple_Radiator_Water_Cooling_Kit_w_RX360_Radiator_and_Free_Kill_Coil.html?id=qVGrpILo#blank

Notice that it is fairly complicated to set up, but if you follow the print instructions AND go to their forum you shouldn't have to much trouble (buy the non-conductive coolant!!!)

My advise is to stay away from the new AMD 8core Zambezi , at least for now their performance doesn't seem up to par.

Just my opinion though, maybe someone else see's things different...

 

[thunderlord]

im plaining on doing recording of my game play and put it up on the net...

but while saying that i do plain on doing anime style drawing and painting also...

and maybe watch Blueray (not 3D tho...)

 

[funguseater]

It doesn't sound like you'll need any more "power" than the 2500k. The cost difference between an AMD 1100T system and a 2500K are very little, but the 2500k is a much better performer.

 

[Emelth]

Yeah I dont know if i7 will benefit drawings and paintings you should be good with an i5

 

[thunderlord]

thats cool, thanks for the help on the computer mates, 1 last thing


is water/ jell cooling worth it, or should i stay with air cooling and just get quiet fans or something?...

 

[funguseater]

Unless you are going to heavily overclock, I would say no , its not worth it. You can always get a fan controller and keep them turned up just enough to cool your case but not be too loud.

 

[whytej01]

i've used fns for all the computers i have built and none of them have over heated water cooling sounds a bit tricky aswell XD

 

[thunderlord]

yea i did not want to get water and all if i dont need to, and i dont think i plan to over clock them because from what i heard it kills the CPU faster.. (if theres away to stop that then i might over clock it about 30% or less i just want something to run fast with much fluidly (sp)

i might get off the market fans if i do this unless theres better fans out there...

how much does a fan controller cost?

 

[funguseater]

Yeah water-cooling is the start of a whole new hobby.

fan controllers go from $20 - $100, depends on how "fancy" you want it you can check out www.newegg.com for some. I would go for a simple one with just 4 knobs or somthing, I don't like all the bright LED faceplates.

 

[funguseater]

Have a good one , I have to head out. Good luck with the system thunderlord!

 

[thunderlord]

thanks and have a good night funguseater

 

[DelroyMonjo]

Newegg doesn't list any 1 GB drives. Do you mean 100GB or 1 TB? None of those either. This is the 21st century, get with the program. Also, ATI doesn't really exist anymore, it's AMD. A 7200 rpm HDD is quite sufficient and SSD's will get less expensive. An AMD Phenom IIX6 1100T BE will cost $190, an I5 200K is $215. Maybe 6 cores would be an advantage in Skyrim. Motherboards, RAM, other parts will cost about the same.
Hey, it's your $$$

 

[FinneousPJ]

If you want an AMD CPU it's going to be fine. A 2500K is better, but it's not as huge a difference as some people would have you believe. Both are playable, that's what matters. Note that I'd still recommend the 2500K at your budget - I'm just saying AMD is viable if you so desire

 

[romany8806]

Tom's ran a useful performance analysis of Skyrim a week ago. What it found was that Sandy Bridge CPUs run the game much better, and that it only makes good use of 2 cores - after that the benefits are only incremental. Incidentally, my 2600K @4.5 runs it just fine. A 6950 (per funguseater's suggestion) should be ample.

So - stick with Intel. You mentioned the 8 core AMD CPU arriving next year (Piledriver?). Bulldozer octocores are available now and are a small step back from Phenom II for most games (and Phenom II is a significant step back from Intel.

I'd suggest going for funguseater's Intel build, but do yourself a favour and get this motherboard instead - it's much more feature-rich and expandable and well worth the extra $15:
AsRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271

If you're leery of AsRock for some reason, Emelth's Gigabyte recommendation is pretty solid - I used this for a friend's build recently. Just be wary when choosing which of Gigabyte's bundled utilities to install - they can wreak havoc on system stability (I've experienced this on P35/Q6600 and Z68/2500K builds as well as on older builds).

Enjoy!

 

[thunderlord]

thanks.

but ya, i have not been up to pare with the up to date computers/ hardware/ ect since i no longer can afford the mags yearly..

i ment 1 TB.. just so u no. i no of a 1TB thats 10,000RPM

and i hve no idea what a SSD means (other then soild state drive to me i thought it was a HD that dont spin. (more like a flash drive.. but i dono..)

thanks.

 

[thunderlord]

on another note, im looking for a really good motherboard that give enough slots and room to upgrade things and enough places to plug new fans in..

i seen a few other boards and there around 159.99
MSI P67A-GD65 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard'

www.tomshardware.com/forum/message.php?config=tomshardwareus.inc&cat=31&post=326993&numreponse=2442792&page=1&p=1&subcat=202&sondage=0&owntopic=0#formulaire

but in the end i dono what im going.... xD

do u need and type of glue to add a better heat sink onto the CPU or does it come with it. and a anti static strip

 

[funguseater]

There are 1TB SAS server drives, but in order to use then you need an SAS controller. And the only places I seem to find these drives are places like Alibaba (like I would order anything from them). As far as I know these drives are ridiculously expensive, and not much better. It is far more practical to buy a FAST solid state drive (tranfer around 300-500 MBps and have a separate 1 TB 7200 for storage.

SSD's are Hard drives with no moving parts and as such you can transfer data at FAR greater speeds. Loading times will be dramatically reduced and your PC will boot up in seconds. Once you have one you won't believed you lived without it. I put a 64GB in an old laptop with a Pentium M loaded up windows 7 and it seems as responsive as my phenom II laptop.

SSD's are really just much smarter flash drives.

And hey, why buy a PC magazine when you have Tom's....

P.S. the board Romany8806 suggested would be perfect for your needs ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=78s1i0yoqo37 )

It has

Premium Gold Caps (2.5 x longer life time), 100% Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors
Digi Power, Advanced V8 + 4 Power Phase Design
2 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX and NVIDIA Quad SLI
Supports Intel HD Graphics Built-in Visuals
Dr. Debug, Smart Switch Design: Power/Reset/Clear CMOS Switch with LED
Support Intel Smart Response, Lucid Virtu Switchable Graphics
Supports ASRock XFast USB, XFast LAN Technologies
Supports ASRock On/Off Play, graphical UEFI, ASRock Extreme Tuning Utility (AXTU)
Combo Cooler Option (C.C.O.)
7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec), Supports THX TruStudio

 

[thunderlord]

what SSD would fit me? thats a hole new areai no nothing about.. xD

 

[funguseater]

For the past year I have been using this ADATA drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211471 . It still performs like it did when new, and delivers about 250 MB/sec.

Even with Windows, Skyrim, BF3 and Civ5 and my productivity sofware there is still 60GB free space (you never want to fill up your SSD all the way).

If I was going to buy a new one I would probably go with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227706 .BUT you must update the firmware to the latest BIOS for the drive. The manufacturer has detailed instructions on their forums.

 

[thunderlord]

do i still need a hard drive with with or get both when the time comes?.. (since right now i can only afford 1 or the other.. and i download alot of videos onto my computer from youtube and i plan on editing alot (when i get the art tablet.)

 

[funguseater]

In that case just I would get a good Hard Drive like the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185 . 1600 reviews and 4/5 eggs is pretty good! Nobody knows how much more Hard Drive prices are going to go up for the next year, that's why I would buy it now

Then you can get an SSD later on and hopefully they will get cheaper.