Building New Rig for Livestream (League of Legends) need advice!

[w1rex]

I am currently selling my old PC (http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/102837-8-selling-gaming-desktop-e8400-core-2ghz-4870-crossfire) which plays current games on high settings fine but is not meant to handle livestream on own3d.tv as I need a more powerful build possibly incorporating the newer i5/i7 series CPUs. Therefore, my primary goal will be streaming my games through Xsplit live to other League of Legends players, so I will need a PC that can keep me at or above 60FPS ingame with no lag, while simultaneously being able to handle a stream at 30FPS streaming at the quality of 1024x768 or above.

I've already upgraded my internet to a service which provides 30mbps UP and 5mbps DOWN, so all that's left is to build the right PC. I appreciate any input at all on the parts I've chosen and suggestions on what I should change.

What I have in mind so far:

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072)
SHIPPED - I have ordered and received this part.

Motherboard: ASRock P67 Pro3 B3 Intel P67 ATX DDR3 2133 Motherboard
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004R9PCNK/ref=oh_o01_s00_i01_details)
SHIPPING SOON - I have this item on hold, not shipped, and am seeking advice. It seems to be a good choice to support the i5 processor though.

RAM: Corsair Vengeance Blu 8 GB (2X4 GB) PC3-12800 1600mHz DDR3 240-Pin SDRAM Dual Channel Memory Kit
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004QBUL1C/ref=oh_o01_s00_i02_details)
SHIPPING SOON - I have this item on hold, not shipped, and am seeking advice. But I do plan to use 8GB (2 x 4GB) on this new rig.

Graphics card: EVGA 01G-P3-1561-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604)
PENDING - I have not ordered this item yet, and am seeking advice. I will reuse one of my 4870s from my old PC if I sell that PC as a single GPU system instead of a crossfire system.

Case: Antec Three Hundred/Antec Two Hundred
This case is the one I used to build my E8400 rig and I am really familiar with its aesthetics and strengths/weaknesses. I plan to use a new Antec 300 to put everything together. However, I have also heard good things about the NZXT Phantom and am still open to advice on any other popular cases. I have limited space at home as I plan to have my computer sitting on the desk next to my monitor rather than on the floor (it's a personal thing about not having anything on the floor) so I plan to use a MidTower, or a smaller FullTower that is quiet, easy-to-clean but also having enough space to fit all of my parts comfortably. However, I can make adjustments if a MidTower seems out of the question for this build and am able to adjust to having a FullTower. Speaking of which, what are the benefits of having a FullTower or a MidTower? My hard drive choice is also bundled with a free Antec Two Hundred case, so I may just use that but it is quite small.

PSU: Antec EarthWatts Series EA-750 Green 750W ATX12V v2.3
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371051)
NOT YET ORDERED - Pending decision. I don't know how much watts I'll need to power this system, though since I plan to have it as a single GPU system it shouldn't be more than 700W right? I haven't payed much attention to selecting a good PSU, but this seemed to be a popular buy from Newegg.

HDD: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185)
NOT YET ORDERED - Cheap Hard drive choice, and through newegg it comes with a free Antec 200 case that I can use for my build!


DVD Drive: ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204)
NOT YET ORDERED - I'll just use something cheap. I don't plan to use it much other than to install Windows 7, lol.

Monitor: ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 ASCR 20000:1 (1000:1) W/Speakers, VESA Compatible
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236052)
NOT YET ORDERED - Seems like the most popular 1080p monitor available on newegg. Price is reasonable too and reviews are good.

** As I've mentioned in the comments below some of my selected PC parts, if I can't sell my old PC, I will probably re-use some of the parts such as the ATI 4870 Video Cards, the 1.5TB Seagate HD, the DVD Drive and the 750W Thermaltake PSU. But I do plan to replace the CPU, Motherboard and upgrading my RAM from 4GB (2 x 2GB) to 8GB (2 x 4GB).

Anyway, thank you to anyone who takes time out to look over my choices so far and leaves some constructive feedback. My last rig was built on a whim, but surprisingly it has lasted me these past four years (built: August 2008) although I feel that I need to consult the wiser folks on this forum who know much more than I do about computers in order to build a strong system that will get the job done.

P.S. My primary source of income will be from streaming my games and from playing tournaments after I build this new computer, so this rig is really important to me and it is extremely essential that I get the build "right." Thank you again to those that choose to help!

 

[Raiddinn]

Wow, a gaming celebrity. I would be glad to assist.

Anyway, I have been working on a guide for people to use when choosing parts for a new build which hasn't yet been submitted to the site, but which should be in a while with a little more editing work.

www.lifetimeprogress.net/files/pcplanningguide.doc

Feel free to look over it and see if some of it can help.

It is targeted at people that are on budgets and on having the computer work right the first time straight out of the box with little or no configuration required.

It goes into detail on each subject about the considerations one should be focusing on for each part.

Some parts are quite lengthy at the moment, but it should be a fairly quick to read it and work through it.

 

[w1rex]

Wow, a gaming celebrity. I would be glad to assist.

Anyway, I have been working on a guide for people to use when choosing parts for a new build which hasn't yet been submitted to the site, but which should be in a while with a little more editing work.

www.lifetimeprogress.net/files/pcplanningguide.doc

Feel free to look over it and see if some of it can help.

It is targeted at people that are on budgets and on having the computer work right the first time straight out of the box with little or no configuration required.

It goes into detail on each subject about the considerations one should be focusing on for each part.

Some parts are quite lengthy at the moment, but it should be a fairly quick to read it and work through it.

Haha >.< no, no we're merely humble gamers glad to entertain the community and provide a competitive atmosphere. It's a pretty modest activity haha. According to your guide (which was well-written, even though you've mentioned it is in-progress) 8GB of RAM should be decent, and my choice to stay with the i5 2500k instead of spending $100 more to get the i7 2600k was a good idea. I plan to use a single GPU as to cut back on power usage so I can go with a PSU that's reasonably priced, however I have no idea how to gauage how much power I'll actually need to run my system. The i5 2500k, plus a GTX 560ti ~ I'm thinking 600/700W should be safe?

I really appreciate the feedback, it seems like my choices have aligned nicely with your recommendations. I just need to find a buyer for my old PC and I should have no problem building my new one. Please do reply if there are any additional comments that might help me as I still have time to change my mind on some of the parts that have not yet shipped (pretty much everything besides the CPU). To save money, I've chosen to sell my old PC with one 4870 and keep the other one to install on my new system. Perhaps in a few months I'll upgrade to the 560, but $249.99 is pretty steep for my wallet at the moment. Conversely, I could sell my old system with the crossfire ready to go (both cards included) and maybe up the price $50 or so meaning I'd only need to spend about $200 extra for the GTX 560ti.

Update: I've updated my build to include a DVD Burner.

 

[Raiddinn]

There have been benchmark tests showing that just one 560 TI at load on a full system is only about 300w.

Many things factor into this, including all the extra peripherals that will be plugged into a system and all that, but I think you would be just fine with an XFX Pro 550w Core. That gives you plenty of juice and over the years as the performance degrades it should still be well north of the requirements of the system.

Keep in mind that XFX PSUs are conservatively rated, many times more than their max load can be drawn from them without having them blow up, unlike many other brands.

The 560 TI is about even with the 6950 and is a go to graphics card for those who don't want to start paying the really steep price hikes for cards more powerful. It is in the sweet spot for both budget and performance and should serve well.

Anyway, I have tried to include everything necessary in the guide to make informed choices, but if you have any other questions feel free. I am packing up for international travel atm, but I will try to respond within a few hours.

I would consider using Crucial RAM as I have described in the guide, though. It is a step above most other RAM and its easy to choose with the online tool.

 

[w1rex]

There have been benchmark tests showing that just one 560 TI at load on a full system is only about 300w.

Many things factor into this, including all the extra peripherals that will be plugged into a system and all that, but I think you would be just fine with an XFX Pro 550w Core. That gives you plenty of juice and over the years as the performance degrades it should still be well north of the requirements of the system.

Keep in mind that XFX PSUs are conservatively rated, many times more than their max load can be drawn from them without having them blow up, unlike many other brands.

The 560 TI is about even with the 6950 and is a go to graphics card for those who don't want to start paying the really steep price hikes for cards more powerful. It is in the sweet spot for both budget and performance and should serve well.

Anyway, I have tried to include everything necessary in the guide to make informed choices, but if you have any other questions feel free. I am packing up for international travel atm, but I will try to respond within a few hours.

I would consider using Crucial RAM as I have described in the guide, though. It is a step above most other RAM and its easy to choose with the online tool.

You've helped so much already, thank you. I'll wait around a day or two before finalizing the rest of my order incase anyone else feels like they want to add anything to this thread. Have a good trip and once again, thank you! I will use the crucial RAM you have suggested. And perhaps a 600W core will be sufficient just to be on the safe side. I'm actually laughing at myself now for having a 700W core in the PC I'm using right now. Maybe it wasn't even used properly.. well it wasn't too expensive so I guess I can live with that.

 

[Raiddinn]

The Thermaltake brand rates their PSUs using aggressive standards, so their PSUs can generally be expected to put out a lot less power than the label says.

Here is a PSU review from a 750w model from the Coolmax brand that blew up during testing when the reviewer tried to pull more than 450w from it under regular conditions:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/977

The manufacturer probably did their 750w test in a room with sub-zero temperatures in order to be able to get 750w from it. For those people with rooms that are room temperature ~70f, it blows up at a much lower wattage rating.

Here is a review from a Thermaltake 750w that shows it passing at 60% wattage (440w) but failing on the next text with 80% wattage (584w).

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Thermaltake-TR2-RX-750-W-Power-Supply-Review/902/7

Additionally, if you scroll down that page, you see some charts that show what the worst sort of dirty 12v power looks like. This maximizes the likelihood of the PSU destroying the video card, motherboard, hard drive, and so on.

Here is a review of an XFX 650w with a pass on 100% of stated wattage and good (but not spectacular) ripple charts.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/XFX-PRO-650-W-Power-Supply-Review/1165/7

The next page in that article

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/XFX-PRO-650-W-Power-Supply-Review/1165/8

Shows that the reviewer cranked up the power it was pulling from the 650w XFX to well beyond its stated wattage. They were able to get it up to 815 without blowing the 650w XFX up.

When I mentioned in the article that PSUs weren't commodity products, it was true.

In any event, you were probably using under 350w off of the 700w which is probably why it managed OK.

In any event, XFX usually goes only with wattages that end with 50 so you may have to choose between 450, 550, 650, 750, and 850, but I would lean on the conservative side towards the 550 or maybe even the 450.

Unless you are seriously considering SLIing, anyway (which I wouldn't).

The way things are going in video cards, the manufacturing processes are able to do more with a smaller physical space (32 nm vs 45 nm manufacturing, etc) which means there is potentially less physical distance to travel on the card to get from one component to another.

Furthermore, this means that less power can be used to accomplish the same thing. To get a 1 from one side of a long metal pipe requires more volts than if the pipe were shorter.

This is why my old 4870 card used a lot more wattage than my new 6850, even though my 6850 is quite a lot more powerful (50%ish more FPS).

Future graphics cards will probably use even less power than current cards do (28 nm vs 32 nm manufacturing) while still accomplishing more.

Anyway, I feel pretty conservative in suggesting a 550w.

 

[w1rex]

Anyway, I feel pretty conservative in suggesting a 550w.

Okay that will definitely save me some money. XFX 550W sounds really nice.