Need Advice On A Gaming PC

[Khosro Jadidi]

Hello everyone!

I have decided to assemble a gaming PC with the following specs:


Approximate Purchase Date: This Week.

Budget Range: approximately 1800 US dollars.(+ - 100 $ )

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, editing pictures in Photoshop and rendering panoramic pictures, surfing the internet, listening to music.

Parts Not Required: Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, Hard drive( already own a WD VelociRaptor ), Speaker & headset, OS.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: www.inet.se ( the site is in Swedish and Google translate doesn't work, but i could translate any parts necessary.)

Country: Sweden



Parts Preferences:

Cpu: Intel Core i7 3820 3.6 GHz ( It comes with no fan, so Intel's original fan for socket 2011 is what I'm going to buy.)

Motherboard: Asus P9X79 PRO

Ram : Corsair 16GB (4x4096MB) CL9 1866Mhz DOMINATOR Quad Channel

Graphic Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 570 1280MB HD SOC

Power supply: Corsair TX 850W M 80+ Bronze

Case : Cooler Master 690 II Advanced Black

Optical Drive: Samsung Blu-Ray Writer SN-506AB black, Slim



Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080 ( Samsung TFT 22'' S22B350H LED )



Additional Comments:

1- Please comment on the overall quality and integrity of the system. Is there any part which is " out of sync " with the rest of the system?

2- I don't believe that 16GB of Ram would be necessary for me. however, my motherboard supports the Quad Channel DDR3 technology and I wanted to take advantage of it, so I decided to fill 4 slots of ram. What exactly is the advantage that I get over dual or triple channel, for using this technology?


Thank you very much!

 

[sosofm]

My advice is to buy an i7 2600k , ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271
RAM : Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148463
GPU : HIS Radeon HD 7970 3GB 384-bit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161399
You can change the video card if you want with this 7950 SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102962
Now in the same budget you will have a much better gaming PC. Because 7950 and 7970 are much better then 570.
CPU COOLER : COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

 

[Computered]

I have a very similar build I did when I reviewed the 3820. I can tell you that since you are not going to go crossfire you are gaining nothing of real value to gaming with this build over an 1155 based system. The quad channel memory is great but you need applications that will flood the memory pipeline to see the advantage and gaming is not something that does this.

While the 2600K suggested is a great chip when it comes to gaming the best pure bang for the buck is the 2500K. With overclocking you can match pretty much ANY Intel chip in raw performance and games are RARE that see the benefit of hyper threading being added.

For your planned monitor the video card you selected is fine, if not a bit of overkill as is the PSU.

Personally I would drop down to a 2500K and get a good cooler like an H60 or 620 and then put on a decent overclock. I would drop in 8 gigs of quality RAM, my personal choice is HyperX and a 120 Gig SSD for my OS and apps and a 60 Gig SSD for my STEAM account.

Put all this on a decent Z68 board and then go to town on the great gaming goodness at a reasonable price.

 

[Khosro Jadidi]

Well, thanks a lot for you answers!

One thing that I should have mentioned was the fact that I'm building this PC while thinking about upgrading the CPU in future, so I preferred to go with the 2011 socket.

Also, markets here in sweden are in no way as divers as they are in US. As a result, I don't have access to any HIS card. I can get cards from these manufacturers:

Asus- Gigabyte- MSI- PowerColor- XFX ( for AMD )

Asus - EVGA - Gigabyte - KFA2 - MSI - Sparkle ( For NVIDIA )

Plus: wasn't it so that traditionally, NVIDIA cards were better for gaming?

And Also: is ASRock a better motherboard manufacturer than ASUS?

 

[hellfire24]

all are good but for gfx my advice is MSI cause they have better cooling and overclocking.
no,Asus is best but Asrock is good too.

 

[sosofm]

With Z68 mobo you can upgrade the CPU in the future with an Ivy Bridge.

 

[hellfire24]

^yeah! that's why i prefer Z68 over P67 or other alternatives.

 

[Khosro Jadidi]

ok, I got the picture!

But considering that I don't want to overclock ( I'm not good at it, and I have damaged my pc before by overclocking!Bad memories!) would it still be a good idea to go for socket 1155 rather than 2011 considering that ivy bridge will be down the road?

I mean, isn't it so that 2011 CPUs have a completely new architecture and 1155 is just an upgrade over the old models?

sorry if I sound ignorant, but I rally didn't know about the existence of Ivy bridge, and got to read about it after your replies!

 

[sosofm]

No the 1155 socket are a totally new architecture. The Ivi Bridge will be supported by Z68 mobos and will come with new chipset P77 ,Z77.

 

[hellfire24]

if you don't wanna overclock than don't but z68 leaves a you a path for ivy bridge upgrade.

 

[Khosro Jadidi]

OK! so I did some study on the Ivy Bridge and according to what I've learnt, Intel Core i5 2500K would be a better option because:

- The performance gain from higher models is slight, meaning that it doesn't change things that much. Specially when compared in terms of price.

- What we have as the 2011 socket today, is basically the " Tock " and isn't a new tech, but an upgrade over an already existing one. However, the Ivy Bridge will be the next " Tick " and a whole new tech ( intel's first 22 nm chip ), and by having a motherboard that already supports that CPU, I can be sure about my future upgrades.( since the Ivy bridge will also be released on the same 1155 socket.)

- Intel Core i5 2500K has some sort of inbuilt graphic card, and in combination with a motherboard such as Asus P8Z68-V PRO GEN3, it would give a boost to my gaming performance. ( I think)

- Both the CPU and Motherboard are cheaper than their 2011 cousins, meaning that I could invest that money into a superior graphic card, which would give my gaming experience a much more significant improvement.

Have I understood things correctly?

 

[hellfire24]

most likely sir.that's why 2500k is the 'best bang for the buck' cpu.

 

[Khosro Jadidi]

All right! 2 last questions:

- is it true that running a ram memory in frequencies faster that 1333mhz would require manual overclocking? meaning that simply placing the memory in the slots isn't enough?

- my best choices in Sweden's market in terms of graphic cards would be:

Asus GeForce GTX 570 1280MB DirectCU II ( Almost 460 $ )

Asus GeForce GTX 580 1536MB DirectCU II ( Almost 614 $ )

Although the difference in prices is huge, according to the benchmarks that I have found, in my monitors resolution the difference in performance would be +15% at most.

Is there anything especially superior in gtx 580 compare to 570 that I couldn't find in the numbers, or is it simply the enthusiast model and therefor so expensive?

 

[hellfire24]

The i7 and i5 processors have integrated memory controllers. So the clock rate for the memory controller is specified by the processor. Despite this some i7/i5 motherboards will say they support 1600 and 2000 mhz ram this is because when you overclock an i7/i5 processor you are also overclocking the memory controller. So to answer your question if you do not overclock the processor the memory controller will run at 1333mhz.
i own a gtx 580.it's great but yeah 570 is a more value for money thing.if you can wait that get a gtx 660(580 class performance)otherwise 570 if you are not willing to pay extra cash.

 

[Khosro Jadidi]

Thanks a lot everyone! so this is going to be my final build:

Cpu: Intel Core i5 2500K 3,3GHz

Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V PRO GEN3

Ram :Corsair 8GB (2x4096MB) CL9 1333Mhz XMS3 ( I don't have access to other ram models mentioned here.)

Graphic Card: Asus GeForce GTX 570 1280MB DirectCU II

Hard drive: WD VelociRaptor

Power supply: Corsair TX 850W M 80+ Bronze

Case : Cooler Master 690 II Advanced Black

Optical Drive: Samsung Blu-Ray Writer SN-506AB black, Slim


Thank you guys! You really thought me a lot and saved me some cash!

 

[hellfire24]

all the best.close the thread by selecting a best answer.