New gaming oriented PC

[ilikegirls]

Hello,

So after selling my computer to my younger brother I started looking at building a new one and while my friend is telling me to wait for Ivy Bridge, I wanted to make a test build given that I didn't want to wait for it (or if it was delayed)

Here is what I came up with,

Case: Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel
Storage Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5"
Main Drive: OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC [I have the 60GB version now and its amazing!]
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K
Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
CPU Cooler: CORSAIR CWCH60 Hydro Series H60
Motherboard: ASRock Z68 Extreme7 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0
PSU: CORSAIR Professional Series HX750
Graphics Card: GIGABYTE GV-R787OC-2GD Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB
Optical: ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner

This computer in total is $1,580.00 and $1,600.00 is the max I am willing to go
I live in the states and I mainly use Newegg.

My question is what do you guys think,
wait for Ivy, Get this computer and change something or how it is right now?

Thanks again!

 

[g-unit1111]

Its a good start but the Antec 900 has no cable management - I would not recommend that case. It was good - say a couple years ago but definitely not now when there's far superior cases from Corsair and Fractal Design available. You also don't need the liquid cooler and I rarely ever recommend Sandforce based drives like the OCZ Agility 3 - you're far prone to errors and BSODs than anything else.

The problem with waiting for Ivy is that it's near impossible to build around hardware that doesn't exist yet - what's out now is good. As AMD proved what's going to be out may not always be what was promised - which is why I am taking a wait and see attitude toward all future hardware from here on out.

Here's my preferred $1500 build:

Case: Fractal Design Arc MIDI - $99.99
PSU: Corsair TX750 V2 - $104.99
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3H - $149.99
CPU: 3.30GHz Intel Core i5-2500K - $219.99
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo - $34.99
RAM: Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 8GB 1333MHz 1.5V - $42.99
SSD: 128GB Crucial M4 - $159.99
HD: 2TB Seagate Barracuda ST - $119.99
Optical: Lite On DVD Burner - $17.99
Video Card: EVGA Geforce GTX 680 - $499.99

Total: $1,452.89

 

[ilikegirls]

Why do you not recommend the H60

 

[Outlander_04]

No need for 16 gig of RAM for gaming . Even 8 is overkill .
Usually you'd want 1600 Mhz and 1.5 volt .

You could compromise with a Z68 mb and buy a cheap dual core i3 2100 knowing you will replace it when IB is available .


The Antec 1100 is great value and has excellent feature set including cable management

 

[g-unit1111]

Why do you not recommend the H60

Air is always safer - if a fan breaks you just replace the broken fan - if a water pipe breaks it has the potential to destroy your whole system - and you don't want to trust a $500 GPU to a cooler that can leak. A closed block is slightly safer than a fully integrated custom loop but a strong air cooler like a Hyper 212 Evo will give you the same results.

The Antec 1100 is great value and has excellent feature set including cable management

That's a good choice as well.

You could compromise with a Z68 mb and buy a cheap dual core i3 2100 knowing you will replace it when IB is available .

Yeah but why buy two CPUs when you could just buy one and be done with it? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, I'd rather put that in the GPU than the CPU - that's where you'll really notice the difference.

 

[Outlander_04]

Air is always safer - if a fan breaks you just replace the broken fan - if a water pipe breaks it has the potential to destroy your whole system - and you don't want to trust a $500 GPU to a cooler that can leak. A closed block is slightly safer than a fully integrated custom loop but a strong air cooler like a Hyper 212 Evo will give you the same results.

The copper " heat pipes" in a Hyper 212 evo are filled with water .

But that aside the Corsair H60 is not a good water cooler. The Hyper 212 will be quieter and cool better

 

[ilikegirls]

I currently have the 60 and my cpu is at 30c, so you are saying it would have been even cooler with the hyper212 cause when I had that one I was at 35c was that a miss calculation?

 

[Why_Me]

Ivy Bridge is due out April 29th.

http://www.asrock.com/microsite/PCIe3/overview.html <----- Quick and brief rundown of Ivy Bridge, PCI-E 3.0 cards and the new gen boards.


http://www.asrock.com/mb/index.asp?s=1155 <---- Those are Asrocks Z77 and Z75 board line up so far...although they are going to add more boards here soon. Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI also have their boards ready to go. They all get released with Ivy Bridge.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5626/ivy-bridge-preview-core-i7-3770k/9 <---- full review with benchmarks

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-680-overclock-guide/ <----- Overclocking the gtx 680 w/benchmarks

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbide-Series-Gaming-CC-9011012-WW/dp/B005E983JW/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1332866663&sr=1-3 $118.98 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping
Corsair Carbide Series 500R Mid Tower Gaming Case CC-9011012-WW

http://www.amazon.com/XFX-ATX-850-Power-Supply/dp/B0050751YS/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1332866828&sr=1-1 $122.75 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping
XFX ATX 850 Power Supply - P1850SNLB9

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231546 $44.99 FREE SHIPPING
G.SKILL Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9D-8GAB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099 $34.99
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler Compatible with latest Intel 2011/1366/1155 and AMD FM1/AM3+

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226236 $128.99 FREE SHIPPING
Mushkin Enhanced Chronos MKNSSDCR120GB 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121626 $499.99
ASUS GTX680-2GD5 GeForce GTX 680 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

 

[ilikegirls]

That is exactly what I was looking for!!!

I am out of the country now and wont be back until the 20th of April so waiting two weeks so I can have an Ivy bridge CPU should be worth it!

You also sold me on the 680 because from tom's reviews it looked like it was neck and neck with the 580 which is neck and neck with the 7870.

Thanks again!

 

[g-unit1111]

Ivy Bridge is due out April 29th.

http://www.asrock.com/microsite/PCIe3/overview.html <----- Quick and brief rundown of Ivy Bridge, PCI-E 3.0 cards and the new gen boards.

Yeah but I'm still not getting why you should pay for 2 CPUs - if you're going to buy now, buy now. If you're going to wait, wait. It doesn't make sense to me to buy now, upgrade later.

 

[Why_Me]

Ivy Bridge is due out April 29th.

http://www.asrock.com/microsite/PCIe3/overview.html <----- Quick and brief rundown of Ivy Bridge, PCI-E 3.0 cards and the new gen boards.

Yeah but I'm still not getting why you should pay for 2 CPUs - if you're going to buy now, buy now. If you're going to wait, wait. It doesn't make sense to me to buy now, upgrade later.

I posted those benches to give the OP an idea of what Ivy Bridge was all about. Lower watts (although not as low as I was hoping for), better FPS, HD4000 graphics (although the OP will most likely never use it), native 3.0 USB, etc... One thing I didn't see in that review though was temps. Ivy Bridge is theoretically suppose to run cooler but they didn't post the temps on there which I thought was strange seeing how just about every cpu review post them. The other thing I would like to see is how Ivy Bridge + new gen card + new gen board = PCI-E 3.0 I mean will that be a significant gain or any gain at all? I guess will have to wait for more reviews when that chip is released along with the Panther Point boards to find out. But they could have done that with the 1155 Gen 3 boards and a new gen card.

If this were an AMD release I would say buy now seeing how AMD has put out pretty much duds in the past 6+ years, but after seeing the gains on SB I figure being this close to release why not go with the latest and greatest and get the most for the $$$. Only Ivy Bridge supports PCI-E 3.0. I can't see buying now when in a month it will already be yesterday's technology.

 

[g-unit1111]

I posted those benches to give the OP an idea of what Ivy Bridge was all about. Lower watts (although not as low as I was hoping for), better FPS, HD4000 graphics (although the OP will most likely never use it), native 3.0 USB, etc... One thing I didn't see in that review though was temps. Ivy Bridge is theoretically suppose to run cooler but they didn't post the temps on there which I thought was strange seeing how just about every cpu review post them.

That's another reason why I'm taking a wait and see attitude - if you're going to properly prepare for the CPU you need to plan for the accompanying hardware accordingly.

If this were an AMD release I would say buy now seeing how AMD has put out pretty much duds in the past 6+ years, but after seeing the gains on SB I figure being this close to release why not go with the latest and greatest and get the most for the $$$. Only Ivy Bridge supports PCI-E 3.0. I can't see buying now when in a month it will already be yesterday's technology.

Certainly true about AMD putting out duds but that's only in the CPU department - I'm definitely going for the Radeon 7870 in the GPU department.

But it's not true about Ivy only supporting PCI Gen 3 - SB-E also supports PCI Gen 3.

 

[Why_Me]

I posted those benches to give the OP an idea of what Ivy Bridge was all about. Lower watts (although not as low as I was hoping for), better FPS, HD4000 graphics (although the OP will most likely never use it), native 3.0 USB, etc... One thing I didn't see in that review though was temps. Ivy Bridge is theoretically suppose to run cooler but they didn't post the temps on there which I thought was strange seeing how just about every cpu review post them.

That's another reason why I'm taking a wait and see attitude - if you're going to properly prepare for the CPU you need to plan for the accompanying hardware accordingly.

If this were an AMD release I would say buy now seeing how AMD has put out pretty much duds in the past 6+ years, but after seeing the gains on SB I figure being this close to release why not go with the latest and greatest and get the most for the $$$. Only Ivy Bridge supports PCI-E 3.0. I can't see buying now when in a month it will already be yesterday's technology.

Certainly true about AMD putting out duds but that's only in the CPU department - I'm definitely going for the Radeon 7870 in the GPU department.

But it's not true about Ivy only supporting PCI Gen 3 - SB-E also supports PCI Gen 3.

The SB-E is a jump in price from Ivy Bridge. The OP can get a nice LGA 2011 combo with the 3820 but then he screws himself on the o/c and as we saw in the benches the 3820 loses out to the Ivy Bridge in regards to gaming. Z77 board with Panther point should be about the same price as the Z68 boards...no more and no less. Same with the cpu's. It's cheaper to produce with a 22nm die. But ya it's going to be nice to see those benches with a Z77 board and Ivy Bridge. I'm looking forward to that.

 

[ilikegirls]

The SB-E is a jump in price from Ivy Bridge. The OP can get a nice LGA 2011 combo with the 3820 but then he screws himself on the o/c and as we saw in the benches the 3820 loses out to the Ivy Bridge in regards to gaming. Z77 board with Panther point should be about the same price as the Z68 boards...no more and no less. Same with the cpu's. It's cheaper to produce with a 22nm die. But ya it's going to be nice to see those benches with a Z77 board and Ivy Bridge. I'm looking forward to that.

Same here!

I cant wait for the charts to come out.

 

[Hydroc10]

I would get 2x4gb ram unless your sure you'll use 16gb, a high quality 500w-600w PSU is probably all you need, the CM Hyper 212 evo should keep your CPU cool and it's not going to be as loud. Depending on which case and hd you settle on you may be able to fit a 7950 into your budget.

I think it's a nice build. IMO a big air cooler is the way to go, I would have trouble sleeping at night with a watercooling solution.

 

[Hydroc10]

Test

 

[g-unit1111]

I would get 2x4gb ram unless your sure you'll use 16gb, a high quality 500w-600w PSU is probably all you need, the CM Hyper 212 evo should keep your CPU cool and it's not going to be as loud. Depending on which case and hd you settle on you may be able to fit a 7950 into your budget.

I think it's a nice build. IMO a big air cooler is the way to go, I would have trouble sleeping at night with a watercooling solution.

I agree - I try to play my builds fairly conservatively and don't touch a lot of experimental hardware like liquid cooling - I don't want to trust a system on any budget to a leaky water pipe. :lol:

 

[obsama1]

Get 4-8GB of RAM and replace the Extreme 7 with the Extreme4 and use the money to get a better GPU.

 

[ilikegirls]

Get 4-8GB of RAM and replace the Extreme 7 with the Extreme4 and use the money to get a better GPU.

I think you are correct like the others before you and I have changed the RAM from 16 to 8GB but I do think the H60 is a good enough cooler and its extremely quite.