Building home PC minus a few pieces

[friskybadoo]

I am going to be building a home PC mainly for gaming- Wow especially. Built time is Sept/Oct most likely

Have Nvidia 560Ti superclocked video card- going to add another down the road
Going to buy a SSD later.

Budget is $650-725 approx. for now with adding the above pieces when I get taxes back in Feb/March

Thoughts are this:

Intel i5 3570 for Processor
mid tower case
750 Psu- at least bronze
16GB memory for now-
DVD/CD drive

Motherboard desires- 32GB or more memory capable, 2 video cards (2nd added next year)
Want to overclock the CPU and memory.

Is a thunderbolt capable motherboard worth it?

I have never built a PC so any recommendations are welcome.

 

[Guest]

you do not need more than 8 gigs of RAM to game; 16 gigs is for a video editing machine.

overclocking RAM only provides a performance increase when benchmarking, getting 1600 RAM is the wall, anything past that will have diminishing returns.

thunderbolt? what for? gaming? no.

 

[friskybadoo]

you do not need more than 8 gigs of RAM to game; 16 gigs is for a video editing machine.

overclocking RAM only provides a performance increase when benchmarking, getting 1600 RAM is the wall, anything past that will have diminishing returns.

thunderbolt? what for? gaming? no.

MY understanding is WoW loads into memory. Looking ahead IF WoW releases the 64 bit client they have been BETA testing would having 2 graphics cards and the additional memory give me better performance for it. 90% of the gaming will be WoW.
Overclocking th eCPU and memroy will not help? And will not give better performance for WoW?

 

[Guest]

MY understanding is WoW loads into memory. Looking ahead IF WoW releases the 64 bit client they have been BETA testing would having 2 graphics cards and the additional memory give me better performance for it. 90% of the gaming will be WoW.
Overclocking th eCPU and memroy will not help? And will not give better performance for WoW?

having 2 cards as opposed to one would increase the performance but games of today still do not use more than 4 gigs of RAM except BF3 multiplayer which can use up to 5. again, 8 gigs is more than enough.

overclocking the cpu will help but going past 1600 RAM will only increase benchmarking, nothing in real world usage.

timings are more important than speed.

 

[friskybadoo]

you do not need more than 8 gigs of RAM to game; 16 gigs is for a video editing machine.

overclocking RAM only provides a performance increase when benchmarking, getting 1600 RAM is the wall, anything past that will have diminishing returns.

thunderbolt? what for? gaming? no.

Thank you!

Any motherboard recommendations?
I want this PC to be useable for 4 years hopefully. The Thunderbolt etc is more looking to make the motherboard have some upward capabilities for the next year or two potentially. I realize the features may or may never be used.

If I go with a less expensive mothboard would you go witha SSD for OS and WoW? That was recommended to me.

 

[J_E_D_70]

Overclocking the CPU may help (you need the -K version of the 3570 since the non-Ks are clock-blocked), but memory not so much.

Definitely don't need more than 8GB RAM for WoW, even 64-bit. You can go 16GB just because it's cheap. May not help, but shouldn't hurt.

Two GPUs will work but I usually lean towards one more powerful card. But, since you already have a 560ti getting a second one might not be bad.

 

[Guest]

ASRock Z77 Extreme4 $124.99

that is a great economical motherboard. it has quite a few more features that mobos in the price range lack, such as more power phases for more stable overclocking of a "K" series cpu.

anything with thunderbolt on it is too expensive IMO.

 

[friskybadoo]

Thank you- another question. How large of a power supply. I was thinking a 750 bronze would be fine. The 3570 CPU - thoughts for mostly gaming- wow?

 

[Guest]

a quality 500 - 550 watt PSU is enough for any single graphics cars system; such as seasonic, corsair, antec, silverstone, XFX, some rosewells, and pc power & cooling.

don't get thrown off by the total wattage but how many amps are on the 12 volt rail. consider this benchmark:

that is with a older i7 set up that will draw more power. not all of that will be on the 12 volt rail but lets put it there. 358 watts/ 12 volts= 30 amps slightly rounded up.

so a 550 with 30 amps on the 12 volt rail will be fine.

 

[friskybadoo]

ok want the power supply to be able to handle 2 of the nvidia cards- 560ti or even 600 series.

Was thinking the Thermaltake 650 or 750? the W0382RU for example

 

[Guest]

thermaltakes are horrible.
seasonic, corsair, antec, silverstone, XFX, some rosewells, and pc power & cooling.

 

[friskybadoo]

Thank you. Do you think the 750 is the right size though for 2 nvidia cards. Or should I ask is one video card all thats reallyneeded for WoW?

 

[Guest]

Thank you. Do you think the 750 is the right size though for 2 nvidia cards. Or should I ask is one video card all thats reallyneeded for WoW?

i would like to suggest this 750 watt PSU:
XFX 750W PRO750W Core Edition $99.99
After Mail In Rebate: $74.99

it is a little overkill for a single 560ti. but considering that most of the time two cards are better than one, if you find that playing WoW with a single card isn't all that you will have room to get another one. this is assuming you have one now.

 

[friskybadoo]

parts:

CPU: Intel core i5-3570
CPU cooler: Cool Master yper 212 EVO
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155
Memory: G Skill ripjaws x series 8GB (2 x 4gb) DDR3=1866
Hard Drive: Western Digital RE4 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM 64mb cache
Case: Zalman Z11 Plus ATX mid tower
Power supply: XFX 750W Pro750W Core Edition
Optical drive: Plextor PX-L890SA DVD-CD Writer


I have monitor, keyboard, mouse, video card, I own own PNY Nvidia 560TI superclocked

 

[Guest]

you're ready to SLI when you want to:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Extreme4/?cat=Specifications
2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots (PCIE2/PCIE3: single at x16 (PCIE2) / x8 (PCIE3) or dual at x8/x8 mode)

andXFX 750W PRO750W Core Edition
PCI-Express Connectors: 2 x 6-Pin, 2 x 6+2-Pin

 

[edtheguy]

Thank you!

Any motherboard recommendations?
I want this PC to be useable for 4 years hopefully. The Thunderbolt etc is more looking to make the motherboard have some upward capabilities for the next year or two potentially. I realize the features may or may never be used.

If I go with a less expensive mothboard would you go witha SSD for OS and WoW? That was recommended to me.

An expert on these very forums suggested I include an SSD in my first build that I was doing with/for my son.

Best advice I had. It is a 3570k with 8gb ram and a gtx 670 that loads pretty fast from the hdd, but blazes through loads from the ssd.

To say that the SSD makes loading times 'snappy' would be a vast understatement.