DFILL450

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Sep 10, 2012
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So, I worked this summer and saved up about 6k. I'm willing to spend about 4-5k of that for a PC build/set up. First I guess I should tell you what I plan to do with my PC. I'm going to be gaming at 2560x1440 because I plan on getting the Samsung Series 9 monitor. I'm also going to be using it for audio production, using programs like Sonar, Pro Tools, and FL Studio. And I'm planning on learning how to program games using C++. Also, possible video editing using Adobe Premiere Elements if I ever shoot a music video for youtube.

So, with all that in mind I'm trying to decide whether I should get the i5 3570k or the i7 3770k. I think the only program that would really benefit from hyperthreading would be Sonar or Adobe, but I'm not really sure if it would be that significant. I plan on recording with Sonar a lot so it might be worth getting the i7.

The problem I'm having though is that I've read that hyperthreading can hurt gaming performance. For some reason I feel like I would be paranoid leaving hyperthreading on while gaming, so I don't feel like having to turn it off before gaming and then back on when recording music. If i get the i5 then I don't have to worry about this.

This is why I'm not really sure if I should go with the i5 or the i7. Any thoughts?

Also, I'm going to be buying a GTX 690 for gaming at 2560x1440. With a graphics card this powerful would an i7 even be a hinderance with gaming?

This leads me to my next concern. Is gaming at 2560x1440 really worth it? I have the money to do it, but between a GTX 690 and the Samsung monitor it's $2200. A GTX 660ti and aTN panel at 1920x1080 would be about $500-600. So is it worth the $1700 difference?

Any help on these issues would be greatly appreciated

Total Build So Far
Cpu: i5 3570k or i7 3770k
Gpu: GTX 690 (or 660ti if I don't go for 2560x1440)
Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth x77
SSD: Samsung 830 512 gb
Cooler: Noctua NH-D14
DVD Drive: Lite-On Lightscribe 24X
PSU: Seasonic X Series 1250W
Ram: 8gb G skill Ripjaws X
Case: Cooler Master Storm Trooper
Monitor: Samsung S27B970D
Speakers: Bose Companion 5
Keyboard: Das Keyboard Media Controls (Brown or Blue?)
Mouse: ?
 
Solution
ok, with that kind of budget, here's my 10 cents...

for gaming =
1. i5 3570K/i7 3770K + GTX 690 is excellent for 2560 x 1440
2. i5 3570K/i7 3770K + GTX 690/660 Ti is excellent for 1920 x 1440
3. For gaming alone, the i5 3570K is enough.

for audio/video rendering =
1. i7 3770K is the fastest. Though the i5 3570K is only 30% slower.

both of these cpus are overclockable (OC). imagine how much speed and effectiveness if you OC both of these cpu to 4.5 ghz..

that is of course, if you want to OC.

i would suggest to just buy the i7 3770K. the Hyperthreading wont affect much gaming-wise.

1depp1

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Jul 12, 2012
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ok, with that kind of budget, here's my 10 cents...

for gaming =
1. i5 3570K/i7 3770K + GTX 690 is excellent for 2560 x 1440
2. i5 3570K/i7 3770K + GTX 690/660 Ti is excellent for 1920 x 1440
3. For gaming alone, the i5 3570K is enough.

for audio/video rendering =
1. i7 3770K is the fastest. Though the i5 3570K is only 30% slower.

both of these cpus are overclockable (OC). imagine how much speed and effectiveness if you OC both of these cpu to 4.5 ghz..

that is of course, if you want to OC.

i would suggest to just buy the i7 3770K. the Hyperthreading wont affect much gaming-wise.
 
Solution

ohyouknow

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Nov 18, 2011
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i7 3770k. Yea go for it. If you're gonna edit and render videos you should.

Pick up a GTX 680 + either 1080p or higher monitor and it will suit you just fine.

If you want best gaming performance at higher resolutions and can live without CUDA, HD 7970 should be considered. xfiring them would give you great performance and shave off close to $200 over a 690.
 

1depp1

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Jul 12, 2012
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dude, he said he's gonna buy GTX 690 man.. thats like the fastest shitt ever...
 

Tavo_Nova

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Dec 31, 2011
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actually just shoot with what you have in mind they are pretty decent.

go with seasonic,corsair psu ^___^ at least HX850W 80plus silver or higher from corsair(gold or so) and x760 80plus gold or 850 from seasonic just to look sweet.

as a gtx690 would look slick on 80plus silver.gold.bronze psu.

you don't need x-1250 80plus gold from seasonic even a 760w will do their 80plus gold.

but hey if you just want to look leet and go for it, go ^__^

for keyboard go for brown (nice touch for gaming and also nice for typing)

for mouse, I have used a couple so far

roccat kone+, razer mamba, mamba 2012, death adder, imperator 4g, sai, sensei, g900, naga,rat 7 albino

so that the ones that I liked were roccat kone+, mamba 2012, imperator, and sensei and rat 7 albino

for mouse pad, have only used a few

roccat alumic, razer vespula, razer goliath (big one) and some crappy cheap mouse pads

so far the alumic and goliath was great for me. (using roccat kone+ with alumic and death adder or imperator on goliath is good)

everything else looks really good. update us on how your build went ^_^

 

djscribbles

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Apr 6, 2012
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+1 to that. Multimonitor is the way to go for productivity (especially coding). You don't need to go too fancy on the extras monitor(s), 1680x1050, 1920x1080 (or even 1024x768). The goal is to prevent context switching (for you, mentally), when your coding, you can keep reference code, MSDN, or other resources on the second monitor, and look back and forth as needed. With a single monitor, you end up losing your concentration in all the alt tabbing. You don't have to run these as a eyefinity type array.

The i7 may help you out, it really depends how much time you spend waiting on things such as encoding music/video; and how much that 30% speed boost from the i7 matters. I wouldn't worry about it hurting your gaming performance; it doesn't have a benefit for gaming, but if it reduces performance at all, it will be extremely minimal; the question is whether it is worth the money for you.


Perhaps things have changed lately, but prior to the 660Ti, the 670 was considered the best value; the 680 was minimal benefit for the extra 100$ (by that logic, the 690, which is 2x680s, is marginally better than 2x670s). It seems like you would benefit from dropping the 400$ on a 670 now; and keeping a bit set aside to buy another 670 if you ever feel the need. Planning ahead, get a solid 750W-800W PSU so you can upgrade if you need to some time later (the brands 1depp1 are good, http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx along with tier2+ listed here). Alternatively, just get a single 680, you can always add another later, and it's the same price and performance of a 690; it just doesn't come as a single package (the 690 is still an SLI setup even though it's physically one card).

edit: bumped the psu recommendation up by 50w just to swing on the safe side; you could probably do some research and find that 800W is overkill, but I haven't done that research, so I'd rather error on the side of safety :)

 

djscribbles

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While a basic 80 plus is definately a must; and higher 80plus ratings are generally a good indicator of higher quality; I wouldn't worry too much about the 80 plus rating, the efficiency increase is minimal compared to the extra costs. The higher 80 plus ratings are primarily beneficial for business who can save a significant amount of power by using higher efficiency supplies across their whole fleet. For a user, an extra 7 or 8% efficiency is probably going to save you only a few dollars a year.
 

L1ghtF00t

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Sep 5, 2012
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here's my build (it is definitely a hardcore gaming rig), maybe it will give you some ideas. i am still deciding on changing a couple of these components and i still need to look for a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. but this should give you an idea of what you can get for about 5k -6k (if you build it yourself):

and a few tips:
1. The 3960X Extreme is not worth the extra 500 or so bucks, so go with the 3930k if you can afford it.
2. 2, GTX 690s will perform about 30 to 40% better then 2, GTX 680s, but you won't notice the improvement when playing games and 2, GTX 680s will save you about 800 bucks.

my build so far comes out to be about 5.5k, but i still have to make some minor changes to the build like i said, but i wouldn't expect it to go over 6k; it might even go down depending on what i end up getting.
anyways, just some ideas, here you go, you're welcome, don't mention it.

Hardware –

Computer Case: $399.99
LIAN LI PC-P80NB Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Motherboard: $469.98
ASUS Rampage IV Extreme LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard

Processor: $599.98
Intel Core i7-3930K Sandy Bridge-E 3.2GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 2011 130W Six-Core Desktop Processor BX80619i73930K

RAM: $489.98
(2 Sets) CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M4A2400C9R

Graphics Card: $1357.84
DUAL  EVGA 04G-P4-3688-KR GeForce GTX 680 Classified 4GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Audio Card: $201.98
Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1ty Champion (70SB135400000) 5.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Express x1 Interface Sound Card with Sound Blaster I/O

Network Card: $134.99
Intel EXPI9402PTBLK Two Gigabit Copper Server Connections 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-Express 2 x RJ45 – OEM

SAS Controller Card: $
(may need this for the HDD, not sure yet)

CPU Cooling Device: $139.99
CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100) Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

SSD: $226.99
SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC256B/WW 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

HDD: $799.99
HP Enterprise 516828-B21 600GB 15000 RPM SAS 6Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

Blu-Ray Drive: $99.99
LG Black 14X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 12X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA BDXL Blu-Ray Burner with SW, 3D Play Back - BH14NS40

DVD Drive: $43.98
PLEXTOR Internal DVD Super Multi 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model PX-L890SA LightScribe Support

Power Protection: $68.78
TRIPP LITE ISOBAR6DBS 6 ft. 6 Outlets 2850 joules Home/Business Theater Surge Suppressor (may need higher joule rating, definitely need a higher wattage rating)

PSU: $464.08
EVGA SuperNOVA NEX1500 Classified 120-PG-1500-XR 1500W SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Power Supply

Software -
$139.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit - OEM
 

DFILL450

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Sep 10, 2012
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1depp1
for gaming =
1. i5 3570K/i7 3770K + GTX 690 is excellent for 2560 x 1440
2. i5 3570K/i7 3770K + GTX 690/660 Ti is excellent for 1920 x 1440
3. For gaming alone, the i5 3570K is enough.

for audio/video rendering =
1. i7 3770K is the fastest. Though the i5 3570K is only 30% slower.

i would suggest to just buy the i7 3770K. the Hyperthreading wont affect much gaming-wise.

I think I'm just gonna go with the i7 3770k then if it won't affect gaming. I might as well get it for a little more power when working with Sonar.

One more question though. I was reading that when using Sonar you need to diable Core parking. If I disable core parking will it affect gaming then?

And I originally forgot to add the PSU because I already bought that part. I bought a Seasonic 1250w just in case I ever decide to SLI the 690x.

Tavo_Nova
for keyboard go for brown (nice touch for gaming and also nice for typing)

for mouse, I have used a couple so far

roccat kone+, razer mamba, mamba 2012, death adder, imperator 4g, sai, sensei, g900, naga,rat 7 albino

so that the ones that I liked were roccat kone+, mamba 2012, imperator, and sensei and rat 7 albino

for mouse pad, have only used a few

roccat alumic, razer vespula, razer goliath (big one) and some crappy cheap mouse pads

so far the alumic and goliath was great for me. (using roccat kone+ with alumic and death adder or imperator on goliath is good)

Thanks, I'm gonna check out those mice. I was also looking at the G9x and g500. Any experience with those?

Also, I'm not really sure how much I'm going to be using the mouse for gaming since I will be gaming with a 360 controller primarily. Maybe for FPS I will use a mouse. I was kind of looking at just getting a Logitech Performance mouse too. I'm not sure.

And I was already leaning towards the brown's because I feel like the blue clicky's might get annoying after awhile.

DjScribbles
+1 to that. Multimonitor is the way to go for productivity (especially coding). You don't need to go too fancy on the extras monitor(s), 1680x1050, 1920x1080 (or even 1024x768). The goal is to prevent context switching (for you, mentally), when your coding, you can keep reference code, MSDN, or other resources on the second monitor, and look back and forth as needed. With a single monitor, you end up losing your concentration in all the alt tabbing. You don't have to run these as a eyefinity type array.

If I were just putting together a PC for productivity only then I probably would go for dual monitors. But if I'm going to be gaming on it, then I'd like to spend my money on one really good monitor. I'm not really a fan of gaming with more than one monitor and I think it would be really cool to be able to game at 2560x1440 on the Samsung.

L1ghtF00t
HDD: $799.99
HP Enterprise 516828-B21 600GB 15000 RPM SAS 6Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

DVD Drive: $43.98
PLEXTOR Internal DVD Super Multi 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model PX-L890SA LightScribe Support

I just have a few questions. Why are you spending $800 for a 15000 RPM drive? Are they faster than SSD's? Wouldn't it be worth it for you to just get one 512gb SSD?

And is that Plextor drive better than the Lite on one? the difference is about $10 and after seeing that's the one you've chosen, I've read that the Plextor drives are great and very quiet. I'm not really sure which one to choose now. I might just go with the Lite-on because it doesn't have a shiny drive, as the Plextor does and won't match my case as well. But then again if the Plextor is quieter, I think I'd prefere that.

And my last question. What resolution do you plan on gaming at?

Thanks for all the responses so far guys.
 

djscribbles

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Apr 6, 2012
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You don't have to game on both monitors (as you would see in an eyefinity array) with the game across two displays. I'm suggesting you get your nice monitor, use it as the primary; and drop ~100$ on a secondary monitor (or use an existing monitor). While gaming you can keep chat, voip, and a browser on your secondary display, while gaming on your primary. I game with a 1080p 3d monitor and have an old 1024x768 lcd monitor for a secondary.

imo, the only real reason not to do it is $$, space, or you want an extreme level of immersion and second display would ruin that for you (though you can always turn it off); but it's your build, and this is just my opinion :)
 

DFILL450

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Sep 10, 2012
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That's actually a good idea. You're right it would make it easier when I'm mixing in Sonar to just have the mixer open on the second monitor at all times. Space might be an issue though.

How does the resolution work though with a second, smaller monitor? I would have my 27" running at 2560x1440, but then what would the second one be running at? Would the resolution of the second monitor add to the resolution of the Samsung? for example 2560+1024 x 1440+768 or would it be separate?
 

djscribbles

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They essentially work as additive. I'll use my example of 1920x1080 + 1024x768. In total, my mouse can travel 2944 pixels sideways across the middle of the monitor, however if I go to the top of my 1080p monitor and move towards the smaller monitor the pointer is stopped at 1920pixels due to the 312 pixel gap in height. I have mine setup so the monitors are logically (in windows settings) aligned at the bottom (to match how they are on my desk), however you can adjust to suit you (gap at top and bottom, gap at top, gap at bottom).

Each monitor is essentially at it's own resolution, windows simply slaps the two differently sized frame-buffers together how you specify and you can travel within that region just as you would expect.


(99% of games capture your mouse pointer within the primary monitor so you don't get auto-alt-tabbed fyi
 

DFILL450

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Sep 10, 2012
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Thanks for the info. I think I'm just gonna try to find a crappy smaller monitor like you said for about $100 if my desk is big enough. I gotta see though once I get the samsung monitor. Thanks!