First Build - Higher End Gaming

[Indefiniteman]

Greetings everyone. I'm putting together my first build and I was looking for help checking it over for any compatibility issues or suggestions and critiques. My current list is as follows:

Motherboard: ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core

SSD: SAMSUNG 840 Series MZ-7TD250BW 2.5" 250GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"

Memory: G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900)

GPU: EVGA 04G-P4-3687-KR GeForce GTX 680 FTW+ w/Backplate 4GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP

PSU: CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91

Cooling: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2

Media: LG Black 14X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 12X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA BDXL Blu-Ray Burner

Case: COOLER MASTER HAF XM RC-922XM-KKN1 Black Mesh, Plastic, Steel ATX Mid Tower ( with three extra 200mm fans)

Budget wise, I'd like to stay in my current neighborhood of 1800.00. Any input on this would be very helpful. Thank you.

 

[mrdowntownkiller]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($214.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($181.85 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($67.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($183.56 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($374.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($374.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: NZXT Phantom (White) ATX Full Tower Case ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 750W 80 PLUS Silver Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($94.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB/RSBS DVD/CD Writer ($20.95 @ Amazon)
Total: $1719.27
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-22 07:14 EST-0500)

 

[mrdowntownkiller]

things that should changed in my opinion :

- the SSD ( samsung 840 ) is not as fast as the 830 , unless you get the 840 PRO.
- this gtx 680 is a complete waste of money , as 1 gtx 670 is almost performs the same as the 680.
- also the sabertooth , it's overpriced and many of other boards like the UD5H will outperform it , and also they are cheaper.

 

[Indefiniteman]

Excellent. Thank you for the build and suggestions. I'll look over everything and will most likely end up going with your suggested one.

 

[Kamen_BG]

I made you another PC.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($289.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI P67A-GD80 (B3) ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Plextor M5P Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (CrossFire) ($366.97 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (CrossFire) ($366.97 @ Newegg)
Case: Antec Three Hundred Two ATX Mid Tower Case ($57.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 850W 80 PLUS Silver Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($119.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD/CD Writer ($18.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1736.84
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-22 09:39 EST-0500)

It's a lot faster than the one mrdowntownkiller made but it's more targeted at advanced users.
It doesn't have all the bells and whistles and consumes more energy but it will deliver a lot more FPS.

 

[Indefiniteman]

Thank you Kamen as well, now, when I'm looking at the benchmarks for both of these setups, is the i7 what's making such a large difference in their results?

 

[Kamen_BG]

No actually the i7 won't make a difference in any single player game that's out now.
It's only going to benefit you when playing multiplayer games like Battlefield 3.

http://www.sweclockers.com/image/diagram/2506?k=142b45af179c625ccd8f53fea7385155
Here you can see the minimum FPS go from 59 to 85 on the i7 compared to the i5.
So im sorry for my comment that it lacks bells and whistles as the Core i7 is well just an extra.
I also included a very high end motherboard with lots of features you'll likely never use.And since you're probably not a hardcore overclocker you don't need a high end motherboard or a Sandy Bridge CPU (Sandy Bridge CPOU's get faster than Ivy Bridge after overclocking)
The RAM is another thing i included as an extra.It will only improve performance if you're doing other things while gaming like browsing the web(the i7 will help a lot here too).

Let me just modify it a bit.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 612 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Plextor M5P Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (CrossFire) ($366.97 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (CrossFire) ($366.97 @ Newegg)
Case: Antec Three Hundred Two ATX Mid Tower Case ($57.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 850W 80 PLUS Silver Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($119.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD/CD Writer ($18.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1711.84
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-22 10:31 EST-0500)

This build is well... in my opinion worse but i'll just compare it to the previous one.

This one uses a more power efficient CPU, which coupled with a better cooler should reach the same single threaded performance and admittedly worse multithreaded performance.But it will do so using less power.
Its motherboard is newer and supports PCI-Express 3.That's not usefull for anyone right now but you CAN brag about it.
I changed the hard drive to a Caviar Green 1.5TB which is slightly slower but does have a higher capacity so that's a good tradeoff in my opinion.

Everything else is the same.
In my opinion it would be best if you just switched the CPU in the build above to this a Core i5 2500K (if you don't want the i7)

 

[Indefiniteman]

This is the first time I've actually had the funds to be able to build a higher end system, so when it comes to overclocking and fine tuning I'm going to be learning. I have no problem throwing in the extra funds (As once I grab my monitors and other peripherals I'm guessing I'll be around 2600.00) for the i7 CPU, I was just wondering if it was making that much of a difference on it's own.

The 16GB of RAM I can agree with, as I like to be able to tab out of my games and browse or set my playlists. And the speed on the slave drive isn't too much of an issue as long as it isn't painfully slow. (My Asus G75VW has a 5400 RPM 500GB so I'm pretty used to slow)

Thank you again.

 

[mrdowntownkiller]

well when it comes to gaming the i7 will be absolutely a waste of money , the i7 is a multitasking , video and photo editing intensive cpu , and i will not take the benchmarks from the link kamen linked it up with much respect to you kamen cuz i have used both the i7 2600k and 3570k and didn't notice any drop in performance maybe 3 or 4 fps max , in single player and mp ( tested in bf3 and mw3 ) , also 8gb ram for gaming is plenty , there is no game till this day uses more than 5GB.

 

[Indefiniteman]

Best answer selected by Indefiniteman.