Will this Gaming configuration work?

[phaedrus_brd]

Hello,

I'm basically trying to build a gaming + entertainment station for my home and I would like to be able to run BF3, Black Ops 2, Arkham Asylum, ACIII etc. on the highest possible graphics level without any lag.

So I've put together the following components:

ASUS Maximus V Formula Motherboard
Asus NVIDIA GTX660 TI-DC2-2GD5 2 GB GDDR5 Graphics Card
Intel 3.5 GHz LGA 1155 Core i7-2700K Processor
Corsair Vengeance DDR3 4 GB (1 x 4 GB)
Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 1050W 1050 Watts PSU
BenQ - EW2730V

Do you guys see anything not fitting together in this configuration for some reason? Or do you have any advices as to what changes I could make to the above listing in order to make it better and cheaper

Thanks in advance!

 

[larrym]

Change the processor to a 3570K. You dont need a i7 for gaming, for video editing yes, gaming no. It really isn't any better for gaming. Get a ram kit, 8 gigs (2x4) to use both channels. That psu is way overkill. I would also go with a GTX 670 or GTX 660 non ti for the money. Im sure others will post some examples for you.

 

[rene13cross]

Couple of things:

Your motherboard is overpriced. Get something like an ASrock z77 Extreme 4 instead.
If its purely gaming+entertainment you're going for don't waste money on the 2700k, get the 3570k instead.
If you're not planning on going SLI or CF later, that PSU is waaay overkill. A good quality 550-600W PSU from Antec, Seasonic or Corsair PSU will do fine for single GPU configs.

Now, since you have some spare cash, get yourself a 7950/7970 or GTX 670 instead of the GTX 660 Ti and get 8GB of that RAM instead of 4.

 

[l1nks]

I would get a psu more like a 650-850w...get at least 2 dims of ram (2x4gb) you want to utilize dual channel, and the i7 is alright if you want an i7, and the 660ti is a great card, i don't know why larry wants you to change it...

 

[l1nks]

Couple of things:

Your motherboard is overpriced. Get something like an ASrock z77 Extreme 4 instead.
If its purely gaming+entertainment you're going for don't waste money on the 2700k, get the 3570k instead.
If you're not planning on going SLI or CF later, that PSU is waaay overkill. A good quality 550-600W PSU from Antec, Seasonic or Corsair PSU will do fine for single GPU configs.

Now, since you have some spare cash, get yourself a 7950/7970 or GTX 670 instead of the GTX 660 Ti and get 8GB of that RAM instead of 4.

Sorry i have to say, Don't get an Asrock, they seem like a great feature packed cheap way to go, but always have waayyy too many problems, usually that would be okay, but ASROCK DOES NOT HAVE CUSTOMER SUPPORT, if you have any troubles you will just get a message back that was translated into English from a guy named "John" telling you to try it again with all known good hardware even if you reply saying you've done that, they will not give you anymore help....

 

[larrym]

I would get a psu more like a 650-850w...get at least 2 dims of ram (2x4gb) you want to utilize dual channel, and the i7 is alright if you want an i7, and the 660ti is a great card, i don't know why larry wants you to change it...

The 660Ti is a great card, but not that much better than the 660 non ti for the money. And for a bit more, the 670 is better. It's more of a cost vs performance thing. But any of these would be great.

 

[J_E_D_70]

Agree with the above. You'll need GTX 670-ish horsepower to play BF3 smoothly on ultra. System in my sig runs it very smoothly and loads maps fast.

 

[larrym]

Oh, and you will need a hdd. May I suggest a SSD (at least 120 gig, Samsung 840 for your OS) and a 500g+ for storage.

 

[odiervr]

My thoughts 'cause you asked:

1. I like ASRock. Z77 or Z75 motherboard. Z75 if you don't SLI / CF GPU's
2. http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html
This link is a rough estimate of performance and associated cost. Helps with basic money / performance tradeoff decisions
3. 3570k
4. Coolermaster 212 Evo air cooler
5. 8GB (2x4gb) ram no less that 1600mhz
6. PSU CORSAIR| CX600 600W RT. After rebate this is $30 today's last day. This PSU is 'good enough'. There are always better and more efficient, but this price/performance can't be beat by a good brand name (newegg). Only 2 pcie cords. Good for 1 GPU.
7. Intel 330 SSD 180 GB for $100 on newegg. Great price. This is not the latest or greatest SSD BUT, will outperform ANY HDD by a quantom leap. It's a great brand with great reliability AND ... I own one.

Good Luck !! and enjoy !!

 

[phaedrus_brd]

Hey Guys!

Thank you again for taking time out to help me on this. Much appreciated!

As per your suggestions, I've made some changes to my configuration:

MOTHERBOARD: ASRock Z77 Extreme4
PROCESSOR: Intel 3.4 GHz LGA 1155 Core i5 3570K
RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR3 4 GB (4 x 4 GB) [was my original plan, forgot to edit it in the first post]
PSU: Cooler Master Thunder 600 Watts PSU
HDD: Seagate: Barracuda (1TB) [already have this on my current system]

What I do need your one last help with is the GPU. I have two available options i.e.
Asus NVIDIA GTX 670 DC2 2 GB GDDR5 OR Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 2 GB GDDR5

Now I'm getting the Gigabye GPU for much less compared to the Asus one. Whats the major difference there apart from the established brand name and the pricing? I tried finding the EVGA GTX 670 but it isn't available for the time being.

Look forward to your thoughts. And thank you again for all your help.

PS: I do not plan on going SLI or CF anytime soon but I wanna keep that option open, hence Z77.

 

[sam_p_lay]

Z77 and the K model CPU are actually more important for overclocking - nobody has mentioned that if you're not planning to overclock, you could save a bit of money and use an i5 3450. There's no perceivable difference in performance at standard speeds. As for cards, Gigabyte is actually very well-established and a respected brand - they're one of the big three Taiwanese manufacturers all established in the mid 80s. They actually offer three year warranty as standard (from date of manufacture) compared to one or two year warranties on Asus cards (depending on the model). That's if you're in the UK - warranty terms vary in other countries.

EDIT: The others of the big three being Asus and MSI by the way. You probably also know how good EVGA are for warranty too. And PNY - three years also.

 

[phaedrus_brd]

Z77 and the K model CPU are actually more important for overclocking - nobody has mentioned that if you're not planning to overclock, you could save a bit of money and use an i5 3450. There's no perceivable difference in performance at standard speeds. As for cards, Gigabyte is actually very well-established and a respected brand - they're one of the big three Taiwanese manufacturers all established in the mid 80s. They actually offer three year warranty as standard (from date of manufacture) compared to one or two year warranties on Asus cards (depending on the model). That's if you're in the UK - warranty terms vary in other countries.

EDIT: The others of the big three being Asus and MSI by the way. You probably also know how good EVGA are for warranty too. And PNY - three years also.

Hey Sam!

Thank you for your response. I should have researched more about Gigabyte, apologies for the same I wasn't aware of their history. Thank you though.

If you could shed some light on as to why the same GPU from ASUS costs more than Gigabyte, I would really appreciate it. Also, if performance wise, will there be any difference between the two?

Thanks in advance!

 

[sam_p_lay]

Hey Sam!

Thank you for your response. I should have researched more about Gigabyte, apologies for the same I wasn't aware of their history. Thank you though.

If you could shed some light on as to why the same GPU from ASUS costs more than Gigabyte, I would really appreciate it. Also, if performance wise, will there be any difference between the two?

Thanks in advance!

Pleasure As for the cost, it's just market factors really - as you say, Asus have a very strong brand. Gigabyte and MSI are well-respected and generally excellent quality (with one of two recent exceptions in MSI's case) but Asus are probably the most highly regarded of all. Prices actually vary a lot though depending on the model and the retailer - I sometimes see the best deal on a given model is actually an Asus card (but more likely something really cheap like Palit!).

As for performance, they will be identical. The only thing that would differentiate different card models of the same GPU would be what's called factory overclocking - the manufacturer overclocks the card on your behalf (usually fairly modest overclocks) and then covers that overclocking in the warranty. You could overclock a card yourself, but you'd void the warranty in the process. Actual performance gains from factory-overclocked models are usually quite low. Bear in mind that even a 15% addition to the clock speeds will very rarely translate to a 15% gain in real performance (frames per second).

EDIT: I forgot to mention that depending on what country you're in, Asus may be offering a worse warranty. Here they only give one or two years warranty (depending on the specific model) compared to three years (from manufacture) on all Gigabyte cards.

 

[phaedrus_brd]

Best answer selected by phaedrus_brd.