Rig - Thoughts and opinions for Game Development

[DigitalWeapons]

Hey guys, I just been through the options on computerplanet.com for a game development oc, and have come up with this list. I was hoping that I could possibly get some of your ideas as to 'is it worth it' or 'could I choose better'. Anything really, this is my first ever build, you remember how it is

Computer Case NZXT Phantom 820 Black/Green
CPU Intel Core i7 3970X Extreme (6 x 3.5 GHZ)
CPU Heatsink Corsair Hydro Series H100 (Advanced Liquid Cooling)
Memory Corsair Vengeance 16GB XMS3 PC3-12800 1600MHz (2x8GB) - Lifetime Warranty (DDR3)
Graphics Card ATI Radeon HD 7750 - 1 GB - (PCI-E)
Motherboard Asus SABERTOOTH X79 (Intel X79)
Sound Card Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD (PCI-E)
Networking Intel Gigabit PRO 1000CT Business Network Card (PCI-E)
Expansion Cards 2 Port USB 3.0 Expansion Card (PCI-E)
Power Supply Corsair 800W Gaming PSU - Low Noise
CPU Compound Standard CPU Compound Supplied With Heatsink
Case Fans Fans Included With Case
Hard Drive #1 1 TB (1000 GB) SATA-II HDD 7200 RPM 32MB
Optical Drive #1 LG (BH16NS40) 16x Blu-Ray Re-Writer/Reader & 16x Dual Layer DVD/CD Re-Writer - Black (SATA)
Card Reader Advanced Internal Card Reader 50-in-1
Case Lights 2 x Sharkoon 12" Blue Light Tubes
Operating System #1 Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64 BIT (Genuine DVD & COA Included)
Office Software Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013
DVD Playback Software FREE - CyberLink PowerDVD 10
DVD/CD Burning Software FREE - Nero V10 Essentials Suite 2
Monitor #1 24" HD LED Widescreen Monitor - Black - 2ms - DVI/VGA/HDMI
Monitor #2 24" HD LED Widescreen Monitor - Black - 2ms - DVI/VGA/HDMI
Free Gift FREE - 16 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive
Monitor Cables & Adapters FREE - DVI Port to VGA Monitor Port Adapter

 

[TenPc]

Unless you are into Music and sound mixing, the Sound Card Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD is rather overkill and the onboard audio out connected to an amplifier with decent 80 watt (plus) speakers would more than suffice for listening to music or for PC games.

The i7 is designed more for applications like Autocad, vido editing, and other heavy cpu usage apps and not really that suited for PC games so better to go with the i5 nless you are really serious about game development and programming.

Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013 is designed for tablets and not for a desktop PC, it has less functionality and does not include Outlook. You are better to stay with 2012 version, at the most.

Advanced Internal Card Reader 50-in-1, is it really a necessity? When enabled, all those card slots will take up drive positions so if there are 50 of them (really?) but problably only about 8 but still your next available drive letter will be the 8th one after the dvd drive so possibly, L. Better to get an external usb multi-card reader, and only use it when you need to read from an sdram card.

Is the lan card really a necessity considering that the motherboard does come with 1 x gigabit lan port.

For each addon card, more power is required. Apps that also use more power are programs that require heavy CPU usage. Also, extra fans and accessories do draw power even if only about 1.44 watts each, it all adds up. Although the 800 watt PSU seems like overkill to many "experts", I"d say that you are going to need a bit more possibly about 1000 Watts, especially with the extra addon cards and the i7 processor, and video card. Also, an extra monitor does also draw power.

The main problem with liquid cooling is that it is prone to leaking so be prepared for problems in that quarter however, it would depend on the size of your case and whether you cramp anything to fit everything inside.

After everything is said and done, make sre you put the PC in a place with plenty of ventilation and no dust.

 

[camohanna]

I would take a good quality 800w psu over a crappy generic 1000000000w psu ten.

 

[camohanna]

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/DeCl
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/DeCl/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/DeCl/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($86.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial M4 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($187.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($99.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB Video Card ($445.91 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF X ATX Full Tower Case ($179.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic X Series 1050W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($191.82 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On ihes112-04 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($135.62 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $1853.26
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-13 01:58 EST-0500)

 

[TenPc]

So, what did you decide for your final rig?
And, did it work out as well as expected for the tasks you intended?