New Build looking for opinions and advice.

[iProtohawk]

So I am building a new gaming PC for gaming more on the mid range nothing too high spec except maybe the GPU

Specs:

CPU: Intel i5 3570K

Motherboard: ASRock Extreme4, Asus P8Z77-V or a Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H

Memory: Corsair Vengance 16GB (4x4GB) 1600Mhz CL9

Graphics card: EVGA GTX 670 FTW, GTX 680 2GB or The Sapphire Radeon VAPOR-X HD7970

PSU: Cooler Master GX 750W

Cooling: Coolermaster Seidon 120XL

I already have a HDD and an SSD, I will also be overclocking so is this setup good enough for that?


Thanks in Advance

 

[bogo663]

16gb is unnecessary, just get 8gb. I suggest to get a SeaSonic PSU instead. Get the ASRock extreme 4. I prefer the 680, but the 7970 is also a good choice. The Noctua NH-U12P is a better CPU cooler.

 

[alinnior]

the build looks more like a high end all around, atleast for gaming, the i5 3570k will perform as well or better than most of its i7 competitors because of the i7 hyperthreading sometimes reduces performance in games.. im not sure about with watercooling but with aircooling a i5 2500k or 2550k will outperform a 3570k thermally and fps wise when pushed with overclocking.. i have a 2500k which using a coolermaster hyper 212+ heatsink i can push 5 ghz without much thermal problems unless of course the room the computer is in is abnormally warm.. 16 gb of ram is a little overkill imo.. i have 8 gb atm but until a couple weeks ago i only had 4 gb and i never had a problem with getting low on memory.. with an amd build and 4 gb of 1333 mhz ram i ran two windows of starcraft on medium and still just barely had enough ram to spare, peaking at 97% ram usage.. for a graphics card the 670 ftw will outperform the stock 680 2gb.. although the 7970 will outperform the 670 ftw but it also costs quite a bit more.. sli 660 ti will perform slightly better than a single vapor-x 7970 but will also cost a little less than the 6 gb version... 2 gb of video ram is plenty unless you want to game on a resolution higher than about 1920x1200.. although the gtx 660 ti sli will obviously be a minimum of 4 gb of video ram and a max of 6 gb.. also depending on your current build you might want to wait for intel's next gen to release because they, although from what ive heard are trying to get away from it, are a tick and tock release company.. ivy bridge was a tick from sandy bridge meaning it was only slightly better.. but the next gen will be a tock from ivy bridge meaning it should be a lot better.. from what ive heard for graphics cards the newer series are just going to be revisions of the currents chip so at the most only be a few percent better while the previous gen will get cheaper

 

[g-unit1111]

the build looks more like a high end all around, atleast for gaming, the i5 3570k will perform as well or better than most of its i7 competitors because of the i7 hyperthreading sometimes reduces performance in games.. im not sure about with watercooling but with aircooling a i5 2500k or 2550k will outperform a 3570k thermally and fps wise when pushed with overclocking.. i have a 2500k which using a coolermaster hyper 212+ heatsink i can push 5 ghz without much thermal problems unless of course the room the computer is in is abnormally warm.. 16 gb of ram is a little overkill imo..

That's slightly true but not really - I think a lot of the data in those stats is misrepresented. All CPUs will overheat once you start messing with the voltages. It's not only limited to Ivy Bridge.

ivy bridge was a tick from sandy bridge meaning it was only slightly better.. but the next gen will be a tock from ivy bridge meaning it should be a lot better.. from what ive heard for graphics cards the newer series are just going to be revisions of the currents chip so at the most only be a few percent better while the previous gen will get cheaper

The previous generation won't get any cheaper - maybe like $5 - $10 on equivalent models. You can still find 8 year old LGA 775 CPUs for like $300. The newer CPUs are going to be using a new manufacturing process which will result in a smaller CPU die - meaning that the CPU will be using less power - around 60W - 65W as opposed to the current 77W.

The original build looks pretty decent but Cooler Master PSUs are horrendous and that cooler isn't really better than the stock fan. It would be better to get a Hyper 212 or something from Noctua. Also that RAM is high profile and you should definitely get low profile RAM like G Skill Ares or Crucial Ballistix.

 

[alinnior]

The previous generation won't get any cheaper - maybe like $5 - $10 on equivalent models. You can still find 8 year old LGA 775 CPUs for like $300. The newer CPUs are going to be using a new manufacturing process which will result in a smaller CPU die - meaning that the CPU will be using less power - around 60W - 65W as opposed to the current 77W.

i meant the graphics cards would get cheaper not the cpus although it does seem that nvidia is refusing to price drop their 6 series instead they are just increasing the "values" of the coupons they are giving away with the cards .. ivy bridge doesnt transfer heat as effectively as sandy bridge because of the way intel made the cpus transfer heat internally and i did not mean to imply that sandy bridge couldnt overheat just that it wont overheat as easily as ivy bridge.. if you dont overclock ivy bridge will lead but not by all too much

 

[iProtohawk]

What makes the low profile better? i thought it was worse at heat dissipation.

 

[Superbucsfan]

What makes the low profile better? i thought it was worse at heat dissipation.

I believe it's really just used to keep out of the way of the GPU that you want to use in the build, with that Mobo they can get a little cluttered. That being said I think the Asrock is a good Motherboard choice.

 

[tiny voices]

I believe it's really just used to keep out of the way of the GPU that you want to use in the build, with that Mobo they can get a little cluttered. That being said I think the Asrock is a good Motherboard choice.

No, RAM cannot physically get in the way of a GPU.

Low profile RAM is used when you have a CPU cooler. Tall ram will not allot you to use an aftermarket cooler.

Ram heatsinks on modern (ddr3) RAM and just for show. ddr3 does not get any where hot enough to benefit from heatsinks. They are decorative.

 

[g-unit1111]

The previous generation won't get any cheaper - maybe like $5 - $10 on equivalent models. You can still find 8 year old LGA 775 CPUs for like $300. The newer CPUs are going to be using a new manufacturing process which will result in a smaller CPU die - meaning that the CPU will be using less power - around 60W - 65W as opposed to the current 77W.

i meant the graphics cards would get cheaper not the cpus although it does seem that nvidia is refusing to price drop their 6 series instead they are just increasing the "values" of the coupons they are giving away with the cards .. ivy bridge doesnt transfer heat as effectively as sandy bridge because of the way intel made the cpus transfer heat internally and i did not mean to imply that sandy bridge couldnt overheat just that it wont overheat as easily as ivy bridge.. if you dont overclock ivy bridge will lead but not by all too much

I've seen a lot of these benchmarks - the data really is misrepresented about heat issues. Every CPU on the market will heat up if you change out the voltages - that's inevitable. It's not just limited to Ivy Bridge. Sure, you post some charts about CPU heat temperatures being slightly in favor of one CPU over another. And then fan boys everywhere freak out.l But if you were to present an accurate chart of CPU heat temperatures, they would almost come out to be evenly distributed.

The coupons that are being given away with graphics cards really doesn't add or subtract from their given value. It's like an airline giving away frequent flier miles.

 

[Moltoeser]

16gb is unnecessary, just get 8gb. I suggest to get a SeaSonic PSU instead. Get the ASRock extreme 4. I prefer the 680, but the 7970 is also a good choice. The Noctua NH-U12P is a better CPU cooler.

Unless of course you're running multiple applications such as Photoshop and other high-end apps.

 

[g-unit1111]

Unless of course you're running multiple applications such as Photoshop and other high-end apps.

Yeah but games and basic applications won't come close to using more than 8GB. I have like 15 tabs open on Firefox on my laptop and I barely run over 3GB.

 

[Moltoeser]

Yeah but games and basic applications won't come close to using more than 8GB. I have like 15 tabs open on Firefox on my laptop and I barely run over 3GB.

You're right, but 'Basic applications', not considering high end apps that need multiple applications to do a particular function. Such as running BF3, taking a screenshot, editing it in Photoshop, uploading it to facebook, twitter, etc using firefox...

 

[alinnior]

I've seen a lot of these benchmarks - the data really is misrepresented about heat issues. Every CPU on the market will heat up if you change out the voltages - that's inevitable. It's not just limited to Ivy Bridge. Sure, you post some charts about CPU heat temperatures being slightly in favor of one CPU over another. And then fan boys everywhere freak out.l But if you were to present an accurate chart of CPU heat temperatures, they would almost come out to be evenly distributed.

well good luck getting an ivy bridge past 5 ghz with no heat problems under full load using aircooling with a heatsink that costs under 30 bucks and under normal ambient temperatures.. the clocking at a sandy bridge is faster than an ivy bridge in most cases is only a couple tenths of a ghz which most sandys can get with the same temps as the slightly lower clocked ivy bridge although i have heard of people replacing the tim inside ivy bridges and being able to bring the temps down to where they can get the same temps as a sandy at the same clocking

 

[alinnior]

You're right, but 'Basic applications', not considering high end apps that need multiple applications to do a particular function. Such as running BF3, taking a screenshot, editing it in Photoshop, uploading it to facebook, twitter, etc using firefox...

i may be mistaken but unless you are editing with rather high resolutions one doesnt need that much ram for photoshop.. rather high as in greater than 15 megapixels or somewhere around there.. and i dont understand why one needs to photoshop and game at the same time.. and gosh 3 gb of ram for 15 tabs thats rather high.. i have 15 tabs open in chrome atm and im using about 600 mb

 

[iProtohawk]

is the Extreme4s 8+4 power phases good enough i read somewhere 10 is better for overclocking.

 

[alinnior]

is the Extreme4s 8+4 power phases good enough i read somewhere 10 is better for overclocking.

i think it should be but im pretty sure you wont be limited by an 8+4.. i have a 4+4 and as i stated before i got to 5 ghz with my processor but thats also with the integrated gpu completely disabled.. of course the only thing you would need the integrated gpu for is lucid virtu but im not sure if that mobo supports that and its not that useful anyways except in benchmark scores but doesnt really improve gaming performance

 

[g-unit1111]

well good luck getting an ivy bridge past 5 ghz with no heat problems under full load using aircooling with a heatsink that costs under 30 bucks and under normal ambient temperatures.. the clocking at a sandy bridge is faster than an ivy bridge in most cases is only a couple tenths of a ghz which most sandys can get with the same temps as the slightly lower clocked ivy bridge although i have heard of people replacing the tim inside ivy bridges and being able to bring the temps down to where they can get the same temps as a sandy at the same clocking

Yeah but you don't really need to operate a CPU past 4.5, pretty much anything past that is overkill. People who can take their CPUs past 5.2 definitely aren't using air.

 

[iProtohawk]

My decision

CPU: Intel i5 3570K

Motherboard: ASRock Extreme4

Memory: Corsair Vengance 16GB (2x4GB) 1600Mhz CL10

Graphics card: EVGA GTX 670 FTW, GTX 680 2GB or The Sapphire Radeon VAPOR-X HD7970

PSU: SeaSonic X-750 or M12-II 850 (The X-750 is fully modular while the M12-II is Semi Modular so I cant really decide, they're the same price)

Cooling: Coolermaster Hyper 612

I'm Just thinking about the GPU and PSU now.

 

[alinnior]

Yeah but you don't really need to operate a CPU past 4.5, pretty much anything past that is overkill. People who can take their CPUs past 5.2 definitely aren't using air.

i agree with that for the most part but there are a few games that with strong graphics cards any extra you can get out of the cpu will help such as planetside 2 even at 5.0 ghz and a 650 ti in the very largest of battles my frames go under refresh rate because of my cpu because of the limit to two cores.. not too noticable in most cases though