Building a Gaming Machine (Very Rusty)

MaximumSquidMaximumSquid Join Date: 2010-07-20 Member: 72593Members
edited April 2012 in Off-Topic
<b>Followup:</b> Game running sooooooooooooooo damn good now, I couldn't be happier <i>(2-3x the frame rate, I'm going to try higher graphics next)</i>
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Has it really been 5 years since my last build?

Well it's time to upgrade and I was looking at these components:

<a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115077" target="_blank">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115077</a>

<a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150521&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL040612&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL040612-_-EMC-040612-Latest-_-DesktopGraphicsVideoCards-_-14150521-L0B" target="_blank">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...-_-14150521-L0B</a>

<a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231519" target="_blank">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820231519</a>

<a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128538" target="_blank">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813128538</a>

<a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=11-147-153&SortField=1&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=%28keywords%29&Page=1#scrollFullInfo" target="_blank">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...#scrollFullInfo</a>

<a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106333&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL040612&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL040612-_-EMC-040612-Latest-_-CDDVDBurners-_-27106333-L011D" target="_blank">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...-27106333-L011D</a>

<a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=22-152-181&SortField=1&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=%28keywords%29&Page=1#scrollFullInfo" target="_blank">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...#scrollFullInfo</a>

<a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.867787" target="_blank">http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDet...st=Combo.867787</a>

Basically Core i3, ATX Mobo with Crossfire / Dual Channel Ram / 1000Mbit LAN / USB 3.0, 8 Gig of 2133 DDR3 RAM, Steel Case, 80+ Gold 650 Watt PS, DvD RW Drive, 500 Gig 7200 RPM Hard Drive, and a Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit for my vid card

Price tag is around $650 after $50 in Rebate Debit Cards and a few Price Codes

I might be able to knock the price down another $100, but I'm taking a better Mobo/Power Supply now with future upgrades like adding a 2nd 6870 + other stuff down the road

Does the setup look good or is there something obvious that I'm missing?
Again It's been quite a while since I looked at computer Hardware

<strike>My big question is should I pay the extra $100 to get a Core i5 2500K for twice the Cores/Cache + Turbo Technology or is the i3 just fine since it does hyper threading?</strike>

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Edits:
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Ok looks like for gaming it's better to go with the i3 and use that extra money towards a better video card:
<a href="http://lanoc.org/review/pc-hardware/5096-i3-vs-i5-vs-i7-sandy-bridge-comparison?start=14" target="_blank">http://lanoc.org/review/pc-hardware/5096-i...arison?start=14</a>

Also I found this site to be very useful for comparing video cards <i>(My current card on the right)</i>:
<a href="http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=635&card2=512" target="_blank">http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?ca...5&card2=512</a>

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Comments

  • sherpasherpa stopcommandermode Join Date: 2006-11-04 Member: 58338Members
    edited April 2012
    I reckon that 650w PSU is a bit overkill; I think the GFX card is the most power-intensive gizmo and that comparison website you linked says it only draws 151w. Maybe save a few bucks and drop down to 500w and STOP KILLING MY PLANET WITH YOUR CHEAP ELECTRICITY AND FUEL, AMERICAN!
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  • ObraxisObraxis Subnautica Animator & Generalist, NS2 Person Join Date: 2004-07-24 Member: 30071Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Silver, WC 2013 - Supporter, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts
    <!--quoteo(post=1923230:date=Apr 8 2012, 08:06 PM:name=MaximumSquid)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MaximumSquid @ Apr 8 2012, 08:06 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1923230"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><strike>My big question is should I pay the extra $100 to get a Core i5 2500K for twice the Cores/Cache + Turbo Technology or is the i3 just fine since it does hyper threading?</strike>
    -<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Go for the i5 imho. The i3 is cut down pretty significantly.
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  • MaximumSquidMaximumSquid Join Date: 2010-07-20 Member: 72593Members
    edited April 2012
    <u><b>sherpa:</b></u>

    650 W is for future expansion if I decide to do Crossfire, add RAM, add a Solid State Drive, Digital Camera Card Reader Bay, etc. . .

    Newegg's Power Supply Calculator puts me right around that when you add the second 6870:
    <a href="http://images10.newegg.com/BizIntell/tool/psucalc/index.html" target="_blank">http://images10.newegg.com/BizIntell/tool/psucalc/index.html</a>

    If I decide to never upgrade I might be able to lower the cost of the build another $100 since I could go with a cheaper mobo / power supply, but I don't see Crossfire going away a few years down the road

    Much more likely that support for it will just continue to grow

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    <u><b>Obraxis:</b></u>

    The benchmarks were pretty convincing that the step up wasn't worth paying almost double the price:
    <i>(Especially on the gaming tests "second image" which is what I'm building the machine for)</i>

    <img src="http://lanoc.org/images/stories/Reviews/intel_i32100_i72600/pcmarkvantagewm.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
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    <img src="http://lanoc.org/images/stories/Reviews/intel_i32100_i72600/ingamewm.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />

    <i>*maybe not the best gaming benchmark test since Black Ops has a FPS cap at 60 FPS, but w/e</i>
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  • LV426-ColonistLV426-Colonist Space Jockey Join Date: 2011-08-05 Member: 114269Members, Constellation
    edited April 2012
    get a 2gb card.... no bluray drive? -.-

    get the best bang for your buck and make this baby future proof (at least for awhile)
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  • ZenoZeno Join Date: 2007-09-05 Member: 62183Members
    A 400w PSU will do, 450-500 if you want some extra cables or future hardware upgrades. I'd recommend any Seasonic, any Enermax and FSB aurum. You don't need much power even when you add USB devices, Ram and especially SSDs which barely need power. SLI/CF is a different story though.

    The 2120 is a powerful cpu, though I can't tell if games will require more cores in the future. But it does have hyperthreading afaik. You could need an i5 if you use VMs and stuff but if not go for the i3.

    Ram: it's ok to go for cheap standard ram. Fancy heatsinks and names like "ripjaws" (or...sniper - wtf?) don't add anything useful. You don't need any heatsinks at all.

    Your case probably won't be a very silent one - the mesh front lets all noise pass and I'm not sure it even has any silicone dampers for the HDDs. Silent ones are expensive though. If you have some money left I can recommend the P183 or the P180mini from Antec. Similar cases are the nxzt h2 and Fractal design define. A big custom cooler is also a must for less noise. Any big scythe cooler is good. The Scythe Mugen and the thermalright HR-02 Macho have both a good price-performace ratio.
    If you're not worried about noise, ignore all this since it increases the cost a lot.
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  • MaximumSquidMaximumSquid Join Date: 2010-07-20 Member: 72593Members
    edited April 2012
    <u><b>LV426-Colonist:</b></u>

    There is a 2 Gig version of the 6870, but it's $60 more if I bought it today since it's not on sale

    It still is tempting, but putting that $60 into a second 6870 when I upgrade to Crossfire down the road might be the better move

    Course I could potentially have 2x 2Gig 6870s. . . hmmmm

    ---

    yeah, thought about a bit and if I went with a $200 card today it would probably be a GTX 480 and I don't think one is on sale right now

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    <u><b>Zeno:</b></u>

    <strike>Will a 400W work down the road though when if I add another 6870?</strike>
    ok yeah. . . I'm going to include that in the first post so it's less confusing

    The RAM was the cheapest 2133 speed I could find; I'd gladly go with some non-fancy stuff If I could find it

    A sound dampening case would run me another $30-$60, but might be worth it
    I'll take a another look at it

    Also appreciate the tip on the custom cooler; won't be in the initial build though since I'd want to see how it runs as is first

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  • ZenoZeno Join Date: 2007-09-05 Member: 62183Members
    edited April 2012
    If you buy a quality PSU from a good company like Enermax or Seasonic 400 will be enough for the hardware. Lower-powered PSUs however often lack features or connectors.
    (mostly they aren't needed anyway ...for example you might want to have a second 8-pin PCIe connector. It will probably not be on a 400w model but on the other hand, you probably won't be able to use hardware that needs so much power with this psu anyway - it depends though)

    And as far as I know anything on the 1155 Socket doesn't profit, let alone require, 2133 ram. 1333 will do.
    I'm only semi-sure about the last statement though

    Edit: read your first post again.... Gtx 480? The fermi? That's a power consuming monster. Go for something else. It's been long since I read about Graphics cards but afair the 540 or 520 has similar performance for much less power. Not sure.
    AMD cards in the same price region are usually better but lack cuda/physX ...in case you need it.
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  • MaximumSquidMaximumSquid Join Date: 2010-07-20 Member: 72593Members
    edited April 2012
    Ok. .. Looks like I'm going to go ahead and go for it

    Only thing I changed was paying $5 more for a 6.0Gb/s instead of a 3.0Gb/s one
    <i>(I've been told the speed is negligible since it rarely hits the bandwidth cap, but figured why not since the MoBo Supports it)</i>

    Potential Future upgrades:
    2nd Vid Card for Crossfire
    2nd Set of RAM
    Solid State Drive
    Sound Dampening Foam
    Big 3rd Party CPU Cooler
    Blue Ray / Card Reader / Other Drive Bay

    ---

    Cool, well thanks for all the suggestions

    <i>Maybe I'll finally get above 24 FPS in this game ;)</i>

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    <u><b>Zeno:</b></u>

    Yeah the 480 is a power hog

    The 540 and 520 are listed down pretty low on the hardware hierarchy chart that Tom's offers:
    <a href="http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html" target="_blank">http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming...iew,3107-7.html</a>

    Maybe you're thinking of a different card?

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  • ZenoZeno Join Date: 2007-09-05 Member: 62183Members
    edited April 2012
    Oops, sorry. I didn't mean the 540. gosh
    I was indeed thinking about a different card. 570 or 560.
    I don't know the prices in the usa and can't recommend a graphics card because it always depends on the price. The 480 is outdated and inefficient though and can't be recommended at all.

    I'd go for a 570, 6950/70 or even a 6870. The differences in performance are quite big but as I said it depends on the price and what you want to pay.


    here's a german site with somewhat trustable testing methods. I haven't visited tomshardware for a long time but afair it wasn't very good.
    <a href="http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2012/test-nvidia-geforce-gtx-680/11/#abschnitt_testergebnisse" target="_blank">http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikk..._testergebnisse</a>
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  • ScytheScythe Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 46NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation, Reinforced - Silver
    At the moment it seems that NS2's performance is CPU-bound. I got an i5 2500k and overclocked it on air to run at 4.2GHz, NS2 runs awesomely.

    If you can stretch the budget I can't endorse an i5 enough.

    --Scythe--
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  • ZenoZeno Join Date: 2007-09-05 Member: 62183Members
    I plan to get an Ivy cpu and now for the first time I'm becoming somewhat interested in overclocking....but I'm very sceptic about it still. Mainly because of the power consumption.
    Did you measure your PCs power consumption? How was it before/after OC?
    Which cooler are you using and how fast do the fans spin? What are your idle/load temperatures - before and after OC?
    Does the cpu still use it's power saving features? Afaik to oc an Athlon you had to turn off Cool&Quiet in the Bios.
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  • ScytheScythe Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 46NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation, Reinforced - Silver
    <!--quoteo(post=1923354:date=Apr 9 2012, 11:31 AM:name=Zeno)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Zeno @ Apr 9 2012, 11:31 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1923354"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I plan to get an Ivy cpu and now for the first time I'm becoming somewhat interested in overclocking....but I'm very sceptic about it still. Mainly because of the power consumption.
    Did you measure your PCs power consumption? How was it before/after OC?
    Which cooler are you using and how fast do the fans spin? What are your idle/load temperatures - before and after OC?
    Does the cpu still use it's power saving features? Afaik to oc an Athlon you had to turn off Cool&Quiet in the Bios.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    No, I didn't measure the power consumption.
    I'm using a coolermaster hyper 212 evo. CPU fan is at 1800 RPM. Idles at 45 degrees, maxes out at 71 degrees under load. Don't remember what I measured it at prior to OC, it was a few months ago now.
    And no, I disabled the power saving features. It's not required to OC, but it's recommended.

    --Scythe--
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  • ZenoZeno Join Date: 2007-09-05 Member: 62183Members
    Are those Celsius numbers? Wow that's really hot. I have a (non-oc'd) CPU which is rated 125 W TDP and I only have 46°C load temps, and the Fan is limited to do max. 80% (=1200rpm) and even that's already too loud for me. Idle: 32°C/500rpm -> (almost) completely silent. Using a Mugen2 cooler in Antec's P183.
    What do you think how much frequency could I/you get of a Ivy/Sandy CPU to not exceed 125w?
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  • ScytheScythe Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 46NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation, Reinforced - Silver
    <!--quoteo(post=1923601:date=Apr 10 2012, 07:41 AM:name=Zeno)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Zeno @ Apr 10 2012, 07:41 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1923601"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Are those Celsius numbers? Wow that's really hot. I have a (non-oc'd) CPU which is rated 125 W TDP and I only have 46°C load temps, and the Fan is limited to do max. 80% (=1200rpm) and even that's already too loud for me. Idle: 32°C/500rpm -> (almost) completely silent. Using a Mugen2 cooler in Antec's P183.
    What do you think how much frequency could I/you get of a Ivy/Sandy CPU to not exceed 125w?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    No idea, but that is a 120mm fan on my CPU. It's pretty quiet.

    --Scythe--
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  • SopsSops Join Date: 2003-07-03 Member: 17894Members, Constellation
    edited April 2012
    <!--quoteo(post=1923268:date=Apr 8 2012, 03:18 PM:name=MaximumSquid)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MaximumSquid @ Apr 8 2012, 03:18 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1923268"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Newegg's Power Supply Calculator puts me right around that when you add the second 6870:
    <a href="http://images10.newegg.com/BizIntell/tool/psucalc/index.html" target="_blank">http://images10.newegg.com/BizIntell/tool/psucalc/index.html</a><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    I am a bit late with this but the newegg calculator doesn't seem to tell you how much power you are going to use, just what they recommend which already includes a big margin for future expansion, at least compared to <a href="http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp" target="_blank">this one.</a>
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  • MaximumSquidMaximumSquid Join Date: 2010-07-20 Member: 72593Members
    Just a quick followup:

    I got my parts and am installed and running great

    Lerks actually fly Majestically now instead of looking like a Rigid Plastic toy that a child is "pretending" to flying around

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    <u><b>Sops:</b></u>

    Going off of that other calculator I probably could of been happy with a 500 Watt, but at the time I had no reason to think that the newegg one was that overdrawn
    The PS I did go with is probably the highest quality part on my machine though and I know from experience what can happen if you go with a refurbished or bargain bin PS
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  • ZenoZeno Join Date: 2007-09-05 Member: 62183Members
    So what did you finally buy? The i3?

    Congratulations on majestic lerks.
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  • TykjenTykjen Join Date: 2003-01-21 Member: 12552Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    Recently did the same thing, but went with an AMD 6 core 1100T at 4ghz. Idle temps at 25, and has not gone above 38 degrees Celsius so far. Will be lovely to oc with as well when that will be needed.
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