Building a gaming rig! Need assistance

[MadSupra354]

I'm an AMD person, but I don't mind Intel or nvidias mid-range cards. I'd say if you're going with nvidia, get two GTX560 Ti in SLI. For the CPU, I don't know if you're gaming, or doing allot of video editing, but Intel are better for heavy duty processing, and AMD are better for gaming (Since a gamer needs money for his games ) and the Phenom X6 series is great for gaming and multitasking (For the price)

 

[Wishmaster]

Well, Ive said this before but Ill say it again.

8GB is nice .. I agree with the others. But if gaming is your Primary purpose for this build it may be money thats best spent elsewhere. (Only you know the answer to this)

My machine has 8GB and for Gaming & General Use its just too much. I rarely ever use over 4GB.
However, I do have a few 64bit apps that I use often, and in that case it is certainly nice to have.

Just something to keep in mind.

And don't get me wrong, if budget allows why not. Just don't expect your games or everyday activities to be taking advantage if it all.

Personally, I would go with the 8GB kit, but thats just me. I use enough apps that use the extra RAM it makes it worth having to me.
But I do honestly think anything over 8GB will be a waste of money for the large majority users.

For RAM, heres another 8GB set that may be worth considering:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145345
Costs a bit more, but is slightly faster @ DDR3 1600.

Although G-Skill is very good RAM, this is just another option.

CPU & MOBO:
If building new right now, I would certainly go with a Sandy Bridge CPU as well.
I would stick to Gigabyte or ASUS MOBOS as well.

GPU:
I also tend to agree with everyone else that a single powerful card would be the better bet now.
Less chance of any issues related to Crossfire/SLI as well.
I would reccomend looking into the HD6970, GTX570, or HD6950 currently, in the $300-$360 range, any of these 3 are very good.

Also-
For Nvidia GPUs, I would go with EVGA. Lifetime warranty & tradeup program is nice.
For ATI GPUs, Id look to Sapphire.
(All personal preference of course)



Just a couple thoughts and opinions for what its worth.

 

[AstaLaVista]

SLI or Crossfire is and has been overrated imo, more so now when most if not all of the games are console ports... +1 on 1 good card and possibly another but much lesser card for PhysX if you really want to have 2 cards.

 

[BarTmaN]

Would this be a good option for a single card?
Newegg.com - EVGA SuperClocked 012-P3-1572-AR GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

 

[DarkXeno]

SLI or Crossfire is and has been overrated imo, more so now when most if not all of the games are console ports... +1 on 1 good card and possibly another but much lesser card for PhysX if you really want to have 2 cards.

I agree with AstaLaVista - there are not that many games built for Crossfire or SLI yet unless your playing WoW lol. go with one bigger card I went with the MSI AMD R6950 2gig PCI-E and I love it.

I will have to update my specs since I just built a new machine and no longer using my laptop for gaming.

 

[Wishmaster]

Would this be a good option for a single card?
Newegg.com - EVGA SuperClocked 012-P3-1572-AR GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Yes. But, keep in mind, you can save a few bucks by getting the regular version and OCing it yourself.
Just another option to consider.

The SC editions are basically the same card, except that the bios are pre-programed with a bit of a overclock.

SC is a good choice for those who want a little bit of a boost over reference designed cards, without having to OC them themselves.
Some prefer this route, others do not. Really your call which way you want to go.

It works the same way on the AMD side. For example, Sapphires "Toxic" lineup.

Nothing at all wrong with that card though. It should serve you well.

Personally, I would go with the SC edition if the price difference isnt too much. ATM, its only $10 more.
My reason is.. Although I like OCing, I usually dont OC my GPUs. I like the idea of a factory OC, and the lifetime warranty is nice.
Just set it up and leave it be. Although there will be different opinions on the matter, thats mine. At only $10 more, it is worth it IMHO.

 

[hjonesMCT]

I know you mentioned you're specifically looking at Intel/Nvidia, but I built an AMD/ATI beast that has very little bottleneck anywhere and is super optimized for gaming AND virtual machines. I built mine last year, in June, for ~$1000 USD--without buying keyboard, mouse, OS. I spent about a month and had around 5-10 people (Intel, engineers, etc) researching with me. Here's the specs (also in my profile):

OS
Win7 Ultimate x64, Server 2008 R2

CPU
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8GHz

Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-890FXA-UD5

Memory
8GB G.SKILL Ripjaws Series DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

Graphics Card(s)
HIS ATI Radeon HD 5830

Sound Card
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme

Hard Drives
Patriot Torqx 128GB SSD
1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm
2TB Hitachi Deskstar Coolspin 5400rpm

PSU
CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-750HX 750W

Case
Antec Nine Hundred

Cooling
Cooler Master Hyper 212+ CPU cooler
(air cooled from case fans)

Also bought a DVD-RW, etc.

This machine can run WoW, SC2 and L4D2 at the same time with NO LAG. I do not keed.

 

[BarTmaN]

Would this mobo be better than the Gigabyte one I suggested earlier?
Newegg.com - ASUS SABERTOOTH P67 (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

And thanks everyone for your input and help, I really do appreciate it.

 

[AstaLaVista]

Again, with the games being what they are, spending that much money on a super card is just a waste of time IMHO, look at my system specs, as of today, I can play any game (shooter game that is, as that is all I play) at max w/o a single problem... anything else is just overkill.

Being said that, if that is well within your budget... why not!

I am guessing you didn't like the combo I suggested for Mobo/CPU? I thought it was the dogs bollox

 

[BarTmaN]

I actually skipped right over that combo you posted without even noticing. Looking at it now, and seems like a good combo. How does that i5 2600k compare to the i7 2700k, stock speeds not OC'd?

And would an aftermarket CPU cooler be needed with either of these processors, or is the OEM fine? I won't be OC'ing anytime soon.

 

[Colonel Travis]

Again, with the games being what they are, spending that much money on a super card is just a waste of time IMHO, look at my system specs, as of today, I can play any game (shooter game that is, as that is all I play) at max w/o a single problem... anything else is just overkill.

Being said that, if that is well within your budget... why not!

Amen, brother. In fact, my system is very close to what hjonesMCT posted. The only "problem" I've ever run into with any game is the Crysis series (gee, what a surprise) at the absolute highest settings at 1600x900. I play them at the next-highest settings and I guess the water doesn't look as pretty as it could. Frankly, I don't give a $#!t. But if you do, buy what you can afford. The way things are now you don't have to go nuts.

If you're not OCing but will later, I wouldn't use stock coolers. In fact, I don't OC and I chucked the stock fan, got a Freezer 7 Pro, bought some arctic silver and my CPU almost never goes beyond 29 C.

 

[SlackerITGuy]

I want to build a rig that will be able to pretty much handle any game. I don't need something that is over-the-top crazy, but something that can run any game good! I need everything, including a case.

-I prefer an Intel processor (unless someone can sell me on an AMD one)
-I prefer Nvidia video card(s)

I don't know if it's better to run one beastly video card, or setup SLi with two. I will only be running one monitor if that matters at all (Sony Bravia 26" LCD HDTV).

I don't really know much about motherboards

Can you guys reccommend me some hardware for a rig?

Budget ~$1500 (possibly a little more if needed)


Sorry if this is the wrong section. Feel free to move, or even lock if you don't 'allow' threads like this.

Thanks

Little late to the party, but this is what I would go for:

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212+
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 Pro
RAM: 4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600
GPU: ASUS GeForce GTX 570
SSD: OCZ Vertex 2 60GB (OS + few games)
HDD: Samsung F3 1TB (Storage)
Case: Corsair 600T
PSU: Seasonic X Series 650W
Keyboard: Logitech G110
Mouse: Logitech MX 518
Sound Card: ASUS Xonar DS

TOTAL: $1480.88

SICK... SICK build.

 

[hjonesMCT]

Slacker, great build-- but I'd go with i5-2600K.

 

[SlackerITGuy]

Slacker, great build-- but I'd go with i5-2600K.

Nahh, both the 2500K and 2600K have basically the same gaming performance.

It wouldn't be smart to spend an extra ~$100 (and compromise elsewhere) on something that would net you pretty much zero performance advantage when gaming.

Only in highly threaded applications the 2600K will pull ahead thanks to it's HT tech (but not by much).

 

[BarTmaN]

Little late to the party, but this is what I would go for:

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212+
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 Pro
RAM: 4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600
GPU: ASUS GeForce GTX 570
SSD: OCZ Vertex 2 60GB (OS + few games)
HDD: Samsung F3 1TB (Storage)
Case: Corsair 600T
PSU: Seasonic X Series 650W
Keyboard: Logitech G110
Mouse: Logitech MX 518
Sound Card: ASUS Xonar DS

TOTAL: $1480.88

SICK... SICK build.

Looks like a very nice build also! Ahh, so many options, I am going to try and piece together another build and see if it works out to be good!

 

[BarTmaN]

How does this look?!

CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212+
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 Pro
RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 570 Superclocked
SSD: OCZ Vertex Agility 2 100GB
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB
Case: Antec 1200 V3 ATX Full Tower
PSU: Antec TruePower 750W Continous Power
CD/DVD Burner: Samsung

 

[SlackerITGuy]

How does this look?!

CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212+
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 Pro
RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 570 Superclocked
SSD: OCZ Vertex Agility 2 100GB
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB
Case: Antec 1200 V3 ATX Full Tower
PSU: Antec TruePower 750W Continous Power
CD/DVD Burner: Samsung

Excellent.

Nice build mate.

The one thing I'd change is the video card, reference GTX 570s are known to have weak VRM's, meaning that in the case that you might want to overclock it, it's a possibility that it might die.

The one to get as of right now, is this one (just came out today):

Newegg.com - MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr III PE/OC GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Superb cooler, 6+1 phase, plus... It looks bad ass.

 

[BarTmaN]

Okay, I will check that card out when I get home (on my phone now).

I'm not missing anything right? Just want to double check that I have everything for a COMPLETE build.

Thanks!!

 

[sygnus21]

With regards to your video card I say go with what you're comfortable with. Everyone has an opinion on video cards and their performance.

Example: If you're not going to overclock the card.... does a supposed issue with VRM really matter to you? And is it a guarantee that you'll run into the issue if you do?

My point is we can get so caught up in so many what if's that we paralyze ourselves from getting anything.

Most items just work; they only don't work when we push them outside their design limits. Point: nothing is guaranteed to "overclock" - that is your warranty doesn't say we guarantee our product will overclock past its design specification.

It's always good to get advice but remember – you are the one who has to live with the purchase.

Just something to think about.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

You probably ought to order some thermal paste in case you ever need to remount the heatsink. Arctic Silver 5 is the standard recommendation.

I'd get some cable ties so I could keep the case as uncluttered as possible and improve airflow a bit. You can get them at Home Depot.

You may end up ordering replacement fans later if you have cooling issues.