|
When using this resource, please read FragKrag's opening post. The Tech Support forum regulars have helped create countless of desktop systems without any compensation. The least you can do is provide all of the information required for them to help you properly. |
Hello TL! In the coming weeks I am going to be building my first PC although I have experience fitting most parts. I have already purchased an ASUS 570 GTX CU II after finding a good deal, so I would just like a bit of feedback on the rest of my build.
Processor - Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor Hard Drive - Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive GPU - Asus 570GTX CU II Ram - Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz CL9 XMP PSU - 650W Corsair TX650 V2 Motherboard - ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 Case - Coolermaster HAF 912 Monitor - Philips 224EL2SB 21.5 Full HD DVI/HDMI/VGA Display
The build is designed to play BF3 and SC2, as well as future releases such as D3 etc. Thanks in advance!
|
Hi all with the advent of both of my gaming rigs kicking the bucket today im now building 2 new ones I have seperate demands of each pc. 1 pc is for my missus she likes to game on max graphics and is pining for d3 like the rest of us, I want one to be able to handle that, my pc on the other hand I want to be able to stream/cast both live sc2 matches and d3 battlecasting.
Im leaning towards an i5 and an i7 5600 I dont really do much overclocking but am hoping the quad core will help in the casting department. Essentially I need to make these pc's as cheaply as possible with out sacrificing too much on performance, I have had a bad run with ati cards and. Amd chipsets so am looking nvidia for the gpu Any help buildimg these 2pcs would be awesome cause atm im stuck on my android so please forgive the grammar errors and weird fullstop placement.
This is from the top down a fun little project 2pc's 2 objectives, a forum full of technophiles and one poor bastard typing on a phone lol
Ps. I dont mind spending in the order of 4g for the 2rigs it just might take awhile to accrue the funds and my missus is like a detoxing addict without a pc and im not much better lol
|
I'm looking to upgrade my computer pretty much as cheaply as possible. These are the parts I'm looking at atm:
ASUS M5A78L-M LX 54€ AMD Athlon II X3 455 75€ 8GB Dual Kit Ripjaws X (2x4GB), DDR3 1600 49€
I don't play new games that much, just SC2, LoL and Football Managers. Main purpose of this upgrade isn't game performance, but general smoothness in multitasking etc. My current system has only 2GB memory and it just doesn't feel like enough to my liking in Win 7. I plan to keep my Radeon 4850 512mb from this system.
few questions:
1. Do these parts seem sensible given my limited (under 200e) budget? 2. Motherboard seems to support CPUs only up to 95W so when I next time want to upgrade my CPU I would likely have to buy new motherboard again? 3. Motherboard also has integrated GPU, can disabling that be problematic? 4. I'm also planning to keep my 400W power supply, will that be enough with the parts I listed + 1 sata HDD, 1 USB HDD, DVD drive + mouse&keyboard? 5. Is there any reason to buy 1600mhz memory or am I not going to notice the difference with slower ones in system like this?
Any help is much appreciated.
|
On September 17 2011 02:24 5thdiv_gaming wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Hi all with the advent of both of my gaming rigs kicking the bucket today im now building 2 new ones I have seperate demands of each pc. 1 pc is for my missus she likes to game on max graphics and is pining for d3 like the rest of us, I want one to be able to handle that, my pc on the other hand I want to be able to stream/cast both live sc2 matches and d3 battlecasting. Im leaning towards an i5 and an i7 5600 I dont really do much overclocking but am hoping the quad core will help in the casting department. Essentially I need to make these pc's as cheaply as possible with out sacrificing too much on performance, I have had a bad run with ati cards and. Amd chipsets so am looking nvidia for the gpu Any help buildimg these 2pcs would be awesome cause atm im stuck on my android  so please forgive the grammar errors and weird fullstop placement. This is from the top down a fun little project 2pc's 2 objectives, a forum full of technophiles and one poor bastard typing on a phone lol Ps. I dont mind spending in the order of 4g for the 2rigs it just might take awhile to accrue the funds and my missus is like a detoxing addict without a pc and im not much better lol
Do you need an operating system?
Where are you located? (What retailers are available to purchase from?)
$2000 per configuration is really overkill.
|
On September 17 2011 02:25 petu wrote:+ Show Spoiler +I'm looking to upgrade my computer pretty much as cheaply as possible. These are the parts I'm looking at atm:
ASUS M5A78L-M LX 54€ AMD Athlon II X3 455 75€ 8GB Dual Kit Ripjaws X (2x4GB), DDR3 1600 49€
I don't play new games that much, just SC2, LoL and Football Managers. Main purpose of this upgrade isn't game performance, but general smoothness in multitasking etc. My current system has only 2GB memory and it just doesn't feel like enough to my liking in Win 7. I plan to keep my Radeon 4850 512mb from this system.
few questions:
1. Do these parts seem sensible given my limited (under 200e) budget? 2. Motherboard seems to support CPUs only up to 95W so when I next time want to upgrade my CPU I would likely have to buy new motherboard again? 3. Motherboard also has integrated GPU, can disabling that be problematic? 4. I'm also planning to keep my 400W power supply, will that be enough with the parts I listed + 1 sata HDD, 1 USB HDD, DVD drive + mouse&keyboard? 5. Is there any reason to buy 1600mhz memory or am I not going to notice the difference with slower ones in system like this?
Any help is much appreciated.
It's likely you will have to upgrade your motherboard to support 125w Bulldozers, yes. An Intel configuration would likely be better for gaming. A Pentium G840 / G850 and a H61 motherboard should be about the same price as what you have listed: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4524/the-sandy-bridge-pentium-review-pentium-g850-g840-g620-g620t-tested/3
IGPs are often disabled automatically when a dGP is detected in the PCIe slot so no this shouldn't be problematic.
Yes, a 400w power supply should be sufficient provided that it really is a 400w power supply (look at how much power your 12v rail provides).
No, there is no reason to buy 1600MHz memory over 1333MHz. Use this money for something else:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/sandy-bridge-ddr3.html http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3 http://techreport.com/articles.x/20377
|
I live in queenland australia, atm I have windows vista 32/64 bit os (one of each) Supplier wise im fairly limited to umart or gamedude and even then pro series gaming equipment is like hens teeth in my experience, currently looking at new mouse options as well running a cm storm gaming mouse but the metal grill is rusting, still great performance wise but the last thing I need is to contract tetnis from gaming, imagine all the parents out there that would use that for ammo
|
Hi helpful folks,
I'd like to build a desktop for gaming and dedicate my laptop to useful work. I was drooling over the planned Ivy Bridge features but then I noticed it's not going to be out until some time next year and I don't really want to wait that long. So, is it a reasonable plan to build a Sandy Bridge rig now and plan to swap out the CPU in 12-18 months?
Other questions: is a typical gaming rig now built with 8 GB or 12 GB of RAM? (lol.. my last desktop had 1 GB !! :D) is SLI required for decent gaming? (from reading this thread... sounds like no) when is a good time to buy a computer? ... christmas? boxing week? right now?
Thanks!
edit: oh one other question: ati or nvidia? I will probably default to nvidia just in case I should ever want to run linux on the box...
+ Show Spoiler [q&a] +What is your budget? $1000-1500 CDN What is your resolution? 1680x1050 now, 1920x1080 or 1920x1200 later What are you using it for? sc2 What is your upgrade cycle? 3+ years When do you plan on building it? when prices are good Do you plan on overclocking? no Do you need an Operating System? no Do you plan to add a second GPU for SLI or Crossfire? no Where are you buying your parts from? NCIX
|
So from the top... How heavy a load does casting software place on the cpu/graphics card. What difference in performance could I expect from say an i5 as opposed to an i75600?
Also I have had problems in the past with regard to chipsets and ram configs, is it worth shelfing out for ddr3 or should I keep the 8gigs of corsair xms2 ddr2 instead? Does the 2nd generation 1755 socket i7 and i5 require the Z56 chipset?
Am I better off building 2 mirror setups? As opposed to a high end and a mid range system (my partner is a casual/hardcore gamer) we go to work we come home and we sit at our pc (just to show u the usage lvl)
With regard to the gtx580 is it bang for buck in terms of casting/HD gaming? Or would I ne better suited running sli bridged 550ti's plz help :S
Also what sort of ram requirements need to be addressed to run the whole operation smoothly
|
On September 17 2011 00:38 Shikyo wrote: As you're most likely going to be overclocking your CPU, it's going to be really close. Not to mention that after 3 years your 550W PSU is no longer a 550W PSU, but closer to a 500/450 one(They always lose power over time), and that even one that stably runs at 550W would be borderline. Just buy a new PSU.
Now with that said, I don't think a single 580 is the best bang for your buck. As you're looking to use 3D, you should obviously use Nvidia, but I think it'd be much more cost-efficient to go for a SLi setup straight from the start. The upgradeability would be a to a triple-SLi setup later on. I'd suggest SLi 570s. It's going to cost you a bit more, but the performance is going to increase significantly. You can also go for a single 570 and make it into SLi sooner, and 3-way SLi 570s instead of running SLi 580s eventually. If this is too costly, you can go for SLi 560 Ti's, that's still a much better solution than a single 580 and costs the same. 8 GB of ram might be too low for 3D, consider spending 20 bucks for 4GB more.
So to recap: SLi 570s instead of single GTX 580, buy a new PSU in the 800-850W range. If that's too costly, SLi 560 Tis instead. Buy a new PSU in the 850-900W range even if you go with your current setup so that you can eventually upgrade the 580 into SLi(If you're not going to, go with a cheaper SLi setup instead). If you really want to just stick with the single 580, you still need to upgrade your PSU to around 600-650W so that you can overclock without worries. Remember, after 3 years your PSU is no longer 550W. Consider more RAM.
However, that still is not all. Your card doesn't fit in that case. Change the case, or buy a different GTX 580, or buy something smaller than GTX 580, or get a jigsaw.
Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated 
PSU: I didnt know that PSU's loose power over time, so i will be buying a corsair TX950w.
GFX: 2x570 would destroy my budget, so the question would be 560 Sli or 580. For future proofing i think its a better choice to go with a single 580 now, and then add one more later down the road?
CASE: It seems fractal was very forgiven with the numbers for space etc., because people who own both r3 and lightning says its fit, allthough abit tight Saw pictures aswell, so it should be fine.
|
4 grand for 2 computers. Holy crap overkill.
Also future proofing now is a terrible idea. Might as well give half your budget to the Medrea fund.
|
On September 17 2011 05:51 Raavi wrote:Show nested quote +On September 17 2011 00:38 Shikyo wrote: As you're most likely going to be overclocking your CPU, it's going to be really close. Not to mention that after 3 years your 550W PSU is no longer a 550W PSU, but closer to a 500/450 one(They always lose power over time), and that even one that stably runs at 550W would be borderline. Just buy a new PSU.
Now with that said, I don't think a single 580 is the best bang for your buck. As you're looking to use 3D, you should obviously use Nvidia, but I think it'd be much more cost-efficient to go for a SLi setup straight from the start. The upgradeability would be a to a triple-SLi setup later on. I'd suggest SLi 570s. It's going to cost you a bit more, but the performance is going to increase significantly. You can also go for a single 570 and make it into SLi sooner, and 3-way SLi 570s instead of running SLi 580s eventually. If this is too costly, you can go for SLi 560 Ti's, that's still a much better solution than a single 580 and costs the same. 8 GB of ram might be too low for 3D, consider spending 20 bucks for 4GB more.
So to recap: SLi 570s instead of single GTX 580, buy a new PSU in the 800-850W range. If that's too costly, SLi 560 Tis instead. Buy a new PSU in the 850-900W range even if you go with your current setup so that you can eventually upgrade the 580 into SLi(If you're not going to, go with a cheaper SLi setup instead). If you really want to just stick with the single 580, you still need to upgrade your PSU to around 600-650W so that you can overclock without worries. Remember, after 3 years your PSU is no longer 550W. Consider more RAM.
However, that still is not all. Your card doesn't fit in that case. Change the case, or buy a different GTX 580, or buy something smaller than GTX 580, or get a jigsaw. Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated  PSU: I didnt know that PSU's loose power over time, so i will be buying a corsair TX950w. GFX: 2x570 would destroy my budget, so the question would be 560 Sli or 580. For future proofing i think its a better choice to go with a single 580 now, and then add one more later down the road? CASE: It seems fractal was very forgiven with the numbers for space etc., because people who own both r3 and lightning says its fit, allthough abit tight  Saw pictures aswell, so it should be fine.
Power supply performance degrades a little bit over time, but the effect is often widely exaggerated. It's mostly cheaper electrolytic capacitors that change significantly in capacitance (and resistance, and so on) over time and usage, and/or simply start leaking and having serious problems. Your Corsair VX550 was a fairly high-end unit, and it uses all relatively high-end Japanese brands with good reliability, as opposed to some of the lower-end Chinese brands using dubious formulas. It would still be good for a GTX 580 and i5-2500k overclocked.
850W is already overkill for i5-2500k and two GTX 580s btw.
I'd just get the single GTX 580 (actually, maybe just a single GTX 560 Ti or HD 6950 depending on graphics settings desired) if you want to make the most of a 1920x1080 120Hz screen and want significantly higher than 60 fps. edit: nm 120 Hz is for the Nvidia 3D vision
|
What is your budget?
500-600 What is your resolution?
1920x1080
What are you using it for?
Gaming/Streaming What is your upgrade cycle? 4 years
When do you plan on building it? Buying Today. Picking up Today. Building Tonight
Do you plan on overclocking?
Yes
Do you need an Operating System?
No
Do you plan to add a second GPU for SLI or Crossfire?
No
Where are you buying your parts from?
Newegg.
|
+ Show Spoiler +On September 17 2011 05:50 5thdiv_gaming wrote: So from the top... How heavy a load does casting software place on the cpu/graphics card. What difference in performance could I expect from say an i5 as opposed to an i75600?
Also I have had problems in the past with regard to chipsets and ram configs, is it worth shelfing out for ddr3 or should I keep the 8gigs of corsair xms2 ddr2 instead? Does the 2nd generation 1755 socket i7 and i5 require the Z56 chipset?
Am I better off building 2 mirror setups? As opposed to a high end and a mid range system (my partner is a casual/hardcore gamer) we go to work we come home and we sit at our pc (just to show u the usage lvl With regard to the gtx580 is it bang for buck in terms of casting/HD gaming? Or would I ne better suited running sli bridged 550ti's plz help :S
Also what sort of ram requirements need to be addressed to run the whole operation smoothly
Budget $1500 per pc
Resolution Currently 1920*1080 (32" bravia)
Purpose: casting/gaming/streaming
Upgrade cycle is about 3 years
O/c is not necessary
O/S wise I currently own 64bit vista and 32bit vista
Locale: Queensland, Australia
Other useful info I plan on makimg the transition to liquid cooled to try an lessen the dust build up inside the system. I also plan on sshaving my cat after the amount of cat hair that clogged my 3yr old gtx260
|
On September 16 2011 11:56 JingleHell wrote: To be fair, it's not as bad as it used to be, but it's still a false savings, heat and power inefficient, and a lot more work.
Plus it's at it's worst with new releases, which is usually when you want the most GPU performance, just to see what it looks like.
There's times it's efficient, but you should definitely make sure you're very informed first.
I didnt really intend on using SLI with another gtx 560 iw as just wondering
So it seems like you and skyr don't recommend me SLI
|
@5thdiv Liquid cooling doesn't really help much with dust buildup unless you have an external radiator. Since I assume you mean a closed loop internal type CPU cooler, you'll still need some air intake for optimal performance. (By the way, optimal for those is pretty bad, particularly price/performance vs air coolers.)
What games besides SC2 do you want to play, kind of relevant for the GPUs.
On September 17 2011 06:38 Dannnnn_The_Man wrote:Show nested quote +On September 16 2011 11:56 JingleHell wrote: To be fair, it's not as bad as it used to be, but it's still a false savings, heat and power inefficient, and a lot more work.
Plus it's at it's worst with new releases, which is usually when you want the most GPU performance, just to see what it looks like.
There's times it's efficient, but you should definitely make sure you're very informed first. I didnt really intend on using SLI with another gtx 560 iw as just wondering So it seems like you and skyr don't recommend me SLI
skyR is strongly against it unless you're using flagship cards for Nvidia 3dsurround, I believe. And even there, he'd probably suggest AMD eyefinity, for legitimate reasons.
I personally have an SLI setup, so to say I'm against it comes off wrong.
In actual fact, I'm all for it; IF you're properly informed and know why you're doing it and what you're getting into. This just happens to actually be the case in about -37% of people asking for advice here.
|
Main reason i was wondering about SLI, i was running a just cause 2 benchmark, and i dont know if it was my graphics card or what but i started out at around 60fps fine then it slowly declined to 40 and then went to low 30's.
|
On September 17 2011 06:41 JingleHell wrote:@5thdiv Liquid cooling doesn't really help much with dust buildup unless you have an external radiator. Since I assume you mean a closed loop internal type CPU cooler, you'll still need some air intake for optimal performance. (By the way, optimal for those is pretty bad, particularly price/performance vs air coolers.) What games besides SC2 do you want to play, kind of relevant for the GPUs. Show nested quote +On September 17 2011 06:38 Dannnnn_The_Man wrote:On September 16 2011 11:56 JingleHell wrote: To be fair, it's not as bad as it used to be, but it's still a false savings, heat and power inefficient, and a lot more work.
Plus it's at it's worst with new releases, which is usually when you want the most GPU performance, just to see what it looks like.
There's times it's efficient, but you should definitely make sure you're very informed first. I didnt really intend on using SLI with another gtx 560 iw as just wondering So it seems like you and skyr don't recommend me SLI skyR is strongly against it unless you're using flagship cards for Nvidia 3dsurround, I believe. And even there, he'd probably suggest AMD eyefinity, for legitimate reasons. I personally have an SLI setup, so to say I'm against it comes off wrong. In actual fact, I'm all for it; IF you're properly informed and know why you're doing it and what you're getting into. This just happens to actually be the case in about -37% of people asking for advice here.
where lies the difficulty in a SLI setup? there seems to be alot of emphasis on doing it right.
|
On September 17 2011 06:47 Dannnnn_The_Man wrote:Show nested quote +On September 17 2011 06:41 JingleHell wrote:@5thdiv Liquid cooling doesn't really help much with dust buildup unless you have an external radiator. Since I assume you mean a closed loop internal type CPU cooler, you'll still need some air intake for optimal performance. (By the way, optimal for those is pretty bad, particularly price/performance vs air coolers.) What games besides SC2 do you want to play, kind of relevant for the GPUs. On September 17 2011 06:38 Dannnnn_The_Man wrote:On September 16 2011 11:56 JingleHell wrote: To be fair, it's not as bad as it used to be, but it's still a false savings, heat and power inefficient, and a lot more work.
Plus it's at it's worst with new releases, which is usually when you want the most GPU performance, just to see what it looks like.
There's times it's efficient, but you should definitely make sure you're very informed first. I didnt really intend on using SLI with another gtx 560 iw as just wondering So it seems like you and skyr don't recommend me SLI skyR is strongly against it unless you're using flagship cards for Nvidia 3dsurround, I believe. And even there, he'd probably suggest AMD eyefinity, for legitimate reasons. I personally have an SLI setup, so to say I'm against it comes off wrong. In actual fact, I'm all for it; IF you're properly informed and know why you're doing it and what you're getting into. This just happens to actually be the case in about -37% of people asking for advice here. where lies the difficulty in a SLI setup? there seems to be alot of emphasis on doing it right.
Well, ignoring the pile of extra cash you spend, you have to worry about temps more than a single card, you won't get anywhere near full scaling on new releases, scaling is largely dependent on drivers and game, and you'll end up having to set up custom SLI profiles any time you buy a new game. Bit of tweaking and tinkering.
It's a combination of more time intensive, less efficient, louder, hotter, and costing more than it looks like that makes it less than optimal for most people. Not so much pure difficulty. Setting it up physically is the easiest part.
|
On September 17 2011 06:50 JingleHell wrote:Show nested quote +On September 17 2011 06:47 Dannnnn_The_Man wrote:On September 17 2011 06:41 JingleHell wrote:@5thdiv Liquid cooling doesn't really help much with dust buildup unless you have an external radiator. Since I assume you mean a closed loop internal type CPU cooler, you'll still need some air intake for optimal performance. (By the way, optimal for those is pretty bad, particularly price/performance vs air coolers.) What games besides SC2 do you want to play, kind of relevant for the GPUs. On September 17 2011 06:38 Dannnnn_The_Man wrote:On September 16 2011 11:56 JingleHell wrote: To be fair, it's not as bad as it used to be, but it's still a false savings, heat and power inefficient, and a lot more work.
Plus it's at it's worst with new releases, which is usually when you want the most GPU performance, just to see what it looks like.
There's times it's efficient, but you should definitely make sure you're very informed first. I didnt really intend on using SLI with another gtx 560 iw as just wondering So it seems like you and skyr don't recommend me SLI skyR is strongly against it unless you're using flagship cards for Nvidia 3dsurround, I believe. And even there, he'd probably suggest AMD eyefinity, for legitimate reasons. I personally have an SLI setup, so to say I'm against it comes off wrong. In actual fact, I'm all for it; IF you're properly informed and know why you're doing it and what you're getting into. This just happens to actually be the case in about -37% of people asking for advice here. where lies the difficulty in a SLI setup? there seems to be alot of emphasis on doing it right. Well, ignoring the pile of extra cash you spend, you have to worry about temps more than a single card, you won't get anywhere near full scaling on new releases, scaling is largely dependent on drivers and game, and you'll end up having to set up custom SLI profiles any time you buy a new game. Bit of tweaking and tinkering. It's a combination of more time intensive, less efficient, louder, hotter, and costing more than it looks like that makes it less than optimal for most people. Not so much pure difficulty. Setting it up physically is the easiest part.
I see, just out of curiosity is crossfiring better that SLI?
|
On September 17 2011 06:59 Dannnnn_The_Man wrote:Show nested quote +On September 17 2011 06:50 JingleHell wrote:On September 17 2011 06:47 Dannnnn_The_Man wrote:On September 17 2011 06:41 JingleHell wrote:@5thdiv Liquid cooling doesn't really help much with dust buildup unless you have an external radiator. Since I assume you mean a closed loop internal type CPU cooler, you'll still need some air intake for optimal performance. (By the way, optimal for those is pretty bad, particularly price/performance vs air coolers.) What games besides SC2 do you want to play, kind of relevant for the GPUs. On September 17 2011 06:38 Dannnnn_The_Man wrote:On September 16 2011 11:56 JingleHell wrote: To be fair, it's not as bad as it used to be, but it's still a false savings, heat and power inefficient, and a lot more work.
Plus it's at it's worst with new releases, which is usually when you want the most GPU performance, just to see what it looks like.
There's times it's efficient, but you should definitely make sure you're very informed first. I didnt really intend on using SLI with another gtx 560 iw as just wondering So it seems like you and skyr don't recommend me SLI skyR is strongly against it unless you're using flagship cards for Nvidia 3dsurround, I believe. And even there, he'd probably suggest AMD eyefinity, for legitimate reasons. I personally have an SLI setup, so to say I'm against it comes off wrong. In actual fact, I'm all for it; IF you're properly informed and know why you're doing it and what you're getting into. This just happens to actually be the case in about -37% of people asking for advice here. where lies the difficulty in a SLI setup? there seems to be alot of emphasis on doing it right. Well, ignoring the pile of extra cash you spend, you have to worry about temps more than a single card, you won't get anywhere near full scaling on new releases, scaling is largely dependent on drivers and game, and you'll end up having to set up custom SLI profiles any time you buy a new game. Bit of tweaking and tinkering. It's a combination of more time intensive, less efficient, louder, hotter, and costing more than it looks like that makes it less than optimal for most people. Not so much pure difficulty. Setting it up physically is the easiest part. I see, just out of curiosity is crossfiring better that SLI?
Depends on individual driver releases, what game you're talking about, whether you're talking cards that compete on power vs cards at similar pricepoints, and whether you want to game across multiple monitors.
Oh, and what specific cards it comes down to as well.
|
|
|
|