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On April 06 2011 00:05 ensign_lee wrote:
Just a question, why are you recommending a MICRO atx board with teh i5 2500k system?
It's the cheapest x8/x8 board (which let's you use SLI or XFire). I'm having trouble finding information on the phases though, but I would hope it's at least 8+2, not the 4+1 of the full-size LE model (which is pretty bad lol).
This is very similar to people who bought the P55M-UD4. What's funny is that the P55M-UD4 has 12+2 vs. the 8+2 of the full-size UD4P model. It does make me optimistic that the Asus board is at least 8+2 though.
Amazon, of all places, listed the non-Pro with 8+2. Hmm.
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On April 06 2011 00:23 mav451 wrote:Show nested quote +On April 06 2011 00:05 ensign_lee wrote:
Just a question, why are you recommending a MICRO atx board with teh i5 2500k system? It's the cheapest x8/x8 board (which let's you use SLI or XFire). I'm having trouble finding information on the phases though, but I would hope it's at least 8+2, not the 4+1 of the full-size LE model (which is pretty bad lol). This is very similar to people who bought the P55M-UD4. What's funny is that the P55M-UD4 has 12+2 vs. the 8+2 of the full-size UD4P model. It does make me optimistic that the Asus board is at least 8+2 though. Amazon, of all places, listed the non-Pro with 8+2. Hmm.
Looking at pictures on newegg, the P8P67-m and P8P67-m Pro seem to have 4+1. They don't advertise the DIGI+ VRM for those models either.
A proper 4+1 design with quality components and good enough cooling should be enough for overclocking an i5-2500k or i7-2600k, but those things are kind of difficult to tell by pictures.
The LE has trouble overclocking with its 4+1 implementation, but I wouldn't extrapolate that to the P8P67-m Pro.
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On 100% load, you should be using 70% of your PSU's wattage.
For more info, click here.
Generally you want your idle power draw to fall into ~30%-40% of the PSU's rated wattage, and your peak power draw to fall into ~70%-80% of the PSU's rated wattage.
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From what I can tell it seems there is marginal difference between the i3 and the higher end CPUs, even with overclocking and atleast in SC2, which is something I wanted to confirm before upgrading. Thanks for the great guide!
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On April 06 2011 00:23 mav451 wrote:Show nested quote +On April 06 2011 00:05 ensign_lee wrote:
Just a question, why are you recommending a MICRO atx board with teh i5 2500k system? It's the cheapest x8/x8 board (which let's you use SLI or XFire). I'm having trouble finding information on the phases though, but I would hope it's at least 8+2, not the 4+1 of the full-size LE model (which is pretty bad lol). This is very similar to people who bought the P55M-UD4. What's funny is that the P55M-UD4 has 12+2 vs. the 8+2 of the full-size UD4P model. It does make me optimistic that the Asus board is at least 8+2 though. Amazon, of all places, listed the non-Pro with 8+2. Hmm.
its true this matx board has absolutely no where near the amount of power phases as its bigger brothers. however, you can achieve overclocks with sandy bridge with little to no changing of the vcore.
i question the ability for someone to get up around 5ghz using a board like this but as i mentioned in the post, if you're going that far, you're prob gonna invest in a better and beefier board anyways.
kudos
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I'm not sure about not recommending the 2500k over the 2400. The price differential is relatively small and if you get in on a deal that differential can shrink to 20-30 USD. I managed to get the microcenter deal for i5-2500k + Asus P8P67 for 330 which makes it only 40 more than an H67+i5-2400 build though I know that deal is pretty ridiculous (and currently unavailable I think).
The performance difference at stock is pretty minimal but it actually makes a pretty damn huge difference when overclocked which is stupidly easy. I'm talking easiest and largest overclock I've done in the last 10 years of pc building which does in fact net a pretty huge performance increase without even needing a voltage bump. I think the performance advantage is enough that the 50-100 you spend extra on the P67/i5-2500k is justified over getting a better gpu as its unlikely you will need to upgrade an i5-2500k within the next 3 years whereas any gpu will begin to feel dated within 2 years.
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I think he was more aiming at specific price points, it's actually easier for most people to reconfigure upwards than downwards off of a base build.
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On May 18 2011 04:32 ZeaL. wrote:
I'm not sure about not recommending the 2500k over the 2400. The price differential is relatively small and if you get in on a deal that differential can shrink to 20-30 USD. I managed to get the microcenter deal for i5-2500k + Asus P8P67 for 330 which makes it only 40 more than an H67+i5-2400 build though I know that deal is pretty ridiculous (and currently unavailable I think).
The performance difference at stock is pretty minimal but it actually makes a pretty damn huge difference when overclocked which is stupidly easy. I'm talking easiest and largest overclock I've done in the last 10 years of pc building which does in fact net a pretty huge performance increase without even needing a voltage bump. I think the performance advantage is enough that the 50-100 you spend extra on the P67/i5-2500k is justified over getting a better gpu as its unlikely you will need to upgrade an i5-2500k within the next 3 years whereas any gpu will begin to feel dated within 2 years.
the 2400 build exists because there are many people that do not what to tread in overclocking for whatever personal reason. while you can always mention to how easy it is to overclock with some motherboards, some simply don't feel comfortable with it.
further the performance difference between the 2400 and 2500 (non k) is negligible, so its logical to just recommend the one that saves you monies 
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Starcraft 2 benefits significantly from SSDs (Solid State Drives)
Can you elaborate on this a bit more? I am building a computer for sc2 around the i3-2100. I already bought a 750gb WD Caviar for this computer since it was on sale for $30.
The main problem with my current computer is that it lags during big fights during team games. Also, if I ever accidently "alt-tabbed" or hit the "windows" key, out of SC2 during a game, I would lag out because it takes literally a minute to switch to my desktop. (I have since then disabled the windows key). But anyway, I'm building a new computer that would hopefully get rid of these problems, so I guess the main thing is I need it to run smoothly during large fights during 3v3 or 4v4 matches. Would the SSD help in this case?
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SSD does not improve performance, it just decreases load times which quite frankly doesn't matter in SC2 since you're waiting on the other person to finish loading anyways.
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On May 19 2011 14:28 FalconPunch wrote:Can you elaborate on this a bit more? I am building a computer for sc2 around the i3-2100. I already bought a 750gb WD Caviar for this computer since it was on sale for $30. The main problem with my current computer is that it lags during big fights during team games. Also, if I ever accidently "alt-tabbed" or hit the "windows" key, out of SC2 during a game, I would lag out because it takes literally a minute to switch to my desktop. (I have since then disabled the windows key). But anyway, I'm building a new computer that would hopefully get rid of these problems, so I guess the main thing is I need it to run smoothly during large fights during 3v3 or 4v4 matches. Would the SSD help in this case?
SSDs only affect loading times to any significant extent. Alt+Tab is mainly based on your RAM, and, more specifically, how much you have of it.
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On May 19 2011 14:28 FalconPunch wrote:Can you elaborate on this a bit more? I am building a computer for sc2 around the i3-2100. I already bought a 750gb WD Caviar for this computer since it was on sale for $30. The main problem with my current computer is that it lags during big fights during team games. Also, if I ever accidently "alt-tabbed" or hit the "windows" key, out of SC2 during a game, I would lag out because it takes literally a minute to switch to my desktop. (I have since then disabled the windows key). But anyway, I'm building a new computer that would hopefully get rid of these problems, so I guess the main thing is I need it to run smoothly during large fights during 3v3 or 4v4 matches. Would the SSD help in this case?
try running in windowed-fullscreen mode, but yes, this is more of a ram situation.
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Many thanks for the post! Will be using your list for the i5-2400 as my backbone ^_^.
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I have an i5-2500k and get much higher FPS counts than what they have on there (game starts around 205 fps and slowly goes down to ~100 fps in the late game.
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To follow up on my original question, do you guys think 4gb of ram is enough so that alt-tabbing won't lag? Or should I go with 8gb?
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There's rumors of an unlocked dual-core SKU, i3 2120K, $150. It would put it about $25 above the current i3 2100.
+ Show Spoiler +
The price is a bit too high IMO, as the i5 2400 is just $40 more. *Shrug*
It does shake up the mobo decision-making for budget builds though regardless.
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On May 19 2011 17:24 FalconPunch wrote:
To follow up on my original question, do you guys think 4gb of ram is enough so that alt-tabbing won't lag? Or should I go with 8gb?
4gb of ram is listed in the builds and that is well enough for SC2.
Though, many of us would suggest 8gb if you can afford it, because the price of ram is so cheap nowadays.
Also consider that some motherboards only have 2 ram slots, which makes upgrading difficult in the long run, so starting with a larger amount from the getgo may be a wise decision.
But, like what was said with the SSD, it doesn't actually increase the FPS of the game. It just helps you to run more programs at the same time and expedite your task switching.
As always, its a balancing act to get the most from your budget. More ram ... better video card ... better CPU? Make a post in the computer build help thread with the components you're looking at currently, and your budget, and you can get the opinion from a lot of the other tech gurus here at TL.
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Hey guys,
I was wondering if anyone has reviews like the one in the first page but for more demanding games and for (various OCed 2500ks), the SC2 one is nice but I feel like there is a GPU bootleneck for those legit reviews.
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On May 20 2011 00:45 ataryens wrote:
Hey guys,
I was wondering if anyone has reviews like the one in the first page but for more demanding games and for (various OCed 2500ks), the SC2 one is nice but I feel like there is a GPU bootleneck for those legit reviews.
core i5 2500k @ 3.3, 4.3, and 4.7 along with 2600k, 990x, and a Phenom II X6 at various clock speeds: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i7-2600k-990x_9.html#sect2
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EPT
