Computer Build Suggestions

deathmongerdeathmonger Join Date: 2012-07-06 Member: 153953Members
in Technical Support
<div class="IPBDescription">Sorry, I didn't know where to put this!</div>Well, long story short my wife's computer is taking a ###### and I've been given the go ahead to go ahead to build a new computer for myself in exchange for giving her my current one. I currently get the following FPS in NS2: Avg: 47.574 - Min: 27 - Max: 66. This is with the following:

Asus M4A79XTD EVO
AMD Phenom II 1090T @ 3.876GHz
8GHz DDR3 1600 RAM
GTX 470

And here is what I'm planning on going with:

<a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131821" target="_blank">ASUS Sabertooth Z77</a>
<a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070" target="_blank">Intel i7-2600k</a>
<a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=14-130-595" target="_blank">GTX 570</a>
<a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231429" target="_blank">16GB G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series</a> (overkill but it all costs the same so whatever)
<a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533" target="_blank">1TB WD Caviar Black</a>
<a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171057" target="_blank">CM 800W Power Supply (80 PLUS GOLD)</a>
<a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181017" target="_blank">Corsair H100</a> (LOVE this - dropped my CPU temps on my 1090T from constant 55-60C to 25-30C)

That about sums it up...I'm going to toss it all in a HAF 932 and call it a day. My question is...is there anywhere you guys think I could safely trim some money? If not then so be it, but I'm a lot less in risk of an ass chewing if I don't spend quite so much money. The biggest dilemma I ran into was in choosing a reliable motherboard...maybe people are just more whiny lately but it seems like all the reasonably priced ones either lack in feature or get ###### reviews in terms of reliability. Anyone have a similar build? What's worked for you? Thanks in advance - this will be my 3rd build but I always like to get some opinions before I pull the trigger!
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Comments

  • AngeluszAngelusz Harmonic entropist Join Date: 2003-07-10 Member: 18072Members, Forum Moderators, Constellation, NS2 Playtester
    Yeah. Fairly easily even.

    1. Drop the water cooling
    Yes, water cooling will keep temps lower than air in general, but 55-60C is absolutely not high and won't impair your system in any way. Expect to save a lot of money and quite some time and fiddling there. (I've overclocked my 3Ghz Phenom II to 4Ghz, including voltage ups, all on air cooling: Scythe Mugen II).

    2. Cut down on memory.
    Unless you have some very specific reasons for getting 16GB, just drop half of it. I know memory is not the most expensive part, but you simply won't need 16GB at this point.

    Next to that, you might not need 800W of power supply with that setup, but cutting it down to a 600/650W won't lower the costs that much.

    Mind you, this is what I'd personally say about the system, and only applies if you really want to spare yourself some dime.
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  • Cee Colon SlashCee Colon Slash Join Date: 2012-05-25 Member: 152581Members
    A few suggestions on my part:

    The 1TB WD Caviar Black is a great drive, but I'd use it as a secondary drive for data and get a 120GB solid state drive to use as your OS drive. I've noticed a remarkable jump in performance just removing the disk drive bottleneck.

    I'm using an Intel i5-2400 (the non-overclockable one) and I get around 45fps on average - I'm sure the i7 will do wonders, but I'm not sure it's strictly necessary.
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  • ScardyBobScardyBob ScardyBob Join Date: 2009-11-25 Member: 69528Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    Since it sounds like you're planning to OC, you might want to go for an i5-2500k or 3570k. It'd only be a little performance drop compared to an OCd 2600k, but you could save a little money.
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  • rantologyrantology Join Date: 2012-02-05 Member: 143750Members, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Gold, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Gold
    If you want an aftermarket cooler I would suggest this little guy: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002G1YPH0/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002G1YPH...m=ATVPDKIKX0DER</a> . Pretty cheap but they work extremely good for the price. I run an i7 2700k OC'd @ 4.7ghz and the temp never goes above 50-55 while playing NS2.
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  • deathmongerdeathmonger Join Date: 2012-07-06 Member: 153953Members
    Thanks for all of the replies! Yes, I do plan on overclocking it to probably at least 4.5GHz. I'm not sure where you all live but I'm currently living in Las Vegas so it gets rather warm here and I've found my computers just don't take it as well as they did when I was in say South Carolina. That's the reason I'm worried about temps - but the GTX 570 isn't supposed to be a massive heat pump like my current 470 so that might help I suppose. Even if the CPU can take 70C or so I personally don't want the computer acting as a space heater in the room (like my current one was before the H100). That unfortunately probably has to stay, but I could drop down to the i5-2500k and save $70.

    As for the power supply...I only need 605W during peak use according to a few online calculators, however, I wanted to give myself a buffer for future upgrades as the trend sees more and more power hungry CPUs and GPUs. You were right in saying that the price difference wasn't very large though. I could save another $45 by dropping from 16GB to 8GB of RAM - so that right there is enough to offset the price of the H100. Not too bad. I'd also love to consider getting an SSD but I am rather unfamiliar with those, aren't they still a bit unreliable? This looks very promising: <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233205" target="_blank">90GB Corsair Force Series SATA III SSD</a>

    Is there a cheaper motherboard out there that would function similarly to the Sabertooth? I know that's a great motherboard but it's leaning more towards the pricey end as for as motherboards go in my opinion. If LGA 1155 is going to stick around for some time then I'd feel a lot better about it...but isn't LGA 2011 taking over?

    Again thanks for all of the suggestions...I haven't really taken any money off with the addition of the SSD but at least it's shaping into a better gaming rig lol!
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  • mkarraschmkarrasch Join Date: 2012-07-19 Member: 154230Members
    edited July 2012
    Hi, Just want to add few point:
    - Get minimum of 120Gb, better yet 240Gn. It may not fill right away but think one to two years ahead. You cannot add second SSD to enlarge system drive like RAM
    - Get 16Gb for the same reason. You may have hard to find identical RAM later. Their price is low. I just bought 16Gb 1600GHz @ 64€.
    - Pay some extra to get a dual GPU board so you can later double your card. GPU will be the bottle neck on most cases with this setup. Also select latest generation card from big supplier to be sure it will be awailable when you upgrade in 1 to 2 years.
    - Also I'd keep the 800W psu because it will be more stable. Some might argue but if you OC and double GPU later better to be sure. The price difference is not that big.
    - take i7 if you go with this upgradeble setup. Otherwise its quite the same to go with i5. As I said usually GPU is the bottleneck. NS2 is exception caused by the beta state.
    - Speed comparing SSD's is pretty useless. That wont show that much in real life. Take one with longest warranty (I dont know others, but OCZ has 3y cause they had problems earlier)

    I my self have 2x560Ti (bought year apart), Intel 2600k, OCZ 240Gb SSD
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  • deathmongerdeathmonger Join Date: 2012-07-06 Member: 153953Members
    I was able to find a <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167121" target="_blank">120GB Intel 330 Series SSD</a> for $100 so I think I'll go with that. After you mentioned there wouldn't be much of a difference I did some more research and sure enough...no sense in spending extra for something I'll never see the benefits of. The motherboard I picked out does have two PCI-E x16 slots so it would work just fine for adding another GPU in the future, however, they're only rated at x8 when use in SLI (I haven't been able to find a motherboard that offers x16 when used in SLI so I assume this is the limitation of current technology). I could get more RAM since it doesn't cost much more to add another 8GB, but I just haven't been able to find any evidence to support it actually having a benefit. I'm all about function over form and I have to see a real benefit before I'm willing to throw out extra money.
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  • ChlamydiaChlamydia Join Date: 2012-06-01 Member: 152844Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    Hey. I recently built this rig below for about £1,000. The i5 and GTX570 combo are so well priced for the performance you can get out of them. The motherboard has been very stable.
    My first ever SSD and have been amazed at how quickly things install/load. Definitely worth it. NS2 works pretty damn good since the OC to 4.8GHz, even when I stream.


    My setup:

    CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K 4.8GHz OC
    Heatsink: Noctua NH-D14 Dual Radiator x6
    MOBO: Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H Gen 3, Intel
    PSU: Corsair HX CMPSU-850HXUK

    GPU: 2GB MSI GTX 670 Overclocked, 28nm
    SSD: 240GB OCZ Agility 3
    Memory: 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair DDR3 XMS3

    Keyboard: Logitech G110
    Case: Corsair Carbide Series 300R Black M


    Good luck with your build!
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  • mkarraschmkarrasch Join Date: 2012-07-19 Member: 154230Members
    edited July 2012
    I have this and it supports dual PCIe 16x <a href="http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z68A-GD65--G3-.html#/?div=Basic" target="_blank">http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z68A-GD65--G...tml#/?div=Basic</a> I recall that 16x doesn't benefit most of the GPU's but its good to be there for later updates.
    RAM above 8Gb doesn't speed anything, but then you can disable whole disk cache from windows setting. Neat with SSD where you should minimize IO writes (Lowers life time). Also when you add later more memory you should have identical new memory modules. Also make sure you have free slots where to add some modules. (get 4Gb modules or 2x4Gb kit). Hope these tips help you out with your project!

    Edit: Ups, it's not 16x/16x, but single 16x OR 8x/8x although this was the best available atleast in begining of this year.
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  • Kouji_SanKouji_San Sr. Hινε Uρкεερεг - EUPT Deputy The Netherlands Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
    edited July 2012
    With the i7 2700k being a higher binned i7 2600K, it has the potential to overclock further or easier (not guaranteed of course, but the chance is there). Just putting it out there as over here in Dutchland, the 2700k is now cheaper than the 2600k for some reason...


    For gaming you wont need an i7 though, the i5 2500k would be more then enough as games do not make use of the hyper threading, in some rare cases it even hurts performance. The i7 would be more at home for video encoding and multithreaded 3D rendering and such. As is the 16Gb of memory, 8Gb is more than enough for gaming. It has generally the same gaming performance as its little brother the i5, if not a tiny bit better
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  • deathmongerdeathmonger Join Date: 2012-07-06 Member: 153953Members
    Thank you for all of the help guys. I just placed the order for the computer...I had to rearrange a few things based on the bundles newegg was offering. I ended up saving $200 doing it this way. Here is what I came up with:

    ASRock Z77 Extreme4
    Intel Core i5-2500K
    EVGA GeForce GTX 570
    CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750
    G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866
    Intel 330 Series Maple Crest 120GB SATA III SSD
    Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB
    CORSAIR H100
    COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Advanced
    ASUS 24X DVD Burner
    ASUS VS Series 21.5" 5ms HDMI LED Monitor
    Microsoft SIDEWINDER X4 Keyboard
    RAZER DeathAdder Black Edition Mouse

    Came out to just at $1,600 shipped. Not too bad if I do say so myself. I'm very happy with the amount of money I was able to save despite not cutting corners. I'm especially looking forward to the mouse...I've heard great things about it for gaming!
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