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Gaming Rig, 2500 budget

4

414 Mafia

Member
Hello.

Due to an act of god, involving a failed sump pump, and a torrential rain storm-blizzard, my entire gaming rig ended up under water. Although I understand that this is ideal in the water cooling circles, it is not ideal when it is gray water sewage immersion, unless that is your thing.

I have to replace my entire computer set up.

My previous rig was a Phenom x6, 8 gigs of ram, nvidia 470, pcpnc 700 watt, enclosed in an antec 900 case. Monitors were 2x23 asus monitors, which are entirely ruined. Some parts -could- be salvaged and disinfected, however I am more prone to rebuilding an older rig with the salvage.

The new computer will be used primarily for gaming (fps, strategy, mmo) and photography. Unfortunately I am a bit overwhelmed with the recent changes in the industry, and making those changes match my wants. I have always used dual monitors, the logic behind that being one for work and one for play. Eyefinity was always alluring, and I am seriously considering making that a priority.

I will be building this rig, so advice on how to efficiently use my budget is greatly appreciated.

Power supply
-Seasonic, Pc PNC, or Corsair 750-850w
Case
-Antec was always a preference, would like to have space to mount some serious radiators, or option to go external on their mounting.
Motherboard
-Always had a preference for Asus or Gigabye, ASRock considered
CPU
-3570k or 3770k, Overclock has to be able to handle 24/7 use.
Heatsink/fan for the CPU
-Hyper 212 evo, h100i, or possible water loop
Memory
-2x8, g.skill or Crucial
Primary hard drive
-200g+ ssd, or 2x128 ssd. Probably OCZ or the M4
Primary optical drive
-cheap sata dvd burner
Video card
-2x7970, 2x7950, 2x670/80 hydrocopper
Monitor(s)
-Great big question mark, so very overwhelmed
Mouse/keyboard
-Logitech g-15/g510 survived. (keyboard/mouse)
Operating System
-debating 7/8
Snacks
Got two bucks in early season archery, venison sticks 4tw

Additional hard drive(s)
-2tb WD Black/Blue possibly Seagate
External hard drive
4 1tb survived, various makes and models.
Audio card
-Probably needed
Speakers
Logitech 5.1 (300 watt sub) somehow survived
Headphones
Logitech G35 also survived, would consider replacing (2+ years old)
Printer
Brothers workgroup color laser survived

Uninterruptible Power Supply and/or surge supressor
Need to find someone to examine my 1400 watt ups to insure it is safe to reuse.
 
Closest microcenter is a 5 hour drive

I am guessing you are referencing the cheap cpu and apparently kick ass 27" monitors they sell for 400?
 
i would start with the midrange system build
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2192841


swap out the case with:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811352020
define r4
its on sale for $80 right now, no better value. has space for rads in the top


and the board with:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157293
asrock z77 extreme4


and the power supply with:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139021
corsair tx 750 v2 (just to be safe for overclocking)

or go gold with
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817182073

add in another 7970 to the build and you've got a stomping good gaming system


m4 pricing at newegg right now isn't fantastic. the 256 gig model has been as low as $160 within the past couple weeks. might want to look at intel, or if you can find one, a samsung 830.
http://camelcamelcamel.com/Crucial-256GB-2-5-Inch-Solid-CT256M4SSD2/product/B004W2JL2A

i'm not seeing much value in 2TB 7200 rpm hard drives right now.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136792



monitors:
what model were the previous monitors? do you mostly twitch game where speed is the utmost priority?
 
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414 Mafia said:
Closest microcenter is a 5 hour drive

I am guessing you are referencing the cheap cpu and apparently kick ass 27" monitors they sell for 400?
Click to expand...

yeah cheap CPU and board combos. most of their other pricing is pretty reasonable too.
 
You know I keep hearing everyone reference the extreme 4, and I understand that its got a fantastic price point, but as I recall the big difference between the extreme 4 and 6, was the 4+2 phase or 6+2 phase power.. which to my limited understanding is fairly relevant to stable over clocking of the cpu.

That fractal case has gotten some great reviews, and has caught my eye a few times, thanks for pointing it out, due to keeping the case on my left hand side, having a window is pointless.

Are you recommending tri-fire?

One thing I will comment on. With my particular brand of home owners insurance, all I had to do was forward on the order details from my last build, which were very neatly all from newegg and easily printed out. It made the reimbursement process incredibly pain free, almost to the point that I am considering just using them exclusively.
 
For the kind of cooling you're looking at an Extreme4 will do everything you need it to do in the overclocking department.
 
414 Mafia said:
You know I keep hearing everyone reference the extreme 4, and I understand that its got a fantastic price point, but as I recall the big difference between the extreme 4 and 6, was the 4+2 phase or 6+2 phase power.. which to my limited understanding is fairly relevant to stable over clocking of the cpu.
Click to expand...
ivy simply doesn't use that much power.

Are you recommending tri-fire?
Click to expand...

no. it'd need a different board and probably a larger power supply.
 
Totally missed your question. The old monitors were Asus VW222u. Although I fretted a bit over their loss, they were really showing signs of age, color bleed through and burnt pixels.

Most of my gaming is Mechwarrior Online, Mass Effect, Fall out, a bit of BF3, and of course Skyrim.

Monitors are where I am really floundering. BenQ 24" would be great, and 3 of them in eyefinity is gorgeous, however I suspect that I don't have enough hardware with crossfired 7970s to fully utilize the 120 hertz bandwidth.

So that leads me to consider two 2640x1440 27" monitors, or going cheap and get 3.. At a bit of a loss, as the last time I bought monitors I just got the lowest response I could afford.

The evo cooler would only be a place holder until I can assemble the ~700 dollars I need for the frozen cpu order. GPU plates, radiator, pump, cpu block, res, and possibly fans.
 
Last edited:
414 Mafia said:
Totally missed your question. The old monitors were Asus VW222u. Although I fretted a bit over their loss, they were really showing signs of age, color bleed through and burnt pixels.

Monitors are where I am really floundering. BenQ 24" would be great, and 3 of them in eyefinity is gorgeous, however I suspect that I don't have enough hardware with crossfired 7970s to fully utilize the 120 hertz bandwidth.

So that leads me to consider two 2640x1440 27" monitors, or going cheap and get 3.. At a bit of a loss, as the last time I bought monitors I just got the lowest response I could afford.

The evo cooler would only be a place holder until I can assemble the ~700 dollars I need for the frozen cpu order. GPU plates, radiator, pump, cpu block, res, and possibly fans.
Click to expand...

2 monitors seems like a weird number to me, for gaming purposes at least.

you're right that in any modern game you won't be hitting a consistent 120 fps on crossfire (or even 680 SLI) at 5760x1080 at super high settings. you'd probably need to go quad before getting 120 consistently. if we need to include the screens in your budget there's no way of getting there.
 
Two screens was born of playing eve/wow and being able to watch movies/tv while waiting for something to happen.

I can go as high as 3000 including the monitors, the original intent was to get the system built and running, then strip it down to implement water cooling.

3 cheap asus 24 inch would be about 600. 3 cheap asus 27 inch would be about 900. 3 benq 24 would be ~1200.. 3 Catleap equivalents would be 1200.

I have no frame of basis or comparison to be honest, I've been stuck at 1680x1050 res for a very long time. I'd like this system to be reliable for at least two generations of hardware, the monitors more hopefully.
 
414 Mafia said:
I'd like this system to be reliable for at least two generations of hardware, the monitors more hopefully.
Click to expand...

go for the 120 hz screens now and wait for the rest of the hardware to catch up. screens last a long time. with xfire or SLI you'd still be doing over 60 on average.
 
First off, thank you for the advice and providing a sounding board ElFenix.

Do you have any particular opinion or insight into the various 7970 designs?
 
414 Mafia said:
First off, thank you for the advice and providing a sounding board ElFenix.

Do you have any particular opinion or insight into the various 7970 designs?
Click to expand...

you're quite welcome. as to 7070s, no but i'm going to be in the market for one here shortly. or maybe a 670. probably will go with a gigabyte or sapphire model.
 
ElFenix said:
i would start with the midrange system build
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2192841


swap out the case with:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811352020
define r4
its on sale for $80 right now, no better value. has space for rads in the top


and the board with:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157293
asrock z77 extreme4


and the power supply with:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139021
corsair tx 750 v2 (just to be safe for overclocking)

or go gold with
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817182073

add in another 7970 to the build and you've got a stomping good gaming system


m4 pricing at newegg right now isn't fantastic. the 256 gig model has been as low as $160 within the past couple weeks. might want to look at intel, or if you can find one, a samsung 830.
http://camelcamelcamel.com/Crucial-256GB-2-5-Inch-Solid-CT256M4SSD2/product/B004W2JL2A

i'm not seeing much value in 2TB 7200 rpm hard drives right now.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136792



monitors:
what model were the previous monitors? do you mostly twitch game where speed is the utmost priority?
Click to expand...

:thumbsup: Nice.
 
ElFenix said:
ivy simply doesn't use that much power.
Click to expand...

Agree. You'd have to nearly double its power output to get to 130W, which was the baseline just a few years ago. Doubling the power output puts you squarely into "deathrun" voltage levels, no matter what sort of cooling you strap to it.
 
414 Mafia said:
So.. a 256 gb ssd, or two 128s in raid 0.. hmm.
Click to expand...

Single 256GB, no question. 256 GB drives are faster than 128 GB ones (generally) because they have all the NAND channels on the controller filled out. And you don't have to futz with trying to get TRIM and health info passed through the RAID.
 
No worries, glad to help. 🙂

3TB drives are fine if you need the storage. At $45/TB, they're a better deal than a bunch of 1TB drives for bulk storage.
 
mfenn said:
Single 256GB, no question. 256 GB drives are faster than 128 GB ones (generally) because they have all the NAND channels on the controller filled out. And you don't have to futz with trying to get TRIM and health info passed through the RAID.
Click to expand...

Yup. The way ssd controllers work, essentially, is by RAIDing together the flash ram chips to get bandwidth. They need all their channels populated to get to peak performance and that usually means 256 GB drives.
 
Intel 330s are perfectly fine for home use, as are Crucial M4s and Plextor M5Ss or M5Ps. Crucial M4s have been expensive per GB recently, but who knows. You might find a good deal for any of these options.

The difference is basically in the endurance. Intel 520s are insured for an extra two years over a 330, and they perform better in heavy workloads. However, since the cost of SSDs is likely to go down for drives of comparable quality or size (IE, less money per gigabyte), it makes more sense to get the 330, and replace them with a newer drive 3 years down the line than getting a 520 now.
 
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