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G

Gast

Senior member
Alright, I've got a friend who's looking to build a new pc in the next few days. He's been out of the loop on hardware for several years, so doesn't really know what to do. He's got 2K to spend on a tower, but is willing to spend less if the performance really doesn't justify the cost. I'm putting together a list of parts for him to pull from and would like a quick sanity check from the masses before I give it to him.

For the most part he will be gaming on this pc @ 1920x1200. Would like to max settings when he can. There's no plan for video editing or other heavy multithread loads.

We are state side. This build is from scratch, tower only. Heavy overclock is not planned, "future-proofing" for basic overclocking is ok and encouraged if cost is minimal. Cooling components would be bought in the future. Links to any good deals would be awesome. <3

I plan on recommending single GPU. No dual GPU cards or SLI/Crossfire unless he requests otherwise. This is mainly due to issues with drivers & game support when new games release. He goes through a number of games right at release.

The sections I likely need the most help on are the Mobo selections and the Case selections. They will be last.


CPU
-i5 2500k
(no heavy multi-thread so no i7)

Ram
-8gig (2x4gig) DDR3 1333/1600 1.5v
(His choice of "name brand" with cheapest available lightly recommended. Will be suggesting to stick with 1600 for "OC-proofing" I'll be namedropping G-Skill, but no real bias here. Any specific kits recommended on sale would be helpful.)

GPU
-GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1gb
-Radeon HD 6950 1gb
-GeForce GTX 580
(Basically giving him the choice between the beast card, and the price/performance cards. I'll be recommending EVGA for these. I'll be saying that the p/p cards will play everything today @1920x1200 near max graphics running an avg of 30fps or better. The 580 is for bragging rights, overkill (30+ fps minimums), and a minor bit of future proofing.)

PSU
-Antec Earthwatts EA650
-Corsair HX CMPSU-650HX
-Seasonic M12II 620
(Pretty sure this is enough power for the GTX 580 + Hdds & overclock.)

SSD
-Intel 320 120gb
(Main os drive. Didn't see a real reason to jump up to the 510 series and I want Intel's reliability. Unfortunately the Samsung 830 isn't out yet.)

HDD
-2x Hitachi 3k3000 3Tb
(basically any combination of Hitachi/seagate/wd/samsung 2 or 3tb drives he wants to get. Price per TB likely being the driving factor in choice. Edit: Large storage was requested by him.)

DVD
(Any 24x Lightscribe Sata. Not sure if he's interested in blu-ray.

Mobo
-Biostar Tz68A+
-Asrock Z68 Pro3
-Asrock Z68 Extreme3
-Asus P8Z68-V
(Basically solid but feature free Z68 boards. An internal usb3 header would be nice. I'm having a hard time justifying an extra $100 when there's no plan to SLI/Crossfire. Feel free to correct me on this. If he wanted to RAID (unlikely), I would be recommending dedicated raid card.)

Case
-Corsair 400R
-Fractal Design Arc Midi
-Fractal Design R3
-In-Win BUC
-Corsair 650D
-Rosewill Thor v2
-Silverstone Raven
(I'm looking for solid cases for him to choose the one he likes the best. Let me know if I'm overlooking solid choices)
 
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"(Any 24x Lightscribe Sata

SSD
-Intel 320 120gb
(Main os drive. Didn't see a real reason to jump up to the 510 series and I want Intel's reliability. Unfortunately the Samsung 830 isn't out yet.)

HDD
-2x Hitachi 3k3000 3Tb
(basically any combination of Hitachi/seagate/wd 2 or 3tb drives he wants to get. Price per TB likely being the driving factor in choice.)"

Why the lightscribe only limitation?
Why the massive storage on a gaming rig?
-i5 2500k
-Seasonic M12II 620
-Crucial CT2KIT51264BA1339 8GB 1333 @ 1.5v
 
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Meh, any drive now-a-days has lightscribe afaik. I wouldn't be against a non lightscribe drive, but I'd likely recommend spending the extra $1-5 on the off chance he wants to use it once.

And as for the storage, that's by his request. He's got a good bit of old data (movies/emulators/porn) he'd like to move over onto new hdds.
 
CPU You probably mean the i5-2500K (2600K is the i7)
RAM Overclocking the 2500K is independent of memory clocks, so in that respect the 1600MHz memory is unnecessary. It doesn't cost a lot more though so either is fine as long as it's 1.5V
GPU I would recommend GTX 570, and not EVGA. I've heard the standard EVGA cooler is pretty noisy; the DoubleShot edition might be fine. I'd go with MSI Twin Frozr II or Asus DirectCu II (triple-slot). GTX 560 Ti doesn't quite make it at 1920x1200 and high settings, 1GB of VRAM is a bit limited as well. And GTX 580 is bad value for money.
PSU 650W is good. Antec Earthwatts is just $45 atm, XFX 650W is another option at $60. For modular go with HX650 at $100.
SSD Intel 320 is last-gen SATA 3gb/s. Go with Crucial M4, it's reliable and fast (6gb/s). Intel 510 is good too but more expensive.
HDD Would go with Samsung F4EG 2TB just because I already have one and I like it :thumbsup:. Could also just go with the faster Samsung F3 1TB if 2tb of space isn't actually needed
Mobo Asrock Z68 Pro3, Asrock Z68 Extreme3 and Asus P8Z68-V are the usual frills-free z68 recommendations, Gigabyte and MSI also have offerings here that would probably be fine (Gigabyte doesn't offer UEFI bios though and their colour scheme is terrible -.- )
Case Those are all nice. Also Fractal Design R3, Silverstone Raven
 
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lehtv said:
CPU You probably mean the i5-2500K (2600K is the i7)
Click to expand...

Corrected
lehtv said:
RAM Overclocking the 2500K is independent of memory clocks, so in that respect the 1600MHz memory is unnecessary. It doesn't cost a lot more though so either is fine as long as it's 1.5V
Click to expand...

Noted
lehtv said:
GPU I would recommend GTX 570, and not EVGA. I've heard the standard EVGA cooler is pretty noisy; the DoubleShot edition might be fine. I'd go with MSI Twin Frozr II or Asus DirectCu II (triple-slot). GTX 560 Ti doesn't quite make it at 1920x1200 and high settings, 1GB of VRAM is a bit limited as well. And GTX 580 is bad value for money.
Click to expand...
I'm a fan of EVGA's warranty & have had great customer support through them. MSI & Asus have only been ok to me in the past. I'll bring up the noise issue though.

The 560 Ti does just fine when you use modest AA values. I use it personally, and Anandtech's bench shows most games are over 30fps. I will bring up the 570 as the middle value though.

As far as 1gb vs 2gb, from what I've read, most games are unlikely to use >1GB ram @ 1920x1200.

But in searching I did find this thread so I'll make a mention of it for him as I could see the newer games pushing that 1gb envelope

lehtv said:
SSD Intel 320 is last-gen SATA 3gb/s. Go with Crucial M4, it's reliable and fast (6gb/s). Intel 510 is good too but more expensive.
Click to expand...

I'm sticking pretty firm to the Intel recommendation here. Is performance gain going from the 320 to the 510 really worth the extra $? I would see the minimal difference hard to tell apart in real world usage.


lehtv said:
Mobo Asrock Z68 Pro3, Asrock Z68 Extreme3 and Asus P8Z68-V are the usual frills-free z68 recommendations, Gigabyte and MSI also have offerings here that would probably be fine (Gigabyte doesn't offer UEFI bios though and their colour scheme is terrible -.- )
Case Those are all nice. Also Fractal Design R3, Silverstone Raven
Click to expand...

I'll make these additions now.
 
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I'd rather get something from Crucial if I were you as I've heard good things about it but the only problem is that I can't get it here locally.

I've built a rig for a friend of mine with a pair of HD6870s and it is definitely better than a single GTX580. Even if you do not intend to SLI/CF, the motherboard's x4 PCIE shouldn't cause that big of a degradation in performance. There will be no added cost as a 600-650W PSU should be sufficient for a pair of HD6870.

The price/GB for a 3TB drive is quite expensive compared to a 2TB drive so I don't think it is absolutely necessary to get the extra TB when the rig could easily support more drives in the future.

If money is no issue then the Corsair 650D is definitely a good choice. The Corsair 400R is second on my list if money is an issue but I can definitely assure you that you can't go wrong with a Corsair case. They are built solid and cable management is a piece of cake. I personally worked with the Corsair 600T a while back and cable management is definitely a forte with Corsair cases.

Save yourself the headache and grab a cheap CM Hyper212+ so you wouldn't have to go to the trouble of fiddling around next time. Even if you're not into overclocking it, you would still stand to gain from a cooler and quieter rig in the long run.
 
Gast said:
I'm a fan of EVGA's warranty & have had great customer support through them. MSI & Asus have only been ok to me in the past. I'll bring up the noise issue though.
Click to expand...

Sounds like EVGA 570 DoubleShot might be a good compromise then

570 is quite a bit more expensive than 560 Ti though. Another good option could be MSI 6950 power edition unlocked and overclocked to 6970 speeds

The 560 Ti does just fine when you use modest AA values. I use it personally, and Anandtech's bench shows most games are over 30fps.
Click to expand...
My personal experience with the 560 ti at 1080p is that crysis 2, civ 5, bf3 beta, metro 2033 all use over 1GB

I'm sticking pretty firm to the Intel recommendation here. Is performance gain going from the 320 to the 510 really worth the extra $? I would see the minimal difference hard to tell apart in real world usage.
Click to expand...
Intel isn't any more reliable than Crucial M4 as far as I can tell. Check out some of the Crucial M4 reviews, it's an awesome drive for its price. Intel 320 is much slower despite costing about the same, and Intel 510 isn't really much faster than M4 despite costing a lot more.
 
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Okay as we'll be 1920 x 1200 gaming you'll want a system that doesn't overkill it but also won't falter in that specific resolution.

Here's an example build:

Motherboard:
MSI P67A-G43 (B3)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130583
124.99$

Processor:
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115072
219.99$

CPU Cooler:
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103065
26.99$

Graphics Card:
HIS H687FN1GD Radeon HD 6870 1GB x2 in Crossfire
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161389
164.99$ x 2 = 329.98$

Crossfire bridge(if not bundled with the cards):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814999002
10.99$

RAM:
Patriot Signature 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220569
49.99$

SSD :
Crucial m4 128GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148442
197.99$

Hard Drives:
Samsung F4 2TB x3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152245
79.99$ x 3 = 239.97$

Case:
Cooler Master 690 II Advanced
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119216
89.99$

Power Supply:
XFX Core Pro 650W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817207014
89.99$

Optical Drive:
SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-222AB - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151233
16.99$

Total: $1397.84 including crossfire cable. You won't need one if the cards include it.

You can cut down on the SSD and the HDDs. The graphics cards will ensure that you can play everything on 1080p while being cost-effective and without overkilling it in pricing.

mfenn said:
Here's what I would do:

i5 2500K $220
P8Z68-V LE $130
G.Skill DDR3 1333 8GB $42
Twin Frozr II 6950 2GB $245 AR - Best high-end value if you unlock to 6970
Crucial M4 128GB $198
Hitachi 5K3000 x2 $240 - 2TB and 3TB drives are both $40/TB right now
Samsung DVD Burner $19
Antec EA-650 $45 AR AP
Fractal Design R3 $110 - though you can sub any case you like
Total: $1249 AR AP
Click to expand...
can't unlock that
 
I've read GTA4, AvP and ArmA hog up over 1GB at 1080p. On my PC all of the following games use around 1GB or more VRAM on high settings: CIV5, BF3 beta, Metro2033, Crysis 2. On 1920x1200 that will be more true (10&#37; more to render). I'm sure there are many others, as this isn't something I've particularly much research on

In addition you can't know how soon games will start requiring more than 1GB as a standard, getting 6870 might not be a very good setup in the long term. Consider the fact that 7870 will be 2GB; I would assume games in 2012 will need over 1GB to get the most out of them.
 
lehtv said:
I've read GTA4, AvP and ArmA hog up over 1GB at 1080p. On my PC all of the following games use around 1GB or more VRAM on high settings: CIV5, BF3 beta, Metro2033, Crysis 2. On 1920x1200 that will be more true (10% more to render). I'm sure there are many others, as this isn't something I've particularly much research on

In addition you can't know how soon games will start requiring more than 1GB as a standard, getting 6870 might not be a very good setup in the long term. Consider the fact that 7870 will be 2GB; I would assume games in 2012 will need over 1GB to get the most out of them.
Click to expand...

I agree. I'd rather spend $1250 on a 6950 2GB build than $1400 on a 6870 CFX build. Anything that has a chance of pushing 6870 CFX (*cough* AA *cough*) will chew up VRAM like there's no tomorrow. Add the usual Crossfire foibles, and it doesn't look that great to me.
 
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