Hardware Noob - Opinion on build

[amandreatos90]

Hey all, first off I'm pretty much hardware ignorant. I have been doing some research in the past few weeks
so I can put together a new computer. The main use of the computer will be gaming. WoW (ultra settings),
Starcraft 3, some EVE Online. I'm going to be going through Cyberpower PC for the build. I'll be somewhat
limited on a few parts going through a 3rd party site building it, but overall it dosen't seem horrible.I have
made a summary of whats going into the build and was hoping you all could let me know if there are any glaring
problems or maybe some no-brainer stuff someone like me wouldn't have caught. I also have a few quick questions
aswell.

1. Should I go for two average video cards (as shown) or should I buy a single card, but better quality?

2. I'm very much confused on HDD/SSD, I understand what each one does, but when I'm choosing parts one the
website there are 3 different catagories: Intel Smart Response Tech. for z86, Hard Drive, & Data Hard drive.
which of the two would I put 1 HDD and 1 SSD. Also good choices?

3. Cooling. Cyberpower has a deal on a liquid cooling system right now. I really have no idea how the cooling
works and which is better. I chose to stick with the FRIO fan I saw on a newegg video.

4. I know the i5 2500k does very well with gaming, but I like to open multiple clients, have 5 webpages open
and also Ventrillo/Skype up all at the same time. I assume the 2600k would handle all the multitasking much better?

-------------------------------------Build on CyberpowerPC.com-----------------------------------------

Case: * Coolermaster HAF-X Gaming Full Tower Case w/ 1x230mm Fan, 1x200mm Fans, 2xFront USB 3.0 Port

Internal USB Extension Module: None

Extra Case Fan Upgrade: Maximum 120MM Case Cooling Fans for your selected case [+9]

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-2600K 3.40 GHz 8M Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified)

Venom Boost Fast And Efficient Factory Overclocking: No Overclocking

Cooling Fan: * Thermaltake FRIO Overclocking Cooler Fan (CLP0564) [+20]

Motherboard: * [CrossFireX/SLI] GigaByte GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 Intel Z68 Chipset DDR3 mATX MB w/ Lucid Virtu Intel Smart Response Technology & 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, 2x SATA-III RAID, 2 Gen2 PCIe, 1 PCIe X4 & 1 PCIe X1 (All Venom OC Certified)

Intel Smart Response Technology for Z68: None [-59]

Memory: 16GB (4GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Vengeance)

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB 16X PCIe Video Card (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)

Video Card 2: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB 16X PCIe Video Card (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)

Power Supply Upgrade: * 850 Watts - Corsair CMPSU-850TXV2 80 Plus
Power Supply - Quad SLI Ready

Hard Drive: * 120 GB OCZ Agility 3 SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 525MB/s Read & 500MB/s Write [-5] (Single Drive)

Data Hard Drive: 1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+175] (Single Drive)

Hard Drive Cooling Fan: None

Optical Drive: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive [-40] (BLACK COLOR)

Sound: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit Edition)
Media Center Remote Control & TV Tuner: None

Thank you so much for any help at all!

 

[Puppies04]

No need to go SLI on the graphics cards, it can cause problems and instability. To be honest with you a single 560ti is going to murder wow eve and starcraft on ultra but if you don't think that is enough then upgrade to a single gtx570.

 

[amandreatos90]

I'm so new to all this i don't even understand what crossfirex/sli is at all.

I'm totally open to any and all suggestions. You can grill any choices all you want, i'm just trying to get it perfect.

 

[upsdriver]

1. I'd go with a single faster card than two slower cards. None of the games you listed a require bleeding edge GPU (with the exception of Starcraft 3 when it comes out in 2015?). A single card will give you less headache. I would get a faster card with 2gb of vram instead.

2. Up to your personal preference. And SSD will help your games load faster but have no effect on image quality or frames rates. My WoW folder is 35 gigs. You might want check how much space you'll need for all your games.

3. Liquid cooling will add more cost and maintenance and probably not worth it for you. Air cooling is fine.

4. The i7 will have hyperthreading so you'll get 8 logical cores. Your games will barely use 3 or 4. If money is no object then get the i7, otherwise the i5 is fine.

 

[mfenn]

"Perfect" ain't gonna happen at Cyberpower, but we can get closer than what you've got.

I agree with Puppies that none of the games you listed need an SLI or Crossfire setup at all (that means having multiple graphics cards). Get a single GTX 560 Ti or 6950 2GB. You also don't need more than a 650W PSU for a single card (really more like 500W, but Cyberpower loves to make you buy more than you need).

As for the CPU, I wouldn't pay extra for the i7 2600K for a gaming machine. Hyper-threading does not add more real cores, it just helps the OS shuffle threads around better when there are a lot of them. Games don't benefit too much from this.

What SSD choices do you have? The Agility 3 is OK-ish, but it would be my 5th choice or so.

Also, a HAF-X is absolutely enormous, you might want to consider downsizing it to something like a HAF 922. Don't pay extra for Corsair Vengeance either, there is no tangible benefit.

 

[Charlie98]

Also, a HAF-X is absolutely enormous, you might want to consider downsizing it to something like a HAF 922.

I looked at the HAF X at MC this weekend... it would fill the 8' bed of my pickup!!! (...well, maybe.) I'm going with the 922 myself... plenty of room for what the OP needs.

 

[amandreatos90]

Thanks alot for the help guys.

I still dont get the difference between the Intel smart response and the hard drive/ data hard drive since the options for all 3 give you the same list of HHDs/SSDs, do you need all three?

Also with a single 560/570 or 6850/6870 2gb what kind of FPS should i have running settings on "ultra"? And which card would you prefer?

Edit: should i consider overclocking in my situation or am i totally fine with what i have?

 

[lehtv]

I still dont get the difference between the Intel smart response and the hard drive/ data hard drive since the options for all 3 give you the same list of HHDs/SSDs, do you need all three?

Intel Smart Response means using the SSD (which is a lot faster than a HDD) as a data cache for the hard drive. Frequently used data on the hard drive will be written on the SSD, allowing quicker access to that data. An SSD cache can be up to 64GB in size. However if you only have one SSD, it's probably a better idea to simply install Windows and programs (+games) on it. SSD cache is more useful if you have hundreds of gigabytes of data that you need to access frequently and fast.

Also with a single 560/570 or 6850/6870 2gb what kind of FPS should i have running settings on "ultra"? And which card would you prefer?

You should get 6950 2GB. It has 2GB VRAM, but unlike 6870 2GB it actually has the performance and memory bandwidth to take advantage of the extra memory capacity. If you don't understand what that means that's fine 😀 Point is that a 6870 2GB isn't worth it while 6950 2GB is.

On average in demanding games you'll get 40-60fps. Might dip to the 30's every now and then. It may be a good idea to lower settings a bit in some games just to ensure the framerate is playable at all times

Edit: should i consider overclocking in my situation or am i totally fine with what i have?

Overclocking is totally optional, it will benefit you in CPU-dependent games but you will have great performance either way. You won't notice the difference in general PC use, but CPU intensive tasks will be noticeably faster with OC, e.g. unpacking large archives, encoding video, applying photoshop effects and so on. Do it if you want to. If you skip it now you can always do it later when you feel you need extra performance

In a nutshell, you should go with

Z68 ATX motherboard (don't pay too much for it)
2500K
Aftermarket cooler only if you overclock
2x4GB DDR3 1333/1600MHz
Radeon 6950 2GB (preferably with dual fans)
60 to 128GB SSD, depending on how many games you want to install on the SSD
Storage HDD
DVD-RW drive
550-650W PSU, 750W if you want to go crossfire later (as more demanding games come out; needs a crossfire motherboard)
Mid-tower case ~$60-120 (optionally with 1-2 extra case fans, not necessary but cases with only 2x 120mm will benefit a bit)