• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Need feedback on my gaming build

M

Max999

Junior Member
Hi all,

I am hoping I can recieve some feedback for my first ever gaming rig. Running at a resolution of 1600x900. Mostly with playing Battlefield 3 at high.

Intel Core i5-2500K
Official Intel Socket 1155 Cooler
Coolermaster Elite 430 Midi Tower Chassis
Asus GeForce GTX 560 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
8GB Exceleram Rippler Sandybridge-Series (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz - ERS303A
1TB Samsung SpinPoint F3
Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 Motherboard
550W XFX Core Edition Power Supply
LG 22x DVD-RW SATA Black Optical ReWriter Drive

I got the asus gtx 560 really cheap off a local (£90) so I settled for that instead of the more expensive gtx 560Ti which I admit is better. The 560 itself is still a good card.

Feel free to criticise, hopefully I can do better next time around!

Max
 
Last edited:
Looks good. Never heard of Exceleram though, would've gone with some well-known brand like G.Skill/Corsair/Mushkin/Kingston.
 
Yeah got the RAM on a Christmas offer, had to check on web to find out more about them. If its bad I can always return them. I was initially after the Corsair Vengence as I heard great things about them, but came accross these at 1600Mhz and went for it.
 
my roommates comp has also has 560 it runs bf3 fine with 2600k with 8gb of ram. we did overclock his proc to 4.5ghz though.
 
Seems fine to me. I would have probably gone with a beefier GPU than a GTX 560, but you can't beat the price you got it at.
 
Max999 said:
Yeah got the RAM on a Christmas offer, had to check on web to find out more about them. If its bad I can always return them. I was initially after the Corsair Vengence as I heard great things about them, but came accross these at 1600Mhz and went for it.
Click to expand...

It's a German brand of overclockers/enthusiasts that started making ram. I suspect their products are rebrands from Taiwan though.

Due to Exceleram being quite an unknown brand (especially in the UK) I was quite suprised as to how this set of memory performed in comparison to various other brands with some clear results as one of the better dual channel kits we’ve had in our office.
Taking the Patriot Viper Series 6GB kit out of the equation, it seems the Exceleram has taken the testing by storm and giving competative results when you look at the likes of some other well known brands.
In our eyes, we see this as one of the best dual channel memory kits we’ve looked at here at eTeknix and can only now say good things about Exceleram and hope that they become more well known in the future, and personally I can’t wait to try out some more products from the new kids on the block.
 
Last edited:
Yes. In Europe we have some nice coolers not available in the U.S. like Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro and Alpenfohn Matterhorn. But the best price/performance is still probably Hyper 212+
 
Thanks lehtv, the Cooler Master you mentioned seems to be an excellent choice. I don't particularly see myself OCing in the immediate future, I may do a minior overclock to like 3.7-8GHz max but I don't think that warrents a new cooler. But definitey in the future if I need to get the best out of the CPU.


I will be getting a 21.5 inch monitor with a native 1920 x 1080 resolution, but I will be lowering it down to 1600 x 900 or even 1280 720 (for future highly intensive games) within the game for better performance if required. Would this be fine? Would it be better to go for a monitor with a native 1600 900 resolution at a lower price?
 
Last edited:
Max999 said:
I will be getting a 21.5 inch monitor with a native 1920 x 1080 resolution, but I will be lowering it down to 1600 x 900 or even 1280 720 (for future highly intensive games) within the game for better performance if required. Would this be fine? Would it be better to go for a monitor with a native 1600 900 resolution at a lower price?
Click to expand...

I don't like anything smaller than 23" for 1080P, but that's because the text starts getting too small for me to use comfortably. Also, reducing the resolution by a non-integer factor causes significant IQ loss due to the interpolation that the monitor has to do.

My usual suggestion is to just upgrade the GPU when you can't satisfy your performance desires at native res. If you don't see yourself upgrading for a long time, I would go ahead and get the 1600x900.
 
Hmm would you say this current setup can run games at a decent fps at 1920 1080 res at mid to high settings?

In the UK the prices of Full HD and 1600x900 monitors are pretty much the same now round Christmas so logically it makes sense to go for the full HD. It is inevitable that a gpu upgrade will be required in the future as games will become more demanding.
 
Last edited:
Max999 said:
Hmm would you say this current setup can run games at a decent fps at 1920 1080 res at mid to high settings?
Click to expand...
Huh, the AnandTech Bench doesn't list the 560, just the 560ti. Well, a 560 is basically an overclocked 460, so look at both and split the difference.
 
Yeah the performance should be pretty good at full HD for the 560, I can overclock it to Ti standards if I need to anyways. If I do experience performance issues I can always drop the resolution I guess.
 
Max999 said:
Hmm would you say this current setup can run games at a decent fps at 1920 1080 res at mid to high settings?

In the UK the prices of Full HD and 1600x900 monitors are pretty much the same now round Christmas so logically it makes sense to go for the full HD. It is inevitable that a gpu upgrade will be required in the future as games will become more demanding.
Click to expand...

Depends on the games really. BF3 at high? Depends on your definition of smooth. SC2 or SWTOR? Yeah.
 
I have seen youtube videos of the inferior gtx 460 running 35-40 on ulta at 1080p on an amd 955. The 560 in that sense would better and on a superior cpu the 2500k. Similar spec http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kttv4RtuFxE

I would have gone for a 1600 900 for longtevity but I would probably regret not going for full hd as the difference in price is not much. Addtionally I can use high-medium or drop the resolution to 1600 900 if a game is not satisfactory on full HD which I am prepared to do.
 
Last edited:
Well the video above was on ultra, I prefer mid-high. Saw more vids of BF3 and it handles it really well

I bought a 1080p monitor with the intention of playing at 1080p but willing to go down to 1600x900 if needed to.
 
Max999 said:
Well the video above was on ultra, I prefer mid-high. Saw more vids of BF3 and it handles it really well

I bought a 1080p monitor with the intention of playing at 1080p but willing to go down to 1600x900 if needed to.
Click to expand...

You'll be fine at 1080p. Just don't put it on ultra

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
 
Max999 said:
Well the video above was on ultra, I prefer mid-high. Saw more vids of BF3 and it handles it really well

I bought a 1080p monitor with the intention of playing at 1080p but willing to go down to 1600x900 if needed to.
Click to expand...

Hey man, you can dream all you want, I'm just trying to inject some reality here. :whiste:
 
mfenn said:
Hey man, you can dream all you want, I'm just trying to inject some reality here. :whiste:
Click to expand...

Like I said, I am prepared to drop to a lower resolution if I require better performance when I was considering my options. :thumbsup:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top