New PC Build

[SnookyMcdoodles]

Hey everyone, first forum post! I'm looking for some advice/thoughts on a new build.

The primary uses for the pc will be gaming(Skyrim, BF3, flight sims) data mining, AI programming, and Geographical information systems.

I am upgrading from an intel Q9600 on a DX38BT. I have a GTX570 I plan on using with the new parts I will purchase. The monitor I currently use is 1680x1050(hoping for a 1920 one in the future)

I plan on using windows 7 64 bit.

The big question in my mind is if it would be worth it to wait a couple months for Ivy Bridge or Sandybridge E. The top CPUs seem to power through most apps just fine now, so I'm not sure if the wait will be worth it. I plan on upgrading a couple years after this build anyways. I'm looking at a budget of $800 to $1100 US dollars. I prefer items from newegg or another trusting site with fast shipping.

The parts I have picked out so far are as follows.

COOLER MASTER Storm Sniper SGC-6000-KXN1-GP Black Steel, ABS Plastic, Mesh bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119194

When it came to the motherboard, I wanted something very stable that would be able to handle moderate overclocking and also be semi-future ready i.e. usb 3.0 and good SSD support. I originally planned on getting the P67 version of the following board, but for only 15 dollars more I could get the Z68 model. I personally feel most of those Z features are gimmicky and not sure if I will use them, but for only 15 dollars I thought, hey why not.
ASRock Z68 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157250


I Like the modular design and I'm thinking this will more than enough if I go dual 570s.
CORSAIR Professional Series HX850 (CMPSU-850HX) 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139011

The memory I originally had chosen was 1600 Ripjaw, or Corsair Vengeance but after looking at supported memory from, http://www.asrock.com/mb/memory.asp?Model=Z68 Extreme4, I did not see those on there. They would probably still work, right? If not I would go with the following:
G.SKILL Sniper Low Voltage Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231461

Even though it may not be capable of 8 threads, I like the fact that it is 85 dollars cheaper than the 2600K..
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I52500K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115072
I plan on staying as close to stock voltage as possible, so nothing to crazy with the overclocks.

To cool it I'm thinking about the Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835608018

And finally for an SSD(I already have 2 hdds), I plan on getting a SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC128D/AM 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820147134
It's a little pricier than some of the competition, but I am hoping it stands up to Samsung's reputation for quality and reliability.

The grand total for all this is right around $1100, which is at the peak of my budget, so if I'm to change parts I would really have to downgrade from my current selections. Please lemme know what you guys think!

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

For 80$ on a cooling solution, why not try out the Corsair H80?

OR you can just buy a 30$ Hyper 212, which everyone seems to be buying. It's performance per dollar outweighs the more expensive cooling solutions you and i both mentioned. Plus if you are doing only minimal overclocking, then the 212 will be more than enough: as long as you aren't living along the equator

 

[Ken g6]

Do you really need three video cards on your mobo? I would suggest:

- If you want to crossfire 2, keep the PSU, and get the Extreme3 Gen3.
- If you want only that single one, and don't want to overclock much, get the Pro3, and a cheaper PSU.

Now to throw a real monkey wrench into things...

Do you know if data mining, AI programming, and Geographical information systems are highly multithreaded? Would they use hyperthreaded cores well? If so, you could get a Xeon 1230 for just $20 more than the 2500k. It's not officially supported, but it reportedly works well; I haven't heard of it failing to work in any 1155 board anyway. The downside is you can't overclock (except maybe to the limit of turbo boost). This also means you'll probably be CPU-limited in minimally-threaded Skyrim.

Sandybridge E is not worth waiting for because you're not willing to pay those prices! It's only useful if you need more than 4 real cores anyway.

Ivy Bridge is worth getting, but I wouldn't wait for it. It would make a nice drop-in upgrade later.

 

[ElFenix]

For 80$ on a cooling solution, why not try out the Corsair H80?

OR you can just buy a 30$ Hyper 212, which everyone seems to be buying. It's performance per dollar outweighs the more expensive cooling solutions you and i both mentioned. Plus if you are doing only minimal overclocking, then the 212 will be more than enough: as long as you aren't living along the equator

the noctua would likely run his processor cooler and quieter than the H80.

the hyper 212 will be louder. then again, the video card's fan will drown it out any time the video card is under load.

 

[Ken g6]

I plan on staying as close to stock voltage as possible, so nothing to crazy with the overclocks.

I'd just stick with the hyper 212. Or even the stock fan with the Xeon 1230, if you get that.

 

[MacLeod1592]

Ill 2nd the Hyper 212. Im running one and it keeps my X6 in the low 30's under load and idling in the low 20's. Cant beat that for $30.

Id also look for a better motherboard. ASRock's quality seems to be hit or miss these days. HardOCP recently did a review of the ASRock Z68 Extreme4 and shit all over it. They had an ASRock 990FX board over at Tom's Hardware that didnt review that bad but came up on the bottom of all the benchmarks especially overclocking. The board Id suggest is the Asus Maximus IV Gene-Z which is actually a little cheaper than the ASRock.

 

[SnookyMcdoodles]

I don't know too much about overclocking the 2500k, but if I could get it comfortably to 4.5 ghz on the Hyper 212, that's what I will get.

Hmm, that review was quite scathing and surprising since it got a recommended buy at Tom's hardware.http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews...p8z68-v-pro-gigabyte-z68x-ud3h-b3,2939-2.html
Still you got me thinking twice now.

@MacLeod1592 , will that micro board still fit in a mid tower case?

What about this Asus board? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131770

 

[SnookyMcdoodles]

@Ken_g6 I would like the ability to go SLI in the future.

GIS systems and AI programming are usually capable of utilizing a decent number of threads, but after looking into it a bit more I don't think the extra 4 threads from the 2600k is worth the money for my average usage model.

And you couldn't be more right about Sandy Bridge E! What a waste!! lol

 

[mfenn]

OR you can just buy a 30$ Hyper 212, which everyone seems to be buying. It's performance per dollar outweighs the more expensive cooling solutions you and i both mentioned. Plus if you are doing only minimal overclocking, then the 212 will be more than enough: as long as you aren't living along the equator

Agree. A D14 is beyond overkill for a stock volts OC.

OP, the big issue with your build is trying to plan for SLI in the far future. Since you are wondering when (if ever) you will upgrade to even a 1080P monitor, I can say with confidence that you will never use SLI within these parts' useful lifetimes.

Spend $720 AR on the parts below and enjoy the exact same performance as the $1100 worth of parts that you listed.

i5 2500K $215
Hyper 212 Evo $35
ASRock Z68 Pro3 $100
GeIL DDR3 1333 8GB $40http://detonator.dynamitedata.com/c...com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102954
Crucial M4 128GB $210http://detonator.dynamitedata.com/c...tp://us.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=58746
XFX Core 650W $60 AR
HAF 912 $60 (or the Sniper if you like)

 

[MacLeod1592]

Hmm, that review was quite scathing and surprising since it got a recommended buy at Tom's hardware.http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/asrock-z68-extreme4-asus-p8z68-v-pro-gigabyte-z68x-ud3h-b3,2939-2.html
Still you got me thinking twice now.

@MacLeod1592 , will that micro board still fit in a mid tower case?

What about this Asus board? [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131770"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131770[/URL]

Yeah, HardOCP aint exactly diplomatic in the way they word their reviews. LOL But they dont sugar coat or bullshit either. If they piss on something, you know its got issues.

That Asus board would work as well. The reason I like the Maximus is that it is Asus' ROG series which are simply superb boards and are virtually indestructible. Guru3D also did a review and they said they were able to overclock a 2600K higher on that board than on any board theyve tested yet. Thats a pretty good testament to the boards build quality, durability and stability. Thats a lot of quality and performance for a pretty damn solid price.

Also, I kinda think the Z68 chipset might be a little bit smoother running than P67. I have no real evidence to back this up just that Ive seen a lot of people on various forums bitching about problems with the P67 chipset. It could be my imagination but Z68 usually doesnt cost any more than P67 and you can use the CPU's onboard video which is a nice backup feature should your GPU ever take a dump. With P67 you cannot use the onboard video.

As for a mATX board fitting in a mid tower case, thatll depend on the case. Almost all ATX mid towers will fit a mATX but there are still several out there that wont. My Antec 300 doesnt say it will but it does. If you go with the Maximus, just check the specs to make sure the case you pick out will fit a mATX board.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Spend $720 AR on the parts below and enjoy the exact same performance as the $1100 worth of parts that you listed.

i5 2500K $215
Hyper 212 Evo $35
ASRock Z68 Pro3 $100
GeIL DDR3 1333 8GB $40http://detonator.dynamitedata.com/c...com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102954
Crucial M4 128GB $210http://detonator.dynamitedata.com/c...tp://us.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=58746
XFX Core 650W $60 AR
HAF 912 $60 (or the Sniper if you like)

:thumbsup:

The i5 2500k pairs really well with a 6950/GTX 570. By the time you're gonna need SLI for anything 1080p it's gonna be years down the road and you're gonna want a processor upgrade to go with it.
Save the $400 now.

 

[SnookyMcdoodles]

@MacLeod1592
I'm digging that micro mobo, but I'm worried there wouldn't be room for my sound card with a second GPU installed. As for Z68, this looks to be the updated version of that last mobo I posted... Can't see anything wrong with this one as it will be ready for PCI 3.0 and Ivy
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131792

 

[SnookyMcdoodles]

mfenn and Dominion, great suggestion with that 212 Evo. Looks like a great cooler and thinking that is what I will get now.

Also, I think I will stick with the Samsung 830. It comes with a free copy of Batman Arkam city

 

[MacLeod1592]

@MacLeod1592
I'm digging that micro mobo, but I'm worried there wouldn't be room for my sound card with a second GPU installed. As for Z68, this looks to be the updated version of that last mobo I posted... Can't see anything wrong with this one as it will be ready for PCI 3.0 and Ivy
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131792

That would work as well. I'm a big fan of Asus boards so that would work.

If you could stretch the budget to $210, this one gets the gold award from HardOCP and a few others so it'll be a very solid one as well.

 

[mfenn]

@MacLeod1592
I'm digging that micro mobo, but I'm worried there wouldn't be room for my sound card with a second GPU installed. As for Z68, this looks to be the updated version of that last mobo I posted... Can't see anything wrong with this one as it will be ready for PCI 3.0 and Ivy
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131792

I'm beginning to feel like I need to start a PSA thread for all the people wasting their money on Gen3 boards.

PCIe Gen3 is beyond useless for several reasons:
- Upgrading from Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge will be dumb from a bang for buck point of view
- No PCIe Gen3 expansion cards exist yet, so it is impossible to determine whether or not current PCIe Gen3 implementations will work with them.
- Even if you did buy IVB and a Gen3 card and it worked, your performance gain would be 0%. Cards barely exceed Gen1 speeds, much less Gen2.

 

[mfenn]

mfenn and Dominion, great suggestion with that 212 Evo. Looks like a great cooler and thinking that is what I will get now.

Also, I think I will stick with the Samsung 830. It comes with a free copy of Batman Arkam city

The HSF and SSD are the least of your build's problems (they were in fact the bright points). The biggest issue is "trying to plan for SLI in the far future. Since you are wondering when (if ever) you will upgrade to even a 1080P monitor, I can say with confidence that you will never use SLI within these parts' useful lifetimes."

 

[MacLeod1592]

I'm beginning to feel like I need to start a PSA thread for all the people wasting their money on Gen3 boards.

PCIe Gen3 is beyond useless for several reasons:
- Upgrading from Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge will be dumb from a bang for buck point of view
- No PCIe Gen3 expansion cards exist yet, so it is impossible to determine whether or not current PCIe Gen3 implementations will work with them.
- Even if you did buy IVB and a Gen3 card and it worked, your performance gain would be 0%. Cards barely exceed Gen1 speeds, much less Gen2.

Have to admit, that makes sense.

A website, I cant remember which, did a test a while back comparing 16x, 8x and 4x for games. They found no difference between 8x and 16x and very little difference with 4x so you could very well be right that there will be no perceivably difference with an additional upgrade in PCIe speed.

 

[lehtv]

I'm beginning to feel like I need to start a PSA thread for all the people wasting their money on Gen3 boards.

PCIe Gen3 is beyond useless for several reasons:
- Upgrading from Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge will be dumb from a bang for buck point of view
- No PCIe Gen3 expansion cards exist yet, so it is impossible to determine whether or not current PCIe Gen3 implementations will work with them.
- Even if you did buy IVB and a Gen3 card and it worked, your performance gain would be 0%. Cards barely exceed Gen1 speeds, much less Gen2.

I wonder why PCIe 3.0 is being implemented at this time then?

 

[SnookyMcdoodles]

Ok, Gen 3 wasn't the true selling point for me anyways. Just looked like a nice, although highly speculative, feature to have on top of everything else.

But even if G3 is worthless, that Asus mobo looks really solid(high quality parts, great placement of sockets, etc.) and should be able to handle my overclocking should I get braver and try for some higher clocks. Was reading some good articles on getting it in the high 4.0s. http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overclocking/39184-p67-sandy-bridge-overclocking-guide-beginners.html granted that was p67

At the end of the day I want parts that will not fail on me and I will be willing to pay relatively well for that. The last build I had had annoying random shut downs. Windows event viewer only gave me nondescript power failure reports. Tested the RAM and know it wasn't that, therefore I think it was the DX38BT's or my neo power Antec 650. At any rate, out of paranoia, I'm never gonna go with an intel mobo again.

@Mfenn, Say I get a 1080p monitor this holiday season, and I want to run Skyrim and BF3 on ultras. You still think that sli would be a waste? I have a roommate with 2 GTX 570s and an I7 900(cant remember exact model) and he runs Skyrim on ultras but takes the occasional performance hits in town(suspecting more of a driver issue or game bug than lack of horsepower). BF3 and Witcher 2 is like a hot knife through butter on his system.

My current system in comparison, well, not so much. Probably because of the aging cpu(Q9600). Also, if you had the link for an article on capabilites of what the different Gen designations really mean/can do, I think that'd be a great read. I readily admit I'm completely ignorant on Gen stuff.

Worst case scenario? I don't upgrade to SLI in the lifetime of this build, but I still have a great reliable mobo on my hands, even if it cost me 60-80 dollars more.

 

[mfenn]

I wonder why PCIe 3.0 is being implemented at this time then?

Nvidia Tesla, FDR Infiniband, and 100 GbE. Basically, stuff that consumers will never touch.

 

[mfenn]

@Mfenn, Say I get a 1080p monitor this holiday season, and I want to run Skyrim and BF3 on ultras. You still think that sli would be a waste? I have a roommate with 2 GTX 570s and an I7 900(cant remember exact model) and he runs Skyrim on ultras but takes the occasional performance hits in town(suspecting more of a driver issue or game bug than lack of horsepower). BF3 and Witcher 2 is like a hot knife through butter on his system.

Yes, it is a waste. Your buddy's issue with Skyrim are more likely to do with CPU limitation, especially if he's running a stock i7 920, which can get really bogged down in single-threaded tasks.

My current system in comparison, well, not so much. Probably because of the aging cpu(Q9600). Also, if you had the link for an article on capabilites of what the different Gen designations really mean/can do, I think that'd be a great read. I readily admit I'm completely ignorant on Gen stuff.

Gen3 = 2 x Gen2 = 4x Gen1

The speed doesn't matter though because that's not where the limitation is.

Worst case scenario? I don't upgrade to SLI in the lifetime of this build, but I still have a great reliable mobo on my hands, even if it cost me 60-80 dollars more.

What makes you think that a more expensive motherboard is more reliable? Tweaker mobos are some of the least reliable boards out there because they have lots of experimental bells and whistles (hardware and software) that attempt to help you OC that last 10Mhz.

True worst case scenario: You spend $80 too much on a mobo, $60 too much on a PSU, $50 too much on an HSF and cheap yourself out of a new monitor altogether because you "hoped to afford it later".

 

[SnookyMcdoodles]

@mfenn, you are my penny pinching hero

But I feel some further discussion is necessary...

Yes, it is a waste. Your buddy's issue with Skyrim are more likely to do with CPU limitation, especially if he's running a stock i7 920, which can get really bogged down in single-threaded tasks.
Gen3 = 2 x Gen2 = 4x Gen1
The speed doesn't matter though because that's not where the limitation is.
What makes you think that a more expensive motherboard is more reliable? Tweaker mobos are some of the least reliable boards out there because they have lots of experimental bells and whistles (hardware and software) that attempt to help you OC that last 10Mhz.
True worst case scenario: You spend $80 too much on a mobo, $60 too much on a PSU, $50 too much on an HSF and cheap yourself out of a new monitor altogether because you "hoped to afford it later".

My buddy's cpu is overclocked to +4ghz and is watercooled. But, perhaps your right and that is his bottleneck.

What makes me think this board is reliable?
from hardocp's review...
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/11/10/asus_p8z68v_motherboard_review/6
"What’s not to like about this board? From a reliability standpoint it was identical to the other boards in this family. Rock solid and stable as hell. From the first minute I put power to it to the time I boxed it up the thing just worked."

Conclusion:"ASUS has put together a very fine product in the P8Z68-V motherboard. Of course it is not going to answer the needs of those of you that are feature hungry. And it will likely draw up short of those looking to do crazy overclocking pushes. But for most of the folks looking to put together a solid gaming box this is worth a look. The ASUS P8Z68-V motherboard left us with the feeling that we were getting what we were paying for. The ASUS P8Z68-V simply represents a solid choice for most mid-level gaming system builds." But after all this ranting it's sold out on newegg anyways...
So I wanted to spend 150-200 dollars for the best mobo in that range. The mobo you suggested is a lot cheaper. Reading reviews of it shows its a great value, although I would never be able to go SLI. Let me see if I am understanding you correctly, it would be better to just upgrade the GPU and CPU 3 years down the road (or complete upgrade?) than to go for SLI?

Also, I said I was gonna go with the H212 evo... that's a 35 dollar HSF.
I spose I could reuse my antec neo power 650 watt psu in this build since nothing bigger is needed. Another 170 dollars saved. Getting closer to Hi def

Again thanks for all the info

 

[mfenn]

Also, I said I was gonna go with the H212 evo... that's a 35 dollar HSF.

My bad, missed that part. :thumbsup:

I'd say to definitely reuse your 650W PSU, $0 is much better than $160. If you ever need to upgrade to SLI, you won't be any worse off for having used your old PSU for longer.

With regard to the motherboard, last I saw you were looking at the P8Z68-V/GEN3. You're right that that isn't a bad motherboard by any stretch of the imagination, but it just isn't necessary for what you're doing. You're just as likely to get an ASUS lemon as an ASRock lemon. Barring that, either will serve you well for a long time (all solid caps, digital VRMS, etc.).

 

[SnookyMcdoodles]

@mfenn
I usually like to run my games at 60fps, and high/ultra settings. Looking at this makes me wonder if the SLI config is as much of a waste as you say it is at 1920x1080...
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/306?vs=307

 

[mfenn]

Looking at the numbers, you can see the games are right around 60 FPS at 1920x1200. So, yes you will be fine. Once a GTX 570 starts feeling slow, you will want Kepler or Kepler Mk2 anyway.