PC gamers, can i have your opinion on a build?
- Thread starter ColdBlooded
- Start date
your 1000w was probbly not 80+ ratedFluffythepoo said:
it is also a bit worthless unless your running something crazy(3GPU, watercooled, and enough LED's to signal the mothership at full load on a bad day)
Personally I'd get a larger PSU, but that's just me.
You will definitely want a 1-3 TB hard drive, assuming you're not transferring over an old computer's HDD.
Everything is just dandy, and the case is big definitely big enough for future additions.
You will definitely want a 1-3 TB hard drive, assuming you're not transferring over an old computer's HDD.
Everything is just dandy, and the case is big definitely big enough for future additions.
Generally, it relates to performance. A black drive is better for demanding tasks, and you'll notice that stuff loads more quickly using one. Blue is a general purpose drive, and green is intend ONLY for storage. You can use it as a primary drive, but it's not good to. I noticed this myself on my old rig. I was running Shogun 2 off of a WD Green drive...and let's just say, it screwed up the HD and eventually made it so that if I ran anything off of the green drive, it would cause a blue screen. This was a SLOW deterioration. It didn't happen overnight. You can try using a green drive as your main drive, but there's a reason WD recommends that you only use it for storage.Nooners said:
bishbosh said:
Well, yeah I'd recommend getting some sort of cheap optical drive. Windows OEM is installed off of a disc, so unless you have a USB stick with a legit installer of windows, you're gonna want an optical drive.
I largely agree.
The only thing to add is that assuming that the case comes without a built-in cooling fan (the description did not mention one) then I would get one plus a heat sink for the processor. The built-on fans on the GPU and Power Supply sometimes do not live up to expectations, and it is better to over-cool your system than to run hot.
Especially since you are obviously meaning to use this PC for some time to come, running the whole thing cool will lengthen its life considerably.
The only thing to add is that assuming that the case comes without a built-in cooling fan (the description did not mention one) then I would get one plus a heat sink for the processor. The built-on fans on the GPU and Power Supply sometimes do not live up to expectations, and it is better to over-cool your system than to run hot.
Especially since you are obviously meaning to use this PC for some time to come, running the whole thing cool will lengthen its life considerably.
Curious about the OS though. Quite a few people on PCPartPicker listed Windows 8 on their shopping lists. I wonder if the OS is such a drastic change that Steam games might have trouble. Microsoft says no, apparently. No trouble.bishbosh said:
This is off topic, but would you suggest the $40 digital download of Windows 8 before the price gets jacked up to $200 next year?
besides the SSD ( just get an HDD for all your games and stuff) that thing will blow out everything for at least a few years to come on everything on max.
That's just you.USSR said:Personally I'd get a larger PSU, but that's just me.
You will definitely want a 1-3 TB hard drive, assuming you're not transferring over an old computer's HDD.
Everything is just dandy, and the case is big definitely big enough for future additions.
OP does need mass storage in addition to an SSD. OP does not need a larger PSU.
I'd also get an optical drive, and a non-stock heat-sink.The Crotch said:That's just you.USSR said:Personally I'd get a larger PSU, but that's just me.
You will definitely want a 1-3 TB hard drive, assuming you're not transferring over an old computer's HDD.
Everything is just dandy, and the case is big definitely big enough for future additions.
OP does need mass storage in addition to an SSD. OP does not need a larger PSU.
But that's just me.
Which is what I said.
I'd cough up more dough for a 670, more grunt and still cost effective. I've heard it can up your settings a level i.e. from medium to high
Mostly good build very similar to the one I just did actually but I do have a few recommendations:
1. for not that much more you could get this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146067 as your case personally I prefer full towers if you have the room because they are easier to work with and provide better airflow, plus no worrying about if a GPU or large heatsink will fit
2. this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010 Power supply is probably better bang for your buck as you don't really need platinum certification, unfortunetly its also sold out on newegg at the moment.
3. you have a K series CPU which means it is meant for overclocking so I recommend a good heatsink, this one works well: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186066
4. the HD7950 preforms close to or better than the 660 Ti for the about same price and if you go fast you can get 3 awsome games with it http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125414
5. Why that RAM? nothing wrong with it but most people go for snazzier Gskill or Corsair kits.
EDIT: forgot to mention, as others have said you will need a standard HDD. SSDs are only good as boot drives and for a few of your most used games or programs.
1. for not that much more you could get this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146067 as your case personally I prefer full towers if you have the room because they are easier to work with and provide better airflow, plus no worrying about if a GPU or large heatsink will fit
2. this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010 Power supply is probably better bang for your buck as you don't really need platinum certification, unfortunetly its also sold out on newegg at the moment.
3. you have a K series CPU which means it is meant for overclocking so I recommend a good heatsink, this one works well: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186066
4. the HD7950 preforms close to or better than the 660 Ti for the about same price and if you go fast you can get 3 awsome games with it http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125414
5. Why that RAM? nothing wrong with it but most people go for snazzier Gskill or Corsair kits.
EDIT: forgot to mention, as others have said you will need a standard HDD. SSDs are only good as boot drives and for a few of your most used games or programs.
itd be 700 min for sli 660 tis, so 660w would be cutting it closebishbosh said:
but if ur using 1 card u dont need a 660 or a 1000, i was trying to illustrate how you can get cheaper power supplies without worrying about min requirements. But my point is invalid anyway cause my psu has been discontinued xD
Though id still say more than 80 dollars on a power supply for the setup is a waste. Especially in decembre when comprable psus are half off all over the place
actually i just looked it up and mines been discontinued, so bad example regardless of anything else, but it is 80+silverdirekiller said:
and i had dreams of sli when i got it, but got a laptop instead, tho its always nice knowing if i do get the money for an sli setup i have psu for it
My personal opinion about SLI is that it's just more of a hassle than anything else. Say for example that you're wanting to buy a 660ti, and thinking of doing SLI later on once you get the money. Now personally, I think it would be better just to buy a 680 down the line and sell your old 660ti on ebay (you can pretty much sell it for full price--maybe like $30 knocked off). SLI just seems like such a hassle. Not only does your case temp. jump considerably, but you get all sorts of driver issues that you just don't get with a single GPU. The only reason I could see doing SLI/Crossfire is if you've got a ton of money and want to double a 680...in which case just get a 690.
Oh, and I've heard Windows 8 is fine and works with any game that 7 worked with. Most people I've heard from who have it have said it's actually quite good, with far better boot times. I don't know how much of a hassle dealing with the tiles are though.
Oh, and I've heard Windows 8 is fine and works with any game that 7 worked with. Most people I've heard from who have it have said it's actually quite good, with far better boot times. I don't know how much of a hassle dealing with the tiles are though.
ColdBlooded said:
ColdBlooded said:
So looks like a pretty solid build...... I actually just built a system for a friend that had the EVGA version of the 660 ti ( I would recommend that, they are a more reliable company) Also I would go with a more well known PSU company (In many ways it is the most important component of a PC, a faulty PSU can fry the rest of your PC.) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371025 that is what I put in my friends PC.
Also, personally I don't like that the case didn't have an inside view pic, but the reviews on it seem pretty solid.
Anyway there is my 2 cents ( If you want credentials: to date I have 5 builds under my belt, so I have some experience at this, I also have a 2 year degree in IT and am working on my 4 year.)
Very similar to the build I'm getting.
Your GPU is a bit more powerful then mine (I'm getting an ATI HD 7770), and yours is an Nvidia. I'd suggest you get an ATI Radeon HD 7870. It's about $60 cheaper than the Nvidia while hardly compromising on the performance [http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html] from your choice. Also, the latest Catalyst 12.11 beta drivers [http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalyst1211betadriver.aspx] for the 7xxx range is seeing between 5% and 20% performance increases across DX11 games, and up to a 90% increase with DX9 games. Their new rendering system (name escapes me) also increases framerate and detail across the board, and they've also reduced the idle clock cycles of the GPU memory to save power. The ATI's are generally cheaper and less power intensive than Nvidia as a whole, without compromising on performance in the slightest. Thanks to the beta drivers, the ATI's are now (in a fair few situations) better than their equal Nvidia's, if not on par, for far less electricity and cost. Definitely better value/performance cards.
Your CPU is unlocked, if you aren't considering some serious overclocking, get the cheaper locked core (3570, not the 3570k). You can still overclock it to impressive levels, but only by determined locked increments on the FSB. The unlocked cores costs more because it grants you complete freestyle control on overclocking - an unnecessary feature to novice or unwilling overclockers. There's no real difference in performance [http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-3570K+%40+3.40GHz] between the two at standard Intel clock speeds.
Get your PSU in white to match. Downgrade to 450W if you don't plan on SLI/crossfire, overclocking your CPU and switch out for a less power-hungry ATI 7xxx card. Use 500W if you want an Nvidia or overclocked CPU, or 550W if you want both CPU overclocking and an Nvidia GPU. Stay at 660W if you want to future proof with overclocking, an Nvidia/ATI and SLI/Crossfire, respectively.
My case is similar, but I have more fans and no fan controller - and dust filters. Consider getting some dust filters for the air vents for another $30, or a case that comes with them. They make maintenance a lot easier and protect your components from the dreaded heat-insulating dust.
Also consider getting 3 sticks of 4GB triple-channel DDR3 1600MHz to total 12GB RAM. The speed of your RAM doing that would make it worth the extra cost. Or consider the 2x4GB as duel-channel DDR3 1600Mhz. It should only cost you another $10 from your current RAM layout, but the speed will increase by about 20-40% on top of 8GB 1600MHz... in theory, it would help if someone verified this. the web is a little sketchy.
A 60GB SSD is great for your OS with a WD Black 500GB/1TB.. Using an SSD for software is an unnecessarily expensive decision. For the boot-times though, I must admit it's glorious. Not getting one myself though, I'm on a budget where I can't justify the cost of it.
But if you don't want to change your setup, that's completely fine. My recommendations will save you about $100 or so overall (more if you ditch the SSD), and increase performance of the system a bit more but it does take away from your personal build quite a bit.
good luck in any case.
Your GPU is a bit more powerful then mine (I'm getting an ATI HD 7770), and yours is an Nvidia. I'd suggest you get an ATI Radeon HD 7870. It's about $60 cheaper than the Nvidia while hardly compromising on the performance [http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html] from your choice. Also, the latest Catalyst 12.11 beta drivers [http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalyst1211betadriver.aspx] for the 7xxx range is seeing between 5% and 20% performance increases across DX11 games, and up to a 90% increase with DX9 games. Their new rendering system (name escapes me) also increases framerate and detail across the board, and they've also reduced the idle clock cycles of the GPU memory to save power. The ATI's are generally cheaper and less power intensive than Nvidia as a whole, without compromising on performance in the slightest. Thanks to the beta drivers, the ATI's are now (in a fair few situations) better than their equal Nvidia's, if not on par, for far less electricity and cost. Definitely better value/performance cards.
Your CPU is unlocked, if you aren't considering some serious overclocking, get the cheaper locked core (3570, not the 3570k). You can still overclock it to impressive levels, but only by determined locked increments on the FSB. The unlocked cores costs more because it grants you complete freestyle control on overclocking - an unnecessary feature to novice or unwilling overclockers. There's no real difference in performance [http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-3570K+%40+3.40GHz] between the two at standard Intel clock speeds.
Get your PSU in white to match. Downgrade to 450W if you don't plan on SLI/crossfire, overclocking your CPU and switch out for a less power-hungry ATI 7xxx card. Use 500W if you want an Nvidia or overclocked CPU, or 550W if you want both CPU overclocking and an Nvidia GPU. Stay at 660W if you want to future proof with overclocking, an Nvidia/ATI and SLI/Crossfire, respectively.
My case is similar, but I have more fans and no fan controller - and dust filters. Consider getting some dust filters for the air vents for another $30, or a case that comes with them. They make maintenance a lot easier and protect your components from the dreaded heat-insulating dust.
Also consider getting 3 sticks of 4GB triple-channel DDR3 1600MHz to total 12GB RAM. The speed of your RAM doing that would make it worth the extra cost. Or consider the 2x4GB as duel-channel DDR3 1600Mhz. It should only cost you another $10 from your current RAM layout, but the speed will increase by about 20-40% on top of 8GB 1600MHz... in theory, it would help if someone verified this. the web is a little sketchy.
A 60GB SSD is great for your OS with a WD Black 500GB/1TB.. Using an SSD for software is an unnecessarily expensive decision. For the boot-times though, I must admit it's glorious. Not getting one myself though, I'm on a budget where I can't justify the cost of it.
But if you don't want to change your setup, that's completely fine. My recommendations will save you about $100 or so overall (more if you ditch the SSD), and increase performance of the system a bit more but it does take away from your personal build quite a bit.
good luck in any case.
Jesus H Christ, this thread is filled with so much misinformation/lack of knowledge that any sensible answer is bound to quickly get dog-piled. People suggesting triple-channel RAM for a dual-channel mobo/CPU? Claiming that Seasonic is not a renowned PSU manufacturer? SSD's are not worth it (they most certainly are)? So much other rubbish I could keep digging through...Escapist is definitely NOT a forum to ask about PC hardware, it's the equivalent of asking for sex/dating tips on Call of Duty forums.
My best and only advice to you is to either ask on an actual PC discussion site like Overclock.net [http://www.overclock.net], or any other place which has a solid PC build community. I personally reside on MMO-Champion Computer forums [http://www.mmo-champion.com/forums/290-Computer].
I'll give you some pointers anyway:
> Case - fine
> GPU - save a few bucks and get the regular PE edition (OC it yourself) or Asus DirectCU as it is by far the quietest card.
> PSU - way overpriced and overkill. Yes Seasonic makes the best PSU's, but platinum efficiency is completely pointless. You want a well-priced 450-550w unit...say, XFX ProSeries 450w, Antec NeoEco 520w or Seasonic M12II 520w...maybe a 600w+ if you plan on greatly beefing-up the GPU later on e.g. Seasonic M12II 620w, Antec NeoEco 620w, Corsair TX650 or Antec EarthWatts 650w.
> RAM - meh. 1.65v seems a bit much for a typical 1600mhz CL9 kit. Why not go for a 1.5v kit from Corsair or Mushkin?
E.g.
Mushkin Blackline 8GB [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226191] - $39.99
Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233186] - $43.99
> Mobo - meh. Recommend an ASRock Z77 Pro3 or Extreme4, best bang for the buck motherboards available at the moment. Or if you're not a fan of ASRock then go with Asus/Gigabyte, they both have offerings (Asus P8Z77 LK/LX and Gigabyte Z77 D*3) in a similar price range.
> CPU - excellent
> Heatsink - I highly recommend an aftermarket heatsink, it will run VASTLY cooler than the stock heatsink, quieter, provide OC headroom, look a lot nicer, etc. The benefits are awesome in the long run, you won't regret it. This is the best bang for the price at the moment:
Xigmatek Gaia [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233082] - $19.99
Surely you can spare 20 bucks right?
> SSD - your SSD link is linking to an i5 3570K. But I'll recommend a few anyway:
Samsung 830 Series 128gb [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147163]
Crucial M4 128gb [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442]
Intel 330 Series 120gb [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167121]
> HDD - where you gonna store all your data?
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185] - $84.99
My best and only advice to you is to either ask on an actual PC discussion site like Overclock.net [http://www.overclock.net], or any other place which has a solid PC build community. I personally reside on MMO-Champion Computer forums [http://www.mmo-champion.com/forums/290-Computer].
I'll give you some pointers anyway:
> Case - fine
> GPU - save a few bucks and get the regular PE edition (OC it yourself) or Asus DirectCU as it is by far the quietest card.
> PSU - way overpriced and overkill. Yes Seasonic makes the best PSU's, but platinum efficiency is completely pointless. You want a well-priced 450-550w unit...say, XFX ProSeries 450w, Antec NeoEco 520w or Seasonic M12II 520w...maybe a 600w+ if you plan on greatly beefing-up the GPU later on e.g. Seasonic M12II 620w, Antec NeoEco 620w, Corsair TX650 or Antec EarthWatts 650w.
> RAM - meh. 1.65v seems a bit much for a typical 1600mhz CL9 kit. Why not go for a 1.5v kit from Corsair or Mushkin?
E.g.
Mushkin Blackline 8GB [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226191] - $39.99
Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233186] - $43.99
> Mobo - meh. Recommend an ASRock Z77 Pro3 or Extreme4, best bang for the buck motherboards available at the moment. Or if you're not a fan of ASRock then go with Asus/Gigabyte, they both have offerings (Asus P8Z77 LK/LX and Gigabyte Z77 D*3) in a similar price range.
> CPU - excellent
> Heatsink - I highly recommend an aftermarket heatsink, it will run VASTLY cooler than the stock heatsink, quieter, provide OC headroom, look a lot nicer, etc. The benefits are awesome in the long run, you won't regret it. This is the best bang for the price at the moment:
Xigmatek Gaia [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233082] - $19.99
Surely you can spare 20 bucks right?
> SSD - your SSD link is linking to an i5 3570K. But I'll recommend a few anyway:
Samsung 830 Series 128gb [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147163]
Crucial M4 128gb [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442]
Intel 330 Series 120gb [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167121]
> HDD - where you gonna store all your data?
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185] - $84.99