System Build

[Bino]

I buddy of mine asked me to help him spec a new PC with "killer sound" and "glass-smooth video" for running both online and offline FPS games, racecar games, and watching Blu-ray movies.

Any opinions on the following spec?  Including a few more odds and ends (keyboard, mouse, cooling fans, etc.), the price is right around $1700, but I expect that the post-Thanksgiving sales will soften that blow somewhat...

+ Intel i7-3770 3.4 GHz "Ivy Bridge" CPU
+ XFX FX-787A-CNFC Radeon HD 7870 graphics card
+ ASUS VE258Q 25-inch monitor
+ Creative Labs 70SB135000000 5.1 surround sound card
+ Logitech 980-000430 5.1 speakers
+ ASUS P8Z77-V motherboard (Intel Z77 chipset)
+ NZXT Source 210 ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
+ Microsoft Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
+ Western Digital WD1002FAEX "Caviar Black" 7200 RPM 1 Tb hard drive
+ Corsair TX650 650-watt power supply (oem Seasonic)
+ Corsair CMZ8GX3M2X1600C7R 8Gb DDR3-1600 RAM
+ LG WH14NS40 BluRay player/writer
+ APC P11VNT3 surge protector
.

[titanic3]

You can get a 3570K instead of the 3770 and then overclock in the future.

[Bino]

I considered that, but I would prefer to keep my support of this PC to an absolute minimum. Hence the use of components that are one or two steps back from the "bleeding edge."

[gyrene81]

the 3770 is an ok choice. if you're wanting to be as hands off as possible with that system once it's built, i'd do the same thing.

if your buddy wants "glass-smooth video", you may want an nvidia graphics card rather than an amd graphics card. the nvidias handle some graphics (shadow textures and anti-aliasing) better than the amds, most of the time. if you know how to tweak the amd graphics cards, and want to take the time, they can run as smooth as the nvidias.

on the hard drive...personally, i would get the fastest drive possible for the os and use that 1tb you picked out as the secondary/storage drive. newegg has a 600gb wd velociraptor on sale for $100+free shipping. otherwise if money is not a huge issue, a 250gb ssd would be a good choice to run the os and programs on.

[Debrody]

Its a good puter. The i7 3770 might be a bit much for the 7870 though.
For some reason, i like the 3570 - 7870 or the 3770 - 7970 combinations.

[Copprhed]

I'm glad this thread is here. I've been building AMD based systems since I got my first TBird 1 Ghz back around 99 or 2000, but I want to build a Core i7 puter this time. Money is somewhat of a factor. My biggest question is...is the 2600 Sandy Bridge processor worth going with, or, as I'm thinking the 3770 Ivy Bridge, enough of a step up to be worth the money. I'm an overclocker, so the cpu's ability to OC is important. Already know that I'm going with at least 1 Nvidia 660Ti, if I can gonna SLI 2 of them. 2 60gb ssd's in raid 0 for the OS, with a 1 Tb for storage. The other question is what's ya'll's recommendation for a good Asus or MSI mobo? Must have Sata 6 ghz, since I really like the almost 600 mb p/sec transfer rates...

[gyrene81]

I'm glad this thread is here. I've been building AMD based systems since I got my first TBird 1 Ghz back around 99 or 2000, but I want to build a Core i7 puter this time. Money is somewhat of a factor. My biggest question is...is the 2600 Sandy Bridge processor worth going with, or, as I'm thinking the 3770 Ivy Bridge, enough of a step up to be worth the money. I'm an overclocker, so the cpu's ability to OC is important. Already know that I'm going with at least 1 Nvidia 660Ti, if I can gonna SLI 2 of them. 2 60gb ssd's in raid 0 for the OS, with a 1 Tb for storage. The other question is what's ya'll's recommendation for a good Asus or MSI mobo? Must have Sata 6 ghz, since I really like the almost 600 mb p/sec transfer rates...

if you're going to oc, the last gen of sandy bridge cpus are doing better than the first gen ivy bridges in performance and thermal. since money is a bit of a factor, are you sure you want to spend the extra for hyperthreading capability? if you're doing graphics work, then it's worth the extra for hyperthreading, if not then consider the i5 k series cpu's.

you might want to reconsider your ssd choice as well. a lot of people are finding out the hard way that less than 120gb is not a good choice for an os drive. prices on 120gb ssd's has gone down enough to make them good choices for os drives. what would you be attempting to accomplish with raid0, especially a software raid0?

the choice between asus or msi is going to depend on the model of mobo and the options available...

[Copprhed]

First, computers are my hobby, I don't use them for work, just fun, they replaced making cars go fast in my youth....tired of busted knuckles, lol. I wouldn't be doing software Raid 0, would use the onboard hardware Raid...and I've see 600+ Mb transfer rates with Sata 6 Gig in Raid 0, and might just go with 2 128Gb SSDs. Thanks for the suggestion of a core i5 will do some research on them, I don't see a need for more than 4 cores or for hyperthreading. Heat is another issue....I was considering one of the self-contained water coolers, and if there is anyone with good or bad experiences with it, I'd like the input.

[ebfd11]

Instead of that soundcard I would go one notch above and get the X-Fi Titanium

http://us.store.creative.com/Creative-Sound-Blaster-XFi-Titanium-HD/M/B0041OUA38.htm

I have this and I absolutely love it and my next purchase will be for a better headset..

Sound quality is awesome and very crisp.

LawnDart

[gyrene81]

First, computers are my hobby, I don't use them for work, just fun, they replaced making cars go fast in my youth....tired of busted knuckles, lol. I wouldn't be doing software Raid 0, would use the onboard hardware Raid...and I've see 600+ Mb transfer rates with Sata 6 Gig in Raid 0, and might just go with 2 128Gb SSDs. Thanks for the suggestion of a core i5 will do some research on them, I don't see a need for more than 4 cores or for hyperthreading. Heat is another issue....I was considering one of the self-contained water coolers, and if there is anyone with good or bad experiences with it, I'd like the input.

i hear ya. changed careers when i got tired of the long hours, sore joints and busted knuckles...

if you're planning on using the raid controller on the mobo, unless you can find one that has an actual hardware raid controller onboard, it will be software raid...i made the same assumption when i bought my board and it turned out to be software raid. do some research on the board you're planning on buying to make sure either way.

[SilverZ06]

First, computers are my hobby, I don't use them for work, just fun, they replaced making cars go fast in my youth....tired of busted knuckles, lol. I wouldn't be doing software Raid 0, would use the onboard hardware Raid...and I've see 600+ Mb transfer rates with Sata 6 Gig in Raid 0, and might just go with 2 128Gb SSDs. Thanks for the suggestion of a core i5 will do some research on them, I don't see a need for more than 4 cores or for hyperthreading. Heat is another issue....I was considering one of the self-contained water coolers, and if there is anyone with good or bad experiences with it, I'd like the input.

I am running a i5-2500k with an H-80 water cooler. I run it at 24/7 overclocked at 4.8GHZ and hardly ever see temps reach 40*c and that is with the cooler set on low. If I run prime 95 @ 4.8Ghz and really stress the cpu, the temp will climb to the low 70s. I'am more than happy with my setup.

[Mace2004]

As for CPU's I went with the 3570k on an ASUS P3Z77-V Pro and got a nice and easy OC of 4.4GHz with just a small bump in Vcore (1.23).  System idles around 29C and tops out at 65C under Prime95 and OCCT using a Corsair H100 cooler (room temp about 23C).  I've run a 24-hour stress test with no problems and is a great value given that the 3770k is $100 more yet wouldn't really get you much of a difference in GHz and it doesn't sound like you need HT.  As for the difference between Sandy and Ivy, there appears to be a little more going on than just the max OC as there are supposed to be improvements in other areas such as memory management.  Could you tell the difference between them just operating the computer?  I doubt it.

Speaking about OCing, over 1GHz OC with just a small bump in Vcore was simple and worthwhile so I wouldn't discount it. One thing I will caution you about with the ASUS though is not to trust the Auto Tune feature of the AI Suite software.  It gave me to only a bit more than I have now (about 4.5GHz) but jumped the VCore up to 1.45V!  I put all the settings back to stock, used AI Suite to set BLCK to 100 and then just kept bumping up the multiplier until it became unstable during a 10 minute OCCT test.  That's the really nice part about AI Suite, you can keep bumping the multiplier and testing within Windows without having to reboot for each change.  Once it did become unstable, I'd do a quick reboot, drop the multiplier back a notch, bring the Vcore up .02 and then start moving the multiplier up again.  It only took me about an hour to get to the 4.4GHz and 1.23Vcore which is all I really wanted and then ran the 24hr test with no problems.

As for the Blu-Ray player make sure you know what software you're getting.  I purchased a player/burner and then found out after I had it and its software (Nero) installed that the software requires you to purchase an upgrade in order to play/burn Blu-Ray.  After some further research it appears this is pretty standard as Blu-Ray requires a license.  For Nero the upgrade is $30 (which pisses me off to no end since the drive's packaging says nothing about additional purchases being required!)

Last, why the separate audio card?  The ASUS already has DTS HD audio and supports up to 7.1.  What does the Soundblaster have that the moboard doesn't?

[guncrasher]

are you overclocking your computer from within windows?  I think you are better off doing it from within your bios.   go to your mobo's support site I am pretty sure they have guides showing you how.


semp

[Skuzzy]

Separate audio cards reduce the CPU load and actually have hardware buffers available which allow many more sounds to play simultaneously.

[Gman]

Semp, the ASUS boards, especially the "ROG" gamer boards allow you to mess with the OC settings in the bios from the windows environment.  What MACE described is a very typical overclock of the 3570 for a decent, medium level 24/7 OC that is 100% stable, all done from windows.  All that happens I think is that the software changes the bios settings for you, without having to actually "boot" into the bios.  So actually "doing it in bios" like you recommend is already happening, although without actually "being" in the bios screen as it were.

As for the OP, I would go with the 3570 with a decent board/cooler and OC it, and spend the extra 100$ on a better video card.  A 7870 won't give you 'glass smooth' video in all games, I can assure you of that.  Load up even an older game like Napolean Total War, and put 8 armies on the screen at max, and a 7870 will chug.  Like Brody and others said, go with a 7970, or even a 7850 which will easily overclock to 7970 performance levels.  If not that, then a higher end 670 or lower end 680 evga card.  That 3570 system with any of those cards will smoke a 3770 with a 7870.

As for the sound cards, I've always installed one, as it is an old habit from back in the days when you HAD to have one, circa the late 90's etc.  I know that over the years that the motherboard manufacturers have made this not necessary with their high quality on board sound, but like Skuzzy was saying, it DOES take a little of the load off of the CPU in my experience.  Is it enough to notice during regular PC use, no not really, but it IS there.  Also, the card I use is the Fatality 3D one from Creative, and it comes with a nice little control panel that goes into your case front slot, if you have an empty one.  For 130$, it may seem like money wasted when the on board sound is nearly as good, but when you spend 3500$ on a system with a 3960, a 690 video card etc, spending a little extra on a sound card isn't a huge deal.  I wouldn't recommend it for a budget system, or even an enthusiast system that is "on a budget", but for bragging rights/guy who has everything type of PC builders, it isn't a useless option by any means IMO.

As for the whole blu ray license issue nonsense, I fell victim to this recently as well, when I used my old system after getting a new one as a HTPC - home theatre PC.  I was so happy getting my new LED big screen, and setting up my PC in my bedroom, and thinking I had every possible problem licked, until I slid in a BR disc for the first time.  Of course it wouldn't play, and even with the RETAIL version of a well known manufacturer's blu ray drive, I still had to purchase ANOTHER license in order to view BR, same as Mace.  Ridiculous.