Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: amulford on March 15, 2014, 04:13:51 PM
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I had some problems with the computer I am presently using. I think I figured that out.
That got me thinking, however. I want to build a decent game rig. So I started to spec one and would like some opinions.
I spent some time on a nifty website and came up with the following:
CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock 990FX Extreme9 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($176.30 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 45.0 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($200.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Corsair Force LS Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270X 4GB Video Card ($283.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill BLACKHAWK-ULTRA ATX Full Tower Case ($217.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 1000W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($206.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($68.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($101.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1687.13 (Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
I am on the fence about it. Any opinions? Should there be something else I am looking for?
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If you're willing to drop $220 on a case, look into Silverstone or Lian-Li.
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I picked the rosewill because it comes with eight fans. I thought I would save a few sheckels.
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For that kind of money go with an intel cpu. Get a K series i5 cpu and overclock the snot out of it.
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BTW, a 1000w PSU is overkill and not efficient.
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Good advice here! Trying to summarize this a little:
If you really want to save a few sheckels, there's lots of good well breathing cases in the $50 price range. Extra fans don't cost much and you can choose the quality of them.
Also I'd rather opt the ssd out. I admit the ssd would get you into Windows and the game much faster, but after you've logged in there's really no difference at all. But if you can't wait a minute before starting a few hours gaming session, it's your money and your choice.
During the last few years Intel has been having less issues with games, so that might be a safer bet.
As has been said, the 1000W PSU is overkill and the excess power may cause issues. The 650W version of the same series would be more than enough and again save your sheckels.
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A large PSU will not cause any problems, but go for build quality over the number on the box. Seasonic is very good.
Again, at that price range you can afford smart and high quality components. A 500GB SSD like the Samsung 840 evo or Crucial M500 would make the entire system feel more responsive, and they're only about $300.
Spending more than $200, or even over $150, for a case ought to be an indicator that you are buying a specific case for a specific purpose because only that case can do what you need. If that isn't the case, look into the corsair brand cases. From nice mid-towers under $100 to huge towers designed for hardcore water cooling, corsair cases hit a very wide range of prices and features.
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A large PSU will not cause any problems
That's not entirely true. If you run a switching PSU at marginal load it will cause ripple in the voltage which is bad for your hardware. Same effect can be seen in power width modulated lights, if you try to dim them far enough, eventually you'll just see a blinking light instead of a dim.
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Do you really need a full tower case? I have the Rosewell Blackhawk mid-tower and it is pretty damn big. I'm running a total of 12 fans in the case (including GPU and PSU fans). My point being is the mid-tower has plenty of room for fans and is less than half the cost of the full size tower. I would also go with an intel chip. I am currently running an i5-2500k overclocked to 4.8GHZ and it has run flawlessly for a couple years now. For the SSD I would stick with samsung. I have a 500gb PRO SSD in my laptop and a 128GB PRO ssd in my desktop and I love them. I had a crucial 64gb ssd that I used for two years and then it gave up the ghost. I got an rma replacement and that replacement has over 10,000 bad sectors out of the box. I no longer suggest crucial SSDs to anyone. Good luck on your build. It looks like it will last you quite a while. :cheers:
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If you really want a Full Tower Case, and one that has Excellent air flow capabilities and also is already setup to install water cooling if you desire to do so
I suggest this one, by Thermaltake....... ( I have 2 of these a Black Version for my intel and the white version for my AMD )
Newegg link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133188
Thermaltake Level 10 GT (VN10001W2N) Black Steel SECC / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case with Four Fans-1x 200mm Colorshift side fan, 1x 200mm Colorshift top fan, 1x 200mm Colorshift front fan and 1x 140mm rear fan
$239.99 + $12.99 shipping ( unless you have shoprunner or some other free shipping program )
sidenote: Heya Silver, you still got those "bad" Crucial SSD drives laying around? if so let me know via PM..... I need to talk with you anyways about something, <S>
TC
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Personally,
This: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352031 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352031)
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Two of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835352007 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835352007)
= A great case with 7 HDD trays and plenty of room for radiators (offset if needs be) and cable management. All the while, being easy to clean, maintain and be very quiet.
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Thank you guys for the input so far. It's greatly appreciated.
I see the point about the case. I like the Fractal listed above, especially the washable filters.
Will I still have the room for a second GPU if I decide I need one?
I see the point about the power supply, too. Right now I am sitting around 450W. I If I decide to go water cooled or add fans, would I need to go bigger? My audiophile history has me in a bind there. I want to have headroom if I need it down the road.
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Thank you guys for the input so far. It's greatly appreciated.
I see the point about the case. I like the Fractal listed above, especially the washable filters.
Will I still have the room for a second GPU if I decide I need one?
I see the point about the power supply, too. Right now I am sitting around 450W. I If I decide to go water cooled or add fans, would I need to go bigger? My audiophile history has me in a bind there. I want to have headroom if I need it down the road.
Yes there is plenty of room for a second GPU.
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Totally unbalanced.
-an i5 is a better CPU for that money, might be a little bit more expensive, especially with the fitting mobo, but the much less power consumption might worth considering going intel.
-that is a single lower-mid range GPU with the consumpion of ~120 Watts. I dont know what you would like to do with that puter though, but for 1600$ its possible to get something much better. A 280x for example. 2GB vRAM is also enough for everything what any existing GPU can calculate.
-1000W PSU - why on earth? A quality 550-600W is enough for every single GPU setup, a high end SLI/CF can run really fine on a 850W one... an 1000W one is just like throwing money out from the window.
here is my advice:
i5 K model, suitable mobo
16 gigs of ddr-1600 ram (the one you listed)
280x-290(custom cooling) GPU
Seasonic 600W psu
drives of your choice
case of your choice
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+1 debrody.
Good tower and PSU are cool but this is way overkill, put some of that money in actual gaming power :rock As much as I was an AMD fanboy this CPU is crap for gaming at its price point.
:salute
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It would be a shame to buy a GPU now with the Maxwell GeForce card just about a week away.
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Is GeForce releasing a GPU or a new video card? I'm confused about what your saying is coming out in a week?
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I just built a comp using an AMD 6300FX CPU, and a Radeon R9 270X and I am Über happy with it. I know the AMD is subpar to the intel but it fit my budget and I am way happy with what I got.
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I just built a comp using an AMD 6300FX CPU, and a Radeon R9 270X and I am Über happy with it. I know the AMD is subpar to the intel but it fit my budget and I am way happy with what I got.
Noone said that you have made a bad decision, but im sure that your machine wasnt 1600$ ;)
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Is GeForce releasing a GPU or a new video card? I'm confused about what your saying is coming out in a week?
Yes, yes, and yes.
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I just built a comp using an AMD 6300FX CPU, and a Radeon R9 270X and I am Über happy with it. I know the AMD is subpar to the intel but it fit my budget and I am way happy with what I got.
:headscratch: Hmmm I thought that AMD was better than Intel.
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:headscratch: Hmmm I thought that AMD was better than Intel.
Yes it was, 10 years ago.
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Yes it was, 10 years ago.
the Athlon XP and Athlon 64 were pretty nice indeed!
the Phenom II is still pretty good, but the current series are just marginally better than a phenom for gaming, and that is a big let down :frown:
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AMD is pretty much just blowing off the desktop market for CPU's and going after the server market. They figure the 'cloud' movement will end up causing server sales to surpass desktop sales in the near future.
They are also holding their own in the mobile market.
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AMD is pretty much just blowing off the desktop market for CPU's and going after the server market. They figure the 'cloud' movement will end up causing server sales to surpass desktop sales in the near future.
They are also holding their own in the mobile market.
they do have a point, workstations like we use are a dieing breed :old: If my smartphone could control my 3 screens and peripherals that's probably all I would need except for gaming, and even in that category the mobiles are catching up
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See That's why I come to you guys. Thank you very much for your input.
After taking in the advice and doing a little more research, I have re thought the entire system. And this is what I came up with:
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($309.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($177.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($154.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial M500 120GB mSATA Solid State Disk ($75.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card ($499.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic M12II 850W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($135.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Pioneer BDR-209DBK Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($70.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($101.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1682.86
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-20 18:41 EDT-0400)
It actually comes in a little lower than that with a couple of instant rebates.
So how does this sound?
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I would ditch the crucial ssd and spend a few bucks more on a Samsung ssd. I've had two bad crucial ssds so far and both of my dad sauna are running flawlessly.
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See That's why I come to you guys. Thank you very much for your input.
After taking in the advice and doing a little more research, I have re thought the entire system. And this is what I came up with:
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($309.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($177.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($154.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial M500 120GB mSATA Solid State Disk ($75.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card ($499.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic M12II 850W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($135.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Pioneer BDR-209DBK Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($70.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($101.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1682.86
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-20 18:41 EDT-0400)
It actually comes in a little lower than that with a couple of instant rebates.
So how does this sound?
Get two additional 140mm fans, run two in the front, two up top. (I have the H80i exhausting out the back 120mm) on the case. I do not have any experience with MSI GPU's, either XFX or EVGA (currently running an EVGA 4GB 770 GTX).
I second Pewter's suggestion of spending a tad more for a Samsung SSD.
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Get two additional 140mm fans, run two in the front, two up top. (I have the H80i exhausting out the back 120mm) on the case. I do not have any experience with MSI GPU's, either XFX or EVGA (currently running an EVGA 4GB 770 GTX).
I second Pewter's suggestion of spending a tad more for a Samsung SSD.
He can save the money by dumping the i7 and getting i5 k-series instead. i7 has poor return for dollar in gaming use. If you plan to do rendering etc. stuff also, then i7 is worth it.
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I would consider:
-i5 K series
-a 35-50$ range custom CPU cooler, must be WAY better, cooler, queter than the stock one
-256 gigs SSD
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The MSI Z87-GD65 is a excellent board. I bought this after 3 failed ASUS boards. It works perfectly right out of the box.
Good overclocker as well. If you are not doing anything with video then the i5-4670K is a better bang for the buck.
I would also get the SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series SSD instead of the Crucial. Get a good after market CPU Cooler like the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO,
and don't forget the thermal compound. I normally use Arctic Silver 5, but if this is your first build I would get ARCTIC MX-4.
It's non conductive, so if you get sloppy with it and get some on the board it won't short it out.
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I would 100% recommend at least 256GB SSD, and also agree about Samsung. I'd get Samsung 840 evo 256GB or 500GB. Or go all-out and get the 1TB Samsung 840 evo SSD for $469 at newegg or amazon. If you still want crucial, the release of the crucial M550 this week has driven M500 prices through the floor so you could get a 240 or 480GB crucial m500 for a good price. If you need to offset the extra SSD cost with a cut elsewhere, go with the i5 cpu as others have also said.
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The crucials are based on the micron controller (IIRC) which has relatively bad performance on single channel operation, which is why Crucial drives are relatively bad performers in the size class below 256Mb. That's another reason to invest to a bigger drive.
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Ok, after much thoughtful consideration I have chosen and ordered the following hardware:
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card
Case: Corsair Graphite Series 230T Black ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: SeaSonic M12II 850W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: Pioneer BDR-209DBK Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)
Even after everyone saying get an I5, I think the extra I spent on the I7 will be worth it for future proofing. It's a little overkill I know, but I won't have to overclock as hard. I am thinking about trying to make a few movies anyway...
I hope the gpu will be adequate. I just don't have the funds right now to go with a better one.
I dropped the SSD for the time being. For the time being I will have to suffer without it. I had budget I wanted to try and keep. I did come close.
I went with an 850W PSU because I plan to utilize a multi card SLI setup in the future. Thank you for the Seasonic suggestion, I feel pretty good it will last for quite a while.
The case I chose for a couple of reasons. I think it will have a good air low with the fans and the Aftermarket cooler I chose. It's mostly toolless installation is a nice feature, I like to try to minimize having to stick tools in cabinets.
I chose to go a little overboard with the CPU cooler. The dual fans and oversized radiator sounded like worth it to me. I hope I am right.
It's ordered and on the way. Any opinions?
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The H100 is a bit hard to fit into most cases, even corsair ones. If it doesn't fit, exchange it for an H80 or H90 which ought to fit better.
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That i7 is a 90W CPU. For the love of God, my old 140W crap never goes over 60° and does it totally silently - on a 35$ CM Hyper212.
Edit: water cooling might be useful for a high performance, ~250W GPU, especially if its throttling is connected to the core temperature - 290 series - , but practically useless for a 90W cpu.
By the way, that puter is great - super expensive, but will serve you well.
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That i7 is a 90W CPU. For the love of God, my old 140W crap never goes over 60° and does it totally silently - on a 35$ CM Hyper212.
I was thinking about the same. IMO the current CPU's run so cool that there really is no benefit in water cooling. After all, they need a fan, too. The old wisdom is still true: The more and larger fans you have, the quieter your system. Plus air won't leak. Ever.
All in all, it looks like you should be very pleased with it for many years. :salute :aok
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I went with an h80i for quiet performance now and stability in overlooking for the future.
Fractal Design cases are accommodating for h100's, but hey, what do I know? :rofl
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Thank you all again. There is a lot to consider and I do appreciate the input.
If the case doesn't work, I can always order a different one. :aok
edit: I went ahead and added a Samsung 840 Pro 256G SSD. I just couldn't stop myself...
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Thank you all again. There is a lot to consider and I do appreciate the input.
If the case doesn't work, I can always order a different one. :aok
edit: I went ahead and added a Samsung 840 Pro 256G SSD. I just couldn't stop myself...
Good choice! You will be very happy.
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I'm still very happy with the 4 crucial m4 series 128 GB ssd drives I bought back in 2011...
I had thought one had went bad on me, but after researching trying to diagnose what was wrong, it turned out to be a simple firmware update...
And the performance is still above 95% after 3 years use playing AH and recording films every sortie when I play, some films are over 2 hours long when flying FSO....
Crucial use one of the Marvell controllers, different versions depending on the crucial model, the last time I researched it... Although they may have changed recently...
I have to disagree, I've had more issues with Samsung products verses crucial ram or crucial ssd drives..
Ymmv
Wish you luck, looks like you've been bitten by the DIY computer building bug!
TC
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Also some games benefit from more cores.
He can save the money by dumping the i7 and getting i5 k-series instead. i7 has poor return for dollar in gaming use. If you plan to do rendering etc. stuff also, then i7 is worth it.
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Fractal Design cases are accommodating for h100's, but hey, what do I know? :rofl
You were right, sir. :salute The cooler and the two fans would't fit. I worked around it by mounting my fans on the outside. It will work, but doesn't have the aesthetic I'd prefer. I am ordering your suggestion tonight. :aok