New gameing build

[djcwarren@hotmail.com]

Hi Guys

I am in the process of bulding my new top of the line Gameing rig and thought it would be wise to just post the specs here before hitting that order button

Case: Cooler Master HAF X (Chose this because of size and good airflow as i am going to be useing aricooling for everything)

PSU: Corsair AX 1200w

Motherboard: Asus Rampage 3 Black Edition

CPU: i7-970 (Goin to overclock it to at least 4Ghz+)

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 ||Already Purchased||

RAM: 3 x 2GB Mushkin Redline Enhanched PC3-12800 1600Mhz 6-8-6-24 (Will add another set if you think its needed) ||Already Purchased||

GPU: MSI GTX 580 Lightning (Will add another 1 at a later date, hence the 1200w PSU)

Soundcard: The included Thunderbolt on the AR3:Be

Bootdrive: WD Veloci Raptor 600GB 10000RPM, 32MB. (Not a huge fan of the SSD as they are to small to make it worth it for gameing imho, may add 1 at a later date)

Storage drives: 3 x 2TB WD Green's ||Already Purchased||

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

Monitor: Samsumg T240 1920x1200 ||Already Purchased||

Headset: Sennheiser PC 360 ||Already Purchased||

The only thing that i am pondering over is if i should get the following instead:

Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7, Socket-1155

Intel Core i7 Quad Processor i7-2600K

The only problem here is that i already bought the RAM for the x58, did this about 1 month ago so i cant return them. I could always sell on ebay or something but would this 1155 build be better then the 1366 rig listed above (price excluded).

Another option is of course getting the Sabertooth x58 with a i7-960 instead and then just upgrade to the LGA 2011 platform as soon at it is released but that would just make it redundant in under a year which is kind of pointless and somewhat costly in the long run which is the reason i went for a high end 1366 build as it would last me for quite some time.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Firat]

it looks like your enroute to building a beast of a machine, now from what i know and have heard, sandy bridge is hot for gaming at the moment, and it can easily go past the 4ghz, i had my 2500k at 4.7ghz and wow it is fast.

oh yh and you should definatly get an SSD instead of the raptor, SSD are amazing

you dont need t get a big amount of it, just get a 128gb SSD and use it as a boot drive and store your gmes and such on your storage drives as speed in drives doesnt have much ofan impact on FPS

just load time thats all.

i love the rest of the chosen parts, but i would probs say go for the ud7 + 2600k save a load of money which you could actually get another GTX lighting for in SLI

 

[jack-uk]

Nice rig there buddy

! I don’t think you need 1200w, 1000w would be adequate nevertheless you can never have too much power, the i7 970 is good because its hex-core but then again to be honest for gaming it’s not needed mate, I see where your coming from its a very good processor in its league and I like x58 boards and processors more.

You could pick up the 2500K as the difference between the 2600K and the 2500K for gaming is minor, you could get the 2500K and the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme Intel P67.

A little late now but the WD greens are very bad and are only capable of SATA 3/Gbs

so you’re not taking advantage of SATA 6Gb/s but that may not be a problem for you, also a SSD would work well, also where are you buying from?

 

[Grizzly]

The 970 is the cheapest in a league of its own (hex core).

I'd go with that setup over a quad core 1155 anyday.

 

[djcwarren@hotmail.com]

Yeah ill prob be waiting a little bit with the SSD as i am a huge Raptor fan

and if im not happy with the speeds ill just get an SSD a litte later. But like i said im just going to be gameing with it and loadscreen and bootup times dont really bother me at all tbh, evan my current rig with just 1 300GB raptor is pretty darn good.

AS for the mobo and cpu. The AR3BE is just about £50 more than the UD7 over here plus it has a decent soundcard which the UD7 doesent. I would also have to buy new RAM if i swap to the 1155, so i wont really be saveing that much and the Lightnings are really expensive here plus i only have 1 screen so i dont really need more than 1 GPU at present. But i dont think the i7-970 will cause me any pain and suffering performance wise

 

[ahboyhan]

X58 FTW

 

[djcwarren@hotmail.com]

Nice rig there buddy

! I don’t contemplate you need 1200w, 1000w would stand adequate nevertheless you can never have too much power, the i7 970 is good because its hex-core but then again to be honest for gaming it’s not needed mate, I see where your coming from its a very good processor, you could pick up the 2500K as the difference between the 2600K and the 2500K for gaming is minor, you could get the 2500K and the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme Intel P67, a little late now but the WD greens are very bad and are only capable of SATA 3/Gbs

so you’re not taking advantage of SATA 6Gb/s but that may not be a problem for you, also a SSD would work well, also where are you buying from?

No man the Greens ae for movie and music storage only. The Raptor's 600GB are for boot and games/programs.

Im ordering this in Norway so prices will be higher compared to UK priced, im only using pounds so its a little easier for ppl to understand

 

[jack-uk]

No man the Greens ae for movie and music storage only. The Raptor's 600GB are for boot and games/programs.

Im ordering this in Norway so prices will be higher compared to UK priced, im only using pounds so its a little easier for ppl to understand

Oh that should be ok then mate and ok good luck

 

[Karlos_the_n00b]

If its the best gaming performance you want then you should probably read this:

http://www.tomshardw...view-32126.html

Its a review of the 2600K vs the 990X

Spoiler alert: The 990X goes down fighting, but it does go down. If your a full out enthusiast who likes to tune and tweet there boards or want the best rendering performance then I hear the X58 if for you but from what I've read, if you just want the best gaming rig you can get your hands on then your better of with a P67.

Bit of a waste I know but I'm sure you could still use at least 2 sticks of that memory in a sandy board.

Might want to check this out too: http://www.tomshardw...ew-32155-4.html

Basically there saying that the only difference with the 2500K and the 2600K when it comes to gaming is bragging rights. With the money saved from buying a 2500K over a 970 and a UD7 over a rampage BE you could get a second lighting now and do some proper bragging

Think I remember Tom saying on his review of the UD7 that he broke 5Ghz but I can't remember what chip he used.

 

[djcwarren@hotmail.com]

If its the best gaming performance you want then you should probably read this:

http://www.tomshardw...view-32126.html

Its a review of the 2600K vs the 990X

Spoiler alert: The 990X goes down fighting, but it does go down. If your a full out enthusiast who likes to tune and tweet there boards or want the best rendering performance then I hear the X58 if for you but from what I've read, if you just want the best gaming rig you can get your hands on then your better of with a P67.

Bit of a waste I know but I'm sure you could still use at least 2 sticks of that memory in a sandy board.

Might want to check this out too: http://www.tomshardw...ew-32155-4.html

Basically there saying that the only difference with the 2500K and the 2600K when it comes to gaming is bragging rights. With the money saved from buying a 2500K over a 970 and a UD7 over a rampage BE you could get a second lighting now and do some proper bragging

Think I remember Tom saying on his review of the UD7 that he broke 5Ghz but I can't remember what chip he used.

Hmm i dident know you could use tripple channel RAM on a duel channel mobo. But i just checked both boards and they both support 1600Mhz RAM and i see an identical set of ram in 1 2x2GB with identical specs to the tripple set on the website i purchased it from. Would this work without a hitch? or do i need to do some tweaking to make it work properly? And will 4 GB be enough?

 

[SieB]

Triple channel RAM wont work on P67 boards they only support dual channel.

 

[Karlos_the_n00b]

Triple channel RAM wont work on P67 boards they only support dual channel.

Even if you only use 2 sticks?

Edit: People say that 4GB is all you need for gaming and that 8GB can be overkill.

 

[djcwarren@hotmail.com]

Yeah i did mean to say that i would of course only be using 2 of the 3 sticks. Might be a little wastefull but its cheper than haveing to buy new RAM.

 

[SieB]

Yep, it should work ok if you are using two sticks. I thought you meant running it in triple channel

 

[djcwarren@hotmail.com]

Allrighty then, new specs:

Case: Cooler Master HAF X

PSU: Corsair AX 1200w

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7, Socket-1155

CPU: Intel Core i7 Quad Processor i7-2600K

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14

RAM: 2 x 2GB Mushkin Redline Enhanched PC3-12800 1600Mhz 6-8-6-24 (2 sticks from the tripple set)

GPU: MSI GTX 580 Lightning (Will add another 1 at a later date, hence the 1200w PSU)

Boot drive: Intel SSD 510 Series 120GB 2,5"

Game/Program drive: WD Veloci Raptor 600GB 10000RPM, 32MB.

Storage drives: 3 x 2TB WD Green

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

Monitor: Samsumg T240 1920x1200

Headset: Sennheiser PC 360

The money saved on the mobo and cpu swap covers the SSD with about 70 quid to spare

Just a couple of questions, is the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme B3 a better mobo choice? and how is the onboard sound on these motherboards? Maybe need a soundcard to go with this?

Would the OCZ Vertex 3 120GB be a better SSD choice?

 

[Grizzly]

The money saved on the mobo and cpu swap covers the SSD with about 70 quid to spare

Just a couple of questions, is the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme B3 a better mobo choice? and how is the onboard sound on these motherboards? Maybe need a soundcard to go with this?

Would the OCZ Vertex 3 120GB be a better SSD choice?

Stick with the UD7, it's a better board spesh if you're planning on SLI.

Onboard sound should be OK to use, I suggest you try the onboard then decide if you want to spend the extra 70 on a sound card or not.

Might even be worth saving more for a sound card if you decide onboard sound isn't to your liking.

 

[Karlos_the_n00b]

Funnily enough I only found this this morning. Anyway, you may want to read this before going with the Intel 510: http://www.anandtech...d-510-review/14 They also have a review of the vertex 3 that you may want to look at. The Crucial C300 is good for the money, but the performance isn't as good as the more expensive vertex 3.

As for motherboards You could always go read Toms review of the Maximus (well I think its toms review) and the UD7 but in my opinion I'd go with the UD7 for looks and for the fact that it got the performance award which the maximus didn't.

I also agree with trying the onboard sound first and then buying a new sound card if your really not happy.

Edit: Just checked and it wasn't Toms review at all, it was Bryan Waters review. I apologise.

 

[DragonPC]

Hoping for some rig pictures and a proper worklog

 

[sg12004]

that will be very nice rig hope you will post pictures of it when done

 

[Chaney579]

that will be very nice rig hope you will post pictures of it when done

To be honest im building a big machine myself and i would keep the i7970, Thats what im going for. And then i would drop the 580 dollar asus MObo and go with a G1 Sniper. You get alot more for the buck there. Or you could get the assassin but you are not using 4 way sli. Stick with the x58 build. If you would like. Im just saying you could save about 140 dollars if you go with the G1 Sniper MOBO. And with that you could pick up a 590 or get a small ssd for boot drive. That is sata 3 6/gbs compatible. But thats just me.