New gaming rig, yay!

[Ylaana]

Hi everyone,

I am looking at building myself an entirely new gaming rig within the next couple of weeks. I've put together a list over the past half year, adding and replacing components as they were announced/released. My ideal build is one that will last me 4-5 years, as my current pc has, without too much modification. It should be (relatively) silent but powerful, good enough to run current as well as future games on high to ultra settings on a dual monitor setup. The games I play most are WoW, Diablo 3, Magicka, Portal 2 and Minecraft, and I'll probably add The Secret World, Guild Wars 2 and Watchdogs to that list in the not-too-distant future.

I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to overclocking but not afraid to try, as long as it doesn't go into the extreme and won't affect the lifespan of the hardware. Quality > price, if the premium is justified.

So here's the list:

Case: Fractal Design Define r4 Window Black Pearl
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe or Gigabyte Z77X-UP5TH
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K
Cooler: Phanteks PH-TC14PE, black
Memory: Corsair Low-Profile 4x4GB 1600MHz CL9, black
Power: Corsair AX850i (if released in time) or Seasonic Platinum 860W
SSD: Samsung 830 256GB (for OS and most used programs/games)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 2TB 7200rpm 64MB SATA 6Gb/s (for storage)
Graphics: EVGA GTX 680 FTW 4GB
Monitor: 2x BenQ XL2420T

Additions:
Sound: Asus Xonar DX, possibly D2X
Speakers: Corsair SP2500
Keyboard: Roccat Isku FX (not yet released)
Mouse: Roccat Kone XTD (not yet released)
Might get an individually sleeved PSU cable set just for looks

I would very much like to hear any comments, suggestions and/or recommendations you guys may have

Thanks for reading!


Ylaana

 

[MadMarc]

MB: Take a look at MSI GD 55 or GD 65, they are really nice boards but much cheaper than the ones you've listed
CPU/RAM: unless you do video/3d rendering get a 3570k and 8GB of ram
PSU: 650w is enough for this config
GPU: get a 670, it's cheaper and not much slower, 2gb should be enough, btw how do you play games on two screens with the crosshair behind the bezel? Also get models with an aftermaket heatsink

 

[blitztech]

Looks good to me, only thing I would do is swap the fans on the Phantek and get a 3rd monitor . Well I cant live without triple screens but you can always get it later on.

 

[Josh Weston]

MB: Take a look at MSI GD 55 or GD 65, they are really nice boards but much cheaper than the ones you've listed
CPU/RAM: unless you do video/3d rendering get a 3570k and 8GB of ram
PSU: 650w is enough for this config
GPU: get a 670, it's cheaper and not much slower, 2gb should be enough, btw how do you play games on two screens with the crosshair behind the bezel? Also get models with an aftermaket heatsink

+1
A 660Ti would be a great match for the games that you're playing, and costs even less.
Oh, and be sure to buy some 7v/5v resistors for the fans if you want silence.

 

[seumasbeathan]

Ok so as it is a gaming rig 8gb will be fine as will a 3570k and a 650w psu

 

[Rastalovich]

Decent monitors. 1080 tho.

 

[jamesriley94]

Get the MSI GD65 - the P8Z77-v Deluxe is a bit of a waste of money, and the gigabyte isnt great. I'm guessing you want them due to wifi - and if this is a gaming rig you have no chance using wifi.
Get the GD65, or even 55, and get powerline adapters.

As others have said - get the 3570k instead of the 3770k...

That's also a lot of money on speakers really. Especially for gaming, get a headset or something a lose the soundcard. Only get the sound card if you're planning on using it for listening to music - in which case, again, lose the speakers and get headphones and a nice soundcard. You'll need to spend a fair amount to get a better sound card than on board the P8Z77 deluxe btw.
You'd be better getting some average 30 quid 2.1 speaker system, then some good headphones and a good soundcard

Also, cba to type everything out, but I agree with everything everyone else has said

 

[Ylaana]

Thanks for the replies! Here are my thoughts so far:

MB: Take a look at MSI GD 55 or GD 65, they are really nice boards but much cheaper than the ones you've listed
CPU/RAM: unless you do video/3d rendering get a 3570k and 8GB of ram
PSU: 650w is enough for this config
GPU: get a 670, it's cheaper and not much slower, 2gb should be enough, btw how do you play games on two screens with the crosshair behind the bezel? Also get models with an aftermaket heatsink

I don't do video rendering but Photoshop gets used a fair bit. As I said I'm all about future-proofing this pc so things may be overkill at this very moment but they might not be in 2-3 years. I selected an 850W PSU because I'm planning to SLI later on. As for gaming on two screens - I run my games in a fullscreen window on one monitor and I have stuff like Teamspeak and Chrome on the second one. I also don't play FPSs so no crosshair for me and afaik the FTW has a custom heatsink with a vapour chamber and rear exhaust.

Looks good to me, only thing I would do is swap the fans on the Phantek and get a 3rd monitor . Well I cant live without triple screens but you can always get it later on.

I don't have the desk/mounting space for a 3rd monitor What would you replace the fans with? I was looking at the Xigmatek XAF-F1452 but I'm not sure how well they're suited for CPU cooling.

+1
A 660Ti would be a great match for the games that you're playing, and costs even less.
Oh, and be sure to buy some 7v/5v resistors for the fans if you want silence.

I was hoping the sound dampening lining of the case would be enough to make it virtually silent. Aren't PWM controllers going to help?

Decent monitors. 1080 tho.

Any suggestions for 24" 1200p gaming monitors? I chose these because they're supposedly really good after proper calibration and I like the thin bezel. I'll use them with a dual monitor VESA desk mount. It would be nice to have the extra height but it also means my field of view in games would be narrower.

Get the MSI GD65 - the P8Z77-v Deluxe is a bit of a waste of money, and the gigabyte isnt great. I'm guessing you want them due to wifi - and if this is a gaming rig you have no chance using wifi.
Get the GD65, or even 55, and get powerline adapters.

As others have said - get the 3570k instead of the 3770k...

That's also a lot of money on speakers really. Especially for gaming, get a headset or something a lose the soundcard. Only get the sound card if you're planning on using it for listening to music - in which case, again, lose the speakers and get headphones and a nice soundcard. You'll need to spend a fair amount to get a better sound card than on board the P8Z77 deluxe btw.
You'd be better getting some average 30 quid 2.1 speaker system, then some good headphones and a good soundcard

Also, cba to type everything out, but I agree with everything everyone else has said

I'm not really fussed about the wifi because I have a fully functional home network. I've chosen those boards because they seem to get the better review results, and as my case has a window, they work with the rest of the hardware colour-wise. The less blue the better, yay for monochrome . Music is very important to me; that was the thought behind getting a separate sound card. I'm prepared to throw quite a bit of money at it if it means an improved experience over the on-board sound. Same goes for speakers really. I'm not a big fan of headphones as they tend to start hurting my head after a few hours because of their weight. I'm open to suggestions for a comfortable, lightweight USB headset (with microphone) that doesn't completely block all outside sounds. I actually like to hear my fiancé when he's talking to me :lol:

 

[Josh Weston]

I have the R3 and can say, with great confidence, that the sound deadening qualities are...nill. At least, in my opinion.
PWM can indeed help, but usually not all of the fan headers are PWM. I prefer to have my fans plugged into the PSU via molex. Also means all the cables are kept out of sight behind the motherboard tray etc.

Also - an AX750 could SLI two GTX680 with no issues.

 

[jamesriley94]

As the owner of the Deluxe - It's a pretty big waste of money tbh. Drop to the MSI GD55 and throw the rest at a soundcard.
You dont want a USB headset as they're okay for gaming but terrible for music listening.
There isnt really that much point in getting a soundcard if you're using speakers IMO - considering in your case I'm guessing you dont want music massively loud with others in the house, at the low volumes, I doubt you'll hear any difference.
If you looked at semi-aural or semi/open backed headphones, and any cheap desktop/lapel/monitor mountable microphone you'll have a far better experience in gaming and music listening than with a gaming headset.
If you get proper headset - ie - £100+ it'll be well padded and lightweight so it wont hurt

 

[jth4482]

Looks good to me, only thing I would do is swap the fans on the Phantek and get a 3rd monitor . Well I cant live without triple screens but you can always get it later on.

you don't need to swap the fans. it already out performed most cpu cooler out there. Looks good with matching fans.

 

[jamesriley94]

you don't need to swap the fans. it already out performed most cpu cooler out there. Looks good with matching fans.

Yeh - shouldnt have agreed with swapping the fans

The Phanteks looks good - make sure it will fit the R4 though.

 

[Josh Weston]

Should be fine with the R4 - tis a wide beast.

 

[CPMFW]

3570k, gd65, gtx670 and 8GB of ram would be my choice...
the fractal is a nice case

 

[MadMarc]

Thanks for the replies! Here are my thoughts so far:

I don't do video rendering but Photoshop gets used a fair bit. As I said I'm all about future-proofing this pc so things may be overkill at this very moment but they might not be in 2-3 years. I selected an 850W PSU because I'm planning to SLI later on. As for gaming on two screens - I run my games in a fullscreen window on one monitor and I have stuff like Teamspeak and Chrome on the second one. I also don't play FPSs so no crosshair for me and afaik the FTW has a custom heatsink with a vapour chamber and rear exhaust.

Imo you can't future proof a computer, I think it's usually better and cheaper to build 2 rigs each to last about 3 years instead of one that is used for 5+ years.

CPU: 3570k instead of 3770k saves you 70GBP
MB: GD65 instead of Asus P8Z77-V DELUXE saves you 60+ GBP
RAM: 8GB instead of 16GB saves 35 GBP
GPU: GTX 660ti (which is perfectly fine for single screen gaming) over 2 680 saves 550 GBP
PSU: AX650 over AX850 saves 40 GBP

total: 755 GBP

So you'd save enough to replace most of parts in 2-3 years and I think a midrange rig with 2015 technology would beat a 2012 highend rig and there is the fun of configuring and building 2 rigs

 

[jamesriley94]

Imo you can't future proof a computer, I think it's usually better and cheaper to build 2 rigs each to last about 3 years instead of one that is used for 5+ years.

CPU: 3570k instead of 3770k saves you 70GBP
MB: GD65 instead of Asus P8Z77-V DELUXE saves you 60+ GBP
RAM: 8GB instead of 16GB saves 35 GBP
GPU: GTX 660ti (which is perfectly fine for single screen gaming) over 2 680 saves 550 GBP
PSU: AX650 over AX850 saves 40 GBP

total: 755 GBP

So you'd save enough to replace most of parts in 2-3 years and I think a midrange rig with 2015 technology would beat a 2012 highend rig and there is the fun of configuring and building 2 rigs

This^^

Maybe a 670 of the 660ti as you have the budget - but either's fine.

 

[Ylaana]

Imo you can't future proof a computer, I think it's usually better and cheaper to build 2 rigs each to last about 3 years instead of one that is used for 5+ years.

CPU: 3570k instead of 3770k saves you 70GBP
MB: GD65 instead of Asus P8Z77-V DELUXE saves you 60+ GBP
RAM: 8GB instead of 16GB saves 35 GBP
GPU: GTX 660ti (which is perfectly fine for single screen gaming) over 2 680 saves 550 GBP
PSU: AX650 over AX850 saves 40 GBP

total: 755 GBP

So you'd save enough to replace most of parts in 2-3 years and I think a midrange rig with 2015 technology would beat a 2012 highend rig and there is the fun of configuring and building 2 rigs

Although the budget is not an issue for me, your post made me see it's probably more sensible to not get an extreme-ish build in favour of doing a similar high-midrange upgrade in a couple of years (Skylake?). I made a mistake in wanting to splash out on a pc I probably wouldn't use to its full potential, just because the benchmarks look nice. And I do like building rigs

Which leaves me with these questions:
- If I get a 2GB GTX 670, will a 650W PSU be enough?
- What do you guys think of Thunderbolt? Is it worth having/preparing for?
- Is there a motherboard out there that's similar to the GD65/GD80 that isn't bright blue? I really like the neutral colour scheme of the Gigabyte (Z77X-UP5TH) board.

 

[Josh Weston]

A 650w PSU would be absolutely fine. I think it could power two of them, in fact (although i wouldn't be too happy overclocking, but maybe it would be fine for that too).
Thunderbolt is something i've had for a while now (I have a MacBook Pro from early 2011) and yet i've never used it. Not only are peripherals that use it expensive, I just have no need.
The only foreseeable benefit I can see of Thunderbolt is the possibility of external graphics cards for portable units such as laptops. Still, I don't think it has a place in a desktop unless you're doing some heavy file transfers to external drives and need them done ASAP.

 

[MadMarc]

Atm boards with thunderbolt are very expensive and rare, so are the peripherals, unless you transfer a lot of large files to and from an external hdd or you want to run games and other programms off an external hdd it's imo not worth it (yet), another benefit of building a new rig in 2-3 years when there might be more thunderbolt devices.

 

[Kanped]

Regarding the sound, you'd be way better off getting good speakers than an internal sound card and gaming speakers. You've got a perfectly clean signal coming from the mini-jack connector on your motherboard that you can plug into a decent hi-fi auxiliary, for example. IMO, the SP2500 is, on one hand, ridiculous overkill and on the other an under performer. Basically, it seems to me like they've taken totally average speakers and stuck a sub-woofer in there to hide the tinniness. Everything else is gimmicks that you don't need ("smart crossovers"? Every hi-fi on earth has had those since the 1970s). Maybe I'm being really harsh but to me, I don't see any reason why anyone would buy it other than that they trust the brand. Personally, though, I like my speakers to be made by companies who make speakers.

Now, as far as I can tell, most people disagree with me on this but I prefer flat-frequency, uncolored audio. I.e., the system doesn't add in bass or compress mids because whoever designed the system figured it would sound better that way. I like to hear things as the engineer who mixed the audio heard them. This can save some money, but you'd need you own amp or audio interface to use a setup like that properly, I think. There are USB speakers like that, which eliminate the need totally for a sound card, as it wouldn't even be used but IMO, there's no reason for the to be USB and they're also a little gimmicky. Something like http://www.westenddj.co.uk/Product/ALESIS/Production/M1-ACTIVE-320-USB/ I do want to make it clear that I am NOT recommending these and personally wouldn't have them, but it's an option worth considering, I think.

If I were you, I'd just get a decent hi-fi and plug the PC into it; all the cross-overs and amplification you need, decent speaker setup, probably work out cheaper than the soundcard/speakers setup and does exactly the same thing.