Trying to Stay below £800 for a Battlefield 3 Rig

[Stormaged0n]

Hi all,

Loving Tinytimlogans Videos, i came across them whilst looking for advice on water cooling with his "for beginners" video and have basically watched ALLOT of videos from the channel now, going back to 2010. A very well put together and informative reviewer. So thanks for taking the time to make them and giving us "poor" people the chance to see some of the new amazing hardware in action.

Right, to business. I Have a PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, psp, Nintendo 3ds and 4 laptops, but its not enough. I have recently developed a passion for pc gaming again and now i want a gaming rig. MY Samsung R780 is being pushed to its limits with bf3 and im barely getting 12fps. Which isn't doing me any favours point wise.

So heres my thoughts on a future proof(ish) rig, based on some of the vids i have seen from TTL and my own research.

Case:--------CM Storm Enforcer (already bought this)

Ram:---------G-Skill 8GBXL Ripjaws X for Intel Sandybridge Platforms DDR3 PC12800 1600MHz 8GB Kit (already bought this)

Motherboard:-Asus MAXIMUS IV EXTREME REV 3.0 LGA1155 Intel P67 DDR3 Extended ATX

CPU:---------Intel Sandybridge i5-2500K Unlocked Core i5 Quad-Core Processor (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache, Socket 1155)

Gpu(S):------Asus 1GB GeForce GTX 560TI Direct CUII x2 in SLI

Cooling:-----Yet to be decided on water cooling or air and what? Needs to be fairly quiet too.

Power:-------TBC when the set-up has been worked out correctly

HD:----------Western digital - WD Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM

SSD:---------A possible upgrade for later once cash is freed up.

Keyboard:----MICROSOFT Sidewinder X4 Keyboard

Mouse:-------MICROSOFT Sidewinder X8 (Already use this with laptop, will do for now)

Screen:------BenQ MS612ST Short Throw Projector (not included in the rig costs) 90" screen @ 1080p.

So my first question, as this will be my first ever build.

Are all of the above components compatible with each other?

Is it future proof in terms of gaming?

Any feedback greatly appreciated as i do not want to buy all of this and then find out that some of it wont work with what i have bought.

Cheers all and Regards

Storm

 

[SieB]

All parts are compatible, for future proofing I would suggest getting a GEN 3 z68 motherboard that way you can upgrade to Ivy Bridge later on. Also, instead of getting two 560 Ti's you could get one 570 which will max BF3 and cost less than two 560Ti's, plus you can add another one when they drop in price which will also give you more performance than two 560Ti's giving you even more life out of them.

To save a bit more cash you could go for the Asus Z68 V-PRO Gen 3, it costs less than the Maximus. With the money saved with getting one 570 and the V-PRO instead of the Maximus you could put that towards an SSD.

For cooling, unless you want to spend quiet a bit of money watercooling I would just go with the Noctua NH-D14, it's the best and quietest air cooler there is.

And for a PSU go for a Corsair AX 850.

 

[8bitbreed]

Great advice once again sieB.

Defo get ssd, will amke a massive difference to boot and game loading times.

 

[Lollipop]

Cooler: NH-D14 cooler

PSU:AX850 If you want to SLI

GPU: 570

MoBo: Asus Z68 v-pro or something similar performing/priced

Pretty much what SieB said honestly. This would be quite future proof because of 99% of all games on the PC are console ports, even BF3.

 

[taz838]

Cooler: NH-D14 cooler

PSU:AX850 If you want to SLI

GPU: 570

MoBo: Asus Z68 v-pro or something similar performing/priced

Pretty much what SieB said honestly. This would be quite future proof because of 99% of all games on the PC are console ports, even BF3.

This. Prepare for the advancement of graphics to go ever so slowly due to porting onto pc. Can't wait until next xbox/ps3 comes out so it speeds up again. I think gtx 570 is perfect!

 

[Stormaged0n]

Thanks for the comments and advice guys. The thing that concerns me with the Asus Z68 V-PRO Gen 3 board is 2 gpu's running in sli would run at 8x in both lanes and the option for a 3rd would only be 1x. This surely isn't all that future proof. Although im not actually sure how fast things are going to move forward graphics wise, surely restricting yourself with the board isn't a good move. Are there any others that will support Ivy Bridge (not sure what this is yet, but it sounds good to have), have 2 16x lanes for sli and still not cost the earth?

The gpu you suggest sounds good though and after looking up the stats im thinking its the right thing to do and as you say once they become a little cheaper get the 2nd later on.

As you can see from my original spec list i want to run this rig using a projector and 90" 1080p. So anything in this rig has to be in keeping with that and also needs to be fairly quiet, hence im still not sure about water or air.

Cheers and Regards

Storm

 

[SieB]

Thanks for the comments and advice guys. The thing that concerns me with the Asus Z68 V-PRO Gen 3 board is 2 gpu's running in sli would run at 8x in both lanes and the option for a 3rd would only be 1x.

With two good cards like two 570's there would be no need for a third card even if you were running more than one screen, two cards are always better than three anyway. The V-PRO is also PCI-E 3 which is also double the bandwidth of PCIE-2 so at some point in the future when you update your GPUs they will be PCI-E 3 (if you are buying new cards not old that is) and because PCI-E 3 is double the bandwidth x8 is like running PCI-E 2 at x16.

PCI-E 2 cards will still run at x8 though, you only get the double bandwidth with PCI-E 3 you will also need an Ivy Bridge CPU for PCI-E 3.

There isn't that much of a difference between x8 and x16 anyway it's only a few FPS.

Are there any others that will support Ivy Bridge (not sure what this is yet, but it sounds good to have), have 2 16x lanes for sli and still not cost the earth?

Ivy Bridge is the next lot of CPUs from Intel that will replace Sandy Bridge, they will have a smaller architecture, 22nm, use less power, run cooler and have about a 10% performance increase. You will need a Gen 3 mobo to upgrade to Ivy though.

There is only one Gen3 board that has two x16 lanes and that is the Gigabyte G1 Sniper 2 and it's about £320 and totally overpriced.

The gpu you suggest sounds good though and after looking up the stats im thinking its the right thing to do and as you say once they become a little cheaper get the 2nd later on.

The 570 is the card to get at the moment, a 6950 is also a good card, it trades blows with the 570 and it has more VRAM which is useful if you are running more than one screen.

As you can see from my original spec list i want to run this rig using a projector and 90" 1080p. So anything in this rig has to be in keeping with that and also needs to be fairly quiet, hence im still not sure about water or air.

If you want a quiet air cooler then the Noctua NH-D14 is the one you want, it is the best performing and quietest air cooler there is. Watercooling will get you lower temps and be quieter but to do it properly and it to be worth doing it's going top cost you a couple of hundred quid.

 

[Stormaged0n]

Ok, still sounds goos to me. For the sake of arguement and out of interest, if i was to go down the water cooling route what would i need?

Cheers and regards

Storm

 

[SieB]

This isn't exact this is just to give you a rough idea, also, this is for the CPU only for a GPU as well you would also need a GPU block and some more fittings. Other part options are available as well.

XSPC RayStorm CPU Waterblock x1 = £49.99

http://www.specialte...productid=14598

Laing DDC1+ Ultra Pump 600 L/hr with XSPC V3 Acetal Top x1 = £69.50

http://www.specialte...productid=11174

XSPC RX Series 240mm x1 = £68.99

http://www.specialte...?productid=7874

Phobya Balancer 150 X1 = £23.99

http://www.specialte...productid=14209

Primochill PrimoFlex Pro LRT 1/2" ID - 3/4" OD x2 (quantity = length in meters) = £12.24

http://www.specialte...productid=11312

1/4" Thread Compression Fitting x8 = £27.12

http://www.specialte...productid=11205

Mayhems Pastel Fluid x2 = 29.98

http://www.specialte...productid=14692

A total of £281.81

if you wanted to do GPU as well you would need to spend around £120 more.

Have a read of this if you need more info on watercooling

http://forum.overclo...o-watercooling/

 

[Stormaged0n]

An update on my thoughts and build so far and taking in to account your advice.....

Case:--------CM Storm Enforcer (already bought this) £70

Ram:---------G-Skill 8GBXL Ripjaws X for Intel Sandybridge Platforms DDR3 PC12800 1600MHz 8GB Kit (already bought this) £40

Motherboard:-ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Socket 1155 DVI VGA HDMI DisplayPort 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard £140

CPU:---------Intel Sandybridge i5-2500K Unlocked Core i5 Quad-Core Processor (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache, Socket 1155) £165

Gpu(S):------Asus GeForce GTX 570 742MHz 1280MB PCI-Express HDMI (DirectCU II) £250

Cooling:-----2 fans already in case + Havik 140 + another 2 200mm fans in the roof. £70-80ish (Going to water cool once i Start to SLI)

Power:-------Antec 900W High Current Gamer PSU £105

HD:----------Western digital - WD Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM £130ish (might look for a cheaper option)

SSD:---------Not sure which one to get at a reasonable price....?

Keyboard:----MICROSOFT Sidewinder X4 Keyboard £40

Mouse:-------MICROSOFT Sidewinder X8 (Already use this with laptop, will do for now) £70

Screen:------BenQ MS612ST Short Throw Projector (not included in the rig costs) 90" screen @ 1080p. £350 + £100(screen)

Total £1000 ish and that's without a cd/br writer and all that. Ouch. Any suggestions on how to make this cheaper and still retain performance?

Cheers all.

 

[SieB]

Can't see anything you could save money on to be honest, I would have said HDD but with the prices the way they are at the moment you have no chance of saving money there, unless you can find a reasonable priced second hand one.

Only other thing you could do to save is leave the SSD out and get one later on.

 

[taz838]

An update on my thoughts and build so far and taking in to account your advice.....

Case:--------CM Storm Enforcer (already bought this) £70

Ram:---------G-Skill 8GBXL Ripjaws X for Intel Sandybridge Platforms DDR3 PC12800 1600MHz 8GB Kit (already bought this) £40

Motherboard:-ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Socket 1155 DVI VGA HDMI DisplayPort 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard £140

CPU:---------Intel Sandybridge i5-2500K Unlocked Core i5 Quad-Core Processor (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache, Socket 1155) £165

Gpu(S):------Asus GeForce GTX 570 742MHz 1280MB PCI-Express HDMI (DirectCU II) £250

Cooling:-----2 fans already in case + Havik 140 + another 2 200mm fans in the roof. £70-80ish (Going to water cool once i Start to SLI)

Power:-------Antec 900W High Current Gamer PSU £105

HD:----------Western digital - WD Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM £130ish (might look for a cheaper option)

SSD:---------Not sure which one to get at a reasonable price....?

Keyboard:----MICROSOFT Sidewinder X4 Keyboard £40

Mouse:-------MICROSOFT Sidewinder X8 (Already use this with laptop, will do for now) £70

Screen:------BenQ MS612ST Short Throw Projector (not included in the rig costs) 90" screen @ 1080p. £350 + £100(screen)

Total £1000 ish and that's without a cd/br writer and all that. Ouch. Any suggestions on how to make this cheaper and still retain performance?

Cheers all.

Personally, I would drop the power supply to around 700-750w, to me 900w seems overkill. Do you really need 1tb? I am opting for a 500gb one which costs roughly 80 pounds because I will not buy a 1tb hard drive after seeing the pricing roughly a year ago. The motherboard seems pretty pricey, why don't you find a cheaper one that supports sli? something like this: http://www.ebuyer.com/261288-msi-p6...8-channel-audio-atx-motherboard-p67a-gd53-b3-

This should cut the price down hopefully to around 800 pounds. Hope this helps!

 

[Stormaged0n]

Personally, I would drop the power supply to around 700-750w, to me 900w seems overkill. Do you really need 1tb? I am opting for a 500gb one which costs roughly 80 pounds because I will not buy a 1tb hard drive after seeing the pricing roughly a year ago. The motherboard seems pretty pricey, why don't you find a cheaper one that supports sli? something like this: http://www.ebuyer.com/261288-msi-p6...8-channel-audio-atx-motherboard-p67a-gd53-b3-

This should cut the price down hopefully to around 800 pounds. Hope this helps!

The idea of getting that board is to maximize my chances of it being future proof as its Gen 3 it will support the upcoming PCI-3 update through the bios and the Ivy bridge processors.

The power supply i was also considering reducing but im not sure its a good idea to or not as i do want to learn to overclock with this rig and also will be adding some funky but performance redundant lights to the case too.

To save a little money however, i will be using the stock cooler that comes with the i5 until early next year without overclocking obviously and also i decided to go with a 500gb Hard drive or even 2 250's To reduce costs further until next year when pricing starts to drop once the factories are no longer under water.

I have (today) sold my ps3 and laptop, so now i have £650 in my pocket to spend on the mobo,cpu and gpu. I actually just popped in to the forum to make sure no-one had sudgested another mobo or posted along the lines of "well, actually your xxxx is not compatible with xxx" before i commit to buying one.

I will leave it about an hour after this post just to see if any of the "people in the know" sudgest another mobo or confirm i am on the right path. I dont want to be buying the wrong stuff now do i? However, at some point i have to take the plunge so tonights the night.....

Cheers and Regards

Storm

 

[yassarikhan786]

Everything looks good

. If you want an SSD, the Crucial M4 seems to be the most reliable one atm. I have a Corsair Force 3 and I am really happy with it, but people have complained about BSOD's in the past. I have had no problems so far and I would recommend it.

 

[Stormaged0n]

So in the end this is what i have bought and decided on:

ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Socket 1155 DVI VGA HDMI DisplayPort 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard

£145.10

Intel Core i5 2500K 3.3GHz Socket 1155 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor

£167.57

Asus GTX 570 DirectCU II 1280MB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card

£239.99

Corsair 850W HX Modular PSU

£126.62

Seagate 500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Barracuda Hard Drive 7200RPM 16MB Cache

£84.58

Everything is arriving Monday so i will take pics as i unbox and put into the case. This will be my first build of this type so im expecting it to take a while. I have sacrificed my 1tb hard drive for the cheaper 500gb one and also chosen a better power supply. I am very excited. It feels like christmas............oh wait...........Happy X-mas Storm!!!

Things to do after new yr:

SSD 256gb

Havik 140 or Noctua.

Buy projector

Buy Screen

Buy new keyboard

Relax.................................

Then, learn to overclock and possible water cooling later on in the year along with another GTX570 if needed.

 

[malarky13]

Yeah HDD prices real bad at the mo paid £40 for my spinpoint F3, was going to get another for raid a couple of weeks later only to find them £100 or more.

Apparantly gonna be about a year before the prices start to drop. The Crucial M4 is a really good drive make sure if you get one it has the latest firmware. Made quite a difference to mine.

 

[Niz406]

If I can come on this thread a little late, I think you are spending over the odd's for a BF3 rig, and trust me I did recenlt too... but I also build my girlfriends son a BF3 gaming rig using a case that I already had, it came to a tad over £610 delivered but runs BF3 with ease and its all air cooled.

Specs are:

ASUS M5A97 PRO AMD 970A (Socket AM3+)

AMD Bulldozer FX-4100 3.60GHz (3.80GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 PRO Rev.2

Gigabyte Radeon HD 6850 OC 1024MB

650W OCZ ZS Series

8GB G.Skill RipJawsX (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz 8-8-8-24

Samsung S222AL SATA Lightscribe 22x DVDRW

Seagate 250GB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s

Windows 7 Home Premium

Bios update on Asus site for new FX processors and the thing flies, he sits in the office with me and we both play BF3 online together, he loves it, and it is an cool gaming rig!

 

[Stormaged0n]

If I can come on this thread a little late, I think you are spending over the odd's for a BF3 rig, and trust me I did recenlt too... but I also build my girlfriends son a BF3 gaming rig using a case that I already had, it came to a tad over £610 delivered but runs BF3 with ease and its all air cooled.

Specs are:

ASUS M5A97 PRO AMD 970A (Socket AM3+)

AMD Bulldozer FX-4100 3.60GHz (3.80GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 PRO Rev.2

Gigabyte Radeon HD 6850 OC 1024MB

650W OCZ ZS Series

8GB G.Skill RipJawsX (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz 8-8-8-24

Samsung S222AL SATA Lightscribe 22x DVDRW

Seagate 250GB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s

Windows 7 Home Premium

Bios update on Asus site for new FX processors and the thing flies, he sits in the office with me and we both play BF3 online together, he loves it, and it is an cool gaming rig!

Sounds like a good rig for your gf's son there. To be honest i have wanted this rig not only for the intention of being able to play bf3 on ultra settings but also to be able to play all the next gen games with ease (in theory). I have spent around what i thought i would spend so far and hopefully this initial outlay will be worth it in the long run.

Thanks for the input though everyone, its been emotional. jk.

I realise i have not stayed below £800, but its like anything that i do. I start out with the best intentions and what ever im doing always changes and develops into something thats hopefully a little better.

Cheers and Regards

Storm

 

[Stormaged0n]

hi all,

MAJOR problems.

Installed all my components into my case yesterday, no problems as per the manuals instructions provided and all was well. Installed windows and turned it off for the night.

Turned it on today, all good. Windows needed around 30 - 40 updates during which it restarted about 6 times, so i left it to it and went and made my tea.

Returned and it was switched off, Turned it on, it was going through the boot up and...........bang, no power, no pc. Something went and it left a very horrible burnt plasticy smell behind, tripped out my mains for all the plugs in my living room and so i was in the dark, with no clue as to what happened.

Disconnected the pc from mains and turned the fuse and back. Checked the plugs fuse and all was ok, but my Corsair 850w psu is no longer providing power, well not as far as i can tell.

Anyone got any ideas on how prove its deffo the psu and nothing else? should the fan on the psu start spinning straight away once i turn the "rocker" switch on from the back of the psu??

I bought everything from ebuyer so i hope there customer service is good.

Cheers and Regards

A very sad Storm.

 

[Azurite]

Is this your first build? Did you check temps on the cpu when you had it up and runing? You applied thermal paste on the cpu?

My first thought is that it must be the psu or MB. You say that it smelled like melted plastic, so i guess you need to look for any damage part on cpu cooler and MB. If you cant see anything it could be the psu, but dont open it up. You break the warranty on it if you open it.

You know how to test the psu only?

heres a guide on how to do it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FWXgQSokF4

I would start with checking the cpu stock cooler and if you can see any burn marks on the MB. After that test the psu. I bet it is the psu, but you never know b4 you check it. Good luck