Hey guys. I'm looking for some advice on parts for a rig, and I'm basically going to be building it for Planetside 2, so if there are parts that you know of that are more compatible with it (e.g. I've heard Nvidia/Intel is a more compatible combo for PS2 because of the PhysX and Particle effects) please let me know. I'm not very tech savvy, but I'm a fairly fast learner, so if there are any essential points you can convey about parts and/or their compatability I'd appreciate it. I've been following some of the "new rig" threads on here, and I've absorbed a little bit of the info on some more recently constructed rigs. I have a fairly decent budget now: around $850 is my ideal spending limit, but I'm willing to go to around $1,000.. A couple of the parts that have stood out so far are the Sabertooth Z77 and the i5-3570, just because I've read some good stuff about them on these forums. I also know that it's important that you don't just go ahead and buy a video card that your monitor can't fully take advantage of.. my monitor is about 1.5-2 years old I think, and I'd like to keep using it. It's an LG Flatron W2252TQ-TFT. At E3 they had Nvidia GTX 670's so I'm wondering if something around that sort of quality will even be taken advantage of with a monitor like mine. Then again, those are around $350, so if I could get something with quality that is even sort of near that it might be worth it. I dunno... I need suggestions. All my other parts are like 5 years dated.
For your budget, i would not pick z77 saber, as it is too pricy mobo - msi -160$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130643 cpu - 3570k - 230$(can be found cheaper imho) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504 video - evga 670 - 380$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130782 power supply - corsair 650w - 90$(60$ afer rebate) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020 ddr - g.skill - 40$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314 case - coolermaster storm scout - 80$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119196 total 980$ gtx 670 should be good for your monitor and incase you get a 24 inch one on christmas from your mysterious lover, your still gonna be cowered. Also gtx 670 Overclocks very nice! I highly suggest you pick one up, it fits your budget and will look sexy in that case. I included the case, cause you said your pc is 5 years old. Extra cooling and room = healthier computer which lasts longer.
^^^^^^ Forgot hard drive and DVD drive, also no heatsink to allow for any overclocking :/ Neither part takes advantage of the other, there is no alcohol involved here. lol And you cant afford an Intel processor and a top end graphics card at the same time on your budget. Both of those at the same time are still limited to the over $1000 computers. But you can maybe get an Intel Ivy Bridge processor and a decently high end GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130687 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125440 Pick the first one if you want to run higher levels of antialiasing and are on 1920x1080 resolution. Pick the second card if you want to run all your games at 16x anisotropic filtering For a CPU, you will want an Ivy Bridge processor so you can support PCI-E 3.0 properly, which gives the graphics card extra bandwidth: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504 And to properly cool the processor, and allow for small/moderate overclocking (4.2-4.5GHz): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099 And a motherboard, if you dont want to overclock or get any "fancy" connection ports then any old board will be fine. Usually I look at ASRock boards when no overclocking is required. For a highly reliable motherboard, especially while overclocking, you should get the ASUS Sabertooth Z77 like you were saying. But if you are limited on cash then Id get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157295 Some great RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226223 hard drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840 Your first upgrade down the line should be a SSD. Any random DVD burner will do if you need a new one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151244 And either of these power supplies will be great: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182084 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182073 You could pick any tower from either of these searches: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...59,2120&PropertyCodeValue=548:8287,7907:49145 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...59,2120&PropertyCodeValue=548:8287,7907:49145 Subtotal: $1,092.91 All that comes out to over $1000 still by a little bit. But thats the best you can bring the price down to while getting all quality parts. You can get down cheaper by moving to a lesser processor, or trying to get the cheapest tower that will fit your graphics card and CPU cooler. You could also move to an AMD processor to save money since both the CPU and MB are cheaper, or buy a crap graphics card. EDIT: you can also drop down to that bronze rated power supply that Doxy posted. It is still a good one and will just cost you an extra dollar or so every month in electricity over the ones I posted, depending on how much you leave your computer on. For price comparison, here is the newest AMD that will need to be overclocked to 4.5GHz~ to have good performance: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113281 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131882 or the older gen AMD but still good, also should be overclocked to 4GHz~ or more http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131874 AMD is over $150 cheaper. Intel is significantly faster, but you have to pay for it.
Well i am assuming he got hdd and dvd from his old pc. So, adding your cpu cooler, should put it at 1.010$ GTXX 670 average under load power consumption is 250w, so i doubt he need 750w PSU. As i previously stated, for future proofing and overall performance VS price i suggest evga gtx 670.
Power draw on the Intel system when overclocked will be around 495 watts. (rough estimate, might be more if the GTX670 is overclocked by a decent amount.) GTX670 draws around 220w of power at stock under load, when keeping the same speeds and upping the voltage, this power draw jumps to 275w~. If maxing the voltage (which is still in safe limits) and overclocking to 1.2Ghz (plus memory OC too) the power draw can reach over 300w. This can actually be bad for longterm effect on the computer, because the card is trying to draw more power than the PCI-E spec "allows" for and the slot can get quite hot with that much juice running through it. My PCI-E slot got up to 65 degrees celcius once! Then we add 150w for an overclocked Ivy Bridge around 4.5GHz. Plus chipset, HDD, fans, etc. 650w power supply after 2 years of use will provide around 520 watts of power. After 4 years will provide a continuous 495w. This gives a computer life of 5-6 years before a part will fail from the PSU not being able to provide clean enough power, or the PSU dying from overstress and heat. Which really, is fine for a computer lifetime so whatever. I just like to provide extra power to be able to run stable for 10 years, and prefer at least Gold ratings these days for energy efficiency.
Hmm... well i'll tell you what, If i have to go into the $1200-1300 range I think that I'm OK with that. I want this computer to last me into my early-to-mid thirties; It's sort of half investment-half gift to myself, because even though I want it to game with I also want it to last for years to come, so I don't think stacking on a couple hundred dollars more is an issue. I have the money to spare without sacrificing my financial safety net/money for future investments. I've hardly spent $ on much in these past two years I've been away at school (unless you count replacing car parts by necessity), so I'm just gonna go ahead and put a build on here. Again, I'm not looking for top-of-the-line, but I'd like to run Planetside 2 at a nice performance level, so I guess you could call that semi-optimal settings - I'm wondering if the build here is what you'd refer to as that high-but-not-top range of performance. I think this is what's most important to me: Getting nice performance while playing in game (which is why I think I should invest in the awesome OC-ing hardware, assuming that's what I need to achieve that semi-optimal setting for PS2), while still keeping the money I'm spending at a reasonable rate. A crisp 60-70 FPS and nice colors/lighting is all I really need - I don't need every nuance of graphical bliss in order to play happily. I guess what I'm getting at is: Is that qhat $1,000 can achieve, or is it the best idea to venture into the $1300 range? Also, all I really want to have on this computer in terms of games is Planetside 2, and maybe 1-2 other games in the future. I probably also get MS Office. I have a movie/music collection on my comp that I'd like to transfer, but it's relatively small - no more than 15GB's, if that. I'm just stating this because I'm trying to decide between a 128GB and a 256 GB SSD for this higher end build. PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/k1nb Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/k1nb/by_merchant/ Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/k1nb/benchmarks/ CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($215.99 @ NCIX US) CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($27.98 @ NCIX US) Motherboard: Asus SABERTOOTH Z77 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($239.99 @ Newegg) Memory: Mushkin Redline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($54.99 @ Newegg) Storage: Samsung 830 Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($198.83 @ Amazon) Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card ($369.99 @ Newegg) Case: Antec Nine Hundred ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.98 @ NCIX US) Power Supply: Antec 850W 80 PLUS Certified CPX Power Supply ($119.99 @ SuperBiiz) Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) ($92.99 @ Amazon) Total: $1420.73
Usually what people do is get a 128GB SSD and 1 TB HDD for storing their stuff and random games. Comes out to around the same price as a 256GB SSD by itself. Which if all you need is 256GB for everything then go that route, but if you need more then split it up. We are also in a transitional period right now with computers, there is no telling how much RAM and processing power you can get away with for a 6+ year build. Gaming is dependent on consoles now, the launch of the next XBox and Playstation determine what level of GPU you will need for the entire next gen (5-6 year period). Consoles are supposed to launch around this time next year, which means in a year and a half we will see what kind of performance is needed. You can make educated guesses, and buy high end parts now to hope you get above the bar for next gen, but there is no guarantee. That said, I do think a GTX670 4GB will be enough to be above the bar for next gen gaming, but the 2GB probably wont have enough vram to last you 5-7 years. Currently we are sitting around the 1.5-2GB mark on PC games that have been coming out this past year, those games are playable on consoles that have only 512MB of memory. Taking this information, we can estimate that is the next console has the supposed 1GB of vram in it, we will need around 4GB of vram in our PC parts to be able to play the same games. This is due to the games being designed on a console and ported to the PC. Which is why it takes so much more power to run the games with a PC. I also think a Sandy Bridge or Ivy processor will be fine for the next gen of consoles. So really you should be looking at an Ivy Bridge processor, since it has PCI-E 3.0. A 4GB+ vram graphics card, and an ASUS Sabertooth motherboard. Those boards have a 5 year warranty and are built to last. You will also want a quality power supply with at least 750w of power to last 6+ years. for system RAM, 8GB will be enough for a while but you *might* need to get 16GB in a few years to keep things going well. a hard drive is hit and miss for if it will last 5+ years, I tend to estimate 1-2 years life on a modern hard drive because they are so shitty. The Samsung SSD should last you many years though, only thing is getting a SSD with enough space to last you that long. Realistically, I dont see any computer under $1500 being able to last 6+ years and play games from all the next gen stuff too. It sucks, but that really isnt a lot of money. Computers used to cost $2000+ to do the same thing, and before that it used to be $4000+ to get a really fast computer. Not everyone can afford $1500 on a computer at a time, and thats just how it is. I myself prefer to only spend $600~ or so on a computer, but do continual upgrades every year. It is never obsolete but I spend $300-400 every year on something new. Usually I flip flop of CPU and GPU, with one year buying the new processor and the next buying a new high end GPU. It is what works for me, but that sort of spending isnt for everyone. If you buy still within the next 48 hours, you can use these coupons: desktop RAM, 12% off: EMCJNJJ22 some Western Digital hard drives, 15% off: PPSSWDINTH11 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...NEFL101112-_-EMC-101112-Index-_-MECH-_-WD-L2B
Interesting. Well.. If I buy these things at Microcenter (there's one nearby my 'rents house): CPU: http://www.microcenter.com/product/388577/Core_i5_3570K_34GHz_LGA_1155_Processor PSU: http://www.microcenter.com/product/301550/ModXStream_Pro_700W_Modular_ATX_Power_Supply And I swap the 256GB SDD for the 128GB and the Western Digital 1TB... And if I buy a $50-60 case (cheap or rebated).. ..then I save about $180, bringing my total to $1,240. As far as the 4GB goes, I don't know if I have to plan for 6 years in terms of graphics. I think the 6 year thing was more in terms of the overall life of the computer, so I have no problem doing a graphical upgrade in 2-3 years, or upgrading the PSU. For some reason breaching the $1300 mark right now seems to make me a bit nervous, so if I can get these parts for $1,240 it feels like the best move. The 4GB 670 is an extra 65-70 dollars, and I think that right now I only need to future proof so far in terms of graphical quality. If at 6 years down the line there is another game that I desperately want to play, then I'll just put it a whole new card, which will probably severely outclass the 670 anyway. Same goes for the PSU, unless 700W is a dangerous level to run an overclocked system like this at. Also, are there cheaper cases that can still provide the same level of ventilation as the $100 models? That's my only concern with the case choice, since I won't really be lugging it around at all.
No, probably not better than the Antec 900. I wouldnt trust an OCZ power supply. Not only are they not made anymore so no RMA with it, but they were never the highest quality PSUs you could get. I would pick from either the one Doxy posted or one of the two I posted earlier. All are good choices. As I listed before, overclocked CPU and GPU will draw 500w max when under load, which a quality 650w will provide for at least 4 years. If you want to upgrade the PSU in a few years then that would be fine, if you want to keep the PSU for 6 or more years, you will want one of the 750's that I posted. Personally if I were planning to keep the PSU for 6 or more years, I would get a 750-850 watt platinum rated supply. But that is just me, and those can get pricey. And its hard to beat a quality 650w PSU for $60 after rebate. But you are absolutely right on the graphics card, a 2GB card will do fine for a couple years or so in the majority of games. I think with what has been posted you will be good for a long time, but in 3 years time just plan on a new GPU if there is a new game you really want to play nicely and also a new heatsink upgrade for the CPU. That Hyper 212 EVO is really good, especially for the money. The Ivy Bridge processors have cheap thermal interface material instead of being soldered like normal processors. This means starting in 3-4 years, the temps will begin to get worse. It is too dangerous for the normal user to de-lid the processor and replace the TIM, so the only other option if things start getting too hot is to get a new high end cooler. Something along the lines of the Corsair H80, only whatever good product will be out in a few years. Other than that I think you are good to go. I think you have all the info you need to make an educated purchase to get what you want in the price range you are willing to pay.
Fliggen, Last week I got the Asus SABERTOOTH Z77 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard and the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO. The motherboard was a pain in the ass to setup compared to other mobos I have dealt with in the past. Regardless, it's still a solid mobo. As a note, with that cpu heatsink/fan and that motherboard, you will have to lower the fan speed threshold in BIOS. If I recall correctly, Sabertooth is set for a 500 threshold for the CPU fan. I had to lower it to clear out the alarms on it. I have no problems with cooling with that fan.
I had to lower the fan speed threshold alarm. In addition, I was having some problems with how the mobo was reading my G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800). It was registering the memory as pc 1333. I had to force the motherboard memory settings to the pre-configured 1600 settings. Off-topic, but I got a Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo). Any suggestions on how I should overclock this? Increase multiplier or fsb? If FSB needs to be increased, I think I would have to overclock my ram as well.
Did you switch to XMP profile in bios ? Also z77 Saber is for people that actually know what they are doing. It does not have all those Asus auto OC feature. You gotta set everything manually. This is a pretty stable 24/7 setup i currently got on my z77 SB 3570k, try this settings. You will also have to set your memory timings manually. 4.5Ghz Blck: 100.1 Ratio: 45 Voltage Offset: +0.120 LLC: Extreme CPU Power Phase Control: Extreme CPU Power Duty Control: Extreme CPU Power Response Control: Ultra Fast Mem Voltage: 1.52 (mem spec is 1.5
Well all memory on every MB should detect as 1333MHz, that is JEDEC specs. Anything over that speed set via XMP or AMP profile within the RAM. You just select XMP, usually on the memory timings area. On Sandy and Ivy Bridge processors, you are extremely limited on FSB adjustment, the only way to do any moderate overclock is by multiplier.
Yea, it's my first go at OCing but I've been reading up a little. I'll be doing it in small increments and doing periodic stress tests like they tell you to. Proxi are you upgrading for PS2 or are you doing something else cause I haven't seen you around for a bit. Not since WoW i think.
IT's not difficult and with the sabertooth z77 you don't actually need to go into the BIOS to do it. Watch this video to get a bit of an idea about how it works. They go over tuning with Turbo V evo somewhere in there. The same idea applies to the 3570K even though they did it with a 3770K there.
With modern processors overclocking is WAY easy. Now days what I usually do is raise the clock speed by 100MHz over and over until I can no longer boot into Windows (bluescreens while booting). Then drop down by 100MHz so it will boot, run some stress tests and slowly raise the CPU voltage until it will pass all tests fine or I get to the limit of how much I am willing to increase the volts. Ivy Bridge processors will be fine up to 1.4v as long as you have good cooling. And that CPU should be able to overclock up to 4.4-4.6 GHz without much trouble. If you want to go higher, more thorough procedures are needed. Prime95 small-FFT is a good stability test for the CPU Prime95 custom with max RAM setting is a decent test for RAM, also run MemTest86 across all your memory Unigine Heaven set to maxed out will easily test your GPU stability. It will crash within 5 minutes if you are not 100% stable on the GPU. The GTX670 should be able to hit anywhere from 1.15 GHz all the way to 1.4 GHz core speed, depending on your voltage setting and luck of the draw
Just a heads up, you can't alter the voltage supplied to 90% of the gtx 670 cards out there. It is an option that was removed by nvidia for the cards and a few non reference cards have had the option added back in because of alterations made to power delivery (MSI lightning is one I believe. The card is hideous though). I don't know all the specific details. Setting the power target to 120% for any overclock you try even if small will not cause anything bad to happen to the card (it doesn't cause more voltage to be supplied all the time). The card dynamically alters power supplied to the card based on processing power needed and the 120% allows it to exceed "100%" power draw without automatically downclocking the card. The temp threshold for downclocking is somewhere around 70C so make sure your fan profile is set to keep it below that on any graphically demanding games. If you use furmark and use precision X to monitor temp/clock speed you can see the downclock happening yourself. Unigine is pretty solid for testing initial overclocks but don't take one pass of it as a greenlight for what you have. Run it a few times (All max settings) and play your favourite most graphically demanding game to further test it. I had a multiple overclocks pass a heaven run but fail in Crysis 2. I can't find the folder with my passes but +83 Mhz core clock and + 833 Mhz mem clock (useless numbers without knowing exact clock speed as each card is different. If I find the folder with the numbers I'll change it) passed heaven the first shot with out any graphical glitches but failed in 2 seconds after that and it was never stable in game. There is a thread over at overclockers.net I think that has a lot of peopel posting up their overclocks and what card they have. See if you can find yours on there and try out the same settings and modify from there. The guide written up in that thread is also a pretty good walkthrough of how to go about it. It can takes a few hours.
Will the ASUS GPU Tweak program work on non-ASUS cards? Cause I have a DCII model that came with that program. It was before Nvidia's ban on overclocking, but the program itself allows voltage adjustment up to 1.175v as long as the GPU bios doesnt lock down the voltage.
I can't say for other gtx models but it is locked out on all reference 670s afaik. I think they did it because they designed more efficient power delivery in order to deal with the shortened PCB. It should work on non-asus cards if it is anything like MSI afterburner which works on all models. I've heard some people say they get better OCs with afterburner over precision X or other programs. 670s automatically ramp up to 1.175 volts so they are already at the programs limit (unless it is non reference). ETA- It will work on other cards. It looks like the precision X software with a different skin. ETA#2- Stay away from ASUS gtx 670 TOP cards if you were ever considering one. Lots of reports of the factory OC being unstable and needing to be downclocked. Not worth the risk IMO when you can just OC yourself easy enough.