Please check this Noob's $2200 gaming pc build!

[Johnson184]

My laptop recently died shortly after warranty expired... and I hate not having my own computer. I used to play a lot of video games, but school got really busy for me. With all the awesome upcoming PC games (Starcraft 2, WoW expansion, Diablo3, Natural Selection 2, etc.) and the Bing cashback promotion... I've decided I'm going to order my setup in the next 2 days or so.

Here is my proposed setup... if anything is weak or too excessive compared to every other part, please let me know! I don't want one part of the system lagging up everything else... and I'm 90% sure everything is compatible, but a quick check would be amazing. I tried to include everything that I was going to order.

So here goes... and thanks in advance!

Intel 930 1366 $290
(I decided against going with the 960 ($470) in favor of the SSD. I figured it'd help with all the loading that goes on in games like WoW. With the H50 I'm hoping to overclock it to a safe level that still outperforms the 960.)

Asus Rampage III Gene $240
(Needed a quality 1366 mobo that had 6GB/s for the SSD and USB 3.0 for the future. I've never done overclocking before, but the ROG connect makes it look much easier to do than navigating a BIOS screen)

XFX 5870 $330
(I originally had my eyes set on a 5850 for $250, but I figured that would be the weakest link of my entire build)

6GB (3x2GB) Corsair Dominator $155
(I'm not too knowledgeable about ram, but it's advertised as being ideal for i7. Are these safe to overclock to 2000mhz? Would I see a noticeable improvement or is it not worth doing? Should I just upgrade to the Dominator GT? $245 I honestly don't even know if the GT's fan would fit next to the H50 on a Rampage board. At about $90 price difference, I could almost get 12GB of the regular Corsair Dominator... but that's overkill... right? )

Crucial C300 128GB 6GB/s SSD $300
(6GB/s sata connection should make start up, app loads, and gaming loads faster. I've seen youtube videos of WoW loading up much faster, but any idea if it'd make gameplay better at all?)

Cooler Master Silent M700 700watt modular $90
(Wasn't sure if the 600watt version was powerful enough. Please let me know which size my setup requires. I won't be overclocking too much, maybe just the CPU. I'm also hoping my setup remains pretty quiet)

Corsair H50 $90
(Is it quiet? Should allow me to overclock the 930 to levels past the 960)

Cooler Master 922 $75
(No clue about cases, but I've heard nothing but great stuff with this case. Are there any issues with fitting a H50 or 2.5" drive in here?)

Silverstone 3.5" to 2x2.5" hard drive bay converter $8
(I figure I'd need to get my SSD in there somehow, but I keep seeing random reports about problems fitting SSD into the 922!)

Microsoft Office 2010 $100
(Definitely need. OneNote rocks... and I've been using openoffice which kind of sucks for my lecture notes as I can't edit the teacher's presentations)

Microsoft Windows 7 64bit $85
(Please oh please let this kick the crap out of Vista)

Samsung 23" LED LCD 2ms 1080p $245
(I trust Samsung's reliability/performance. I wanted a low ms for gaming, and still want 1080p for bluray)

Samsung 8x BluRay drive $70
(Must have for all my bluray movies)

Logitech Z-2300 speakers $120
(No clue about speakers, but I'm pretty sure my monitor doesn't have them. I just needed 2 computer speakers as I don't have room for 5.1 and these seem to get great reviews)

Linksys Wireless adapter $12
(I should be using a wired connection, but just in case I can't due to future room changes... better safe than sorry)

External Hard Drive Enclosure $10
(For my laptop's hard drive. I'm 99% sure the mobo's fried so the hard drive should still have all my music, pictures, movies, and docs!)


Total... $2220

I'll be completely honest... my original limit was $2000, but I totally forgot about speakers/monitor. If I have to, I suppose I can save $200 by shedding the SSD for a 1TB 7200rpm drive. I could then add a SSD later on when after they keep dropping in price... and maybe after Sandforce releases their 6GB/s SATA with 520MB/s read/write. Either that or I can chuck the speakers in favor of cheaper ones.

Thanks again for taking the time, now please post your advice/thoughts!

P.S. Major thanks will be going out to Microsoft for inventing Bing and its promotion. It's like you're paying me to use Windows 7 and 2010 Office. Much Love.

 

[jchu14]

First off, awesome post layout and readability.

CPU: I suggest you go to 1156 core i5 or core i7. The Lynnfields uses less power, has better turbo mode, and comes cheaper than Bloomfields.

The are only three advantages for socket 1366
1) better triple/quad gpu support
2) gulfton 6-core processors
3) easier to overclocking (though same ceiling as 1156)

Something like core i5 760 and GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 for $310 AR after will be just as fast as the i7 930 at gaming since HT is not very important in most games. It might even be a hair faster due to better turbo. And now you're in the $2000 budget

Memory: I'd go with the cheapest gskill or corsair 1600MHz modules you can find. Fancy heatspreaders doesn't make a difference. I generally dislike the big ones due to hsf compatibility like you said. Remember to get 4gb kits if you go with a socket 1156 solution.

PSU: I recommend the Corsair 650TX if you're okay with not having modular cables. It's a steal at $72 AR. If you really want modular power supply, the XFX 750watt is $87 after coupon code (ends today).

HSF: The H50 is not a good buy at $90. That's the price range of the Noctua D14 which will outperform the H50 in both noise and temperature. see spcr review. The H50 only makes sense if it's cheaper or if you're really limited in space.

Case:Yea from some quick googling, the 922 doesn't have native support for 2.5" drives. You'll need to buy an adapter. You should check out the Lancool K62. Designed by lian-li, suppose to be an awesome case except for a few cable management issues. The hard drive bay supports 2.5" drives. It also has great combo deals with XFX power supplies. K62+650watt psu is $130 AR, 750watt for $150, and 850 watt for $170

Rest looks good!

 

[Johnson184]

Thanks for posting all those ideas! I'm going to take your advice on the heatsink fan... Which also means taking your advice on the cheaper ram (they don't have a huge heatsink that blocks the new CPU fan). 

I'll definitely look into the lian li case, but I'm admittedly 100% clueless about the i5 760 and mobo. When I'm going to be playing games like WoW, I will have a bluray movie playing simultaneously on a 2nd screen, will the i5 handle this as well as the i7? Another reason I liked the rampage mobo was the good integrated sound... But the price saving is definitely eye opening! (if I go down to 4gb of ram, will that make a big impact compared to if I had 6gb?)

Thanks again!

 

[Blain]

You're planning to spend so much on components, but why opt for a 23" 1080p monitor?
Buy a good 24" 1900x1200 with 178°/178° viewing angles.

I would save some $$ and go with an i5-760 a solid 1156 Gigabyte MB and 4GB in dual channel.

 

[mfenn]

Thanks for posting all those ideas! I'm going to take your advice on the heatsink fan... Which also means taking your advice on the cheaper ram (they don't have a huge heatsink that blocks the new CPU fan).

I'll definitely look into the lian li case, but I'm admittedly 100% clueless about the i5 760 and mobo. When I'm going to be playing games like WoW, I will have a bluray movie playing simultaneously on a 2nd screen, will the i5 handle this as well as the i7? Another reason I liked the rampage mobo was the good integrated sound... But the price saving is definitely eye opening! (if I go down to 4gb of ram, will that make a big impact compared to if I had 6gb?)

Thanks again!

I second Blain and jchu's opinions because none of the games you want to play need a $2200 PC. You should be able to play those games perfectly on a $1000 build (for the hardware only, not counting monitor, software, and accessories).

Especially look into the RAM that they mentioned. 1.65V is not good for the long-term reliability of the memory controller in any of Intel's current parts. Check out this G.Skill for Socket 1156

You'll also almost certainly want to have a normal mechanical HDD like the 1TB Samsung F3. You really don't want to be wasting your SSD's space with movies and such. I would also not go with a C300 given Corsair's (lack of) a solid track record in the firmware department. Check out the OCZ Agility 2 120GB.

Regarding the multitasking Blu-ray issue, your GPU supports hardware acceleration of the Blu-ray video codecs, so the CPU usage of playing a Blu-ray is quite minimal.

 

[jchu14]

Thanks for posting all those ideas! I'm going to take your advice on the heatsink fan...
Thanks again!

Unless you're overclocking heavily, you can get by with a Scythe Mugen2 . It's a solid performer at $40 with coupon code 'SCHOOL15'. Then with the money you saved, you can get a Samsung F3 1TB for $60 after the same coupon code.

 

[REC]

Your spec's come to about 500 watts, standard clocking. Assuming decay of 10% per year, overclocking, and heavy usage, I'd recommend a 650 watt PSU minimum. 700 watts will cover you for some time, as long as the manufacturer is reliable.

I've heard good things about Cooler Master but never personally used them; this is also a high-end model for their line, so my guess is that it would be fairly reliable.

 

[mfenn]

Your spec's come to about 500 watts, standard clocking. Assuming decay of 10% per year, overclocking, and heavy usage, I'd recommend a 650 watt PSU minimum. 700 watts will cover you for some time, as long as the manufacturer is reliable.

I've heard good things about Cooler Master but never personally used them; this is also a high-end model for their line, so my guess is that it would be fairly reliable.

How do you figure 500W for that build? 130W for the CPU, 188W for the GPU, and 24W for the X58. That equals about 342W. No other parts are going than a few watts each.

Also, I've seen you mention this concept of "PSU decay" before. Do you have any data to back this up? I've never encountered such in my experience. I only use quality parts though.

 

[REC]

How do you figure 500W for that build? 130W for the CPU, 188W for the GPU, and 24W for the X58. That equals about 342W. No other parts are going than a few watts each.

Also, I've seen you mention this concept of "PSU decay" before. Do you have any data to back this up? I've never encountered such in my experience. I only use quality parts though.

I used to do it all by hand but now I use this (I'm lazy).

As far as the PSU Decay the term for the phenomenon is actually Capacitor Aging:

The capacitance of certain capacitors decreases as the component ages. In ceramic capacitors, this is caused by degradation of the dielectric. The type of dielectric and the ambient operating and storage temperatures are the most significant aging factors, while the operating voltage has a smaller effect[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor"][/url]

Edit: I linked the wrong portion of the page, it has been fixed in the above post.

 

[mfenn]

I used to do it all by hand but now I use this (I'm lazy).

Wow, that calculator gives out some bullshit numbers. Of course, it is operated by a PSU manufacturer. I love this fearmongering, "Electrolytic capacitor aging. When used heavily or over an extended period of time (1+ years) a PSU will slowly lose some of its initial wattage capacity. We recommend you add 20% if you plan to keep your PSU for more than 1 year, or 25-30% for 24/7 usage and 1+ years."

Any PSU that loses 20% of it's capacity within a year deserves to be taken out back and shot. :awe:

As far as the PSU Decay the term for the phenomenon is actually Capacitor Aging:


Edit: I linked the wrong portion of the page, it has been fixed in the above post.

OK, that makes sense regarding the caps, I think you're greatly overestimating the rate that the decay will affect the PSU's overall capacity.

OP, don't construe any of this to mean that you shouldn't get a nice PSU for your build. A 650W will be more than enough. I would even say to go with a 550W, but those are usually the same price as a 650W these days.

 

[Johnson184]

Alright, you guys talked me into going with an i5 instead. Any difference between a 750 and 760 if I'm going to overclock them anyways? Was that linked motherboard a high quality one? (part of the reason I picked the rampage gene was due to the improved sound and I didn't have to worry about 6gbs bottlenecking from this article.

 

[Johnson184]

You're planning to spend so much on components, but why opt for a 23" 1080p monitor?
Buy a good 24" 1900x1200 with 178°/178° viewing angles.

I would save some $$ and go with an i5-760 a solid 1156 Gigabyte MB and 4GB in dual channel.

Are there any good ones on tigerdirect? Seems very hard to find one in 1200 instead of 1080...'and 5ms seems to be way more common than 2ms. Any big difference?

 

[mfenn]

Alright, you guys talked me into going with an i5 instead. Any difference between a 750 and 760 if I'm going to overclock them anyways? Was that linked motherboard a high quality one? (part of the reason I picked the rampage gene was due to the improved sound and I didn't have to worry about 6gbs bottlenecking from this article.

I would get the 760 as it should be about the same price and has a higher multiplier. The UD3 is fine, it doesn't have a PLX chip, but then again you're not going to be running Crossfire either.

I want to reiterate that I would NOT buy a C300 due to the reliability issues with the firmware and Crucial's overall shady handling of the situation. Get a Sandforce or Intel-based SSD. They're SATA 3Gb/s, but it's not like you're buying an SSD for sequential access times (at least I hope you're not).

Are there any good ones on tigerdirect? Seems very hard to find one in 1200 instead of 1080...'and 5ms seems to be way more common than 2ms. Any big difference?

The difference between 5ms and 2ms has more to do with which manufacturers lie the most on their spec sheets and less to do with the actual quality of the panel.

 

[Johnson184]

I considered the firmware issues earlier with the c300, but numerous places have said the latest firmware update fixed everything. Not sure what kind of reading the ssd does for start up and game loading, but I was told the c300 was even faster than the other ssd.

Hmm, so 5ms and 2ms means nothing? I think samsung offers both so I assumed the 2ms was worth it.

 

[mfenn]

I considered the firmware issues earlier with the c300, but numerous places have said the latest firmware update fixed everything. Not sure what kind of reading the ssd does for start up and game loading, but I was told the c300 was even faster than the other ssd.

And the firmware before that "fixed everything" too. Caveat emptor.

Hmm, so 5ms and 2ms means nothing? I think samsung offers both so I assumed the 2ms was worth it.

Yes, it means nothing. They just measure a slightly different quantity and call it an "improvement" on different models.

 

[Merad]

Microsoft Office 2010 $100
(Definitely need. OneNote rocks... and I've been using openoffice which kind of sucks for my lecture notes as I can't edit the teacher's presentations)

If you qualify for academic purchasing I'd get the Academic Version from MS.

 

[REC]

I love this fearmongering, "[FEARMONGERING!]"

Any PSU that loses 20% of it's capacity within a year deserves to be taken out back and shot. :awe:

[...]that makes sense regarding the caps, I think you're greatly overestimating the rate that the decay will affect the PSU's overall capacity.

I've always heard it as 10% per year; I agree that 25% over the first year is fscking ridiculous lol.

I spent some time getting the REAL figures for the setup and comparing it to the Antec site, and I've found the issue. Here are the specs:

CPU: 130 watts
GPU: 188 watts
X58 Chipset: 24 watts
DDR3 x3 (3w): 9 watts
SSD : 1 watt
External Laptop HD : 2.5 watts
Wireless Card: 15 watts
200mm Fans (3.36w): 6.72 watts
120mm Fan: 1 watt
Blu-Ray Drive: 20 watts (1.35amps @ 12vdc & 0.75amps @ 5vdc)
Aftermarket Cooler: 1 watt

Total: 399 watts

The site grossly over-estimated the mobo requirements by ~80 watts; everything else was fairly accurate. I bumped it up from 486 to 500 just to be safe. My bad for not checking the site though; they don't have an option to select by chipset so they're probably trying to cover their arses.

 

[jchu14]

I've always heard it as 10% per year; I agree that 25% over the first year is fscking ridiculous lol.

I spent some time getting the REAL figures for the setup and comparing it to the Antec site, and I've found the issue. Here are the specs:The site grossly over-estimated the mobo requirements by ~80 watts; everything else was fairly accurate. I bumped it up from 480 to 500 just to be safe. My bad for not checking the site though; they don't have an option to select by chipset so they're probably trying to cover their arses.

Note above, the 314 watt draw on an ATI HD 5870. This is actual max power draw during 3D Graphics usage. See linked chart for reference. No idea where you got 188 watts, but that's waaayyy low for this card.

The 314 watt figure from Tom's is for total systems draw. Subtracting out RAM, HDD, mobo, CPU(idle), and (maybe)PSU socket to board inefficiecies, you get a lot closer to the 188watt TDP spec.

 

[REC]

Yes, [ms response time] means nothing. They just measure a slightly different quantity and call it an "improvement" on different models.

To expand on why it means nothing, the ms response time is the time, in milliseconds, it takes for an individual pixel to go from totally black to totally white, and the reverse (0,0,0 RGB to 255,255,255 RGB). In reality you'll just about never have this situation, since no game ever just flickers black and white for each frame.

At 60 FPS, a new frame is sent every ~16 milliseconds; so the video card sends a frame, at most 5 seconds later the frame is fully displayed, then 11 seconds later the next frame is sent. As you can see, the only difference is a 5ms offset, which the human mind cannot comprehend. Response time does not matter.

 

[REC]

The 314 watt figure from Tom's is for total systems draw. Subtracting out RAM, HDD, mobo, CPU(idle), and (maybe)PSU socket to board inefficiecies, you get a lot closer to the 188watt TDP spec.

Sh!t you're right. My bad! I'll edit that post to reflect the TDP then.

 

[mfenn]

To expand on why it means nothing, the ms response time is the time, in milliseconds, it takes for an individual pixel to go from totally black to totally white, and the reverse (0,0,0 RGB to 255,255,255 RGB). In reality you'll just about never have this situation, since no game ever just flickers black and white for each frame.

At 60 FPS, a new frame is sent every ~16 milliseconds; so the video card sends a frame, at most 5 seconds later the frame is fully displayed, then 11 seconds later the next frame is sent. As you can see, the only difference is a 5ms offset, which the human mind cannot comprehend. Response time does not matter.

:thumbsup:

 

[Johnson184]

Alright guys... I got some more complicated questions.

I can get ahold of a i5 750 for $170 while a i5 760 is $210 from newegg without a combo deal. The newegg combo deal $320 requires you to get the Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 $140 which apparently supports DDR3 1333. I can get the same GA-P55A-UD3 from tigerdirect for $120 which oddly supports DDR3 1600. This makes it hard for me to select which RAM to go with. (Ram timings even make that big a difference???)

Now... complicating matters further... I can get the Gigabyte P55A-UD3P for $140... which apparently has a better power design to enable better overclocking. Any truth to that?

Basically...
1) Newegg i5 760 + Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 = $320
2) Newegg/TigerDirect i5 760 + Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 = $330
3) Tiger Direct i5 750 + Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 = $290
4) Tiger Direct i5 750 + Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3P = $310
5) Newegg/TigerDirect i5 760 + Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3P = $350


Issue number 2... is 1920x1200 better than 1920x1080 for gaming?
Option 1. Samsung XL2370-1 23" LCD LED 1920x1080 2ms $245
Option 2. ASUS VW266H 25.5" LCD 1920x1200 2ms $225


Good news.... I've actually changed some stuff for the better!

Going with the Noctua NH-D14 $70 over the H50 as it has better cooling performance AND lower noise levels! I checked and it fits the HAF 922 case, but it also means I have to choose my RAM carefully to make sure they don't have massively tall heatspreaders.


Also going with the M-Audio AV 40 speakers $120 over the Logitech. They're equal in price, but the AV 40 are supposed to be much higher quality.

 

[mfenn]

Alright guys... I got some more complicated questions.

I can get ahold of a i5 750 for $170 while a i5 760 is $210 from newegg without a combo deal. The newegg combo deal $320 requires you to get the Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 $140 which apparently supports DDR3 1333. I can get the same GA-P55A-UD3 from tigerdirect for $120 which oddly supports DDR3 1600. This makes it hard for me to select which RAM to go with. (Ram timings even make that big a difference???)

Now... complicating matters further... I can get the Gigabyte P55A-UD3P for $140... which apparently has a better power design to enable better overclocking. Any truth to that?

Basically...
1) Newegg i5 760 + Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 = $320
2) Newegg/TigerDirect i5 760 + Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 = $330
3) Tiger Direct i5 750 + Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 = $290
4) Tiger Direct i5 750 + Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3P = $310
5) Newegg/TigerDirect i5 760 + Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3P = $350

A P55A-UD3 is a P55A-UD3. It supports DDR3 1600. Newegg and Tigerdirect just copied and pasted the specs slightly differently.

I would not bother with the UD3P. The number of VRM phases is purely for marketing purposes. If you look, both boards have the exact same cooling solutions for the VRMS and MOSFETS.

At $170 vs. $210, the 750 is a better deal.

Issue number 2... is 1920x1200 better than 1920x1080 for gaming?
Option 1. Samsung XL2370-1 23" LCD LED 1920x1080 2ms $245
Option 2. ASUS VW266H 25.5" LCD 1920x1200 2ms $225

Get the 1920x1200. It's not better for gaming, but you'll really enjoy those extra vertical pixels for general use.

Good news.... I've actually changed some stuff for the better!

Going with the Noctua NH-D14 $70 over the H50 as it has better cooling performance AND lower noise levels! I checked and it fits the HAF 922 case, but it also means I have to choose my RAM carefully to make sure they don't have massively tall heatspreaders.


Also going with the M-Audio AV 40 speakers $120 over the Logitech. They're equal in price, but the AV 40 are supposed to be much higher quality.

Good choices on both. The H50 is highly overrated IMHO.

 

[Johnson184]

1) Newegg i5 760 + Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 = $320
2) Tiger Direct i5 750 + Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 = $290

If there's just a $30 difference, is the 760 worth it? (Are they the same thing... just the 760 is slightly overclocked higher by Intel?? Thus... if I OC them, it'd make zero difference?)

On another note... the Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 rev.1 (according to Gigabyte's site) supports DDR3 2200/1333/1066/800 MHz memory modules.
So my question is... if I get 1333 ram, can I overclock them to 1600mhz on this board? Or is 1333 the max? (Any real difference between 1333 and 1600?)


EDIT! Nevermind! Revision 2 allows 1600 mhz. So uhh... I'm assuming I now get 1600 Ram that uses 1.5v. (Do I then overclock them to lower the timing? Or not worth it?)

 

[Davidh373]

i7 930
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-225-_-Product

Gigabyte DDR3, SATA 6 GB/S, USB 3.0
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-423-_-Product

Corsair 6GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-258-_-Product

Gigabyte Geforce 480
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-502-_-Product

Corsair 650TX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...9005&Tpk=650tx

Element G Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-086-_-Product

Samsung Blu Ray
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-199-_-Product

Hanns-G 23" 1080p Monitor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-050-_-Product

Bose Companion 2 Speakers
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-006-_-Product

Total with shipping $1683.92

Add HD

Intel SSD

$290

Office

$100

Windows

$80

2153.92

Software isn't normally included in builds, but without it's well within your original budget. With software, you are under your current budget. With your ATI Graphics you're Below your budget again. If you wanted, you could go for the 5850 and be more than fine. It is by no means "weak."

you just got my 200th post!