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Building new gaming rig, advice needed

C

castun

2[H]4U
Joined
Sep 23, 2010
Messages
2,636
I'm replacing nearly everything in this PC with a few exceptions. Was looking at the i7 950, but is an i7 even necessary for gaming? Anyway...

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

Gaming

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

$1,000, though it would be nice to keep it under $750. I've also got $75 in newegg gift cards to put towards this.

3) Where do you live?

Pittsburgh, PA

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.

Motherboard
Intel Quad core CPU
HS/HSF
6GB RAM
SSD

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

EVGA nvidia GTX 470
nvidia 7950GT as secondary
Creative Labs Fatal1ty Gamer sound card
PSU: CoolerMaster 750w Real Power Pro (RS-750-ACAA-A1)
Lian-Li aluminum full tower case
Various SATA drives for storage
24" LG widescreen as primary, 20" Dell as secondary

6) Will you be overclocking?

Yes most definitely

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?

24" LG widescreen as primary, 20" Dell as secondary

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

Likely within the next week or two

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.

Intel, SLI, USB 3.0 would be nice, at least 4 SATA connections, Triple Channel RAM, good overclocking options. I've always liked Asus motherboards the most

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

Yes, Win7 Ultimate x64

 
The i5 750 is just as fast as the Core i7 950 in gaming as shown here:

The 2.8Ghz Core i7 930 only provides about a 2 to 5FPS difference over the Core i5 750 as shown in this review:
http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/gaming_the_core_debate,1.html

Additional proof: The $1040 3.3Ghz Core i7 975 Extreme Edition CPU is only 15% to 30% faster than the Core i5 750 with only a specific set of games and video cards:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/cpus-and-games-2010.html

So considering the the i7 975 is faster than the i7 930 and i7 950 and yet only provides 15% to 30% under the most ideal conditions, the Core i7 930/950 is definitely not gonna be that much faster than the i5 750 or i5 760. At least fast enough to justify the higher costs anyway. In addition, there's very little real world difference between triple channel and dual channel RAM in real world apps and games.

So platform wise, you can save around $150 to $200 if you switch to the Core i7 750/760 route and still get very similar performance in games. Dunno about you but $150 to $250 is too high for minimal gains in gaming. It'll only extend the life of your PC by 2 months at most.

Any chance that you can buy the Core i5 760 CPU today or by the 28th? Right now, it's $35 cheaper on Newegg due to Neweg's Black Friday deal:
$175 - Intel Core i5 760 CPU

Motherboard wise, you got two options here:
$140 - Asus P7P55D Pro Intel P55 ATX Motherboard
$180 - Asus P7P55D-E Pro Intel P55 ATX Motherboard

The only difference between the two motherboards is that the -E Pro has SATA 6.0Gb/s support and USB 3.0 support whereas the regular Pro does not. Up to you if those two features are worth the extra $40.

HSF wise, I recommend this:
$30 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156

RAM wise, again, try to buy this RAM ASAP since it won't be this low of a price anytime after Black Friday:
$50 - G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM

SSD wise, pick up the cheapest Intel 80GB SSD you can find and you'll be fine.

So at least for the CPU and RAM, get those two parts TODAY if you want to save some cash.
 
OK, I think I'm going to go ahead and order the CPU & RAM today. Probably get 2 sets of that RAM. Seeing as how I've currently got 6GB of RAM in my current setup, that's just what I feel comfortable having as a minimum.

This will be a huge upgrade for me I think. I'm upgrading from a C2D 6600 2.4ghz Conroe DDR2 setup. It's 4 years old and most of the stuff was nearly brand new when I got it, I remember spending $1,200 on the stuff, including the 7950GT vid card haha...
 
castun said:
OK, I think I'm going to go ahead and order the CPU & RAM today. Probably get 2 sets of that RAM. Seeing as how I've currently got 6GB of RAM in my current setup, that's just what I feel comfortable having as a minimum.
Click to expand...
Totally understand that: I have 6GB of RAM in my setup as well. I've actually run into situations where I almost used up that much RAM. Whatever new setup I get, 8GB of RAM is probably gonna be the minimum.

castun said:
This will be a huge upgrade for me I think. I'm upgrading from a C2D 6600 2.4ghz Conroe DDR2 setup. It's 4 years old and most of the stuff was nearly brand new when I got it, I remember spending $1,200 on the stuff, including the 7950GT vid card haha...
Click to expand...
It should be a huge upgrade :)
 
Used my Newegg gift cards too.

Subtotal: 274.97
Gift cards: -70.00
Total: 204.97

Yay! Now just to keep an eye out for the motherboard & HSF. Or maybe just next payday lol.
 
Basalt said:
Guessing you snagged the i5-760

consider also this mobo (no Sata III 6 gb support, but thats not really a negative, it does have USB 3.0)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128425
Click to expand...
That motherboard lacks SLI support. Even it did, the way that Gigabyte interfaced the USB 3.0 to the PCI-E slots will force the USB 3.0 ports to drop down to USB 2.0 if a second video card is placed in the second PCI-Ex16 slot. This is common to all Gigabyte made socket LGA 1156 motherboards. Asus socket LGA 1156 motherboards don't have that issue.

Basalt said:
and don't forget
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...007&cm_re=artic_silver-_-35-100-007-_-Product
Click to expand...

I wouldn't recommend AS5 these days: You can get thermal paste that don't require a 200 hour curing time to be most effective these days:
$10 - Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound
$10 - Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Compound

The above thermal paste costs the same, provides instant effectiveness, and perform slightly better than AS5.
 
Danny Bui said:
That motherboard lacks SLI support. Even it did, the way that Gigabyte interfaced the USB 3.0 to the PCI-E slots will force the USB 3.0 ports to drop down to USB 2.0 if a second video card is placed in the second PCI-Ex16 slot. This is common to all Gigabyte made socket LGA 1156 motherboards. Asus socket LGA 1156 motherboards don't have that issue.



I wouldn't recommend AS5 these days: You can get thermal paste that don't require a 200 hour curing time to be most effective these days:
$10 - Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound
$10 - Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Compound

The above thermal paste costs the same, provides instant effectiveness, and perform slightly better than AS5.
Click to expand...

Ah, :eek: missed the SLI note. Gigabyte can be SLI setup can be hacked in but your right, it's not supported out of the box.

Still for real multi setups i would rather go X-58.:D

As for Artic Silver, I feel the burn in isn't as big an issue, and it's more like 40 hours in my experience.

Also both your recomendations works out to $13.00 when shipping is added, but the MX-2 is a quality paste (I use it to reseat the coolers on my new GPU cards when I get them) can't argue that recommendation.
 
Basalt said:
As for Artic Silver, I feel the burn in isn't as big an issue, and it's more like 40 hours in my experience.

Also both your recomendations works out to $13.00 when shipping is added, but the MX-2 is a quality paste (I use it to reseat the coolers on my new GPU cards when I get them) can't argue that recommendation.
Click to expand...
Hmm, different experiences then: it took roughly 180 hours in my experience.

Seems like the thermal paste I posted lost their free shipping.
 
Danny Bui said:
Hmm, different experiences then: it took roughly 180 hours in my experience.

Seems like the thermal paste I posted lost their free shipping.
Click to expand...

When I get new CPU's I am generally running prime testing for the first 3 days while i look for a stable 24/7 oc...the extra heat may account for the shorter cure time.

The AS5 is simply a habit i guess, no real reason not to switch to MX-2 like I did on Video cards. Just a personal quirk I guess.
 
Well the -E Pro is sold out on Newegg now, and currently deactivated which means they may or may not even get any more in. If they're not in stock on Newegg and I can't find one anywhere else for a similar price, I may just settle and get the Pro.
 
Well, got all my stuff the other day. Ended up settling on the P7P55D Deluxe, I ordered a -E Pro from mwave but got an e-mail that they were out of stock, and backordered with no known date on getting them back in.

Having some issues though, after getting Win7 installed yesterday I experienced several BSODs over the course of the evening, as well as some random Windows services, apps & browser tabs crashing, even the Aero theme having issues, losing it's transparency like it's going into lower graphics mode or whatever you call it.

The RAM is rated for 1600 but I'm still running everything at the default settings which is 1333, but I'm wondering if it's an issue with a bad RAM stick. When I get home from work I'm going to re-seat the memory, maybe up the RAM voltage a bit, and start swapping sticks to see if I can narrow it down to a particular stick. Hopefully that's all it is, and not a bad slot on the mobo.
 
[Testing the Hard Drive]
Download the CD image of Hitachi Drive Fitness Test, burn the ISO file to a CD, and then boot from it, just like you would do with the XP/Vista install CD. Test the hard drive and see if any problems are found. DFT will run on most manufacturers' hard drives. Alternatively, you can use Seagate's SeaTools for DOS to test a Seagate or Maxtor drive. For a Western Digital drive, you could use Data Lifeguard Tools for DOS to test a Western Digital drive.

[Testing the CPU]
Use Prime 95, OCCT, Orthos or Intel Burn Tool to stress test the CPU.

[Testing the GPU]
Use Furmark or ATI Tool to stress test the GPU. If you see any artifacts, the GPU could be overheating, too overclocked, or faulty.

Also remove that second card just in case
 
Thanks Danny Bui, I'll be sure to do all that when I get home.

I should also note that I was able to play Just Cause 2 for an hour or so with details cranked up to max, it ran smooth as butter now and never had any artifacts, glitching, or crashes. It was only ever when at the desktop.
 
I think I've gotten it narrowed down to one of the sets of RAM, I popped out the one pair and ran memtest and prime95, had no issues whatsoever. No longer getting random crashes in Windows either. I will try swapping out the other pair again just to be sure, and to rule out the possibility of it being a bad slot on the mobo.
 
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