i7 gaming build recommendations? $2K.

TeeJayHoward

TeeJayHoward

Limpness Supreme
2FA
Joined
Feb 8, 2005
Messages
13,415
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
----Gaming and web browsing. (Crysis until FFXIV, Diablo 3, and Starcraft 2 come out.) I want all gaming to be done at native res (1920x1200), highest settings possible. Think the new ATI cards can do Crysis at 1920x1200, 16xAF, 16xAA?

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
---- Around $2000, taxes and shipping included.

3) Where do you live?
---- Colorado

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
---- I need an entire computer, minus keyboard, mouse, and monitor.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
---- I will be (re)using my Microsoft USB Keyboard, G5 Mouse, and Dell 2405FPW monitor.

6) Will you be overclocking?
---- I'd like to. Hear these newfangled i7s are reaching almost 4Ghz on air!

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
---- I currently own, and do not intend to replace, a Dell 2405FPW. It's a 24" LCD. Native resolution is 1920x1200.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
---- Between September and December. Maybe a bit longer if nVidia ever announces a release date.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
---- I would assume onboard RAID-0 and SLI. (Or Crossfire if the next-gen ATis are as amazing as the hype seems to imply.)

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
---- I do, but some of the games I'm wanting to play in the future require DX10 (FFXIV), so I will probably be buying a copy of Windows 7 with the machine.


NOTES: I have a 7TB network storage setup, so I don't need a lot of hard drive space. The network machine is also backed up weekly. This machine will only be used for two things - gaming, and web browsing. No important data will be stored here.

My last gaming box was noisy as heck. I don't want that for this build. I know it's foolish to ask for silence AND power, especially at my price point, but it's important to me that the machine is fairly quiet.

With that being said, here's what I'm thinking:

$140 Case: Antec P183 - Decent airflow, and a bit quiet.
$210 Mobo: EVGA i7 X58 mATX - Don't know what I want here, aside from X58 and dual PCIe 2.0 x16s.
$690 GPU: Pair 'o GTX285s - Placeholders until next gen comes out. Figure I'll spend about $700 on cards.
$170 PSU: Seasonic M12D SS750 - Quiet, modular, and powerful. At least, I think. Is 750W enough for this setup?
$110 RAM: 6GB Crucial DDR3 1066 - Yay cheap RAM. I sprung for the expensive stuff on my last build, and it didn't make a bit of difference. Should I upgrade to the nice stuff?
$230 HDD: Intel X25-M 80GB G2 - This one drive would have my OS and games on it. Capacity should be fine. The stats look nice, but in real-world gaming, are load times quicker?
$200 Optical: Pioneer BluRay burner - I want a BluRay reader, at least. Got the burner because I had some fundage left over in my budget.
$280 CPU: i7 920 - No surprises here. Everyone knows this nifty little chip.
______________________________________________________________________________________
$2030 Total

Or, if I were to go cheap...

$040 Case: CoolerMaster Elite - Heck, it's just a case.
$210 Mobo: EVGA i7 X58 mATX - Same as above
$690 GPU: Pair 'o GTX285s - Same as above. Placeholders.
$100 PSU: Antec TP750 - If 750W's enough, might as well go with the cheapest of the good brands. (NewEgg's out of the PCP&C, for a bit more.)
$110 RAM: 6GB Crucial DDR3 1066 - Same as above
$160 HDD: OCZ Summit 60GB - Drive space would be tight. Might get two and RAID-0 'em.
$060 Optical: LiteOn BluRay reader - Because I doubt I really NEED a BluRay burner.
$280 CPU: i7 920 - Same as above
______________________________________________________________________________________
$1650 Total



So... Your thoughts?
 
Last edited:
- single GTX 275 would be fine for 24" display
A single GTX275 will push Crysis at 1920x1200, 16xAA, 16xAF, at 60FPS?
- New truepower 750watt is just $100 @ 62A, it should be enough to hand most SLi or Xfire configs.
Duly noted. Will switch cheap build to that PSU. For expensive build, how is it, noise-wise?
- newegg has these on speical act fast OCZ 60 GB SSDs.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227451
It's my understanding that the OCZs can't compete with the Intels in terms of speed. Am I misinformed?
 
Last edited:
OCZ summit drive is $130 after rebate, Intel is faster but not $100 worth faster

Crysis is really one of few games (i can count them on my left hand) can stress a GTX 275 on 24" display.
 
OCZ summit drive is $130 after rebate, Intel is faster but not $100 worth faster
That's subjective :) But, I wonder if a RAID-0'd pair of OCZs would be faster? Since they're almost half the price... Hrm! Just how much faster is the Intel than the OCZ? (And, for that matter, how much quicker is an SSD over a HDD?)

Crysis is really one of few games (i can count them on my left hand) can stress a GTX 275 on 24" display.
It's also one of the games I'm interested in. The other three I mentioned are all next-gen games, and only FFXIV will have any chance of stressing the video card. That being said, the GTX275 doesn't meet my requirements for Crysis - 30FPS with 0xAA doesn't work. I appreciate the cost-saving measure, but I'm ready to drop half my budget on the video card(s) alone, if it'll get me even a 5FPS increase.
 
single of OCZ summit is like 5% slower than Intel drive.

SSD is general as fast as pair of HDD in Raid 0.
 
lt_shiro said:
single of OCZ summit is like 5% slower than Intel drive.

SSD is general as fast as pair of HDD in Raid 0.
Click to expand...
Switched to single OCZ Summit 60GB on cheap build. Still not certain I wouldn't want two of them, especially since the cheap build has "leftover" cash. That being said, I'd rather spend the cash on a better video card.

Anyone have any recommendations on the motherboard? Is the one I picked a decent overclocker? Is it too expensive? How about the RAM? Does the good stuff make that big a difference? Or, for that matter, any difference?
 
TeeJayHoward said:
- single GTX 275 would be fine for 24" display
A single GTX275 will push Crysis at 1920x1200, 16xAA, 16xAF, at 60FPS?
Click to expand...
Crysis doesn't scale well with SLI. And no card can run Crysis(How often do you play Crysis anyway?) at those settings at 60fps. Also, keep in mind, new video cards are on the way (September was it?).
 
Jospeh said:
Crysis doesn't scale well with SLI. And no card can run Crysis(How often do you play Crysis anyway?) at those settings at 60fps. Also, keep in mind, new video cards are on the way (September was it?).
Click to expand...
The GTX285s I have in my list are placeholders for those new cards. I'm hoping one of the new cards can do 1920x1200, 16xAF, 16xAA @ 60FPS. Heck, doing it at 30FPS would be amazing.
 
P183, good case for quietness, but quite pricey.

If you're OC'ing, you'll want something with a better chipset cooler (heatpipes instead of straight up tiny heatsink). Go for the Asus P6T or Gigabyte UD4P/UD5. Or if you want something cheapter, the MSI X58M and replace the heatsink with a Thermalright HR-05(-SLI/IFX). You'll also need a nice cooler for the CPU. The popular choice right now is the Cogage True Spirit 4-heatpipe cooler.

Skip the BluRay burner for now, wait a bit longer, since media is still pricey. Go for the BR Reader + DVDRW drive instead.

Sorry, meant to post the above earlier... anyhow...

As far as Intel SSDs, they have faster small random write speeds at the expense of sequential write speed. OCZ (and any other Indilinx based SSD) has faster sequential speeds at the expense of small random write speeds. A good compromise between the two is RAID0 of the OCZ drives. The best would be two Intels in RAID0. :p Here's some benchmarks I ran on my Vertex drives before I sold them:
http://www.alphaq.org/enginurd/hdd/ocz_vertex.html
 
A GTX 275 would not be my choice to handle modern, demanding games maxed out at 1920x1200. Buying today, I'd look at a GTX 285, GTX 295, or ATI 4870 X2 (although the 285 has the advantage of being a single-gpu card.)

Best advice is to wait until the next generation of cards come out, which should be soon. Hopefully, you won't need two of them to get the performance you want.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top