New System Suggestions

[Drakenfeng]

1) What will you be doing with this PC?
90% gaming with light rendering projects for work on the side. BF3 mostly.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Around $1000, willing to spend up to $1500 but I don't think that's necessary
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
US, Georgia
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.
Doing a complete build but keeping all peripherals. I want to keep my current system operational. Ram, CPU, MB, Case, Heatsink, OS, SSD, PSU
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Due to the hard drive price increases I might be ripping an extra 640 gb drive out of the current computer, however it's so old and slow at this point I don't think it's worthwhile. Also reusing the HD 6950.
6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes, ~4500 mhz preferably
7) 7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
1080p, 24 inch
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Now
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.
Don't care for raid or firewire. Heard too many horror stories and poor support for crossfire/sli in new game releases, but I'm still tempted to try it. USB 3.0 is nice. I plan on getting a SSD so 6gb/s is preferred.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
No, the current license will be staying on the existing computer.


Currently looking at:
Processor:
$195 - i5 2500k (already ordered)

Motherboard:
$145 MSI P67A-GD55 (B3) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130573
I was looking at gigabyte boards but I read about way too many reboot loop issues, though the newest v9 bios fixes that for many. I don't care about integrated video/encoding/SRT so the p67 is fine. Found plenty of reviews with solid OC's using this board. Asus RMA support is bad. Wary of using anything cheaper due to the overclock.

Ram:
$45 GSkill Sniper Low Voltage 4gb x 2 1600mhz http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231461
Not sure if low voltage is necessary. Feedback was good and they're all priced about the same. Considering 2 packs just cause

PSU:
$64 Seasonic S12 II 520 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151094
I calculated my system voltage w/ 4500 mhz OC to be 470 watts (http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/). According to johnnyguru this is a good PSU and I don't think I'll need more power (not going to have a ton of drives or SLI). I'll spend more here if necessary

Heatsink:
$35 Xigmatek Dark Knight http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029
OR
$65 H60 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004MYFOE2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
Not sure if the H60 is actually worth it. Like the fact that it frees up a lot of space (especially around the RAM).
I'm using the Q6600 version of the Xigmatek cooler and it's performed great over the years. With the MIR its basically free. I'm just wary of having all that weight hanging on the MB.

Case:
$121 Corsair Carbide R500 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005E983JW/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
A bit more than I've ever spent on a case (currently using an antec 300) but it's one of the few with front 3.0 USB support, good number of fans, rotated hard drive racks, cable management, black interior and a clean design.

Hard Drive:
~$200 128 GB SSD - not sure which one of these to get. I can make due until regular drives go back down in price for extra storage.

OS:
$100 Win 7 Home 64 bit

Video Card:
Reusing HD 6950 2GB

Optical:
None. Every optical drive I've ever bought dies within 6 months anyway, even if not used (gone through 4+). I'll install windows using a thumb drive, everything else comes from steam / origin.

Total: $905

Note I am not dead set on any of the components above (apart from the processor). Planning on selling my existing system to a family member (who already has plenty of drives and a video card).

 

[tiraides]

Dude, why didn't you grab the i5-2500K in a combo deal? You could have saved anywhere from $10 to $50 off (if not more) if you had just looked around for even a few minutes.

Go with the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus over the Xigmatek Dark Knight and Corsair H60. It's considerably cheaper yet performs just as well for stock speeds and overclocking.

As for RAM, any DDR3 1333 1.5V kit would work with Sandy Bridge. Your choice, the G.Skill Sniper, isn't bad per se, but the tall heatspreaders could interfere with the CPU cooler. Go with the G.Skill Value Series F3-10666CL9D-8GBNT kit; at $30, it's considerably cheaper yet it will work just as well as the Sniper kit. (Oh, the reason why is because the i5-2500K has an unlocked CPU multiplier that you'll be using for overclocking. In most cases, you wouldn't even touch the RAM.)

My recommendation for an SSD is the Crucial M4. The Corsair 500R that you're considering should have at least one 2.5" adapter for it (which will be needed, as the SSD doesn't come with one).

The Seasonic S12 II 520 Bronze isn't bad, but once you factor in shipping costs, it comes within the same price range as the Antec Neo Eco 620C. The 620C is the more powerful PSU, with 48A on its 12V rail (where today's components draw most of their power from) versus 40A (combined) on the Seasonic unit.

 

[Dangman]

In addition to what Tiraides said:

The Neo Eco 620C is based on the same Seasonic platform as that Seasonic S12 II 520. So you're not going to see that much of a loss in quality or performance. So the Antec Neo Eco is a solid choice for the money.

The MSI mobo and Corsair case you chose is fairly solid.

 

[Drakenfeng]

I don't have a microcenter / frys anywhere around where I live (I'm assuming that's the combo deal you were talking about).

I switched out the the parts as suggested. Are there any issues with OC'ing with all 4 banks filled, or is 16gb of memory even worth it over 8gb when using a SSD?

Thanks for the input you two.

 

[tiraides]

So you've never heard of a NewEgg combo deal? That's where you bought the i5-2500K from, right?

I haven't heard of anyone having problems overclocking with all four RAM slots filled, but I'm sure that there are (at least) a couple of worst-case scenarios that I missed somewhere. You don't really need even 8GB of RAM for gaming, but rendering is one of those resource-intensive tasks that would gladly use up the extra RAM. (That, and it's $60 for 16GB of RAM! Wouldn't you bite?)

 

[Stupid_Newbie]

Considered going with z68a-gd65 g3? Not sure if the new pci-express 3 will help when 1155 ivy hits. But for a few dollars I didn't think it could hurt in my case.

 

[tiraides]

Considered going with z68a-gd65 g3? Not sure if the new pci-express 3 will help when 1155 ivy hits. But for a few dollars I didn't think it could hurt in my case.

If PCI-E 2.0 is any indicator, there won't be a legitimate need for PCI-E 3.0 over the next year (when new PCI-E 3.0 cards arrive) or two (when most of the motherboards primarily use PCI-E 3.0). Personally, I wouldn't use PCI-E 3.0 as a reason to spend more money.

 

[bezant]

Go with the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus over the Xigmatek Dark Knight and Corsair H60. It's considerably cheaper yet performs just as well for stock speeds and overclocking.

The Xigmatek is $14.96 after mail-in rebate...

 

[tiraides]

... But I'm intentionally ignoring the after-rebate price because it's not an instant discount.

 

[Drakenfeng]

So you've never heard of a NewEgg combo deal? That's where you bought the i5-2500K from, right?

Honestly I completely ignored the Newegg Combos. Last time I bothered looking at them was 3 years ago and they were always comboed with something useless like AV software or a thousand dollar part. I'll actually look at the newegg combos for future reference, since they put decent items in there now.

I bought the i5 from N C I X for $190 which was $35 cheaper than newegg or amazon at the time.

I asked about the ram-slots because I remember some core 2 motherboards having lots of difficulty OC'ing if all 4 of their ram banks were full. Good to hear that's been resolved.

I've went ahead and ordered all the parts. I don't really forsee PCI-E 2.0 becoming a bottleneck anytime soon so that MB should be fine. I'll also place an order for an extra set of ram and let superfetch do some magic. Thanks again for all the help.

 

[monday2222]

Honestly I completely ignored the Newegg Combos. Last time I bothered looking at them was 3 years ago and they were always comboed with something useless like AV software or a thousand dollar part. I'll actually look at the newegg combos for future reference, since they put decent items in there now.

I bought the i5 from N C I X for $190 which was $35 cheaper than newegg or amazon at the time.

I second that!
I hope the N.C.I.X deal goes through for me.

 

[monday2222]

deleted,

 

[Drakenfeng]

Got the system assembled but having a few minor problems:
1. When I reboot the system from windows, the system hangs with the fans running and the monitor goes into power save mode. This happens 100% of the time. This didn't happen until I changed the settings per this guide to prepare for manual overclocking (half way down the page):
http://www.overclock.net/t/963798/msi-p67a-gd55-review-and-oc-guide
The reset button does nothing and holding the power button down will shut the system off for about 1 second and it will boot itself back up automatically. Cold booting the system works fine, as does putting it into sleep mode from windows. I have not tried updating the bios yet.

2. The fan in the 212 hyper cooler is making a rather audible 'grinding' noise. It is much louder than everything else in my case by far, even at 50% speed. If I put my hand on the top of the CPU heatsink there is a very noticeable vibration. Not sure if it's the way the fan is mounted (I've tried remounting it with no avail), or if the fan is way out of balance. I don't see it touching anything in the case.

3. Did some googling and I think these temps are okay. I OC'd to 4.5 ghz @ 1.35 vCore. Idles at 30-35C and under load is 59-65C. Is it safe to run the processor at that voltage 24/7 without degradation?

The windows install was very fast taking about 6 minutes from a USB 3.0 thumb drive to being usable on the desktop. Took me a while to realize that Win7 doesn't have native USB 3.0 support during installation though, oops (had to find the drivers).

 

[Dangman]

1) Undo all of changes you made per that guide to actually rule out that guide being the cause?

2) Try connecting that 212 fan on a different PC just to make sure it's an issue with that fan

3) Temps are fine. Not sure about the voltage.

 

[Drakenfeng]

Swapped out the stock CM fan on the Hyper 212 with the Galid Silent fan I had on my Xigmatek - it cools 10 degrees better (now run at ~50-55C @ 100% load) at 1400 rpm instead of 65C at 2000 rpm. I think the CM fan was just garbage. Quiet hum instead of the rattling noise too.

Haven't had time to track down the reboot issue yet, been tinkering on this thing all week.