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PC Gaming Rig

S

scar97

n00b
Joined
Sep 23, 2011
Messages
28
Hello

I am in process of building a new gaming rig.
Here is what I am doing.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? playing games (shogun2, crysis 2, warhammer space marine etc...), spreadsheet, and web surfing. Mostly playing the latest games.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Around $2k USD (for now) Got all the parts from New Egg with mail in rebate so far.

3) Which country do you live in?
NYC, USA

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget?
So far I have the Mobo, case, heatsink, and the PSU
I need a Intel CPU and DDR3 RAMs

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?
GPU EVGA GTX 460 (2X) for now. Will upgarde to EVGA GTX 590 or the 580 Classified in about 6 months from now

6) Will you be overclocking?
Maybe in the future. But most likely not.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor?
ASUS VW266H Black 25.5" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor
The high 1920×1200 resolution supports Full HD 1080p vision

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Started buying already in parts
Already arrived to my office (below):
GIGABYTE G1.Sniper LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100)

Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case

CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX1200 (CMPSU-1200AX) 1200W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 SLI Certified 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Here are the parts from my old PC getting recycled into this new rig for now:

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1501FASS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive (already has Win7 installed with steam, itunes, etc......)

EVGA 01G-P3-1373-AR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) Superclocked EE 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card (2x in SLI mode)


10) Do you already have a legit and reusable OS?
Will be using my Win7Pro 64bit already installed in my HDD


I am thinking about getting the following:

Intel Core i7-980 Gulftown 3.33GHz 6 x 256KB L2 Cache 12MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Six-Core Desktop Processor BX80613I7980

CORSAIR DOMINATOR GT 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Desktop Memory with Air Fan Model CMT12GX3M3A2000C9

I wondering is I can get away with using
CORSAIR Vengeance 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Desktop Memory Model CMZ12GX3M3A2000C10
without loosing any performance

feed back welcome

J
 
Last edited:
scar97 said:
Hello

I am in process of building a new gaming rig.
Here is what I am doing.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? playing games (shogun2, crysis 2, warhammer space marine etc...), spreadsheet, and web surfing. Mostly playing the latest games.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Around $2k USD (for now) Got all the parts from New Egg with mail in rebate so far.

3) Which country do you live in?
NYC, USA

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget?
So far I have the Mobo, case, heatsink, and the PSU
I need a Intel CPU and DDR3 RAMs

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?
GPU EVGA GTX 460 (2X) for now. Will upgarde to EVGA GTX 590 or the 580 Classified in about 6 months from now

6) Will you be overclocking?
Maybe in the future. But most likely not.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor?
ASUS VW266H Black 25.5" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor
The high 1920×1200 resolution supports Full HD 1080p vision

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Started buying already in parts
Already arrived to my office (below):
GIGABYTE G1.Sniper LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100)

Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case

CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX1200 (CMPSU-1200AX) 1200W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 SLI Certified 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Here are the parts from my old PC getting recycled into this new rig for now:

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1501FASS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive (already has Win7 installed with steam, itunes, etc......)

EVGA 01G-P3-1373-AR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) Superclocked EE 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card (2x in SLI mode)


10) Do you already have a legit and reusable OS?
Will be using my Win7Pro 64bit already installed in my HDD


I am thinking about getting the following:

Intel Core i7-980 Gulftown 3.33GHz 6 x 256KB L2 Cache 12MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Six-Core Desktop Processor BX80613I7980

CORSAIR DOMINATOR GT 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Desktop Memory with Air Fan Model CMT12GX3M3A2000C9

I wondering is I can get away with using
CORSAIR Vengeance 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Desktop Memory Model CMZ12GX3M3A2000C10
without loosing any performance

feed back welcome

J
Click to expand...

IMHO you should not have purchased some of the parts yet: The LGA 1366 platform that you ordered is about to become obsolete in a few months. And it is now already almost three years old at the time you ordered it. Besides, you'll be stuck with old-generation parts because there is absolutely no upgrade path to any newer-generation CPUs in this platform (the replacement for the LGA-1366 platform, Sandy Bridge-E, uses a completely different and totally incompatible socket).

And even if the LGA 1366 platform were to remain current, most of the parts that you ordered or about to order are extremely poor values (in terms of performance for the buck). And being a locked CPU, the i7-980 (non-X) does not officially support RAM speeds above DDR3-1066 (PC3-8500). As a result, you will need to severely overclock the BCLK just to even get the RAM speed to DDR3-1600 reliably, and no LGA 1366 platform can run stably at RAM speeds much above that (most LGA 1366 CPUs are very unstable at DDR3-2000 - and DDR3-2000 requires an extreme overclock on that CPU to well over 6GHz, which no LGA 1366 CPU whatsoever can achieve reliably).
 
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Okay thanks for the feed back. Good thing I didn't buy the 980 and the Ram yet.
Yea I realized that I am going to be stuck with i7(older gen tech) for the time being (say about 2 years, before I decide to pass down the PC).

Whats a better recommendation for a RAM and the CPU then?
I want to make it so that I don't have to upgrade for at least about 2 years (and still be able to run latest game in decent setting).
 
Do you have the receipt for the motherboard? If so, and the motherboard has not been damaged in any way, then consider returning that mobo and exchange it for a Z68 chipset motherboard. Then, you can purchase the i5-2500K CPU once you get that Z68 mobo. This is because none of the quad-core i7-9xx series CPUs that are still available are as fast as the i7-980 even in single-threaded apps. Plus, even the i7-960 is slower in most games than an i5-2500K.

So in other words, purchasing an LGA 1366 CPU or mobo is not a wise decision at all nowadays: Currently available LGA 1366 CPUs are either too slow or too expensive.
 
would that be i5 LGA 1156 socket based mobo?

NWM I clicked on the link.....
 
scar97 said:
would that be i5 LGA 1156 socket based mobo?

NWM I clicked on the link.....
Click to expand...

Z68 is LGA 1155, not LGA 1156. LGA 1156 and LGA 1155 are both physically and electrically incompatible with one another - the pin assignments are different, and the notches are of different sizes and in different locations. LGA 1156 (which the i5-7xx and i7-8xx CPUs used) has already been obsolesced by LGA 1155.
 
If you are stuck with that motherboard, you've kind of boxed yourself in a corner, processor wise. I think about the only thing you can find new is an i7-950 (which is a better value than the 980 for sure).

Likewise, that is way more power supply than you need - you could easily get by with something like the Corsair TX850 for 460 SLI.
 
At this point I was thinking about biting the bullet and getting the 980X.
If that is the case then I am going to OC the hell out it and maxing out processor.
Somewhere down the road upgrade the graphics cards.
Its def over kill for gaming. Maybe I'll let the wife use it for video editing and graphics works, as I in the process of converting her from iMac.

just our of curiosity:
how is that i7 quad cores are faster then i7 6 cores?

sorry still noob with the i7s.
 
The i7 6 cores aren't even out yet.

The i5 2500k is a quad core CPU as with the rest of the Sandy Bridge CPUs currently out.
 
Skillz said:
The i7 6 cores aren't even out yet.

The i5 2500k is a quad core CPU as with the rest of the Sandy Bridge CPUs currently out.
Click to expand...

Sorry being a noob still little confused. I think I read somewhere that the upper end of i7s are 6 cores. :confused:

like the 960 and up were 6 cores?

Gotta hand it to Intel confusing noobs like me
 
$2k for a purchase without an OS, monitor, or any GPUs is really stinkin high. You might want to look over your budget and maybe prioritize differently (or if you're like me you'll add stuff to the system you don't really need just 'cause you have funds available).
 
scar97 said:
Sorry being a noob still little confused. I think I read somewhere that the upper end of i7s are 6 cores. :confused:

like the 960 and up were 6 cores?

Gotta hand it to Intel confusing noobs like me
Click to expand...

We don't really compare the older i7s anymore because they are outdated. Yes the "Gulftown" CPUs are all 6 core CPUs, but just because it has more cores doesn't make it a better CPU by default. Lots of other things play a role in determining that.

With that being said, an i7 2600k is almost as fast as the i7 "Gulftown" CPUs that have 6 cores, but since the i7 2600k and 2500k costs a good bit less, are of newer technology, there is no reason to buy an outdated platform anymore.

i7 - 970
i7 - 980
i7 - 980X
i7 - 990X

Those are the 6 core, LGA 1366 i7 CPUs. No reason to buy them especially when an i5 2500k performs just as fast, if not faster than those CPUs for gaming purposes and costs a lot, lot less.
 
scar97 said:
just our of curiosity:
how is that i7 quad cores are faster then i7 6 cores?

sorry still noob with the i7s.
Click to expand...

There are two versions of the i7. The older i7 (920, 950, 980, etc) are an older technology (Nehalem and Gulftown) - the new i7s (2xxx) are the new Sandy Bridge chips, and they offer both performance enhancements and significant power savings over the older i7s.
 
scar97 said:
At this point I was thinking about biting the bullet and getting the 980X.
If that is the case then I am going to OC the hell out it and maxing out processor.
Click to expand...
No. Return that motherboard. Even if Newegg hits you with that 15% restocking fee even after you've contacted customer service telling them that you're planning on swapping that mobo for a Z68 mobo from their site (that usually waives the restocking fee), it'll still be more cost effective than buying an outdated and pricey platform. The term "Throwing good money after bad" seems to apply here. It it would not be an intelligent decision to keep using that mobo.
 
thank you all for your feed back.. Since everyone is telling me to get the LGA 1155 socket. I am going to follow your advise.

Plus you guys just save me crap load of money, where I can use it to a new graphics card(s).

What do you recommend on the RAMs then?
 
scar97 said:
What do you recommend on the RAMs then?
Click to expand...

Go with any 8GB (one 2 x 4GB kit) or 16GB (either one 4 x 4GB kit or two 2 x 4GB kits) RAM kits rated to run at no higher than 1.5V. The RAM speed should be DDR3-1333 (DDR3-1600 can be recommended if it costs no more than a few dollars more than DDR3-1333 RAM). The voltage rating is more important than the speed rating for these LGA 1155 CPUs. The use of 1.65V RAM is not recommended since this elevated voltage can increase the operating temperature of the CPU to a higher level than I would consider safe for continuous 24/7 operation.
 
scar97, I am glad you took the advice... going with LGA 1155 is a much much better idea.
Faster, cheaper, cooler,

Absolutely the right choice.
 
the opportunity cost is too great. Even if I get hit with the 15% re-stock fee (which probably can be waived by Neweggs), its much better bang for the bucks. All from Neweggs again.

so here is my revision on Mobo, CPU and RAMs

Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core

ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9

Its not finalized yet. What do you think?
 
Eggcellent choice. Faster ram would be nice but if the price is right for you then good upgrade
 
scar97 said:
the opportunity cost is too great. Even if I get hit with the 15% re-stock fee (which probably can be waived by Neweggs), its much better bang for the bucks. All from Neweggs again.

so here is my revision on Mobo, CPU and RAMs

Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core

ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9

Its not finalized yet. What do you think?
Click to expand...

Be advised that the P8Z68 Deluxe does not have a video-out at all - and that it's significantly pricier than other Asus Z68 mobos that do have the video out. If you're planning on using Virtu or QuickSync, get one of those those Z68 boards that have a video out (D-Sub and/or DVI and/or HDMI and/or DisplayPort). That P8Z68 Deluxe is only worth it if you're planning to run more than two GPUs in SLI or Crossfire sometime soon.
 
Last edited:
scar97 said:
ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Click to expand...
Really overpriced motherboard. Please answer question 9 of the sticky so that we can better tailor our motherboard recommendations to you.
scar97 said:
CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9
Click to expand...
Overpriced RAM considering that this similar performing RAM is $18 cheaper:
$100 - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series F3-10666CL9Q-16GBRL 4 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
 
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