Gaming PC help

[SE1Z]

Tax refund = new gaming PC.

I read through Jiminee's thread, my budget isn't quite as high

Need some help guys!
Been out of the game for too long now!

Will be going intel, but not sure what at this stage.
Latest architecture, whatever that is?

Not fussed about overclocking, will need onboard sound.

i5 - what model?
Motherboard?
PSU? Brand, watts?
Ram? 8gb ok?

Video card is sorted, have a mate giving me his 6 series GTX nVidia card for practically nothing.


The idea is to spend about $700 for the box and come out of it with a machine that will run most new-ish games.
Just need an idea of what to buy so I can start shopping around

Any help appreciated!

[Crowella]

Alright, well I'll list what I got only a few months ago.

i5 3570k - Seems to be the go.
Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 Gen 4 - I think there may be something newer and better now but it allows 2 x PCI-E slots and is pretty well equipped.
PSU - I have a Corsair TX850W supply which I got for free off my brother when he replaced it.
RAM - I'm using some older Ripjaws 2x4GB at the moment.

That, coupled with a 6 series GTX card should get you playing practically everything at the highest quality. I'm using a HD 7770 at the moment which I have on loan since my HD 6870 died. I think I'll be moving to a 7 series nVidia card soon.

[ysu]

CPU: You don't need the K series if you don't want to get into serious overclocking, it'll save you a few $$$. The 3570 has plenty of power.

The mobo is a bit of what you pay is what you get. If you want quality - pay up. You'll get lots of extra features, too. But rest assured, cheaper mobos will be made of cheaper components, too, in most cases if not all (to my knowledge).

Ram's enough, but it's so cheap...anyway, 8GB is plenty.

The psu - get either a brand PSU, or a case which has one in. If you need a case. Antec sonata 3. Not a high-end case, but decent enough and it's bloody cheap with a good Antec 500W 80%+ psu in it.
(compared to psu prices alone it's a true bargain)
(Edit: for a single gfx card/few HDD system you do not need more than 500W. You can go for it, but it's not necessary if you don't plan on SLI, overclocking, HDD racks, or other funnies. But the psu MUST be able to provide that 500W reliably...and here's the catch.)

[Shonky]

Just on the mobo, nothing wrong with the ASrock boards, I was sceptical of them initially but I've got a Z68 Extreme4 that has been rock solid and I'd buy another in a heart beat, I don't regret buying it for a second over the comparable ASUS board at the time I purchased, and you'll save a few bucks to boot.

[richo]

As far as I know Asrock are Asus boards sort of .. I have sold them for years and have never had any issues in fact I think I have more dud Gigabyte boards although they rarely give issues Only stuff I have had problems with over the years is MSI yet plenty of guys have no issues what so ever but I have RA'ed quite a few board and too many video cards.

[Duke]

Yep that's my understanding to Richo. ASUS own ASRock if I am correct , the font of the AS is the giveaway.
But yes ASRock MoBo's crap all over the ASUS POS, the ASRock's have better quality components in most cases.

[ysu]

I used to buy ASUS boards lately, the latest batch I've bought are asus, too. Never a problem. But these are top of the range ("deluxe") models.
I reckon you need a bit of luck too, but the most important; depends on how much you're willing to pay for it, it seems.
Cheap stuff is cheap stuff. You can find a good piece, but for quality you have to pay a bit. Most brands have lower-end and high-end stuff. Make your choice

OH; and my choice was also dependent on the new bioses; many manufacturers it seems could not yet figure out what to do with the technology. (this was based on reviews only, mind you, I haven't the chance to test them all out:) ). But I'm pleased with the bios on these ones I've bought, ( p8z77-V Deluxe ).

I actually wonder, flinty, what experience you base your "asus pos" remark upon? Must have been something really nasty.

[Duke]

SE1Z,
I'd say stick to two sticks of RAM, it more efficient than 4 sticks & reduces the load on the Memory Controller / CPU
i5 is the go these days, overclocking is easy & effective with these new Gen chips even with the stock air cooler.
If you can afford the K model I'd say go for it.
Although saying that & from what I have read the new Haswell architecture doesn't OC as high as the older Ivy Bridge mainly due to heat however the Haswell's perform more instructions at any given clock speed to the Ivy's. So they don't necessarily need to be OC'd as high, slightly saving on power & heat.
Something else to consider is getting a Solid State Hybrid Drive (SSHD). They are as fast as an SSD once they learn your habits but have a good bit of storage, there is also a 500GB slim model.
Config options to consider is have a small capacity SSD for the OS then a SSHD for games or have 2 SSHD's rather than the SSD. I'm guessing you probably already have a large capacity HDD handy for storage anyway.
If you do decide to get into OC'ing with a K model a self-contained Liquid Cooling unit like the Antec KUHLER or Corsair Hydro are awesome. Easy install, quieter (no CPU fan) & maintenance free. I use the smaller KUHLER 620 version due to space limitations.
Hope that gives you some ideas & didn't lead you off track too much. If I think of more I'll post later.

[Duke]

I actually wonder, flinty, what experience you base your "asus pos" remark upon? Must have been something really nasty.

rofl, no actually I should refrain / edit that remark as I got mixed up as it is Gigabyte Mobo's I have always been told to steer clear of by my more geeky friends. They have always pushed me towards other brands like EVGA, DFI & most recently ASRock.

But I think you're right, it all about paying the extra to get the quality in the components & build which as we know generally equates to better performance & longevity.

[SE1Z]

Awesome advice guys, thanks so much!

[ysu]

Yeah a compact fluid cooling solution seems the way to go if you want good, effective - and clean - solution nowadays.
I've opted for h80i's on both computers, and apart from a fuckup on my part it's great, and very silent. (I had to order a ripped cable - but testament to corsair's great support, once lodged a ticked and cleared the issue they sent a replacement off in a week, no charge)

[Sarsippius]

This is what I bought recently which I reckon would also do you well:

i5 4670 - $249
Asus H87-Pro MB - $129
G Skill 2x4GB - $85
Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB SSD - $149
Antec HCG 520W Modular PSU - $97
Arctic Cooling Freezer i30 Cooler - $45

Total - $754

I also bought a case an HD7870 and a few more bits and bobs. I cbf with over clocking any more so just wanted something quiet and efficient out of the box that I don't need to touch.
This was almost a month ago so prices could be a touch cheaper.

edit: Oh and don't forget an Asus Xonar DX - $85 but I already had one hehe :P

[dvestate]

Along the lines of this, anyone know of any cases you can get that will look OK on a TV cabinet (Desktop style) but fit a full size video card? I've got my Tower but is to fat to lay on the side an look decent

[Duke]

You want ATX or would you consider mATX.
There's quite a lot of descent mATX cases that now fit full size GFX but they usually have to sacrifie some of the extra HDD mounts.
Plus a mATX Mobo is slightly more expensive.
However a mATX does sit & look good near TV's.

Check out Bit Fenix & Fractal cases for some cool looking & awesome designed cases.

[SE1Z]

This is what I just placed the order for:

Decided to go ITX, don't want to O/C anymore and wanted something smaller than a full size case.

Silverstone SG07B-USB3,USB 3.0 600W
Intel i5-4430 Core i5 Processor, 3.0GHz, LGA1150
Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz, 9-9-9-24 Vengeance
Seagate Barracuda -- 3.5'' / 1TB / SATA 6GB/s / 7200RPM / 64MB
HIS ATI HD 7790 PCI-E 3.0, 1GB 128-bit GDDR5, 1000/6000 MHz
Gigabyte GA-H87N-WIFI / H87

Vid card fell through, so had to scrape together some cash for the 7790 - will be enough to run my 24inch monitor and my race sims

Can always upgrade the card down the track.

Delivery should be next week!

[dvestate]

Looks good, going to see if my old box fires up tonight connected to the 60"

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[Sarsippius]

I gotta admit I like small form factor but I stuck with atx for my rig for a few reasons. I won't do without a soundcard so needed at least 2 pcie slots and I also have a dual tv card, pci. I also wanted something essentially silent which is harder with a smaller enclosure, although if you can tuck it away somewhere it doesn't matter so much

[SE1Z]

Yeh, not too worried about the noise. It's a gaming pc only, so the speakers will hopefully drown out any fan noise.
Going to put it under the desk anyway

Can't wait!
My last gaming PC was an E4400 with an 8800GTS
Quite a jump...

[SE1Z]

For anyone interested...

Had my new PC up and running for a few days now and it's pretty bloody good for the money (and size).
Can't believe how small mini-ITX atually is!

The only official benchmark I have done so far is the one inbuilt in F1-2012.
1920x1200 everything set to ultra, max aa and af - average of 55fps.

Had a run with iRacing last night, again, maxed out and never dipped below 60fps.

NFS-Most Wanted, no fps figures but it's silky smooth at max details.
Tried this as it brought my i7/6770 laptop to it's knees on medium detail..

So glad I only got the 7790 gfx card, anything higher, I feel, would have been a waste for me. Single 24inch monitor, majority of gaming being race sims.

It's also *almost* silent.
The stock cpu fan, even when I ran Prime95, never sped up - cpu max temp was 60c.
The vid card fan I haven't heard speed up either.

[Duke]

Damn that is impressive an ITX but I guess that's got a lot to do with the current Intel architecture.
For comparison I did the same F1 2012 test last night, same ingame settings & got an avg of 82 FPS running 1920x1080 @ 60Hz.
This is with a full ATX PC in a Thermaltake V9 case with the following specs:
Mobo: ASRock 970 Extreme3
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 B50 at 3.5GHz (from an unlocked Phenom II X2 550BE)
CPU Cooler: Antec Kuhler H2O 620
RAM: 8GB DDR3 G.Skill Ripjaws F3-12800CL8D-8GBRM 8GB (2x4GB)
GFX: GTX460 1GB OC (Gigabyte GV-N460OC-1GI)
PSU: Enermax Noisetaker 600W (EG701AX-VE SFMA 2.0)
SSD: Samsung 840 Series 120GB running W7 Ultimate 64bit OS
SSHD: Seagate 500GB Hybrid SSD for Race Sims only
Monitor: BenQ XL2410T 23.6 Inch Widescreen LED Monitor

[SE1Z]

Damn that is impressive an ITX but I guess that's got a lot to do with the current Intel architecture.
For comparison I did the same F1 2012 test last night, same setting & got an avg of 82 FPS.
This is with a full ATX PC in a Thermaltake V9 case with the following specs:
Mobo: ASRock 970 Extreme3
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 B50 at 3.5GHz (from an unlocked Phenom II X2 550BE)
CPU Cooler: Antec Kuhler H2O 620
RAM: 4GB DDR3 G.Skill Ripjaws F3-10666CL7D-4GBRH (2x2GB)
GFX: GTX460 1GB OC (Gigabyte GV-N460OC-1GI)
PSU: Coolermaster 500W 80+Bronze
SSD: Samsung 840 Series 120GB running W7 Ultimate 64bit OS
SSHD: Seagate 500GB Hybrid SSD for Race Sims only
Monitor: BenQ XL2410T 23.6 Inch Widescreen LED Monitor running 1920x1080 @ 60Hz

I'm looking at your specs and wondering how in the hell you get 80fps...

The slight difference in resolution?
1920x1080 vs 1920x1200?

Does that equal 30odd fps though?

[Duke]

That's a good question. Possibly slightly lower res would help & I am also wondering if the SSD & SSHD is helping compared to a standard HDD?

I did put the wrong RAM down & also fixed the PSU type but I doubt that would make much difference....

[SE1Z]

Whatever the difference is, 80 is impressive!

[Duke]

Whatever the difference is, 80 is impressive!

Yep I was a little surprised, I'll double check it again tonight in case there is something different.

You don't have vsync on by any chance do you?

[SE1Z]

Not sure tbh...

From memory, vsync is set to application control within the catalyst driver suite.
I'll check tonight.