High-end Gaming Rig

posted on Thu Aug 18, 2011 3:23 am

posted on Thu Aug 18, 2011 4:16 am

Looks like a good build,but with that money i would wait for the gigabyte sandy bridge sniper board should be out very soon. and yes i would do sli and 3d.

posted on Thu Aug 18, 2011 10:12 am

PhuN wrote:Logitech 920-000914 Black 106 Normal Keys USB Wired Ultra-thin Illuminated Keyboard

For the same price ($59), you can get Logitech's wireless solar keyboard K750 ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6823126199 )

Or for $20 more, you can opt for Logitech's wireless illuminated solar keyboard K800 ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... ech%20k800 )

I own the K750 and wouldn't part with it for the world!

posted on Thu Aug 18, 2011 11:38 am

You can always wait for AMDs 8 core bulldozer and see how that performs...

posted on Fri Aug 19, 2011 5:28 am

vargis14 wrote:Looks like a good build,but with that money i would wait for the gigabyte sandy bridge sniper board should be out very soon. and yes i would do sli and 3d.

GIGABYTE G1.Sniper LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard Is that the board you are referring to? 3D I never really considered, I'll have to look into it. SlI I really would like to do, it may have to wait till sometime in the future. I read somewhere that it is best to buy one card, let the next series come out, let the prices drop then pick up another for SLI.

thegleek wrote:
PhuN wrote:Logitech 920-000914 Black 106 Normal Keys USB Wired Ultra-thin Illuminated Keyboard

For the same price ($59), you can get Logitech's wireless solar keyboard K750 ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6823126199 )

Or for $20 more, you can opt for Logitech's wireless illuminated solar keyboard K800 ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... ech%20k800 )

I own the K750 and wouldn't part with it for the world!

I've always been somewhat weary of wireless keyboards and mice but I'll read up on them and take a look. Thanks for the suggestion

ish718 wrote:You can always wait for AMDs 8 core bulldozer and see how that performs...

I was considering that but then they were delayed a few months and from what I've been reading it doesn't seem like I'd be losing anything by going with Intel but I really am not sure. Plus I've been waiting for 7-8 months more or less and the whole waiting thing is getting kinda irritating but I can if it would be worth it.

posted on Fri Aug 19, 2011 6:14 am

If you step up to that AX1200 PSU, I might be interested in taking the AX850 off your hands, if the price is right.

posted on Fri Aug 19, 2011 12:26 pm

RickyTick wrote:If you step up to that AX1200 PSU, I might be interested in taking the AX850 off your hands, if the price is right.

I would I'm just not sure if it would be enough for GTX 580's in SLI with an independent sound card plus other components. I've been told it would and wouldn't, more so it would than it wouldn't. The thing is basically new, its been used twice for power ups that lasted less than 5 minutes on both occasions.

posted on Fri Aug 19, 2011 12:38 pm

What is the current rig that isnt fast enough?

CPU - 2600K - No faster than the 2500K for gaming. If the 2500K isnt fast enough for video editing, do you want to hold off a bit longer for Sandy Bridge-E, and pick up a hex core (or go for a socket 1366 hex core build now?), rather than taking the ~10% that HT seems to give the 2600K over the 2500K?

Motherboard - Gigabyte Z68 UD7 - anything on this that is required compared to the UD6 or UD5? Are you thinking of tri-SLI? The Asus Z68 Pro generally has reviewed better than its Gigabyte equivalent, having a slicker UEFI bios. The non-pro still supports 8/8 SLI, and at $179 is almost half the price of the Gigabyte UD7.

Having to upgrade from a 850W to a 1200W PSU is frightening - consider just not running Furmark, or going for AMD cards. Anandtech has Furmark drawing 850W, games < 600W. TR doesnt even bother testing with Furmark, as an artificial scenario. A sound card doesnt add much (~10W? or it would need a big heatsink and fan), there will be a difference between the CPUs (with a stock 2600K probably drawing less than the tested i7-920? but an OC could add 50-100W)

I read somewhere that it is best to buy one card, let the next series come out, let the prices drop then pick up another for SLI.

Usually the opposite is recommended here, due to difficulties getting a second matching card, and while two old cards might be as fast as a single new card, you might be behind on a DX level etc, and have all the power and noise hassles of running 2 cards. I tend to upgrade to skip a generation of CPU when I upgrade, so pairing my current card has never looked particularly appealing.

2 DVD drives, but only one burner and no Blu-ray?

If you are ditching your H70 cooler, you are probably as well getting a big tower cooler than an integrated water cooler. Water cannot compete with heatpipes unless you have a much bigger radiator.

posted on Sun Aug 21, 2011 5:14 am

mboza wrote:What is the current rig that isnt fast enough?

CPU - 2600K - No faster than the 2500K for gaming. If the 2500K isnt fast enough for video editing, do you want to hold off a bit longer for Sandy Bridge-E, and pick up a hex core (or go for a socket 1366 hex core build now?), rather than taking the ~10% that HT seems to give the 2600K over the 2500K?

Motherboard - Gigabyte Z68 UD7 - anything on this that is required compared to the UD6 or UD5? Are you thinking of tri-SLI? The Asus Z68 Pro generally has reviewed better than its Gigabyte equivalent, having a slicker UEFI bios. The non-pro still supports 8/8 SLI, and at $179 is almost half the price of the Gigabyte UD7.

Having to upgrade from a 850W to a 1200W PSU is frightening - consider just not running Furmark, or going for AMD cards. Anandtech has Furmark drawing 850W, games < 600W. TR doesnt even bother testing with Furmark, as an artificial scenario. A sound card doesnt add much (~10W? or it would need a big heatsink and fan), there will be a difference between the CPUs (with a stock 2600K probably drawing less than the tested i7-920? but an OC could add 50-100W)

I read somewhere that it is best to buy one card, let the next series come out, let the prices drop then pick up another for SLI.

Usually the opposite is recommended here, due to difficulties getting a second matching card, and while two old cards might be as fast as a single new card, you might be behind on a DX level etc, and have all the power and noise hassles of running 2 cards. I tend to upgrade to skip a generation of CPU when I upgrade, so pairing my current card has never looked particularly appealing.

2 DVD drives, but only one burner and no Blu-ray?

If you are ditching your H70 cooler, you are probably as well getting a big tower cooler than an integrated water cooler. Water cannot compete with heatpipes unless you have a much bigger radiator.

Currently its in pieces but it has an intel QX9650, EVGA 9800GX2, Asus Striker II foruma, and Corsair Dominator DDR2 (some of that has been sold).

I'm considering waiting but after 7 months I am somewhat against it but I can if it would be a significant improvement. That is probably the biggest dillema I am currently faceing. I don't honestly know if a hex core would be needed, I'm sure it would be useful but i could live without it. For the price I thought the 2600k would be worth it instead of upping to a hex core.

Not nessicarily, I admired the fact that is could run dual x16, has good quality to it, and has a good I/O panel layout. I considered tri-SLI but decided dual-SLI would be sufficient. I did also look at that Asus board, for the list I just chose the Gigabyte because it looked more appealing.

I was not sure if running a AX850 would supply enough power but from what I've heard it will, so if that is the case I will stick with the 850w. I was under the impression that the 850w would not be enough power.

So your saying going SLI now would be more beneficial now rather than waiting? The dvd burners, not sure why I have two, I think I ment to make one a Blu-ray burner. The H70 I'll probably keep, I had it in there so I could see the total I would be spending, plus I was not sure if it would be worth selling and repurchasing the H80 with its new features. But from what I'm hearing I'll just keep the H70 or consider the H100 at some point.

posted on Sun Aug 21, 2011 6:36 am

No not the x58 1366 socket sniper board,the new gigabyte sniper 1155 sandy bridge board that will support 3 way sli. It will be out very soon but it will cOst probably 300+$. On my phone now bit if u search 1155 sniper board u will definitely find some preview reviews.

posted on Tue Aug 23, 2011 3:55 am

found a full review on that gigabyte sniper 2 board z68 chipset sli only not tri sli, heres the link i do not like ninjalanes reviews but here ya go,also will support pcie 3.0 with ivy bridge http://www.ninjalane.com/reviews/mother ... g1-sniper2 i do like the built in killer 2100 network card and creative xfi on board

posted on Tue Aug 23, 2011 5:09 am

thegleek wrote:
For the same price ($59), you can get Logitech's wireless solar keyboard K750 ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6823126199 )

Or for $20 more, you can opt for Logitech's wireless illuminated solar keyboard K800 ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... ech%20k800 )

I own the K750 and wouldn't part with it for the world!

I don't think the k800 is solar. Also, each of those keyboards have a very different layout and feel, so we're not comparing apples to apples. His original "Wired Ultra-thin Illuminated Keyboard" is actually a good soft-type style keyboard.

posted on Tue Aug 23, 2011 9:15 am

halfline wrote:I don't think the k800 is solar.

You are correct, the K800 isn't solar and I have fixed my post.

posted on Wed Aug 24, 2011 6:32 am

vargis14 wrote:found a full review on that gigabyte sniper 2 board z68 chipset sli only not tri sli, heres the link i do not like ninjalanes reviews but here ya go,also will support pcie 3.0 with ivy bridge http://www.ninjalane.com/reviews/mother ... g1-sniper2 i do like the built in killer 2100 network card and creative xfi on board

I read a few reviews that said some people had very choppy fps while gaming using the mobo, I have to look at it more.
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I really like the idea of water cooling so I'm going to look into it further. I would like to sell the 580 at this point but I don't know if it is worth it since I lost money since buying it and such. I put it on Craigslist but there has been no interest so unless someone else has another idea I think I may be stuck with it (I'd try Ebay but I hate it with a passion). I could always use the H70 and change to water cooling at a later time as well.

This is the set-up I'm looking at currently.

[115$](Owned) CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B (Bought for 145$, price dropped since, seeing if I can get the difference)
[200$] ASUS P8Z68-V PRO LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
[315$] 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 Desktop Processor BX80623I72600K (Was 300$ on sale but I didn't purchase it, wasn't sure)
[100$](Owned) Corsair Hydro Series H80 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CWCH80) (I linked the H80 because the H70 seems to have disappeared from Newegg)

[960$] 2xEVGA GTX 580 (SLI now or in future, maybe 3GB version)
[200$] ASUS Xonar D2X 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Express x1 Interface Sound Card (There are other alternatives I'm looking into that have been listed but I'm assuming I'll be spending some money on a sound card so I'm adding the largest amount)

[330$] Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (Was also on sale for 200$, didn't purchase as I'm figuring out which to buy still)
[360$](Owned) 2x2x Western Digital Caviar Black WD2002FAEX 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive (I bought two of these at a discounted price before making this thread, might return)
[19$](Owned) LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model iHAS124-04 - OEM
[130$] LITE-ON 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 8MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner with 3D Playback iHBS212-08 LightScribe Support

[190$] Corsair Obsidian Series 650D (CC650DW-1) Black Steel structure with black brushed aluminum faceplate ATX Mid Tower Computer Case (There was a deal for 20$ off a day ago but passed it up due to others suggestions)
[35$] nMEDIAPC Black Aluminum Panel PRO-LCD-B Media Center Programmable LCD
[190$](Owned) CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX850 (CMPSU-850AX) 850W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
[16$] SABRENT CRW-UINB 68-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Card Reader w/ USB 2.0 Port supports SDHC/VISTA

$3,160 Total
This is without the peripherals, water cooling, and dual monitors. I am also considering changing out the 1GB GPU for the 3GB since it favors multiple displays.

If I did water cooling I'd take out the H70 and probably change the GTX580's for the Hydro versions EVGA GeForce GTX 580 3072MB Hydro Copper 2 (3GB version, 1GB is 700$).

Currently looking into getting the difference back from the caviar's and vengeance with the current deals which would save roughly 50$. For some reason the few things I have bought went on sale for less than when I originally bought them on sale like a few days later.

The current questions I am addressing are:
Should I wait for the new Intel processors or the 600 series Nvidia GPU's this later in the year?
Should I sell the GTX 580 or add another for SLI? If so where?
Should I return the WD Caviar Blacks for the Samsung Spinpoints?
I think there were some others but I'm forgetting.

posted on Wed Aug 24, 2011 8:41 am

I removed the quotation marks from your URLs to fix the links in your post.

PhuN wrote: The current questions I am addressing are:
Should I wait for the new Intel processors or the 600 series Nvidia GPU's this later in the year?
Should I sell the GTX 580 or add another for SLI? If so where?
Should I return the WD Caviar Blacks for the Samsung Spinpoints?

The best time to buy is when your old PC no longer meets your needs. If you need a new computer today then buy it today. If you don't need one, wait. Recognize that because you are specifying top-of-the-line cost-is-no-object parts, you are paying a hefty price premium compared to the almost-as-good next step down.

You've already got an outstanding GeForce GTX580 graphics card. You could use it by itself until it is too slow or until the next batch of NVidia GPUs arrives in spring 2012.

The 2.0 TB Western Digital WD2002FAEX Caviar Black drives provide very good performance for mechanical hard-drives. The only advantage of the 1.0 TB Samsung HD103SJ is that it is cheaper, cooler and quieter. Since your highest-performance requirement files will go on the SSD, there isn't as much need for faster hard-drive performance, but it certainly won't hurt.

posted on Sun Aug 28, 2011 8:29 pm

JustAnEngineer wrote:I removed the quotation marks from your URLs to fix the links in your post.

PhuN wrote: The current questions I am addressing are:
Should I wait for the new Intel processors or the 600 series Nvidia GPU's this later in the year?
Should I sell the GTX 580 or add another for SLI? If so where?
Should I return the WD Caviar Blacks for the Samsung Spinpoints?

The best time to buy is when your old PC no longer meets your needs. If you need a new computer today then buy it today. If you don't need one, wait. Recognize that because you are specifying top-of-the-line cost-is-no-object parts, you are paying a hefty price premium compared to the almost-as-good next step down.

You've already got an outstanding GeForce GTX580 graphics card. You could use it by itself until it is too slow or until the next batch of NVidia GPUs arrives in spring 2012.

The 2.0 TB Western Digital WD2002FAEX Caviar Black drives provide very good performance for mechanical hard-drives. The only advantage of the 1.0 TB Samsung HD103SJ is that it is cheaper, cooler and quieter. Since your highest-performance requirement files will go on the SSD, there isn't as much need for faster hard-drive performance, but it certainly won't hurt.

Thanks for fixing the links, I didn't realize they had quotations in the urls.

It hasn't really been meeting my needs for the past 7 months since it has not been working but even if I did get it up and running its from 2008-2009 so I think its time for an upgrade. What I've been trying to avoid is buying a super nice system to then have new components come out right after I buy it. I know it will inevitably happen but I'd like to create a good period of time where it will not. I know this is likely improbable.

I'll probably use the GTX580 until the 600 series comes out. I thought they were coming out in early 2012 but maybe I heard wrong? The only thing I've been trying to figure out as far as the GPU goes is whether reselling for the 3GB version for multiple displays or getting the hydro version for watercooling would be worth it.

The WD caviars I think I am stuck with now, so I'll probably just keep those. I probably should have gotten the Samsungs but I guess its a little late now and its not worth reselling them.

So at this point from what I've heard: (Correct me if I'm wrong)
There is no point in waiting for Ivy bridge.
The WD Caviars are fine.

I've been researching watercooling the past few days. I think I understand a good portion of it now so I basically just have to decide on reliable parts and how I am going to configure it. My current plan is to use the Ax850 if it works, and possibly the gtx580. The case, h70, and cd roms etc.. will either be resold or used in the older system if I can ever figure out whats wrong with it.

Would the Corsair Ax850 be enough to support 2 580's in SLI, i7 2600k, watercooling, soundcard, and other components?

posted on Sun Aug 28, 2011 9:17 pm

PhuN wrote:The WD Caviar Blacks are fine.

They're the top-performing 7200 rpm drives available. The only drawback is that they're just a little bit more expensive and slightly hotter and noisier than the competition. You don't seem to be the type to let those small issues get in your way.

PhuN wrote:Would the Corsair Ax850 be enough to support 2 580's in SLI, i7 2600k, watercooling, soundcard, and other components?

Probably so: http://techreport.com/articles.x/20889/9
You'll need more than 50 amperes on the +12 Volt rail. A high-quality 750-watt PSU like the PP&C Silencer 750 that Damage used in that test is probably the minimum power supply for a pair of such extremely power-hungry GPUs.

posted on Tue Aug 30, 2011 9:51 pm

JustAnEngineer wrote:
PhuN wrote:The WD Caviar Blacks are fine.
They're the top-performing 7200 rpm drives available. The only drawback is that they're just a little bit more expensive and slightly hotter and noisier than the competition. You don't seem to be the type to let those small issues get in your way.

PhuN wrote:Would the Corsair Ax850 be enough to support 2 580's in SLI, i7 2600k, watercooling, soundcard, and other components?
Probably so: http://techreport.com/articles.x/20889/9
You'll need more than 50 amperes on the +12 Volt rail. A high-quality 750-watt PSU like the PP&C Silencer 750 that Damage used in that test is probably the minimum power supply for a pair of such extremely power-hungry GPUs.

Yeah, that's why I chose them but I guess I kinda over estimated since I'll be using them mainly for storage. The performance definitely won't hurt, just not sure I needed it but its fine. Noise has never really been an issue, noisy fans honestly don't bug me for whatever reason. So yeah you basically got that all right lol.

Here is the final list of parts, Final Wishlist. I'm just going to use whatever combos and sales possible. That's everything, I already have the ram and the HDD's. I still need to settle on the parts for watercooling but I have it narrowed down, if anyone has any suggestions that would be great.

I am going to be selling the parts I currently have as I can't really use them now. Anyone know of a place besides Ebay?

I think I've covered everything unless anyone else has any ideas? I'm going to buy the parts tomorrow.

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