Building a high End Machine HElp

21-04-2011 9:18pm #1

I'm looking at getting a high end machine built for gaming and ediitng film on. I'm looking to spend around 1,000 - 1,400 and want a machine which will run all the latest and upcoming games on high settings with no difficulty as well as allowing me to easily utilsie professional editing software and programs. Oh and want to be able to play 3D games on it also.

I'd appreciate if people could make suggestions as what I should look at for it. Friend of mine is going to build it for me simply a case of me getting the parts. I want a machine which I can easily upgrade over the coming years as I'm looking for a machine which will do me 5, 6 years.

IrishMetalhead · 21-04-2011 9:32pm

what kind of case would you like? something that looks cool or something more elegant and plain?

21-04-2011 9:37pm

IrishMetalhead wrote: »

what kind of case would you like? something that looks cool or something more elegant and plain?

Don't really care, it's what's inside that counts though it would be nice to have something distinctive.

IrishMetalhead · 21-04-2011 9:51pm

5 cases lined up for you from my personal faves with amazing cooling so just take you pick all in the same price range:

Corsair 600T Graphite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLCwBkf4o94

NZXT Phantom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUQ_K_MeK9E
(Availible in all 3 Colours, Red, Black and White)

Silverstone Raven: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFmbodtTq1o

Antec Twelve Hundred: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j3MNAQLuIQ
(An oldie but an widely know classic)

Coolermaster HAF X: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLFbjR97moM

sink · 21-04-2011 9:57pm

I built this a few weeks ago. Very fast handles three 1080p monitors at a total resolution of 5760X1080, with everything maxed out on most games. The only game which I had to turn graphics down was Crysis 2 as on max it would regularly drop to around 20fps but still managed to average around 30fps.

Case: FRACTAL DESIGN DEFINE R3 Black Pearl - €91.69
Case Fans: Noiseblocker BlackSilent Pro PL2 120mm x1, PK2 140mm x3 - €51.92
PSU: Corsair 750HX 750W - €122.22
Motherboard: MSI P67A-GD55 (B3) - €135.24
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K - €181.11
Heatsink: Corsair A70 - €33.03
GPU: MSI Radeon HD 6950 2GB x2 - €430.28
RAM: Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC1600 CL8 4GB kit x2 - €88.28
SSD: Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB - €196.74

Total: - €1,330.51

Not included in that budget is the OS, a secondary hard drive and optical drive as I already had those and also €30 for delivery from hardwareversand.de.

I overclocked the CPU to 4.6GHz. I also unlocked the extra shaders on the HD 6950 cards using a custom bios, not the reference HD 6970 bios as that overvolts the lower rated memory of the HD 6950 and can burn it out. I then overclocked them to 880mhz with memory at 1360mhz, getting me very close to HD6970 performance.

IrishMetalhead · 21-04-2011 10:01pm

a i7 2600K would be alot better in this case rather than the 2500K since this is going to be a worksation aswell thats the only change I would make, already specced up something unique but need to know which case first

sink · 21-04-2011 10:02pm

Just realised you want to play stereoscopic 3D games, in that case you have to go for Geforce, as Radeon don't support that feature

21-04-2011 10:05pm

sink wrote: »

I built this a few weeks ago. Very fast handles three 1080p monitors at a total resolution of 5760X1080, with everything maxed out on most games. The only game which I had to turn graphics down was Crysis 2 as on max it would regularly drop to around 20fps but still managed to average around 30fps.

Case: FRACTAL DESIGN DEFINE R3 Black Pearl - €91.69
Case Fans: Noiseblocker BlackSilent Pro PL2 120mm x1, PK2 140mm x3 - €51.92
PSU: Corsair 750HX 750W - €122.22
Motherboard: MSI P67A-GD55 (B3) - €135.24
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K - €181.11
Heatsink: Corsair A70 - €33.03
GPU: MSI Radeon HD 6950 2GB x2 - €430.28
RAM: Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC1600 CL8 4GB kit x2 - €88.28
SSD: Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB - €196.74

Total: - €1,330.51

Not included in that budget is the OS, a secondary hard drive and optical drive as I already had those and also €30 for delivery from hardwareversand.de.

I overclocked the CPU to 4.6GHz. I also unlocked the extra shaders on the HD 6950 cards using a custom bios, not the reference HD 6970 bios as that overvolts the lower rated memory of the HD 6950 and can burn it out. I then overclocked them to 880mhz with memory at 1360mhz, getting me very close to HD6970 performance.

Damn nice set up you got there. Have you tried Crysis 2 in 3D on it?

Any recommendations on a 3d capeable card which will play Crysis 2 and it's ilk with ease.

sink · 21-04-2011 10:08pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Damn nice set up you got there. Have you tried Crysis 2 in 3D on it?

Radeons don't support 3D only Geforce cards do, nor do my monitors, 3D monitors are very expensive.

21-04-2011 10:11pm

sink wrote: »

Radeons don't support 3D only Geforce cards do, nor do my monitors, 3D monitors are very expensive.

My stealth edit was too late it seems.:D

Thinking what I'd so is use 2 monitors and eventually 3 but for the time being one which supports 3D and one normal monitor.

sink · 21-04-2011 10:15pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Any recommendations on a 3d capeable card which will play Crysis 2 and it's ilk with ease.

Within your budget either two Geforce GTX 560 ti in SLi (€380), or a Geforce GTX 580 (€405). Above that you've got the options of two GTX 570 SLi (€550) or a GTX 590 (€611)

FYI two GTX 560 ti are faster than one GTX 580, and two GTX 570 are faster than one GTX 590.

sink · 21-04-2011 10:18pm

You also need need 2 cards to power 3 monitors in a nvidia setup. The only single card that can power a 3 monitor surround setup is the GTX 590.

IrishMetalhead · 21-04-2011 10:20pm

OK heres what I'd recommend so far without a Case so you can choose it yourself

22-04-2011 11:55am

Is it true that they will build the machine for you for 20 euro? Seems all most to good to be true that for 50 they will build and post the finished machine.

Monotype · 22-04-2011 12:34pm

Yeah, they'll build it for €20, but they will won't install heavy graphics cards and heatsinks in case they break in shipping.

Is the 3D monitor to be included in the budget? Which 3D tech are you interested in? nVidia card + shutter glasses + 120Hz monitor or polarised glasses and screen?

22-04-2011 1:05pm

Monotype wrote: »

Yeah, they'll build it for €20, but they will won't install heavy graphics cards and heatsinks in case they break in shipping.

I was curious about pricing some parts in town and when I mentioned that myself and a friend would be buildign it ourselves the guy told me he could build it for me if I supplied parts. Was somewhat curious as to the price and when I asked he told me 200 euro to build it.

Monotype wrote: »

Is the 3D monitor to be included in the budget? Which 3D tech are you interested in? nVidia card + shutter glasses + 120Hz monitor or polarised glasses and screen?

I'm looking at the Nvidia's 3D Vision tech as it seems the best way to go about it though I'm open to any recommendations that people have.

22-04-2011 1:30pm

Looking at cases and I have these three in mind, hoping to settle on one this evening.

http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?adp=0&aid=37608&agid=632&apop=2

http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?adp=0&aid=38375&agid=632&apop=2

http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?adp=0&aid=29568&agid=632&apop=5

Monotype · 22-04-2011 1:38pm

€200 to build? Wow. Talk about fleecing. You should build yourself for the experience.

A good advantage of the polarising tech is that the glasses are very cheap but there's not that many monitors available.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zalman-ZM-M215W-Stereoscopic-Definition-Monitor/dp/B003DNRDPQ/

nVidia's version seems to have more push/marketing/support behind it.

22-04-2011 1:44pm

Monotype wrote: »

€200 to build? Wow. Talk about fleecing. You should build yourself for the experience.

A good advantage of the polarising tech is that the glasses are very cheap but there's not that many monitors available.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zalman-ZM-M215W-Stereoscopic-Definition-Monitor/dp/B003DNRDPQ/

nVidia's version seems to have more push/marketing/support behind it.

When he said 200 I thought to myself that I'd rather do it myself and make a balls of it than give him 200 euro for it.

The nVidia seems the easiest option, and all I really need is the one pair of glasses which come with the set.

22-04-2011 1:51pm

Anyone have any idea what build and delivery time is like for hardwareversand? Hoping to order what I want over the weekend but with the bank holiday gettign a bank transfer done could mean it won't go through till end of next week.

IrishMetalhead · 22-04-2011 2:45pm

€20 for the assembly and €30 for the build but they'll fit the stock cooler instead of the better aftermarket one and they won't mount the graphic cards either so you'll have to install both the grahpic cards and the cpu cooler yourself also you still have to install windows yourself aswell

22-04-2011 2:52pm

IrishMetalhead wrote: »

€20 for the assembly and €30 for the build but they'll fit the stock cooler instead of the better aftermarket one and they won't mount the graphic cards either so you'll have to install both the grahpic cards and the cpu cooler yourself also you still have to install windows yourself aswell

Gonna build it myself, been about 8 years since I built a machine and it's time to get back on the bike. Looking forward to it as the most I've done hardware wise in the past few years is replace fans , ram and other small jobs.

22-04-2011 4:48pm

Just got a phone call to say that he would do me a deal and build it for 150 and if I wanted he would install Windows 7 and drivers for 80 euro as long as I supplied my own copy of 7. I think my laughter may have put him off as he told me that it was the best deal I'd get and if I wanted it to get back asap.

sink · 22-04-2011 4:58pm

Considering building a PC well with decent cable management and installing all software and updates can take several hours. €150 would work out to somewhere between €30-50 an hour, depending on may factors. It's not that far off what you would be charged by a qualified tradesman, however he is probably not qualified and unlikely to be declaring that income and paying tax and other overheads on it, so it is a bit steep. Especially considering people regularly volunteer to help others build their own.

22-04-2011 6:05pm

sink wrote: »

Considering building a PC well with decent cable management and installing all software and updates can take several hours. €150 would work out to somewhere between €30-50 an hour, depending on may factors. It's not that far off what you would be charged by a qualified tradesman, however he is probably not qualified and unlikely to be declaring that income and paying tax and other overheads on it, so it is a bit steep. Especially considering people regularly volunteer to help others build their own.

I've done it ny times myself but rarely if ever charge, only do so when I have to supply a copy of windows. Last time someone I knew used the guy who rang me they got their computer back minus soundcard.

22-04-2011 8:09pm

\looking at your set up Sink and thinking something like this:

Case: not sure yet
Case Fans: Noiseblocker BlackSilent Pro PL2 120mm x1, PK2 140mm x3
Motherboard: MSI P67A-GD55 (B3)
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K -
Heatsink: Corsair A70
GPU: geforce gtx 570, 1280mb ddr5 x 2
RAM: Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC1600 CL8 4GB kit x2
SSD: Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB
Blu Ray drive: Samsung SH-B123L Retail
WD Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 3 6Gb/s
Nvidia3d vision kit

also need to get a wirless card. any other suggestions

Monotype · 22-04-2011 8:19pm

What monitor are you getting? You might get glasses + monitor cheaper together.

22-04-2011 8:39pm

Monotype wrote: »

What monitor are you getting? You might get glasses + monitor cheaper together.

Still looking at a monitor, if you have any suggestions throw I'd appreciate it.

I take it that what i've picked out will serve me well for a few years and will run fare such as battlefield 3 on high settings.

23-04-2011 12:33am

What sort of power supply should I get for the machine, if I go with the specs in my post above?

23-04-2011 12:52am

This is what I have in my basket atm, a little over my budget but I think I can stretch to it. Any comments fellow boardsies, something I'm missing perhaps. I know I have to add in a network card and psu. Do I need to get the Nvidia 3d kit for the 3D on the card to work or can I just get glasses and 3d monitor.

deconduo · 23-04-2011 2:18am

Spinpoint F3 is a better and cheaper hard drive.
€60 for 4GB of RAM is a rip off, you can get 8GB kits for a similar price
The rest is fine, maybe get a CM 690II as a better case, but thats mostly just personal preference.

SuperFlower Amazon 800W would do you, probably don't even need that much.

Building a high End Machine HElp

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