High performance gaming build

Ross_Mahon

Hi everyone, this is my first build, I'm looking to create a high performance gaming build for upcoming releases and years to come, my budget would be on the 1000 mark. I have a rough idea of what i want, advice on my choice would be greatly appreciated

Asus P6X58D Premium Skt 1366 €259.13

Intel Core I7 960 Skt 1366 Retail €259.13

Patriot Signature 6GB DDR3 1600 Triple Channel €68.00

KFA2 Geforce GTX 560 1GB TI EX OC Edition €191.62

Antec Midi Case Three Hundred Blk €69.00

Subtotal: €814.83

Vicxas

What PSU are you getting? What about optical drives and HDDs?

deconduo

Pretty bad imo.

-1366 is a dead socket thats horribly overpriced. Sandy Bridge is where its at.
-Antec 300 was a good case, 3 years ago. Its outdated and overpriced compared to modern cases.
-Horribly overpriced RAM
-Good GPU choice, but I've never heard of the manufacturer. Its better to go with known brands.

This is what I would go with:

Total build cost: €806.57 + €30 shipping
8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-10667U CL9 €49.89
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1000GB, SATA II (HD103SJ) €44.09
Club 3D Radeon 6950 1024MB, AMD Radeon HD 6950, PCI-Express €188.59
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse DEFINE R3 Black Pearl €89.75
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 800W €81.81
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA €17.49
ASRock P67 Extreme4 (B3), Sockel 1155, ATX €129.53
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155 €172.43
Scythe Mugen 2 Rev. B, CPU-Kühler, für alle Sockel geeignet €32.99

You could add a 64GB or 128GB SSD. Or a second 6950 to crossfire.

Monotype

What about windows and speakers?

The 1366 is pretty much obsolete in the light of the 1155 platform unless you require the exclusive benefits (i.e., 6 RAM slots is probably the biggest).

Get a 1155 board + 2500K.

Edit: Go for deconduo's build.

deconduo

Monotype wrote: »

What about windows and speakers?

The 1366 is pretty much obsolete in the light of the 1155 platform unless you require the exclusive benefits (i.e., 6 RAM slots is probably the biggest).

Get a 1155 board + 2500K.

Edit: Go for deconduo's build.

Yeah, do you need Windows, mouse, keyboard, speakers, monitor etc. We need more details

Ross_Mahon

Vicxas wrote: »

What PSU are you getting? What about optical drives and HDDs?

Monotype wrote: »

What about windows and speakers?

The 1366 is pretty much obsolete in the light of the 1155 platform unless you require the exclusive benefits (i.e., 6 RAM slots is probably the biggest).

Get a 1155 board + 2500K.

Edit: Go for deconduo's build.

deconduo wrote: »

Yeah, do you need Windows, mouse, keyboard, speakers, monitor etc. We need more details

Sorry for being unclear, i have everything else i need, just the above. I've read a lot on here about people dissing the i7 and that an i5 is only needed? What about for future games?

deconduo

Ross_Mahon wrote: »

Sorry for being unclear, i have everything else i need, just the above. I've read a lot on here about people dissing the i7 and that an i5 is only needed? What about for future games?

The i5-2500k is the best value gaming CPU at the moment, there is nothing that beats it. The i7-2600k has hyperthreading, which doesn't help in games at all so they have the same performance.

What model PSU do you have, are you sure its enough?

Ross_Mahon

deconduo wrote: »

The i5-2500k is the best value gaming CPU at the moment, there is nothing that beats it. The i7-2600k has hyperthreading, which doesn't help in games at all so they have the same performance.

What model PSU do you have, are you sure its enough?

I have a 500W Thermaltake TR2 RX, so there would be no difference in gaming performance whatsoever with the i5?

Vicxas

I7's are over priced, i5-2500k is the recommendation of nearly anyone i know.

deconduo

Ross_Mahon wrote: »

I have a 500W Thermaltake TR2 RX, so there would be no difference in gaming performance whatsoever with the i5?

Pretty much, you can look at the comparison here:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/287?vs=288

If you are willing to crossfire, this will destroy anything you throw at it. Its totally overkill :P

Total build cost: €761.15 + €30 shipping
8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-10667U CL9 €49.89
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse DEFINE R3 Black Pearl €89.75
ASRock P67 Extreme4 (B3), Sockel 1155, ATX €129.53
Scythe Mugen 2 Rev. B, CPU-Kühler, für alle Sockel geeignet €32.99
2 x Club 3D Radeon 6950 1024MB, AMD Radeon HD 6950, PCI-Express €188.59
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 800W €81.81

With the spare money I would recommend an SSD such as this one:

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=46110&agid=1145

heid

6950 - Get the 2gb ref instead for an extra €15-20 or a 570.

Ross_Mahon

Vicxas wrote: »

I7's are over priced, i5-2500k is the recommendation of nearly anyone i know.

deconduo wrote: »

Pretty much, you can look at the comparison here:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/287?vs=288

I'm starting to see the light on the i7 being overpriced!

What are the benefits of using a solid state disk?

deconduo

Ross_Mahon wrote: »

I'm starting to see the light on the i7 being overpriced!

What are the benefits of using a solid state disk?

SSDs are drastically faster than normal mechanical drives. While this won't improve performance in games, it will make booting up, loading times, starting programs and other multitasking much quicker.

SSDs are much more expensive however, and are usually smaller drives. What most people do is put their OS along with the most commonly used programs and games on it and have a separate drive for documents, movies, pictures, music etc.

Leman

deconduo wrote: »

SSDs are drastically faster than normal mechanical drives. While this won't improve performance in games, it will make booting up, loading times, starting programs and other multitasking much quicker.

SSDs are much more expensive however, and are usually smaller drives. What most people do is put their OS along with the most commonly used programs and games on it and have a separate drive for documents, movies, pictures, music etc.

I have to disagree on the games part.

Sure, for things like Battlefield or other limited arena FPS games, it might not make a difference, but for RPG's such as Dragon Age: Origins or Fallout 3, which have lots of discrete areas that are loaded independently, it truely is night and day. Before my OCZ bricked itself (protip: Get a Crucial or Intel SSD, stay the hell away from OCZ) I was playing Fallout 3 on it and it pretty much changed how the game is played, since areas INSTANTLY loaded instead of taking 15-20 seconds.

Yes, you won't be able to do a LOT of games, but if you pick one game, it'll be so worth it.

In any case, yes, what most people do is install their OS to the SSD, then use a secondary HDD to store media and whatnot.

deconduo

Leman wrote: »

I have to disagree on the games part.

Sure, for things like Battlefield or other limited arena FPS games, it might not make a difference, but for RPG's such as Dragon Age: Origins or Fallout 3, which have lots of discrete areas that are loaded independently, it truely is night and day. Before my OCZ bricked itself (protip: Get a Crucial or Intel SSD, stay the hell away from OCZ) I was playing Fallout 3 on it and it pretty much changed how the game is played, since areas INSTANTLY loaded instead of taking 15-20 seconds.

Yes, you won't be able to do a LOT of games, but if you pick one game, it'll be so worth it.

In any case, yes, what most people do is install their OS to the SSD, then use a secondary HDD to store media and whatnot.

I did say it will improve loading times, but it won't give you higher FPS or let you play at a better resolution or higher settings.

Leman

deconduo wrote: »

I did say it will improve loading times, but it won't give you higher FPS or let you play at a better resolution or higher settings.

I've found this not to be the case (for Fallout 3 anyway). The majority of my issue with a 5750 anyway was jittering, which I had put down to the GPU. Turns out it was a HDD bottleneck, and it allowed me too play with higher res textures. :P

Ross_Mahon

Well if it enhances certain games in loading times, I'll definitely look into getting one, they are fairly pricey at the moment though

Monotype

Leman wrote: »

I've found this not to be the case (for Fallout 3 anyway). The majority of my issue with a 5750 anyway was jittering, which I had put down to the GPU. Turns out it was a HDD bottleneck, and it allowed me too play with higher res textures. :P

Maybe your RAM was full and it was reading directly from the HDD? Or possibly the difference between virtual memory on HDD and SSD.

Leman

Monotype wrote: »

Maybe your RAM was full and it was reading directly from the HDD? Or possibly the difference between virtual memory on HDD and SSD.

No, I mean the stuttering was being caused by the game having to load the textures into RAM from the HDD in the first place, since it only does so when they are needed. FO3 rarely uses more than 2GB of ram, and I have OVER 9000 RAMZ (8 on the DIMMS + 1 on the GPU :P)

Monotype

Ah right, I would have assumed that all that would be handled at the loading screens. With Fallout 3 being such an open game, I suppose it would be a more likely candidate to load textures when you come to them given that you could be wandering off in any direction. That reminds me that I should get back to finishing those expansions. GOTYE has been on my shelf for quite a while now, still in plastic!

marco_polo

Monotype wrote: »

Ah right, I would have assumed that all that would be handled at the loading screens. With Fallout 3 being such an open game, I suppose it would be a more likely candidate to load textures when you come to them given that you could be wandering off in any direction. That reminds me that I should get back to finishing those expansions. GOTYE has been on my shelf for quite a while now, still in plastic!

In the outdoor areas Fallout 3 was like an entirely different game when I put it on an SSD (and that was moving it from a 500GB F3 which is no slouch), it really batters your HDD when wandering around especially with draw distances set towards the maxmum.