Some suggestions for specifics on a new build

Moriarty

I'd welcome some suggestions on some specific parts for a new build I'm planning.. it'll be for some new releases coming up - BF3 amongst them - as well as a bunch of older games. I've already got a monitor, windows license and speakers.

Looking at:

Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155
A Z68 motherboard.. of some kind..
~2TB sata drive
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA
64GB SSD for Smart Response Technology in combination with the drive above
8GB RAM
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W
GTX 570 graphics .. of some kind..
Annnd a nice case .. of some kind too..


Any opinions?

deconduo

Moriarty wrote: »

I'd welcome some suggestions on some specific parts for a new build I'm planning.. it'll be for some new releases coming up - BF3 amongst them - as well as a bunch of older games. I've already got a monitor, windows license and speakers.

Looking at:

Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155
A Z68 motherboard.. of some kind..
~2TB sata drive
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA
64GB SSD for Smart Response Technology in combination with the drive above
8GB RAM
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W
GTX 570 graphics .. of some kind..
Annnd a nice case .. of some kind too..


Any opinions?

Total build cost: €802.70 + €30 shipping
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155 €182.69
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W €52.04
Palit Geforce GTX 570 Sonic, 1280MB, PCI-Express €274.59
Samsung EcoGreen F4 2000GB, SATA II (HD204UI) 8,9cm (3,5") €62.99
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA €16.22
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9 €33.65
ASRock P67 Pro3 (B3), Sockel 1155, ATX €87.71
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse DEFINE R3 Titanium Grey €92.81

I skipped the Z68 motherboard as you're better off using the SSD as a stand alone drive. The Smart Caching is really best suited for SSDs that are 30GB or smaller.

You might want to add a nice cooler as well, for some decent overclocking. This would be a good choice:
http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=49134&agid=669

Moriarty

Cheers deconduo

One thing is, I've read that smart caching benefits from the 64gig as it means more can be held in the cache before being removed, as well as the speed benefit from the larger drive. I won't be buying 700 gigs of SSD space to fit my steam and windows folders on them either, so this is a happy medium

Monotype

There's a Z68 Pro3, but I agree with deconduo - the benefits of the caching aren't great. Programs will be cached once you start using them a few times and will never be quite as fast as the SSD. If you use a lot of different programs, it will be swapped around and old ones will be slower again.
I think a new drive is best utilised with windows and your main programs so that you get fast boot and your regular programs are always fast.

How much games are we talking about?
If you're the type of person that just plays one or two main ones for a long time, put them on the SSD.
If you play the same few for a month and then move on, then the caching might not be so bad.
If you get a new game every two weeks or less and play many different ones regularly, then you should get HDD RAID.

Moriarty

I generally stick to the same things for a while before moving on. I know there's the option of shuffling individual games onto an SSD while playing them, but im fickle enough that I'd constantly be moving games back and forth which would just be hassle and end up making more work for me in the end.

I've got a hdd raid array going at the moment in my present system, but I can't really be bothered doing another on a home machine when the option of the SSD caching is there and sounds like it'll do the job for me.

I guess for the mobo it's just a case of the number of ports/slots and other extras I want to pay for in the end. Must go browse some more

Moriarty

So, I've gotten a bit further with this. I'll be adding a 1.5TB seagate drive I already have sitting about and 8gigs of ram from crucial onto the below. Must look for a keyboard/mouse and I think I'm done

Item|Price
Total build cost: €853.63 + €30 shipping
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155|€186.75
Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3, Intel Z68, ATX|€105.42
EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD Superclocked, 1280MB DDR5, PCI-Express|€289.89
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 650W|€68.93
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA|€15.38
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€90.50
Cooler Master HAF Mini 922M ohne Netzteil|€96.76

deconduo

The HAF 922 is a great case (I have it myself) but it just isn't worth it at that price. Something like the 690 II Lite or the Fractal design R3 would be better value.

If you want to SLI I'd grab the XFX Core 750W PSU instead. 650W just isn't enough.

That motherboard has good features for the price, but there have been a lot of problems with Gigabyte boards going into an infinite boot loop, and that board is one of the main offenders. Here's a thread about it:
http://www.overclock.net/intel-motherboards/1034724-gigabyte-p67-z68-boot-cycling-problem.html

There's a good chance you won't have a problem with it, but it might be worth considering an alternative.

Moriarty

Nice suggestion on the 690 II Lite, modificaiton number one made to the list

That's a killer problem for the gigabyte boards, very surprised it seems to be so widespread with no word from gigabyte on a fix for them. It's pretty off-putting, I'll have to go digging for a non-gigabyte mobo with a similar feature set.

I've picked up a Microsoft Sidewinder X4 Keyboard (£29) and Logitech G400 (£28) off Amazon with free delivery and an 8GB (2x4GB) kit of ram from crucial so it's pretty much down to the core components left to be ordered - hardwareversand seems to do the job there so I'll try and push a paypal order through there in the next few days.

Moriarty

Item|Price
Total build cost: €867.67 + €30 shipping
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155|€185.73
MSI Z68A-GD55 (G3), Intel Z68, ATX, DDR3|€139.11
EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD Superclocked, 1280MB DDR5, PCI-Express|€294.08
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 650W|€70.97
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA|€15.46
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€92.81
Cooler Master 690 II LITE Midi-Tower - PURE Black Edition, ohne Netzteil|€69.51


Finally nailed it down

Added to that:

2x 4GB Crucial DDR3-1600
Logitech G400 Optical Mouse
Microsoft Sidewinder X4 Keyboard

Hope that might be of some help for anyone looking to get a machine together in the next while

Cheers to deconduo for some steering in the right direction. Nice bits of useful info across the forum in general too.

deconduo

Any reason you're getting the RAM from Crucial? This is €20 less:
http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=44315&agid=1192

Also either of these are probably better value motherboards:
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=43134&agid=1601
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=50900&agid=1601