Gaming rig, all advice and opinions welcome!

[thohag]

Alright lads (and ladies)? Just thought I should let people check out this spec and advise, criticise, hate me, want to make love etc. I hope to buy this in a about a months time when I have enough money saved up.

Will be used mostly for gaming (ARMA3, assuming the requirements stay about the same when it is finally released) and some standard surfing and music. I have done a fair bit of research over time and looked at other 'check this spec' threads and landed on this which is perfect for my budget. Would love this thing to be as 'future proof' as possible but tech changes so quick nowadays it's scary. Anyway tell me what you think unk:

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 932 FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3820 (3.6GHz) 10MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® SABERTOOTH X79: SOCKET 2011, R.O.G
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPERX GENESIS QUAD-DDR3 1866MHz X.M.P(4 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 680 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1050W PRO SERIES™ HX1050-80 PLUS® SILVER MODULAR (£159)
Processor Cooling
INTEL CERTIFIED LIQUID CPU COOLER FOR SOCKET LG2011 (£79)
Sound Card
Asus Xonar DG 5.1 SoundCard & Headphone AMP (Award Winner) (£20)
Network Facilities
Bigfoot Killer 2100 PCI-E Gigabit LAN Card - Max Gaming (£59)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Firewire & Video Editing
1 x IEEE 1394a FIREWIRE PORT ONBOARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
IIYAMA E2273HDS 22" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D 1920x1080 (£129)
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® MK250 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£21)
Speakers
LOGITECH S120 2.0 BLACK SPEAKER SYSTEM (£9)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
PCS EXTRA-CARE DIAMOND DELIVERY - MON-FRI, PRE-NOON (£9)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

£2069 inc VAT and Delivery

 

[Wolvo7]

Hey I'm kinda new here but I've been looking at the forums for some time so I'll just say what I expect people to tell you for this build.

- If it's mainly for gaming the CPU is a bit overkill, and most of the advisors in these forums usually recommend an i5-2500 or 2600. Take the k versions only if you intend to overclock.
- The GPU is the best one out there atm so good choice
- 16GB RAM is also overkill as games require no more than 4GB atm, you can go for 8GB for future-proofing.
- No need for the 1050W PSU for this build, consider dropping to the Corsair 850W.
- Liquid cooling is not needed if you're not overclocking, you could drop down to the air cooling.
- The Bigfoot killer network card won't change anything on a modern PC.

Again that's what I gathered from comments around the website, wait for someone else to double-check first =)

 

[mantadog]

Yeah wolvo is prett much spot on.

Do you plan to add a 3nd 680 at any point, if not then you can drop the PSU to a 650-750w, if you do then check the configurator to see what size of PSU you will need. I think a 1050w is a bit big even for SLI 680's

I would keep that CPU, not much more than an i7 2600 but is a bit faster so worth keeping it.

 

[AwesomeDude]

Look at this Spec for Gaming will perform the same and you will not notice a difference!

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 932 FULL TOWER GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics

Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX

Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)

Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 680 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX850 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£99)

Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
2 x 200Mbps HomePlug AV - Create a Wired Network Using Electric Sockets! (£38)

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)

Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY V10 - 1 Year, 1 User + 5GB Online Backup (£12)

Monitor
IIYAMA E2473HDS 24" LED WIDESCREEN, 2 HDMI/DVI-D 1920x1080 (£159)

DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE GOLD PLATED V1.4 HDMI CABLE (£8)

Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® MK250 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£21)

Speakers
LOGITECH S120 2.0 BLACK SPEAKER SYSTEM (£9)

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Delivery
PCS EXTRA-CARE DIAMOND DELIVERY - MON-FRI, PRE-NOON (£9)

Build Time
FAST TRACK 3 WORKING DAY DISPATCH (£59)
Quantity 1



Great spec for gaming Got A corsair Psu so you can up to 2 Gtx 680's Later as they are the best gpu on the market right now!

 

[thohag]

Appreciate the feedback so far lads! Will amend and decide on some stuff. Few questions:

-Is there a piece of tech that I should be patient and wait for over the next few of months?

-Is 16Gb RAM really that much of an overkill? I mean it's cheap as chips to have 16Gb and pretty much guarantees I never need to upgrade RAM.

-What kind of performance could I expect from this kind of build? Using recently released games as an example. I mean to laptop I'm typing this up on is ancient (struggles playing Operation Flashpoint Resistance at decent settings and would probably explode if I inserted a BF3 disk).

-Is there a smaller yet similarly performing PC case/tower I can select? Just looking at those dimensions makes ME feel small. By selecting one of the cheaper towers (The Coolermaster HAF 922 Case for example) would I be compromising performance/future upgrades/life expectancy (for lack of a better description) of my build?

Off to work now. Look forward to your answers.

 

[Rakk]

-Is there a piece of tech that I should be patient and wait for over the next few of months?

There is always something new coming, if you wait for oen thing, you'll then wait for the next and you will never get your PC

-Is 16Gb RAM really that much of an overkill? I mean it's cheap as chips to have 16Gb and pretty much guarantees I never need to upgrade RAM.

Well, you'll not use a good half of it for quite some while, but as you say if its cheap, theres no harm in it, so it's upto you, but you may find you never do use that extra 8GB even after a few years.

-What kind of performance could I expect from this kind of build? Using recently released games as an example. I mean to laptop I'm typing this up on is ancient (struggles playing Operation Flashpoint Resistance at decent settings and would probably explode if I inserted a BF3 disk).

It will eat up any current game you throw at it at max settings, and will do for quite some time.

 

[mantadog]

I would have advised you hold on for the latest line of GPU's if you were ording last month, but really i would go ahead and buy it now. Otherwise as rakk alreayd said, you will be waiting forever.

16GB of RAM is like.... quite a bit. It will probably see you through that system without ever needing to think about an upgrade, thats for sure. If you have the money, and are looking to never have to upgrade then i can't see the harm.

The GTX 680 is the best their is at the moment, so you will be fine with max settings on the most demanding games for some time to come. If you keep the big PSU you can add a 2nd at a later stage and you will be maxing out games for years to come.

The tower is personal choice. That case is really huge, something smaller would be fine the HAFF 922 is hardly small so i can't see any problems going for that case, even if you were to upgrade to dual 680's in the future it will still be perfectly fine!

 

[Atuleon]

Yep, Mantadog and Rakk are spot on.
RAM - 16gb of RAM won't hurt as it's cheap, (one less thing to worry about upgrading later really).
PSU - The big PSU will be quite energy efficient as it should be able to provide most of your PCs energy requirements on it's highest rail, (resulting electric savings and less wear and tear on the PSU).
GPU - Rak's right, you will otherwise always be waiting for the next one and never get your PC.Now is a good time to buy the 680 as in theory it should be a longest wait until the next gen of GPU comes out (my thinking on this is because both AMD's 7970 was released fairly recently and GeForce extremely recently). So you will be happy with your GPU being at the top of the game for the most longest time.

 

[thohag]

Thanks for the replies people. A few more questions:

When you mention the 'big PSU' mantadog and Atuleon, do you mean the 1050W or the 850W? I do plan to add another 680 in future for some extra fire power.

How much does a case effect the cooling and general performance of a build? I have chosen a cheaper and (in my opinion) prettier case and, with the money saved, added in a fan controller for some added fans and sexy touch screen display. It's not much smaller than my previous selection though lol.

Heres the build:

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3820 (3.6GHz) 10MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® SABERTOOTH X79: SOCKET 2011, R.O.G
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPERX GENESIS QUAD-DDR3 1600MHz X.M.P(4 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 680 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX850 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£99)
Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EVO EXTREME HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£39)
Fan Controller
NZXT Sentry 2 Fan Controller with upto 5 Fitted Case Fans
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
2 x 200Mbps HomePlug AV - Create a Wired Network Using Electric Sockets! (£38)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Firewire & Video Editing
1 x IEEE 1394a FIREWIRE PORT ONBOARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
IIYAMA E2273HDS 22" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D 1920x1080 (£129)
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE GOLD PLATED V1.4 HDMI CABLE (£8)
Surge Protection
6 Socket Compact 2M UFO Surge Protector (£9)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
PCS EXTRA-CARE DIAMOND DELIVERY - MON-FRI, PRE-NOON (£9)
Build Time
FAST TRACK 3 WORKING DAY DISPATCH (£59)
Quantity
1

Price: £1,960.00 including VAT and delivery.

I will buy the accessories such as the keyboard, mouse, speakers and headset from elsewhere online. No disrespect to PCS of course.
Tell me what you think :taz:

 

[mantadog]

The case is fairly important, with high end processors and GPU's especially, they kick out alot of heat which is vented into the case for the most part. If you have a half decent case (the CM690 MKII would be my choice too) you get more room inside and more fans fitted which draws much more air through the case to replace the heated air inside, with the cooler air from outside the case. Now the CM690 MKII is a good case, your average user can't ask for much more to be honest, the cases at twice the price offer more advanced features for cable managment, watercooling and slightly more room for multi GPU setups. That also give a bit of bragging rights for enthusiasts i geuss, and they weight a ton!

The PSU, even with a 2nd GTX 680 you could get away with an 850w PSU as they are very low power consumption cards, and you would still have a good bit of headroom left for a couple of HDD's etc should you wish.