critique my new gaming rig

[moguri]

going to build a new pc from scratch, what do you think of these components? will be used for mostly gaming, but a little graphics and video editing.

Case: CoolerMaster HAF 922 Gaming Case - Black
Processor: AMD Phenom™ II X4 975 3.6 GHz Black Edition Quad-Core CPU
Ram: 16 GB [4 GB X4] DDR3-1600 Memory
GPU: AMD Radeon HD 6950 - 2GB
MB: CrossFire Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H -- AMD 890GX w/ 2x PCI-E 2.0 x16
HDD: 2TB HARD DRIVE -- 64M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive )

its my understanding that frequency trumps cores because most game only use 2-4 cores anyway. the 6950 or 6870? still not sure on that part yet. also will i notice a performance increase if i go from 16GB-1600 speed memory to 8GB-1800?

[Deleted]

6950 is better then 6870. memory speed isnt really noticable in games, might be better in editing (no clue there)

You might wanna get a mobo with a 990 chipset. This will also have a am3+ socket which makes upgrading easier

other then that looks solid to me (altho everyone after me will say that you should take a 2500k or 2600k)

[moguri]

i see, what do you think of the 6950 vs GTX560?

[Deleted]

They are about the same, no clue which one is cheaper atm.
If you go for the 560 be sure to get the 560Ti version

[Nornai]

Isn't the Phenom II X4 955 BE the same CPU but with lower stock clocks? Do correct me if I'm wrong.

But if it is, I suggest getting the 955 and overclocking it using AMD's program. I've got mine running at 3.6 GHz with stock cooler and stock voltage. Runs cool and quiet, haven't had any issues with it. And I'm sure it'll clock further still on stock cooling.

And since you seem to have a lot of cash to throw at it and are going to use it for gaming, I suggest a better graphics card. And if you're not going to be doing editing and such and need to take money from somewhere, dump some memory. You can drop down to as low as 4 GB without a problem. Today's games don't use more than that. And if you need to, you'll have the opportunity to upgrade later, of course.

Other than that, it's as Zeara says. Either go with a 990 chipset or get an Intel 2500/2600, if you have the money to spend.

That being said, the difference in games between AMD and Intel at the moment isn't catastrophic, since it's mostly graphics that's going to be the issue, with the exception of games like WoW, which are very processor heavy.

Another thing you can get if you want to speed up your rig considerably is to get a SSD to store your OS and most commonly used games on.

[Deftone007]

i see, what do you think of the 6950 vs GTX560?

Ive started to look into trying to decide which card I was gonna go with as well. For gaming its looking like the GTX560 is a little bit better for games, by a small margin. That was based on benchmarks for different games on a website called gpuguru or something i cant remember.

[Nornai]

A good site for benchmarks is www.tomshardware.com

But like all benchmarks, you should take them with a grain of salt, as they may vary. But they can give you a decent hint.

[Cowt]

Out of curiosity, what exactly do you plan on doing with 16GB worth of RAM?

I'm having a very hard time breaking past 5, and that's with WoW running on max with console improvements, a whole pile of addons, 14 tabs in Firefox four of which are Youtube clips, Skype in audio conversation, MSN, Putty, DPC latency tracing, and music playing in Foobar. And whatever else minor things I have going on.

[Wries]

Out of curiosity, what exactly do you plan on doing with 16GB worth of RAM?

I'm having a very hard time breaking past 5, and that's with WoW running on max with console improvements, a whole pile of addons, 14 tabs in Firefox four of which are Youtube clips, Skype in audio conversation, MSN, Putty, DPC latency tracing, and music playing in Foobar. And whatever else minor things I have going on.

"Graphics and video editing" might justify why he's going for that much RAM though in many cases it's really not necessary here either. That said DDR3 is dirt cheap atm, at least where I shop.

[Skelly]

This thread has been open for an hour and a half, and still no Sandy Bridge fanboys? I guess I'll give the obligatory plug.
Intel's new i5 2500 and i7 2600 blow everything else out of the water in terms of price/performance. People that really want to buy AMD are waiting for their new line of cpus - Bulldozer - to come out late this year. Here is one benchmark to show the effect on gaming http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/t...2100-tested/20. You should look up a few more before making a decision

"Graphics and video editing" might justify why he's going for that much RAM though in many cases it's really not necessary here either. That said DDR3 is dirt cheap atm, at least where I shop.

DDR3 is dirt cheap most places, which is why OCZ quit the biz.

[moguri]

After talking to a few people, I think I'm switching to this, its about the same price as the above:

Case: CoolerMaster HAF 922 Gaming Case - Black
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-2600K Processor (4x 3.40GHz/8MB L3 Cache)
Ram: 8 GB [4 GB X2] DDR3-1333 Memory
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti - 2GB
MB: ASUS P8H67-M PRO
HDD: 2 TB HARD DRIVE -- 64M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s

[Asmekiel]

After talking to a few people, I think I'm switching to this, its about the same price as the above:

Case: CoolerMaster HAF 922 Gaming Case - Black
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-2600K Processor (4x 3.40GHz/8MB L3 Cache)
Ram: 8 GB [4 GB X2] DDR3-1333 Memory
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti - 2GB
MB: ASUS P8H67-M PRO
HDD: 2 TB HARD DRIVE -- 64M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s

Nice, nice.
2 things though, get a i5 2500K instead of an i7 2600K. Both have the same performance (at same clockspeeds), the only difference is that the 2600K has Hyperthreading, which is useless for games.
Other thing, switch the GTX560Ti 2GB for a 1GB model. Again, same performance in games up to resolutions of 1920x1200.

[Dashield28]

Nice, nice.
2 things though, get a i5 2500K instead of an i7 2600K. Both have the same performance (at same clockspeeds), the only difference is that the 2600K has Hyperthreading, which is useless for games.
Other thing, switch the GTX560Ti 2GB for a 1GB model. Again, same performance in games up to resolutions of 1920x1200.

If you have the money get the i7. Hyperthreading is useless for games, but there are other things than games.

[Sephiracle]

Nice, nice.
2 things though, get a i5 2500K instead of an i7 2600K. Both have the same performance (at same clockspeeds), the only difference is that the 2600K has Hyperthreading, which is useless for games.
Other thing, switch the GTX560Ti 2GB for a 1GB model. Again, same performance in games up to resolutions of 1920x1200.

As stated in the OP, he'll be doing some video editing and graphic work. He'll want the i7.

[Asmekiel]

As stated in the OP, he'll be doing some video editing and graphic work. He'll want the i7.

Soz, didn't read.
*sits ashamed in a corner*

[Nellah]

After talking to a few people, I think I'm switching to this, its about the same price as the above:

Case: CoolerMaster HAF 922 Gaming Case - Black
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-2600K Processor (4x 3.40GHz/8MB L3 Cache)
Ram: 8 GB [4 GB X2] DDR3-1333 Memory
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti - 2GB
MB: ASUS P8H67-M PRO
HDD: 2 TB HARD DRIVE -- 64M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s

I can only recommend one change. If you're planning on overclocking your computer, get the P67 variant of that motherboard, as the H67 does not support overclocking at all. Zip, zero, nada.

And with that 2600K, you'll want to overclock! Turbo is 3.8GHz with one core, you can get 4-4.2GHz on all cores without boosting voltage on the stock cooler guaranteed with these chips. (You'll see people saying you can get 4.6-4.8GHz or some other ridiculous number... rare on stock cooling. 4.2GHz is crazy fast compared to that Phenom though.)

[moguri]

Nice, nice.
2 things though, get a i5 2500K instead of an i7 2600K. Both have the same performance (at same clockspeeds), the only difference is that the 2600K has Hyperthreading, which is useless for games.
Other thing, switch the GTX560Ti 2GB for a 1GB model. Again, same performance in games up to resolutions of 1920x1200.

Ah thanks for the tip. Someone told me if I was gaming fullscreen at 1920x1200 I would need a 2GB card, good to know.

[Nellah]

Ah thanks for the tip. Someone told me if I was gaming fullscreen at 1920x1200 I would need a 2GB card, good to know.

1920x1200 got my GTX275 up to about 800MiB memory usage. However, when I was in Windowed mode and running EVE Online and World of Tanks, memory usage went up to 1.7GiB. It's not in what a single game will use (RARE is the game that uses more than 1GiB RAM, mostly because there are few cards with more than that now) but how you will use your computer. Severe multitasking = the more RAM you have the better, in the computer and the video card.

[Asmekiel]

1920x1200 got my GTX275 up to about 800MiB memory usage. However, when I was in Windowed mode and running EVE Online and World of Tanks, memory usage went up to 1.7GiB. It's not in what a single game will use (RARE is the game that uses more than 1GiB RAM, mostly because there are few cards with more than that now) but how you will use your computer. Severe multitasking = the more RAM you have the better, in the computer and the video card.

RAM usage isn't the same as VRAM usage.

Ah thanks for the tip. Someone told me if I was gaming fullscreen at 1920x1200 I would need a 2GB card, good to know.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...gb-review.html
Here's some benchmarks listing the 6950 1GB and 2GB models against eachother. Difference in performance is hardly visible untill 2560x1600 and sometimes then it's almost not there.


Even though I only play games on this PC and I do that on a resolution of 1920x1200, I do have a 6950 2GB and an i7 2600K :P
In the end it's your PC and you have to decide what you put in it, we can only give advice.

[Nellah]

RAM usage isn't the same as VRAM usage.

I was not referring to system RAM, but video RAM. GPU-Z and RivaTuner detect video memory usage. My statement stands.

(If I could run three instances of EVE Online, WoW, and World of Tanks in 2GiB system RAM, that would be amazing, no?)