New high end (not ultra) gaming computer

[Deleted]

Hello MMO-C folks,

I'm thinking about buying these parts for a new high end gaming computer. The CPU comes with a default fan but I'm not going to OC it right away so I guess I'm fine with that for now? It seems like the HAF932 has decent airflow. Hopefully enough for the dual GTX570 not to be too noisy as they'll sit right next to each other. Well to the parts (comments or suggestions will be appreciated):

Case: Cooler Master HAF 932 Black Limited Edt. Fans: 1x 230mm Front, 1x 200mm Topp, 1x 140mm Bak, Rød LEDs. ATX, mATX, eATX
PSU: Corsair HX 850W PSU ATX 12V V2.2, 80 Plus Silver, Modular, 6x 6+2-pin PCIe, 12x SATA, 140mm
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-2600K Processor Socket-LGA1155, Quad Core, 3.4Ghz, 8MB, 95W, Boxed w/fan
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5, Socket-1155 ATX, P67, DDR3, 2xPCIe(2.0)x16, CFX& SLI, SATA 6Gb/s, USB 3.0, Dolby
Memory: Corsair Vengeance™ DDR3 1600MHz 16GB CL9 Kit w/4x 4GB XMS3 modules, CL9-9-9-24, 1.5V, Vengeance Heatspreader, 240 pin
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 570 1280MB PhysX PCI-Express 2.0, "Twin Frozr III PE", GDDR5, 2xDVI, native-miniHDMI, 770MHz
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 570 1280MB PhysX PCI-Express 2.0, "Twin Frozr III PE", GDDR5, 2xDVI, native-miniHDMI, 770MHz
HDD: Western Digital Caviar® Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s (SATA 3.0), 64MB Cache, 7200RPM, 3,5", Dual processor
HDD: Intel® SSD 510 Series 120GB 2,5" SATA 6 Gb/s (SATA3.0), 450MB/210MB/s read/write, reseller box
DVD: Samsung DVD±RW/Blu-Ray Reader SH-B123L SATA, 12x BD-ROM Read, DVD±R: 16x, DVD+RW: 8x, DVD+RW: 6x, Bulk, BLACK

[Jurwi]

You can safely downgrade the CPU to i5-2500K. There's no real need to have i7-2600K for gaming, the Hyper Threading is useless and the extra cache is VERY marginal performance increase which you won't notice in 99,9% of the games.

Other than that, looking good assuming 850W is enough for SLI 570s.

[Kaharon]

/sign Hinaaja

Also good choice on the mainboard, don't even think about getting an ASUS mainboard for i7-XXXXk cpu's

[Yohassakura]

If it's just for gaming, you can drop the 2600k for a 2500k as the HT cores will result in almost 0 performance increase. That is pretty much what i would call an ultra PC.

Yeah, the default fan will be fine until you clock it to 4.0, anything above that then it's really recommended to get a proper CPU cooler.

[Deleted]

Hello MMO-C folks,

I'm thinking about buying these parts for a new high end gaming computer.

Looks quite solid, two suggestions come to mind:
- if it's a gaming computer, the i5 2500k will do the same as the i7 and open up budget for a more silent and powerful Heatsink (later). I can't really foresee the point at which hyperthreading will be used by games so much that the i7 would have a significant advantage over the i5.
- With two GPUs, your PSU could struggle. I would recommend the Corsair power supply finder, but I didn't find the gtx570 in there. With 2x gtx580, it recommends a stronger PSU.

[Deleted]

Thanks for the swift answers.

I have seen several people stating that i5-2500K would be preferrable over the i7-2600K for gaming. I have the dough though so I'm ok with the i7 in case I want to use the rig for other stuff than pure gaming.

In which situations would you recommend the i7 over the i5?

[Jurwi]

Thanks for the swift answers.

I have seen several people stating that i5-2500K would be preferrable over the i7-2600K for gaming. I have the dough though so I'm ok with the i7 in case I want to use the rig for other stuff than pure gaming.

In which situations would you recommend the i7 over the i5?

Personally I don't understand the point in spending extra on no gain, but your dough is your dough. If you do some very heavy rendering work (like video editing) which can effectively use 8 threads, then i7 would be justified. But for a gaming rig that might be used once every year for fraps or something? You could just as well throw the extra $100 in a well, almost same benefit. You'd be much better off with better PSU and possibly a CPU cooler.

[Deleted]

In which situations would you recommend the i7 over the i5?

Intense video/audio or some other heavily multi-thread application.

[Deleted]

Looks quite solid, two suggestions come to mind:
- if it's a gaming computer, the i5 2500k will do the same as the i7 and open up budget for a more silent and powerful Heatsink (later). I can't really foresee the point at which hyperthreading will be used by games so much that the i7 would have a significant advantage over the i5.
- With two GPUs, your PSU could struggle. I would recommend Corsair power supply finder but I didn't find the gtx570 in there. With 2x gtx580, it recommends a stronger PSU.

I actually had a look at the Corsair power supply finder and noticed it suggested at least a TX950W PSU. Maybe I should get the upgrade, it's probably not much more expensive. Though other posts in here stated that an 850W would be able to run 3 GPU's.

[Deleted]

Yeah well, if it's kind of an investment to the future and he's fine with paying $100 for the possibility to run other programs faster, the i7 it is.
Also, if you have the dough, why don't you invest in a custom liquid cooling system for CPU and GPUs. It's what I would do if I had it. And it would cancel out the concerns if your GPUs will be too noisy.

---------- Post added 2011-07-11 at 11:19 AM ----------

Though other posts in here stated that an 850W would be able to run 3 GPU's.

I have found none. One only said "the build is good assuming 850W can power 2x570".

[Jurwi]

I actually had a look at the Corsair power supply finder and noticed it suggested at least a TX950W PSU. Maybe I should get the upgrade, it's probably not much more expensive. Though other posts in here stated that an 850W would be able to run 3 GPU's.

That really depends on the GPUs

According to Bittech (http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/201...1-3gb-review/9) a gf 570 GTX can take 330W in full load. That's 660W for two of them. Add in the 100+ W that i5-2500K eats under load and you're already nearing 800W.

I'd really go with a quality 1000W+ to be on the safe side.

[Mestofiles]

Thanks for the swift answers.

I have seen several people stating that i5-2500K would be preferrable over the i7-2600K for gaming. I have the dough though so I'm ok with the i7 in case I want to use the rig for other stuff than pure gaming.

In which situations would you recommend the i7 over the i5?

If you find yourself editing and rendering HD movies every day, doing some heavy math etc. then you can justify getting the i7-2600K over an i5-2500K. HD-rendering and other extremely heavy and multithreaded programs are the only ones who benefit from HT. I've got an i5-2500K and I still render a 10 minutes boss kill video to 1080p in 30-45 mins, so I don't really see any point in getting the i7 unless you do video editing for a living.

For reference, this video took about 40 minutes to render (including the 25 seconds it took to render the intro in After Effects to lossless AVI)

[Deleted]

I have found none. One only said "the build is good assuming 850W can power 2x570".

What I meant with "in here" was the MMO forum, not this threat, sorry for the confusion. I was browsing the forums earlier this morning and was quite sure I saw someone mentioning that 850W was fine for 3GPUs, of course it could have been smaller gpu's than the 570's.

Anyway, it seems like I can downgrade to i5, upgrade the PSU and get a better cooler for the CPU. Any suggestions?

[Deleted]

Use this Power Supply Calculator: enermax.outervision.com
I have a AX850 Corsair PSU on a 2600k with a couple of GTX580s SLI'd, mildly overclocked + a ton of fans and it works just fine.

[Deleted]

If your in the UK, then I reccomend - Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced - For CPU Cooler. Good and quiet.

[Deleted]

Wow.. if that config isnt ultra... what it is an "ultra"? (an SLI of 580 or 590? xD).

As they told you, if its only for gaming, the i5 2500K will be more than enough and has a great capacity to OC. And i recomend you a Noctua cooler for the CPU, they are really good, maybe the NH-U12P SE2.

The PSU is ok, it will work without problems in that config.

[Schmittay]

850 watts is fine for all that, even overclocked.

I just ordered a very similar rig except I went with an single 580 and a i5 2500k.

[Sykotic13]

Thanks for the swift answers.

I have seen several people stating that i5-2500K would be preferrable over the i7-2600K for gaming. I have the dough though so I'm ok with the i7 in case I want to use the rig for other stuff than pure gaming.

In which situations would you recommend the i7 over the i5?

I have an i7-2600k. I do a lot of work in VMware so I decided the extra horsepower was worth it. HT comes in handy when running multiple virtual machines.

My suggestions for your build would be to get one of the mid-level liquid CPU coolers like the Corsair H60. If you are getting a "k" processor you are going to overclock it so you will want solid cooling. I like the liquid cooling units because they take up a lot less room and run much quieter for the same cooling power as heatsink/fans.

I would also recommend getting GTX 560 Ti cards for SLI instead of GTX 570s. You will save around $200 that way and get nearly as much horsepower. Especially if you go with already overclocked cards like the MSI GTX 560 Ti Hawk (Tiwn-Frozr III).

[BicycleMafioso]

I actually had a look at the Corsair power supply finder and noticed it suggested at least a TX950W PSU. Maybe I should get the upgrade, it's probably not much more expensive. Though other posts in here stated that an 850W would be able to run 3 GPU's.

The HX850w suggested in the OP is more than enough to power to GTX570s.

850w is enough to power some triple-GPU setups, but the GTX570 are very powerhungry. It can handle two, and it can handle them well, but not three.
No need to go for the TX950w.

(Although I'd suggest an AX750 or an AX850 if you intend to stay Corsair. Much better buildquality, not to mention efficiency)

What I meant with "in here" was the MMO forum, not this threat, sorry for the confusion. I was browsing the forums earlier this morning and was quite sure I saw someone mentioning that 850W was fine for 3GPUs, of course it could have been smaller gpu's than the 570's.

Anyway, it seems like I can downgrade to i5, upgrade the PSU and get a better cooler for the CPU. Any suggestions?

Don't get more wattage for the sake of more wattage. You can run it fine, with enough headroom to spare.
But if your main interest is gaming, the i5-2500K will do you just fine.

EDIT: But if you have the money to spare, and a genuine interest (and expectations to actually do it) in editting/rendering, by all means. Get an i7-2600K. I'd suggest to suplement it with a z68-motherboard, though. I'd even get the z68-board before I'd get the i7-2600K, to be honest.

EDIT2: You're also underestimating the power of the rig if you expect not to run fully ultra with it. A single GTX460 and a Lynnfield-CPU is enough for that.

EDIT3: About coolers. Avoid the pre-filled liquid ones. The Hyper212+ from CoolerMaster is good if you're on a budget.
The NH-D14 from Noctua is a real beast in performance, but also in size and price. It's not for everyone. It certainly is for me, though

[Sinfonia]

What I meant with "in here" was the MMO forum, not this threat, sorry for the confusion. I was browsing the forums earlier this morning and was quite sure I saw someone mentioning that 850W was fine for 3GPUs, of course it could have been smaller gpu's than the 570's.

Anyway, it seems like I can downgrade to i5, upgrade the PSU and get a better cooler for the CPU. Any suggestions?

I'm about to build a full GPU/CPU watercooling loop, but I've previously had a Coolermaster Hyper 212+ (Runs about $30) and I was at around 33-34C idle at 4.8GHz on my i5-2500k. I also put a Corsair H70 closed water kit, gets about the same clocks/temps.

---------- Post added 2011-07-12 at 10:22 AM ----------

Cooler Master Hyper 212+
http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-...0480480&sr=8-1

Corsair H70
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Hydro-...0480536&sr=1-2