Building a Gaming Rig - The Final Build

[MercurySteam]

A few of you may recall that last year I posted a thread about AMD and Intel CPUs [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.249384-Poll-Calling-all-PC-veterans-AMD-vs-Intel] to help me get my head around which was better value for money. Now that I finally have a job, I'm more interested in which performs better than saving money. I've concluded that the 2nd Gen Intel CPUs are right up my alley and I have no interest in waiting for AMD's Bulldozer any longer, plus I can't even be sure that it would perform better than Sandybridge. So here's my final build:

CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=16416]
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X (2x4GB) DDR3 [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=16934]
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=17320]
Motherboard: MSI Z68A-GD80 Motherboard [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=17826]
PSU: Antec CP-850 850W [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=10906]
Case: Antec Dark Fleet DF-85 Case [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=14596]
SSD: OCZ Agility 3 60GB SSD 2.5 [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=17344]

I'll take the DVD drive and 500GB hard drive from my current PC and use them instead of buying new ones. I have complete faith in this build as it it probably my best proposed to date so now all I ask for are fresh pairs of eyes to take a look and tell me if I've gotten anything wrong. The Escapist isn't exactly what I'd call a bountiful collection of PC knowledge but I may as well try.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

EDIT: I will also be doing plenty of audio and video encoding and 12-18 months after I assemble it I will probably buy another GTX 570 and SLI them together. I hope for this build to last for at least four years before needing a serious overhaul.

EDIT 2: I will get a EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=17320] instead of a MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti Hawk 1GB [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1193&products_id=17326] to satisfy my rig for the future.

EDIT 3: The final futureproofing will be putting an Antec CP-850 850W [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=10906] in instead of the Antec TP-750. The CP series is quite good but only fits four Antec cases and my DF-85 just happens to be one of them. I may as well take advantage of it.

 

[BMA11995]

those ripjaws are completely unnecessary. I have 2x 4gb $36 ram that preforms basically just as well. It's epeen ram. Also the case is bat-shit crazy. If this is a PC that you are planning on taking pictures of and boasting loudly about, go for it. But i would save the money from those, get something less expensive but just as effective and save the money for some actual games.

 

[Avaholic03]

Looks like a very good build. I wish I could afford to upgrade my system. I'm not a fan of that case (at least, the looks of it, the features are great through), but I guess that's personal preference.

One thing to consider is getting a UPS to protect that investment. But I guess that depends on where you live. The area I'm in is prone to thunderstorms and power outages, so I figured it was a worthwhile investment of $150. Here's the one I got, and I've been very happy with it so far:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102070

 

[Avaholic03]

EDIT: sorry, double post. Fuck this new captcha system.

 

[intheweeds]

I think it's a good rig. I agree the case is a little over the top, but to each his own.
With the rest of that rig, you may as well get the 8 gigs. I have 4 gigs of the ripjaws on a similar rig and though i rarely notice anything, games like Civ IV occasionally chug ever so slightly on zooming in and whatnot. If you think that will annoy you (it annoys me after building such a nice rig) then i would stick with your choices. You will have a nice system for years to come. 4 gigs is min spec these days for a lot of games, better to go over.

 

[robkeke]

I would spend 50 dollar more and go for the ocz vertex 3 instead of the agility 3 because the agility 3 has asynchronous NAND and the performance is less then the vertex 3 with it's synchronous NAND for maybe 50 dollar more (sorry for the bad english)

 

[MercurySteam]

those ripjaws are completely unnecessary. I have 2x 2gb $36 ram that preforms basically just as well. It's epeen ram. Also the case is bat-shit crazy. If this is a PC that you are planning on taking pictures of and boasting loudly about, go for it. But i would save the money from those, get something less expensive but just as effective and save the money for some actual games.

I planned to eventually end up with 8GB of RAM. I was going to buy one 2x2GB G.Skill Trident kit now and then another at the end of the year, but with this I don't have to bother with upgrading later. And yes, the DF-85 may seem excessive, but I hoping to keep it for many years, at least until something goes fatally wrong. You can never have too much space!

 

[Cowabungaa]

those ripjaws are completely unnecessary. I have 2x 2gb $36 ram that preforms basically just as well. It's epeen ram. Also the case is bat-shit crazy. If this is a PC that you are planning on taking pictures of and boasting loudly about, go for it. But i would save the money from those, get something less expensive but just as effective and save the money for some actual games.

I planned to eventually end up with 8GB of RAM. I was going to buy one 2x2GB G.Skill Trident kit now and then another at the end of the year, but with this I don't have to bother with upgrading later. And yes, the DF-85 may seem excessive, but I hoping to keep it for many years, at least until something goes fatally wrong. You can never have too much space!

You can do that too with a way cheaper, yet very respectable RAM brand like Kingston. Don't bother with something that overpriced.

A 750W PSU is overkill as well, especially with just one videocard. I'd also go with a way cheaper case myself. It's just flashy nonsense that gives you nothing extra in terms of performance, but whatever floats your boat. As for the rest, looks good.

 

[killbotrix]

Hot damn, that sounds like a beautiful machine. I like the look of the case. Congrats for when you put that together.

 

[MolotoK]

those ripjaws are completely unnecessary. I have 2x 2gb $36 ram that preforms basically just as well. It's epeen ram. Also the case is bat-shit crazy. If this is a PC that you are planning on taking pictures of and boasting loudly about, go for it. But i would save the money from those, get something less expensive but just as effective and save the money for some actual games.

I planned to eventually end up with 8GB of RAM. I was going to buy one 2x2GB G.Skill Trident kit now and then another at the end of the year, but with this I don't have to bother with upgrading later. And yes, the DF-85 may seem excessive, but I hoping to keep it for many years, at least until something goes fatally wrong. You can never have too much space!

Having different RAM modules ( the RAM you buy in 6months is not going to be the same revision/version as the one you buy now) can make overclocking more difficult.

If I were you, I'd save $100 on the CPU and buy a i5-2500k. The i7 just doesnt offer a real advantage when gaming, especially if you plan to overclock.
Spend those $100 on more RAM and a slightly better graphics card instead.

 

[Worgen]

those ripjaws are completely unnecessary. I have 2x 2gb $36 ram that preforms basically just as well. It's epeen ram. Also the case is bat-shit crazy. If this is a PC that you are planning on taking pictures of and boasting loudly about, go for it. But i would save the money from those, get something less expensive but just as effective and save the money for some actual games.

I planned to eventually end up with 8GB of RAM. I was going to buy one 2x2GB G.Skill Trident kit now and then another at the end of the year, but with this I don't have to bother with upgrading later. And yes, the DF-85 may seem excessive, but I hoping to keep it for many years, at least until something goes fatally wrong. You can never have too much space!

Having different RAM modules ( the RAM you buy in 6months is not going to be the same revision/version as the one you buy now) can make overclocking more difficult.

If I were you, I'd save $100 on the CPU and buy a i5-2500k. The i7 just doesnt offer a real advantage when gaming, especially if you plan to overclock.
Spend those $100 on more RAM and a slightly better graphics card instead.

I don't know, I would keep the CPU since that's one of the most annoying things to upgrade, its easy to swap out a vid card or ram stick but if you get a new CPU you might end up needing a new mobo for it and that can be a pain so I would say going with a bit better CPU doesn't hurt even if you don't get the most out of it quite yet.

 

[MercurySteam]

I would spend 50 dollar more and go for the ocz vertex 3 instead of the agility 3 because the agility 3 has asynchronous NAND and the performance is less then the vertex 3 with it's synchronous NAND for maybe 50 dollar more (sorry for the bad english)

The store I'm getting it from don't sell a Vertex 3 SSD at 60GB but I made a suggestion to them about it, so perhaps.

You can do that too with a way cheaper, yet very respectable RAM brand like Kingston. Don't bother with something that overpriced.

Well, not really. For the same price I could get a 2x2GB Kingston HyperX kit or maybe a lower quality 2x4GB HyperX kit, though not all of them have Extreme Memory Profiling. Kingston memory is rarely seen cheaper than G.Skill but I won't argue that they're high quality.

A 750W PSU is overkill as well, especially with just one videocard. I'd also go with a way cheaper case myself. It's just flashy nonsense that gives you nothing extra in terms of performance, but whatever floats your boat. As for the rest, looks good.

I forgot to mention that I'll possibly be going SLI with another GTX 560Ti in the future. And yes, the case is extravagant but hopefully it will last for a long time.

 

[flaming_squirrel]

I don't know, I would keep the CPU since that's one of the most annoying things to upgrade, its easy to swap out a vid card or ram stick but if you get a new CPU you might end up needing a new mobo for it and that can be a pain so I would say going with a bit better CPU doesn't hurt even if you don't get the most out of it quite yet.

But you're only really buying a 2600k over the 2500k for hyperthreading, which does absolutely shit all for gaming. The i7 will have no greater longevity over the i5 whatsoever, so whatever happens you're going to be buying a new mobo in a generation or two's time anyway.


That £70 is much better spent on a slightly better GPU/SSD.

Well, not really. For the same price I could get a 2x2GB Kingston HyperX kit or maybe a lower quality 2x4GB HyperX kit, though not all of them have Extreme Memory Profiling. Kingston memory is rarely seen cheaper than G.Skill but I won't argue that they're high quality.

XMP's really not that important, sure it saves you 5 minutes of BIOS/uefi tweaking, but that's all.
Personally I'd go for cheaper Corsair, unless you're planning on overclocking.

 

[MercurySteam]

Hot damn, that sounds like a beautiful machine. I like the look of the case. Congrats for when you put that together.

I've been doing this all 'in theory' for months so now that it's time to actually put something together that I will actually buy I've found that I'm quite good at it.

Having different RAM modules ( the RAM you buy in 6months is not going to be the same revision/version as the one you buy now) can make overclocking more difficult.

If the part number is the same then the memory will be the same. A hardware revision would require a new part number but it doesn't matter because the RAM that I have suggested is already a total of 8GB. I don't need more than that.

If I were you, I'd save $100 on the CPU and buy a i5-2500k. The i7 just doesnt offer a real advantage when gaming, especially if you plan to overclock. Spend those $100 on more RAM and a slightly better graphics card instead.

The addition of a slightly higher CPU frequency and bus/core ratio, twice as many processing threads and Hyperthreading says differently. I considered the i5 2500K but I decided that I may as well go all the way with the LGA 1155 socket. And overclocking with and i7 would see better results anyway. I won't need to upgrade my memory as I already have 8GB and I'll probably go SLI in the future so I won't bother with a better GPU.

But you're only really buying a 2600k over the 2500k for hyperthreading, which does absolutely shit all for gaming. The i7 will have no greater longevity over the i5 whatsoever, so whatever happens you're going to be buying a new mobo in a generation or two's time anyway.

Gaming isn't the only thing I'm going to be doing. Video rendering and plenty of multitasking will also make good use of Hyperthreading and all those extra threads. I'm hoping that the CPU and mobo will last me at least four years before needing an upgrade. Nobody can really futureproof their rig but hopefully this will serve me well.

 

[flaming_squirrel]

The addition of a slightly higher CPU frequency and bus/core ratio, twice as many processing threads and Hyperthreading says differently. I considered the i5 2500K but I decided that I may as well go all the way with the LGA 1155 socket. And overclocking with and i7 would see better results anyway. I won't need to upgrade my memory as I already have 8GB and I'll probably go SLI in the future so I won't bother with a better GPU.

Hyperthreading gives little to no advantage in gaming.

Also if you are planning on OC'ing you're going to want an aftermarket cooler.

 

[Weaver]

Looks great to me. And don't listen to the people crying "overkill"; that's the whole point! My machine has 16 gigs of GSkill RAM and I find it actually very nice to be able to have so many things open when I do development. If I have a 3D Modelling program open, Photoshop and Visual Studio she doesn't even break a sweat; my old machine would start to slow down considerably.

 

[flaming_squirrel]

Looks great to me. And don't listen to the people crying "overkill"; that's the whole point! My machine has 16 gigs of GSkill RAM and I find it actually very nice to be able to have so many things open when I do development. If I have a 3D Modelling program open, Photoshop and Visual Studio she doesn't even break a sweat; my old machine would start to slow down considerably.

Yeah I think you missed the whole 'GAMING RIG' part. 16GB RAM would be a stupid waste of cash in a machine intended for games, it'd be little more then an attempt to show of some epeen.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

Looks about right.

Having different RAM modules ( the RAM you buy in 6months is not going to be the same revision/version as the one you buy now) can make overclocking more difficult.

Even same revision doesn't necessarily mean he can use XMP(or regular overclocking), there is a reason dual channel and triple channel (and higher) have to be tested together in order to work 100% when you use them.
Also his Z68 chipset will be able to use next gen Ivy Bridge processors.

If I were you, I'd save $100 on the CPU and buy a i5-2500k. The i7 just doesnt offer a real advantage when gaming, especially if you plan to overclock.
Spend those $100 on more RAM and a slightly better graphics card instead.

I'd actually agree with the i5-2500k processor part.
The GTX 560 Ti Hawk is pretty solid though, but yeah you are right.

 

[MercurySteam]

Looks great to me. And don't listen to the people crying "overkill"; that's the whole point! My machine has 16 gigs of GSkill RAM and I find it actually very nice to be able to have so many things open when I do development. If I have a 3D Modelling program open, Photoshop and Visual Studio she doesn't even break a sweat; my old machine would start to slow down considerably.

Yeah I think you missed the whole 'GAMING RIG' part. 16GB RAM would be a stupid waste of cash in a machine intended for games, it'd be little more then an attempt to show of some epeen.

Well he does 3D development so 16GB seems perfectly normal. Gaming isn't the only thing I'll be doing however, plenty of audio and video encoding will happen that's for sure.

 

[Wolfram23]

A few of you may recall that last year I posted a thread about AMD and Intel CPUs [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.249384-Poll-Calling-all-PC-veterans-AMD-vs-Intel] to help me get my head around which was better value for money. Now that I finally have a job, I'm more interested in which performs better than saving money. I've concluded that the 2nd Gen Intel CPUs are right up my alley and I have no interest in waiting for AMD's Bulldozer any longer, plus I can't even be sure that it would perform better than Sandybridge. So here's my final build:

CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=16416]
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X (2x4GB) DDR3 [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=16934]
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti Hawk 1GB [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1193&products_id=17326]
Motherboard: MSI Z68A-GD80 Motherboard [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=17826]
PSU: Antec TruePower TP-750 750W [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=11005]
Case: Antec Dark Fleet DF-85 Case [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=14596]
SSD: OCZ Agility 3 60GB SSD 2.5 [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=17344]

I'll take the DVD drive and 500GB hard drive from my current PC and use them instead of buying new ones. I have complete faith in this build as it it probably my best proposed to date so now all I ask for are fresh pairs of eyes to take a look and tell me if I've gotten anything wrong. The Escapist isn't exactly what I'd call a bountiful collection of PC knowledge but I may as well try.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

I think it's a good build, although I don't think you need the 2600k vs the 2500k. That would let you get a bigger SSD, like a 120gb. 60gb is barely going to fit all your programs and at best 1 or 2 smaller games. Since your HDD is only 500gb, it's really not a lot of storage space although that does depend on usage. I use over 500gb on my HDDs just from games and movies basically, plus I have an 80gb SSD which is nearly full.

EDIT: I see you're going to do video and audio encoding stuff. In that case the 2600k might be right for you afterall.

EDIT2: Also, don't listen to all the nay-sayers haha. That RAM is great and a good price. I also have 1600mhz CL8 RAM and it's super fast, although mine uses 1.65V. Having that at 1.5V is amazing. You could probably push it to 1800mhz CL8. And the case is not overkill at all, particularily for air cooling. It'll let you have the capacity to add more stuff to the PC down the road whether it's a big CPU cooler, another GPU, or whatever else. Maybe you can even fit a radiator in there for watercooling.

I might suggest you go with Gigabyte or Asus instead of MSI though. I built my PC last year in May, and at first I had the MSI P55gd65 but it died pretty quickly. When I returned it, the tech said they've had a lot of them dying and I've heard of it happening to ppl at Tom's Hardware as well. I ended up with an Asus P7P55D Pro and it's significantly better. So I'd recommend something like the Asus P8Z68 Pro perhaps.