Calling all gaming computer experts. Need Assistance

[80Maxwell08]

Ok then to put it simply and more normal I need advice/tips/expertice with a gaming computer. Currently my parents are buying me a gaming computer for graduation. First off I didn't list a motherboard because there is a lot of variations and I don't know which one would be best for me. After a lot of searching parts the only parts I've decided on are the following.

Intel i7 2600k processor
Corsair Obsidian 650d (already bought so no changing this one period.)

My next list is of parts that look very good but aren't set in stone. Here they are.

EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti Superclocked x2 (got a coupon for one from The Witcher 2.)
Corsair 850x PSU
Corsair 2 stick 8gb DDR3 ram
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus for the processor
Western Digital Caviar Black 2tb HDD
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-fi Titanium HD

So I ask for any help you can give me. What motherboard to get, if any of these parts won't work with the others, etc etc etc. I should also mention quickly they are trying to keep it around $1700. So to all that can help you have my gratitude.

EDITerhaps I shouldn't have said the processor was set in stone since only the chassis is bought. Well the processor just looked the best from what I've heard but if you have anything better around the same price or cheaper go ahead and say it. Once again thanks to those who have posted.
EDIT2: All right in retrospect I don't know why I didn't put this in either the original topic or the first edit but someone said it so I'll go ahead and put it here. The socket for the processor is LGA 1155.

 

[viranimus]

based on that info... I dont think its possible to make a recomendation.

You need to specify what socket that processor is. (assuming LGA 1366)
and what socket type the ram is (assuming 240 pin)

If one didnt have to assume what sockets these were a recommendation could be made, but it is not logical to make one based on assumption

 

[Cxizent]

Intel i7 2600k processor

Red flag number one. The Sandy Bridge architecture has a problem (last I checked) with the voltages present, and most of the first Sandy Bridge (Can't remember socket name) motherboards suffered an issue with overheating/overvoltage which in some cases caused the sata ports to literally melt off. Of course, if you can wait until they fix this issue with the new batch of motherboards coming, then it's no real biggie (there was a $700 million recall of parts, I seem to remember, so good luck even getting one of the faulty motherboards).

Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-fi Titanium HD

If anyone knows how to make soundcards work with Windows 7, please tell me as well. If you're running XP it's no problem, but windows vista won't let you use the soundcard, and Windows 7 won't for me.

Apart from that, as long as you stick with the brand-names and read reviews, you really can't go wrong.

 

[viranimus]

Well this is proof of what happens when you assume. Everything I see indicates its a socket LGA 1155.

Provided the ram is the 240 pin and not that screwball 204 pin, I would go with a simple solution like this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157229

Has a number of intruiging features like the external SATA ports.

support of tri SLI configuration, 4 ram slots for future expansion. Plus it wont break the bank.

I am a firm supporter of ASrock. Ive had 5 builds with ASrock and they have yet to let me down.


If your looking for something a little snazzier.. I would say..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157240

only thing it doesnt have that might be something one would want (MAYBE) is an onboard video HDMI out port.

Past that, its got basically everything and anything you might need.

 

[80Maxwell08]

Intel i7 2600k processor

Red flag number one. The Sandy Bridge architecture has a problem (last I checked) with the voltages present, and most of the first Sandy Bridge (Can't remember socket name) motherboards suffered an issue with overheating/overvoltage which in some cases caused the sata ports to literally melt off. Of course, if you can wait until they fix this issue with the new batch of motherboards coming, then it's no real biggie (there was a $700 million recall of parts, I seem to remember, so good luck even getting one of the faulty motherboards).

Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-fi Titanium HD

If anyone knows how to make soundcards work with Windows 7, please tell me as well. If you're running XP it's no problem, but windows vista won't let you use the soundcard, and Windows 7 won't for me.

Apart from that, as long as you stick with the brand-names and read reviews, you really can't go wrong.

Wait the Sandy Bridge had a problem? I haven't heard a single thing like this. Oh just looked it up and saw what you were talking about. Well from what I read it was the motherboards that had the problem with the processor and I still haven't heard anything like this happening recently. Don't have anything to say about the soundcard thing so thanks for both tips.

 

[80Maxwell08]

Wow this thread died fast. Even faster than my other 2 threads. Well I got a motherboard recommendation and some information about soundcard problems so a little more information than I had before.

 

[Cxizent]

snip

Wait the Sandy Bridge had a problem? I haven't heard a single thing like this. Oh just looked it up and saw what you were talking about. Well from what I read it was the motherboards that had the problem with the processor and I still haven't heard anything like this happening recently. Don't have anything to say about the soundcard thing so thanks for both tips.

Yeah, there was a huge motherboard recall, but I'm assuming that any boards out now are ones that have been re-released with the problem addressed.

But yeah, with the soundcard, my Windows 7 won't seem to allow hardware acceleration, so my Creative whateverthehelloneIhave just won't work, and I need to use onboard sound. Which is still fairly decent, but still...

If you want recommendations as to a specific motherboard, I'm a bit out of the loop with regards to the latest socket, having just recently bought an i7 rig (not sandy bridge, the other one... nehelem? Or something.)

http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=130-SB-E675-KR&family=Motherboard I'd say it would be hard to go wrong with a decent EVGA, at least where I sit on the "enthusiast" scale. If you want to use it out of the box and ignore it, it's probably wasted money, but they have a "Dummy OC", so you go into the BIOS, change one setting, and then the board overclocks itself, the CPU and the RAM all to a stable (higher) baseline, which is just lovely for people like me who can't be bothered to tweak all afternoon.

 

[psivamp]

You built an $1800 tower from some of the most powerful components out. Because money doesn't seem to be an issue, the only advice you can really get is if there have been compatibility issues or manufacturing defects.

If the 'rents start asking you to cut corners, then people can probably advise you on where to do that. Like dropping to an i5 and you lose hyperthreading, but not much else.

I don't see an optical drive in there.

 

[psivamp]

i would choose an ATI over an nvidia anyday, only reason to nvidia is if you have unnecessary money. Unless your dead set on a certain motherboard which has sli over crossfire. But nvidia is not worth it imo. (although certain devs code badly for ati cards)

Or if you run linux/BSD. That's why I'm an nVidia guy. Also, apparently, ATI's implementation of OpenGL shaders is less robust and a little less efficient than nVidia's.

 

[number2301]

To echo a couple of previous comments, the Sandy Bridge issue is fixed and has been for ages. It was a fault with motherboards not processors.

i7 is a bit overkill at the moment, drop to a 2500k and you'll have plenty enough power for some time with the option to upgrade to the i7 later on.

Regarding sockets, the 2600k only comes in LGA1155 so erm, yeah, some of the questions in this thread were a bit unnecessary.

I don't see an SSD there which is about one of the best upgrades you can make at the moment, how about drop to the i5 processor, drop the capacity of your HDD down to 1Gb and get a 64Gb SSD for blistering speed?

PS complaining that your thread had died less than 2 hours after posting it? Really? Give people a bit of time!

 

[auronvi]

i would choose an ATI over an nvidia anyday, only reason to nvidia is if you have unnecessary money. Unless your dead set on a certain motherboard which has sli over crossfire. But nvidia is not worth it imo. (although certain devs code badly for ati cards)

And that's why I chose Nvidia. I am a little torn since AMD bought Radeon though cause I always bought AMD processors over Intel because of the price and back in the day they were real easy to overclock and still love AMD. Graphics cards though, if you do a serious price comparison, are pretty equal. I do not like Radeon's packaged software with the drivers and that is pretty much the number one reason I don't use Radeon. Plus if you ever want to go 3D with your computer, NVidia has been doing it for over 10 years already so they know how to do 3D.

 

[Katana314]

What I might do is scale things back just a bit, and be able to ask for little upgrades over time. Generally, the price point of components like graphics cards goes like this.

$50: 60% of top performance
$120: 90% of top performance
$200: 96% of top performance
$300: top performance

(not exact numbers)

 

[Wolfram23]

Ok then to put it simply and more normal I need advice/tips/expertice with a gaming computer. Currently my parents are buying me a gaming computer for graduation. First off I didn't list a motherboard because there is a lot of variations and I don't know which one would be best for me. After a lot of searching parts the only parts I've decided on are the following.

Intel i7 2600k processor
Corsair Obsidian 650d (already bought so no changing this one period.)

My next list is of parts that look very good but aren't set in stone. Here they are.

EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti Superclocked x2 (got a coupon for one from The Witcher 2.)
Corsair 850x PSU
Corsair 2 stick 8gb DDR3 ram
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus for the processor
Western Digital Caviar Black 2tb HDD
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-fi Titanium HD

So I ask for any help you can give me. What motherboard to get, if any of these parts won't work with the others, etc etc etc. I should also mention quickly they are trying to keep it around $1700. So to all that can help you have my gratitude.

EDITerhaps I shouldn't have said the processor was set in stone since only the chassis is bought. Well the processor just looked the best from what I've heard but if you have anything better around the same price or cheaper go ahead and say it. Once again thanks to those who have posted.
EDIT2: All right in retrospect I don't know why I didn't put this in either the original topic or the first edit but someone said it so I'll go ahead and put it here. The socket for the processor is LGA 1155.

Looks fine to me. Seems like you don't have to worry much about a budget. The i5 2500k is going to be equally as fast in gaming - actually, both are kind of overkill lol. But for value the i5 is much better, but if the i7 2600k is in the budget then go for it, it's a beast.

SLI 560 Tis will be really awesome, but hopefully you're buying a good brand. You may also want to check out the 6950 from AMD Radeon as it's a bit faster for a similar price, and if you get the 2gb version you can unlock the extra shaders to make it a full 6970 at a lower price.

IMO you should dump the sound card unless you really need one, even then, don't get Creative. They suck, there's all kinds of driver issues. AuzenTech and Asus have good sound cards. But again, it's pretty unnecessary without using either very high end speakers/headset or needing a specific output for a home theater receiver. I'm using an AuzenTech Bravura 7.1 with Sennheiser PC 250 headset which is a high impedance (150ohm) headset - it would sound like shit on mobo sound. The Bravura is one of the best headset soundcards, it can push up to 600ohms. The AuzenTech Forte is also good, and from Asus the Xonar DX2 (iirc) is quite nice. Also Omega HT I've heard good things.

The HDD is good, but you might consider either two 1TB drives in RAID 0 for more speed, and/or better yet, get an SSD. 80-100GB SSDs are perfect for boot drives with some games on them. Really makes the PC snappy. There's some nice new SSDs out for good prices.

PSU is a great choice.

For a motherboard, right now I'd recommend the Gigabyte UD3 Z68 board. Asus I also like a lot but they sometimes have a buzzing sound... it's hit or miss. Anyway just make sure the board has 8x/8x PCIe bandwidth when both are used. Alternatively there's a few boards that are around $300 with the NF200 chip, you'll know it has it because it will show 16x/16x/8x PCIe bandwidth. The difference from 8x/8x to 16x/16x in SLI with 560s will be maybe 3 or 4%, at 1080p. If you go with higher resolution than that, the difference gets even smaller... so basically what I'm saying is, it's not a big deal unless you can afford a mobo that's twice as expensive.

Good luck with it! Make sure you have a case with good airflow.

 

[80Maxwell08]

Ok I'm noticing a lot of people recommending Solid State Drives. If any of you know of a specific drive thats mildly cheap but still works amazingly well then go ahead and tell me.

 

[Wolfram23]

Ok I'm noticing a lot of people recommending Solid State Drives. If any of you know of a specific drive thats mildly cheap but still works amazingly well then go ahead and tell me.

OCZ Agility 2 or Vertex 2

Mushkin Enhanced Callisto DX2

Intel X25M

Intel 320 series

Crucial RealSSD C300

Any of these are good. I would not get less than 60GBs, 80-100GBs being ideal for price and size and will allow you to put some games on it, bigger than that gets too expensive IMO.

 

[80Maxwell08]

Ok I'm noticing a lot of people recommending Solid State Drives. If any of you know of a specific drive thats mildly cheap but still works amazingly well then go ahead and tell me.

OCZ Agility 2 or Vertex 2

Mushkin Enhanced Callisto DX2

Intel X25M

Intel 320 series

Crucial RealSSD C300

Any of these are good. I would not get less than 60GBs, 80-100GBs being ideal for price and size and will allow you to put some games on it, bigger than that gets too expensive IMO.

Ok I looked at those recommendations and the best that I could find for the price was OCZ Vertex 2 and it looks good from what I looked up about it so thanks for those recommendations.

 

[Actual]

Ok I'm noticing a lot of people recommending Solid State Drives. If any of you know of a specific drive thats mildly cheap but still works amazingly well then go ahead and tell me.

I wouldn't get massively excited about a SSD. They offer much faster boot ups but that's about it. If you're patient to wait for a minute instead of 20 seconds each time you turn on your PC don't bother. If you still want a fast boot, try hibernate shutdown. It copies the RAM to the harddrive then powers down, on boot it uses the copied RAM straight from the harddrive, it can provide a faster boot.