Help a fellow Escapist build a gaming PC!

[Ezahn]

Hi there Escapists!
I just got a new 23'' monitor that's 120 Hz and 1080p, so I'd like to gift "him" a new PC.
Gaming is the focus, by the way.
I'm italian, so don't be surprised by the names and prices... ^^

Assemblaggio e Test PC ? 35,00 ? 35,00
Alimentatore PC Modulare Corsair Professional Series HX750 750W 80Plus SLI-Ready ? 112,10 ? 112,10
Hard Disk Interno Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB 3.5" 7200rpm 32MB SATA2 HD103SJ ? 43,70 ? 87,40
Case Midi Cooler Master 690 II LITE ATX Pure Black ? 77,00 ? 77,00
Masterizzatore Interno Sony AD-5260S 24x DVD/CD SATA Bulk Nero ? 17,80 ? 17,80
CPU Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz Socket 1155 95W con GPU Sandy Bridge Boxed BX80623I52500K ? 172,80 ? 172,80
VGA Gainward GeForce GTX 570 "Phantom" Core 750MHz Memory GDDR5 3800MHz 1280MB 2xDVI HDMI DisplayPort ? 282,20 ? 282,20
Scheda Madre Asrock P67 Extreme4 rev.B3 Socket 1155 Intel P67 DDR3 SATA3 USB3 ATX ? 117,50 ? 117,50
RAM DDR3 G.Skill Sniper F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR2 1600MHz 8GB (2x4GB) CL9 1.25 Voltage ? 81,00 ? 81,00

TOTALE: 982,80 ?

What do you think?
Main doubts:
- is it overkill? I do not have that much time to play unfortunately
- should I wait for Z68 and/or AMD Zambezi Bulldozer?
- could that build be ready for a quick SLI in the future?
- I never oc'ed and maybe I'll never do it, so it is worth it to buy some cheaper component and be happy with stock speed for life?

Thanks so much for your help, I really need it since I'm no expert (quite n00bish to be honest).

 

[Danceofmasks]

It's overkill if you don't game all that much.
Those specs will make a PS3 look like something out of the stone age.
If that's your intention, then by all means ...

 

[PlasmaFrog]

Depends on what you're trying to play, what are your future plans, and what would be ideal in other areas.

Other than that, yes, this is a slight overkill. A terabyte harddrive? Unless your friend is planning on stashing a massive porn collection, it really isn't that necessary. Try going with two smaller drives instead, one for your partition and system files, the other for program instances and media.

 

[Ph33nix]

if you are putting a 570 in it spend the extra on the CPU and get the i7-2600K that thing is a beast i've seen it over clocked to 5 ghz on air cooling. also that ram price seemed a little steep, though might just be around you but I know i usually pay less that. also in PC gaming there is no such thing as "overkill"

 

[Ezahn]

Interesting thoughts already, tnx!

Drives: yeah, your right, it's a little bit too much, but SSDs are still pricey and I thought that for gaming a RAID 0 environment could rock... am I mistaken on that? Maybe 2x500gb?

CPU: I understood that i7 is not really worth it for gaming... not so?

 

[Danceofmasks]

Interesting thoughts already, tnx!

Drives: yeah, your right, it's a little bit too much, but SSDs are still pricey and I thought that for gaming a RAID 0 environment could rock... am I mistaken on that? Maybe 2x500gb?

CPU: I understood that i7 is not really worth it for gaming... not so?

I do not recommend RAID 0. It may improve performance, but if either drive fails, the entire volume fails. Making data loss twice as likely.

I recommend getting a tiny SSD for the operating system.
The smallest fast drive you can find.
SSD drives are actually fast enough to take advantage of the 6 gigabit/second interface, so you'll get a significant performance boost there.

Personally, I can't get enough hard drive space. I use a USB 3.0 docking bay to switch out 2TB drives ... 'cos FRAPS records raw data at 1.5 GB per minute.

As for i7, especially sandy bridge, err ... it makes a noticeable difference in certain scenarios ... such as 8 player FFAs in Starcraft 2. Even then, the quality of the internet connection is a much bigger factor.
I'd say it's not necessary unless you intend to do the "big" stuff ... like those battles with 1000 units in ARMA ...

 

[Wolfram23]

It's a nice build although I'm unfamiliar with the case.... make sure it has good ventilation (intake and exhaust fans).

Don't bother getting the 2600k, it will show zero improvements in gaming and the 2500k can hit the same crazy high clocks.

You should probably think about getting a CPU cooler though, a good cheap one is the Hyper 212 Plus.

Otherwise you may consider an SLI/CF build for more performance at not much more cost. Crossfire 6950 2gb cards and unlock the extra shaders FTW (you can either flash to a 6970 BIOS or keep everything at 6950 specs except unlocking the shaders, which is safer). SLI 560 Ti is pretty sweet too - I assume you might do 3D with that monitor, in which case sticking with Nvidia is a good idea.

Oh, right. You should look at Z68 motherboards. They will allow you to use LucidLogix which allows you to passively have the EUs enabled on the CPU, which can make video transcoding/encoding times drop by half or more. They aren't even much more money than P67. Gigabyte sells a couple good ones. Make sure whichever mobo you choose has 16x/8x PCIe at the least and not 16x/4x which would hurt a multi GPU setup.

 

[Ezahn]

Tnx! Yeah, I don't like 3d but since I have this monitor maybe it's good to know I can try it if I'd like to.
And I'm afraid ATI gpus could have some problems with 120 Hz on DX10 & 11, or so I read.

Damned Bulldozer... I'm a little impatient but... ^_^
(Witcher 2 preorder incoming, you know)

 

[number2301]

I'd go for the single 1Tb drive and then get an SSD later when prices are more sane/funds allow.

You could save a little on the CPU and swap it out for a 2300 which will handle anything. But the 2500k isn't that much more anyway. I wouldn't go for the i7 yet, stick with the i5 and then upgrade in the future.

As for waiting for bulldozer, I'm not too up on modern AMD CPUs but you could spend your whole life waiting for the next best thing.

 

[MrTub]

Interesting thoughts already, tnx!

Drives: yeah, your right, it's a little bit too much, but SSDs are still pricey and I thought that for gaming a RAID 0 environment could rock... am I mistaken on that? Maybe 2x500gb?

CPU: I understood that i7 is not really worth it for gaming... not so?

I would recommend Raid 0 unless you have very important items on the computer but then again if you buy one disc and it crash you will still loose all you data. I've been using the same hdds for at least 4-5 yrs and they have yet to fail.

Just make sure you buy good hdds and you should be fine with raid 0.


Otherwise you can get Z68 mobos and buy a very small ssd and use it for ssd caching.

 

[Ezahn]

Thanks all, guys. You're being REALLY helpful and kind.
I thought that mobo by Asrock was a good one, open to SLI and with eSata... I'll check alternatives.

The real question standing is: is it a good moment in time to buy a new PC?
Or should I wait a little longer for incoming new hardware platforms?

 

[iLikeHippos]

That's a shit-ton of money in my opinion. But than again, I've only planned to build a PC, rather than building one. I found the list to be far too expensive so I just rolled with a console.

I will be monitoring this thread, just 'cause a good gaming PC is something worth aiming for, so long as it won't put me back half a year economically. (Yes, I am frankly that poor.)

 

[Danceofmasks]

Thanks all, guys. You're being REALLY helpful and kind.
I thought that mobo by Asrock was a good one, open to SLI and with eSata... I'll check alternatives.

The real question standing is: is it a good moment in time to buy a new PC?
Or should I wait a little longer for incoming new hardware platforms?

Personally, I'm waiting to build a 5GHz Ivy Bridge, probably around December.
The release of Ivy Bridge might also mean a significant price drop for Sandy Bridge.

Might be too long to wait, though .. if you need a computer soon.

 

[Ezahn]

Yeah, waiting for december could be tricky.
Sure, I can play on a Windows partition of my Macbook Pro with 9600GT graphics but still, with that monitor... ^^

Come on, come on, more opinions, convince me to be part of the PC gaming master race! ;-)

 

[Gill Kaiser]

Are there any games you're really looking forward to? If so, you should wait to build your PC until just before their release.

 

[Ezahn]

Ehm... The Witcher 2 comes to mind... oh wait, it comes out now. ^^
No other particular game in my sights, I just love to play good games in good conditions (in my case that means with 1080p 120 Hz support).

 

[Ezahn]

Oh, and what about Fractal F3 case? Anyone? I hear real good about it.

 

[Nerdstar]

if your looking for staying power for some time then you got it buddy. but all and all youv got a pretty decent rig going there to be honest. the only thing that might be really worrying is the cost(american gammer here so im not sure how much 982,80 ? traslates into $)