Thinking of a new gaming PC *Yes Another thread*

[Sprite]

Sorry guys I know we get millions of these threads but I didn't want to Hijack someone else's thread. I've decided that I don't need a new bike so I'm looking hard at getting a PC for gaming only. This wont be used for anything else.

Its been a very long time since I was a PC gamer (about 7 year! )

Anyway I wanted to throw a group of parts I've bashed together and I wanted some expert eyes to look over the list and point out performance bottlenecks or incompatible parts or just plain cruddy kit. I wont be overclocking anything and I know some stuff is over kill but I need it to at least not be upgraded for about 3 to 5 years.

So far I have...

Asus VG248QE 24 inch 3D LED Monitor - 144 Hz - 1ms
Asus Z87 MAXIMUS VI EXTREME
Intel Core i7 4770K 3.5
Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB DDR3 2400MHz
Corsair Hydro Series H100 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
EVGA Nvidia GTX 780
Corsair Neutron Series GTX 2.5" 240GB *2 for raid 0
Corsair AX760 760W Power Supply 80 Plus Platinum
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Corsair Obsidian 900D Gaming Black Full Tower Case
Pioneer BDR-208DBK

I've only looked in one place so far for price on these parts but I get its around £3000.

Any help or tips much appreciated.


Edit:

• Asus VG248QE 24 inch 3D LED Monitor - 144 Hz - 1ms
• Asus Z87 MAXIMUS VI EXTREME
• Intel Core i7 4770K 3.5
• Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB DDR3 2400MHz CL9
• Corsair Hydro Series H110 280mm High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
• EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 3GB SC Edition Card
• Samsung 840 Pro 256GB
• Corsair AX1200i 1200W Power Supply
• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
• Corsair Obsidian 900D Gaming Black Full Tower Case
• Pioneer BDR-208DBK BD/DVD/CD Blu-Ray Disc Writer OEM Drive
• WD 1TB Raptor *2

Total price sourcing from Amazon, CCL Online, Dabs & Ebuyer = £3023.46

Thats if I get CL9 RAM, if I go to CL10 I might save about £100. Along with upping the power supply to 1200 I've decided to up the cooling on the CPU as I've read the Haswell CPU runs hotter even without clocking.

 

[Pako]

Everything looks great so far. Some things to be aware of, SSD raids offer no performance advantages, but you do gain a larger volume. Also, I would consider a larger PSU. You have the option for SLI down the road, be prepared for that if you do. Don't skimp on the PSU. 1200-1500 watt. PC power and cooling, EVGA, and Antec are a few brands I would look at.

 

[Sprite]

I was wondering if Raid 0 with 2 SSDs would provide real world benefits, after reading many reviews it seems in benchmarking they do but real world provides no significant boost in performance and in some scenarios harms the performance.

With this in mind what do you think of the OCZ Revo Drive PCIe SSDs? If I get the 480GB one its about £200 added to the cost of the build over 2 SATA3 drives but speed should be slicker than snot.

 

[Pako]

I haven't checked in a while, but it used to be that the Intel 530 Series were the SSD to get for both performance and reliability.

I also checked into the PCI SSD Blades but felt that my PCIe real-estate was better served with additional GPU's and high-end sound cards as well as better thermal flow (air or water). The earlier OCZ PCIe blades had a pretty high failure rate. I have not researched them recently. As far as gaming goes, you will reduce load times, but ram, processor and gpu become more important than HD speeds.

I will say that is a monster mobo, great processor, and I have always loved the Obsidian cases. Other than adding a bunch of water cooling, you are mirroring basically a system I would be putting together as well.

 

[Joel]

Nowadays the one to beat is the Samsung 840 Pro. Pretty well the best on the market in performance, reliability (includes a 5 year warranty as well), and price. I'm a cheap bastard and I bought a 120gb Samsung 840 (non pro) for $100, I've been really happy with it and the speeds are great. Thing with comparing and benchmarking SSD's is that real world it's pretty irrlevant. Any good SSD will be "fast" and you won't have a perceivable difference between similar SSD's.

PCIe SSD's are a niche product within a niche product, IMO you'd be better off with an 840 Pro or other SATA 3 drive, save PCIe slots for a second 780 . As Pako mentioned, they won't impact gaming besides loading times being hilariously short, but overall they make your computer just "feel" incredibly fast. You'll never go back to an HDD boot drive

As for the rest of it, while I'm no expert it looks great. That system will be a monster 👍

 

[Sharky.]

That build is pretty much perfect, probably the only change I'd make is swapping the Corsair SSDs for a Samsung 840 boot drive + a large Western Digital Black storage drive (or several Raptors in RAID0 if you want pure performance). I wouldn't change anything else.

I can't recommend Samsung SSDs enough - I have a 128GB Samsung 830 boot SSD and love it to bits, I really want to try an 840 Pro at some stage 👍

 

[Sprite]

Thanks for the input. I wanted to as a few questions:

1. As far as I'm aware I'll need to alter the voltage to get the maximum out of RAM as the MOBO doesn't support the frequency. Is this easy to do?

2. I've recently seen some GTX 690's with 4GB of GDDR5 and they seem to be priced way above the GTX 780's. Is there any performance gain to be had from these cards?

I don't think I'm going to need an SLI setup and a single card will do for my gaming needs. I'll mainly be playing Arma3 and DayZ. Also a few future titles including racing sims. Again thanks for the info.

 

[ShaZZa]

Looks like a pretty good system you've put together.

I run a Revo hybrid drive myself. They don't serve a lot of purpose in a gaming rig. As most others have said just go with more (or bigger) SSD's.

With the GPU these days they're releasing a new card every month (...well it feels like it anyway lol) so at this point in time I would just go with a GTX780. That should tie you over for a fair few years.

The RAM you have could be classified as a bit of overkill (especially if all you're doing is gaming). Personally you probably wouldn't need to go higher than 2133, maybe even 1866.

Good luck with the build 👍

 

[TB]

Nowadays the one to beat is the Samsung 840 Pro. Pretty well the best on the market in performance, reliability (includes a 5 year warranty as well), and price. I'm a cheap bastard and I bought a 120gb Samsung 840 (non pro) for $100

I can't recommend Samsung SSDs enough - I have a 128GB Samsung 830 boot SSD and love it to bits, I really want to try an 840 Pro at some stage 👍

We're turning into the Three Amigos of SSDs (not STDs...) but I'll throw my recommendation in for the 840, also. Startup time for my 250Gb 840 non-Pro is in the neighborhood of 5-7 seconds for Windows 8. Couldn't be happier. 👍

 

[Sprite]

Thanks for the advice. I've looked and have put a 256GB Samsung 840pro for the main boot. And two 1TB WD raptors in raid 0 for games etc. I still come in under £3000. Just need to make my bank cry out in pain and get the goodies and build.

 

[Pako]

Thanks for the advice. I've looked and have put a 256GB Samsung 840pro for the main boot. And two 1TB WD raptors in raid 0 for games etc. I still come in under £3000. Just need to make my bank cry out in pain and get the goodies and build.

Looks good!

 

[Joel]

Make sure you post lots of pictures!

 

[Sprite]

Will do money management first then the spending spree starts.

 

[Pako]

Remember to get a big enough power supply. Don't skimp on the powah!

 

[Pharohbender]

using a 40" samsung tv for my monitor which rocks and is 3d, but i only get 3D @ 720p/60hz or 1080p/30hz~24hz
120hz panel no lag on my samsung love it !! its got pc mode...
tried deus ex in 3d it was pretty good in 3d and some gt5 on the ps3 wow!

 

[Sprite]

Quick question guys, would you go with CL9 or CL10 memory as the Dominator Platinum price difference is huge.

and to make you happy Pako I've decided to go with the AX1200i

 

[Pako]

Thank you for upping the PSU. You won't regret it. Lower latency is important and is certainly part of the total equation. Motherboards are a lot better now than they used to be as far as memory timings and compatibility, but you may check Asus' memory chart for that board. That might help make your decision.

 

[Sprite]

Looks like the board supports the RAM chosen. Thanks for the head up Pako.

 

[Pako]

👍 Nice! So when are you pulling the trigger on the order?

 

[Sprite]

Now for the hard part, the dreaded money.

I'm currently saving a huge chunk of my money through a share save scheme with the company I work for. This is for a deposit for my first house. So I have to be frugal and plan ahead. By December I will have freed up about £800 per month so by March with a some heavy saving, but if I pull out the plastic then I might be able to get around February time.

This gives Arma 3 some more maturing time and me time to watch the graphics card market and see what changes happen when the PS4 and XB1 release. Also it allows me to get the holiday season out of the way too and possible pick up some parts in season sales and shave some money off the build.

I'm sure that I'll have more questions as I go along so I'll be sure to post planning stuff here as I go along.

 

[Sprite]

Ok GTP overclockers/watercoolers I've been reading lots of reviews of the Corsair H110. They all make comment on the basic fans bundled and say that not only do they not have the best static pressure but also have highish Db.

Can any of you recomend a great 140mm fan that's got great or outstanding static pressure for shifting air through the radiator? I've read some reviews but everyone has an opinion so I'm curious about your recommendations.

EDIT:

I've also been thinking of a Push/Pull on the H110? Good Idea?

 

[Pako]

Depending on the radiator, push/pull can help. Other tests I have seen make little to no difference because of the inefficiencies of the radiator.

If you're concerned with performance, you might consider a simple kit over an All-In-One sealed unit:
http://www.xs-pc.com/watercooling-kits/

 

[Sprite]

Thanks for the link. They look like nice kits. I think having a sealed system appeals because I don't fancy spending the time on figuring it all out and putting it together. Plus I won't be overclocking the CPU, in fact I want to keep the CPU stock and try and keep the temp down but keep as quiet as possible.

So the idea of push/pull doesn't appeal if I'm going to sacrifice Db for just a few degrees cooler. I've been looking at Noctua fans as a great compromise on cooling and good SP along with fantastic Db levels.

The rig will, once built be sitting about 7ft away from my bed at the side of my desk. Now I might be being picky but I can hear a PS3 slim under minimal load sat on my desk at the same distance, once a film or game starts then this isn't a problem.

I guess I need a high powered but cool temp rig that is whisper quiet and I'm not sure if that's possible. So keeping the components high end running their designated clock speeds etc but giving them enough space and cooling to keep the CPU about 50/60 degrees under full load or lower and making sure the rest of the kit has enough breathing room.

One guy on the Corsair forums is an engineer for a racing team and he has suggested using the rear exhaust fan equipped with a custom dust filter as an intake as well so enough air is being fed in and maintains equal pressure across the case and allowing the fans on the radiator to run at optimal speeds for sound.

http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=117122

 

[Pako]

Without overclocking, and if dB's are a concern, ambient cooling might be for you. How about no fans?

 

[Sprite]

That looks crazy and also very cool.

 

[Pako]

That looks crazy and also very cool.

I first ran across this type of cooling when I wanted to build a silent PC for studio recording. If you need more cooling, just add more cooling cylinders. Pumps become your o ly noise for CPU cooling.

For case cooling, larger fans with large cfm and slow rpms is the way to go. Your video card will have some loud fans on it, but only under load when you won't hear it anyways.

For fans: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?223391-Fan-Testing-Part-2-(Retesting-Noise)

 

[Sprite]

That's the kind of idea I was working with for the case. I've read I'd need to keep a slightly higher positive pressure on the inside of the case to help keep the high SP fans spinning at their optimal RPM without causing them to become noisy or not moving enough air.

I think that if needed I could possibly put another 120/140mm fan below the card to increase positive pressure.

I like the idea of those fan-less cooling but I'm not sure its something for this build at the moment. I'm going to stick with fans and managing the airflow for now. Who knows maybe in the future.

 

[Pako]

That should work pretty good for ya.

 

[Sprite]

Ok peeps. I'm still on track for my rig build and I've got my main hardware ideas down and set. I now need to look into peripherals and video capture.

I think for the video I'm going to use the Elgato Game Capture HD and my MacBook Pro, it's a HDMI pass through so shouldn't impact the game and means no resource hogging Fraps or similar software.

I'm still on the fence with a few things like KB, mouse and headset /mic but I'm going to get Trak IR for head movement.

Any thoughts on what's been proposed or anything of mouse and KB?

 

[Pako]

There are a lot of "Gaming Headsets/Mic" Combos out there. I tried a few but finally settled on a good set of reference headphones (a serious Audiophile pair, Sennheiser HD650) and velcroed a LVA-7330 mic to the side of it.

As far as this setup goes,
Pros: The audio is the best I've heard. The sound stage of the HD650's is wide and stereo imaging is as accurate as I've heard. Frequency response is also flat and non-colored in my opinion.
The mic was cheap and is very clear and crisp.
Cons: Wires. I also miss the "mute" button and dedicated volume controls that my "Gaming" phones had.

My suggestion? Make sure the phones are comfortable and don't fatigue your ears in both how they wear and how they sound.

Keyboards: Recently switched to mechanicals. I will never go back.
I have a cheaper Logitech that I use for gaming now, the G710+ that works fairly well. Using DAS Keyboards for work with blues that are also nice.