New gaming build, need a few pointers !

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TheLink

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#101314 28-Apr-2012 16:26

Hi guys,

Will be building a new Ivy Bridge system shortly and would like some advice on a few components.

Main uses of intended build: Gaming
Monitor resolution: 1920*1200
Will you be overclocking: yes, as achievable on air.

Here are the compenents I have already ordered or owned from preivous builds:
Screen: Dell U2412M, 24", 1920*1200, IPS
Graphic Card: Sapphire HD7950, Over Clock version, 3G GDDR5, PCI-E 3.0
Case: Fractal Design Define R3 Black USB 3.0
DVD drive: Asus DRW-24B3ST SATA Black 24x DVDRW Retail
Storage: SSD Crucial 128GB M4 SSD
Storage: HDD Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
Sound Card: Asus Xonar DX
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Prem 64bit OEM

Here is what I am decided on:
CPU: i5-3570K
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-U LK

And what I would like some recommendation with:
Ram
PSU
CPU Cooler
Keyboard

Does this Motherboard fit well with this build ?
Always had asus boards and never had problems.

-What amount/brand/timings ram would you recommend ?
-What power/brand PSU would you recommend ? Would like a modular PSU if not too much pricier.
-Whith regards to CPU cooler would like something as silent as possible with some reasonable cooling to be able to do a reasonable overclock.
-Keyboard: usecd to have a Sidewinder X4, might go with it again, any other recommendations for a keyboard with a few macro keys and backlighting with a nice feel ?

Thanks !

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7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#616850 29-Apr-2012 09:10

Had a look at PSUs and probably going to get Corsair CMPSU-850AX 850W would give me headroom for further expansion, is modular, is of great quality and has a nice quiet fan.

For CPU cooler, considering Noctua NH-D14, but it is ?100 equivalent.
What about Corsair Hydro Series? H70 ? It is ?70 equivalent over here.
Any other suggestions ?

With regards to ram, is it worth going for 1600Mhz ram ? And shoud I go for 4, 8 or 16GB ?

Elpie

1304 posts

Uber Geek

#616925 29-Apr-2012 12:56

TheLink: Had a look at PSUs and probably going to get Corsair CMPSU-850AX 850W would give me headroom for further expansion, is modular, is of great quality and has a nice quiet fan.

For CPU cooler, considering Noctua NH-D14, but it is ?100 equivalent.
What about Corsair Hydro Series? H70 ? It is ?70 equivalent over here.
Any other suggestions ?

With regards to ram, is it worth going for 1600Mhz ram ? And shoud I go for 4, 8 or 16GB ?

The Corsair PSU is a good choice although its likely you won't need as much as 850W. I won't comment on the cooler as I am going through the same research at the moment for my new Ivy Bridge build. Hydro is looking like the win but I am still undecided.

For RAM, 1600Mhz is definitely worth it. I'd recommend 8Gb. I currently run 12Gb in a tri-channel set but the difference between 8Gb and 12Gb is negligible even with intensive graphics design work so 16Gb seems like unnecessary overkill, especially for a gaming rig.

lucky015

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#616978 29-Apr-2012 14:55

Everything I have read on Ivy Bridge suggests it is junk when it comes to overclocking.
Extremely high power draw at increased rates combined with higher temps than Sandy Bridge variants.

I don't however seem to be able to find the chart that came to mind.

As mentioned above the Corsair PSU sounds like a good choice although I will state Corsair are having problems with their PSU's lately and a number of them have a problem with whining noises coming from them (Flatmate has a faulty one and I've seen the problem mentioned on occasion elsewhere)

Noctua make the best CPU coolers and the D14 is an overclocking favorite, The sealed unit water coolers are generally a bit of a let down.

I agree that 8GB is generally the sweet spot for Ram although with a little extra to spend and the low prices of Ram if you feel like more then go ahead, At least 1600Mhz is preferable, Personally I don't see much of a benefit to expensive branded Ram and would go for a matched set of G.Skill myself.

Keyboards are a personal taste item, I have been thinking about getting an X4 myself, I use a Razer Mamba as my mouse, Deathadder is the cheaper variant.

timmmay

20589 posts

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#616982 29-Apr-2012 15:06

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/04/28/1221223/ivy-bridge-running-hotter-than-intels-last-gen-cpu

Since the CPUs are about the same speed, if you want to overclock the Sandy Bridge chips may be a better choice. Apparently Intel changed the thermal material to one that isn't as good, and the die is smaller. So while it produces less heat, it gets hotter.

This cooler reviews very well, it's as effective as coolers costing significantly more. I got a Noctuna, very high end, only because of space requirements. My case has acoustic lining to reduce noise, so the 212 heatsink wouldn't fit.

If I was doing it again I'd get:
- A larger full tower case, maybe one with a 140mm fan on top, though I don't really like them. I have five drives and a DVD, so it's a bit crowded in there
- A modular power supply to make the inside cleaner and cooler

Regarding RAM, not everything is compatible, so check the compatibility chart for that motherboard. Keyboard is personal choice, I have a rather expensive Daskeyboard and while they're good keyboards I'm not really happy with them. One key started making weird noises just out of warranty, and auspcmarket.com.au where I bought it are refusing to replace it.

lucky015

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#616984 29-Apr-2012 15:13

timmmay: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/04/28/1221223/ivy-bridge-running-hotter-than-intels-last-gen-cpu

Since the CPUs are about the same speed, if you want to overclock the Sandy Bridge chips may be a better choice. Apparently Intel changed the thermal material to one that isn't as good, and the die is smaller. So while it produces less heat, it gets hotter.

This cooler reviews very well, it's as effective as coolers costing significantly more. I got a Noctuna, very high end, only because of space requirements. My case has acoustic lining to reduce noise, so the 212 heatsink wouldn't fit.

If I was doing it again I'd get:
- A larger full tower case, maybe one with a 140mm fan on top, though I don't really like them. I have five drives and a DVD, so it's a bit crowded in there
- A modular power supply to make the inside cleaner and cooler

Regarding RAM, not everything is compatible, so check the compatibility chart for that motherboard. Keyboard is personal choice, I have a rather expensive Daskeyboard and while they're good keyboards I'm not really happy with them. One key started making weird noises just out of warranty, and auspcmarket.com.au where I bought it are refusing to replace it.

Yes, I would also recommend going for a Sandy Bridge CPU for overclocking although I would note that they appear to be climbing in price due to Ivy Bridge.

The Hyper 212 is a good and decently priced cooler and should be perfectly good for low to moderate overclocking however the N14 is considered the best of the best for air cooling so it comes down to what the intended purpose is.
(Personally I intend to throw a Hyper 212 in my system at some point even though I do not overclock)

The Hyper 212 however is a rather tall cooler so I would check if it would fit in the case and perhaps a taller and/or wider case is in order.

ImHighAs

50 posts

Geek

#617300 30-Apr-2012 10:42

You wont get PCI 3.0 on if you go with sandy bridge though.

aionwannabe

147 posts

Master Geek

#617957 1-May-2012 14:58

ImHighAs: You wont get PCI 3.0 on if you go with sandy bridge though.

it doesn't really matter especially if its just one graphics card on the 16x physical slot. There seem to be more advantages to 2xxx (i.e. Sandybridge) for you right now.

Id definitely say 8GB of 1600 ram, 4GB tends to be just not enough for what I get up to and 4 sticks looks better in a system

. corsair and mushkin are two decent brands to note
If your looking to bend the tubing on a water cooling kit like an H70 take note of the type of tubing they use, Corsair products use a stiff tubing and are prone to kinks if you bend it too much.

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timmmay

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#617959 1-May-2012 15:01

RAM is so cheap I went with 16GB, but I work with reasonably large sets of images (30GB+ per event). That means windows caches a lot of files in RAM, making things faster.

TheLink

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#617965 1-May-2012 15:13

order place thanks for the input.

Elpie

1304 posts

Uber Geek

#618046 1-May-2012 19:49

My new build order was placed today too. Build details:

ASUS P8Z77-V Intel Z77 DDR3 SLI+Crossfire Wi-Fi PCI-E3.0 LGA1155.
Intel Core i7 3770K Ivy Bridge 3.50Ghz 8MB 95W LGA1155
Corsair Hydro Series H80 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
Mushkin Blackline FrostByte 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3-1600 CL9 (993995).
Intel 520 Series 120GB 2.5" SATA3 6GB/s 34nm SSD
Intel 320 Series 80GB 3GB/S 25NM SSD
Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 64MB 6Gb/s SATA3.
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 32MB 6Gb/s SATA3.
Sapphire Radeon HD7850 OC 2GB GDDR5 PCI-E3.0 (11200-01-20G)
LG GH24NS70 24X DVD Writer SATA OEM.
Seasonic M12II 750W 80Plus Bronze Power Supply
Corsair Obsidian Series 550D Mid-Tower Quiet Case.

Had to do a bit of jigging around to get close to what I wanted without having the bank manager deciding to shoot me. This rig is my workhorse and has to handle gaming too (mainly RPG, no FPS, and all single-player not online). It should deliver on what I need. I'll be looking at a better graphics card(s) next year, or when I win lotto, whichever comes first.

timmmay

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#618050 1-May-2012 19:55

Sounds like a nice system.

TheLink

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#618069 1-May-2012 20:20

Must be planning to do some heavy editing given the ram and i7 ?

HD7850 is a nice card, should be able to handle pretty much everything on 1920 1200.

timmmay

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#618072 1-May-2012 20:23

16GB is handy if you do stuff with lots of data.

aionwannabe

147 posts

Master Geek

#618096 1-May-2012 21:18

Elpie: My new build order was placed today too. Build details:

ASUS P8Z77-V Intel Z77 DDR3 SLI+Crossfire Wi-Fi PCI-E3.0 LGA1155.
Intel Core i7 3770K Ivy Bridge 3.50Ghz 8MB 95W LGA1155
Corsair Hydro Series H80 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
Mushkin Blackline FrostByte 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3-1600 CL9 (993995).
Intel 520 Series 120GB 2.5" SATA3 6GB/s 34nm SSD
Intel 320 Series 80GB 3GB/S 25NM SSD
Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 64MB 6Gb/s SATA3.
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 32MB 6Gb/s SATA3.
Sapphire Radeon HD7850 OC 2GB GDDR5 PCI-E3.0 (11200-01-20G)
LG GH24NS70 24X DVD Writer SATA OEM.
Seasonic M12II 750W 80Plus Bronze Power Supply
Corsair Obsidian Series 550D Mid-Tower Quiet Case.

Had to do a bit of jigging around to get close to what I wanted without having the bank manager deciding to shoot me. This rig is my workhorse and has to handle gaming too (mainly RPG, no FPS, and all single-player not online). It should deliver on what I need. I'll be looking at a better graphics card(s) next year, or when I win lotto, whichever comes first.

unless you plan on waiting till the 670 and 660s are announced that's a pretty decent build, I assume you've read about Ivy-bridge's temperature issues?

Elpie

1304 posts

Uber Geek

#618151 1-May-2012 23:15

TheLink: Must be planning to do some heavy editing given the ram and i7 ?

HD7850 is a nice card, should be able to handle pretty much everything on 1920 1200.

Yes, indeed :-) I also run a development sandbox on a virtual machine so the bumping up from the 12Gb of RAM I currently use to 16Gb gives a bit of a boost.

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