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+--- Thread: New Gaming Rig (/showthread.php?tid=17454)
New Gaming Rig - Jonathan Meer - 01-29-2012
Building myself a dedicated gaming rig. Planning it out now; will place the orders in two weeks.
Current component list:
ASUS 24" LCD monitor
ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 (mobo)
Sapphire Radeon HD 7950
Corsair Case
Corsair PSU
i5 2700k - 3.5 GHz Quad Core
8 GB of Corsair DDR3
OCZ Agility 3 240GB SSD
Haven't figured the cooling or power supply yet. Total cost looks to be about $1750.
Finally going to play some LEGIT Skyrim. Been having to play it on Min.
EDIT: Forgot to figure in the hard drive
New Gaming Rig - Shun - 01-29-2012
With a system like that will that decrease the chances of glitches or is that a problem within the game itself?
New Gaming Rig - Jonathan Meer - 01-29-2012
If you're seeing non-visual glitches in a game, it's because there are bugs in the code. Good rig won't fix that.
Visual glitches can be resolved, though. Depending on the time. I'm not an expert on that sort of thing.
mini-update: Dug around on the hard drive thing, and they're apparently way up in price because of the whole thai-flooding thing. So I'm nicking a 240GB SSD instead. Bit of an initial investment, but considering how much I'd have to pay for a decent spin-disk, not too shabby. 240GB is more than enough.
New Gaming Rig - Super Buu - 01-29-2012
FYI, in this day and age you can get a premade for waaay cheaper than one you build yourself. If you're need it to be perfect down to every detail, fair enough, but it will probably cost you hundreds more for something with equivalent power. I personally just periodically checked sites for weeks, checking out the average prices until I saw a ridiculous price drop on a PC that fitted my specifications perfectly. I'd seen the same one for almost double what I got it for, so good.
New Gaming Rig - Anzekay - 01-29-2012
One thing I should point out is that unless you plan on doing some very CPU intensive, like video editing or 3D animation (I.E, nothing that current gaming is going to ask your CPU to do), you can save some money and just get an i5 2500K. I don't know what the price difference for you will be, but you can probably pop that money into a bigger HDD or SSD or more memory or a pair of GPUs for SLI/Crossfire (I highly suggest the nVidia 560 TIs for SLI) or something else, or just save it entierly.
Unless you're like my Dad and just want an i7 for the sake of having an i7 which is fair enough!
Also, make sure you get 1600 RAM. Anything more isn't needed, and anything less isn't as much bang-for buck, typically.
New Gaming Rig - Jonathan Meer - 01-29-2012
At this point, I'm just like your Dad. =p
Really, I want something that's going to blast apart whatever the next-big-step in gaming is.
I'm really not interested in multi-GPUs. From what I've seen in benchmarks, the 7970 is more than enough for all current-gaming purposes.
And yeah, 1600 RAM is definitely the plan.
New Gaming Rig - Jonathan Meer - 01-29-2012
@Rose: Thanks for the heads up; I didn't really consider checking the pre-mades. I'll keep an eye out on those.
New Gaming Rig - Anzekay - 01-29-2012
Jonathan Meer Wrote:At this point, I'm just like your Dad. =p
Really, I want something that's going to blast apart whatever the next-big-step in gaming is.
I'm really not interested in multi-GPUs. From what I've seen in benchmarks, the 7970 is more than enough for all current-gaming purposes.
And yeah, 1600 RAM is definitely the plan.
Yeah I dunno what the price difference between a 7970 and two 560TIs is, but I know that it ended up being worth it for me. But I was also going for super performance because I do all of the animation/video editing stuff.
Good idea with the SSD btw, with one that big you can fit your OS and all your software no sweat. Just grab another regular HDD to use for your data storage if you can squeeze the money in (I got my 2gig ones for around 100, so they're pretty affordable), as that'll speed up data access too. Of course I don't know what sort of data you store so that may or may not be worth it.
Thumbs up to the RAM.
Also that mobo is the same as mine, and a fantastic piece of hardware.
Have you decided on brands yet for all your bits? Make sure you go with either Gigabyte or Asus for the mobo/GPU
New Gaming Rig - Vad - 01-29-2012
One suggestion I can make to you is to go Nvidia. Trust me you'll thank me in the long run. ATI is just not reliable anymore. I fix more ATI and Catalyst problems than I EVER do Nvidia. Games will just refuse to run with certain Catalyst drivers. Sometimes you need to do rollbacks to get certain old classic games to work. Some new games refuse to work because Catalyst decides to be a stubborn child and simply crash you out before the game even has a chance to load properly.
I also recommend avoiding flash based SSD's if you're going to be making it your primary hard drive. Flash based Solid State Drives have a write limit. SDRAM ones do not. The latter is going to be a cost increase, but it won't die randomly in the future.
Just my two cents.
EDIT: Anzekay's suggestion for Nvidia card gets my thumbs up as well.
New Gaming Rig - Jonathan Meer - 01-29-2012
Currently, ATI's next-gen card is out, while we're still waiting on Kepler. It's just a matter of timing, really. I don't feel like waiting 3+ months.
As for the SSD, I'm not worried about random failure in the future. It'll be annoying when it happens, but I'm not going to be saving any supersensitive data on my comp that I'll want backed up (besides like, game saves and stuff). The plan is to go for the SSD for now, and pick up a TB data drive sometime in the future (when they're not so expensive from the flooding).
New Gaming Rig - Jonathan Meer - 01-29-2012
Anzekay Wrote:Yeah I dunno what the price difference between a 7970 and two 560TIs is, but I know that it ended up being worth it for me. But I was also going for super performance because I do all of the animation/video editing stuff.
Gotcha. It's probably more powerful. The two 560TIs end up being $50 cheaper or so than the one 7970. That's that much more heat, though, and this being my first build, I want to go a little easy on the heat my comp generates.
Quote:Good idea with the SSD btw, with one that big you can fit your OS and all your software no sweat. Just grab another regular HDD to use for your data storage if you can squeeze the money in (I got my 2gig ones for around 100, so they're pretty affordable), as that'll speed up data access too. Of course I don't know what sort of data you store so that may or may not be worth it.
Meh. Nothing really atm. The plan is, have a desktop as a gaming rig (gaming only, just gaming, gaming gaming gaming), and a laptop for other purposes (coding, internet surfing, etc etc). I do plan to get a nominal data drive, though. Probably just 500GB.
Quote:Have you decided on brands yet for all your bits? Make sure you go with either Gigabyte or Asus for the mobo/GPU
How do you mean? I have the tentative brands for all the components in the first post
New Gaming Rig - Vad - 01-29-2012
Jonathan Meer Wrote:Currently, ATI's next-gen card is out, while we're still waiting on Kepler. It's just a matter of timing, really. I don't feel like waiting 3+ months.
As for the SSD, I'm not worried about random failure in the future. It'll be annoying when it happens, but I'm not going to be saving any supersensitive data on my comp that I'll want backed up (besides like, game saves and stuff). The plan is to go for the SSD for now, and pick up a TB data drive sometime in the future (when they're not so expensive from the flooding).
Aye. Just thought you should know.
New Gaming Rig - Jonathan Meer - 01-29-2012
I totally hear you though. I did want to go nVidia (as I've heard stories like your's all over the place), and Catalyst IS pretty goddamn annoying (I've got a mobility Radeon in my lappy). But with 3 months to go, and no initial reviews or anything yet, I don't feel like waiting.
New Gaming Rig - Jonathan Meer - 01-30-2012
Decided to step down on the i7 to i5, as per Anzekay. Trying to get this combo a little bit cheaper.
Still up in the air on the graphics card. The 7950 is coming out on Tuesday; as long as it performs well on the benchmarks, that might be my purchase.
EDIT: Not liking the premades I've seen so far.
New Gaming Rig - Anzekay - 01-30-2012
Jonathan Meer Wrote:Gotcha. It's probably more powerful. The two 560TIs end up being $50 cheaper or so than the one 7970. That's that much more heat, though, and this being my first build, I want to go a little easy on the heat my comp generates.
Meh. Nothing really atm. The plan is, have a desktop as a gaming rig (gaming only, just gaming, gaming gaming gaming), and a laptop for other purposes (coding, internet surfing, etc etc). I do plan to get a nominal data drive, though. Probably just 500GB.
How do you mean? I have the tentative brands for all the components in the first post
I'd have to check out the case, but if you set up the vents correctly heat should be minimal, even more so if you have your case placed in a good position. Speaking of cases, make sure the one you get has cable management. This is an absolute must.
And yeah, sorry, I see now you had Asus listed for the mobo, I must have just looked at the GPU which you don't have one chosen for. I'd go with Asus for that too; I find it best to stick with the same brand for mobo+GPU.
Also, if you want to get some other opinions of folks who really know this stuff, this thread on the PA forums had a ton of info:
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/150453/computer-build-thread-anxiously-awaiting-kepler-oh-and-the-7970-is-out/p1
There's also a link to a blog at the top of the first post that has a huge amount of well detailed info, as well.
New Gaming Rig - Waffuru - 01-30-2012
Do yourself a favor and get a Corsair case. I have this case and it rocks: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139007
It's a little bit bigger than the Nine Hundred but it is so nice to work in and I probably won't ever buy anything but Corsair cases from now on. In fact I might even replace the Nine Hundred my brother uses with a Corsair.
i5 is fine if you aren't planning to overclock.
you can steam message me if you want to ask things too.
New Gaming Rig - Jarka - 01-30-2012
I love Asus.
Love love love.
As for premades, you should mostly look at Asus and Lenovo... Asus is Asus so it's awesome, and Lenovo is very very very reliable. Asus premades in general pack a fuckton of bang for the buck, more than any other brand I know.
That being said, I do think you should build it. The cases are generally designed to be easier to get in and upgrade, and it is a neat learning experience.
And everybody else has said pretty much everything I was going to say.
New Gaming Rig - Anzekay - 01-30-2012
I'm just going to straightup say that I really can't see anything, anywhere, that leads me to think pre-made computers have become anywhere as good bang-for-your-buck as building your own, except in really low-end rigs (and even then, not often). That doesn't even include the other benefits of self-built machines.
So yeah, just build it. Putting stuff together these days is super easy compared to when I was putting my first one together as a kid, and you know there's tons of people you can ask if you really get stuck on something anyway.
EDIT: Also, totally with Waff on Corsair cases. They are extremely good pieces of tech. I personally use a Thermaltake Level 10 GT, but that's because I wanted a water-cooling friendly case, I adore the look of it, and I just felt like it.
New Gaming Rig - Rafael - 01-30-2012
Every time one of these threads pops up I wish I wasn't computer retarded.
New Gaming Rig - Jarka - 01-31-2012
Anzekay Wrote:I'm just going to straightup say that I really can't see anything, anywhere, that leads me to think pre-made computers have become anywhere as good bang-for-your-buck as building your own, except in really low-end rigs (and even then, not often). That doesn't even include the other benefits of self-built machines.
So yeah, just build it. Putting stuff together these days is super easy compared to when I was putting my first one together as a kid, and you know there's tons of people you can ask if you really get stuck on something anyway.
EDIT: Also, totally with Waff on Corsair cases. They are extremely good pieces of tech. I personally use a Thermaltake Level 10 GT, but that's because I wanted a water-cooling friendly case, I adore the look of it, and I just felt like it.
I was saying that, of any premade brand, Asus tends to be the best value, not that it costs less than building it yourself. Seeing as HP and Dell have better name recognition for premades, it's easy to get crowded out by their lower end products. Having specific brands to search for just means easier research. Also, some people might see something close in specs and think it's worth the extra cash to not have to sweat piecing it together. I believe in making as informed a decision as possible before making a significant purchase; it lessens buyer's remorse substantially.
That being said, anybody looking to buy a gaming laptop should look at Asus's offerings.