$3000 CDN Budget - Gaming (LGA2011)

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Tequila Stud

Tequila Stud

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Apr 3, 2012
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Greetings all,

I'm looking for some advice on my current order. I'm looking to buy a machine to run games on ultra. I have two monitors, only use one to game on with the other acting as a news feed or reference information for the game I'm playing. They are dual 23" 1920x1080.

Please note all figures/parts need to be from Canada, preferrably TigerDirect or NCIX.

My current order:

CPU: Intel i7-3820
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1884773&sku=I69-3820

Mobo: ASUS Sabertooth X79 TUF
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1498753&sku=A455-3156

OR

ASUS Rampage IV Extreme
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1498755&sku=A455-3158

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 680
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2295396&sku=E145-0680

RAM: Corsair Dominator GT 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-17000 (2133 Mhz)
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1875026&sku=C13-6608

Power Supply: Corsair TX850M Modular Power Supply - Enthusiast Series - 850W
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=581010&sku=C13-2826

SSD: OCZ Agility 3 Series 240GB
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=557373&sku=O261-8202

HDD: WD 500GB Caviar Blue
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7281716&sku=TSD-500AAKX

Case: HAF X
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6269869&sku=C283-2080

+ BlueRay/DVD/CD & Windows Home Premium 64Bit

Approx $2200-2300 before taxes.. Budget $3000 CDN.

I have room to tweak it, and would like some advice on my parts selection. Particularly my RAM and Motherboard options. I anticipate upgrading my CPU once IB comes out and the performance difference is quantified.

Cheers!

*I don't overclock things*
 
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Hello op

if you can wait for ive bridge it will be worth it.

Also i7 is an overkill.

But at your budget why not buy some monitors and eyefinity them.

My suggestion.

Sandy bridge e built

intel i7 3820
asus sabertooth x79
Corsair dominator gt 4x4 gb 1600mhz ddr3 ram
Evga gtx 680 x2
crucial m4 128gb ssd
pc power and cooling silencer mkii 950w 80+ silver psu
Wd carvier blue 500gb x2 in raid 0
lg blue ray burner
corsair carbide 600t white.
Corsair h100

also i will suggest the same monitors which you have currently have and put 3 in eyefinity and fourth on top of the first one
 
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If you're not overclocking, a simple cpu cooler like the Hyper 212+ should be totally sufficient. I have one on my i7 3820 @4.0Ghz and it runs cool. Take the money saved from that and get more RAM - it costs next to nothing and you've got 8 DIMM slots on that board.

And, as serialkiller suggested, more monitors=more fun.

My $.02

P.S. The HAF is undoubtedly a good value, but look to Corsair for more innocuous looks.
 
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I suggested h100 for its asthetics , bragging rights and as he had a deep pocket to fit that cooler

naf thanks for pointing out appericiated.

also more ram will be over kill.

And 1600mhz is all you need above that gains are next to none.

 
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Rog motherboard are awesome with lots of features and the asthetics.

But the cons is that

1. it is overpriced
2. It has lots of useless features which you are never gonna use
3. it will burn a great hole in ypur pocket and the performance gain is next to none.

I to use rog motherboard but i have never used its features and i am advicing you that you will feel bad afterwards that you are been doped.

Also sabertooth has nice high quality components.

And has 5 years warrenty.

So the best bet is the sabertooth.

If you want to go tri sli then look at asus p9x79 ws motherboard.

It worth every penny
 
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A i7 is an overkill as i said before.

Games uses 2-4 cores and i7 provides 8 including virtual cores.

So i7 3930k will be overkill.

For the ram part.

Even the most heaviest games wont ead more than 7 gb of ram may be 8gb

but 32gb is redeculus.

More ram is needed when you do large scale video editing and rendering huge heavy sences on maya.

So 16 gb is more than enough for the next 2-5 years.
 
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$3k is a high budget and any one would like to get the best for the money.so better wait for IB.and don't get H100.it's a bit better than air coolers but not a *true liquid cooling*.it's $100+ and still stock fans are crap.a good air cooler is enough to reach 4.5ghz.sabertooth is a great mobo.rampage iv extreme is for absolute bragging rights.any thing above 16gb is use less unless you wanna run a server.16gb will take care of your rendering and multi tasking.you can fit 2x680 in your budget.in fact you can buld one of the most powerful machines to the date.
 
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indeed, the 3930k is overkill, as is 32GB of RAM.

But when I saw 32GB of RAM for $160, I said what the hell? Lets have some fun with a Ramdisk. I load large photoshop/indesign files onto it before working on them and it flies. But mostly it was just an experiment. 16GB is plenty future-proof.
 
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Given the 2011 platform and the i7-3820, I'll be able to upgrade to an IB cpu when they come out though right? Or, when they drop in price in a year or two?

Also, considering I'm only gaming at 1920x1080, is 2x680 really going to make a difference? I don't plan on doing eyefinity, and am happy with my dual monitors - one for game, one for reference text.
 
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I'm reading lga2011 will support IB-E.. which is why I went with 2011 to begin with. Figured I could always upgrade later. Going to need to read deeper I guess if thats not the case 🙁

Thanks for all the info so far!
 
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Ivy Bridge is due out April 29th.

http://pcper.com/news/Processors/Intel-Ivy-Bridge-Processors-Launch-March-23-2012 <----- Here's a price run down of the Ivy Bridge cpu's in $USD

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=138_711_1183 <----- Z77 boards already for sale in Australia. In the past few years the Aussies have been getting the goodies a month ahead of the US and Canada including Sandy Bridge and the 1155 boards. The Aussies have already pulled some of the 1155 Cougar Point boards (H61/H67/P67/Z68) from their site. In fact a lot of those boards are no longer for sale on that site compared to last month.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5166/ivy-bridge-overview <----- Line-up of Ivy Bridge desktop cpu's to date.

Z77/Z75 motherboards (Panther Point chipset w/native USB 3.0) and PCI-E 3.0

http://www.asrock.com/microsite/PCIe3/overview.html <----- Quick and brief rundown of Ivy Bridge, PCI-E 3.0 cards and the new gen boards.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/index.asp?s=1155 <---- Asrocks Z77 and Z75 boards to date. They all get released with Ivy Bridge.

http://usa.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/Intel_Z77 <---- Asus Z77 board lineup to date.

http://www.gigabyte.us/products/list.aspx?s=42&jid=2&p=2&v=24 <----- Gigabyte Z77 board lineup to date.

http://us.msi.com/product/mb/#/?sk=Socket%201155%20(Intel%20i3/i5/i7) <----- MSI Z77 board lineup to date.


http://www.anandtech.com/show/5626/ivy-bridge-preview-core-i7-3770k/9 <---- Ivy Bridge cpu review with benchmarks

44758.png


http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-680-overclock-guide/ <----- Overclocking the gtx 680 w/benchmarks

680oc.jpg



http://usa.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8Z77_WS/#overview
ASUS P8Z77 WS (4 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 dual x16 or x16, x8, x8 or quad x8)
 
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