$3200 Gaming PC

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Chandy168

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Apr 9, 2011
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18,510
Approximate Purchase Date: 2 and a half to 3 weeks
Budget Range: $3200 or lower
System Usage: Gaming, Movies, Work
Parts Not Required: Monitor, Mouse, Keyboard, Speakers, Webcam
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: im not in us, and the website that has price comparisons in au is staticice.com.au
Country of Origin: Australia
Overclocking: Yes
SLI or Crossfire: Maybe
Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080
Additional Comments: Thermaltake Level 10 Chassis


Parts I have in mind already:
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10
PSU: Corsair AX1200 (modular)
CPU: i7 960
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60
Motherboard: Asus Rampage iii black edition
RAM: Corsair Dominator GT 12GB @ 2000Mhz
Video Card: Asus 2GB 6970 (will add one more in a year or 2)
HDD1: OCZ Vertex 3 120GB OR Revodrive PCI-E 120GB
HDD2: 1TB Western Digital Black Caviar Sata 3
ODD:?? blu-ray or not??

Feel free to give suggestions upgrades or downgrades or equivalent products for cheaper prices


Thanks.
 
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The whole structure of sandy bridge and how much space each part is allocated on the motherboard has allowed sandy bridge processors to be more efficient in performance...
So consider a 3GHZ sandy bridge processor is equivalent to around an 3.6-3.7ghz i7 processor...

Basically, its the newer technology and blows your processor out of the water for cheaper. I'm from new zealand by the way.

consider getting 2 x gtx 570's also..... and no need for ddr 2000RAM... just get some standard 1600MHZ sticks. (CL9 is fine for sandy bridge..)
 
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I don't know where your getting your information, but whoever or whatever it is...your not getting it straight. The 1155 mobo's are every bit as good as the 1336 mobo's. It's like this... the 1336 socket is all but dead in regards to gaming... that's the fact of it. Life changes and so does technology.
 
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thanks why_me

After I saw those benchmarks I think i might also switch over to the p67 platform
however now i face the problem of which mobo.
Many reviews say that both the gigabyte ud7 b3 is really good and a lot say the maximus iv extreme is also very good
so which one would you get and why
 
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Careful going with a revodrive. I love the theory behind them, but the "cheaper" ones (sub 1k) are essentially flash drives in stripped raid on the board - so if one chip dies you loose EVERYTHING. The technology is still a bit undeveloped for reliability (unless you pay out the wazoo).
 
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The level 10 is a hugely overpriced and poor performance case. I really wouldn't go with it.

Below $140 there the HAF 922, CM 690II, ante 902.
If you want a really nice case, with top notch performance, there's the Silverstone FT02 for $250
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=25_608&products_id=13943

Not a big fan of the 6970. You're basically paying $70, or 24% more money for 10%-15% faster. Add that to the fact there really isn't a game that the 6970 can play, but the 6950 can't, and it winds up not being too worth it.

IMO, just grab a 6950 2gb. In fact, it you don't plan going eyefinity down the line, at 1080p you'll be fine with the 1gb version, saving even more.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131706&cm_re=1155-_-13-131-706-_-Product

PSU wise you don't need 1200 W. Go with a good silver or gold unit in the 750-850 range.
XFX 750W black edition is an excellent value at $180
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_979&products_id=14186

If you want the best, seasonic x750 is $215
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_972&products_id=12908

Corsair AX 850 if you want to go higher is $255
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_354&products_id=15251

Seasonic x750 is same thing as corsair ax750
Seasonic x850 is same thing as corsair ax850. I just grabbed cheaper priced one.

Big air is better than cheap water, both in terms of price, silence and performance. Thermalright linked above is an excellent choice. A budget choice would be hyper 212+ for $33
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=12544

Really no need for blue ray. nothing blue ray does an external HD can't do better.
RAM wise, any G Skill DDR3 1600 or 1333 kit is fine. Lower CAS is better, but it's not a huge diff.
 
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Thankyou, that really helped a lot, however, i wonder because i will be adding another 6970 in a year or two is 850 watt enough?
and one more question which board would u get for the i7 2600k?
the ud7 or maximus iv extreme
and how about the corsair vengeance ram??
 
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You can run dual 6970's on a good 650W PSU.

6970 w/ i7-920 is 601 W under furmark at the wall. Assuming 85% efficiency, its actually using 511W.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4061/amds-radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950/24

It's more about max efficiency curve of a PSU which runs from 30%-80%, so ideally idle would be at 30%, max load 80%.


Technically, this fits a 650W curve best, but to give yourself some overhead, I recommend a 750W. Anything above that is moving into overkill territory, and actually hurts efficiency as a result.

Just remember there's a BIG diff btwn a 650W PSU from a good company, where that 650W is pretty much all +12v, and a bad PSU company where it may be 200W of +12V, 300 of +3.3, +5, and another 150W they tacked on to the rating for the hell of it.

Heck if you take diablotecs classification system for example, they'd call a seasonic 650W PSU a 1200 watt PSU.
( I'm not joking either. Their 1050W PSU is in reality, 550w at best, see http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&file=print&reid=187)

Board wise, GA p67A ud4 or Asus p8p67 Pro are good xfire capable choices.

Corsair ram tends to be overprices outside their XMS3 series (you're paying for brand name). G Skill has consistently put out quality products (in fact, their products will usually run better than rated). Combine that with some of the most competitive prices, they're the go to choice right now.
 
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I agree on the case. I use an HAF 932 with my Rampage III Extreme. I switched the case a couple months ago. Much cooler temps. (and I use the coolermaster V10 [I didn't want the potential water-cooling issues]).

Also agree on the GPU.

On the HDD, you mentioned plugging it into a SATA 3 port. This is unnecessary, as a HDD will never reach the bandwidth provided by SATA II. Neither will a blue-ray player.
I would be wary of the Vertex III. Yes, unheard of specs, but reliability is really an issue. I've gone through three of them and sworn off OZC because of it, but that's another story. Something to research. At least benchmark the SSD after receiving it for reliability/speed. Recommend CrystalDiskMark.
I am going with a faster PCI-E SSD -- Great speed, better latency.

Pay attention to how many internal USB headers are onboard with the mobo. I was quite disappointed with the Rampage III extreme when I realized it had one internal USB header (meaning 2 USB ports). Facepalm for an enthusiast mobo. I recently purchased a USB Header splitter to allow me to hook up all four front USB ports, as well as a card reader. This usually would have taken 3 headers, and leaves no room for internal USB devices (e.g. wireless keyboard receiver, etc.). Does not impair speed as long as I don't use more than one header at a time (obviously).

If you're considering this as an HTPC build, consider another (smaller/cheaper) SSD for uncompressed audio. I'm into hi-fi audio, and have a dedicated SSD for this purpose. Could be for video as well, but $$ and I'd rather just play blue-ray's.
Also consider a large lower-rpm HDD [read: cavalier green] for backup. Cheap, quiet, and can run forever. This also means you can turn off your faster HDD to eliminate noise when using your tower in HTPC mode. I also used a front-mounted fan controller to physically turn down fan speed to eliminate background noise (from the HTPC) with AV playback.

Maybe it's just because I'm into audio, but an external upsampling DAC (or upscaling video processor) can do wonders. Works better than software, as no potential conflicting issues. They do anything from upsample blue-ray for CRT projection, to taking a 800MB file to DVD quality [or DVD to blue-ray]. Being external, you never have to worry about compatibility issues [Examples: Streaming media or software conflicts]. Imagine photoshop for every frame of a movie. Most will do audio as well, but not like a dedicated ARC DAC, but that's getting excessive. Again with the audio 😛

Anyways, I got a little carried away. All the best.
 
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Been looking for something like this on SSD's. He said it faster than I can type. The intent is to be wary of SSD's driven by SF 2281 controllers.

[quote: Bowler484 from EVGA.com]
OCZ and Sandforce have been trying to eliminate this problem for months and cannot. It effect the Vertex 3, Agility 3 and Solid 3. But OCZ is not the only one. The Corsair Force 3 and Force 3 GT also have the exact same issue. It's also seen in drives by Patriot, Mushkin, Kingston etc.
The one constant? Sandforce 2281 controller. Sandforce has release 2.08, 2.09 and 2.11 firmware for the OCZ drives trying to fix it. The only one that came close was 2.09 because it slowed down the drives to below advertised specs.
Right now my Vertex 3 seems stable on 2.11 at the moment. It was good on 2.09 as well. 2.06 and 2.08 saw multiple bsods. OCZ spent months blaming user error before they finally admitted it wasn't. Of course, they blame Intel's p67 chipset instead of their drive. And then when it's pointed out to them that amd systems also have the problem, they say it's not the same bug. So both p67 and amd system lock up, bsod and reboot themselves and the drive can't be found in biod until a cold boot is done. But yet, it's a different bug that cause each. LOL.
I'd go with a Crucial m4. The newest firmware relase puts it ahead of the Intel 510 in performance plus it's cheaper.
[/quote]

Link to original thread:
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=1195790&mpage=1&print=true
 
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