bEngineering

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Jul 19, 2012
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As far as anyone knows, will this work, also is there anything you recommend i change?

CPU: Intel Core i7 3820
Motherboard: Asus P9X79 PRO Motherboard
RAM: Corsair 16GB
PSU: Corsair CMPSU-850
Case: Cooler MasterElite 430

thanks
 

Temile

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3820 and x79 is expensive relative to performance. You're only getting 4 cores and you can get that cheaper with a regular sandy bridge or ivy bridge. What are you planning to do with this system?
 

bEngineering

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I want to be able to be able to play games like bf3 at at least high settings if not ultra. Yeah the 3720 is expensive but on Amazon its cheaper than the 2700k and the 3770k for some reason, and seems to be better. Can you suggest an alternative too the x79? Thanks
 

Nw333

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You should seriously state your resolution and budget since you dont want to follow the Build Advice sticky. :/ The two above are needed to provide you good specs for a specific budget.
 

bEngineering

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Ahh OK. Well I have about 700 to spend on motherboard CPU, PSU, case and GPU. I have everything else already. By my research I can get what I've suggested for about 720 which is OK. I definitely want to play at full HD. Nothing less! Thanks
 

Nw333

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Any plans to:
OC?
SLi/Xfire?

And whats your resolution, forgot to mention these in my post. My bad xD.
 

Temile

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Games do not use lots of cores or hyperthreading for the most part, so the 2500k is cheaper and very good. x79 motherboards tend to be a lot more expensive. You'll need the cash to get a good gpu, which is the main component you need for gaming. Read through the threads here, I've seen several recommendations for gaming boxes in this price range recently.
 

Temile

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I would love to see those prices. 3820 is $300, ASUS P9X79 PRO is $300, Corsair 850 is $120 or more, so I'm not sure how you got a case and GPU into that equation.
 

bEngineering

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Sorry I'm English and talking in Pounds. In USD I've got about $1100 although things are tragically a little more expensive in Britain than their american equivalents. These are the cheapest prices i could find. My current monitor is 1800 x 1080 resolution but I want something that could handle a 2560 x 1440/1600 resolution monitor as well.

Cooler Master RC-430-KWN1 - £39.32
Corsair CMPSU-850 - £84.99
Intel Core i7 3820 - £227.98
XFX ATI Radeon HD6950 - £168.82
Asus P9X79 PRO Motherboard - £191.98

Total £713.09, around $1118.34

Should i get a different Motherboard? I'm not intending on crossfiring as to my knollege is not worth it for the amount youve gotta spend. I'm lookign into overclocking but im a Noob and so thats an afterthought at the moment. Although this is for Gaming, it is also for series multitasking on two screens. I like to watch a film as i browse and normally and up having about 25 tabs open at most times!

Thanks
 

Temile

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I built the x79 box in my signature this spring. I considered the 3820, but changed my mind after reading this review:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-3930k-3820-test-benchmark,3090.html

The summary is there isn't a lot of advantage to x79 if you're not going to do 6 or more cores. In my case, I choose to go up to the 3930k, but then computers are both my vocation and my avocation and I budget accordingly (I spend more than I can afford).

It appears to me you are overestimating the effect of cpu on your system relative to gpu. For gaming, a 3820 is more than you need and you can do a lot better than a 6950 for graphics. With any i5 or i7, watching video with as many browser tabs as you want open isn't even going to begin to stress the cpu. The extra cpu power is only useful if you're doing serious video or photo editing, some development and server tasks, distributed computing etc. I recommend stepping down to a i5 2500k or i7 2600k (I still prefer sandy bridge to ivy bridge by a slight margin because of the heat issues with ivy bridge) and spending the money you save on cpu and motherboard to upgrade your gpu. You should get at least a 7850, or better a 7870, 7950 or nVidia GTX 670 (or wait for the GTX 660 which is coming real soon). Take a look at these benchmarks of systems with a 7870 vs 6950:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7870-review-benchmark,3148-6.html

The 6950 in BF3 at 2560x1440 struggles to get 12fps, while the 7870 gets 28fps.

In contrast, in the 3820 review you'll notice there is almost no difference in framerates between the i5 2500k, the 3820 and even the 3960x.




If you still decide to go with x79...let's talk motherboards. Picking a x79 motherboard is really hard (picking z77 looks even harder), but I think you picked the right one. If you want my reasoning read on:

ASUS is generally considered the premium mobo manufacturer. Its by a slim margin, but narrowing down to just ASUS left me with only 8 boards to choose from instead of 80+.

The last thing you want is a motherboard no one else has: the manufacturer is less likely to support it and you will have fewer online community resources. By this reasoning I narrowed the search to the RIVE, the Sabertooth, the Pro and the Deluxe.

The Sabertooth does not have the feature ASUS calls Q-Codes, which is a 2-digit LED boot status display. More than once in my career, I've only been able to get a build to boot by virtue of diagnosing these boot codes, so that eliminated the Sabertooth.

The Deluxe and the Pro are very similar, but I didn't need the built-in WiFi or second LAN controller of the Deluxe, which is more expensive, so that eliminated the Deluxe.

The RIVE has a bunch of specialized overclocking features that I don't need, but I was eventually won over by the wealth of activity on the overclock.net community about this motherboard:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1151946/official-asus-rog-rampage-iv-x79-owners-club

the RIVE is considerably more expensive than the Pro and really doesn't have any features most people (including me) are going to use. So I think the Pro is probably right for you (and probably right for me, but whatever).