BestConfigs: High-End Intel Gaming PC

[Praxeology]

There is no need for a 7200rpm hdd when an SSD is included.

if its the same price, why not go the extra mile?

.. No need for a 7200 rpm HDD when an SSD is included... I'm confused... Help me...

I too would take a 5400 RPM laptop HDD over the same price, 7200 RPM HDD...

 

[hapkido]

why not? because open air coolers will DIE when they are smacked right up against each other. and id at least get a board with a plx chip if you are thinking 3way.

note the psu isnt that great either. good 1000w units start at around 180

The top card has a full slot open space below it, so the middle card would be the only one sandwiched. I don't think it's anything a side case fan couldn't take care of.

I'm not worried about the PSU either. It has good ratings on newegg and this PC would maybe pull 700-800W in full stress testing -- probably far less in real usage.

The motherboard specs say PCI Express 3.0 x16/8/4. PCI Express 3.0 x4 has
as much bandwidth as PCI Express 2.0 x8 and that's enough for a video card. At worst you'd lose a few fps.

There are numerous ways I could rework this build to make a particular person happy and I could have gone with an i5-3570k and crossfire 7970s like everyone else, but that's boring. i7-3770k and trifire 7950s sounds like more fun.

 

[TheBigTroll]

The top card has a full slot open space below it, so the middle card would be the only one sandwiched. I don't think it's anything a side case fan couldn't take care of.

I'm not worried about the PSU either. It has good ratings on newegg and this PC would maybe pull 700-800W in full stress testing -- probably far less in real usage.

The motherboard specs say PCI Express 3.0 x16/8/4. PCI Express 3.0 x4 has
as much bandwidth as PCI Express 2.0 x8 and that's enough for a video card. At worst you'd lose a few fps.

There are numerous ways I could rework this build to make a particular person happy and I could have gone with an i5-3570k and crossfire 7970s like everyone else, but that's boring. i7-3770k and trifire 7950s sounds like more fun.

this is what you can expect with your card temps

card 1: 65c
card 2: 85c
card 3: 70c

reviews dont mean much unless it is tested by a psu testing machine. or go to jonnyguru or hardware secrets and read their reviews

tri-fire isnt even useful in gaming when 2 is enough to push max settings. and dont pull out that futureproofing on me

 

[Praxeology]

this is what you can expect with your card temps

card 1: 65c
card 2: 85c
card 3: 70c

reviews dont mean much unless it is tested by a psu testing machine. or go to jonnyguru or hardware secrets and read their reviews

tri-fire isnt even useful in gaming when 2 is enough to push max settings. and dont pull out that futureproofing on me

I don't see what would be wrong with 85c on the card. They are rated for 105c. And if you get the right type of 7950, tri should work fine though I doubt 3 stack any better then 2. Was will the third card give you in all honesty? .5 fps and a hardon?

 

[TheBigTroll]

85c is pretty hot. wouildnt suggest above 78c at most. rated doesnt mean it should run at that temp all the time

tri-fire does give you a performance boost but only at -50%

 

[Praxeology]

85c is pretty hot. wouildnt suggest above 78c at most. rated doesnt mean it should run at that temp all the time

tri-fire does give you a performance boost but only at -50%

Any benchmarks comparing sli, to tri-fire>? I doubt fps increase would be more than 5.

 

[rayner428]

just build an i7 3770k on an oc board to 7.1 GHz and dual GTX 690's
with 32GB's OC'ed RAM To 2133 MHz and 6tb storage

 

[excella1221]

.. No need for a 7200 rpm HDD when an SSD is included... I'm confused... Help me...

Usually, when a fair amount of SSD storage capacity is present, the HDD would only serve as a storage drive. And even if you needed the extra speed, there's Intel SRT to utilize; so unless the price difference of 5400 vs 7200 RPM is next to negligible, the former would be a wiser choice.

just build an i7 3770k on an oc board to 7.1 GHz and dual GTX 690's
with 32GB's OC'ed RAM To 2133 MHz and 6tb storage

Not sure if trolling....

 

[TheBigTroll]

he is trolling, or he assumes you have LN2

 

[TheBigTroll]

Any benchmarks comparing sli, to tri-fire>? I doubt fps increase would be more than 5.

2way crossfire vs 3 way crossfire
http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/asus-hd7970-tri-crossfire-review/12/

scaling from 2way SLI vs 3way SLI is about the same.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y08UUHMy9p8

just have to sift through the video for benchmarks in alien vs predator

 

[mrdowntownkiller]

the guy doesnt know what he is doing. leave him alone....

yup , you are right.

 

[Praxeology]

2way crossfire vs 3 way crossfire
http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/asus-hd7970-tri-crossfire-review/12/

scaling from 2way SLI vs 3way SLI is about the same.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y08UUHMy9p8

just have to sift through the video for benchmarks in alien vs predator

That's a pretty huge upgrade... Especially on the super hi-res setup.

 

[youssef 2010]

Youssef's Build

Processor: Intel Core i5-3570K $229.99

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme3 109.99

RAM: G.SKILL Sniper Gaming Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) $74.99

Graphics Card: 2xECS GTX 680 $439.99

Hard Drive: Western Digital WD Green WD20EARX 2TB $109.99

SSD: Mushkin Enhanced Chronos Deluxe 240GB $199.99

Case: Rosewill THOR V2-White Edition $139.99

Power Supply: Antec High Current Pro 850W $149.99

Cooling: COOLER MASTER X6 Elite $49.99

DVD Burner: LG Black Blu-Ray Burner 54.99

Total $1,999.89

 

[TheBigTroll]

Youssef's Build

Processor: Intel Core i5-3570K $229.99

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme3 109.99

RAM: G.SKILL Sniper Gaming Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) $74.99

Graphics Card: 2xECS GTX 680 $439.99

Hard Drive: Western Digital WD Green WD20EARX 2TB $109.99

SSD: Mushkin Enhanced Chronos Deluxe $199.99

Case: Rosewill THOR V2-White Edition $139.99

Power Supply: Antec High Current Pro 850W $149.99

Cooling: COOLER MASTER X6 Elite $49.99

DVD Burner: LG Black Blu-Ray Burner 54.99

Total $1,999.89

cheap board + lower end cooler (compared to the rest of the build) is unbalanced

 

[youssef 2010]

@TheBigTroll: I don't think the motherboard's price has anything to do with the build's balance.

 

[TheBigTroll]

it does. its quite a bit behind all the other components in terms of the price area that you should be aiming for within a 2000$ pc

 

[angaddev]

Angaddev's The Beast Has Arrived build

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($204.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Xigmatek Dark Knight II SD1283 Night Hawk Edition 89.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($51.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($198.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($45.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial M4 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (CrossFire) ($407.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (CrossFire) ($407.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 932 Blue ATX Full Tower Case ($174.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional Gold 850W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS324-99 DVD/CD Writer
Total: $1982.37
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-03 09:47 EST-0500)

 

[angaddev]

Angaddev's BEAST Rev.2
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($204.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Xigmatek Dark Knight II SD1283 Night Hawk Edition 89.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($51.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($198.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($45.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial M4 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (CrossFire) ($407.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (CrossFire) ($407.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 932 Blue ATX Full Tower Case ($174.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional Gold 850W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS524-T98A DVD/CD Writer ($23.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $2006.36
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-03 09:48 EST-0500)

 

[boulbox]

Angaddev's BEAST Rev.2
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($204.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Xigmatek Dark Knight II SD1283 Night Hawk Edition 89.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($51.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($198.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($45.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial M4 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (CrossFire) ($407.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (CrossFire) ($407.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 932 Blue ATX Full Tower Case ($174.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional Gold 850W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS524-T98A DVD/CD Writer ($23.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $2006.36
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-03 09:48 EST-0500)

You should get the 750W instead because you are using 2 7970 non GHz.

I don't know much about that exact cooler but i think a NZXT 140 or Noctua U9B(of course the better out of the two but i still don't like it's color) would be a stronger bet

 

[escribblings]

OK, I used the Facebook app. Here is my link: http://apps.facebook.com/tomsbuilder/12061

Overclocking in the Shadow of Vengeance

■Case: Corsair CC-9011016-WW C70 Mid-Tower Gaming Case Gunmetal Black ($122.98)

■PSU: Corsair Professional AX850 ATX12V & EPS12V Power Supply - 90% - 850 W ($169.99)

■M/B: Asus SABERTOOTH Z77 Motherboard ($229.99)

■CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K Quad-Core Processor (3.4 GHz, 6 MB L3 Cache, Socket H2 LGA-1155) ($209.82)
■Cooler: Corsair Hydro H100 Liquid CPU Cooling System ($109.99)

■RAM: Corsair 16GB KIT 2X8GB 1866MHZ DDR3 CL9 VENGEANCE FOR INTEL I7 AND I5 ($98.35)

■GFX: ASUS GTX680-DC2T-2GD5 GeForce GTX 680 Graphic Card - 1137 MHz Core - 2 GB GDDR5 SDRAM - PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (6008 MHz Memory Clock - 2560 x 1600 - SLI - Fan Cooler - DirectX 11.0 - HDMI - DisplayPort - DVI) ($539.99)
■Cooler: Arctic Cooling Accelero Hybrid Fluid Dynamic VGA Cooler ($99.99)

■SSD: Corsair CSSD-N240GBGTX-BK 240GB Neutron GTX Series SSD SATA III 6Gb/s 2.5' ($214.99)

■HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 Internal 1 TB 3.5" Hard Drive ($69.99)

■OPT: Asus BW-14D1XT Internal Blu-ray Writer ($99.99)

Total Price: $1966.07

 

[boulbox]

OK, I used the Facebook app. Here is my link: http://apps.facebook.com/tomsbuilder/12061

Overclocking in the Shadow of Vengeance

■Case: Corsair CC-9011016-WW C70 Mid-Tower Gaming Case Gunmetal Black ($122.98)

■PSU: Corsair Professional AX850 ATX12V & EPS12V Power Supply - 90% - 850 W ($169.99)

■M/B: Asus SABERTOOTH Z77 Motherboard ($229.99)

■CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K Quad-Core Processor (3.4 GHz, 6 MB L3 Cache, Socket H2 LGA-1155) ($209.82)
■Cooler: Corsair Hydro H100 Liquid CPU Cooling System ($109.99)

■RAM: Corsair 16GB KIT 2X8GB 1866MHZ DDR3 CL9 VENGEANCE FOR INTEL I7 AND I5 ($98.35)

■GFX: ASUS GTX680-DC2T-2GD5 GeForce GTX 680 Graphic Card - 1137 MHz Core - 2 GB GDDR5 SDRAM - PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (6008 MHz Memory Clock - 2560 x 1600 - SLI - Fan Cooler - DirectX 11.0 - HDMI - DisplayPort - DVI) ($539.99)
■Cooler: Arctic Cooling Accelero Hybrid Fluid Dynamic VGA Cooler ($99.99)

■SSD: Corsair CSSD-N240GBGTX-BK 240GB Neutron GTX Series SSD SATA III 6Gb/s 2.5' ($214.99)

■HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 Internal 1 TB 3.5" Hard Drive ($69.99)

■OPT: Asus BW-14D1XT Internal Blu-ray Writer ($99.99)

Total Price: $1966.07

why would you get a non reference card and buy another cooler for it....

 

[escribblings]

why would you get a non reference card and buy another cooler for it....

The reason I selected the Asus (even though there were cheaper 680's available) was because of something I had read. something which I am struggling to find now in my history to back me up, so it may well be something I mis-read.

What I thought I read was something along the lines of "being able to overclock/control the GFX card from the motherboard BIOS". Now as I say this, struggle to find anything to back it up in my browser history, and re-read what I am saying I may well have mis-read something

If that is the case, then any 680 would do as I specifically wanted to go for the closed loop liquid cooler (despite it being one of the ugliest things I have ever clapped eyes on)

Assuming I am wrong - which is quite likely - which 680 would you choose for this setup, with OCing in mind?

 

[boulbox]

i would just throw away that trash cooler and get a good non reference 670 or 2. Also ASUS sabertooth is not worth it, it traps heat and dust inside in stead of blowing it out and i think you can get a much better SSD at that price(840 pro or vertex 4)

 

[escribblings]

i would just throw away that trash cooler and get a good non reference 670 or 2. Also ASUS sabertooth is not worth it, it traps heat and dust inside in stead of blowing it out and i think you can get a much better SSD at that price(840 pro or vertex 4)

I did consider the Vertex 4. As to your issues with the Sabertooth - I see where your coming from but my Abit IC7-Max-III is still going strong and it has a similar setup (although not quite as involved).

Now, on to the "Trash" cooler. I am not so sure it is trash myself, but also not entirely sure it is mega effective either.

However, this KitGuru review gives a favourable result: http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/arctic-accelero-hybrid-review-with-nvidia-gtx680/


There is also one card on the market (but not on Newegg or Amazon, so cannot be included in the above build) that comes with the Accellero Hybrid as standard.

This time it is TweakTown but again a favourable review.
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4934/inno3d_gtx_680_ichill_black_series_accelero_hybrid_4gb_overclocked_video_card_review/index.html

Anyway - I will leave it up to the masses to decide if I am worthy of getting into the voting stage (I am not hopeful ) - but I have had a go, and I will stick with my above build for the time being.

 

[boulbox]

For $100 more, that is not even worth it. Sticking with a non reference 670-680 is a lot better(not in temps but in pricing and such) that cooler is being compared to a non reference.

A Gigabyte windforce is just as good and will be a lot cheaper than that kind of junk.
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/40973-gigabyte-geforce-gtx-680-oc-kepler-rides/?page=9

also i don't think they have even begun to OC on the arctic cooler yet