Building twin gaming rigs and would really appreciate a look over :)

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Orothin

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Hey guys, I've been doing some research on making a good gaming rig for myself and a friend as well, and I'd really appreciate it if anyone was willing to look over the setup I've come up with so far to tell me if I'm crazy or not. :)

So a couple things before I list the parts..

After doing some research and looking at a benchmark test vs the i5 and i7 using SLI I realized that going with an i7 would only realistically improve performance by 5-10fps tops it seems. Unfortunately I can't remember where that benchmark was.. but seeing it made me feel that the i5 would really be the best bang for the buck currently. (Please by all means correct me if I'm wrong on this because I'm sure there are people out there that know more about this than me with my 2 days of research)

Also another note, I know I've gone a tad overboard with ram on this setup, and will probably reduce it to 4 or 8 gigs of ram to save costs depending on what my friend is willing to pay.

All in all this system runs about 1300 bucks (not including monitors, keyboards, mice and speakers.. etc)

I would very much appreciate an extra set of eyes looking over this and letting me know if there are any glaring mistakes, or just all around better performance givers vs cost that you guys may recommend in this case. I'm trying to keep as close to the $1000-1200 price range if possible, but may bend if something is blatantly better for whatever reason. :)

One thing I also liked about this setup is the option of adding a second GPU in the future (and I believe the 750w PSU should handle the 2 460gtx if we decided to add it)


Alrighty.. so here it comes..

Motherboard:
ASUS P7P55D-E Pro LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813131621

CPU:
Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor BX80605I5750
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16819115215

GPU:
MSI N460GTX CYCLONE 1GD5/OC GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16814127510

Memory:
CORSAIR XMS3 12GB (6 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model HX3X12G1600C9 G
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820145235

PSU:
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16817139006

Sound Card:
Creative 70SB088000004 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Express 1x Interface PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16829102024

DVD Drive:
LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 24X DVD Writer LightScribe Support
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16827106335

Hard Drive:
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16829102024

Case: (I used this case for my previous comp and absolutely love it)
COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16811119137

CPU Heatsink:
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16835103065

And that silver adhesive stuff:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16835100005


Thanks again for having a look in advance! I'd appreciate any questions, suggestions, comments and advice you're willing to toss my way. :)

-Kris
 
Solution
JackNaylorPE
GPU - At the price of your GPU ($210), I'd get a 470 for $20 more
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130550

MoBo - The P7P55D-E is getting long in the tooth. The Sabertooth is Asus's latest and greatest but they are in real short supply.

CPU - The i5-760 is only $9 more
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067

Memory - You can't fit 12 GB (6 x 2GB) of memory in an 1156 board, that would require a 1366 based board. I'd also suggest that a 2nd vid card would server you better than the extra memory.

So you'll have to decide between an 1156 based system or a 1366 based system.

1366 Based System - $589
$200 Asus Saberetooth 1366...
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Orothin

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k :)

Normally I run at 1900x1200 res just as a reference in my case. :)

Dropping the soundcard and the memory in half would save about 170ish bucks right there me thinks.
 
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My advice is to wait about a week. On Jan 9th Sandy Bridge is going to be released. These are priced like the i5 and perform like i7s for the price of an i5. Should be a substantial upgrade from the i5 760 for around the same price.
 
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Orothin

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I'm actually kinda curious how much better this system listed above would run vs my 4 year old comp with a q6600 2.4 cp, an 8800gts 512 video card, and 4 gigs of ram.

Though I know its hard to give better fps comparisons without listing games to test it against lol.
 
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Orothin

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I looked into that a bit and it seemed like the sandy bridge i5's will require their own type of motherboard, and those will cost about $300+, which is what kinda turned me off on it. Is that correct or did I read wrong somewhere?
 
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Second gen Core2 ( Q9550 )was about 15 to 20% faster than 1st gen ( Q6600 ) clock for clock. i5 adds another 15 to 20% depending on the benchmarks. Sandy Bridge should add another 15 to 20% to i5
 
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Sandy will have high end motherboards as well as lesser priced ones just like every Intel socket.
 
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Orothin

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That actually is really good info to know right there. So basically no matter what an i5 core or sandy bridge is going to be a pretty serious improvement.
 
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Orothin

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Wow holy crap.. they almost make it sound like this sandy bridge doesn't even need a heatsink for it haha.
 
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I am waiting on it for my upgrade........just too good to pass up for the price. You get i7 performance at stock speeds for i5 prices. The only thing i5 still has going for it is motherboards have got really cheap. Give it a month and the ~$150 Sandy motherboards will be out. They always release high end stuff first.
 
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Orothin

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Yeah that makes a lot of sense actually. Think I may end up doing the same. Also, if I can't wait, just dropping the soundcard or some of that memory would make it so that one of the newer motherboards would make that total system cost about the same in the end anyways.

Thanks a ton for all the info bro. It's been really helpful.
 
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JackNaylorPE

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GPU - At the price of your GPU ($210), I'd get a 470 for $20 more
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130550

MoBo - The P7P55D-E is getting long in the tooth. The Sabertooth is Asus's latest and greatest but they are in real short supply.

CPU - The i5-760 is only $9 more
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067

Memory - You can't fit 12 GB (6 x 2GB) of memory in an 1156 board, that would require a 1366 based board. I'd also suggest that a 2nd vid card would server you better than the extra memory.

So you'll have to decide between an 1156 based system or a 1366 based system.

1366 Based System - $589
$200 Asus Saberetooth 1366 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131665
$290 Intel i7-950 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115211
$99 OCZ DDR3-100 CAS 7 3x2GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227683


1156 Based System - $460
$185 Asus Saberetooth 1366 http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Sabertooth-55i-Intel-Motherboard/dp/B002OJRQP2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1293934091&sr=8-2
$209 Intel i5-760 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067
$66 OCZ DDR-3-1600 CAS 7 2x2GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227507

However, with the 1155 about to sunset in such a short time, I'd hold out for the introduction of the 1155 MoBos and CPU's in a the next week or two.

Sound Card - On board audio is fine

PSU - For same price you can upgrade both size and quality witha step up to an XFX Black Edition (10.0 performance rating on jonnyguru)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207001

Optical - This one gets 5 eggs to the Lite-on 4 eggs and is cheaper
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Cooler - For just a few $6 more (incl shipping) ya can upgrade from a mid tier cooler to one of the industry's top performers. The 212 hasn't made any top ten lists in quite some time and does not appear any more on either benchmarkreviews top performers of highly recommended lists.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=447&Itemid=62
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=447&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=15

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185142

TIM - Under no circumstances should you apply an adhesive to your CPU / Cooler. You want a thermal interface material which is non adhesive. Shin Etsu tops the list.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835150080
 
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Orothin

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Heheh seems like to me the only question will be what kinda motherboard to get in a week/month from now just to be sure we're getting a good one. I've always had good luck with Asus so I usually start looking there.. but its always nice to see what the majority of people think.

 
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I like Gigabyte myself although with 1156 ASUS was better.
 
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Orothin

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I haven't built a comp since my last one 4 years ago, which is a big reason why I posted here for some proof reading. With uber results too as you've caught a couple glaring issues I missed.

"Memory - You can't fit 12 GB (6 x 2GB) of memory in an 1156 board, that would require a 1366 based board. I'd also suggest that a 2nd vid card would server you better than the extra memory."

and

"TIM - Under no circumstances should you apply an adhesive to your CPU / Cooler. You want a thermal interface material which is non adhesive. Shin Etsu tops the list."


I used that silver stuff that wasn't adhesive beforehand and didn't notice the difference this time around. I'm glad you caught both of these issues because I'm pretty sure I would have missed them both.

This is a ton of good info. Thanks a ton!

 
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