High-end Gaming build compatibility check

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
M

Mike341

Honorable
Jan 20, 2013
89
0
10,630
Hello gentlemen, Mike here.

so im building a gaming rig to last a couple years and have picked some parts which looked good :)
i need a complete compatibility check here so i wont buy something and suddenly it wont fit. that would suck a whole lot. before i start, you should know that I'm a first-timer at this.
so here they are:

for my Mobo, i chose the Asus P8-Z77 V-pro due to its amount of slots for future upgrade(s)

for a CPU i stand between the i5 2500k, the i5 3570k and the all powerful i7 3770k- now, keep in mind i want this to be a more or less future-proof system. just let me know which will be compatible with the rest of the rig, and i´ll decide afterwards

for a graphics card i´ve chosen what they called the beast. I'm speaking of course, about the Nvidia GTX 690

memory: 16Gb (2x8) of corsair. why 16GB? because I'm gonna probably use windows 8. hate me or love me for it, but I'm gonna give it a shot. ive heard about RAM issues aboard the
8-train, and i also wanna be future-proof, plus ram is cheap so...

now, for Hard Drive, I'm gonna go with an SSD option this season fellas, and i´ve picked the Samsung 840 series 250GB, simply because its good, for a good price (comparing to other SSDs) when i need it, i´ll drop another 200 bucks on 250 again, but i´ll start off with just one card. HDD access denied!

CPU Cooling: Zalman CNPS12X would be the man (fan) for this job i think. not only is it cool looking for my window, its also quiet (i respect silence) and effective at the same time. and cheaper than, say, liquid cooling.

PSU AND CASE: so these are the two i spent most time researching for, for good reasons. the CASE i want look a little something like this: http://tinyurl.com/9wazhot
not only is it one of the most sexy-looking cases i´ve ever seen (Imo), it also goes perfectly with my monitor. and it seems to me that its compatible with the other components.

for the PSU, i found the "OCZ ZX series 1000W" supplier. it is cool, quiet, and a hell of a lot cheaper than the competitor the cooler master "1000w silent pro gold".
now, before you judge me for having picked an overkill Watt delivery, i just wanna remind you that this rig must be upgradable/future-proof. therefor, i´ve chosen HQ PSUs to not mess things up. my only concern for the PSU is if it will fit in the case. the coolermaster one has the same name as the case so it would seem that would be more compatible. call me an idiot, but
i´m just trying to think logically.

that about wraps it up. a full compatibility check is needed here, and a checkmark on good airflow, silence and performance capabilities. other advice is also appreciated :)

thanks
 
i almost forgot!
i havent pickes a DVD drive yet, because i dont know anything about that. what would look good on the case? what brand is recommended? what should i pick?
 
Just any cheap $20 drive would do, from LG or ASUS. In my opinion it is not possible to future proof. It doesn't mean buying the most expensive parts in the world. Save some money grab a GTX 670 or a Radeon 7950. Those cards can still max out games with respectable frame rates. The PSU you should get is a Seasonic X 650. Seasonic is the god of all PSUs and it is fully modular with 80 plus GOLD efficiency. That case is great for airflow though I personally don't like the looks of the HAF series except the HAF 912. The CPU you should get is the 3570K, 2500K is last generation. The 3570K should be a couple % faster than the 2500K at stock and overclocked settings. As for the CPU cooler grab a cheap Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo because it is a great value for a CPU cooler and should serve you well for up to about 4.2GHZ. For memory getting 16gb is a complete waste of money, 8gb will give you the same performance.
 
I will tell you why to get a 3570K instead of a 3770K. The 3570K is like a 3770K but without the hyper threading. The 3770K is better than the 3570K at stuff like video rendering, or photo editing. When just purely gaming there is a MINUSCULE difference between the two. Maybe a 1-3 FPS difference based on the reviews I read.
 


ok, i5 3570k it is :)
but im gonna stick with 16GB Ram
i´ll definitely check out the seasonic PSU and the cooler you mentioned, but as for the Graphics card, i might go 5760x1080 or 5760x 1200 or whatever 3 1080p monitors are called, so im gonna need the overkill. i also found an external DVD drive from asus which looks incredibly cool.

i still need the compatibility check mark for my build though, that´s the thing im concerned about the most.

im buying my items from amazon.co.uk since i live in denmark btw :)

thanks for the quick reply completelyran
 
Also you could just pick up 2x7970s which perform better than this said "beast"....

Reason 1. Performance, it's faster, can be overclocked better, and handles high res better than the single 690.
Reason 2. Value, It's cheaper than a single 690...
 


untill AMD fixes its issues (i´m talking mainly about MicroStuttering here) it´s gonna be Nvidia. now, new cards will come out soon, so we´ll see who wins this war, but so far i´d go for GTX 680 ftw Sli. it is more expensive i know. but i won´t compromise when it comes to graphic. it is a gaming PC after all.

anyways, what is this whole overclock thing? please explain :)
 
Okay, going GTX 680 SLI is not a bad choice, neither is the 7970 CFX route... As for overclocking, it is a process in which you take a STOCK FREQUENCY of a CPU or something and you MAKE IT GO HIGHER than the stock frequency resulting in better performance. Keep in mind the more you overclock the more heat it will output and if you don't have a good enough cooling solution then this will be a problem. The 212 and the custom coolers from GIGABYTE, MSI, and ASUS are well built so you don't have to worry about that. I hope this helps.
 


OC'ing is pushing the stock voltage, core, memory clocks of your cpu/gpu past the ordinary limit to achieve higher performance in games, as well as solving bottlenecks. Overclocking should NOT be attempted on higher end cpu's with anything aside from a aftermarket cooler, though stock clocks on a stock fan should be fine. Go with the hyper 212 evo, the cheaper plus, and put two 120's on that thing in push/pull. The haf 912 and other haf cases should work, as they have great cable management and airflow. If you want more cooling, don't go water, it's not worth it, and you'd be better off with a low-maintenence, high performing cooler like the Noctua NH-d14 for around 80 bucks.
 
The Hyper 212 should be able to go to around 4.2/4.4GHZ. If you want REALLY good cooling just for even lower temps, grab something like the Noctua NH-D14, Phanteks PH-TC14PE, or the Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E.
 
memory: 16Gb (2x8) of corsair. why 16GB? because I'm gonna probably use windows 8. hate me or love me for it, but I'm gonna give it a shot. ive heard about RAM issues aboard the
8-train, and i also wanna be future-proof, plus ram is cheap so...
Click to expand...

There's no such thing as future proofing. No matter what motherboard and CPU / GPU combo you purchase there's always something better coming along the pike. You just have to buy now and accept what you buy. You don't really need 16GB of RAM to run Windows 8.

now, for Hard Drive, I'm gonna go with an SSD option this season fellas, and i´ve picked the Samsung 840 series 250GB, simply because its good, for a good price (comparing to other SSDs) when i need it, i´ll drop another 200 bucks on 250 again, but i´ll start off with just one card. HDD access denied!
Click to expand...

The standard 840 isn't that great. The 840 Pro is a blazing fast drive however. Alternately consider the OCZ Vector - it's based on a new proprietary controller called Bigfoot and most tests have it matching or beating the 840 Pro. Get a mechanical HD anyways - just because it's not new technology doesn't mean it's worth it. Mechanical HDs can take a lot more punishment in terms of read - write cycles than SSDs can. Even the fastest SSDs on the market only have limited life spans.

CPU Cooling: Zalman CNPS12X would be the man (fan) for this job i think. not only is it cool looking for my window, its also quiet (i respect silence) and effective at the same time. and cheaper than, say, liquid cooling.
Click to expand...

I agree with everyone here so far this isn't the best choice. Go with a Noctua D14 - sure it's big but can OC as best as any closed block CPU liquid cooler can.

untill AMD fixes its issues (i´m talking mainly about MicroStuttering here) it´s gonna be Nvidia. now, new cards will come out soon, so we´ll see who wins this war, but so far i´d go for GTX 680 ftw Sli. it is more expensive i know. but i won´t compromise when it comes to graphic. it is a gaming PC after all.
Click to expand...

I thought Catalyst 12.11 fixed the microstuttering issues, no?

for the PSU, i found the "OCZ ZX series 1000W" supplier. it is cool, quiet, and a hell of a lot cheaper than the competitor the cooler master "1000w silent pro gold".
now, before you judge me for having picked an overkill Watt delivery, i just wanna remind you that this rig must be upgradable/future-proof. therefor, i´ve chosen HQ PSUs to not mess things up. my only concern for the PSU is if it will fit in the case. the coolermaster one has the same name as the case so it would seem that would be more compatible. call me an idiot, but
Click to expand...

Neither one of those power supplies are that great. Just because the name is the same it doesn't mean that it's more compatible. In fact if you check PSU review sites like Hardware Secrets and Jonnyguru - they state that Cooler Master often lies about the voltage output of its' power supplies and states false wattage numbers. Great power supplies would be like the PC Power & Cooling Silencer series, or the NZXT Hale 90 (made by Super Flower), or anything that's made by Seasonic / Seasonic branded (here's a list: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/power-supply-oem-manufacturer,2913.html ). These supplies use a lot of high quality components and don't skimp on anything. You don't want to get the wrong PSU or it will end badly. Again - future proofing is a gigantic moot point - what's the same now is not going to be the same three years from now.
 
Thank you all. especially you g-unit111
i appreciate your time, and i take your advice very serious.
i checked things out further, and figured out that the Noctua NH D-14 is better than my choice. and only around 5 bucks more expensive. allthough my eyes are still recovering from seeing such awful design, i think i´ll survive. i´ll put something cool looking on the window maybe to not ruin the cases beauty.

also, i´vé changed to the seasonic 1000W platinum PSU. its a lot more expensive, but it seems, worth the cost. i also think it´ll be fairly quiet since i´m only gonna use around 600-750W i think.

thats right. i realized that the 680 sli is just as good, if not better performing than the 690. and i further realized that the 670 sli option was a hell of a lot cheaper and only 5% worse in performance. so thats that. 1 GTX 670 4GB FTW for now, and a second later, but i´l get to that later.

now, for the hard drive, i´m gonna stick with the SSD. i´ve read about SLC vs MLC, and was wondering which ssd is SLC out there? they should last a lifetime, people say.

i´ll also stick with 16gb of ram.

now, for the graphics card. for now, i´ll get a 4GB ftw gtx 670, and another one later. why 4gb you might ask? well, because i´m gonna upgrade to 5760x1080 later on, meaning triple-monitor setup. all i dont know by now is good monitors for a setup like this. atm i have an old HP 2159m which won´t work for this.
so far, my best bet is the Samsung S27B350H 27" monitor for a landscape surround experience. i once considered portrait, but i aint that much of a racer nor am i an mmo player, more of a fps guy, so i need the viewing angle. and this screen just seems right.
if you have any better ones in this price range, do tell, and i´ll check them out.

i know this is off topic for this thread, but t what the hell, lets throw mouse and keyboard in too.
now, for a mouse im very into the Cyborg R.A.T 9 from madcatz. not only is it highly customizable (there´s nothing i love more than messing around with options and testing stuff out) and it also has the perfect design for the rest of my gear.
for a keyboard, im on rock bottom. i have no clue what is good, bad or what to consider. the razer deathstalker keyboard, but i dont know...
 
i checked things out further, and figured out that the Noctua NH D-14 is better than my choice. and only around 5 bucks more expensive. allthough my eyes are still recovering from seeing such awful design, i think i´ll survive. i´ll put something cool looking on the window maybe to not ruin the cases beauty.
Click to expand...

Yeah the D14 is huge but it cools just as good if not better than most closed liquid loops.

also, i´vé changed to the seasonic 1000W platinum PSU. its a lot more expensive, but it seems, worth the cost. i also think it´ll be fairly quiet since i´m only gonna use around 600-750W i think.
Click to expand...

That's a lot better choice.

now, for the graphics card. for now, i´ll get a 4GB ftw gtx 670, and another one later. why 4gb you might ask? well, because i´m gonna upgrade to 5760x1080 later on, meaning triple-monitor setup. all i dont know by now is good monitors for a setup like this. atm i have an old HP 2159m which won´t work for this.
so far, my best bet is the Samsung S27B350H 27" monitor for a landscape surround experience. i once considered portrait, but i aint that much of a racer nor am i an mmo player, more of a fps guy, so i need the viewing angle. and this screen just seems right.
if you have any better ones in this price range, do tell, and i´ll check them out.
Click to expand...

You don't necessarily need 4GB VRAM to run at that resolution but it doesn't hurt either.
 
make sure you get low profile RAM with that D-14
img20121229171331.jpg

it does cover up quite a few DIMM slots but any LP RAM will fit under it.
 
all right so this is my final draft:

Motherboard: asus P8Z77-V pro

Processor: i5 3570k 4x 3.40GHz

memory: 16GB corsair low profile

CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS12X (this is qieter and more badass than the noctua. and performs well enough.

Hard drive: 128GB Intel SSD for OS, applications etc, and most played games (like battlefield 3, Crysis 2 and stuff i can fit in

Secondary Hard drive: WD Caviar Green 2TB SATA 6Gbps OEM, and this will be for all of my other games on steam, and non steam. i currently have i think about 400-500 GB of it 😀😀

PSU: Seasonic platinum ATX 12V 1000W

Case: still the coolermaster HAF X

DVD Drive: asus 24x SATA bla bla..

GPU: Asus GTX 670 (4GB GDDR5)

now, i plan on getting a 120Hz Screen later on with a second GTX 670, and i still need to know if an eventual 3rd GTX 670 will make a difference, and how much, since its listed nowhere i can find. i might even (probably not, but) purchase a 1440p monitor too for all non-fps gaming i do, like shogun 2, other RTS, RPG, and Beautiful indie game experiences like "splice".

so thats it. also if anyone have experience with the Cyborg R.A.T 9 mouse, please let me know about it :) im buying it either way, but a good story is appreciated always!

thanks guys :)

all right so this is my final draft:

Motherboard: asus P8Z77-V pro

Processor: i5 3570k 4x 3.40GHz

memory: 16GB corsair low profile

CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS12X (this is qieter and more badass than the noctua. and performs well enough.

Hard drive: 128GB Intel SSD for OS, applications etc, and most played games (like battlefield 3, Crysis 2 and stuff i can fit in

Secondary Hard drive: WD Caviar Green 2TB SATA 6Gbps OEM, and this will be for all of my other games on steam, and non steam. i currently have i think about 400-500 GB of it 😀😀

PSU: Seasonic platinum ATX 12V 1000W

Case: still the coolermaster HAF X

DVD Drive: asus 24x SATA bla bla..

GPU: Asus GTX 670 (4GB GDDR5)

now, i plan on getting a 120Hz Screen later on with a second GTX 670, and i still need to know if an eventual 3rd GTX 670 will make a difference, and how much, since its listed nowhere i can find. i might even (probably not, but) purchase a 1440p monitor too for all non-fps gaming i do, like shogun 2, other RTS, RPG, and Beautiful indie game experiences like "splice".

so thats it. also if anyone have experience with the Cyborg R.A.T 9 mouse, please let me know about it :) im buying it either way, but a good story is appreciated always!

thanks guys :)
 
yeah, im gonna take a step down to the sea sonic platinum 860W. it´ll save me a bunch 😀
also, i´m seriously considering over clocking but have no experience with it ...but i was wondering if the Arctic accelero Xtreme GPU cooler upgrade is worth it?
and how much i should over clock?

also, i reconsidered the 3way sli, it´s not needed honestly haha. i´ll get 1 of the 670 with my build, then a second and the benq xl2420t 120Hz gaming screen on a couple months, and kick ass 😀
 
if you get a reference card that has just one fan towards that back of the card and blows out to the back of the case, then you may want to look at a third party cooling solution. but if you get an asus DCII, a gigabyte windforce or any "non reference" design you probably won't need to improve on the cooling.

there are quite a few reviews that have an example on how they overclocked.
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/01/08/asus_geforce_gtx_670_directcu_ii_4gb_gpu_review/3
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/01/14/asus_geforce_gtx_670_directcu_ii_4gb_sli_review/7
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_670_Direct_Cu_II/31.html
http://www.overclockers.com/asus-gtx670-directcu-ii-top-gpu-review?utm_source=pr
 


yeah, im going with the asus DCII, sorry i didnt mention :)
for overclocking, i was thinking that this might help?:
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/cooling/34809-arctic-accelero-xtreme-7970-vga-cooler/
my only concerns with this would be will it make it too big to fit my motherboard? (im gonna have 2 670s later on) or will that be ok? also, will it stay within my 860w power supply range?

about the mothrboard...is there any better choise for me? (Gaming)...currently im on the asus p8z77-v pro...i have been looking at the asus maximus v extreme, for future upgrades and the onboard sound card. whats the best choise for me?

edit: i just saw the price tag on the extreme version and holy ***...how bout the maximus v formula? is it any good?
 
i must be honest with you, i am extremely biased towards the P8Z77-V Pro; if all goes well i ought to have one in a few days myself - even though i have a "locked" sandy i5 i am hoping to tweak the turbo settings and seeing what increase in the Bclk i can do without making my rig unstable. but i digress. . .

with that said the only real differences between the maximus formula and V pro is the max has fittings for water cooling the VRMs (power delivery) to the cpu and a better audio chip. IMO watercooling VRMS is more for "pimping" than functional; it would take an extreme overclock with horrible case cooling to have that need. the audio is much better but whaen you consider the cost difference . .it really appears that you are buying a name/brand than features on a motherboard.

a lot like the sabertooth - take off the thermal armor and you have a P8Z77-V Pro . . . i did tell you i was biased, right? :lol:
 


you´re right about the most part :)
but i dont agree with you on the price point. the maximus is very much worth it to me. forst of all, i dont have to get that wifi go gimmicky stuff that i dont need. also, if i add a similar sound card (performance wise) to the pro, the prices are the same-at least where im from (denmark). plus the extra 3.0 PCIe x16 slot i can use for a third card, should i decide to buy an IPS 1440p or 1600p monitor later. the sound card comes in handy when im getting the astro a40 headset later on.

btw, its the same brand (Asus). i agree on the watercooling though :) its just for the bregging rights. then again, if somebody bragged about it to me, i´d not be impressed.

when you say locked i5 which one so you mean? i myself am getting the 3570K, and was hoping to try overclocking for the first time :) especially when i get my 120Hz monitor for max benefit 😀 😀
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom