Upgrade Inqury: MB,CPU,RAM,GPU, - $1000 - $1250

[tgboyes1]

Approximate Purchase Date: Before the end of the year.

Budget Range: $1000 -$1250

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Games > Everything else

Are you buying a monitor: No

Parts to Upgrade: Mobo, CPU, RAM, GPU, CPU Cooler.

Existing Parts to be reused:
Enermax Infiniti 720W - Will upgrade w/ second GPU down the line
Lian Li V1100B Plus II - Will upgrade to LIAN LI PC-V2120X w/ new PSU
All 1x SSD & 3x HDD

Do you need to buy OS: Yes - Windows 7 Ultimate or Professional?

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg

Location: NYC

Parts Preferences:
Intel - CPU
EVGA - GPU

Overclocking: Yes , eventually

SLI: Yes, once new games require it.

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1200

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Max out Battlefield 3, Farcry 3, Hitman Absolution...etc

Here is what I was thinking so far:

GPU - EVGA 04G-P4-2686-KR GeForce GTX 680 w/ Backplate 4GB - $520
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130799
I know 4gb might be over kill at the moment, but i plan on added a second card in 2 to 3 years. Hell, it might even be overkill at that time as well, but it makes me feel better having a little insurance. If they made 3gb I would get that, but they don't.

MOBO - ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 - $225
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131821
I know that the thermal armor might be mostly for show, but i'll be damned if it doesn't look cool.

CPU - Intel i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core - $220
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504
I opted for the K unlock since I will eventually be overclocking once the cpu becomes a bottleneck.

Now here is what I have no idea on:

RAM - G.SKILL Sniper Series (2 x 4GB) DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 - $30
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231460
I am at a loss as to what RAM to get...

CPU Cooler ???
This is my biggest issue. The Lian Li PC-1100BPlus II is a Mid Tower case so space is a slight issue. Originally I had the Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Heatsink and a Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F 120mm Case Fan. They are 63.44 x 132.00 x 160.50mm and 120 x 120 x 25mm, respectively. I was looking at the BestConfigs: High-End Intel Gaming PC thread and it looks like the Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler, which i would love to get, is a fan favorite. It is double the length of my existing set up and will no fit. Any Ideas would be amazing.

Thanks for the time everyone!

Best,

T

 

[dkcomputer]

Stick to the 680 graphics card, ati driver issues are alive and well today and will be tomorrow. Get 2x8g sticks of ram, I'd suggest crucial if you plan on overclocking anything on your motherboard. Don't worry too much about a cpu cooler, overclocking cpu's does not do you very much good anymore. You're better off getting more life out of your system, it will probably be a good 4-5 years before anything requires more processing power than the current ivybridge i5.

 

[tgboyes1]

Thanks for the quick response.

Quick question about the ram. I see there is DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) and
DDR3 1866 (PC3 15000) listed on new egg. Is there a tangible difference? Should I be more concerned with Cas Latency? Do stock timings matter if i am going to be changing them?

 

[excella1221]

Stick to the 680 graphics card, ati driver issues are alive and well today and will be tomorrow. Get 2x8g sticks of ram, I'd suggest crucial if you plan on overclocking anything on your motherboard. Don't worry too much about a cpu cooler, overclocking cpu's does not do you very much good anymore. You're better off getting more life out of your system, it will probably be a good 4-5 years before anything requires more processing power than the current ivybridge i5.

No.

The 680 is an overpriced card no matter how you look at it and it performs relatively close to the 670. You will basically be paying ~$100-150 for a 5% increase in performance. You're better off buying a 670 and do a slight OC for free and save the hundred bucks.

AMD is calling the shots now, they bought off ATI a few years back and are in the lead of this generation's GPUs on any price range save the 690's since AMD has not released or even said anything much about the 7990 yet, which was supposedly the main competitor. What you said about the drivers is just borderline nVIDIA fanboy-ism, drivers have been so great lately that they even removed any edge nVIDIA cards had over their architecture-optimized games like BF3. Driver issues, I haven't even heard of the past few months.

You don't need more than 8gb of RAM in gaming. Even that size, you won't even be able to max out. You'll only need more than that if you'll be doing CPU-heavy tasks such as media creation/video rendering. I also don't get what Crucial has over Corsair and G.Skill which are considered the top two RAM manufacturers. Not saying it's a bad brand though.

@dkcomputer - You will see virtually no difference between 1600 and 1866MHz. Like 1 FPS, maybe? Just get a 1600MHz, CL9, no unnecesarily tall heat spreaders RAM and you're good to go.

About a CPU cooler, the NH-D14 is a high-end cooler for medium to slightly heavy OC.
A Hyper 212 EVO would be just fine for up to 4.2GHz.

I'd also like to add that the Sabertooth is an overpriced gimmick and you should just drop it completely. It's basically the ASUS P8Z77-V PRO and the ASRock z77 Extreme6 minus the useless thermal armor that ironically adds up to heat anyway.

 

[tgboyes1]

No.

The 680 is an overpriced card no matter how you look at it and it performs relatively close to the 670. You will basically be paying ~$100-150 for a 5% increase in performance. You're better off buying a 670 and do a slight OC for free and save the hundred bucks.

AMD is calling the shots now, they bought off ATI a few years back and are in the lead of this generation's GPUs on any price range save the 690's since AMD has not released or even said anything much about the 7990 yet, which was supposedly the main competitor. What you said about the drivers is just borderline nVIDIA fanboy-ism, drivers have been so great lately that they even removed any edge nVIDIA cards had over their architecture-optimized games like BF3. Driver issues, I haven't even heard of the past few months.

You don't need more than 8gb of RAM in gaming. Even that size, you won't even be able to max out. You'll only need more than that if you'll be doing CPU-heavy tasks such as media creation/video rendering. I also don't get what Crucial has over Corsair and G.Skill which are considered the top two RAM manufacturers. Not saying it's a bad brand though.

@dkcomputer - You will see virtually no difference between 1600 and 1866MHz. Like 1 FPS, maybe? Just get a 1600MHz, CL9, no unnecesarily tall heat spreaders RAM and you're good to go.

About a CPU cooler, the NH-D14 is a high-end cooler for medium to slightly heavy OC.
A Hyper 212 EVO would be just fine for up to 4.2GHz.

I'd also like to add that the Sabertooth is an overpriced gimmick and you should just drop it completely. It's basically the ASUS P8Z77-V PRO and the ASRock z77 Extreme6 minus the useless thermal armor that ironically adds up to heat anyway.

Yeah, i think i will pick the 670 instead of the 680. 100 bucks for a 5% gain really since cost effective.

If 8 gigs is enough is it better to get one stick of 8gbs or 2 sticks of 4gbs. If i side with the 1866hmz will that enable me to tighting the timing on the RAM?

Yeah the NH-D14 is nice, but that is the one that wont fit. I will measure out the hyper 212 EVO and see if that would work. I will likely switch to one of those self contained water coolers once i get a bigger case.

Do you have a preferance between the AUSS p8z77 and the ASRock?

Also, side note, is windows 7 professional good enough.... there is no real reason to get Ultimate. Atleast that has been my understanding.

 

[boulbox]

getting anything more than a 1600 @ 1.5V will void intel's warranty if they find out


get win8 and save some money
win8 is still a bit buggy but with this it will make it a bit more like win7

http://windows8startbutton.com/

you will only need pro+ if you are going to get more than 16GB of ram

 

[excella1221]

Yeah, i think i will pick the 670 instead of the 680. 100 bucks for a 5% gain really since cost effective.

If 8 gigs is enough is it better to get one stick of 8gbs or 2 sticks of 4gbs. If i side with the 1866hmz will that enable me to tighting the timing on the RAM?

Yeah the NH-D14 is nice, but that is the one that wont fit. I will measure out the hyper 212 EVO and see if that would work. I will likely switch to one of those self contained water coolers once i get a bigger case.

Do you have a preferance between the AUSS p8z77 and the ASRock?

Also, side note, is windows 7 professional good enough.... there is no real reason to get Ultimate. Atleast that has been my understanding.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean about the RAM thing, you can set the timings even on 1600MHz.

ASRock z77 Extreme6. It has slightly more features than the ASUS PRO but it's relatively cheaper; the only thing the latter has is an onboard wifi chip, but you can get one for like $10-15.

Win 7 Home Premium is good enough for most people, I put the Win 7 Pro though since I find XP mode a bit convenient. Though that's about it for difference, I think.

 

[tgboyes1]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean about the RAM thing, you can set the timings even on 1600MHz.

ASRock z77 Extreme6. It has slightly more features than the ASUS PRO but it's relatively cheaper; the only thing the latter has is an onboard wifi chip, but you can get one for like $10-15.

Win 7 Home Premium is good enough for most people, I put the Win 7 Pro though since I find XP mode a bit convenient. Though that's about it for difference, I think.

Maybe I am not understanding the concept correctly. I just figured if I got the higher ram that lowering the timings would be easier or have a greater benefit. I guess this was an assumption on my part. I just figured since the motherboard is rated for 1866 on the high end that it is what i should get.

 

[tgboyes1]

Best answer selected by tgboyes1.