- Sep 5, 2011
- 6
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- 18,510
So I was just looking at the "Buyers Guide: High-End Intel-Based Gaming PC Configuration" (Link) and wondered if I could put something similar together, but with CPU water cooling and a bluray drive thrown into the mix.
The system I wanted to put together would mainly be used for gaming and watching films, but would also need to be able to handle 3D rendering. That means an i7 processor for the extra threads. The case also needed to have a large amount of fan mounts in-case the cooling needs upgrading at a later date due to upgrading to hotter components.
This is what I managed to squeeze into the system.
(Prices from newegg on 03/14/13)
Processor: Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge $329.99 (Link)
Cooling System: Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme $136.99 (Link)
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-GD65 $164.99 (Link)
RAM: 16GB (2 x 8GB) G.Skill Trident X DDR3 1600MHz (PC12800) 7-8-8-24 $124.99 (Link)
Graphics Card: 2 x Gigabyte HD7970 3GB 1000MHz core clock. $799.98 (2 x $399.99) (Link)
Hard Drive/SSD: Mushkin Enhanced Chronos Deluxe 60GB SSD (Used as cache drive for the 2TB drive with intel rapid storage technology) $79.99 (Link)
Hard Drive/SSD: 2TB Western Digital WD Black SATA3 (SATA 6GB/S) $174.99 (Link)
Power supply: Seasonic X750 Gold 750Watt 80 plus gold certified $139.99 (Link)
Case: Fractal Design Define XL R2 Black Pearl $139.99 (Link)
Optical Drive: ASUS Black Bluray Drive $59.99 (Link)
Optical Drive: ASUS Black DVD Burner $19.99 (Link)
Total: $2171.88
I went for the 3770K as this CPU seems to have the best bang for buck while still having hyper-threading for the rendering work it will need to do.
The MSI motherboard has everything a normal gamer will need without pushing the price up with a ton of bells and whistles that are never used. It also over-clocks well. MSI get overlooked a lot, but as they are stable motherboards that OC well, I don't see the point in paying the extra for an ASUS (for example) motherboard.
I wanted a GOOD water cooling solution, so after looking at the review of the Thermaltake cooler here on Tom's Hardware vs the Noctura NH-D14 (My current cooler so I know the performance is good.) (Link) I went with this set-up. Even though there are cheaper ones this cooler has very good cooling - Plus it will fit the case I chose after the top panel fan has been relocated and it will also move enough air to help cool the voltage regulator circuitry.
I went with the G.Skill Trident RAM as it has nice latency timings. I would have liked to have gone for 32GB for the rendering side of things, but that pushed the price up too far, so 16GB it is.
For GFX I would have liked to have used GTX 680's, but again that pushed the price up way too far. This is also why I avoided the GHz edition 7970's. However unless you are gaming at extreme resolutions a pair of normal 7970's should be more than enough for anything you can throw at them and they OC like demons, plus the extra texture RAM is always useful.
With the water cooling and the blueray drive I'm already pushing the price limit so something has to give. Some may argue this point, but for me the least important part of this set-up is the SSD. Thus, due to price, I can't warrant a 128GB drive, so this has been dropped to 60GB. This is not really large enough to use as an OS drive, so as a compromise it will be used as a cache drive for the main hard drive using Intel's rapid storage technology which allows nearly full SSD speeds on items used a lot without worrying about the SSD running out of space. I went for the Mushkin drive as it uses Synchronous MLC memory and is rated for 85,000 IOPS.
The WD black seems a odd choice, but this drive will keep going and going, plus it has good, solid performance for a mechanical drive. I would have liked to include a second drive and slap them in a RAID0 set-up (especially with the SSD being used as a cache, so anything you don't use regularly will be limited to the speed of the HDD), but again the price stops me from doing this.
There are cheaper power supplies, but none as stable for the price, plus it's 80 Plus Gold rated and fully modular. What's not to like with the Seasonic X750?
I looked at the Define R4, but wanted a case that would fit the radiator I chose with ease. The Define XL R2 fits the bill. It is a full size tower so has plenty of room inside. There are also more fan mounting spots than anyone should ever need.
Finally we come to the optical drives. I went for the ASUS Bluray drive as this was the cheapest drive from what should be a reliable source. The DVD burner was chosen just so it matched the Bluray, but to be honest there were only 2 drives cheaper and that was only by a dollar.
Thoughts or comments welcome.
The system I wanted to put together would mainly be used for gaming and watching films, but would also need to be able to handle 3D rendering. That means an i7 processor for the extra threads. The case also needed to have a large amount of fan mounts in-case the cooling needs upgrading at a later date due to upgrading to hotter components.
This is what I managed to squeeze into the system.
(Prices from newegg on 03/14/13)
Processor: Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge $329.99 (Link)
Cooling System: Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme $136.99 (Link)
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-GD65 $164.99 (Link)
RAM: 16GB (2 x 8GB) G.Skill Trident X DDR3 1600MHz (PC12800) 7-8-8-24 $124.99 (Link)
Graphics Card: 2 x Gigabyte HD7970 3GB 1000MHz core clock. $799.98 (2 x $399.99) (Link)
Hard Drive/SSD: Mushkin Enhanced Chronos Deluxe 60GB SSD (Used as cache drive for the 2TB drive with intel rapid storage technology) $79.99 (Link)
Hard Drive/SSD: 2TB Western Digital WD Black SATA3 (SATA 6GB/S) $174.99 (Link)
Power supply: Seasonic X750 Gold 750Watt 80 plus gold certified $139.99 (Link)
Case: Fractal Design Define XL R2 Black Pearl $139.99 (Link)
Optical Drive: ASUS Black Bluray Drive $59.99 (Link)
Optical Drive: ASUS Black DVD Burner $19.99 (Link)
Total: $2171.88
I went for the 3770K as this CPU seems to have the best bang for buck while still having hyper-threading for the rendering work it will need to do.
The MSI motherboard has everything a normal gamer will need without pushing the price up with a ton of bells and whistles that are never used. It also over-clocks well. MSI get overlooked a lot, but as they are stable motherboards that OC well, I don't see the point in paying the extra for an ASUS (for example) motherboard.
I wanted a GOOD water cooling solution, so after looking at the review of the Thermaltake cooler here on Tom's Hardware vs the Noctura NH-D14 (My current cooler so I know the performance is good.) (Link) I went with this set-up. Even though there are cheaper ones this cooler has very good cooling - Plus it will fit the case I chose after the top panel fan has been relocated and it will also move enough air to help cool the voltage regulator circuitry.
I went with the G.Skill Trident RAM as it has nice latency timings. I would have liked to have gone for 32GB for the rendering side of things, but that pushed the price up too far, so 16GB it is.
For GFX I would have liked to have used GTX 680's, but again that pushed the price up way too far. This is also why I avoided the GHz edition 7970's. However unless you are gaming at extreme resolutions a pair of normal 7970's should be more than enough for anything you can throw at them and they OC like demons, plus the extra texture RAM is always useful.
With the water cooling and the blueray drive I'm already pushing the price limit so something has to give. Some may argue this point, but for me the least important part of this set-up is the SSD. Thus, due to price, I can't warrant a 128GB drive, so this has been dropped to 60GB. This is not really large enough to use as an OS drive, so as a compromise it will be used as a cache drive for the main hard drive using Intel's rapid storage technology which allows nearly full SSD speeds on items used a lot without worrying about the SSD running out of space. I went for the Mushkin drive as it uses Synchronous MLC memory and is rated for 85,000 IOPS.
The WD black seems a odd choice, but this drive will keep going and going, plus it has good, solid performance for a mechanical drive. I would have liked to include a second drive and slap them in a RAID0 set-up (especially with the SSD being used as a cache, so anything you don't use regularly will be limited to the speed of the HDD), but again the price stops me from doing this.
There are cheaper power supplies, but none as stable for the price, plus it's 80 Plus Gold rated and fully modular. What's not to like with the Seasonic X750?
I looked at the Define R4, but wanted a case that would fit the radiator I chose with ease. The Define XL R2 fits the bill. It is a full size tower so has plenty of room inside. There are also more fan mounting spots than anyone should ever need.
Finally we come to the optical drives. I went for the ASUS Bluray drive as this was the cheapest drive from what should be a reliable source. The DVD burner was chosen just so it matched the Bluray, but to be honest there were only 2 drives cheaper and that was only by a dollar.
Thoughts or comments welcome.
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