Building a custom gaming PC

[pjaldave]

hi folks! if anyone here has experience building a custom desktop, you are welcome to comment and/or suggest anything.

what you guys think of this specs: (technical stuffs)

CPU
1 x Intel i5-3570K 3.4GHz LGA1155 Ivy Bridge Processor BX806237I53570K
Motherboard
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX LGA1155 DDR3 Motherboard ATX
Memory
1 x Corsair ValueSelect 16GB DDR3 1333MHz Desktop Memory CMV16GX3M2A1333C9
Primary Hard Disk
1 x WD Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6.0 HDD WD10EZEX
Video Card
1 x XFX HD7950 3GB DDR5 Video Card FX-795A-TDFC
Audio Card
1 x Asus XONAR_DG 3D Audio Gaming Sound Card
Optical Drive
1 x Asus DRW-24B1ST 24x SATA Optical Drive DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B
Cooling
1 x Cooler Master V6 GT LGA1366/1156/775 AM3 CPU Cooler RR-V6GT-22PK-R1
Power Supply
1 x OCZ Z FATAL1TY SERIES 750W OCZ750FTY ATX Power Supply
Case
1 x Cooler Master Storm Enforcer SGC-1000-KWN1 Mid Tower

Total Price of $1326 with shipping.

I want to get this over with before Friday so I can have it before Christmas.

[Hookiethe1]

Looks like a good setup, I like Asus motherboards, always solid performers. I'm also a big WD fan. If you want to bump your load times you might want to think about trading your TB drive for a couple of 500s in RAID, also go with WD caviar black, they chew a little more juice but you can handle it unless you're prepping for crossfire down the road.

[pjaldave]

i am actually okay with the 1tb, but might consider the RAID option. though, what is the difference between caviar black and blue? I heard there's also greens...

[korith]

I put together a system not too long ago. I did take around 3 months to get all the parts together. Was patient and looked for deals. A few good deal sites like fatwallet.com and slickdeals.net Was able to able to find deals on most of the things I needed that way. Bought many of the parts from newegg with their various sales. Only bought locally from microcenter, just the motherboard/cpu combo. This site http://pcpartpicker.com/ is nice too, let's you pick the parts you want and it lists stores that carry the part and price.

If it's going to be a gaming computer may want to consider a ssd to install games on for speed.

[gadget228]

Don't know what your budget is but instead of a Dvd drive I would look into a Blu-ray burner drive and don't forgot about the cost of software, you'll need the higher versions of windows if you want to play older games.

[talldutchie]

I haven't kept up with gaming rigs. However few general remarks.

1. Get an SSD. Even a small one for just windows plus 1 or 2 games will already improve startup times tremendously
2. Raid set only improves speed if you stripe across two disks. However, lose 1 disk, lose everything.
3. 16gb ram necessitates a 64bit windows
4. Get your protection sorted out. Even this lovely selection of hardware can be brought to it's knees by virusses and malware.
5. consider if you really need that soundcard. onboard sound is pretty good nowadays and you can always add later
6. for gaming a stable network connection is important. If you can use a cable, if you do wireless go for a channel that nobody else uses in the area.
7. do consider backup. Even with a gaming rig there will still be docs and pictures on it. Buy an external disk or spring for an online service.

Hope this helps.

[Hookiethe1]

Actually, you can get a good performance boost and redundancy by mirroring 2 identical drives, then the system will read information from them alternately so you don't hit bottlenecks when transferring huge chunks of data to RAM. And if one eats it, you have an identical one still sitting there.
Wd Caviar black are the high performance drives, blue are standard, and green are the low power consumption drives.
I agree with talldutchie on the soundcard, I've never felt the need for one and your motherboard has 8 channels and 3 analog outs, plenty to drive surround sound.
I disagree with talldutchie on protection, depending on how good you are at not clicking on things you shouldn't click on, and what sort of programs you have installed. I haven't used any 3rd party protection for almost 10 years and I've never had a problem, not to mention the included protections in windows are better than ever. But if it buys you peace of mind or you feel like you're at risk then go for it, though I would advise against downloading any free ones, I don't trust them.

[talldutchie]

Actually, you can get a good performance boost and redundancy by mirroring 2 identical drives, then the system will read information from them alternately so you don't hit bottlenecks when transferring huge chunks of data to RAM. And if one eats it, you have an identical one still sitting there.

True. But writing performance takes a big hit if you mirror. For gaming that's likely to be a small issue. For media creation it could become a pain.


[/QUOTE]
I disagree with talldutchie on protection, depending on how good you are at not clicking on things you shouldn't click on, and what sort of programs you have installed. I haven't used any 3rd party protection for almost 10 years and I've never had a problem, not to mention the included protections in windows are better than ever. But if it buys you peace of mind or you feel like you're at risk then go for it, though I would advise against downloading any free ones, I don't trust them.[/QUOTE]


I'm not saying a 3rd party tool is necessary (although I do run fsecure on all the computers in the house). If the windows one does the job fine. Point I was trying to make is that even this much computer horsepower can be rendered next to useless if you let it get contaminated with malware, trojans, toolbars and other nasties.

[FinalJenemba]

1) Swap out the Corsair ram for G.skill Ripjaws. Still cheap but nothing works better with the intel core chipsets.

2) On the other side swap out the powersupply for a corsair, they are the best and worth the $.

3) Unless you have a really high end surround sound you can skip the sound card.

4) Consider adding a 64 or 128gb ssd in addition to your 1tb just for windows and normal programs. Use the 1tb for game installs and other storage. This setup will increase your overall performance astronomically and one was of the best upgrades I made to my pc.

5) You'll want to think about getting an aftermarket cooler for your processor, even if you don't overclock. They're cheap and these core i chips get really hot.

Other than those small suggestions everything looks great! That will be one blazing PC!

[pjaldave]

Thank you guys for being so helpful! Never imagined there's too much to consider with building a custom pc.

1. I will invest on an SSD, might be just the 64GB as FJ suggested.
2. The sound card is just extra $25 so I say why not get it, right?
3. I will also think about getting the corsair power supply if it's not too pricey. Although is 750w good enough for this build?
4. Does the ram brand really make a difference?
5. Would having a blu-ray drive make a difference? Do I need it if I'm gonna be mostly gaming?
6. As for anti-virus and stuffs, I have my own way of getting those softwares (for free).

I'll post the updated specs when I get home. Thanks again!

[pjaldave]

I am actually not going for an SSD as it is a bit expensive for me. I'm also sticking with the DVD drive and no BD drive.

What do you guys think now?

CPU
1 x Intel i5-3570K 3.4GHz LGA1155 Ivy Bridge Processor BX806237I53570K
Motherboard
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX LGA1155 DDR3 Motherboard ATX
Memory
1 x Corsair Vengeance CMZ12GX3M3A1600C9 12GB 3X4GB DDR3-1600 CL9 Triple Channel
Primary Hard Disk
1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache
Video Card
1 x AMD Radeon HD 7950 800MHZ 3GB 5GHZ GDDR5 PCI-E DVI HDMI 2 X Mini Display Port
Audio Card
1 x Integrated 7.1 Sound Card
Optical Drive
1 x Asus DRW-24B1ST 24x SATA Optical Drive DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B
Cooling
1 x Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H60 High Performance CPU Cooler System
Power Supply
1 x Corsair Professional HX750W 750W ATX 12V 62A 24PIN ATX Modular Power Supply
Case
1 x Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced ATX Mid Tower Case Black

[250Gimp]

Hi there

I built a rig for photo editing and games a year ago and I did a ton of research, so here are my three cents.

I would drop the liquid cooler for a decent air cooler. The cooler master 212 plus or Evo is very inexpensive. You can add a second Push/pull fan for a bit of added cooling if you are going to overclock a lot. My research led me to realize that all in one liquid cooling does not do much better than air cooling.

If you go air watch the heat sink height on your ram as it may. Interfere with some fans.

That should save you enough money to get an ssd on sale for the os and main programs. It makes the computer seem snappier in my opinion!

There you have it! My 3 cents.

Cheers

[ijankrom]

pjaldave, if you already got your system then just ignore this thread.

+1 to 250Gimp regarding liquid cooled system, drop it. Use the money for SSD. It will be well worth it.