Hi everyone,

I'm probably going to be building a new computer before Christmas, for playing DCS, ROF, possibly CloD and doing 3D rendering work. I have never built my own system before and I'm not very confident about my selection of components, although I have done some research over the last several weeks. Here's the list of parts I plan to buy:



Processor (link) - the i7-2600k is an easy choice for me as I do a fair bit of 3D rendering, and the 8 threads give a huge speed boost. I'm also considering overclocking since DCS in particular is very CPU-intensive.

Motherboard (link) - I like the look of the Z68 model recommended here. No objection to it in replies so far.

Graphics (link) - I don't want to use SLI until flight sims support it better. For now I can get by on a single GTX 570, and add an extra for SLI later on.

RAM (link) - 8GB Corsair Vengeance 1.5V, recommended by others in this thread.

HDD (link) - small is OK for me - I certainly don't need more than 1TB, and could probably get by on half of that.

Case (link) - A lot more expensive than the Antek Three Hundred, but probably worth it because of the extra room and the dust filter.

PSU (link) - Took everyone's advice here and am now considering the 900W, since I'm leaning towards a future SLI upgrade.

Optical Drive (link) - this one is pretty cheap. Should I pay for a more expensive one? I don't imagine I'll ever actually have to write Blu-rays, just play them.

SSD (link) - Going for 120GB for installing windows and a few games. Feedback from this thread suggests it will help texture loading in games as well as speeding up loading times and boot times.

Cooling (link) - Recommended in this thread. Don't mind a little bit of noise, and this is supposed to be the best air cooler around.



Again, I've never done this before. There may be incompatibilities above that I don't know about. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Mitch

Hi, It all looks good except for the Cooling unit. I have read on EOC forums that a System like that is not near efficient as a High end Air cooler for the same price..

I would suggest a Custom cooling kit if you wouldnt mind spending another 200-300 bucks..or just get an High End Air Cooler wich is just as good but more noisy..

Also the PSU I thought was going to be too low but it came out with OC and all your Parts to be at 450 Watts.. so you do look good there but Not much room say if you add a second Vid card..

SLI really excelles when you go Triple Screen and run the Uber High resolutions..

CPU and mobo look good. Why the 470 though. That's some old tech and the price is crazy. That should be a 580 for that price. Beside the fact that a GTX 560 Ti will match a 470. 470 uses more power and runs hotter too. Maybe you meant to say 570, but if so, that price is still crazy.

You are going to need a bigger PSU especially if you get the 470 as it's a power hog. 600W PSU is really not big enough these days. I'm just saying if you have to troubleshoot BSOD or lockups, with a bigger PSU, you take that trouble right out of the equation.

It will be unnecessary for someone else to come on here and say they are running a 600 with tri-SLI as I realize there are some really good 600W PSUs out there.


OK, I see you meant a 570. Are video cards that high there in Australia? I've been looking at a 570 here in Dallas and it's on sale for 329. A 580 goes for about 429.

Thanks, Nephilim. Noise isn't a big issue for me. Would you suggest I buy this air cooler instead (link)?

There is also this one(link), which Bib4Tuna mentioned in another thread, however there are none in stock close to my location.

Like you say, SLI with a triple screen setup would be great, but it will probably be a few years before I have the space for something like that. Until then I'll happily get by on a single screen and GPU

Ah! You caught me there Speedbump - that is indeed a typo. I meant the 570, not the 470 Editing my original post...

yeah, I can get a standard 1.25 GB GTX570 for about $345, but the 2.5GB version attracted me ... some sims (CloD especially) allegedly use a lot of Vram.

I figured that. Still, if you go back and look at people coming on the board here with problems, so many of them have a PSU that is borderline big enough. For that system, that PSU is not big enough. Get at least a 750.

Also that hard drive is a Low Power (LP) drive, 5900RPM. For a performance machine, I would want a 7200 RPM drive. I have two 1.5Gb LP 5900 RPM Seagates in my system, but I run no programs from them. Just docs, music and all my other digital packrat stuff.

Pretty much what others said: higher RPM HDD, better PSU (750W branded or preferably 850W if you intend to OC) and most important ditch that water cooling and get a proper air cooler. I recommend Thermalright Venomous X / Thermalright Silver Arrow / Noctua NH-D14 , with my vote on the NH-D14.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I've edited my original post with my new list of parts, including the 900W PSU, faster HDD, NH-D14 air cooler and cheaper GTX570 1.25GB (this discussion convinced me to forget the 2.5GB version). Now it looks like I will be going down the SLI path at some point in the future.

I'm still completely open to comments and suggestions if anyone has them - this has been very helpful to me!

I'd avoid the Antec Three Hundred with the NVIDIA card(s). I've worked with the Three Hundred and the 570, and would question if it will fit and leave enough room near the HDDs.

Take a look at the Corsair Carbide 500R. Its deep and will fit with the 570.
http://www.corsair.com/pc-cases/carbide-series-pc-case/carbide-series-500r-mid-tower-case.html

RAM - Consider XMP certifed, preferably Corsair Vengeance.

Power Supply - Perfect. That Antec PS is not just SLI "ready" but "certified". It can make a difference.

Definitely double check if you can install NH-D14 into your case (along with GPU), it is a pretty big cooler.

And a small not on the RAM, if possible get 1.5V kit. This Kingston is 1.65V and since you're getting one, get Hyper X Genesis - which is specially tailored to work with Sandy Bridge CPU's.

If you decide on Vengeance - make sure it is the low heat sink version or else you won't be able to install it under NH-D14. Low heat sink versions are also 1.5V IIRC.

1.65V is still safe, just don't go over it with SB platform. I have the Genesis and am loving it.

Based on owning one, I'd say avoid Antec 300 case. Outside its nice. Inside its old fashioned and cumbersome to work with. Personally think the Coolermaster HAF922 is the way to go. Lots of room inside where its needed (graphics card and high CPU cooler). Easy assembly.

Based on owning two Coolermaster Hyper 212 CPU coolers (and a $300 water cooler, and an $80 dual fan Thermalright), I'd suggest either the Coolermaster Hyper 212 at $26 or all the way to the $110 Corsair H100 water cooler. Good water cooling is 10C cooler at max load and leaves a lot more room in the case. Meanwhile, if a cooler looks like a Hyper 212, it performs like one (within a couple C) -- regardless of price. BTW, the Hyper 212 is setup to receive two fans. I find two fans in push pull are the quietest for the given amount of cooling.

So, my suggestion is spend a little more on the case and a lot less on the cooler for a better overall result.

Even as is, though, its a very nice system you've picked

Indeed, Hyper 212 is a good entry level performance cooler. But NH-D14 walks over it and is way more quieter than H100.

The only water cooling that will beat NH-D14 is a custom built one, with 3+ fan rads.

Also, HAF 922 doesn't have dust filters which are a must IMO.

If money isn't a problem, Silverstone's Raven RV02 (v2) and RV03 are by far the best air cooled cases with dust filters that do their job slightly better than the competition.

Other than that, other cases worth looking into are:

Corsair: 500R, 600T, 650D

CoolerMaster: Storm Trooper, 690II, HAF X

All of them can fit NH-D14 with room to spare.

Can you get a card with more video RAM? RoF used all 2GB of mine on my GTX 560ti 2GB...

I do not know what program you use, my two instances of 3D Studio max on my PC with some quality 3D models open can used up to 6GB or so of RAM. 8GB is good, but I would think you might want more. Get it while it is cheap. When DDR4 comes out DDR3 prices will increase.

For all the holiday sales I saw 2x8GB 1600 GSkill RAM modules for less than $130

Not needed. Even with 3GB GTX 580 performs the same as a 1.5GB version. Tested with MSI Lightnings. Unless you are running something higher than 1920x1200...

I would recommend a 580, not because of more VRAM, but because of better voltage regulation. 570's are more likely to crap out on you.

As for the RAM, it would be the first time I saw older RAM priced higher than the newer one. DDR1 has higher price than DDR2 on some occasions (e.g. for laptops) because it is almost not manufactured any more and the request for it is low.

For a long period DDR2 was way more cheaper than DDR3 when it first came out.


Yes, more RAM is better for video editing / rendering. But remember that anything above 2 DIMMs will affect OC (on dual channel chipset systems like SB). Perhaps even force you to use 2T mode.

Once again thanks for the feedback all who replied. I just edited my original post for a different case and RAM.

I think I'm going to take Doug's advice and get the Corsair Carbide 500R (the black version), and the Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1.5V RAM.

As for the GPU, I realize that the 570 has its limits, but my goal is to get a system for a reasonable price that I can continue to upgrade into the future. At the moment I'm only running 1920x1080, and I don't plan to increase that any time soon.

Any thoughts on the SSD? I really like the idea of installing Windows and a couple of games onto one, and having much faster load times, but is the one in my list too cheap?

If gaming for more than 50% of your PC time, then you should go with i5 2500k + GTX 580. Unless you're doing heavy video rendering this i7 2600k won't make much of a difference. Marginal if any in gaming (you will want to disable HT for games).

As for SSD, the Kingstons are almost the same as Intels (same firmware/controller IIRC). I would recommend a Samsung SSD due to their 5th gen. controller and awesome software/utilities that come with it.

Right now, I probably use my computer for rendering at least 50% of the time. I've seen the difference an i7 makes when rendering, and I'm not going back. Blender, which I'm currently using for 3D rendering, uses all 8 threads in the i7, as opposed to 4 in the i5. There's no way I'd skimp on $100 to have my rendering speed cut in half, so the i7 is staying.

Tom's Hardware 570vs580

I really can't justify the price of a GTX580, when a 570 is much, much cheaper and is not far off in performance. Every time I swap a 580 into my parts list, I get an uneasy feeling, like I'm just throwing away $155. Chances are I won't notice the difference... the machine I've been using for the past two years has a GT 220, and virtually anything's going to seem amazingly fast after that. And when the time comes to upgrade, an additional 570 is going to be cheaper, and scale better in SLI as well.

Samsung SSD's seem to be hard to get hold of where I am. Right now I am leaning towards the Kingston HyperX 120GB, which is a bit more expensive than the one in the original post, but seems to be much faster and is more in the price range I was expecting.

Well, after sitting on this for a couple of days, I think I will drop the SSD and use the saved money on a GTX 580, rather than a 570.

SSD vs HDD

This demonstration doesn't impress me very much - I have never had a problem with waiting a few seconds for programs to load. And despite the 580 having only slightly higher average framerates than the 570, the minimum FPS seems to be improved considerably. Right now, it seems to me that the advantages of SSD's do not match their prices, whereas the extra performance of a GTX 580 probably does.

Check the OP for my updated list of parts. If anyone thinks I'm making a bad decision, please comment, but otherwise I think I'll be ordering these parts within the next few days.

Kingstons are a good choice and SSD will improve your rendering times tremendously, together with an i7. Once you try it you can never go back.

580 is a powerful beast and will run anything out there. And you definitely won't throw away the &155, trust me on that. Roughly, it can be up to 20% faster than a 570/480.

But, if money is an object I would lean towards the SSD.

Agree with T}{OR. Stay with the 570 and the SSD if budget is an issue.

What the NCIX demo doesn't show is game texture loading.

Thank you T}{OR and guod for your advice! I'll revert back to my previous plan with the 570 and the Kingston SSD.

Good call. Glad to be of help.