Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Help on gaming/litecoin mining rig
Boilingice
Member Posts: 28
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.99 @ ;Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ ;Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LK ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($104.99 @ ;Microcenter)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($47.98 @ ;Amazon)
Storage: Sandisk Extreme 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($94.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB Video Card ($425.91 @ ;Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 922 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ ;Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($93.98 @ ;Newegg) Suggest a 750?
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Monitor: Asus VS239H-P 23.0" Monitor ($169.99 @ ;Newegg)
So Far Im going with this set up. I think I need at least a 750w psu if I plan on getting 2 7970s in the future. Appreciate any tips or advice!
Comments
If it were me I would go ahead and spring for a better Power Supply. If you plan on crossfire 7970s then maybe around a 750w Gold rated PSU.
no sense in builing an expensive nice system you want to crossfire top of the line video cards and skimp on a psu so you can save $20 bucks. Go ahead and get something really good.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182073
Something like this for an example. Many gold rated PSUs to choose from for just a little more than you were already going to spend on a bronze rated.
You can buy the I5-3570k from Microcenter for $190. They are also discounting compatible motherboards for $40.00. In store purchase only though. C
heck their price on that CPU cooler too.
Thanks for the reply. I was also suggested to upgrade the psu to this seacore http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151087&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=
Not sure if its worth the 30 dollar price difference.
Thanks
The Seasonic you linked is fully modular I think. Thats where the price difference comes in.
I use Seasonic gold modular PSUs in both my systems, they are very nice for sure. Up to you if the $30 bucks for modular is worth it. IMO the modular is worth the extra cost. But thats your call on your system.
Do you really want to split your order among five different web sites, some of which charge more for the specified product than your original post says?
Also, overbuilding a system with one video card so that you can add another card later is nearly always a bad idea. If you're not willing to spend what it takes to get two video cards the day you build the system, then when it's time to upgrade, the better thing to do will almost invariably be to remove the card you buy today in order to replace it with a future card that wasn't available today.
I assume you already have some old HD you're going to attach to your new computer? Trying to cope with just 120GB SSD as storage space might be a bit hard.
If I were you I'd buy larger than just 23 inch monitor for a computer that expensive. But there's nothing wrong with the monitor you've chosen if you feel you don't need any better.
EDIT: If you really plan on buying second video card later on, then 8GB of RAM could be a bit low compared to rest of the computer. But you can always buy more RAM when buying another video card if you feel the need. /EDIT
Thanks for the replies. I read that a non modular psu might be better for noobs (this is just my second build) so i guess I will get the cheaper psu.
Also why is the ssd not enough? I wont be saving a ton of files aside from games and what not. Will probably delete a game once im done with it. Why isnt 128 gigs enough? If not I can just get a second cheap drive
Your overall build seems fine but I do agree with the others advice and that would be to either pull the trigger on a xfire build now or just forget it altogether. Spending the necessary money up front to have a proper xfire setup that may never see the day of light (if you don't buy another card that is) is a waste of money. Not to mention while you can see graphic boosts on multi GPU setups you can also just as easily see no improvement if the software isn't optimized for it.
Regarding the PSU I personally find modular to not only be easier for the less experienced but it just a lot cleaner in terms of overall system. Fully modular PSU's allow you to only have the power cords you need and nothing you don't which saves on space and depending on the case it can also contribute to better overall air flow thanks to less cords cluttering up the case.
The best way to judge if 120/128Gb is enough storage for you personally is to look how much you are using on your current system. Something to consider is you always want to leave between 10-15% of the overall drive space empty so in reality those drives really only offer you just over 100Gb. With prices the way they are today if you are only going to consider a single SSD (no HDD) then I'd highly recommend you consider picking up one of teh 240/256Gb drives instead.
Something else to consider is the current rumor is that Intel's next CPU chipset it scheduled to release in the summer which will require a completely different MB thanks to it being a new socket. Unless you are in dire need of a new system now it might be worth waiting. It's not such a huge leap in tech that building one now is stupid, but the fact is it will be slightly faster so I'd be hard pressed to tell someone who didn't really need a new computer today to not just wait for it and see how it affects pricing of current parts.
If 120GB is enough for you, then you don't need more.
But OS alone can take about 20GB of space, you'll want to have at least 10GB of free HD space all the time. And that would leave something like 90GB of space you can fill with your own stuff.
A single AAA MMO (eg. WoW) can take more than 20GB of disk space. So you won't be able to have many games on your HD at once. But if you're okay with deleting them once you're done, and play only a couple of games at a time, then you could be ok with 120GB and never want for more.
A modular power supply means that both ends of the power cables can disconnect, rather than one end being hard-wired to the power supply. That lets you take the cables that aren't needed for anything and take them out of the box entirely.
Storage needs vary wildly from one person to the next. Someone who has 1 TB in random pirated junk will naturally want a lot more storage space than someone who sticks to browser-based games and doesn't download much in the way of media files. My general rule of thumb is to look at how much space you're using now, double that, and figure that should be enough for your next computer.
Personally, I have a 120 GB SSD and no hard drive. But then, I bought this computer in 2009, so by the time you replace the computer you buy today, you may want more storage space. Regardless, if you buy an SSD only and later realize that it's not enough space, it's easy to add a hard drive a year from now. Or another SSD.
Another alternative is just getting a bigger SSD. You can get a ~240 GB SSD for about the same price as buying both a ~120 GB SSD and also a hard drive. So if you think that 120 GB might not be enough for you, but 240 GB definitely will be, then that's the way to go.
Haswell will need new motherboards, which means that the motherboards will be more expensive at first. It will be a little better than Ivy Bridge, but not a lot, so I wouldn't wait until June for it. Furthermore, even if you wait for Haswell and the new socket, that still won't give you the option to upgrade to future CPU architectures later, as the switch to DDR4 will require changing the socket yet again.
That is kinda what I meant though. If you need it now then by all means go ahead and buy it now but if it's not a dire need a few months wait isn't really that big of a deal for guaranteed performance increase (even if it's small) on the same $1500.
There's always something a little better coming. At some point, you have to decide to make a decision and buy. The next thing that is a really big deal will be the die shrink to 20 nm video cards, probably early next year. I wouldn't expect AMD to make radical changes to their architecture, though they will surely make some tweaks.
Nvidia is due for a bigger overhaul with the Maxwell architecture, and that's supposedly going to integrated ARM cores into the GPU for some unknown reason. Nvidia is promising to double the energy efficiency of Kepler at least in double precision computations, but I'm skeptical of that, and would regard it as extremely unlikely to happen for game performance.
As usual with die shrinks, AMD will probably launch 20 nm cards well before Nvidia. Nvidia's major architectural overhaul could easily lead to additional delays. So while 20 nm Maxwell cards may well show up in 2014, I'd bet against it being early 2014.
Meanwhile, it's far from automatic that the top end in AMD's first 20 nm series will beat a GeForce GTX Titan that you can buy today by much. It will surely offer much better energy efficiency and cost a lot less than $1000, though.