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CPU + MB + RAM Question
Hey folks, been thinking about updating my rig lately and just looking around at parts.
I'd like your opinion on the following:
MB: http://infonec.com/site/main.php?module=detail&id=456705
CPU: http://infonec.com/site/main.php?module=detail&id=455899
RAM: http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=24_311_312_612&item_id=043130 or http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=24_311_312_612&item_id=041243
If I get lucky with the CPU Id like to try and hit 5ghz using liquid cooling. There will be a single vid card going into this rig.
Money is not an issue however as I'm an older gamer with a family and mortgage I tend to go for best bang for buck or close to it.
So let me know what you think of the above.
Thanks.
Comments
looks good to me, what liquid cooling setup are you using?
What do you have in your system now? Let's make sure that an upgrade makes sense for you, so that you don't spend $500 to only get a 10% performance boost. And let's also make sure that the rest of your system can handle the intended upgrade parts.
Haven't looked at that part of it yet but will once I'm certain what parts to get.
Hey Quizzical, I was hoping you'd take a look.
My current rig is a HP xw4400 Workstation(Core 2 6400 + 4 gigs of whatever ram hp stuck in there) that I got from work about 4 years ago and added a 8800 gts to. Its past ready for retirement but I was pushing it for as long as I could. Got some games that I've been waiting to get but I want to do them justice and play them on something they deserve to be played on.
The rest of the parts will be purchased, just saw the parts listed with some discounts and thought they looked decent for the price.
Yeah, a new gaming computer makes sense for you. I'm not a fan of buying parts piecemeal, as you could later change your mind on something that makes an earlier purchase insensible. I'd make an exception if you find a really awesome deal, but I don't see one among what you list. Then again, I'm not entirely familiar with the standard Canadian prices on parts.
A lot of web sites will say that things are always on sale, to try to make you think that you have to buy right now before the sale ends. If everyone else sells a part for $200, then they'll claim that it's nominally worth $250, but today only, they'll sell it for $200.
Canadian prices tend to stay within 15% of US prices I'd say. Some things we get ripped off on but computer parts stay pretty close.
I'll try and come up with a more complete list.
Those are all fairly standard prices for components - nothing special about the sale they have really.
The actual components you picked out though, are fine. 16G may be a bit overkill for a gaming rig, but hey, it's fairly cheap. Most people never really use over 4G, and even the most hardcore gamer has to really push their system to use 8G.
The 2500k is definitely the gaming bang for the buck. The key is to pair it with a bang for the buck video card, while not skimping on the power. The "bang for the buck" video used to be with the 6950 or 560Ti, depending on which was on sale that week. Prices tend to escalate a good bit after that class of GPU (although there is a good case made for going to the 6970 or 570 for price vs performance), and underneath it the performance tends to start to drop faster than the price does. The introduction of the 7970 hasn't really affected much, as it really only makes the 580 a pretty silly choice now (although drivers are still catching up for it). The 7950 will probably compete more with the existing 6970 and take it's performance and price slot, leaving the 6950 in roughly the same position (at least until the 7800 series finally releases, which may be a month, maybe 3 months - hard to say).
Watercooling alone won't really get you spectacular overclocks, at least any more than a really good air cooler will. If you pair watercooling with, say, active refrigeration or something you can do some amazing things, but those get complicated and expensive fairly quickly. Watercool because you want to do it as a hobby or because your interested in it, but don't do it thinking it will gain you more performance, because it really doesn't. The biggest and most dramatic benefit from watercooling is sound - you can use more larger and slower fans to accomplish the same cooling - it's even possible to make near totally silent high performance gaming machines with water cooling (because you can spread the heat transfer surface area over a very large radiator outside of the case, you aren't confined to a small footprint just over the CPU inside the case).
A really good air cooler will perform as well as most off-the-shelf watercooling units, and for about 1/2 the price. If you build your own watercooling system (which isn't hard to do, but can be very pricey depending on the quality of the components you use - using components made just for PC's a total cooling system is around $250, using parts from Home Depot about $50, but then you have to make it all fit yourself...) then the sky's the limit, but be prepared to take the rather possible risk of screwing something up - I have douched a computer before, and they do not like it one bit. But it was a risk I was fully aware of, and decided to take because I thought it was fun to try to make my own waterblocks (which is possible, and it did work, but it was a huge hassle and I did ruin a motherboard and 4 CPU's in the process of getting it to work right).
They are good parts and will make your rig good for gaming. Personally I would like to settle with the latest gear, I will check pricing as well as the chosen part is discountinuing or not. A sudden drop in price is a good indication. For example the Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD4-B3 is already obsoleted.