[mGGDrGooSe]

Hey all, thought I would get some opinions on my planned new system and hear any tweaks people might suggest.

• Intel CORE i7 2600 3.40GHz/8MB CACHE/LGA1155 CPU (assuming that any old 120 mm fan will do. Some website is trying to sell me liquid cooling...)
• Kingston 16GB (4x4GB) Kit HyperX Blu 1600Mhz DDR3
• Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4 Z68, 4DDR3 2133+
• Corsair 60GB Force Series GT SSD
• Cavier Black 1TB HDD
• Sapphire HD6950 2GB (the 560 Ti is said to be slightly better (and $40 cheaper) but I figure the extra memory will help with higher resolution stuff).
• CoolerMaster STORM ENFORCER GAMING CASE (Sorry Mayo, my guys don't stock Tt mid towers)
• CoolerMaster 650W PSU

What the computer will be doing: Some gaming (and some simulation work, CPU usage = 50% for 1-2 weeks, or 100% for 1-48 hours based on i7 860). My current system (i7 860 with Sapphire HD4890 1GB) runs crysis 2 and far cry 2 on max or almost max as it is, and I don't plan on really playing anything more demanding than those. The 16 GB of ram is work related (so tempted to go 32 GB) and I'm also hoping it might allow me to do some video recording whilst playing games like X3 (Check it out, cross between simcity and WoW in space, the only reason it can't compete with SC2 is it's single player only).

So i'm pretty sure this will do anything I ask of it in the next few years. Just wondering if maybe people can suggest slight tweaks that might be beneficial...
Also do I need a sound card? I only ever use 2.1 speakers (need to find someone who stocks TDK, stuff this cheap and ugly logitech crap). And all this for ~$1500 (excluding the HDD). Thoughts?

[Asrathiel]

Quick, someone answer, then I get his old one.... and I can go Diablo-ing...

Quick Comments

	deL:
	NOM:

[Scope_IV]

Imo really bad time to upgrade, Keplar and Ivy bridge will be coming out really soon. So all you're parts are going to be a whole revision behind in like a month. Also ATI cards suckzors. Nvidia all the way.

Quick Comments

Hydroid:

Agreed with this.

[|Erasmus|]

Originally Posted by Scope_IV

Imo really bad time to upgrade, Keplar and Ivy bridge will be coming out really soon. So all you're parts are going to be a whole revision behind in like a month. Also ATI cards suckzors. Nvidia all the way.

Way to just BM a prefectly good brand (that does in fact offer better value for money in terms of performance) with no justification.

@DrGoose: for that good a system, I would be looking at a better PSU. Coolermaster aren't exactly one of the top brands for that. Look at Antec, Silverstone, Corsair or Seasonic (http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/PSU_Recommendations) They generally have better build quality and use better components.

And if you're leaving it on all the time, I'd get a case that doesn't sound like a wind tunnel. I am in love with Fractal R2. Only reason I can tell it's on is the little blue light (practically no noise).

Quick Comments

mGGDrGooSe:

People who leave comps are on EVIL. Ever wondered why they keep going down?

[Hydroid]

Originally Posted by |Erasmus|

Way to just BM a prefectly good brand (that does in fact offer better value for money in terms of performance) with no justification.

Last person I told to go Nvidia rather than ATI/AMD ignored me and came and apologized after 3 months saying never again will they buy a video card from them. You might save some money, but they can't do drivers right. Every couple of weeks he would be having issues with drivers in relation to a new game. If all you do is play 1 game (hopefully SC2) and stick with it for years I'd be fine recommending AMD because they can only mess up drivers so many times for the same game. But if you like to grab a new game every so often to play on the side then I don't feel as though it is a good idea. He isn't the only one either. Numerous friends have the same issues with their AMD cards. Another friend even had to get their card replaced 3 times in a month before switching back to Nvidia. One of them the fan died, another just made a lot of noise and another wasn't performing to the standards of other reviews and benchmarks. And yet in an equal sampling of friends and family who have bought and used Nvidia there has been at most 1-2 cases of a DOA card. But if the card works at the start, it keeps working and is often still working 5 years later. So in my overall experience, I would agree wholeheartedly that an AMD card is a bad play when investing large amounts of your hard earned money in a new gaming rig. But hey, it doesn't affect my wallet when other people buy.

Quick Comments

Cute:

nv4lyf

[|Erasmus|]

Originally Posted by Hydroid

Massive rant.

Personal experience is well and good, but there's no rational basis beyond that for NVIDIA > AMD. That said, you're an idiot if you don't go and look around for what experiences people have talked about, and if your usage patterns match those of people who've had problems, maybe stay away from that brand. I've not had a single issue in the several years I've had ATI cards. As I said, my current one has barely been switched off in ~18 months (closer to 2 years now i think) and it's even been overclocked. And it's played more than just sc2 in that time.

If we're all going to get our panties in a twist about brands we personally don't like, I'd be telling people to never touch Western Digital hard drives with a 10 foot pole. And pretty much all my close friends in real life agree completely. For some reason we all have had terrible terrible luck with that brand. Hard drives failing in under a week, being replaced multiple times, etc. etc. But I generally don't because it's not like it's a truly horrible product if so many knowledgeable people recommend it. It's just that I have had bad luck in the past.

Quick Comments

NOM:

WD are pretty bad

[FaDeEvetS]

Originally Posted by Hydroid

Last person I told to go Nvidia rather than ATI/AMD ignored me and came and apologized after 3 months saying never again will they buy a video card from them. You might save some money, but they can't do drivers right. Every couple of weeks he would be having issues with drivers in relation to a new game. If all you do is play 1 game (hopefully SC2) and stick with it for years I'd be fine recommending AMD because they can only mess up drivers so many times for the same game.

to be fair back when the 200gtx series was popular didnt nvidia release a set of drivers that 'blew' some peoples gpu's up cause the default fan profiles were wrong?

[Scope_IV]

[QUOTE=|Erasmus|;79151]Way to just BM a prefectly good brand (that does in fact offer better value for money in terms of performance) with no justification.

Sorry I didn't link benchmarks or talk about how terrible the drivers are. http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

ATI releases new 7000 range. Still loses to 580. LoL.

[Hydroid]

Originally Posted by Scope_IV

ATI releases new 7000 range. Still loses to 580. LoL.

That's not a very good example. From my understanding they wanted those to become their new mid-high range. Not be the next fastest GPU on the market.

[TCPLemminks]

Stealing my idea X_X
For the sound card, apparently everything sounds much better with even a basic sound card (the one I'm planning to get is only $39).other than that your system looks pretty sick^^

Quick Comments

	Asrathiel:	Cos your idea is good idea :P
	mGGDrGooSe:	Well der! Upgrading is contagious, yo.

[breadfan]

Don't really need a soundcard unless you are editing/recording audio or really really want quality surround - i.e. you are investing in good hardware that utilises it

Do check out if 1600MHz memory will actually perform at anything above 1333MHz unoverclocked on that CPU, otherwise it's redundant cost

I would definitely recommend an after market CPU cooler, the stock Intel ones are pretty terrible and especially for you since it looks like you'll be putting it through some work. Just make sure you do your research and get one that fits inside the case!

[PiG]

I'm so damn jealous! I want a beast like this!

[Mayo]

Could at least use a Tt PSU :P

Out of interest, where is this PC coming from?

[mGGDrGooSe]

Originally Posted by Scope_IV

Imo really bad time to upgrade, Keplar and Ivy bridge will be coming out really soon.

Yeah this is exactly the answer to I wanted to hear. If it's only a month, will likely wait for the new stuff, if only to get the older stuff cheaper.

Originally Posted by breadfan

Do check out if 1600MHz memory will actually perform at anything above 1333MHz unoverclocked on that CPU

Interersting, never thought of that.

Originally Posted by breadfan

I would definitely recommend an after market CPU cooler, the stock Intel ones are pretty terrible

Cool. Will do. Although I have a stock Intel on the current i7 860 and have run it 50% for 2 weeks on two occassions with no probs. That's with all sides of the case open though.

Originally Posted by Mayo

Out of interest, where is this PC coming from?

Usually I get my systems from Arc Penrith (arc.com.au). They do sell Tt stuff, they just don't stock much of it (that I've ever seen anyway). But if I'm waiting a month that won't matter. Recommendations for a mid-size with a USB 3.0 on the front? Also the Tt stuff is more expensive there. Can you hook me up ? :P

[breadfan]

Originally Posted by Drgoose

Cool. Will do. Although I have a stock Intel on the current i7 860 and have run it 50% for 2 weeks on two occassions with no probs. That's with all sides of the case open though.

Just a note - it's really bad to leave the sides of a case off. In fact, it actually makes it hotter, because it reduces air flow, so all the hot air can just sit there. Cooling is all about keeping the air in your case moving, not how cool the breeze is.

A quick google gave me this as the first result: http://www.technibble.com/case-cooli...-good-airflow/ I haven't read it, but I am sure it will help you make decisions

I think of having good cooling like ABS brakes on a car. I can't remember the last time my ABS intitiated because I slammed on the brakes, therefore, I could say I don't actually need them. But, for that time when they are needed, which may or may not happen, I will really regret not having it. Of course, heating issues aren't just car crashes - CPUs need to cope with some fluctuation in temps before it hits that cutoff temp, because obviously they need to cope for brief periods of intense work. Just because your system doesn't turn off from overheating doesn't mean high temps aren't slowly deteriorating the CPU over time.

Originally Posted by Hydroid

Last person I told to go Nvidia rather than ATI/AMD ignored me and came and apologized after 3 months saying never again will they buy a video card from them. You might save some money, but they can't do drivers right. Every couple of weeks he would be having issues with drivers in relation to a new game. If all you do is play 1 game (hopefully SC2) and stick with it for years I'd be fine recommending AMD because they can only mess up drivers so many times for the same game. But if you like to grab a new game every so often to play on the side then I don't feel as though it is a good idea. He isn't the only one either. Numerous friends have the same issues with their AMD cards. Another friend even had to get their card replaced 3 times in a month before switching back to Nvidia. One of them the fan died, another just made a lot of noise and another wasn't performing to the standards of other reviews and benchmarks. And yet in an equal sampling of friends and family who have bought and used Nvidia there has been at most 1-2 cases of a DOA card. But if the card works at the start, it keeps working and is often still working 5 years later. So in my overall experience, I would agree wholeheartedly that an AMD card is a bad play when investing large amounts of your hard earned money in a new gaming rig. But hey, it doesn't affect my wallet when other people buy.

Just want to respond to this. Personally, I have used both Nvidia and ATI and have not had a noticable difference aside from the expected (I generally buy to upgrade, not to go sideways between brands, so there's not really been a direct comparison). Never had any driver issues from ATI cards, however I have to say that I really enjoy what Nvidia have done with their drivers and support to the point that I think they are setting the way in making this easier, but I haven't owned an ATI card in the past 3 years. This is from someone who grew up swapping out cards in a time where drivers were never easy to find from any manufacturer, so I'd be perhaps a little more blind to ATI drivers being difficult to track down if they in fact are. I certainly never had a problem with a video driver ruining gameplay or anything.

When it comes to replacing cards and DOAs - that could be lots of things beyond manufacturer, like the place you bought it from (freight, storage, handling etc). I'm guessing Hydroid's is also a fairly small sampling and all a fairly close proximity geographically, so the retailer has a high chance of being the same one in most cases?

Anyway, everyone has their preference, and people are more inclined to notice all the problems with another product that they don't prefer and make a bigger deal of it when it comes to their recommendations - that's just how we are. More likely to tell more people about something bad than something good. My point is, look at a wide range of reviews and sources. You might find that generally, there are similar things said on both sides of the ATI vs Nvidia fence. Evaluate for yourself always

Quick Comments

	mGGDrGooSe:	Always learning!
	TCPLemminks:	genius

[Mayo]

I can hook you up with www.MWave.com.au.

Could look into this case - http://thermaltake.com.au/products-m...?id=C_00001803
otherwise, have a browse yourself.

Quick Comments

naviC:

do you rep for singapore too? :D

[Paroxysm]

Not sure about the price difference, but you could even upgrade your gfx card to a HD7970 which is like, fairly new, and you will be able to play all of the new games that come out at the highest resolution etc, for quite some time. That's my only real opinion to be honest.

Quick Comments

[TA]LoSt:

[ToRDjvillian]

As a personal prefernce i like to use 120gb SSD's for OS/Games/most used programs. keep in mind windows 7 takes up around 18gb. I assume your going for a 64 bit version of windows?

you can check out the rigs thread and pull ideas from there if you like: http://www.sc2sea.com/showthread.php?t=2317

[|Erasmus|]

Originally Posted by Drgoose

People who leave comps are on EVIL. Ever wondered why they keep going down?

Mine has been shutdown maybe half a dozen times total in ~18 months with no hardware failures. Because I made sure I have adequate cooling and bought a high quality power supply that will run in it's cool, efficient, ~50% zone almost always.

The people who have problems with it will be those who let their systems run hot, and who buy cheap power supplies that will just supply their system with enough draw on load. And it doesn't really matter whether you leave it on always or not.

[mGGDrGooSe]

@Paroxysm - diff is about $300 - $400 :P Generally I get a $150 card, this one is $200 but worth the extra over the $150 ones in stock.
@ToRDjvillian - Yeah, im debating whether I even need one. Sure, people say the differences are big, but I'm not convinced its $120+ big.
@Eramus - it's more that I just hate seeing appliances left on when not in use. People should atleast put them in sleep mode, but off is still better (that goes for monitors too). When I leave work, I go around and turn everyone's towers and monitors off. Lazy so-and-sos.