Desktop PC for gaming

Due to many problems with gaming laptops in the past I decided not to buy new one and instead for just little bit extra cash build desktop for gaming. Specially when I saw prices of new i7's. I have to note that this is my first build as I have never done anything similar in the past however I'm confident I can put it together my self using few youtube guides. It's not rocket science after all.

Case: NZXT Phantom http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=605770
MB: Asus P8P67 http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=617978
CPU: i5-2500k 3.3Ghz http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=619274
RAM Corsair Dominator 2x2GB: http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=590451
GPU: MSI Radeon HD 6850 Crossfire http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=619301
SSD: Corsair F60 SSD http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=601323
PSU: Corsair AX 850W http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=600426

This list has been updated. I drooped the idea of i7.

Here is where I can't decide. There are so many of them and reviews between ATI and Nvida for gaming are so mixed that I'm not sure which I should take. My bugdet for this part is ~300 EU so advice would be very welcomed. Atm looking between: Nvidia: http://www.pixmania.com/dk/dk/8299921/art/msi/geforce-gtx-570-1280-mb-g.html ATI: http://www.pixmania.com/dk/dk/8374154/art/msi/radeon-hd-6950-2-gb-gddr5.html As you can see ATI has more memory but some players say Nvidia drivers are way better for gaming so I'm really not sure which way I should go. Also comments on overall build would be welcomed too since as I said it's my first.

Really nice system you have picked out, a few things though:

You have a micro motherboard picked out, I would suggest a ATX board as your case will fit it, and you'll have more room for expansion in the future:

ASUS P8P67 Motherboard

Also, if your going to spend this much on a build, don't cheap out on the power supply, get a modular one:

Corsair AX 750W PSU

Besides that everything looks great. And for the Graphics card, you can go wrong with either, it just depends on what you want.

And a great PC building guide can be found here: Picture Guide to Computer Building and Hardware Installation (56K) ;)

ThaT-Masta

EDIT: List was updated not to confuse anymore. I drooped the idea of i7.

The last thing that worries me is PSU and Case. My futre plans are to OC CPU to ~4.5Ghz and a year or two later add another 6950 to CF. Will 850W PSU be enough for that?

Also about the case, I noticed CPU cooler I took is pretty high. I wonder if he will fit with side fan? Because as I read couple reviews side fans lowers temperatures on GPU and MB by ~5-10C in this case.

Oh and one more thing. RAM's I took are comming with heat spreader fans. Do you think CPU cooler will interfare with it? If so any other suggestions for CPU cooler to keep it cool at 4.5 speeds?

P.S. Not to open another thread. I got note from warranty that my laptop is comming back. However they restored HDD to original settings meanning BB W7 hello Vista. Ofc I'm not happy with that and plan to reinstall w7 as soon as possible. However I do have 2 copies of W7. One 32bit HP other 64bit Pro. What copy I should install on it? Laptop spec: Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 2.53ghz, GeForce 240M GT and 4GB of DDR3.

The reason I would like to install 64 bit is so that windows could see all the ram I have but other question is, does my system supports 64 bit? Will it increase or decrease performance or it doesn't really matter?

Sorry but you're thinking wrong and i know what i'm talking about . This system is to game right. Your i7 processor is over kill . An i5-750 is all the processing power you'll ever need , this cpu can even be overclocked to match the strongest i7 processor that cost about 1000$ (i7-975 xtreme). Not that you have to overclock it the stock rate of the cpu is already more than enough. By the time your cpu will actually have to run @ 100 procent to play gamesyou will be alot older. Off course if you want to decode 4 blue ray discs into mpeg while playing crysis on max settings your i7 would come in handy but who would want to do that. Buying something more than an i5-750 is past the point of reason.

Since the links on the site only have the i5-760 which is about the same as an i5-750 only a little bit better so you buy this one. http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=604498

Since you saved some money on your cpu now you can spend some more on your vga because your videocard yes that can be better. The hd 6950 is a good card but the gtx 580 is a lot better

http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=620712 or http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=616657

I would take the asus it is known for having a better board.

I think your about 400 dkk above you're budget that you had blown away before. but your cooler is a little pricy that could be cheaper. I suggest you search for it yourself lol and you could naw off some dkk's off your case too i've seen you want to spend 975 dkk on that case. If i'm right that's 130 euros. Are you crazy it's a case. I suggest you find a case around 600 dkk and you can keep that big ass cooler, spend the same budget and... The system i suggest will have more than double the processing power for games. Oh you did do a good job on the rest of your specs though.But the 850 W would have been overkill for the hd6950 , not for the gtx 580 though. That's good enough, it's still more than enough evenand so i should be with a psu. Corsair is the best brand . Mobo is ok , ram is ok, sdd drive is ok (why no sata?)sdd is kinda of expensive.

Have fun Greeetz

Sorry but you're thinking wrong and i know what i'm talking about . This system is to game right. Your i7 processor is over kill . An i5-750 is all the processing power you'll ever need , this cpu can even be overclocked to match the strongest i7 processor that cost about 1000$ (i7-975 xtreme). Not that you have to overclock it the stock rate of the cpu is already more than enough. By the time your cpu will actually have to run @ 100 procent to play gamesyou will be alot older. Off course if you want to decode 4 blue ray discs into mpeg while playing crysis on max settings your i7 would come in handy but who would want to do that. Buying something more than an i5-750 is past the point of reason.

Since the links on the site only have the i5-760 which is about the same as an i5-750 only a little bit better so you buy this one. http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=604498

Since you saved some money on your cpu now you can spend some more on your vga because your videocard yes that can be better. The hd 6950 is a good card but the gtx 580 is a lot better

http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=620712 or http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=616657

I would take the asus it is known for having a better board.

I think your about 400 dkk above you're budget that you had blown away before. but your cooler is a little pricy that could be cheaper. I suggest you search for it yourself lol and you could naw off some dkk's off your case too i've seen you want to spend 975 dkk on that case. If i'm right that's 130 euros. Are you crazy it's a case. I suggest you find a case around 600 dkk and you can keep that big ass cooler, spend the same budget and... The system i suggest will have more than double the processing power for games. Oh you did do a good job on the rest of your specs though.But the 850 W would have been overkill for the hd6950 , not for the gtx 580 though. That's good enough, it's still more than enough evenand so i should be with a psu. Corsair is the best brand . Mobo is ok , ram is ok, sdd drive is ok (why no sata?)sdd is kinda of expensive.

Have fun Greeetz

evildead6789

Well the system you see above costs just ~1600 EU which isn't that much in Denmark. Also I'm MMO gamer currently playing Lineage 2(OC'd CPU, GPU, multi-core CPU are the key factors in FPS as well as having game on SSD) New MMO I'm looking is TERA:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBfqUZPEEts The graphics you see in trailer are in game. Also since it uses upgraded UE technology, I believe once it comes to many players on screen this game will be CPU demanding too, so I don't think it's going to be that big over kill.

Furthermore looking to the future this configuration should last at least 3-4 years. So it's smth like 400-500 EU/year. After that hopefully nanophotonic CPU's will emerge.(IBM already releasing nanophotonic chips this year and uses current manufacturing technologies meaning I might be in line with next step in computing)

Anyway I chose 6950 because I read that it's same as more expensive 6970. All I have to do is just flash new 6970 BIOS to it. Also I plan Crossfire in the future and if I go with Nvidia I need new MB because current one does not support SLI.

I'd ditch the i7 2600K in favour of an i5 2500K, the performance difference is not very great, the price difference is. While an i5 760 is also a fine CPU a price of1550 DKK doesn't make hugely attractive relative to an i5 2500K.You could also go for some cheaper memory without incurring any considerable performance loss, PC12800 is priced favourably and in that class you may also get 1.5V memory, which Intel recommend.

A 850W Corsair PSU is basically good enough for any pair of graphics cards and a well clocked CPU. If you "only" install a pair of HD 6950 cards you should be good with a 650W model.

As for Windows, go with 64 bit, the last advantage of the 32 bit version (programs use less memory) is pointless when it means you can't use all available memory.

Also, you may want to buy a storage disk, the 120 GB SSD is probably going to run out of space quite quickly.

I agree that system is WAY overkill. The thing is with PCs is its never wise to buy the BEST thing. Itll loose so much value over so little time because newer stuff comes out... somtimes a better gpu will come out cheaper than the one you have. Its just a waste of money and it just doesnt look proffessional. Its iresponsible consumerism. its like you dont know what iphone to buy so you get the 32gb one because its more expensive... thus better? then you dont put any music, video or apps on it. its rediculous. a 1000$-1500$ is fine for MMOs even if im not too familiar with those you names. I own a MSI GX740 and its a brilliant system. it has 4gb DDR3, a Ati 5870 and a i5 2.1ghz or something similar... newer GX740s (mines really a E740 but newegg sold it too me as a GX740, i dont really get it) have i7s. they are 1.8ghz or so but they are fast as hell. I have a friend who was one in a Asus (same specs) model and he plays one of those MMOs you named. Runs perfectly. Even low ghz i7s trump, well... anything. im just suggesting one of those. save you money. i dont know what problems you have with laptops but you can always use it as a desktop if you connect it to a screen, mouse and keyboard. it doesnt defeat the purpose since it takes 2 seconds to grab it and go. also i find that laptops are generaly cheaper than custum built pcs and a little more optimized... thats just my view. you wont be able to OC but i dont see why you should... if you dont do work for NASA or something youll never need more horse power, to game anyway. and youll just mess up your expensive CPU, voiding the warrenty. dont OC. I lost a MSI wind and the computer in my banner OCing irresponsibly.

oh and if you make a desktop... espesialy if you OC (not expecting you to take my advice) dont cheapout on PSU. You CPU will most likly fry the PSU from consuming too much power than overheat. that can do some nasty things to your hardware. make sure your PSU is powerfull enough for all your hardware. Crossfire also is a huge power eater. I think 850w should do... but im pretty sure the PC you want needs a 1000w.

[QUOTE="Arwiz"]

The last thing that worries me is PSU and Case. My futre plans are to OC CPU to ~4.5Ghz and a year or two later add another 6950 to CF. Will 850W PSU be enough for that?

Also about the case, I noticed CPU cooler I took is pretty high. I wonder if he will fit with side fan? Because as I read couple reviews side fans lowers temperatures on GPU and MB by ~5-10C in this case.

Oh and one more thing. RAM's I took are comming with heat spreader fans. Do you think CPU cooler will interfare with it? If so any other suggestions for CPU cooler to keep it cool at 4.5 speeds?

ThaT-Masta

850w is enough for dual 6950's and an overclocked CPU.

And, to answer the rest of your questions: Corsair H70.

Everything looks great, enjoy your computer. :)

Thx again on cooling suggestion. I was avoiding water cooling for doing something wrong and damaging multiple components. From youtube guide instalation seemed extreamly easy.

I'd ditch the i7 2600K in favour of an i5 2500K, the performance difference is not very great, the price difference is. While an i5 760 is also a fine CPU a price of1550 DKK doesn't make hugely attractive relative to an i5 2500K.You could also go for some cheaper memory without incurring any considerable performance loss, PC12800 is priced favourably and in that ****you may also get 1.5V memory, which Intel recommend.

A 850W Corsair PSU is basically good enough for any pair of graphics cards and a well clocked CPU. If you "only" install a pair of HD 6950 cards you should be good with a 650W model.

As for Windows, go with 64 bit, the last advantage of the 32 bit version (programs use less memory) is pointless when it means you can't use all available memory.

Also, you may want to buy a storage disk, the 120 GB SSD is probably going to run out of space quite quickly.

eBusiness

You made me thinking about i5-2500k. As for 1.5 memory, it's almost impossible to find it and read that it doesn't really matter in the end. Also I do have 1tb HDD in ice box which I plan taking out and connecting once I get all parts mailed.

[QUOTE="Arwiz"]

Well the system you see above costs just ~1600 EU which isn't that much in Denmark. Also I'm MMO gamer currently playing Lineage 2(OC'd CPU, GPU, multi-core CPU are the key factors in FPS as well as having game on SSD) New MMO I'm looking is TERA:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBfqUZPEEts The graphics you see in trailer are in game. Also since it uses upgraded UE technology, I believe once it comes to many players on screen this game will be CPU demanding too, so I don't think it's going to be that big over kill.

Furthermore looking to the future this configuration should last at least 3-4 years. So it's smth like 400-500 EU/year. After that hopefully nanophotonic CPU's will emerge.(IBM already releasing nanophotonic chips this year and uses current manufacturing technologies meaning I might be in line with next step in computing)

Anyway I chose 6950 because I read that it's same as more expensive 6970. All I have to do is just flash new 6970 BIOS to it. Also I plan Crossfire in the future and if I go with Nvidia I need new MB because current one does not support SLI.

[\QUOTE]

Maybe you can think that it's not going to be overkill but you're thinking wrong. The bottleneck will always be in your gpu with that kind of processing power you can add as many cores as you wish your game uses two cores and they won't even work at full capacity. you'll have four cores that even can be turbo boosted. Do you know what it means if your cpu doesn't work @ full capacity. That means you have still have two cores left for running services in windows which like is nothing. Have you even researched what you're saying. I don't want to go into a fight with you because i'm doing this to help you lol.

Your gpu won't also be maxed out because the gtx580 is a very strong card but there willbe cominggames out that will bring this beast to it's knees. ,That time will be a lot sooner before this happens to your processor. You have to much headroom. It's just a matter of numbers.

Besides the gtx 580 is a revenge of nvidia to ati because ati whooped their asses the last couple of years. The card is a lot more worth than what you're paying for it. The card isstronger thanthe hd 5970. A hd 5970 has the strength of two 6950 or two hd 5870. Also the hd 5970 is a dual gpu and the gtx580 is a single gpu that means you can put the thing in sli. You will be safe for a long time. Still the first thing that will show it's age in this system is the gtx580 not your i5 750 even with a honderthousand players on screen that data still have to pass your network card . You don't really think if your network card is suddenly giving a lot of more data that your processor will even flinch. Even then if it were computer players still your cpucan handle it(look at dead rising and left for dead for example). Any how check the benchmark sites if you don't believe me. If you don't do any professional encoding or data processing your i7 processor will never work at full capacity in your hands. By the time it becomes obsolete you will already bought a whole new system where your i7 doesn't fit in anymore because the rest of your system became obsolete.

Games have become so gpu dependent the first thing that will be bottlenecking your system is thevideocard not your processor. The videocard does the most work.Also the gtx580 is a pretty silent card that doesn'tdraw too much power for what it is doing.Anyway I rest my case.

One of the reasons I opened this thread was to get help with optimization since I'm pretty green in this area. I have ~1500 EU budget set for this system. Also I appreaciate your advices since again I'm pretty green on how stuff works. Furthermore getting lost in 'nice' numbers between so many choices is so easy so I'm thankful for the help I receive here.

GTX580 is nice yeah, but with current pricing it goes little bit too much over my budget. Since on top of that I still need Monitor + Keybord + Mouse(Those are not suppose to go in 1500) If you really think 6950 will be really bad, what about this one: GTX 570 http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=620660 This is probably as much as I can spent on GPU right now.

don't get me wrong the 6950 is not bad lol. the gtx 570 is better though. But listen to this for the same price of the gtx 570 you can put two hd 6850 in crossfire that will give you the performance that is better then the gtx 570 and comes close to the performance of a gtx 580. http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=614382 Your psu will support it and your motherboard supports it too. Don't think about putting two nvidia cards in there. Your motherboard only supports two ati cards in crossfire.

The price of the hd6850 is just the half of the price of the gtx570 you posted before so two hd6850 makes the same price and it's on an asus board

Two hd 6850 obliterate an hd 6950

don't get me wrong the 6950 is not bad lol. the gtx 570 is better though. But listen to this for the same price of the gtx 570 you can put two hd 6850 in crossfire that will give you the performance that is better then the gtx 570 and comes close to the performance of a gtx 580. http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=614382 Your psu will support it and your motherboard supports it too. Don't think about putting two nvidia cards in there. Your motherboard only supports two ati cards in crossfire.

The price of the hd6850 is just the half of the price of the gtx570 you posted before so two hd6850 makes the same price and it's on an asus board

Two hd 6850 obliterate an hd 6950

evildead6789

Well I was thinking taking 6950 for now, flashing it to 6970 and once AMD releases new cards next year or even at the end of this year buying another one and putting in crossfire.

Without a doubt get the i5-2500k, no real reason to get an i7 as you can get the i5 to 4.0 easy.

The gtx 570 is a great card. If your not on a tight budject get 1 nice gpu, vs 2 mid end cards. SLI/CF has and will always have issues for a while. Some games don't scale and your second care will be pretty much useless. But when its scaled right sli 460, cf 6850, will take down the 570, and even put up close and beat the 580.

Plus if you feel the need for more power down the road you can buy a second 570 or 6950.

you will lose money with that then you will have to sell the 6950 and a lot could change in one year , prices can rise too you know. The hardware is very cheap for the moment. If more demanding games come out then these cards will be more demanded too so prices will probably rise for gpu's that is not for cpu's. t besides flashing a videocard is not as easy as overclocking. Videocards are more susceptible to stability issues than a cpu. Also it could be when you receive the card that that card is already protected by this and the flashing doesn't work anymore. I still don't understand why you are staring blind on that i7 processor. i5 an i7 are both quad cores, the only differences is that the i7 has hyperthreading this means that one core can do two threads instead of one.this means windows will see an i7 as 8-core processor but it isn't really one. You also have the same amount of cache that means you have less cache for each core.The i7 is better though than the i5 but not a lot for games and the price difference is high . You do know that the i5-760 can turbo boost to 3,3 ghz , Do you really think 300-400 mhz will make such a huge difference (the i7 2600 can turbo boost to 3,7 ghz) You're staring blind on the ghz. the i7 and i5 that has the 2xxx number have higher ghz, but you can overclock that standard i7 (like i7-920) to the same speeds. Also certainly don't buy the i5-2500 because it has only 6mb cache the others have 8mb cache.

Anyhow you can buy your orignal system and your system will be fine. But an i5-760 with 2 hd6850 in crossfire will be a lot stronger when you play that game tera korea or any game for that matter and your cpu will never get old. Besides this config is even 400dkk cheaper and it's a lot stronger It's up to you.

before i forget the i5-760 has the same socket as the i7-2600 so if you want you can always upgrade your cpu later and the prices for cpu's won't rise

[QUOTE="evildead6789"]

before i forget the i5-760 has the same socket as the i7-2600 so if you want you can always upgrade your cpu later and the prices for cpu's won't rise

ThaT-Masta

Whoa! :o Not true! i5-760 is socket 1156 and i7-2600 and all the second gen i series processors are socket 1155. Even though it's a one pin difference, they're not compatible with each other.

OMG you're right. Another different socket for krist sake that's like the fourth in three years. What a bunch of **** And only one number difference lol.

Yeah i didn't noticed that . Anyhow that means your motherboard won't fit with the i5-760 . What a nasty thing to do from intel again. Amd processors still have the same socket as 4-5 years ago. That means if you want to go with my setup you have to change the motherboard and i almost got em over the bridge lol.

ok this is a good motherboard http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=494703#extra

it's 150 dkk more but since you're saving 400dkk that shouldn't be a problem

yeah marketing tactic and a real nasty one this time i mean the cpu's are practically the same and they make a new socket that only has one number different . I must say I only noticed today they have a new line of cpu's (well new hardly...) I feel real stupid now. I'm busy with this stuff for a living.

anyhow T masta what's your opinion on what i try to explain and advise to the original poster?

the 6900 series video cards are alot more efficient than the 500 series. The 500 series have a much larger die size, are power hungry and still don't crush the AMD's cards, which is pretty sad when you think about it. Its a shame that AMD has given up producing top end monstrosity cards like the 580 gtx.

I would like to stick with Sandy Bridge i5 one because various benchmarks shows that it's best for 200 EU. Also rumors goes that SB and 1155 socket instead of 1156 is same case as Vista and W7. Company simply put more ressources to develop way better optimized product.

So the bottom line for your GPU's are 2x 6850 in Crossfire?

i really wouldn't go for the i5 2500 , the cache on it is crippled i don't know where you get your benchmarks from but no way this is better than the standard i5 760 and yes 2 x 6850 is a killer setup. It nearly matches the power of the gtx 580. Your psu 850W will easily handle it and it costs only as much as the gtx 570.

i really wouldn't go for the i5 2500 , the cache on it is crippled i don't know where you get your benchmarks from but no way this is better than the standard i5 760 and yes 2 x 6850 is a killer setup. It nearly matches the power of the gtx 580. Your psu 850W will easily handle it and it costs only as much as the gtx 570.

evildead6789

Well, look at some benches:http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=191

i really wouldn't go for the i5 2500 , the cache on it is crippled i don't know where you get your benchmarks from but no way this is better than the standard i5 760 and yes 2 x 6850 is a killer setup. It nearly matches the power of the gtx 580. Your psu 850W will easily handle it and it costs only as much as the gtx 570.

evildead6789

Internet is full of reviews, just google some.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/191?vs=288

Also it's in par/slightly outperforms i7-920. Outperforming all AMD CPU by >20%. Furthermore by going i5-2500k I'm future proofing my self too since new Intel CPU's going to be 1155(Most likely) so if I would decide to upgrade, I will not have to buy new mobo.

True but they're trading blows with each other. In games there seems to be a favor to i5 2500, but they don't mention what videocard they are using . There's a noticable difference though and i really can't imagine the difference is this much with high -end videocards especially with something like 2 hd 6850's in sli. Anyhow apart from that you can easily overclock the i5-760 to 4 ghz and the temp will stay under 60 degrees celcius. the i5-2500 has less headroom for overclocking which is normal because the base clock is already 500 mhz higher. The i5-2500 you can overclock to 4 ghz but you will already have higher temps. I'd like to see them comparing that , the crippled cache will really show there

Both cpu's you can overclock to 4.5 ghz if you want to but above 4 ghz with both cpu's it's getting dangerous.

In any case it performs same or even if it less it's not really noticable but future proof makes it worth getting.

Anyway I updated my first post to reduce the costs and decided go with 6850 Crossfire instead of 570.

Also when games will start to use more cores, the crippled cache will even show more not to mention you will have noticable speed difference in multitasking.

Still taking the i5-2500 with the crossfired 6950is still a much better option than going for your i7 / 6950 combo. I'm glad i already got that into your head :)