Built this new rig, pretty beast? what do you think
Hey Guys/Gals, thanks for checking out my thread!
Just built this rig. Was going to go for the i7 2600k but I think the i5 2500k has more bang for buck and is the best $:performance ratio when it comes to buying a midpriced gaming rig ($1000-2000). Also decided to drop back from a 2tb HD and swapped an 'Asus P8Z68-V-GEN3' ($199) Mobo for the one below which was $50 dearer. This rig cost me $1817 from scorptec, (exl. freight and insurance but incl. windows 7/assembly). These are my specs; CPU Intel Core i5 2500K (3.30Ghz / 6MB / LGA1155 / Quad Core, Overclocking Enabled) Motherboard Asus MAXIMUS-IV-GENE-Z G3 Z68, 4DDR3, 2200(OC), RAID, PCIE3.0, HDMI, GBLAN, SLI, CF, USB3, mATX Memory Corsair 8GB Kit (2x4GB), PC-12800 (1600MHz) DDR3, Blue Vengeance Series, 9-9-9-24, Dual Channel Kit Hard Disk Western Digital 1TB, Caviar Green, up to 7200RPM, SATA-III, 64MB Cache, IntelliPower Hard Disk #2 OCZ 60GB SSD, 2.5", Agility 3, SATAIII, Read 525MB/s, Write 475MB/s Case NZXT PHANTOM 410 BLACK MID TOWER W/O PSU, USB3.0 (sleekest case imo) Optical Drive Sony AD7280SGB SATA Black Internal Dual Layer Multiformat 24x DVD+-RW OEM with NERO Suite Video Card Sapphire Radeon HD7950 Overclocked (900Mhz), 3GB GDDR5 (5000Mhz), PCIE3.0, Fan, DVI, HDMI, Dual Mini DisplayPort Wireless Card TP-Link TL-WN951N Wireless N PCI Adapter, Atheros, 3T3R, 2.4GHz, 802.11n Draft 2.0, 802.11g/b Power Supply Thermaltake TR2 Bronze 800W PSU - 80 Plus Bronze, Active PFC, Ultra Quiet 12cm Fan Any comments/compliments/criticisms you want to give me are fine, I've actually already purchased the rig from scorptec. Cheers, Samuelk |
12:03pm 26/03/12 Permalink
For C drive I would have gone one of these. I've got the 160gig version which is a bit slower but it still kicks some serious ass. Only thing is it's like 5 times more expensive than what you got. LOL
clicky 240GB OCZ PCIe RevoDrive 3 X2 SSD Drive (PN RVD3X2-FHPX4-240G), PCI-Express 2.0 X4 Interface, Read: Up to 1500 MB/s, Write: Up to 1225 MB/s http://www.members.optushome.com.au/gpahl/ocz.jpg |
12:14pm 26/03/12 Permalink
How would a rig like this compare to something like the Alienware X51? The midrange X51 is:
Intel® Core™ i5-2320 Processor 3.0GHz (6MB Cache) with Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 8GB Dual Channel 1333 Mhz DDR3 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive with Native Command Queuing 1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 545 ..and it's $1499 Obviously the SSD is a big difference - I'm not toooo fussed on that. I'm in the market for a home desktop upgrade and trying to decide if I want to buy my own bits or if I'm just far too lazy now and would rather get some pre-made thing from Dell. I thought the Alienware stuff would be massively overpriced for what you get but they actually seem reasonably competitive (unless I'm missing something obvious) these days...? |
12:25pm 26/03/12 Permalink
Nice!
Yeah thats one crazy SSD, far far out of my budget though ($1800) Thanks for the info though, good to know some people are making the most wicked builds possible! hahaha |
12:25pm 26/03/12 Permalink
gaming laptops just aren't.. sure it will play your games at mid range for a while but you will always be wanting the nicer splosions plus they get hot and chugg after a while imo.. and they are heavy.. and upgradin' aint easy. Better off a gaming/home office desktop and a leet (but cheaper_ ) business laptop/tablet
e: oops, i read your post but my brain read xps15 last edited by do0b at 12:36:17 26/Mar/12 |
12:33pm 26/03/12 Permalink
gaming laptops just aren't.. sure it will play your games at mid range for a while but you will always be wanting the nicer splosions plus they get hot and chugg after a while imo.. and they are heavy.. and upgradin' aint easy. Better off a gaming/home office desktop and a leet (but cheaper_ ) business laptop/tabletIf you're talking to me, I totally agree - the X51 is a desktop. I would never buy a laptop for gaming (that is a noob mistake!) (edit: I would probably normally say buying Alienware in general is a noob mistake too) |
12:34pm 26/03/12 Permalink
Isn't Ivy Bridge out like very soon?
That's what I'm waiting for to build a mATX PC. |
12:35pm 26/03/12 Permalink
How would a rig like this compare to something like the Alienware X51? The midrange X51 is: I havent checked that out properly but by the looks of what youve listed there I think that the alienware X51 rig falls far short in terms of comparison to the GPU that i have in my setup and the processor is weaker and cant OC. Want to link the specific build of the X51 you are thinking of/have customised? PS. regarding the SSD issue, yeah i guess you can go without it if you have a quick HDD, but having your main games (BF3/WoW etc) on an SSD is always good, super fast Caching and load times |
12:37pm 26/03/12 Permalink
Isn't Ivy Bridge out like very soon? Yeah it is, but ever since I finished my HSC I have only wanted to start gaming again and getting the money has been hard with having to get rego/insurance for car and surfboards and what not. So now that ive had a couple of downtime weeks too save I just wanted to get build a brand new rig and get gaming ASAP! haha XD. Ivy bridge will be beast though, worth the wait if you can (think its going to be expensive though!) |
12:40pm 26/03/12 Permalink
The new nVidia GTX 680 cards are out, but a bit more cash than that ATI card. You should look into them, they seem pretty nice. Nice, I just watched that little vid, looks like a super GPU, unfortunately I've already purchased the rig and my budget was already strained due to the GPU and Mobo being generally more expensive then I'd originally anticipated. (started off with a budget of 1300, then 1500, then 1700, then 1800! haha just couldnt stop!!!!) |
01:12pm 26/03/12 Permalink
Should of swapped the mobo to ASRock Extreme4 Gen3 and get the GTX570 or GTX580, way better than ATI.
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01:24pm 26/03/12 Permalink
Should of swapped the mobo to ASRock Extreme4 Gen3 and get the GTX570 or GTX580, way better than ATI. Please explain? :) |
01:26pm 26/03/12 Permalink
Slight thread hijack, but on the topic of SSDs, what are the Crucial SSD drives like? I notice CA has 512gig crucial ssd's now for like $750, thats starting to approach the point where I'd consider ditching the 500gig hard drive I currently have and just replacing it with an SSD so my PC is all SSDs, but I dunno if the crucial ones are any good. They're like $300 cheaper than the OCZ ones, so I dunno if that means they're crap or OCZ ones are just way overpriced or what.
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01:49pm 26/03/12 Permalink
Please explain? :) The ASRock motherboard allows for full x16 on two slots for SLI'ing, which is a huge bonus. Also has support for PCI-E 3.0 and also capable of 3 way crossfire/SLI. Much better in comparison to something that is more expensive and isn't quite as good. The GTX570 or 580 is just all round better then AMD/ATI's current models, and driver support is a lot better. But this is all just my experience really. |
03:22pm 26/03/12 Permalink
Slight thread hijack, but on the topic of SSDs, what are the Crucial SSD drives like? ^ You'd want to go Crucial over OCZ/Corsair anyday. The latter two have had insane instability problems over the last 2 generations of SSD, despite good performance specs on paper - while Crucial drives have "just worked" over the same period. |
03:24pm 26/03/12 Permalink
Slight thread hijack, but on the topic of SSDs, what are the Crucial SSD drives like? I notice CA has 512gig crucial ssd's now for like $750, thats starting to approach the point where I'd consider ditching the 500gig hard drive I currently have and just replacing it with an SSD so my PC is all SSDs, but I dunno if the crucial ones are any good. They're like $300 cheaper than the OCZ ones, so I dunno if that means they're crap or OCZ ones are just way overpriced or what. Crucial seems pretty good to me. Picked a 128GB M4 up after several people here said "Get a M4" and its been running really nicely. Definitely good bang for the buck. The OCZ ones seem expensive but I think they are more top end while Crucial is more middle of the price range. |
05:07pm 26/03/12 Permalink
I have two Crucial M4's and rate them. I bought them based on a lot of +ve reviews I read.
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05:23pm 26/03/12 Permalink
I've had more problems with Nvidia drivers compared to ATI. LoL stutters about 30mins into gameplay. And I get this bf3 crash specific to the nvidia drivers. So nothing wrong with the 7950. People on ausgamers are massive nvidia/intel fanbois cause they are that bit older.
A 680 is better then the 7950. 7950 is better then the 570/580 |
07:37pm 26/03/12 Permalink
decent rig. memory is cheap - personally I would have gone 16Gb. I also would have gone a WD Caviar Black over the WD Caviar Green drive.
Don't really know why people add cd/dvd drives to PC's these days. I've been without an optical drive for over a year now and haven't looked back. |
08:23pm 26/03/12 Permalink
I just ordered my 680 from umart. should arrive next monday. Go to hell ati card. Sick of your s***.
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08:28pm 26/03/12 Permalink
A 680 is better then the 7950. 7950 is better then the 570/580 That is exactly my thinking in terms of the GPU. |
11:31pm 26/03/12 Permalink
What is the point of this thread if you already bought it all? Just getting opinions regarding all the gear, plus had time to change some of the parts that still needed shipping. Regardless, it seems to have started quite a good discussion regarding my selection of gear. |
11:32pm 26/03/12 Permalink
decent rig. memory is cheap - personally I would have gone 16Gb. I also would have gone a WD Caviar Black over the WD Caviar Green drive. Yeah 16GB is wasted though, only need that much if I am using some crazy media or rendering programs I believe. The ram is cheap (like $70 for the 8GB corsair sticks I got), but when my budget is that tight I needed to conserve even a little bit where i could but I agree with you in terms of get the Black Caviar, my mistake... and as for the CD/DVD drives, I didn't think to much of it XD good point though! haha |
11:36pm 26/03/12 Permalink
Thoughts on getting a after market heatsink for my rig as well? If so, what model should I be looking at?
Cheers! |
11:42pm 26/03/12 Permalink
Thoughts on getting a after market heatsink for my rig as well? If so, what model should I be looking at? If it's air cooling for the CPU. You can't go past Noctua. If you are after water cooling (again for the CPU). The Antec Kuhler's are hard to go past. Perform on par with the Corsair equivalents, are a little cheaper and a lot more user friendly (ie to adjust the fan speed you have to open your case with the Corsair water coolers - the Antec's have software that can adjust it on the fly). |
11:47pm 26/03/12 Permalink
If it's air cooling for the CPU. You can't go past Noctua. Thanks alot, very helpful response... are they easy to install after original assembling of system? I am not knowledgeable as to a safe way to physically add hardware to my rig yet :\ |
11:52pm 26/03/12 Permalink
I've got one of the Noctua's, and you can't really put it on without pulling the motherboard out, because it has a backing plate that needs to go behind the motherboard. I think you'd probably find that with most air coolers these days because they're so big.
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12:05am 27/03/12 Permalink
I've got the Coolermaster V8 and the highest it goes while idling is 30, and when playing BF3 it's around 45.
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12:05am 27/03/12 Permalink
I've got the Coolermaster V8 and the highest it goes while idling is 30, and when playing BF3 it's around 45. You've got an Asrock mobo no? And is the fan's power cable hooked up directly or via the attenuator? The reason I ask is that the Asrock mobos have a CPU temperature target setting that ramps up the fan speed to keep below that temp. I think out of the box my mobo was set to 45 or 50°C. |
12:15am 27/03/12 Permalink
Crucial seems pretty good to me. Picked a 128GB M4 up after several people here said "Get a M4" and its been running really nicely. Same here. Got an M4 after everyone in here said to. No real troubles with it so far. I've got one of the Noctua's, and you can't really put it on without pulling the motherboard out, because it has a backing plate that needs to go behind the motherboard. I think you'd probably find that with most air coolers these days because they're so big. My case has a special hole because of that, so you can put those things on & take them off without having to remove the board. |
12:24am 27/03/12 Permalink
