It's been somewhere around 5 years since I bought and assembled this: Lian Li PC-P80 ATX full tower ASUS P6T LGA 1366 ATX motherboard i7-920 @ 2.66 quad-core BFG Tech GTX 295 2GB Crucial Ballistix DDR3 1800 Western Digital Caviar 750GB HD Corsair HX Series 1000W PSU Samsung T240HD HDTV Monitor 5 years ago that bit-o-parts was ~$2500 USD. A month ago I wasn't paying attention (to minimum requirements) and bought COD Ghost off of Steam, downloaded, installed it and couldn't play it. It's time to build again! I'll more than likely re-purpose the Lian Li. It's a beautiful case with LOTS of room. The Samsung 24" monitor still looks good and I'm happy playing @ 1920x1080 (I guess, don't know any better?) I'm thinking I should NOT reuse the PSU. Thoughts? I'm new here so I'm going to follow the rules: Budget: $1200-$2000 USD Main uses of intended build: FPS gaming Parts required: Mother Board, CPU+ cooler, RAM, GPU, PSU, mouse, keyboard Previous build information (list details of parts): See above Monitor resolution:See above Storage requirements: I MUST get a SSD. 250 GB? I have some new Western Digital Caviar's still in the static bags 750 GB I'll use for this build Will you be overclocking: yes (later after I learn some more about water cooling) Any motherboard requirements: No "requirements" but I'm kind of fond of ASUS? Extra information about desired system: Need to get a copy of Win 7 (64 Bit) but want to be able to use on multiple builds? Water cooling and over clocking will come as well as a scratch build! I'm pretty handy and love what I've seen in the modding forums and it's got my creative juices going! Here's my proposed package: Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) $230 ASUS P8Z77-V PRO $145 (after $30.00 rebate) CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 $83.00 ASUS GTX760-DC2OC-2GD5 $260 (after $10 rebate) SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series 256GB $208 CORSAIR HX series 650W PSU $110 (after $30 rebate) CORSAIR Hydro Series H100i Water Cooler $105 (after $20 rebate) =$1141 (still need new KB & Mouse) From what I've read the i7 isn't worth the extra $ unless you’re using something that needs the hyper threading? Figured I get the "K" series and a dedicated water cooler so I can OC when I'm feeling confident. Should I up the VRAM on the GPU? I'd think this rig ought to offer decent FPS on any game out (cept crysis 3 of course) with most settings turned up high @ 1920x1080? Any thoughts/suggestions are appreciated!
Personally I would keep saving and wait a little more. 8 core cpu and ddr4 is just around the corner. Other than the quite old gpu and anemic amount of ram (how did you get by so long with only 2GB???) your current build isn't that bad. Grab yourself a gtx770 and the 840 Pro 256GB ssd... then look in used market for a triple channel 6GB kit to tide you over for now.
I'd say get some more RAM and a better GPU. Overclock your CPU and you'll be good for a while yet. An SSD would improve general usage speeds nicely too. I also wouldn't buy into LGA 1155 now. You'd be better off spending a little more on LGA 1150 if you were to go ahead. LGA 1155 is dead, and LGA 1150 is current.
Two schools of thought: Ivy builds are still solid performers and for ~$1000 that's still a good build with arguably better OC potential than Haswell. Many Ivy/Sandy people haven't upgraded to Haswell - you're not missing much and many PC enthusiasts will be running pretty much that exact spec you've listed. But, 9-Series boards are ever so close with a few new features. It'll either drop the price of 8-series MB a little or you'll find something on 9 series you want. PLUS you'll have access to plug in Devil's Canyon later this year and/or Broadwell in ~2015 (assuming you upgrade a year from now). Other hardware: If you're investing in your first SSD you might as well look at M.2 PCI-Express (NOT SATA - THEY LOOK THE SAME! CHECK THE SPEC!!) ones that offer 10Gbps versus SATA's 6Gbps. They'll be a tad more expensive, but, you know, why not get 'cutting edge' speed? This is only available on 9 series. With regards to your PSU - is that 650W Gold/Platinum spec? Since you'll be keeping it another ~5 years, get the most efficient you can afford. Unless you're spending another $2500, all LGA2011 derivatives will be out of your price range.
I think you only really need the following: 1) ~250GB SSD for a boot disk like this one. 2) A large, cheap SSD for any games (think 500GB) like this one. 3) Keep your 920 and overclock it to 4GHz (use something like the H80i - you don't really need a twin fan thing). 4) Get a 12GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM kit like this one. 5) Get a couple of 760s in SLI like this one or if your feeling flush, 770s. Your PSU will still be fine IMHO and 1920x1080 is a perfectly respectable resolution! Crank up the AA and you're laughing. The 920 is a beastly processor and still does well in games. Dual 760s should see you comfortably through the latest and greatest games at their top settings - 770s will laugh at anything. If you don't like the idea of SLI, maybe get a 780.
Thanks for the advice but I have a couple of new concerns. If I stick with the existing ASUS P6T MB I wont get advantage of SLI 3.0 on GPUs? Also the P6T won't support the faster SATA ver 3 as it runs @ 3GBS which would not get me full speed on the SSDs?? A revised config I looked up with 2-760s, an 840 pro 256GB, 3X4GB DDR3 1600, H80i for the 920 and WIN 7 64 bit would run my about a grand. I'm sure there would be remarkable improvements from where I'm at now, but wouldn't the MB be bottle-necking everything I'm buying?
Even though you won't see the full MBps from an SSD, you will still get a tremendous boost in performance thanks to the virtually no latency properties of an SSD. I wouldn't go for two 760s if it were me. Get a single, most powerful card you can afford. If a game doesn't support the SLI config properly, you're down to one GPU. If you get a single, more powerful card, you have the full power of it regardless. I never recommend getting two lower end cards to try and beat a higher end card. The motherboard won't bottleneck anything. Your system is still very capable with a 4GHz CPU (once overclocked) and I don't think you'll be disappointed. Wait for the next generation of CPUs before you upgrade your motherboard and CPU. That would be my advice. I hate Haswell as it's a friggin' nightmare to work with sometimes. I hope Broadwell is much, much better. If you need any help overclocking, feel free to shoot me a PM and I will do my best to help you. I've not got very much experience on the X58 platform but I do know and understand how the voltages and/or speeds play into everything.
Having only sata 3gbps isn't really that much of a big deal in real world use. All it really does is limit your sequential speeds a little bit, which for most people won't matter enough to be an issue. Even sticking an ssd on an old sata 1.5gbps is like a night and day difference due to the near instant access times and iops performance over any mechanical hdd. As for the pci-e generation, also not a huge deal as gpu still doesn't come close to saturating the bus. As far as SLI goes, I also agree it's a poor move with anything under a X70. It's all so driver dependent. Occasionally some games make take months to get a proper SLI profile, and sometimes that never does happen. Personally I don't see any point currently unless you're going to be gaming at above 1440p. You should get a single 770 or 780 instead if you have the money. I would also recommend going for Windows 8.1 instead. If you are skeptical go download and install the trial version and spend 90 days with it. It is so much nicer of an OS with a lot of improvements under the hood. If you don't like the metro stuff it's super easy to never see it. Also, while I'm not sure where you are, most of the time I see 8.1 about $20 cheaper than 7 nowdays.
I recently swapped out a GTX285 for a 770 in my i7 920 rig. Copes very well at 2560x1440. 1080p would be a walk in the park. CPU is @ stock. Might OC it one day if I feel it needs it. If you're having issues with your rig, it's 1) because of the 2GB of RAM and a 32bit OS and 2) because your GPU 'may' not be enough for your games at your settings. I thinking adding more RAM (Go 6GB), installing a new OS and swapping out the GPU will give you 95% of the performance of a brand new system for only 50% of the budget. But it's your budget, and a new rig is sure nice to have.
Like everyone else, I think your system is plenty capable. If I were you I would buy a single graphics card (gtx 760/770), a 240/256 GB SSD (Samsung evo), 6gb of triple channel memory and then install w7 or 8 64 bit. See how your games run then and if needs be buy an aftermarket cooler and oc your 920. Just my 2c. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
excited Thanks to those that replied. I got forced into action by my 295 dying. Parts are instaLled and after a brief scare (wouldn't post after bumping 24 pin connector loose while loading win7) I am going through the arduous task of loading software. Will comment more once things are settled. Thanks again!
ninite? Sounds like an offshoot of vegamite? Took a quick look and it is worthy of further study. Thanks for the tip.
Pick up some bits cheap 2nd hand. How on earth have you managed on 2GB ram? Likely all that will need is a ye olde 6GB tri-channel kit and a decent GPU. X58 is a hell of a platform still.
I built a Quad SLI PC (two 295s) with 2gb ram. Had no real issues to speak of tbh. And that was a gaming rig (built primarily for Dirt 3 with surround screens). I wouldn't advise it, but I do think the world has gone a bit 'ram mad' so to speak.
So far so good! As I said, my 295 gave up the ghost so I needed to do something. I went to the local Frys and picked up 2 sticks of 8 GB ram, a Samsung 840 pro 256 GB SSD, a NVIDIA GTX 770 and a copy of Win 7 64 bit. I installed everything and was loading the OS and tidying some wires and bumped the 24 pin connector. Everything shut down and it would not post after that. I spent hours troubleshooting the motherboard and became concerned it had taken a dive. Just as I was about to go shell out more money for a new MB I decided to check the CMOS battery. 1.5 VDC! A quick replacement and I was running again! Never heard of a battery keeping the MB from posting, but there you go. Anyway, a day of loading software, anti virus, games, sorting out partitions etc. and I'm liking what Ive seen thus far. It boots incredibly quick thanks to the SSD. I had played Metro last light on the old GPU and wondered why everyone said it was such a beautiful game. Now I see. The 770 kicks serious butt! I'm thinking I may have gotten a little to impatient on the RAM? They didn't carry any triple channel so I'm 16GB but dual channel. Shouldn't be a huge concern though? Once I get my fill of gaming I'm going to do some bench marks and see exactly where I'm at. Then I may take my first endeavor into over clocking. Should be fun? Thanks again to all who helped. Loving the Bit-Tech community!
Sounds pretty good. The 920 is still a capable CPU; i'd save for the new series to come out. But 16 GB you bought? Seems like a waste of money to me; 8GB is normally plenty for any gaming situation. And the GTX 770 is a great GPU; should tide you over for a while
