New gaming rig

[tongue_of_colicab]

Hi there,

I think this must've been the third time I made a topic like this without actually ending up buying something but this time it's for real My old pc is back in Holland, I'm in Japan, and now that Haswell has launched I want to buy a new pc. Next month I'll hear if i've passed the second part of my trial period at work and if that goes well the deal is done.

All I want to do is gaming. I won't go above 1080p but my previous system (q6600) was still doing a good enough job despite being 5 years old (only gpu updates) and I plan on using this system for at least 3 years as well. I suppose with Intel being so much faster than what will be in the next gen consoles this shouldn't be a problem on the cpu side.

Two parts that I won't need for now is a gpu and ssd, I took the ones I had with me on the plane (560ti and 64gb m4). Budget is about 1100 euro's / 140.000 yen.

What I'm thinking off

CPU: i7 4770k.

Cooling: If somebody knows a cooler that makes less noise and cools better than the stock cooler at idle and stress than I'm all ears.

Mainboard: I want to go m-atx as I never use any expension cards besides the gpu. I've been thinking of the Asus RoG gene series though the haswell version doesn't seem to be available yet. I might even consider itx if somebody has some good suggestions on cases that can take full size gpu's etc.

Memory: No clue what to get. 16 or 32gb?

Storage: Whatever 2gb disk is available at a decent price.

Case: Silverstone TF03, looks really cool I think. Though I'm open to suggestions.

PSU: Silverstone strider 750watt. I'm open for suggestions, main points are silence and a decent price.

Monitor: Dell Ultrasharp U2412M. Heard this thing has pretty good IQ and is suitable for gaming is awell. Again, I'm open to suggestions.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

I would get a new GPU since it is a gaming rig and GPU is the most important component, even if that means getting a cheaper CPU. Anything from 2500k and up should serve you well. 16GB should be more than enough. 750W is more than needed if you are going to stay with only one GPU, a 550-650W unit would serve you well.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Meh how many games are going to be unplayable at 1080 with a 560ti? He could certainly dial back on the cpu but a gpu improvement is going to be $200, a significant improvement nearly double that. I'd just bank the money and upgrade the gpu when it really becomes necessary.

I doubt you'll ever benefit from 32GB of ram for gaming (in the near future), unless you really hate level load times and cache whole games.

 

[Squilliam]

I prefer going with a strong CPU as I do not see myself upgrading that component regularly anymore. I would likely go with the 4770K as well.

Not to hi-jack or anything but I have two supplementary questions.

1. M-ATX or ATX? Is there any real benefit in the latter? I think I need at least 6 SATA ports, pref 8.

2. What kind of motherboard/what brand/how much should I spend?

 

[Squilliam]

Would the AS-ROCK Z87 Extreme 4 be any good?

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Meh how many games are going to be unplayable at 1080 with a 560ti? He could certainly dial back on the cpu but a gpu improvement is going to be $200, a significant improvement nearly double that. I'd just bank the money and upgrade the gpu when it really becomes necessary.

I agree that it's not a bad choice to wait for example 20nm GPUs with more memory, but you can certainly put the extra power to use in 1080p as well. GPU is the most important component. Everyone don't want to buy used stuff, but getting for example a used Sandy-Bridge platform and selling the old GPU would make getting something like 670 or the soon to be released 760 a cheap option and that combination should outperform the 4770k/560Ti in pretty much every game by a significant margin.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

I know the gpu is important and I will buy a new gpu but for now that 560ti will do fine for the games I want to play and this way I can save some money as well. Besides, I rather wait until the next gen consoles are released to see what amd/nvidia launch and how those cards are gonna run next gen games. Upgrading my current card that still performs good enough for a current high end card that might not cut in in 6 months doesn't look very smart to me.

Buying an old/second hand platform is not an option. Those 100/200 euros I'll save don't weight up to the lack of warranty and that I intend to use this system for atleast 3 years.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

You can still have warranty with second hand purchases just fine. I bought my GPU and Motherboard used and both of them still have plenty of warranty left.

Your GPU strategy sounds good and it's true that if you now buy a 4770k, it should last you a long time and just upgrade different components around it when needed.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Now we agree on that... What about memory, a good cooler and psu?

(btw I live in Japan, so typically only 1 year warranty)

 

[UniversalTruth]

If you don't stay for long in Japan, what are you going to do with so expensive gaming rig?

And second question- why do you consider Haswell and not Sandy Bridge-E or whatever they have in the high end?

About a videocard- if you max out, there will still be games running at slide show frame rate...

Perhaps 7870 or corresponding NV product would be fine...

For the cooler- if you can take something like Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme, I think it would be better for the chip...

Case- how about Cooler Master?

 

[Malo]

The ASROCK Extreme series are fantastic and very well priced. I have the E4 Z77 and with 16+ Gb of RAM you can use their X-FAST RAM program to really take advantage of all that memory. Makes RAM drives and temp files, cache etc much easier to setup and maintain.

I have the 3570k and eventually after some research went for the Arctic Freezer 13. Very quiet, running 4.2Ghz and maxes out at 56 in Handbrake. I'm sure I could go higher if I bothered messing with voltages and such.

For PSU I'm still using my Enermax Infiniti 720w from 2010 because it's fantastic and why bother changing it.

 

[homerdog]

4770k is a good choice, but I would go for the standard 4770. It has the new TSX feature, which may be useful in the coming years. It is plenty fast at stock, and the stock cooler should be fine for stock speeds.

Good call on waiting for the GPU upgrade. I would hit it next cycle or wait until the GTX770 price falls, probably when it gets some competition from AMD (and then you could consider the AMD option).

16GB is plenty. Just stick to 2x8GB sticks if you're worried about needing more in the future. But you won't (for the reasonable lifetime of the computer).

My current PSU is the Corsair CX500. It is wonderful and cheap. You could save a bit and go for the 430W version, but the 500W has 2 PCIe connectors to run the largest graphics cards (single GPU obviously) without an adapter, which I think is a good thing.
I don't know if it's compatible with Haswell's deep sleep states, but who cares when we're talking about just a couple watts.

m-ATX is the way to go. I went full ATX with the Antec Three Hundred Two. It is great, but mostly empty...

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

If you don't stay for long in Japan, what are you going to do with so expensive gaming rig?

I wouldn't buy such an expensive system if I didn't atleast plan on staying here for a couple of year. Granted, I could always be fired but I'm not planning on that and I think my company isn't planning that either (they wouldn't have given me a three year visa in that case). Besides I can always ship it back home if needed. Hell, a matx system might even go on the plane with me for a 100 euros extra

The ASROCK Extreme series are fantastic and very well priced. I have the E4 Z77 and with 16+ Gb of RAM you can use their X-FAST RAM program to really take advantage of all that memory. Makes RAM drives and temp files, cache etc much easier to setup and maintain.

I have the 3570k and eventually after some research went for the Arctic Freezer 13. Very quiet, running 4.2Ghz and maxes out at 56 in Handbrake. I'm sure I could go higher if I bothered messing with voltages and such.

For PSU I'm still using my Enermax Infiniti 720w from 2010 because it's fantastic and why bother changing it.

Thanks, I'll take a look at that board. Cooler looks good too but I think I might go for the Scythe big shuriken 2. It's less than 9db at its lowest setting and apperantly it can even keep a 125watt cpu cool at those settings.

4770k is a good choice, but I would go for the standard 4770. It has the new TSX feature, which may be useful in the coming years. It is plenty fast at stock, and the stock cooler should be fine for stock speeds.

Good call on waiting for the GPU upgrade. I would hit it next cycle or wait until the GTX770 price falls, probably when it gets some competition from AMD (and then you could consider the AMD option).

16GB is plenty. Just stick to 2x8GB sticks if you're worried about needing more in the future. But you won't (for the reasonable lifetime of the computer).

My current PSU is the Corsair CX500. It is wonderful and cheap. You could save a bit and go for the 430W version, but the 500W has 2 PCIe connectors to run the largest graphics cards (single GPU obviously) without an adapter, which I think is a good thing.
I don't know if it's compatible with Haswell's deep sleep states, but who cares when we're talking about just a couple watts.

m-ATX is the way to go. I went full ATX with the Antec Three Hundred Two. It is great, but mostly empty...

God I hate Intel for doing that... why doesn't the top model have all the functions? But the K models only have a unlocked multiplier, right? So non-K models can still be overclocked by increasing the fsb? Or did that all change? Last overclock I did was on my Q6600.

I think I will go for atleast a 500watt psu. Don't want to be right on the edge if I put in a nice and heavy gpu.

Any recommandations for memory brand and speeds? I think all three systems I built used Corsair but I don't really care about what brand goes in there.

 

[homerdog]

God I hate Intel for doing that... why doesn't the top model have all the functions? But the K models only have a unlocked multiplier, right? So non-K models can still be overclocked by increasing the fsb? Or did that all change? Last overclock I did was on my Q6600.

Unless this changed from Sandy/Ivy Bridge, you can OC the nonK CPUs by 4 bins. With the i7-4770, it's looking like you can't go much beyond 4 bins even with the K series before you start hitting the reasonable limits of air cooling. So I don't think the K series is worth it any more unless you plan on using a giant air cooler or water cooler, for extra performance that you simply don't need for gaming in the first place.

TSX on the other hand could be very useful in the future for some applications. It's omission in the K series is crazy.

I think I will go for atleast a 500watt psu. Don't want to be right on the edge if I put in a nice and heavy gpu.

Ya, the CX500 is what I have and it's a great fit. Just wanted to point out that a system like the one you're building could run fine on something in the 450W range. It won't draw much over 300W ever, even with a large GPU.

Any recommandations for memory brand and speeds? I think all three systems I built used Corsair but I don't really care about what brand goes in there.

I've always had great luck with RAM; Patriot, G.Skill, Crucial, Kingston, Corsair I've all used and every time I've felt like the sticks went above and beyond their rated specs. With 8GB DIMMs, 1600MHz CAS 9 looks like a sweet spot of price/performance.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Unless this changed from Sandy/Ivy Bridge, you can OC the nonK CPUs by 4 bins. With the i7-4770, it's looking like you can't go much beyond 4 bins even with the K series before you start hitting the reasonable limits of air cooling.

As far as I know, non-k Haswell models cannot be OC'd by raising the bins anymore. The info about is a bit scarce at the moment, but that's how I have understood the situation.

 

[almighty]

Don't buy Haswell stuff...Really not worth the cash...

Stick with Ivy Bridge or better yet a used Sandy Bridge chip.....

 

[homerdog]

If you're building a new PC, why would you go IVB over Haswell?

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Don't buy Haswell stuff...Really not worth the cash...

Stick with Ivy Bridge or better yet a used Sandy Bridge chip.....

You convinced me...

You can't buy new SB parts anymore and if you are building a new (high end) system why bother saving 100 euro's on the mobo/cpu combo by buying ivy bridge?

 

[Lightman]

Haswell brings 256bit integer operations, FMA and few other additions, so it might not seem as a step over Ivy in current software, but in few years time it will make a difference. So unless you plan on changing CPU in the next 1-2 years you are right, otherwise I would go with Haswell K.

 

[pjbliverpool]

Upgrading my current card that still performs good enough for a current high end card that might not cut in in 6 months doesn't look very smart to me.

I agree, I'd certainly wait for Maxwell or the AMD equivilent. That said though as long as you go with a 4GB or more high end card today I'd wager that GPU will last you well into the next generation with the only limit being when it ceases support from developers and drivers.