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Custom PC Build
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| LordBustaKap | Date: Thursday, 2011-08-11, 7:41 AM | Message # 1 |
 Assistant Clan Leader
Group: Frags And Beer Member
Messages: 21
Status: Offline
| Hello All,
I did the research on a mid-high level full size desktop PC. It will be of great use for BF3 and for a very long time to follow.
My previous custom rig was an AMD. I have nothing against AMD, but I just do not want another one.
*Prices are from August of 2011 and will certainly change as October nears.
Total is around $2,000 from whatever website you go to. I am sure others could get this price down. I am looking forward to replies on the best place to find the parts as well.
My mid-level/performance Intel rig:
Brains: Intel, socket 1155, core i7 2600K, 3.4 GHz, graphics clk 850 Mhz/1350Mhz, 95W
Mobo: MSI Z68A-GD80 $220-250 or ASRock Z68 Extreme4 $190-230
• These are the best Z68 boards for the money according to the reviews
• Both fit perfectly with the i7 2600K and can OC it like a beast.
Video: EVGA GeForce GTX 580 or 590 depending on price at time of purchase.
• I don’t like to upgrade often. Either one is a beast.
Memory: Any GSkill above 4GBs and DDR3 around 1600MHz. Latency should be 7 or 8
Hard Drives:
• Boot drive – Intel 120GB 510 series SSD
o This takes advantage of the Mobo and CPU beastly speeds. Omit this for true budgeters.
• Storage – 2x 1TB Western Digital Caviar Blacks well under $100. Raid these for increased performance.
Case: Cooler Master HAF 932 $120-150
• Tried and true case. Great reviews. Big enough to handle the large video card w/o removing the internal hard drive bay.
• Some mid tower cases can not fit the new larger video cards without removing parts.
Power Supply: Corsair Pro Series Gold H.P. 850-Watt PS $175-$185
• Don’t skimp here, Gold series means reliable and energy efficient
• My first PC build used an Antec NEO when it was first released. Slowly lost output power and then dead 4 months later.
I will only buy a well tested and trusted power supply.
Optical Drive: LG Black Super Multi SATA w/LightScribe $80
• Does everything on optical media
With this setup you will need a CPU cooler since the Mobo will auto over clock the system. This feature actually makes a big difference but increases the CPU temp slightly.
CPU fan: Cooler Master Kyper 212 plus 120mm $30
• This one seems to do the trick for most people. Well trusted stuff is what I go for.
Also another great thread on budget system parts:
http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/716676.aspx <---Thanks to CousinBo for the link.
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| CousinBo | Date: Thursday, 2011-08-11, 11:00 AM | Message # 2 |
 Clan Founder/Leader
Group: Administrators
Messages: 262
Status: Offline
| Busta,
That's a sick computer set up man. I bet you'll be running max settings with no problems. I can't wait to get my computer up and running after I build it just for this game. I did have a question why you were going to spend 80 on the optical drive w/ lightscribe. You may us the lightscribe, but I've never used mine because it cost more for the disk.
I do hope some other people can put some recommendations on here for furture reference.
Thanks for the good read!
CousinBo
"Make it idiot proof and someone will make a better idiot."
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| LordBustaKap | Date: Saturday, 2011-08-20, 3:12 PM | Message # 3 |
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Assistant Clan Leader
Group: Frags And Beer Member
Messages: 21
Status: Offline
| *update*
I made some changes to the custom build list. The price of this one is around $2,700 as of August. It includes everything you need to build a beast of a machine that will last years to come.
1. Razer BlackWidow Mechanical Gaming Keyboard by Razorbill $61.99 1 0 medium
2. Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard GA-Z68X-UD7-B3 by Gigabyte $346.21 1 0 medium
3. Aerocool X-Vision Fan and Temperature Controller Offered by CircuitCity by AeroCool Mobos don't have enough power connections for all case fans. This one is the right size, will not create significant amouts of heat, and is made by a dependable company. $49.99 1 0 medium
4. Cooler Master Excalibur 120mm PWM Case Fan - Barometric Ball Bearing R4-EXBB-20PK-R0 Offered by LLYtech by Cooler Master USA, Inc. This fan is planned for a bottom case mounted position. You must have a ball bearing fan to mount it horizontally. If not, the fan will go out before its time. This will be set in an outflow position so as not to act like a floor vacuum. $14.73 1 0 medium
5. Logitech G35 7.1-Channel Surround Sound Headset by Logitech Quiet gaming with surround quality. You will hear the footsteps of your foe. $89.99 1 0 medium
6. EVGA GeForce GTX 580 1536 MB GDDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card - Lifetime Warranty 015-P3-1580-AR by EVGA Beastly for dual monitor support and 3D gaming. Enough said. $479.99 1 0 high
7. Razer Naga MMOG Laser Gaming Mouse (RZ01-00280100-R3) by Razorbill True FPS gamers know the signifigance of the multi-button mouse and the nostromo game pad. $69.62 1 0 high
8. Corsair Cooling Hydro-Series All-in-One High-Performance Liquid CPU Cooler CWCH60 by Corsair OCed CPUs will benefit from this type of cooler. Stable temps increase hardware life. There are other brands though. $64.88 1 0 medium
9. Intel Core i7-2600K Processor 3.4GHz 8 MB Cache Socket LGA1155 by Intel A little over kill for games, but I will use my PC for more than gaming; like encoding HD videos for my Android tablet. The i5 2500K would be a great alternative if you are on a budget but can't skimp on the brains of the PC. $314.95 1 0 high
10. Corsair Vengeance 8 GB ( 2 x 4 GB ) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) 240-Pin DDR3 Memory Kit for Intel Core i3, i5, i7 and AMD Platforms SDRAM CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 by Corsair Great memory for the price! Most custom builders are brand specific, but I am a price/specification/trusted quality guy. $57.99 1 0 medium
11. Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced Full Tower Case with SuperSpeed USB 3.0 - (RC-932-KKN5-GP) by Coolermaster If you are choosing a high-end video card, then it will not fit in a small case. Full size cases will fit the GTX 580 without removing parts and it will give more air flow to the system components. $142.77 1 0 high
12. ViewSonic VX2250WM-LED 22-Inch (21.5-Inch Vis) Widescreen Full HD 1080p LED Monitor with Integrated Stereo Speakers by ViewSonic I need a new monitor. My old one is from 2005. This is a killer price. Click here to see our price 1 0 medium
13. Intel 510 Series 120 GB SATA Version 3 2.5-Inch Solid-State Drive by Intel Budgeters look away. SSDs used as boot drives for the OS are the best way to increase your speed. Always use HDDs as storage though. And raid 0 storage drives with an SSD boot should add speed to any system. $277.99 1 0 high
14. Corsair Professional Series Gold 850-Watt 80 Plus Gold Certified High-Performance Power Supply - CMPSU-850AX by Corsair Gold series means higher quality power. On my first build I went a little cheap on the PS. Bad mistake. I had to replace it within 4 months. $183.99 1 0 high
15. Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Internal Desktop Hard Drive Bulk/OEM - WD1002FAEX by Western Digital Raid 0 these for fast storage. Not much redundacy though. Unless you use an external set to auto backup. $79.99 1 0 medium
16. LG Electronics 10X Blu-ray SATA Writer Drive with Software WH10LS30K - Bulk (Black) Offered by Electronica Direct by LG Electronics Burns Blu-rays, "fast". Enough said. $133.59 1 0 medium
17. Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Offered by SoftwareMI by Microsoft Software Windows 7 Pro is all you need. This one is not OEM and inludes both 32/64 bit OS. Also this means I get support and I can install on a different PC when I upgrade again. $219.29
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| Cackle | Date: Monday, 2011-08-22, 10:05 PM | Message # 4 |
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Babysitter
Group: Frags And Beer Member
Messages: 6
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| For a hardcore gamer you really should consider the 1366 chipset. The 1155 imo is made to cut the consumer cost for an affordable buy to the masses, but despite phoney reviews that have the sandy bridge outperforming the 1366 is just blashphemy... Also the 1155 has graphics support built in.. they must be charging for that... and you are not going to use it.... right? RED FLAG, ALERT.
for $2700 you should be able to do might tighter rig than a 1155...
Lets figure out how much power you need first of all...
Video Cards.. 570, 580, 590? Well, supposedly the 6xx series is coming out end of year time..... So expect price drops if that does happen.. At this time, what does a 570, 580 have over its predecessor 4xx series? 5-10% increase in performance? a new type of connector DisplayPort? DP might be the future but it is not thee future.. and is nothing you can't go without for years to come.. DP allows digital audio thru the cable, as well as HDMI quality digital video... we don't rely on that yet. So compare the cost.. its 50% more, it takes 40% more power... for a single card shopper..
SLI'ing two 580's+ will require a 1500 watt p/s ($300) compared to quality 1000 watt $150
you can run 2 470's in SLI for $400.. 470's have proven to be INCREDIBLE sli cards, matter of fact 2 470's work almost as good as 3 470's in benchmarks recorded with only few softwares reporing minimal 2-5fps gains in tri sli
need a bit more power? no problem add a 9850 to the system for a dedicated PHYSX card giving more breathing room for that 2-3 FPS gain
Do you want 1500 watts on a circuit? I wouldn't want my computer breaking off and losing power. Not with this hardware on the line.. food for thought...
all that and you are at $500 for a kick ass video setup
Now you go CPU, intel is the right choice, 1366 is the gamer choice.
grab the true features you need, 2 x 16 PCI-E, good intel north bridge etc, and your periperhap support.. so you have
a range of a lot of great bards, rampage extreme, gigabyte etc..
so you now have 2 core components down.. you have video and motherboard, your building blocks
power that with a 1000w true power antec... your at $850 tops with the physx card
your case is optional, note upgrading the 932 to a 942 is a thing to tinker about.. when you get into good cases, spend another $100 and you have a case for many more builds. The 942 is a bit cheesey with its plastic, but its cooling is indeed insanely nice
ok, now you need a CPU, by choosing the 1366 you have flexibility now.... not rich? no problem, start out with a $259.99 intel 950 which is plenty fine for todays needs, then you can easily pop in a 990x later when you when to go nuts, via easy upgrade using your same equip. and prolly sell off the 950 for 1.5 to 2 bills. Your renting it.. ;D
your under $1100, add ram to suit your needs, do you need to fill up 6 slots? if not go with 3 and enjoy the enhanced performance as adding more chips will hinder it.. (maybe not physically noticable but it does)
$1500 and your king of the hill..... from here you just get your drives and other goodies and should be under $2k and blowing the feathers off your online nemesis
Message edited by Cackle - Monday, 2011-08-22, 10:16 PM |
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| CousinBo | Date: Tuesday, 2011-08-23, 5:18 AM | Message # 5 |
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Clan Founder/Leader
Group: Administrators
Messages: 262
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| Nice feedback Cackle, really. Look you're already being a great asset to the team. You're ensuring we get the best bang for our buck. With you two later down the road (2 months) from now you should be able to really help me build a sick computer. I want to keep mine around the 1100-1300 range(I've got to buy a kegerator as well lol which is 500).
CousinBo
"Make it idiot proof and someone will make a better idiot."
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| LordBustaKap | Date: Tuesday, 2011-08-23, 1:28 PM | Message # 6 |
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Assistant Clan Leader
Group: Frags And Beer Member
Messages: 21
Status: Offline
| Wow Cackle, that is great feed back. I have read up on the 1366, but I just thought I would be paying more for that newer socket. And the 570's SLI, I totally agree. I just wasn't sure about the performance gain. I had read somewhere that one 580 was outperforming the SLI 570s. That could have been a biased review though. Also the extra heat that is gen'd when you have SLI cards was an issue in the back of my mind as well. But given the case, I should be expecting great airflow and optimum temps if I configure the fans correctly. You are actually very correct about the price/performance gain though. It makes perfect sense to not buy "top of the line" since they are way over priced.
I will make some changes to the build. I don't plan on purchasing until early October anyway. I will post a new list soon. So if you dont mind scrubbing that one for me as well, I would be thankful.
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| Cackle | Date: Tuesday, 2011-08-23, 10:19 PM | Message # 7 |
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Babysitter
Group: Frags And Beer Member
Messages: 6
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| On anther note, I just got the Cooler Master Haf X 942.
I both love and hate the case. It has some really cheesy plastic parts about it. The worst part being the top of the case. The plastic tabs that allow you to pop open the top case for fan cleaning, etc are flimsy and can bend and snap off with ease. I screwed up mine not realizing :/ Ordering another top just in case i do end up snapping it next clean 
But the air flow is totally insane. With my Noctua dual cpu fan, I have clean air coming off the front 230mm & side 200mm fans right into the cpu fan, thru the heatsink, out the fan on the other side and out the external 140mm case exhaust fan. I am running at idle cpu temp 25c on my i7 920... I just changed from a stock intel fan lian li mid tower case, where i was idling at 40c. Serious difference)
It's an awesome cooler, have to give it an award for that. Its so popular now, it might even be at Best Buy or some place where you can check it out before purchasing... its only like $30 more than the 932 and you get E-ATX support for future builds... as well as more space for drives etc.. Its a tank though, be prepared for that.. Happy with its looks too.
Added (2011-08-23, 10:12 PM)
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Yeah as for me, i just got through with my main upgrade build.. I bought into the 1366 when it first came out.. I sure did get my monies worth.. About my 20th computer here and finally a computer purchase done right.. I bought the i7 920 and well I'd still have the same system except back then i made a bad mobo purchase. Which I am now finally correcting.. I lost my job a while back so i had to wait..
I strayed form Asus and bought a Evga SLI classified board, their first one.. .It had 50 bios revisions and a ton of usb problems in those that never were fixed... It was bad engineering and it plagued me for years. I actually lost a few gaming friends because of it, because weird stuff in games were happening from bad USB, intercepting wrong and inaccurate commands.. For instance in RTS games like Men of War, it would start sending troops ordered to places I didn't sent them too.. I started cussing at the games thru TS3 and people don't like whining (or my bad play in competitive sports), so they quickly threw me to the curb.. took me a few months to realize it was the motherboard 
But the cpu paid off, still worth what it was back then, now an easy upgrade solution, as I save for my 990x, i was able to use my RAM, CPU, POWER SUPPLY, optical drives and the other HDD's as extra storage..
I just went thru the ropes of desiring the 590 video card, when I hit the $3k figure, i knew I was out of my mind and affordable price range, so I started doing my homework, hence i learned about the power, heat, prices, benefits etc..The 5xx is pretty much a rip off right now :/ Milking us because if we are gamers we have no real choice.
I had a 470 so i just added the 2nd one now, will give you performance data soon, including the up coming RO2 game i think we get access next week to play.. Only problem right now is 470's are becoming scarce, i had to settle for a Recertified one...
of course if you can find 295's thats another way to look, as those cards might even be better than 470's, not sure, i had 295 originally but it burnt out... which might be an adequate reason to stay away from them.. poor fan design by nvidia's stock design. end user problem though, (dirt and heat causes the failure) but they are so hard to clean with bottom fans, you have to take em out to do it and we are born lazy Added (2011-08-23, 10:19 PM)
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Quote (CousinBo) I want to keep mine around the 1100-1300 range(I've got to buy a kegerator as well lol which is 500).
Ha ha! Sounds like a custom build combo case / fridge.. Natural Cooling! Fridge at 36c, perfect CPU Temp
Message edited by Cackle - Tuesday, 2011-08-23, 10:15 PM |
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