Assembling a gaming desktop

[FeaRThiS]

True, but still the cost difference between the two cards is large for really minor gaming improvements. It would cost you $1600-1800 for 3 of the Nvidia cards (580s) while only costing you $900 for 3 of the 6970 or actually $600-700 for 3 of the 6950s. It would be around $1000 for 3 570s.

True but 2 sli card perform better in most cases than 3x xfire cards and 2 sli cards cost about the same as 3 xfire cards. Once you reach your 3 xfire cards and you want better performance what do you do sell them all and start again ? With the sli you could still add another card for around $300.

 

[durruti]

extra money to burn?

all this talk about sli, two, three video card setups! Unnecessary.

If all we are talking about is 1680x1050 or 1920x1200 native resolution gaming on an LCD, especially in regards to the OPs original intent of Starcraft 2, then a single Radeon 6870 or 6850 should be enough.

 

[FeaRThiS]

extra money to burn?

all this talk about sli, two, three video card setups! Unnecessary.

If all we are talking about is 1680x1050 or 1920x1200 native resolution gaming on an LCD, especially in regards to the OPs original intent of Starcraft 2, then a single Radeon 6870 or 6850 should be enough.

The op was also asking about the i7 2600k and saved at least £100 if he got the i5 2500k so why not burn the change on a sli setup.

 

[Hellhammer]

extra money to burn?

all this talk about sli, two, three video card setups! Unnecessary.

If all we are talking about is 1680x1050 or 1920x1200 native resolution gaming on an LCD, especially in regards to the OPs original intent of Starcraft 2, then a single Radeon 6870 or 6850 should be enough.

The op was also asking about the i7 2600k and saved at least £100 if he got the i5 2500k so why not burn the change on a sli setup.

Exactly. And it's important to think about the future too. If money is tight now, then save some $ and go with a mid-range GPU. However, get components (mobo, PSU mainly) that are ready for CF/SLI.

 

[Mac-Rumours]

For gaming put most of the $$ on GPU.

If you want to build a cheap gaming PC go with a i5.
Any i5 is enough for gaming. The i5-23xx (2.8-3.0Ghz) works great.
Get a good PSU. Corsair CXv2 500W is cheap and good.

For graphics:
Buy nvidia 560 or higher or amd 6870 or higher..
If you buy nvidia 570 or higher or amd 6950 or higher, get a 650W+ PSU.
(They might work on a 500w PSU, but lifespan will be better with 650W+)

Sorry to hijack this thread.

Which of the following PSUs would you recommend:

SeaSonic 400W 80+ Bronze Active PFC 12cm Fan PSU SS-400ET
Corsair CX 430W Active PFC 12cm Fan
Thermaltake Litepower 450W 12cm PSU
Corsair CX 500W Active PFC 12cm Fan
SeaSonic 500W 80+ Bronze Active PFC 12cm Fan PSU SS-500ET
Chieftec 550W Active PFC, 80+, 14cm Fan
SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Active PFC 12cm Fan S12II-520
SeaSonic 600W Active PFC 80+ 12cm Fan PSU SS-600ET
SeaSonic 620W 80+ Bronze Active PFC 12cm Fan S12II-620

The PSU needs to power an i7 2600K, DZ68DB motherboard, 4GB RAM, 2TB HD, Sony DVD, HD6850 or HD6870 GPU

 

[FeaRThiS]

Sorry to hijack this thread.

Which of the following PSUs would you recommend:

SeaSonic 400W 80+ Bronze Active PFC 12cm Fan PSU SS-400ET
Corsair CX 430W Active PFC 12cm Fan
Thermaltake Litepower 450W 12cm PSU
Corsair CX 500W Active PFC 12cm Fan
SeaSonic 500W 80+ Bronze Active PFC 12cm Fan PSU SS-500ET
Chieftec 550W Active PFC, 80+, 14cm Fan
SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Active PFC 12cm Fan S12II-520
SeaSonic 600W Active PFC 80+ 12cm Fan PSU SS-600ET
SeaSonic 620W 80+ Bronze Active PFC 12cm Fan S12II-620

The PSU needs to power an i7 2600K, DZ68DB motherboard, 4GB RAM, 2TB HD, Sony DVD, HD6850 or HD6870 GPU

Without going looking at each psu I know corsair are making really good psu's for the money.

 

[Hellhammer]

Sorry to hijack this thread.

Which of the following PSUs would you recommend:

SeaSonic 400W 80+ Bronze Active PFC 12cm Fan PSU SS-400ET
Corsair CX 430W Active PFC 12cm Fan
Thermaltake Litepower 450W 12cm PSU
Corsair CX 500W Active PFC 12cm Fan
SeaSonic 500W 80+ Bronze Active PFC 12cm Fan PSU SS-500ET
Chieftec 550W Active PFC, 80+, 14cm Fan
SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Active PFC 12cm Fan S12II-520
SeaSonic 600W Active PFC 80+ 12cm Fan PSU SS-600ET
SeaSonic 620W 80+ Bronze Active PFC 12cm Fan S12II-620

The PSU needs to power an i7 2600K, DZ68DB motherboard, 4GB RAM, 2TB HD, Sony DVD, HD6850 or HD6870 GPU

Seasonics are very high quality from what I have read. Corsairs are great too as most of them are made by Seasonic anyway.

Are you going to overclock? Without OCing, your setup should have a TDP of around 280W. PSUs are the most efficient with 60-70% load so 500W should be more than fine. If you're going to OC, then it's better to get a more powerful one as components tend to draw more power

Without going looking at each psu I know corsair are making really good psu's for the money.

Corsair doesn't actually make their PSUs, they are just rebranded Seasonics and CWTs (unless this has recently changed)

 

[FeaRThiS]

Seasonics are very high quality from what I have read. Corsairs are great too as most of them are made by Seasonic anyway.

Are you going to overclock? Without OCing, your setup should have a TDP of around 280W. PSUs are the most efficient with 60-70% load so 500W should be more than fine. If you're going to OC, then it's better to get a more powerful one as components tend to draw more power



Corsair doesn't actually make their PSUs, they are just rebranded Seasonics and CWTs (unless this has recently changed)

That's good to know you learn something new every day.

 

[total90]

thank you all for the insights!

anyway, with my renewed proposal,
Intel Sandy Bridge i5 2500k
corsair 1600 6gb w/heat dispenser
SSD for boot + WD 1TB Black SATA3
ATI Radeon HD6950 2GB DDR5
Liteon 24X DVD R/W
Delta Server Power 650W(80 plus)

which mobo fits this?
MSI P67A-C43 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard?
is this combo good? overclockable?
thanks!

 

[Hellhammer]

thank you all for the insights!

anyway, with my renewed proposal,
Intel Sandy Bridge i5 2500k
corsair 1600 6gb w/heat dispenser
SSD for boot + WD 1TB Black SATA3
ATI Radeon HD6950 2GB DDR5
Liteon 24X DVD R/W
Delta Server Power 650W(80 plus)

which mobo fits this?
MSI P67A-C43 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard?
is this combo good? overclockable?
thanks!

That motherboard works. You need either P67 or Z68 for overclocking. Personally, I would get Z68 based motherboard as it also supports the IGP which can be handy at some point. SSD caching is also a cool feature.

 

[Mac-Rumours]

Without going looking at each psu I know corsair are making really good psu's for the money.

That's what I thought but then hardware-revolution.com said that Corsair's 430CX is "rubbish".

Seasonics are very high quality from what I have read. Corsairs are great too as most of them are made by Seasonic anyway.

Are you going to overclock? Without OCing, your setup should have a TDP of around 280W. PSUs are the most efficient with 60-70% load so 500W should be more than fine. If you're going to OC, then it's better to get a more powerful one as components tend to draw more power

Corsair doesn't actually make their PSUs, they are just rebranded Seasonics and CWTs (unless this has recently changed)

Thanks for your wise words once again Hellhammer. I'm not going to overclock and so am planning to get the Seasonic 520W S12II-Bronze which got a very favourable review at jonnyguru.com http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=185

 

[omicron]

Antec (anything but the Basiq) and Corsair (TX series) Power Supplies are built by SeaSonic. I have a Neo ECO 520W in my i5 2400 PC and it does just fine.

I'm running a i5 2400 OCd to 3.7GHz-3.9GHz, 8GB GSkill Sniper RAM, 4 hard drives, 2 SSDs, a Radeon HD 5770, A sound card, a wireless adapter, and 4 case fans.

I'm sure I could probably get by with a 460W unit. Hmm...