Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

I did it. I'm ashamed but excited.

CANEHDN

CANEHDN

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 12, 2005
855
0
Eagle Mountain, UT
I've been playing Starcraft 2 on my Mac since the beta. I started running it under bootcamp to increase my FPS. Well instead of buying a new Mac, I bought the parts to build a new machine for games. Here's what I got:

Intel i7-2600K
Asus Sabertooth P67 Motherboard
8 GB G-Skill Ripjaw RAM
GTX 570 HD Video Card
Thermaltake Element G case

I hate to have to buy a windows machine but the Mac just can't perform like the windows machine can. Especially when you look at cost over performance.
Either way, I'm freaking way excited. Everything comes tomorrow and the case comes on Thursday.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

Why didn't you just get the i5 2500k?
If your just gonna game you should get the i5 but if you are gonna use apps that use hyperthreading than yeah you should have that CPU. I'm not trying to troll or anything just isn't kinda pointless too spend more money on something you won't even use? But anyways I'm glad you joined decided on a gaming rig. Cheers
 
Yea, don't feel ashamed lol, I use a windows gaming laptop for the gaming that my mac can't do. With Windows you get Direct X, which way better than whatever outdated stuff OS X is using, and you get to choose a lot more powerful hardware. Definitely better for gaming.
 
You don't need 8gbs of ram. I have 4gbs and as a demonstration at my school I ran adobe photo shop and illustrator on one monitor while running at max CoD Black ops on the other. With no freezing or bluescreens of death.
 
Wow

Those are some really drool-worthy specs. I want to get a new computer now. /pout

android - Upgrading RAM is not unnecessary. Sure, you can get along fine with 4Gigs NOW, but doubling the RAM is improving the life span of the computer significantly.
 
I went with a hackintosh over a year ago to increase my choice of hardware. I haven't regretted it since. You've got a nice machine – enjoy it. :)
 
AndroidfoLife said:
You don't need 8gbs of ram. I have 4gbs and as a demonstration at my school I ran adobe photo shop and illustrator on one monitor while running at max CoD Black ops on the other. With no freezing or bluescreens of death.
Click to expand...

nah, 8 will be worth it... even if only for those rare moments. I agree its not necessary but sometimes I can tell my 4gb could use a little help.
 
Very nice specs there! I built a very similar system recently. Those sabertooth mobos look great in a case with windows. :)

Core i7-2600K w/ Noctua D14 cooler
ASUS P8P67 LE
G.Skill Ripjaws 8 GB
Corsair HX750
ASUS Geforce GTX 580 "DirectCU II"
Fractal Design Define R3 midtower case (highly recommend)
OCZ Agility 2 SSD (160 GB)

I use my Apple 24" cinema display via a DisplayPort > Mini DisplayPort adapter.

Very impressive performance, too. I average 90-100 FPS in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 with DirectX 11 enabled @ 1920x1200 all details maxed with 4x MSAA and 16x anisotrophic filtering. It looks INCREDIBLE.

Homefront with DirectX 11 enabled and all settings maxed plays a super smooth 62 FPS no matter how busy the scene is. I can get more FPS by turning things down a bit, but it looks soooo good and 62 FPS is plenty smooth for that game.
 
Thanks guys!!

The reason I went with the 2600 over the 2500 was because if I'm building the system right I might as well go all the way. What's $100 when you're spending $1,700?

I originally thought of using only 4GB of RAM but I was able to get the 8GB for only $20 more. Again, it just came down to why not.
 
CANEHDN said:
it just came down to why not.
Click to expand...
\as well it should.

don't be ashamed.

i am almost ready to pull the trigger on a self built gaming rig. i have made many of them in the past (pre-Mac days) and miss being able to run some games full out.
 
mac2x said:
Very nice specs there! I built a very similar system recently. Those sabertooth mobos look great in a case with windows. :)

Core i7-2600K w/ Noctua D14 cooler
ASUS P8P67 LE
G.Skill Ripjaws 8 GB
Corsair HX750
ASUS Geforce GTX 580 "DirectCU II"
Fractal Design Define R3 midtower case (highly recommend)
OCZ Agility 2 SSD (160 GB)

I use my Apple 24" cinema display via a DisplayPort > Mini DisplayPort adapter.

Very impressive performance, too. I average 90-100 FPS in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 with DirectX 11 enabled @ 1920x1200 all details maxed with 4x MSAA and 16x anisotrophic filtering. It looks INCREDIBLE.

Homefront with DirectX 11 enabled and all settings maxed plays a super smooth 62 FPS no matter how busy the scene is. I can get more FPS by turning things down a bit, but it looks soooo good and 62 FPS is plenty smooth for that game.
Click to expand...

Wow. You went all out. The SSD with the GTX 580? That's awesome. That 580 dominates. I couldn't really justify the extra cost though. That 580 is double the price. I do want to get an SSD though. I'll wait on that though. Did you overclock the CPU or GPU? Or are you stock?
 
steadysignal said:
\as well it should.

don't be ashamed.

i am almost ready to pull the trigger on a self built gaming rig. i have made many of them in the past (pre-Mac days) and miss being able to run some games full out.
Click to expand...

I used to build my rigs as well (and loved them), not a single detail was missed, every cable hidden and routed for the best airflow. I actually miss building gaming rigs now that I think about it. It's like building a racecar from the ground up, picking the best components you can to get the best performance you can after your frankenputer is complete.

Due to tight space right now, I don't have room for the huge towers I had in the past and just have my humble 13" MBP and a 27" ACD for desktop use. I figured getting the best of both worlds in portability and finder real estate (when working in Photoshop and Illustrator) using the ACD is a good combo. Plus I will always have an awesome monitor for future machines.

As for the OP, you made a great rig! No need to be ashamed about it.
 
CANEHDN said:
Wow. You went all out. The SSD with the GTX 580? That's awesome. That 580 dominates. I couldn't really justify the extra cost though. That 580 is double the price. I do want to get an SSD though. I'll wait on that though. Did you overclock the CPU or GPU? Or are you stock?
Click to expand...

Stock clocks all around for now. The 580 really doesn't need any overclocking anyway.

Get an SSD; you will not regret it! :)

Anyway, a rig like mine and yours should last us for quite a while. The only upgrade I really see myself doing in the foreseeable future is possibly getting a dual core video card at some point.

And to the naysayer about the i7-2600K above; games are fast moving into the world of multiple threads. If you play a CPU intensive game like Bad Company 2, you will be very happy to have one of the best multithreaded CPUs out there.
 
mac2x said:
Stock clocks all around for now. The 580 really doesn't need any overclocking anyway.

Get an SSD; you will not regret it! :)

Anyway, a rig like mine and yours should last us for quite a while. The only upgrade I really see myself doing in the foreseeable future is possibly getting a dual core video card at some point.

And to the naysayer about the i7-2600K above; games are fast moving into the world of multiple threads. If you play a CPU intensive game like Bad Company 2, you will be very happy to have one of the best multithreaded CPUs out there.
Click to expand...

You're right about the OC on that card. That thing is insanely fast.

You're right about the CPU. More things will be multi-thread ready and we'll both have the setup for it.

I got most of my stuff today!! Video card and case are all that is holding me back from putting this thing together. The wait is killing me.
 
Oh fun!! Post a pic when you get this beast together. :)

Even though you didn't get a 580, trust me you will be blown away compared to that 512 MB 9600m GT you have now.
 
CANEHDN said:
Well my case and video card will be here tomorrow. Blast! The wait is killing me. I'll post a couple pics once I get it built.
Click to expand...

Would love to see it. I've missed PC gaming, but once you get over it, it's not too difficult.
 
mac2x said:
If you play a CPU intensive game like Bad Company 2, you will be very happy to have one of the best multithreaded CPUs out there.
Click to expand...

BC2 ain't cpu intensive. IT's gpu intensive. And the benchmarks show the 2500k pumping out frames about as fast as the 2600k.

Nothing wrong with the 2600k mind you, but don't spread FUD.
 
trip1ex said:
BC2 ain't cpu intensive. IT's gpu intensive. And the benchmarks show the 2500k pumping out frames about as fast as the 2600k.

Nothing wrong with the 2600k mind you, but don't spread FUD.
Click to expand...

I don't think FUD means what you think it means. While the post you refer to may or may not have been misinformed, it clearly doesn't fall under the category of FUD, which implies intention behind the misinformation.
 
LOL! :D

@ tr1plex: run the sound at the best settings you can and get back to us on that. ;) There is a reason that a quad core is in the game's recommended specs.
 
I brought up the task manager and watched CPU usage while playing BC2 just now. Game was hitting all four physical cores, about 25-30% CPU total (i7-2600K). It's a well known fact that BC2 can have problems on dual core processors because of the relatively heavy load imposed by the great sound.

I'm having trouble finding where I said the i5-2600K was a bad choice; I'm sure it's great. But if you are building an awesome rig already, it's really not that much more to go for an i7 if you have the $$.
 
mac2x said:
LOL! :D

@ tr1plex: run the sound at the best settings you can and get back to us on that. ;) There is a reason that a quad core is in the game's recommended specs.
Click to expand...

Yeah funny because I switched from a quad core to an i3 2100 cpu yesterday and my sound is better in BC2. First thing I noticed actually.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back