New Gaming Rig

[highpothesis1]

I will be doing a lot of gaming, coding in C and using adobe Photoshop for creating graphic t-shirts. I would like to have 3 1080 screens for multitasking and playing some games on eyefinity or surround. For the beginning of this build I will only have one screen but I would get two more when I get my taxes. I just bought the three 1080 benq 2450 they were like 129 a piece so it was kind of a steal.

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

Gaming which includes bf4,bf3,titanfall,watchdogs, Coding, light graphic design, ect.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not
more than a 20% spread $1100 the spread is ok

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

USA


5. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.

No Brand reference

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

mouse, keyboard, monitor, cooler master haf 932 case

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Am willing to overclock for better performance

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?
At first I will need only a gpu for 1080 but next month when I get my taxes I will get a 2nd gpu and two more screens or what every is recommend for playing 3x1080 at decent quality

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
As soon as I get responded from mfen I also don't need software my school gives free OS Win7Ult

Thanks for your help!

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

What socket are you currently on?

 

[highpothesis1]

This is actually my first build. So I'm going from a gaming laptop to a beast machine.

So what I have so far in the cart is:
Lite on DvD - 19.99
WD 1TB 7200 rpm -59.99
780 3gb -489.99
Team Zeus Red 8GB 76.99
ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Killer LGA 1150 -119.99
crucial m500 120 gb - 79.99
CM H212 33.24
Intel Core i5-4670K 219.99

Which puts me at 1167 tax included on all the newegg stuff but I'm still unsure what wattage to get for a 780 sli for surround as I said I will get the other 780 in like a month.

 

[nwo]

I'd look for a 750W+ PSU, especially if you are going to be OCing.

I would also pick different RAM, Geil, G.skill, Corsair, Crucial... anything but Team. I had a terrible experience with them.

Also would not recommend a CMH212. It's too budget for my taste and performs just as well as my Zalman I picked up for only $10 after $20 MIR.

Invest another 10-20 bucks into a more legit cooler:
http://www.amazon.com/Thermalright-M...cho+cpu+cooler

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Since the new direction from console gaming will gravitate towards games being designed to use more cores, have you thought about a 6 core Intel solution?

 

[highpothesis1]

Yeah it sounds interesting and seems more logical that you would utilize more of your cpu for gaming as well as your gpu. It really hasn't crossed my mind yet to go 6 cores because mfenn consistently talks about the price point versus the percentage of games that utilize more cores. If the benefit hasn't really met the expense it would be good to consider in the near future.

 

[Charlie98]

Just my .02 worth...

I would bump that SSD up to a 250GB, especially if you plan to store a game or two on it for faster load times.

I would probably bump that RAM up to 16GB as well, considering you are doing graphic design.

Personally, the i5 will be fine as is the rest of your build. The 212 cooler isn't the best on the planet, but it works fairly well; there are other alternates out there if you want to look.

 

[lehtv]

A 780 is rather poor performance per dollar compared to gtx770, i would do that downgrade and get the m500 240gb as well as 2x8gb of ram

 

[highpothesis1]

A 780 is rather poor performance per dollar compared to gtx770, i would do that downgrade and get the m500 240gb as well as 2x8gb of ram

If I'm going to run an 770 sli that means I still need a card with 3gb or more of DDR5 and if I run a 780 sli what PSU do I need. What sli is going to be cost effective while staying at 3gb or higher of ddr 5 and playing 3x1080 and still getting good frames at decent settings?

 

[nwo]

Since the new direction from console gaming will gravitate towards games being designed to use more cores, have you thought about a 6 core Intel solution?

I don't think games are gonna jump from 2 to 6 cores anytime soon. They first have to transition and be able to fully utilize 4 cores before jumping to 6.

 

[CHEMEMAN]

The games I play use, at most, 3 cores. I have a 6 core and see several at idle the entire time I am playing. Such a waste of money for gaming.

 

[nwo]

Yep, 90%+ of current game titles use (up to) 2 primary threads (high CPU usage) and (up to) 2 secondary threads (low CPU usage).

 

[Oyeve]

Way to much for GPU. I know you want to push 3 monitors, but i could do that on an old 5770 without much lag. I am sure there are very good albeit cheaper GPUs out there.

 

[mfenn]

Way to much for GPU. I know you want to push 3 monitors, but i could do that on an old 5770 without much lag. I am sure there are very good albeit cheaper GPUs out there.

Displaying a desktop across three monitors and playing a game across three monitors are two very different things. You aren't going to be able to run an intensive game like Battlefield 3 across 3 1080p monitors without a powerful GPU.

Since the new direction from console gaming will gravitate towards games being designed to use more cores, have you thought about a 6 core Intel solution?

A 6-core i7 means socket 2011, which means way more expensive motherboard and CPU, which means less money spend on the GPU. Not a good way to build a good gaming rig.

 

[mfenn]

This is actually my first build. So I'm going from a gaming laptop to a beast machine.

So what I have so far in the cart is:
Lite on DvD - 19.99
WD 1TB 7200 rpm -59.99
780 3gb -489.99
Team Zeus Red 8GB 76.99
ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Killer LGA 1150 -119.99
crucial m500 120 gb - 79.99
CM H212 33.24
Intel Core i5-4670K 219.99

Which puts me at 1167 tax included on all the newegg stuff but I'm still unsure what wattage to get for a 780 sli for surround as I said I will get the other 780 in like a month.

Generally speaking, the best laid plans to upgrade to SLI "in a month" don't work out like you expect. The normal cycle is:

1. Spec out a machine capable of handling SLI but with only 1 GPU.
2. Get the machine, be happy with the performance.
3. Realize 2 years later that you never got around to that SLI upgrade, but spent a bunch of money getting a system ready for it.

So my advice is to either get the money on hand and do an SLI build, or dial back the mobo and PSU to the ASRock Z87 Pro3 for $95 and Seasonic S12II 620W for $70.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

A 6-core i7 means socket 2011, which means way more expensive motherboard and CPU, which means less money spend on the GPU. Not a good way to build a good gaming rig.

While a 1366 socket 6 core Xeon is not a good gaming build route to invest in, for the immediate future, i'm betting that new game titles will be more 4+ core friendly due to game titles being ported from 8 core console entertainment units. A very good example of this is in BF4. What the interesting question is, how well will AMD with their 8 core chips do? Yet another question that supersedes all is will console game programmers be developing CPU intensive games that will push beyond what consoles can handle? etc, etc. Thinking about these things makes me further question the planning of an upgrade, or gaming build. Seeing a new direction in the game developing industry towards multi-core systems opens up some not so likely yet good options.

Makes me wonder. And plus I'm very tired so I could just be rattling off nonsense

 

[frozentundra123456]

I do not think games will require 6 core intel cpus for a long time. It might be worth it to go to an i7 4770k if you have the budget. A few games, notably BF 4 multiplayer are starting to show some benefit over an i5.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Just want to say that I didn't buy my Xeon and 970 chips with what I posted above, in mind. I actually stumbled across the L5639 thread and even before that I certainly felt that there was more life in my X58 platform, and after seeing some of the benchmark comparisons to newer chips investing in these chips were a no brainer.

 

[mfenn]

While a 1366 socket 6 core Xeon is not a good gaming build route to invest in, for the immediate future, i'm betting that new game titles will be more 4+ core friendly due to game titles being ported from 8 core console entertainment units. A very good example of this is in BF4. What the interesting question is, how well will AMD with their 8 core chips do? Yet another question that supersedes all is will console game programmers be developing CPU intensive games that will push beyond what consoles can handle? etc, etc. Thinking about these things makes me further question the planning of an upgrade, or gaming build. Seeing a new direction in the game developing industry towards multi-core systems opens up some not so likely yet good options.

Makes me wonder. And plus I'm very tired so I could just be rattling off nonsense

There is no such thing as an "investment" when it comes to computer hardware. They're all rapidly depreciating assets. If some mythical future game really does need a 6-core, then wait for that game to come out and pick up a cheaper 6-core.

Also, comparing PC core counts to console core counts does not make any sense. Sure, the consoles have 8-core CPUs, but each of those cores is an AMD Jaguar, basically the same as you'd see in a Kabini laptop. They're really slow compared to even ultra-low voltage Intel CPUs that go into laptops. A dual-core Hawell i3 will run rings around it.

 

[highpothesis1]

I understand what your saying mfenn but I already set myself up for sli and will get that other card. As soon as I get my taxes which should be by the end of the month according to irs.gov. I already purchased everything else. Here's an update.

MB ASROCK|FATAL1TY Z87 KILLER - $115
Intel Core i5-4670K Processor - Quad Core, 6MB - $220
Patriot Viper Xtreme 8GB - $60 AR
Crucial M500 120 GB - $80
WD Blue 1 TB HD - $70
Lite On DVDD - $18
CM h212 $35 <--I don't care blah blah
PNY GeForce GTX 770 4gb - $400 <---another coming soon so
XFX P1850SNLB9 Core Edition Power Supply - 850W - $105 AR

1103 didn't pay tax so hard on that total not including my 3 screens that I already got. Plus a another 400 for my other gpu.

Thanks for your comments!

 

[lehtv]

Looks nice. Too bad the PSU is only 80+ Bronze. I'd prefer any unit over $100 to be Gold rated, and considering the amount of power that a 770 SLI rig uses, a more expensive yet higher efficiency unit might actually pay itself back.

I would've got the XFX 850W Black Edition (Seasonic X850 KM3 clone) for $115 AR from NCIX

 

[highpothesis1]

yeah I like that one better and its modular ughh sad face!

 

[Cerb]

It's just shy of $50 more to double the SSD size, and that will net you a bit more than the double the space, plus some extra performance. 120GB is great when you're on a budget where it's that or no SSD, but you've got the budget, and that is a substantial jump in space, for a very small increase in price.

 

[highpothesis1]

I got the second 770 last week for a SLI and it is working very well between high and ultra on 3 monitors. I got the 4gb card which is already overclocked and the only thing is one of the cards is like 8c hotter than the other card at load. I'm think of changing my fans from 230mm to 4 120mm fans on the side and the top of my HAF932

 

[nwo]

I have a HAF 912 and I've found that larger fans are much better than smaller fans. I replaced my top two 120mm fans with a single 200mm fan and I get significantly better airflow and reduced temps in my CPU as well as both GPUs. Bigger is better