Computer Building Help

[Oujirou]

So I'm trying to update my computer. I'm not going to be high end gaming with it, most likely just Diablo 3 and indie games. I don't need anything crazy but I'm hoping it will last a few years at least.

I barely reach the minimum requirements atm for D3, but this is what I've been looking at purchasing:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Asus P8Z68-V LX Motherboard
i5 2500k
MSI GeForce 560 Ti
8gb Corsair DDR3 1600

My current PC has a Athlon 64 X2 Dual 3600+, 2gb RAM and a GeForce 9800 GTX+

The total for the new parts on tigerdirect is 856 with shipping and tax. I'm not really sure if that's good, but I can probably save some more money sticking to XP and dropping the RAM back to 4gb. Maybe a lower graphics card as well.

Can someone give me their opinions on this? Any help would be great.

Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask, it was either here or in general.

[synaesthetic]

You don't need that much CPU, and you don't need to overclock (so drop the added price for the K). Drop the CPU to an i3-2100 and save half as much cash. Most people do not need prodigious computing power. Unless you're building stuff from source, encoding high-definition H264 video or crunching a lot of numbers, you don't need an i5-2500. Certainly not to play D3.

You also don't need a Z68 chipset unless you really really want CPU overclocking, use of on-die IGP, USB3.0 and SATA 6Gbps all at once. Look for an H67 board to save some money.

The GTX 560 is fine.

Drop the RAM to DDR3-1333. You won't need to worry about CPU overclocking if all you do is play games. All games will be either GPU or framebuffer limited, not CPU limited.

Get an OEM copy of Windows 7 so it only costs $100.

If you do what I suggested you can drop the cost of your machine from $870 to around $600.

[Oujirou]

Ah, thank you for the help.

OEM Win7 - $99
4gb 1333Mhz - $35
i3 2100 - $119
gtx 560 - $176
Asus P8H67-M Pro REV3 - $119

Does brand matter? Went with EVGA this time for the graphics, Corsair again for RAM because it's a brand I know...Asus for the good reviews.

Anyway, dropped it down to $552 before tax and shipping. Might be able to refine it a bit more by getting out of specific brands.

[synaesthetic]

I'd go with 8GB of RAM purely because it's so dirt-cheap right now. My own PC has 16GB of RAM (though my usage cases are very different than yours) and it cost only around $90. Corsair RAM is fine--almost all DRAM is made in the same fabs, anyway, as long as the timings and voltages are workable for you.

I'd stay away from the EVGA GTX 560... they have been known to have strange problems, artifacting and freezing if the computer is left powered on for extended periods of time. My PC has an MSI GTX 570 and I've never had a problem with it--it's dead-silent and runs very cool.

Other than that everything looks good.

[Oujirou]

Perfect, I'll make those changes, thanks for the help. I'll probably be ordering that soon

[blaze0041]

I would definitely look into getting an MSI card, very cool and reliable, especially the ones with the twin fan design.
I myself use the N560GTX-M2D1GD5 (twin fan version), but I would probably go for one of the 560 Ti variants for that extra bit of grunt.

[synaesthetic]

Yes, I love my Twin Frozr 570. So cool and quiet. Idles at 32 degrees!

[sa547]

Originally Posted by Oujirou

Ah, thank you for the help.

OEM Win7 - $99
4gb 1333Mhz - $35
i3 2100 - $119
gtx 560 - $176
Asus P8H67-M Pro REV3 - $119

Does brand matter? Went with EVGA this time for the graphics, Corsair again for RAM because it's a brand I know...Asus for the good reviews.

Anyway, dropped it down to $552 before tax and shipping. Might be able to refine it a bit more by getting out of specific brands.

Don't forget buying a quality PSU, but first, to make sure you get the correct wattage (the bigger the watts, the more pricier), have you used this?

Yep, beware of the marketing hype, so check out any legit reviews, too.

[Oujirou]

I think I have a CoolerMaster 650 with a single rail. I needed to upgrade for the 9800 I have currently. I'll have to see, I've mostly gone by the ibuypower power requirements for things which is kind of silly I suppose. Pick a card and it will tell me what the min is.

I'll use that link when I get home, but I might be okay.

[synaesthetic]

Originally Posted by Oujirou

I think I have a CoolerMaster 650 with a single rail. I needed to upgrade for the 9800 I have currently. I'll have to see, I've mostly gone by the ibuypower power requirements for things which is kind of silly I suppose. Pick a card and it will tell me what the min is.

I'll use that link when I get home, but I might be okay.

It has one 12V rail? It'll be more than enough. For single cards, the iffy thing is less wattage and more current on the rails. If it's low you might have issues, but 650W PSU and only one rail should be fine.

The GPU in the GTX 560 is made on a smaller process than the 9800 was so it should naturally use less power. I have a GTX 570, which is more powerful than your planned 560, and I run it and a quad-core CPU, an optical drive, SSD and HDD on a 600W PSU. It never even gets close to that.

[Random32]

The GTX560 actually has a 10w higher TDP than the 9800GTX, and in practice, the nv 400/500 series have been relatively power hungry chips that like going over TDP. I wouldn't worry though, 650 watts is enough to handle it definitely.

Also, if you can wait, nV's GTX600 series cards are right around the corner.

[TCman]

Originally Posted by Oujirou

[...]
I barely reach the minimum requirements atm for D3, but this is what I've been looking at purchasing:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Asus P8Z68-V LX Motherboard
i5 2500k
MSI GeForce 560 Ti
8gb Corsair DDR3 1600

My current PC has a Athlon 64 X2 Dual 3600+, 2gb RAM and a GeForce 9800 GTX+

The total for the new parts on tigerdirect is 856 with shipping and tax. I'm not really sure if that's good, but I can probably save some more money sticking to XP and dropping the RAM back to 4gb. Maybe a lower graphics card as well.

Can someone give me their opinions on this? Any help would be great.[...].

Well, if you don't need the fastest of the fastest, you can consider building an AMD PC instead of an Intel PC, since both cpu and motherboard are considerably cheaper. The FX 6100 has more processing power than the Intel Core i3 2100 (good for multi-tasking, video-encoding besides gaming), so it's a little more future-proof. And since you are playing Diablo 3 and indie games, the new AMD HD 7750 would be more than enough, it's a really nice videocard with decent graphical performance (depending on what LCD-screen you are using now, the resolution of the LCD etc.) which is also really energy-efficient; it will outperform your current GTX 9800. But if you need more graphical power you should really consider the Geforce GTX 560(ti) or AMD HD 6850/6870 and beyond.

So for reference:
AMD Bulldozer FX-6100 or go for the cheaper quad core FX-4100
MSI 970A-G46 am3+ socket motherboard +SLI/Crossfire support
Kingston KHX1600C9D3B1RK2/8GX 8GB 2X4GB
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64BIT
Gigabyte Radeon HD 7750 OC

Spoiler:

All these for around 526 CAD (or around 506 CAD if you go with the FX-4100 instead).

Edit: I guess the Bulldozer FX-6100 is alittle too expensive for the performance it provides; the Phenom II X4 960T gives more performance for a lower price, and it's also unlockable to 6-core (at least there's a chance of unlocking), the Phenom II x4 965BE which has unlocked multi-plyer for easy overclocking.

Anyway, that Core i3 2100 is actually a pretty good choice and combining with a Z68 motherboard means you are ready for an upgrade to the upcoming Ivy Bridge in the near future.

And good luck with upgrading!

[Random32]

The quad core FX's aren't good. Bulldozer is for servers and supercomputers. Lots and lots of weak cores. If you don't have lots and lots of cores (which the FX4100 doesn't) or can't use them effectively (which gaming generally doesn't), Bulldozer isn't a good uArch. If going for AMD, I would go for a Ph2 X4.

The AMD 7000 series cards have little to no competition and are priced accordingly. They aren't bad value cards, but they aren't good value either. They pretty much are priced exactly where one would expect. The GTX560 Ti is great for the money though.

[TCman]

Originally Posted by Random32

The quad core FX's aren't good. Bulldozer is for servers and supercomputers. Lots and lots of weak cores. If you don't have lots and lots of cores (which the FX4100 doesn't) or can't use them effectively (which gaming generally doesn't), Bulldozer isn't a good uArch. If going for AMD, I would go for a Ph2 X4.

The AMD 7000 series cards have little to no competition and are priced accordingly. They aren't bad value cards, but they aren't good value either. They pretty much are priced exactly where one would expect. The GTX560 Ti is great for the money though.

Yeah, I thought the six-core design would make up for it, but it's not, especially in gaming; e.g. the Core i3 2120 would outperform the FX-6100 which only shines in genuine multi-threaded applications. So I guess if the plan is to build an affordable PC which is capable of playing some games in decent performance, then the older Phenom II X4 would be a better choice, especially you can overclocking them and they are now more affordable than ever. Or go with the Core i3 2120 with a Z68 motherboard which opens up the upgrade path to the upcoming Ivy Bridge.

As for the videocard, the HD 7750 is decent and is fully capable of running Diablo 3 in high details; in terms of performance it's similar to the older HD5770 and HD6770 which are still priced at the same price point of the HD 7750 almost everywhere. And the performance of the HD 7750 may improve further since the drivers still need to become more mature. Personally I think the GTX 560ti is way too expensive, even after a long time and when the new generation videocards are already out, they are still around 250 USD without rebates; a similar priced HD 7850 would be better, because it beats the 560 ti in performance and energy-efficiency.

[synaesthetic]

Gaming is one of those areas of computing that has not embraced the multicore, x86-64 revolution. A lot of games don't use more than two cores effectively, and almost all of them are still 32-bit applications that can't address large blocks of RAM.

Edit: I'm not a fangirl by any means, but right now AMD's really got me pissed off in regards to their GPUs. The Catalyst drivers have gone completely to shit. My old AMD card wouldn't idle at 100/150 clocks unless I rolled my drivers back five versions and forced it to with a CCC profile, and games displayed graphical glitches frequently.

My GTX 570, on the other hand, just plain works, and it eats modern games for breakfast and doesn't break a sweat.

[Random32]

I actually have found the AMD display drivers + Catalyst better as of late rather than worse. Still not as good as nV's drivers, but improving.

[Oujirou]

Kinda lost me on those last few posts haha. I've still got a few weeks, maybe 2 before I need to order anything, but I have no idea if the new NVIDIA cards will be out by then. I also noticed that it's cheaper to buy the ddr3 1600 RAM over the 1333 for some reason, and that the H67 board I'm looking at doesn't support the 1600. Maybe I need to shop around, there is no variety locally so might check ncix or maybe someone can recommend something else.

Edit: Maybe not cheaper, just very closely priced. Roughly $50 for 8gb value stuff or brand stuff, both speeds. I might be getting a free/cheaper copy of Win7 Ultimate, so I'll save some cash there. Maybe go with that Z68 if I wanted to upgrade later. And my power supply is 610w.