Vetting rig for starcraft 2 and diablo 3

[justhuman]

Hi all,

 

This is my first time building a gaming rig, mainly used for starcraft 2 and the upcoming, hopefully, diablo 3 at max setting. Basically the whole system is built around the 6970. Please let me know if it works or if any improvement can be made. Thanks for any feedback.

 

GPU: XFX Radeon HD 6970 HD-697A-CNFC Video Card with Eyefinity (possible future crossfire)

RAM: Patriot Signature 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (*2 for 16G total)

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor

HD: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" SATA 6.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive (or 1TB? I do not need much space other than games)

PSU: Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W Power Supply (550W? not sure for 6970)

Mobo: ASUS P8Z68-V LX ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Tower: COOLER MASTER Elite 430 RC-430-KWN1 Black Steel / Plastic Computer Case (not sure if 6970 fits?)

Wireless: EDIMAX EW-7722In PCI Wireless Adapter (not sure if this is needed?)

Monitor: Acer S230HLAbii Black 23" 5ms LED Backlight Widescreen LCD Monitor

Edited January 24, 2012 by justhuman

[90sgamer]

It looks pretty good to me. I can play Starcraft 2 completely maxed out on my main rig (Pointman in my sig) and thats with a 5870. If I were you I would wait a bit and see how the 7950 is priced when it comes out in a week. It should be a good deal faster than a 6970 and features all the latest tech and a more efficient architecture, but not as expensive as the 7970. The Sandbridge-E i7-3820 is also coming out soon, and it should give you some really good performance for only ~$60 USD over an i5-2500K (although you will need a X79 motherboard), but the i5-2500k is still a killer CPU.

 

So much good stuff coming out soon! Don't forget nVidia's kepler 7xx series is coming out soon too!

 

The case has 5 eggs on newegg, so thats pretty good. One reviewer said it will fit 11" cards and the 6970 is 10.75" so you should be good there.

 

Other than that, it sounds good. I don't know too much about that particular motherboard, but I love ASUS mobos, you can't go wrong there.

Edited January 24, 2012 by 90sgamer

[Tjj226_Angel]

mobo http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157264

 

 

Ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226191 (Only 1 set)

 

 

Hard drive: Your hard drive is fine, but I would consider going with a corsair force 3 120GB SSD. They have enough storage for you for the moment until HDD prices come way down. Plus they give you great speed and really adds a whole new level of performance to your PC.

 

 

CPU: great choice

 

 

PSU: If you want to crossfire, go with this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817553004

 

 

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811553002

 

 

For the video card, I would recommend you go with a 6950. That way you can get some cost effective corssfire, and you can easily obtain tri fire 6950's for the same price of two 6970s. It is just more practical IMO.

 

Some one else would give you a better recommendation on the screen. I am not the screen expert.

[Rray]

The Extreme 3 Gen 3 is a little bit cheaper and there is not really much difference between the Extreme 3 and 4. So, I say go with the cheaper Extreme 3 Gen 3.

 

Though, I'm wondering, why the change of heart Tjj226_Angel? I thought you only recommended Asus?

 

Also, if you want, you can try crossfiring a 6870 instead of going with a 6970. A crossfired 6870 is said to perform better than a 6970 and you would be spending about $30 less for it. Besides, if you think it is not enough, you can always go trifire. Still, it is up to you. I use a flashed 6970 myself, and well, I am very satisfied.

Edited January 24, 2012 by Ray Ian

[Fogel]

Well seeing as how we have had at least a couple people with bad luck on ASRock boards I would recommend the ASUS MB the OP picked over the ASRock board. Though I wouldn't blame the OP for picking an ASRock board either. They definitely look nicer and they're cheaper ...but sometimes that means cheaper parts in critical areas.

 

I couldn't imagine trying to do SC2 on Eyefinity, I give it up to the OP keeping up on a fast paced strat game moving the cursor through 3 monitors.

 

Never heard of anyone going with a Couger PSU but that is a good price for a PSU. If the OP is planning on CrossFire I wouldn't do anything less than a 750W psu, would probably recommend 850W or more since ATI takes more juice.

 

Since the Patriot Signature went up about $6 in price I would get this instead. Fast and OCs (tho OCing RAM is kinda pointless) well:

- G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) - $44

 

The HDD you selected gets you 5.8GB per dollar so I would go with this drive:

- Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB

 

The 2TB drives are even better deal as it would give you 12GB per dollar and the 1TB drive only gets you 8GB per dollar, but it is also bigger step up in the budget going from $125 to $165. If as you say don't use much space the other option is to go with an SSD. The GB/$ ratio is flat out horrible but the speeds are so worth it, though I would go no less than 120GB. SC2 doesn't really use the HDD so it won't make much of a difference with that game but in your other applications you would like it. If all you do on your PC is SC2 it probably isn't worth it ...even if I do love mine and enjoy pimping it out.

 

Your video card should fit in that case.

You don't need the wireless adapter ...besides you always want a wired connection for gaming. Especially with competitive games like SC2.

[justhuman]

Hi all,

 

Thank you so much for the replies, so here is what I gathered:

 

Mobo: ASUS P8Z68-V LX ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS (seems ASUS is ok? asrock better?)

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor

GPU: XFX Radeon HD 6970 HD-697A-CNFC Video Card with Eyefinity (I know it is an overkill for SC2, surely I will play other games, skyrim, too. Eyefinity is for decoration, I do not think I will get 3 monitors.)

RAM: G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (This is cheaper than mushkin)

HD: Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F120GBGT-BK 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (really do not need much storage, so 120G should be enough, perhaps a 20s windows 7 startup?)

Tower: COOLER MASTER Elite 430 RC-430-KWN1 Black Steel / Plastic Computer Case (I am in college so I move around quite a bit, so if possible I would not prefer a full tower)

PSU: COUGAR CMX 1000 COUGAR-1000CMX 1000W Power Supply (again probably another major overkill for now, probably add in another 6970 when the price drops further)

[Tjj226_Angel]

The Extreme 3 Gen 3 is a little bit cheaper and there is not really much difference between the Extreme 3 and 4. So, I say go with the cheaper Extreme 3 Gen 3.

 

Though, I'm wondering, why the change of heart Tjj226_Angel? I thought you only recommended Asus?

 

Also, if you want, you can try crossfiring a 6870 instead of going with a 6970. A crossfired 6870 is said to perform better than a 6970 and you would be spending about $30 less for it. Besides, if you think it is not enough, you can always go trifire. Still, it is up to you. I use a flashed 6970 myself, and well, I am very satisfied.

 

It isn't a change of heart. In fact here is the board I was comparing it to http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131792 . The thing was that I got an email from newegg saying I could buy the asrock board for 150. I now see that that was just an email thing and not for everybody. Since that is the case, I would swing for the Asus board.

[NikoDG]

What about the i7 3820? An X79 rig would be killer and wouldn't cost a significant amount more.

[Tjj226_Angel]

Hi all,

 

Thank you so much for the replies, so here is what I gathered:

 

Mobo: ASUS P8Z68-V LX ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS (seems ASUS is ok? asrock better?)

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor

GPU: XFX Radeon HD 6970 HD-697A-CNFC Video Card with Eyefinity (I know it is an overkill for SC2, surely I will play other games, skyrim, too. Eyefinity is for decoration, I do not think I will get 3 monitors.)

RAM: G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (This is cheaper than mushkin)

HD: Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F120GBGT-BK 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (really do not need much storage, so 120G should be enough, perhaps a 20s windows 7 startup?)

Tower: COOLER MASTER Elite 430 RC-430-KWN1 Black Steel / Plastic Computer Case (I am in college so I move around quite a bit, so if possible I would not prefer a full tower)

PSU: COUGAR CMX 1000 COUGAR-1000CMX 1000W Power Supply (again probably another major overkill for now, probably add in another 6970 when the price drops further)

 

The reason why I would go with mushkin is because I know that ram is speed binned. The cheaper the ram, the worse the speed bin (USUALLY). There are of course reasons why this rule doesn't apply yada yada yada. However, The ram you have right now (G skill sniper) is poorly binned. You can ask El Captin about his experience with that ram. Mushkin is of a higher quality and will usually perform better. Corsair is another company that I would trust to buy ram from. However, the sniper binned ram, the patriot signature, some PNY memory, and particular Kingston modules are all poorly binned. They all have little quirks that become increasingly annoying over a period of time. Unstable voltages are usually my problem with cheap ram. They can get really annoying and with a system like yours, I would not risk it and I would go with mushkin or corsair.

 

Asus is my preferred company, but I do not think that board supports tri fire or tri SLI. If you aren't going to put 3 cards in 1 rig, which you can't with your case, and you can't with your board, then go with the 570 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125384 . You get better graphics scaling and you don't have to fight with drivers. Not to mention that the GTX 570 does better as a gaming card, because so many companies now support Nvidia that they end up taking advantage of the card's features. So in games like Bio Shock, BF2/3, and Crysis, the 570 will perform better. However, games that don't support either card will usually be a bit of a tie (only 3 FPS difference) with the 6970 pulling ahead just slightly. Not to mention, that Nvidia will support PhysX (which is bound to become more popular).

[Tjj226_Angel]

What about the i7 3820? An X79 rig would be killer and wouldn't cost a significant amount more.

 

It would cost a lot more. How do you figure it would be less than an i5 and a cheap z68 mobo?

[NikoDG]

I never said less. And I guess it being "a lot more" depends on your idea of "a lot". It would probably cost him $180 more (maybe $280 if he opted for a board with more options). In return for that he'd get 40 lanes of PCI-e 3.0, rather than 20 lanes of PCI-e 2.0, double the RAM capacity, quad channel as opposed to dual, and a significantly stronger CPU.

[justhuman]

The reason why I would go with mushkin is because I know that ram is speed binned. The cheaper the ram, the worse the speed bin (USUALLY). There are of course reasons why this rule doesn't apply yada yada yada. However, The ram you have right now (G skill sniper) is poorly binned. You can ask El Captin about his experience with that ram. Mushkin is of a higher quality and will usually perform better. Corsair is another company that I would trust to buy ram from. However, the sniper binned ram, the patriot signature, some PNY memory, and particular Kingston modules are all poorly binned. They all have little quirks that become increasingly annoying over a period of time. Unstable voltages are usually my problem with cheap ram. They can get really annoying and with a system like yours, I would not risk it and I would go with mushkin or corsair.

 

Asus is my preferred company, but I do not think that board supports tri fire or tri SLI. If you aren't going to put 3 cards in 1 rig, which you can't with your case, and you can't with your board, then go with the 570 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125384 . You get better graphics scaling and you don't have to fight with drivers. Not to mention that the GTX 570 does better as a gaming card, because so many companies now support Nvidia that they end up taking advantage of the card's features. So in games like Bio Shock, BF2/3, and Crysis, the 570 will perform better. However, games that don't support either card will usually be a bit of a tie (only 3 FPS difference) with the 6970 pulling ahead just slightly. Not to mention, that Nvidia will support PhysX (which is bound to become more popular).

 

Hi Tjj226_Angel,

 

Thank you so much for your reply, so this is the updated rig. One more question, should I proceed with the purchase or should I wait for a little while? Are we expecting a price drop any time soon?

 

Mobo: ASUS P8Z68-V LX ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor

GPU: GIGABYTE GV-N570OC-13I Rev2.0 GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

RAM: Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

HD: Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F120GBGT-BK 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Tower: COOLER MASTER Elite 430 RC-430-KWN1 Black Steel / Plastic Computer Case

PSU: COUGAR CMX 1000 COUGAR-1000CMX 1000W Power Supply