First Build in 5 years.

[samhain323]

Hi. I'm a gameaholic. It's been 5 years since my last build.....

This rig is soely for gaming. MMOs (PvP), strategy (think Total War stuff at max), the occasional FPS (though max res isn't as important on these). At this point, only one monitor (1680x1050, but I want to go higher). I'd like to build a reliable rig that performs, but doesn't break the bank. My main concerns are bottlenecks and excess. That being said this is what I came up with over the past couple of weeks.


Mobo: ASRock X79 Extreme6/GB LGA 2011
CPU: Intel Core i7-3820 Sandy Bridge-E 3.6GHz LGA 2011 130W Quad-Core
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s
Pwr: NZXT HALE82 HALE82-850-M 850W ATX12V / EPS12V
Case: COOLER MASTER HAF 912 Mid Tower
Video: TBD..see below
SDD: TBD

My main concerns are with the HDD and video card. Below are the video cards I've been thinking about.

1. SAPPHIRE 11200-01-20G Radeon HD 7850 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI E 3.0 x16
2. SAPPHIRE 11199-03-20G Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB 256-bit PCIE 3.0
3. SAPPHIRE 11196-02-40G Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit PCIE 3.0
4. XFX FX-797A-TNBC Radeon HD 7970 Black Edition 3GB 384-bit PCIE 3.0
5. EVGA 03G-P3-1584-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16
6. EVGA 015-P3-1580-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16


I didn't really look at anything other than PCIE 3.0 cards, but I doubt any cards really take advantage of the technology yet (please correct me if I'm wrong). I want a solid card and I don't want to pay for memory my rig isn't going to use.

So my question is, given the rigs purpose, how noticeable will the performance differences between these cards be. Suggestions on alternatives are appreciated. I'd rather not go over $500 and would prefer a card in the $300 range. If the rig will take advantage of it though, I don't mind dropping the extra bills.

As to the HDD, I know a raid setup would be faster, but I just can't stand having twice the chance of my rig going down. Suggestions, if needed, in this area would be nice.

Lastly, thanks in advance, and please feel free to suggest modifications to the above build. Like I said, it's been a while.

 

[Soulcatcher668]

For a gaming rig, you are better off going with an I7 2600k or an I5 2500K and using the money for a better GPU.

Is this a multi monitor set up?

SLI 580's look very good right now with the price drop. If you are an AMD fan the MSI 7970 lightning may be a beast as well.


*edit Throw an SSD in there for your OS and main programs. It will load much faster.

 

[samhain323]

For a gaming rig, you are better off going with an I7 2600k or an I5 2500K and using the money for a better GPU.

Is this a multi monitor set up?

SLI 580's look very good right now with the price drop. If you are an AMD fan the MSI 7970 lightning may be a beast as well.


*edit Throw an SSD in there for your OS and main programs. It will load much faster.

Ahh, thanks, I was going to ask about the SSD. You are telepathic.

I've had nvidia for the last five years, and honestly, they've been irritating me. I'd like to give the AMDs a chance, though I hear the driver support is atrocious (see, I read ). Looking into the lightning now, thanks.

As for the monitor, just one. I might change my mind in the future, but right now that's all I feel i need.

 

[Knufire]

This is waayyyyy overkill if you're aiming for price/performance.

RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) as a concept is for redundancy, protecting the drive from failure. There are different levels, 0, 1, 5, 10. What you're talking about is RAID 0, which is considered a non-tradtiional type of RAID beacuse it isn't redundant, it's for speed. Normal RAID (1 and 5 being the most common) actually protect your data from drive failure.

What's your budget?

 

[samhain323]

This is waayyyyy overkill if you're aiming for price/performance.

RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) as a concept is for redundancy, protecting the drive from failure. There are different levels, 0, 1, 5, 10. What you're talking about is RAID 0, which is considered a non-tradtiional type of RAID beacuse it isn't redundant, it's for speed. Normal RAID (1 and 5 being the most common) actually protect your data from drive failure.

What's your budget?

Thanks for the clarification re the raid. I'd actually be interested in the redundancy aspect. As far as budget, I'd like to keep it under 2k, 1.5k if possible, but I set 2k as the upper. I put most of these parts on my newegg wishlist and seem to be within budget so far.