Gaming/3D Creation System

[dma0991]

I myself do not fancy an ATX motherboard and would prefer a mATX motherboard. Saves a little bit more money and I do not usually want multiple GPU and worry about scaling issues, bottlenecking issues and whether the game I'm playing can take the advantage of multiple GPUs. Unless of course I'm building an ultimate rig only then would I consider a ATX motherboard. A single HD6990 on a mATX motherboard anyone?

8GB of RAM should be more than enough for daily usage. I doubt that I myself could use more than 8GB unless I open up multiple VM's. A SSD is a better choice to make everything start a lot faster.

The GTX560 Ti alone does not need 500W PSU. It is more of a complete rig + GTX560 Ti needs a 500W so actually 700W is overkill and able to support dual SLi GTX560 Ti easily. But nothing wrong with having more headroom though as you might overclock and the extra power comes in handy in case you want to put in a power hungry GTX580. I don't know much about how good OCZ is at PSUs but you could try out other PSUs. The XFX is a rebranding from PC Power & Cooling while the Silverstone is a PSU brand that can hardly go wrong.

XFX 650W XXX Edition Single Rail Modular ATX Power Supply ATX12V 52A 24PIN 80PLUS Bronze

Silverstone Element ST60EF 600W Power Supply ATX 24PIN 120MM Fan 48A 80+ Bronze

Good luck building this rig. Looks pretty powerful to me for most games.

[RiViT]

Originally Posted by Perineum

Buy a Seasonic, Corsair, Silverstone or Antec PSU.

That's my opinion.

I used to use OCZ, but too many have blown up and taken out MB's with them. OCZ is also harder to RMA though compared to other manufacturers (more hoops to jump through)

I found an Antec TruePower 650w that should do the job. Thanks for the tip!

I switched to the MSI Twin Frozr which seems to require only 320 watts, so going with a slightly smaller PS should be okay, right?

Total system requirements should be around 320 + 150 = 470 which should leave a little headroom for OC, unless I don't know what I'm talking about (which has been known to happen).

Of the OCZ power supplies that you know of that blew, were the systems overclocked at the time?

Thanks for the info!
-Ron T.

[RiViT]

Originally Posted by dma0991

I myself do not fancy an ATX motherboard and would prefer a mATX motherboard. Saves a little bit more money and I do not usually want multiple GPU and worry about scaling issues, bottlenecking issues and whether the game I'm playing can take the advantage of multiple GPUs. Unless of course I'm building an ultimate rig only then would I consider a ATX motherboard. A single HD6990 on a mATX motherboard anyone?

I hear ya! Everything I've read supports your opinion on multiple GPUs. Unless you want to wear ear protection (or sound-canceling headphones) SLI and triple-SLI just aren't practical.

As for mATX, it sure saves a whack of cash that can be funneled into CPU, etc. The Asus P8P67-M will, I believe, suit me just fine. It still allows OC and I may not even get around to that for a while, if at all. Compared to the GT-220/Dell Precision 670 I'm using now, the GTX 560 Ti/P8p67-M/i7 2600K will be splattering me with pixels.

Originally Posted by dma0991

8GB of RAM should be more than enough for daily usage. I doubt that I myself could use more than 8GB unless I open up multiple VM's. A SSD is a better choice to make everything start a lot faster.

Yup, you're right. With my new build list, the SSD will be the soul (with the i7 as the heart) of the system.

As for RAM, I'd like to have the extra 4gb (for a total of 12) but I can always add more later. It's not so much for my wife's WoW sessions, but for Messiah Studio (a 3D app) which I use. To start with, though, 8gb will definitely take me places the 4gb I'm using now will not.

Originally Posted by dma0991

The GTX560 Ti alone does not need 500W PSU. It is more of a complete rig + GTX560 Ti needs a 500W so actually 700W is overkill and able to support dual SLi GTX560 Ti easily. But nothing wrong with having more headroom though as you might overclock and the extra power comes in handy in case you want to put in a power hungry GTX580. I don't know much about how good OCZ is at PSUs but you could try out other PSUs. The XFX is a rebranding from PC Power & Cooling while the Silverstone is a PSU brand that can hardly go wrong.

XFX 650W XXX Edition Single Rail Modular ATX Power Supply ATX12V 52A 24PIN 80PLUS Bronze

Silverstone Element ST60EF 600W Power Supply ATX 24PIN 120MM Fan 48A 80+ Bronze

Good luck building this rig. Looks pretty powerful to me for most games.

Someone on another forum said he had seen a fair number of OCZ power supplies go south, so I switched to an Antec 600w. I can't find a local source for XFX or Silverstone, sadly. But thanks for the recommendation anyway.

And thanks, too, for all the info and the good wishes! I can't wait to get my hands on this baby!

-Ron T.

[Perineum]

Originally Posted by RiViT

I found an Antec TruePower 650w that should do the job. Thanks for the tip!

I switched to the MSI Twin Frozr which seems to require only 320 watts, so going with a slightly smaller PS should be okay, right?

Total system requirements should be around 320 + 150 = 470 which should leave a little headroom for OC, unless I don't know what I'm talking about (which has been known to happen).

Of the OCZ power supplies that you know of that blew, were the systems overclocked at the time?

Thanks for the info!
-Ron T.

Some of the systems were, yes. However that should not factor in. In each case the PSU was oversized.

[aristhrottle]

Howdy. I have never used Messiah but it seems similar to 3DS Max, so maybe your workflow matches mine.

The i7 920 was a good performer on Benchwell - a Maxwell Render benchmarking site - so I'm sure the 950 will be fine. I have found that a large amount of RAM (more than 8GB) is only useful if you are loading massive textures, like say an HDRI map. As far as video cards go, most renderers do not support GPU rendering. I think you can use OpenGL to render in the viewports, but I don't have any personal experience doing so. I don't know if Messiah is any different?

[RiViT]

Originally Posted by aristhrottle

Howdy. I have never used Messiah but it seems similar to 3DS Max, so maybe your workflow matches mine.

The i7 920 was a good performer on Benchwell - a Maxwell Render benchmarking site - so I'm sure the 950 will be fine. I have found that a large amount of RAM (more than 8GB) is only useful if you are loading massive textures, like say an HDRI map. As far as video cards go, most renderers do not support GPU rendering. I think you can use OpenGL to render in the viewports, but I don't have any personal experience doing so. I don't know if Messiah is any different?

That's a good question. I know it'll use multiple CPU threads, but I'm not sure about GPU usage. I ended up ordering an i7 2600K with an Asus P8P67-M motherboard to match, BTW, which is four core, eight threads, so I should get some use out of those.

I'll have to bring this up on the Messiah forum. Thanks.

Good point on the RAM as well. I'm considering a second build in the near future and if it turns out I don't need 16gb of RAM in one machine, I'll just drop half into the new build.

[RiViT]

Originally Posted by Perineum

Some of the systems were, yes. However that should not factor in. In each case the PSU was oversized.

I did some digging and found out the Antec TruePower series are built by Seasonic. From what I could find out about them, they're pretty solid. The TruePower 650 is certified 80Plus Bronze, so I'm relatively confident all will be fine.

I suspect the Antec PSUs you had trouble with were made by someone other than Seasonic. I can't remember the name off the top of my head, but that other company didn't have a great rep.

[RiViT]

Hi Guys,

After many delays, mostly waiting for components that are barely available yet, we got the new computer today. Naturally, there were a couple of last-minute substitutions because of supplier back-ordering, but nothing Earth-shattering. I had to change the Antec TruePower 650 for a Corsair TX 650 and I also have to give up on the Lightscribe DVD burner. No biggie on the latter and the former just might work out better than the original choice.

After we got it set up, my wife beat me to the chair and installed Wow. A big difference for her. Where she could only manage somewhere short of "Fair" graphics settings and still had the occasional frame-rate glitch with the old machine, she now has it cranked all the way to "Ultra" with absolutely smooth performance.

I can't wait to see what some of my 3D apps will do... if I can ever get her away from the damn thing!

I also found a little surprise on the motherboard box. I thought it maxed out at 16gb of RAM, but it'll handle 32gb!

I just want to thank you guys again for all the helpful suggestions and feedback. I think this computer is going to do the job without any trouble at all.

-Ron T.