May 2011 High End Gaming Build - Do you want to fly?

[headsh0t]

Originally Posted by RM - Ottawa

its only 60hz and usb 2.0 , like why would I pay 500? It doesn't even look cool. Am I missing something? I have no problem opting out of 3d, but is this humble looking u2410 really that advanced?

Yes it's IPS, and I don't buy monitors based on it 'looking cool'.

[RM - Ottawa]

Lol fair enough headshot. Didn't mean anything by it dude.

[RM - Ottawa]

Best 3D gaming monitor? AW > All ?

[oppo4sale]

Ditch the Killer hardware its useless pretty much, get an Intel Pro NIC for 30-35$ instead and it will perform just as well :P available in PCI & PCI-E low profile

[RM - Ottawa]

dma, I know we are set on the P8P67, but is there any sense in waiting for the Z68 boards to be released later this month?

Taiwan Manufacturer is said to be releasing upwards of 400,000 Z68 boards towards the end of this month. I really wouldn't mind getting my hands on one since I've never bought my own individual parts before, let alone mobo I hear that the Z68 wil lbe like a combo of H67 and P67, since H67 enables IGP but no oc, wile vice versa for P67! There will also be other cool features like SSD caching and EFI Bios or Touch Bios, which is Gigabyte's graphical bios.

What kind of Z68 mobo should I be looking out for if I want a real enthusiast slick board? I don't mind paying if it's unique or offers ammenities that other boards do not.

[dma0991]

When Z68 boards are this close to being released it makes no sense to get a P67 board now. It won't even be the end of the month as some reviewers are already hinting that Z68 boards will be available in a few days. In fact you can already read reviews all around.

Intel Z68 Review - The Sandy Bridge Platform Expands
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...hing,2938.html

Now that the Z68 boards are reviewed, I think you can start searching for a Z68 board now. Any Z68 boards will be good. My pick would be Asus, Gigabyte, MSI or ASRock in no particular order. MSI is not listed here as they do not seem to have an ATX sized board in Newegg yet.

Newegg.ca - ASRock Z68 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Newegg.ca - ASUS P8Z68-V PRO LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Intel Motherboard
Newegg.ca - GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD4-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Newegg.ca - GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3P-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

[RM - Ottawa]

What do you guys think of my updated build:


How would you rate this build? I'm get antsy to buy my parts already.. I went to PC Cyber today but was underwhelmed so I think I will stick to on-line.

The following is linked: Gamer Infinity 8800 Pro

Total Price:$3181

CASE: CoolerMaster Storm Sniper Mid-Tower Gaming Case
CASUPGRADE:12in Liquid Neon Thunder Pattern Light [+15] (Blue Color)

MONITOR:23" Widescreen 1920x1080 Asus 3D VG236H Gaming LCD w/ NVIDIA 3D Visioin Glasses Bundle $500

CPU:Intel® Core™ i7-2600K 3.40 GHz 8M Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified)

GPUS: Dual AMD Radeon HD 6950's 2GB GDDR5 16X PCIe

Sound Card:Asus Xonar Xense 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCIe Sound Card w/ Sennheiser Headset [+$279]

MOTHERBOARD:[CrossFireX/3-Way SLI] GigaByte Z68X-UD7-B3 Intel Z68 Chipset DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ Intel Smart Response Technology & 7.1 Dolby Home Theater Audio, Dual GbLAN, USB3.0, 4x SATA-III RAID, 4 Gen2 PCIe, 1 PCIe X1 & 2 PCI (All Venom OC Certified)

FAN:Asetek 510LC Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Enhanced Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA) (Single Standard 120MM Fan)

FLASHMEDIA:INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)

HDD:1TB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [-47] (Single Hard Drive)

HDD2:64 GB A-DATA S596 Turbo Series Gaming MLC Solid State Disk [+129] (Single Hard Drive)

MB_SRT:64 GB A-DATA S599 Gaming MLC Solid State Disk [+129] (Single Hard Drive)

MEMORY:8GB (4GBx2) DDR3/1333MHz Dual Channel Memory [+10] (Corsair or Major Brand)

MB_ADDON:Asus U3S6 True 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x SATA-III PCIe X4 Expansion Card [+19]





MOUSE:XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Buttons Gaming Mouse

MULTIVIEW:Xtreme Performance in SLI/CrossFireX Gaming Mode Supports Single Monitor [+0]

NETWORK:Onboard Gigabit LAN Network

OS:Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium (64-bit Edition)

OVERCLOCK:Pro OC (Performance Overclock 10% or more) [+19]

POWERSUPPLY:* 850 Watts - Thermaltake TR2 RX Modular 80 Plus PSU - PN: W0319RU [+82]



TEMP:NZXT Sentry-2 Fan Touch Screen Fan Control & Temperature Display [+29]


USB:Built-in USB 2.0 Ports

CD:LG WH10-LS30K 10X Internal Super Multi Blu-Ray Rewriter [+104] (Yellow Color [+9])

USBX:NZXT Internal USB 6-PORT Expansion Module + USB Bluetooth 2.X EDR Dongle with Led Light Thumb Size [+29]

Case Fan:Maximum Enermax 120MM Case Cooling Fans for selected case (Maximum Silent Operation) [+29] (500-1,200 RPM White Color with White LED Twister Bearing 8-14 dBA [+16])

[RM - Ottawa]

Well I'm down to this >>
CPU - FINALIZED: Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4GHz LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor
MOBO - FINALIZED: ASRock Z68 Extreme 4
RAM - FINALIZED: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory
COOLING - FINALIZED: Cooler Master V6GT 220-Watt CPU Cooler RR-V6GT-22PK-R1
1st HD - FINALIZED: OCZ Vertex 2 120GB 3.5IN SATA2 Sandforce SF-1200 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD (OCZSSD3-2VTX120G) (OCZSSD3-2VTX12
2nd HD - FINALIZED: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB 3.5' SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive ($60 amazon.com)
3rd HD - FINALIZED: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB 3.5' SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive ($60 amazon.com)
CASE: Thinking HAFX or 650D I want something that is very stylish and high end. Are these there better options? Corsair Obsidian Series 650D (CC650DW-1) OR >>COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case
PSU These 1000watts seem to be close in price to the 1200's, I may just opt for the extra 200watts but regardless: - Silverstone Technology Silverstone Strider 1000 Gold 1000W Modular Power Supply ATX 24PIN 135mm Fan 83A 80+ Gold Black (ST1000-G)

And now my biggerst decision!!, for which I am still completely up in the air on - > GPU's. I was thinking dual Radeon 6950's unlocked. The trouble is that I have a 6870 sitting at home that I am letting my bro use, so I don't want to cheap out on a run-of-the mill card in my new build. I like price/performance, but I want flexibility so that I can run more than one monitor if I choose to and have the fastest and best quality for any games I end up playing. I was thinking 2 6950's , or maybe i should just get the best single card like a 580 and then add another card.. please some closure on this decisions and I will put it to rest with my finalization :)
Monitor I was thinking of one of the following - Acer GD235HZbid Black/orange 23.6" 2ms Widescreen 1080p 120Hz 3D LCD Monitor OR NEC MultiSync EA231WMI-BK - IPS LCD display - TFT - 23" - widescreen - 1920 x 1080 / 60 Hz - 270 cd/m2 - 1000:1 - 3000:1 (dynamic) - 14 ms - 0.265 mm - DVI-D, VGA, DisplayPort - speakers - black (EA231WMI-BK) Alternatively, there's also the ben xl2410t, and sure I would check out 3d in that case
How am I doing so far? Welp, please help me finalize I would like to buy :) <3
OPTICAL DRIVE - Probably get a blueray reader/writer, might as well have the option to write bluerays, no?

[Mayoo]

I don't know much about the other cases you mentioned. What I can say though is that you won't be disappointed with the HAF-X. I just can't see any down side to the case besides the non-standard USB3.0 front header. We did manage to hide the connectors so it just doesn't matter anymore.

Stylish : I do like the look. It's simple, big and solid.
High end : Anything fits in that. You have room to play and room to hide cables. Cooling is great and it is the most silent case I ever heard. The dual Hotswap drives are solid and easy to use.

Have a look here : Gaming PC - Need your opinion

[fishingfanatic]

+1 4 the HAF X. It works well and the gpu shroud helps keep temps down 4 an sli setup.

Personally, I would go 2 560s in sli. Especially if ur expecting 2 play 3D on multiple monitors. Not sure if it's the best bang 4 the $, but it preforms as well as the big boys in some reviews, of which unfortunately I don't remember which ones.

Nvidia 3D requires more than 1 card if I remember correctly. I would've put a pair of 580 OCs in sli 4 the max. resolution in 3D 4 a pair of 3D monitors that size. That setup outperforms everyone else a good portion of the time in reviews with the 6990 and 590 going head 2 head.

Not sure about 3D though.

Which ever way you go will b a nasty little gaming beast, so sit down, strap in, clear your desk 4 take off and enjoy.