First Gaming System

[nova7t2]

Hey Everyone,

So I'm looking at buying a gaming rig, and I was wondering how the below setup sounds. I'm not really a computer guy (mainly a console gamer) so I just read thru a bunch of threads and picked out bits and pieces of what sounded like a decent setup in the $1500 range. My list below is a modified NCIX setup.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, especially if you think I'm going over kill in area or if you think something won't work well together.

Games I play: All Sports Games, Call of Duty, Football Manager

1 x Intel Core i7 2600K Quad Core Unlocked Hyperthreading Processor LGA1155 3.4GHZ Sandy Bridge 8MB


1 x Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H60 High Performance CPU Cooler System LGA1155 LGA1366 LGA1156 AM2 AM3



1 x ASUS P8P67 Pro REV3.0 ATX P67 LGA1155 DDR3 3PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 2PCI Sandy Bridge B3 Motherboard



1 x Corsair CMZ6GX3M3A1600C8 Vengeance 6GB 3X2GB DDR3-1600 CL8-8-8-24 XMP Triple Channel Core i7 Memory



1 x Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 800MHZ 2GB GDDR5 PCI-E 2XDVI HDMI 2x Mini DisplayPort Video Card



1 x Coolermaster Haf 912 Black Mid Tower ATX Case 4X5.25 1X3.5 6X3.5INT No PS Front USB Sound



1 x Corsair TX750 V2 750W ATX 12V Single Rail 60A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 80PLUS Bronze


1 x Western Digital WD Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6GB/S 7200RPM 32MB Cache 3.5IN Hard Drive OEM



1 x OCZ Vertex 2 Extended Sandforce 60GB 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD



1 x LG DVDRW 24X DVD+/-R 8X+RW 6X-RW 16XRAM SATA Lightscribe Black OEM

[BrutalGreen]

First off thats triple channel memory and sandy bridge can only support dual channel...so you should change that. Also if you are only going to be gaming hyper threading is utterly useless and you would have the EXACT SAME performance from a i5 2500K. And also all the current ALCs are quite meh (sub-par cooling and louder that air coolers in same price bracket), you would be better off with something like an NH-D14 or even a SilverArrow (keep in mind to not get tall ram with these tho, the over-sized heat spreaders on rams dimms are pretty much a gimmick anyways).

Last but not least, 1500$ seems exaggerated for such a build (unless thats including something like a rly high end monitor/speaks, expensive gaming mouse and mechanical keyboard)! Other than the few issues I pointed out the parts are well picked but NCIX doesn't always have the best prices, but they do price matching so don't forget to use tools like shopbot, pricebat or canadapost.ca/shopper to find the lowest prices to match!

[dma0991]

Looks pretty good to me but I suggest changing the CPU and RAM like BrutalGreen said. HT is not a feature that is going to be very useful for gaming and you'll be seeing it idle most of the time if the programs that you run are not heavily threaded.

Triple channel memory kit is more suitable for the LGA1366. The LGA1155 is dual channel and it works better in 2 or 4 sticks. Get either 2GBx2 or 4GBx2 with the latter being the best choice since RAM is not that expensive these days and most probably you're never going to use more than 8GB for the lifetime of that rig.

[Icemancanada]

Other suggestion is get a 200 mm coolermaster (has to be a coolermaster-no other brand will fit) fan for the front of your case for intake and 1 more 120 mm for rear exhaust. Take the two included fans and mount them together on top-and be sure to get a 3 pin fan power y-connector. I own a HAF 912 myself and while it is great it is cheap as it doesn't include enough fans to cool a modern rig. If you have the space I would step up to the 922 as it is even bigger but includes 2 200 mm fans (top and front) and 120 mm for rear exhaust. Measure your computer space first before buying cause the 922 is HUGE.

[fishingfanatic]

Another suggestion is 2 look at a modular psu. It makes cable management much easier and doesn't restrict air

flow with unused wires. Corsair's HX series are mostly modular.

Good luck with the build and enjoy the new rig!

Welcome 2 HWC btw!

[BrutalGreen]

Originally Posted by fishingfanatic

Another suggestion is 2 look at a modular psu. It makes cable management much easier and doesn't restrict air flow with unused wires.

mostly true but that would be extra costs, and ive already managed to fit all the unused cables neatly behind the motherboard on a 912 from a mushkin joules 1000w! a TX750 is easy stuff in comparison...

but yeah for an extra 10$ the extra megaflow fan is quite welcome (the 912 doesn't have stellar cooling stock but it does come with the options to make it truly amazing by adding fans).

One problem tho, its a massive dust magnet...maybe look into cases with included dust filters. Also you could check out the Zalman Z9 Plus which has better stock cooling than the 912 for about the same price and IMO less ugly looks! only thing that turns me off on that case is the breakoff expansion slots, if you can live with that at 55$ its a bargain (just buy 2 dust filters and slap them on the side and mount the top fan on the side too and u get basically 90-100$ case performance for half the price).