A good long lasting gaming and multipurpose rig?

[dlf]

This seem like a decent rig to play most current and forthcoming PC games? I have gotten plenty of suggestions for parts in previous threads . .

• Purpose of System: Gaming, browsing internet, watching videos. But mostly for gaming. I also do want to use Folding@home as well.
• Budget: Within about 1500 American dollars
• Country: USA
• Reuseable parts: Can't, see below (current specs) as to why
• Overclocking: Doubtful. Though if I can get enough airflow I may try
• Monitor: Currently 1680 x 1050 (22 Inches) - I eventually want HD (Between 23 - 27 inches)
• Features of Motherboard: Firewire, USB 3.0, SATA 6 Gb/s, eSATA, UEFI
• OS: Windows 7 64 bit (I have the discs for 32 & 64 bit)

Part list permalink / Part price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

• CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($279.99 @ Microcenter)
• CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($22.99 @ NCIX US)
• Motherboard: ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($129.86 @ Newegg)
• Memory: Patriot G2 Series Division 4 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($99.99 @ Amazon)
• Hard Drive: Mushkin Chronos 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($119.99 @ Newegg)
• Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($109.99 @ NCIX US)
• Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Video Card ($507.55 @ Newegg)
• Case: Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced ATX Full Tower Case ($129.99 @ Amazon)
• Power Supply: SeaSonic 650W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($145.98 @ Newegg)
• Optical Drive: LG GH22NS90B DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $1562.32
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated 2012-04-17 22:06 EDT-0400)

Current specs:

• Case: No idea (although it is a HP slimline, gray) - that should give some idea of the sort of case.
• Motherboard: Asus A8N-BR (Pyrite) (1 PCI, 2 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Video, LAN, IEEE-1394)
• Motherboard Chipset - nVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE, AMD Hammer
• Power Supply: No idea (but it's less than 100 watts, I think)
• Processor: DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2000 MHz (10 x 200) 3800+
• CPU Cooler: A fan
• Memory:
• - DIMM1: Kingston 1 GB DDR2-533 DDR2 SDRAM (5-4-4-12 (at) 266 MHz) (4-4-4-12 (at) 266 MHz) (3-3-3-9 (at) 200 MHz)
• - DIMM2: Kingston 2G-UDIMM 2 GB DDR2-667 DDR2 SDRAM (5-5-5-15 (at) 333 MHz) (4-4-4-12 (at) 266 MHz) (3-3-3-9 (at) 200 MHz)
• Hard Drive: 250 GB ATA drive
• Optical Drive HL-DT-ST DVDRRW GSA-H20L ATA Device (DVD+R9:8x, DVD-R9:4x, DVD+RW:16x/8x, DVD-RW:16x/6x, DVD-RAM:5x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:48x/32x/48x DVD+RW/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM)
• OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit

And what I wanted in a new system:

Hardware

• USB 2.0 speeds that are minimum of 30 MB a second
• USB 3.0 speeds that are at lest 300+ MB/s [I will get / use an SSD]
• Firewire (and or eSata port) --- because I have a external hardrive that has both along with USB
• At lest a solid terabyte (1.5 TB)
• Has either a VGA or DVI port (current monitor I have has both)
• Also has support for HDMI (for the future monitor)
• Multi card reader (although I mainly need SD and Memory Pro Stick Duo)
• Able to use a PS3 controller AND A XBOX 360 controller (yes I know 360 is native support . . .)
• I would like a quad core.
• Multiple internal DVD drives - Also to make installations faster
• Plenty of 3.5/5.25 drive bays . . .

Software

• Windows 7 Ultimate (64 bit) (Main OS) -- Mostly for languages
• Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit (if needed)
• May first run Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit - as I have both 32/64 bit discs now)
• Windows XP (if 64 bit won't run some of the games I have) (if needed)
• Folding@home - (although I use my PS3 for that when I'm not using it

Gaming Software:

- Will use steam:

• Elder Scrolls (Morrowind -> Skyrim)
• Portal 1 & 2
• Batman Arkham (Asylum/City)
• Sonic Generations
• Quake (all)
• Doom (all)
• Wolfenstein (3D) & 2009 - and the others
• Commander keen (all)
• Bioshock (1/2) (perhaps infinite)
• L.A. Noire
• Bejeweled 2/3
• Peggle
• Various COD's
• anything else that interests me

• - Will use CD/DVD's of the games I have:
• Warcraft 2 - Tides of Darkness & Beyond the Dark Portal
• Warcraft 3 - Reign of Chaos & Frozen Throne
• Diablo 1 - 3 (when it comes out)
• The Sims 1 - And all expansions
• The Sims 2 (probably)
• Simcity 4000 & Rushhour
• May use emulation (to run up to the PS2/Wii)

Other Thoughts

• Eventually a dual monitor setup (and one be HD resolution)
• I will wait for some parts (hard drives, GPU, etc) to drop in price.
• Will wait for IvyBridge. . . . (as if I have a choice)
• I WANT UEFI, NOT regular old BIOS (that this slimline has)
• May eventually like a dual GPU (crossfire?)
• Yes I know 32 GB of RAM is 'overkill' but c'est la vie

Power Supply Thoughts:

• ABSOLUTE MAX Watts: 900w
• Efficiency: AT LEST 80+ Silver
• Modular - semi or fully

MISC. Part Thoughts:

• Case: Plenty of space (/airflow). I'd like some other color besides black (i'm just tired of every time we buy being black or white)

Monitor Thoughts:

• Screen: Full HD & Widescreen
• Supports: HDMI, DVI, Displayport (if the motherboard of the computer does)
• Within 1 - 2 MS response time (current monitor is 5 MS response time) [if I'd notice a real difference and price]
• Screen size - 25 to about 27 inches

[Razamatraz]

Not actually sure what advice you are looking for. It seems you pretty much have it figured out. The system you are looking at should be solid for a few years. You seem to like high end video so I would consider upping that Power Supply to a bit bigger one in case you want to SLI or overclock later, but Seasonic is a good choice.

None of the games you have listed will even come close to stressing that system. Diablo 3 is probably the toughest one and it's not supposed to be a system killer.

[sswilson]

Yeah, looks pretty solid to me, but I'd go with at least a 750W PSU just in case you decide to SLI at a later date (won't need to for the next little while anywise.... ;) ).

NCIX US - Buy P1850BNLG9 - XFX 850W PRO850W XXX Edition Single Rail ATX 12V 70A 24PIN ATX Modular Power Supply 80PLUS Silver - XFX - Great price and fast delivery

Even without the MIR still under the price you had listed. It's not gold, but it's a decent unit.

[Dzzope]

First: Thats a great system

Second: Apart from folding the i7 and 680 are totally wasted but do give you a lot of head-room for the future. (I think a 580 beats a 680 on folding though.. though not sure, any folders in the know around?)
32 GB ram is way overkill, I wouldn't suggest more than 8 GB unless you video edit, encode, run VM's etc but I'm not sure of the effects of ram on a folding rig.

If you think you'll ever consider going SLI then up the PSU, if you don't (like me you'll just buy a new GPU when you need more oomph) then the one you have is solid and should be fine for moderate OC's.

I think if your willing to drop the spec's a bit then a really nice monitor would be a good investment, my suggestions would be the dell 24" ips? (1920x1200) or even the samsung 27" pls monitor (2560 x 1440) that was reviewed here a few months back.

[dlf]

If I have problems running games I may have to run a virtual copy of XP. If I do SLI - I could get the second card when I get my monitor and use one of each card for each monitor (that should work).

[3.0charlie]

2600k is great for folding, the 680 not so much as of now. Heck, I an't even make my own fold properly. Ram qty. has no effect on folding.
My 680 powers a Dell U2412M and a HP w1907 without a single hick-up for any game I've thrown at it.

[Dzzope]

Running a single desktop VM is not gonna stress 8 GB of ram.. 32 is enough to run a brace of servers.

And a single 680 will run 2 of your monitors (with both in game) without a problem(hell, it will run 3 at 1080 without too much difficulty)..
if you get a higher res screen than your current one, you'll be using 1 in game and 1 as desktop.. still nothing that a single 680 can't handle..


If you still think you might go for 2 of them.. then up the psu and your good to go.

My opinion is, drop to an i52500k, 8GB ram and try squeeze out a new monitor.
You won't see any difference in an i5 to an i7 except in your folding results.

P.S, it's obviously your choice what you spend your money on.. but from your usage, you could get more enjoyment / better experience by spending it elsewhere. (though if folding is your thing then go for it)

[dlf]

I'd think a i7 would be more useful to Standford Uni for Folding@home, produce better results, better benchmark scores, probably last me longer.

Other threads have given me the following changes:

NZXT HAVIK-140 90.3 CFM CPU Cooler - PCPartPicker [I'd think that's a bit pricey, but o'well]
Corsair Force Series 3 90GB 2.5" Solid State Disk - PCPartPicker
XFX 850W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply - PCPartPicker - Should be plenty for SLI

With two GPUs could one be solely dedicated to F@H, or would the CPU decide which gets used for what?

[sswilson]

Nope, you can run as many GPUs as your motherboard / PSU / 12V motherboard connector will support. I've run a few 4 GPU farms myself, although ST can vouch for what drawing that much current through the motherboard 12V line will do..... ;)

[Razamatraz]

If you are going to spend that much on the NXZT cooler, consider looking for a Noctua on sale instead or go to water. I've seen corsair h70s on sale for the same price as that NXZT before...just look around.