How good is this gaming build?

donthaveacow

Posts: 15   +0
Hey guys, I'm building my first pc and want to check a few things before I start buying parts. It will be mainly used for gaming, and I want it to be able to run any games out at the moment, such as COD: Black Ops and Crysis, at maximum settings. I'd also like it to be able to run games coming out in the (reasonable) future.

MOBO: Asus P8P67
CPU: Inter Core i7 2600
GPU: Asus Radeon HD 6950
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 PC10666/1333MHz CL8 2x2GB
HDD: Western Digital 1TB 7200RPM 64MB SATA3 - Black Edition
PSU: Corsair HX-750W
CASE: Cooler Master HAF-922
DVD: ASUS DRW 24B1LT

Are all these parts compatible? I don't want to miss some silly little detail as it's a lot of money for me to spend. Also anywhere that I can save a bit of cash if anyone has some ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
 
Btw the resolution I will be playing at is 1920x1060

1920x1080 or 1920x1200?

That's very similar to what I just put together (see the system drop down at the top right of my post, i7 2006k, Asus P8P67 Pro & Corsair HX 750W).

I game at 1920x1200 and haven't had a problem running anything at that res yet (Medal of Honor, Starcraft2, World Of Warcraft : Cataclysm) and I'm only running a HD5850 (at close to 5870 speeds). Should be a great system.

The ram kit I bought runs up to 1866Mhz, but at the moment I'm running it at 1600Mhz. Might be worth grabbing a kit you can run at that speed too rather than the 1333mhz stuff, since the motherboard supports OCing ram up to ~2100Mhz.
 
Hi Dontha,
That depends on your definition of 'maximum settings'. That setup will run just about everything (AA and all) at 1920 x 1080, there will a few games that will be laggy at max AA like Metro 2033 (AAA or 4xAA) , crysis/Warhead at 8xAA, and LP2 at 4 x AA. If max AA in addition to max details is a big deal to you, you might want to look into CF'ing a pair of 6850's
 
Ah sorry about that typo, I meant 1920x1080

Ok thanks guys, I think based on what you've said I'm happy with what I'd decided on. I might go for the 1600MHz RAM though if I can find a good price
 
Ah sorry about that typo, I meant 1920x1080

Ok thanks guys, I think based on what you've said I'm happy with what I'd decided on. I might go for the 1600MHz RAM though if I can find a good price

Where abouts in the world are you buying? Some members might be able to suggest good sets of ram at nice prices if we knew :)

Corsair Vengeance 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit - £59.99 isn't bad
G.Skill RipJaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit - £43.99 (same price as the 1300Mhz stuff but cas9 timing instead of the Cas8 stuff you listed.
G.Skill RipJawX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit - £47.99 if you are looking to stick with G.Skill (only £3 more than the 1300Mhz stuff from same site), note the RipjawX stuff is for Sandy Bridge, how much of that is "lets bump the price" and how much is actually beneficial to the platform I'm not able to say. Best looking for some comparative reviews :)
 
Ok thanks Arris, I'm living in New Zealand.

How does this one here look? It's the third one that you linked, though is NZ$20 more than the one that i posted originally. Is it worth paying that extra?

Ah unfortunately it wouldn't let me post a direct link yet as I don't have 5 posts :( so you'll have to copy and paste with the extra bit on front

playtech.co.nz/afawcs0139235/CATID=/ID=15300/SID=306285679/productdetails.html
 
$20 is probably quite a lot for a not a hell of a lot of difference in performance, I'd only grab some 1600Mhz ram if it can be had for about the same pricing as the 1300Mhz. Probably best saving it and putting it towards a better graphics card or the 2600K unlocked processor.
 
Ok then, I'll have a think about it.

I've decided not to go for the 2600K though as I don't think I'll ever overclock, and as far as I understand thats the only difference between the 2600K and 2600?
 
Ok then, I'll have a think about it.

I've decided not to go for the 2600K though as I don't think I'll ever overclock, and as far as I understand thats the only difference between the 2600K and 2600?

I pressed the auto overclock button in the Asus software on my board and it put me up to 4.4Ghz. As long as you watch the temperatures its that simple. I'd spent the extra for the K. Games are barely starting to use 4 cores, so for a cheaper but more powerful alternative you could grab the 2500K, doesn't have hyper threading (4 physical cores, 4 threads rather than the the 4 cores, 8 threads of the 2600K).

If you don't go for the K processor and never plan on doing any overclocking, then you could just get the H67 version of the board and save more money.. Doesn't seem like you'd lose very much over the P67 chipset, with the bonus that you can use the on CPU graphics if your video card broke, or even to use the Quick Sync video encoding of the on CPU graphics to do very fast encoding. Useful if you transfer lots of videos onto mobile devices of different resolutions.
 
Looks like a very solid build. I have the HAF 922 which is a great case for the money ... plenty of room. Since this is primarily a gaming rig you might consider going with the i5 2500 or 2500K to free up some money for a little stronger graphics card. Just a thought, but the components you've already put together would make an excellent rig.

Comment: Sorry Arris, didn't see that you'd already recommended the 2500 as an alternative.
 
Arris do you need some sort of aftermarket cooler to go with that overclocked 2600K?

If so, would you mind giving an example of one?
 
Also, if i get the 2600K and overclock it as you have said, and also overclock the 6950, will I need a larger power supply or is the 750W going to be fine?
 
Although your power requirements do go up with overclocking you should still be OK with the Corsair 750W. If you do elect to overclock it would be best to consider an aftermarket cooler, pretty sure Arris went with the Corsair H50 ... you can check his specs.
 
The 750W PSU will be fine for most purposes even if you overclock the CPU. As for an aftermarket cooler, it's not absolutely necessary. The 2600K should OC decently on the stock cooler. If you want to push it a little more any decent inexpensive air cooler should do the trick. The H50 is an excellent liquid cooler which I don't think that you absolutely need.
 
750W is plenty. The additionaly overclocking of a few 10ths of a volt on the CPU and or GPU won't stress it. I'm about to add a second 5850 card into my system running crossfire with the existing one off of that exact PSU.
 
Ok great, thanks for all the help guys!

Unfortunately I have to wait a while before i buy all the hardware :( hope the price drops a little by then at least!
 
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