New Gaming PC Build

[whiteshadow]

Hi guys,

I'm building a new gaming PC for myself, its my first upgrade in some time so the difference with my current PC will be huge.

I've been doing a bit of research and found the following, just wanting to get feedback to see if I'm heading in the right direction and everything is suited.

CPU Intel i7 3770K
Mobo AsRock Extreme6
Ram G.Skill [ RipjawsZ ] F3-14900CL9Q-16GBZL (4Gx4)
Video ATI Gigabyte OC HD7970 x 2
HDD Intel SSD 330 120GB
HDD Hitachi Deskstar 7K1010.D 1TB
PSU Corsair AX1200 CMPSU-1200AX
Cooling Corsair H100 Hydro CPU Cooler
Burner Pioneer SATA Bluray Writer

I've already got a good case from my current PC which I'll use, I'm predominantly using it for racing simulation with 3 screens setup with eyefinity (3 x 22" running 1600x1050x3). I only upgrade about every 4-5 years so thats why I'm going high spec and want to run my games in full video options and have good frame rates, mostly race with rFactor and rFactor2 (once its fully released).

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Dave.

[Erklat]

I'd invest in storage capacity. I'm on 4TB and constantly low. I could not live with 1TB.

[whiteshadow]

I'd invest in storage capacity. I'm on 4TB and constantly low. I could not live with 1TB.

Fair call, my current PC will be used as a general computer for office, tv shows, internet etc which has a lot of storage, I'll prob look at a 2TB for the gaming PC though..

[Zaxx]

You'd do well to spend a few extra bucks and go with an Intel 520 120GB ssd. Uses better nand and has a 5 year warranty vs 3 for the 330...and it's faster ofc.

[zanzabar]

You'd do well to spend a few extra bucks and go with an Intel 520 120GB ssd. Uses better nand and has a 5 year warranty vs 3 for the 330...and it's faster ofc.

the 520 is a poor performer and has questionable reliability since it uses a sandforce controller. a 510, crucial m4 or ocz gen 4 (vertex 4 agility 4 ext) would be better. for a budget drive the ocz petrol is $80 for a 120GB at microcenter, they are reliable and a nice speed but are a little slower than the current gen marvel stuff.

also, spending the little extra for 2x8GB would be better and more stable.

[Bobsama]

Samsung 830 128GB/256GB then. Look at the Barracuda 3TB drives--seem like a good price for performance & capacity. Only 1 year warranty though.

[El Mano]

On the other hand, I realized a time ago I would never had enough capacity so I started spending more on faster discs rathern than on larger ones.

[Zaxx]

the 520 is a poor performer and has questionable reliability since it uses a sandforce controller. a 510, crucial m4 or ocz gen 4 (vertex 4 agility 4 ext) would be better. for a budget drive the ocz petrol is $80 for a 120GB at microcenter, they are reliable and a nice speed but are a little slower than the current gen marvel stuff.

Intel have totally rewritten the fw...it's actually the fastest and most stable sandforce drive there is. Fwiw, some Pertols have been plagued with data corruption issues...lot's of posts on the Ocz forums, but the V4 is a great drive and will improve as the fw matures.

[whiteshadow]

Thanks for all the feedback, going with the following changes:

SSD: OCZ Vertex 4 SATA 3 (6GB) 128GB VTX4-25SAT3-128G
HDD: WD Black edition 2TB SATA 6 WD2002FAEX
RAM: G.Skill 16BG (8GB x 2) [ RipjawsX] F3-2133C9D-16GXH DDR3 2133 PC3 17000 CL 9-11-11-2N
OR
RAM: G.Skill 16GB (8GB x 2) [ RipjawsX] F3-14900CL10D-16GBXL DDR3 1866 PC3 14900 CL 10-11-10-30-2N

Question which of the RAM suggestions would be better? They are the 2 lowest CL's I could find...

[zanzabar]

Intel have totally rewritten the fw...it's actually the fastest and most stable sandforce drive there is. Fwiw, some Pertols have been plagued with data corruption issues...lot's of posts on the Ocz forums, but the V4 is a great drive and will improve as the fw matures.

the petrol had a bad firmware, and the controllers die in sandforce drives, but ether way i would not go for those and not the petrol unless it was a price thing.

[fr0wn3r]

Go with Samsung 830 128/256GB if local prices allow you. You won't be disappointed. M4 would be my second choice, third Vertex 4. Agility 4 is a no-go in my book...

[Frag Maniac]

The Plextor M3 Pro is best if you don't mind a bit higher price. The M3s just dropped in price though, so the M3 Pros may do the same soon.

[whiteshadow]

Just noticed that this board when running in Crossfire it runs in PCIe 3.0 x8 for each, is there much of a performance loss with x8 compared to x16?

The upgrade to the ASRock Z77 Extreme9 is another $165 on top of the extreme6, it has the x16 for both slots but also has alot of other features that I don't require...

I'm going with the Asus HD7970 DirectCU 2 video card, takes up 3 slots but has great reviews.

[zanzabar]

Just noticed that this board when running in Crossfire it runs in PCIe 3.0 x8 for each, is there much of a performance loss with x8 compared to x16?

The upgrade to the ASRock Z77 Extreme9 is another $165 on top of the extreme6, it has the x16 for both slots but also has alot of other features that I don't require...

I'm going with the Asus HD7970 DirectCU 2 video card, takes up 3 slots but has great reviews.

there is no difference on the socket 1155 platform, if you were on 2011 you could pick up maybe 1-2% but that would mean spending about $200 more and getting a cpu that is a little slower clock for clock that sucks more power. getting a board with a plx or lucid chipset and runnign xfire in 16x16 on 1155 would net you 0.5-1% less than native 8x8 so you are fine.

[whiteshadow]

Ok decided to go with the following:

CPU: Intel i7 3770k
Mobo: ASRock Z77 Extreme6
RAM: G.Skill TridentX 2400 PC3 16GB (8GB x 2)
HDD: Intel 520 SSD SATA6GB 120GB
HDD: Western Digital Black edition 2TB
GPU: Asus HD7970 DirectCU II Crossfire
GPU: Asus HD7970 DirectCU II Crossfire
PSU: Corsair AX850 80 Gold Edition
Burner: LG Blu-Ray Writer
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100 water cooler

I'll pick it all up later this week.

[whiteshadow]

Ok so I've built my system up, and all seems to be going fairly well... cupple of hiccups along the way but seems to be all good now.

I've got a question about the XFire setup, this board supports PCIE2 x8 v3.0 and PCIE4 x8 v3.0 but PCIE2 is running at x8 and v1.1 and PCIE is running at x1 (sometimes jumps up to x4 looking in GPU-Z) and v1.1.

how do I set these up to run at x8 for both and v3.0?

[Zaxx]

Ok decided to go with the following:

CPU: Intel i7 3770k
Mobo: ASRock Z77 Extreme6
RAM: G.Skill TridentX 2400 PC3 16GB (8GB x 2)
HDD: Intel 520 SSD SATA6GB 120GB
HDD: Western Digital Black edition 2TB
GPU: Asus HD7970 DirectCU II Crossfire
GPU: Asus HD7970 DirectCU II Crossfire
PSU: Corsair AX850 80 Gold Edition
Burner: LG Blu-Ray Writer
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100 water cooler

I'll pick it all up later this week.

Good decision imo...

On a different note, I hope the AX850 can keep up a pair of 7970's...and yes I'm too lazy to find out their max power draw under full load...

[whiteshadow]

Good decision imo...

On a different note, I hope the AX850 can keep up a pair of 7970's...and yes I'm too lazy to find out their max power draw under full load...

Yeah I checked all that, the 7970 take 220 each, so I allowed 250 for each leaving 350 for rest of system which by the calculators used is plenty.. Couldn't find an AX850 and wanted one that day so got a Gold certified Antec high end 850W PSU