Hello folks:cheers: I have been following the site for a long while, never took a look at the forums...now I'm here to ask some tips about a PC upgrade that I'm planning...nothing special, the budget is 850-1000€...I have a pretty much ****ty PC, so I wanted a new one for gaming. :biggun: I was thinking about something like: CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K RAM: Corsair Vengeance Blue DDR3 8GB MB: ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 PSU: Corsair Professional Series AX650 650W Gold GPU: I don't know. Maybe a 560ti or a 570... CASE: Cooler Master Storm Enforcer CPU FAN: Thermaltake Frio HDD: WD Caviar Green 500GB SSD: OCZ Agility 60GB Are there any bottlenecks here...or tips for the config? I was also thinking about doing a CrossFire or SLI in the future, and I am worried about the PSU not having enough power... And ofcourse I want to overclock nearly everything, I think I can OC the CPU to 4.2/4.5...and I also want to OC the GPU...will the PSU take all this? P.S. I am Italian, sorry for the bad English...
Get a bigger HDD, drop the SSD and put that money in better graphics. Especially as that PSU is indeed not fit for crossfire/SLI configurations.
I'd stay away from the Frio. From the reviews I've seen its quite loud and expensive. I wouldnt drop the SSD, but 60GB just isnt enough. With a 120GB one you can install your games at the SSD and be quite happy about it. As for the graphics, a 560Ti/570 would be pretty good. Depending also if you want full eye-candy graphics or not.
i would change the HDD having a caviar green myself they are quite slow what i did was get 2 of them and raid 0 them. and i also agree with above about the ssd. if you can go with a 128gb it be best. cause 60gb will fill up pretty quick. im not sure if it has changed now but i remember on some ssd models the performance on the 60gb models was not quite as impresive as on the 128 models.
Is the Arctic Cooling 13 Pro any better than the Frio? The AX750 is OK for a dual-GPU? I took a Caviar Green because since the MB is Z68, it would use SSD Caching, and also I'd only install the OS and one or two games in the SSD, so space matters little. I have the target of being able to run BF3 at Ultra settings at 50FPS min...so yeah, that's my minimum requirement for a GPU(since I saw some benchmarks and the CPU matters little to none, in BF3). This is not a new PC that will be used ONLY to run BF3, it's just that it's the game which has the best graphics as of now, and I'm using it as a benchmark.
In multiplayer in BF3 on 64 player maps the cpu matters , but other than that you'd be fine with a gtx 560ti ...but i'd get a gtx 570 just make sure not to be reference model, CPU and ram and mobo are good...exactly what i have , Get rid of that frio ...get a thermalright archon cooler instead it's cheaper and does a great job keeping that 2500k in check even at 5 ghz. Id also keep that SSD to use it as you said...for OS and some games , as for the PSU if you plan on doing sli ..get 750 w good brand at least...if you don't plan to sli then 650w is enough. As for the HDD you know best how much space you need so no comment on that.
So I should be fine with: CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K RAM: Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600MHz 8GB MB: ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 PSU: Corsair Professional Series AX750 750W Gold GPU: MSI GeForce GTX570 Twin Frozer II CASE: Cooler Master Storm Enforcer CPU FAN: Thermalright MACHO HDD: WD Caviar Green 500GB SSD: OCZ Agility 60GB Right?
Yup, sounds perfect. Does the 570 though run BF3 max settings with 50FPS+? I am at the limit of 60FPS with my 580 SLi @ 1920x1080
Looks like a nice build, although I still say spring for a 128Gb SSD. I started out with a 60GB and was always fighting for space on it, remember that SSDs needed a decent amount of empty drive to keep performance up. This build I went up to 128 and couldn't be happier. As for the HDD, the green drives are ok, but all you really need it to do is get by long enough for drive prices to come back down to reasonable levels. You can easily just add more/faster drive space later.
It does run BF3, from what looks like in Tom's benchmark. Ok, I'll get some moar space in the SSD. As for the green drive, I just want it to be as quiet as possibile, so that's why I'll get a Caviar Green. Thanks to everyone
If you're planning to overclock that i5 2500K, I'd look more towards the Coolermaster Hyper212 line.... The Freezer 13 Pro is excellent if your goal is quiet computing at stock clocks, but owning a Freezer 13 myself, I wouldn't want to push an i5 2500K to any worthwhile clocks using either of the Freezer 13 models.
I'm using the Freezer 13 and currently got it OC to 4.0GHz at ~1.224 Vcore, Prime95 takes the temperature to 62C max with ambient temp of ~22C. But, if I were doing some serious overclocking (beyond 4.5GHz) then I'll definitely be looking at a better cooler (Arctic have released the i30 recently which is again, quiet and effective for the price). One point I will make is to buy RAM that don't have stupid heatsink fins which stick out an inch. I made that mistake, don't you do it too!
I'll get Kingston HyperX RAMs which are low-profile. Also, is getting liquid cooling(H80) worth da money or it's best if I stick with air cooling?