11 replies to this topic

[Kirec]

Hey guys, I've decided it's time to upgrade.  My machine is old as the hills and performance in just about everything suffers (badly, in some cases), so I'm biting the bullet.  The idea is to buy something that will be viable for 3-5 years in the future, with an emphasis on GW2.  The only thing I really know is that Intel > AMD for GW2...or so I read, anyway.

I'm not the best at this stuff, I really only know enough to be dangerous to myself!  Any feedback from those wiser than me is much appreciated.

Build link: http://www.ibuypower..._-_X79/w/143541

Case 1 x Raidmax Orion Gaming Case-Black Case Lighting 0 x None- iBUYPOWER Labs - Noise Reduction 0 x None- iBUYPOWER Labs - Internal Expansion 0 x None- Processor 1 x Intel® Core™ i7 3820 Processor (4x 3.60GHz/10MB L3 Cache)-Intel Core i7 3820 iBUYPOWER PowerDrive 0 x None- Processor Cooling 1 x Liquid CPU Cooling System [SOCKET-2011]-Standard 120mm Fan Memory 1 x 16 GB [8 GB x2] DDR3-1600 Memory Module-Corsair or Major Brand Video Card 1 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 - 2GB-Single Card Video Card Brand 1 x Major Brand Powered by AMD or NVIDIA- Free Stuff 1 x [FREE Game Voucher] Assassins Creed III-Free with purchase of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650Ti or above Motherboard 1 x Gigabyte GA-X79-UP4 -- 4x PCI-E 2.0 x16- Power Supply 1 x 750 Watt - Thermaltake TR2 TRX-750M-Free Upgrade to 850 Watt Thermaltake SP-850M ($30 Savings) Primary Hard Drive 1 x 2 TB HARD DRIVE -- 64M Cache, 7200rpm, 6.0Gb/s-Single Drive Data Hard Drive 0 x None- Optical Drive 1 x 24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive-Black 2nd Optical Drive 0 x None- Flash Media Reader / Writer 0 x None- Meter Display 0 x None- USB Expansion 0 x None- Sound Card 1 x 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard- Network Card 1 x Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100)- Operating System 1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel)-64-Bit Monitor 0 x None- 2nd Monitor 0 x None- Speaker System 0 x None- Video Camera 0 x None- Case Engraving Service 0 x None- Warranty 1 x 3 Year Standard Warranty Service- Rush Service 1 x Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee)-No Rush Service, Estimate Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days Subtotal* $1222.00 (plus tax & shipping)

[DoctorDyna]

Looks like a decent computer. I might opt to get parts from Newegg and build it myself though, I noticed you didn't pick any of the overclocking options, yet you have a liquid cooling system, which is probably unnecessary and expensive if you're going to run the processor at stock speeds.

If you piece the machine together yourself, you can probably save enough to jump up to a better video card.

Also, with only one hard drive and a single slot video card, you probably don't need the big honking case either, unless you're planning on adding a bunch of stuff to it.

[Kirec]

Oops! The liquid cooling just comes standard, but I meant to add the 20 percent overclock.  Hoping it helps with wvw madness, haha.  Thanks for the feedback - fortunately I'm not hurting for cash TOO much, so letting someone else build sounds much less stressful to me.

[Zerk2012]

Kirec, on 16 November 2012 - 01:36 PM, said:

Oops! The liquid cooling just comes standard, but I meant to add the 20 percent overclock.  Hoping it helps with wvw madness, haha.  Thanks for the feedback - fortunately I'm not hurting for cash TOO much, so letting someone else build sounds much less stressful to me.

I would change the memory to the X instead of major brand this usally means the cheapest stuff they can get made for them, corsair 650 with the free upgrade to the 750, get the 660ti video card and get away from that 2tb HDD for the main drive. If this is mainly for gaming overall bad build for the $

Edited by Zerk2012, 16 November 2012 - 11:26 PM.

[Quaker]

I don't see any specific issues with the build, but an i7-3820 is overkill for gaming. You don't really need any more than an i5-3570.

Edit - oops, I do see a problem. The i7-3820 is a socket2011 CPU that can use quad channel RAM for best performance, but you only have 2 RAM sticks. it would be better to get 4x4Gig than 2x8Gig.
(Or 2x8Gig with a 3570.)

Edited by Quaker, 17 November 2012 - 05:17 PM.

[Kirec]

Thanks a ton for the feedback guys!

Zerk2012, on 16 November 2012 - 11:26 PM, said:

I would change the memory to the X instead of major brand this usally means the cheapest stuff they can get made for them, corsair 650 with the free upgrade to the 750, get the 660ti video card and get away from that 2tb HDD for the main drive. If this is mainly for gaming overall bad build for the $

Are you recommending an SSD instead of the HDD?  Or just a smaller HDD?  I'll upgrade the memory - thanks!

Quaker, on 17 November 2012 - 05:14 PM, said:

I don't see any specific issues with the build, but an i7-3820 is overkill for gaming. You don't really need any more than an i5-3570.

Edit - oops, I do see a problem. The i7-3820 is a socket2011 CPU that can use quad channel RAM for best performance, but you only have 2 RAM sticks. it would be better to get 4x4Gig than 2x8Gig.
(Or 2x8Gig with a 3570.)

I hear hyperthreading is good for 3D modeling, which I do professionally, and will likely be doing on this computer in the future.  However, I may go with the i7-3770k.  Should I still go with 4x4 memory if I go that direction?

For further discussion, is there zero chance that the hyperthreading would be of any use on games in the future?  I know in the past (pentium era I think?) hyperthreading helped (fewer cores) - I guess the gamble is whether or not developers can/will make use of it in the future?

Thanks again for the replies!

[typographie]

I don't really see where the -3820 has any real advantages over the other i7 options available. The i7-3770K is more power-efficient, uses a cheaper platform and is probably just as fast. I think you really need to move up to the i7-3930X to make LGA-2011 worth it.

The i7-3820 is the cheapest way to get quad-channel memory, and that's a difference that shows up more in synthetic benchmarks than actual usage.

Kirec, on 18 November 2012 - 12:17 AM, said:

Should I still go with 4x4 memory if I go that direction?

Only the LGA-2011 platform addresses quad-channel memory. The -3770K uses dual-channel. You could use either 4x4 or 2x8, but the latter would keep two of your RAM slots free for upgrades later.

Kirec, on 16 November 2012 - 01:36 PM, said:

The liquid cooling just comes standard, but I meant to add the 20 percent overclock.

In my opinion, save the money and just do it yourself.

[Zerk2012]

Kirec, on 18 November 2012 - 12:17 AM, said:

Thanks a ton for the feedback guys!



Are you recommending an SSD instead of the HDD?  Or just a smaller HDD?  I'll upgrade the memory - thanks!

A smaller 1TB HDD.

[Kirec]

typographie, on 18 November 2012 - 12:55 AM, said:

In my opinion, save the money and just do it yourself.

Thanks typo!  I'm actually going with the 3770k after all - but I've never overclocked anything.  As I understand it, the "K" means it is easier to do, and can be done through the BIOS?

I'll have to read up on it more, but my understanding is I can probably get more than 20%, too.  Problem is, I have zero experience and don't want to blow it up!  Any tips, or links that would be of use?

Thanks again!

[Quaker]

As games and apps become more highly threaded, HT or more cores becomes more useful. So then it becomes a budgetary choice whether to go to an i7 over an i5. I'd suggest the i7-3770K rather than the 3820.

All the (DDR3) RAM is the same. A "quad-channel" kit is simply 4 identical RAM sticks packaged together. You'd get the same results from 4 single sticks or 2 dual-channel kits.
The i7-3770 uses dual channel access, so it would be better to get 2x8Gig. The 3820 uses quad-channel access, so 4x4Gig would be better. There appears to be very little actual performance advantage to quad-channel - mostly because of the large caches in modern CPUs.

20% overclock is barely noticeable. I wouldn't pay extra for it. (I wouldn't even bother to do it )

Edited by Quaker, 18 November 2012 - 03:52 PM.

[Zerk2012]

Kirec, on 18 November 2012 - 02:13 PM, said:

Thanks typo!  I'm actually going with the 3770k after all - but I've never overclocked anything.  As I understand it, the "K" means it is easier to do, and can be done through the BIOS?

I'll have to read up on it more, but my understanding is I can probably get more than 20%, too.  Problem is, I have zero experience and don't want to blow it up!  Any tips, or links that would be of use?

Thanks again!

Do a simple google put in your mother board model and overclocking. Most boards today have a utility that will do fine for a small overclock with a few clicks of the mouse.

[typographie]

Kirec, on 18 November 2012 - 02:13 PM, said:

Problem is, I have zero experience and don't want to blow it up!  Any tips, or links that would be of use?

I would recommend reading up a bit on it, as there is technically some risk involved and you'll want to make sure you're totally comfortable with it on your own. But once you get past that initial phase you'll realize its very simple and that there's very little risk unless you really go overboard with it.

Or you can do what Quaker suggests and leave it at stock. Ivy Bridge is fast, efficient and elegant at its stock settings, and increasing its power usage, noise and temperature for a marginal performance increase is, well, of arguable value. I just don't think you should have to pay for something that can pretty easily be done yourself.

Edited by typographie, 18 November 2012 - 07:34 PM.