16 replies to this topic

[Wynterarwyn]

Before the Launch of GW2 I turned to you guys for advice on building my computer for the game, and you guys helped me alot, I have great computer . Well Now I'm looking at putting one together for my hubby and I wanted to run it past you guys for some feedback. Please let me know what you think.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU:  Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($219.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard:  ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX  LGA1155 Motherboard  ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Memory:  G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($41.99 @ Newegg)
Storage:  Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card:  EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB Video Card  ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Case:  Cooler Master HAF 922 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($105.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply:  SeaSonic 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply  ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive:  Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer  ($22.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $775.91
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-27 04:21 EST-0500)

Thanks in advance,
Angel

Edited by Wynterarwyn, 27 November 2012 - 09:24 AM.

[Ezendor]

All seems good, although the 560 Ti is JUST about showing it's age now.  It's still a very powerful card though, and unless you want to play at high res with every setting at max, the 560 Ti will do just fine   About pricing I'm not too sure, cos I do not live anywhere near any country that uses USD. In fact, the states is literally the other side of the world.

[Quaker]

Two things:

- the i5 works best with a dual-channel RAM configuration. It would be best to get 2x4Gig rather than 1x8Gig.

- it would be better to get a newer GTX-6xx (or HD7xxx) series video card at around the same price as the 560 Ti. The GTX-660 (non-Ti), for example, costs about the same as the 560 Ti but outperforms it. Plus you get the minor advantage of PCIe 3.0

[Zerk2012]

Wynterarwyn, on 27 November 2012 - 09:24 AM, said:

Before the Launch of GW2 I turned to you guys for advice on building my computer for the game, and you guys helped me alot, I have great computer . Well Now I'm looking at putting one together for my hubby and I wanted to run it past you guys for some feedback. Please let me know what you think.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU:  Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($219.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard:  ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX  LGA1155 Motherboard  ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Memory:  G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($41.99 @ Newegg)
Storage:  Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card:  EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB Video Card  ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Case:  Cooler Master HAF 922 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($105.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply:  SeaSonic 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply  ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive:  Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer  ($22.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $775.91
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-27 04:21 EST-0500)

Thanks in advance,
Angel

Your math is not very good (you left the price of the HDD off) and I see wasted $ but came up to $855 after rebates and you left off the CPU coler and as above stated bad choice of memory.

Edited by Zerk2012, 28 November 2012 - 01:45 AM.

[Zerk2012]

Wynterarwyn, on 27 November 2012 - 09:24 AM, said:

Before the Launch of GW2 I turned to you guys for advice on building my computer for the game, and you guys helped me alot, I have great computer . Well Now I'm looking at putting one together for my hubby and I wanted to run it past you guys for some feedback. Please let me know what you think.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU:  Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($219.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard:  ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX  LGA1155 Motherboard  ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Memory:  G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($41.99 @ Newegg)
Storage:  Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card:  EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB Video Card  ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Case:  Cooler Master HAF 922 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($105.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply:  SeaSonic 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply  ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive:  Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer  ($22.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $775.91
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-27 04:21 EST-0500)

Thanks in advance,
Angel

This is the same price includes the CPU cooler you left off a SSD and HDD better video card more performance same price.
http://www.hwcompare...radeon-hd-7870/
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/pSfP

EDIT forgot to add everything else needed $14 more
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16812119270
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16835100007

Edited by Zerk2012, 28 November 2012 - 01:38 AM.

[Ezendor]

You hardly need a CPU cooler for the i series of chips...

[Zerk2012]

Ezendor, on 28 November 2012 - 03:44 AM, said:

You hardly need a CPU cooler for the i series of chips...

So you would buy a K series chip made to overclock and not add a CPU cooler when building it?

[Ezendor]

Zerk2012, on 28 November 2012 - 12:52 PM, said:

So you would buy a K series chip made to overclock and not add a CPU cooler when building it?

Some people do that, believe it or not.

[TGIFrisbie]

From my understanding Energy Efficient video cards are not the best choice for gaming.  I am not in the loop but I would suggest you research that.  I went with a Radeon 6850, was about the same price and handles the game well, but it too is a bit outdated and the FPS drops to as low as 15 in seriously heavy mass combat.

If you go dual ram sticks make sure you buy it as a pack, not as seperate sticks.  While the price may be cheaper as single sticks some companies will lay blame on the fact they weren't tested as a set if you happen to get a failure.  This is 100% true in G.Skill's case, I bought a matched set and still had one fail initially.

[Quaker]

GPUs, like CPUs, have simply become more "energy efficient" in general. There are no specifically energy efficient cards that I'm aware of. For example, a GTX-660 outperforms a GTX-560 Ti, and consumes less power to do it. The key word is "outperforms".

Actually, the main advantage to buying RAM in packs, rather than individually, is that you are sure to get sticks that are the same - same batch, same specs, etc. However, it's not mandatory that you buy packs. The OP could buy a single stick of 8Gig now and add another one later to get dual-channel performance. But, the OP would need to be sure that the new RAM has the same basic specs as the old RAM.
I doubt that the failure rate is affected by buying packs - the RAM all comes from the same source and is (not) tested the same way.

[TGIFrisbie]

Quaker, on 28 November 2012 - 03:52 PM, said:

GPUs, like CPUs, have simply become more "energy efficient" in general. There are no specifically energy efficient cards that I'm aware of. For example, a GTX-660 outperforms a GTX-560 Ti, and consumes less power to do it. The key word is "outperforms".

Actually, the main advantage to buying RAM in packs, rather than individually, is that you are sure to get sticks that are the same - same batch, same specs, etc. However, it's not mandatory that you buy packs. The OP could buy a single stick of 8Gig now and add another one later to get dual-channel performance. But, the OP would need to be sure that the new RAM has the same basic specs as the old RAM.
I doubt that the failure rate is affected by buying packs - the RAM all comes from the same source and is (not) tested the same way.

Warning you now, with Gskill, if you buy 2 seperate sticks and have one fail they will fault the fact you didn't buy them as a set.  Don't believe me?  Go read Newegg ratings, anyone that had a failure involving multiple sticks will have GSkill reply they should buy them in sets, not seperate.  You can dispute me all you want, you can't dispute the company that sells the item, is it a cover up for faulty units?  I believe so, but this is their public statement.

[Zerk2012]

TGIFrisbie, on 28 November 2012 - 04:28 PM, said:

Warning you now, with Gskill, if you buy 2 seperate sticks and have one fail they will fault the fact you didn't buy them as a set.  Don't believe me?  Go read Newegg ratings, anyone that had a failure involving multiple sticks will have GSkill reply they should buy them in sets, not seperate.  You can dispute me all you want, you can't dispute the company that sells the item, is it a cover up for faulty units?  I believe so, but this is their public statement.

Well you need to get your facts straight. If you buy a  single 4GB stick and use it then order anouther 4GB stick of the same ram and it does not play nice with each other that's your problem. When you buy a motherboard and it states dual channel memory such as this it's telling you to buy dual channel memory sticks not one stick it's a matching pair.
Memory
Number of Memory Slots 4×240pin Memory Standard DDR3 2800+(OC)/2400(OC)/2133(OC)/1866(OC)/1600/1333/1066 Maximum Memory Supported 32GB Channel Supported Dual Channel   
Now if you do buy 2 seprate sticks and one fails out right will not work in your PC if it's installed by itself Gskill has a lifetime warranety no questions asked. Same thing if you buy dual channel memory and one stick fails they replace both sticks. Dual channel memory is not sold one stick at a time.
Also this made me LOL.

Posted Yesterday, 02:23 PM

From my understanding Energy Efficient video cards are not the best choice for gaming

Edited by Zerk2012, 29 November 2012 - 12:13 AM.

[TGIFrisbie]

Zerk2012, on 28 November 2012 - 11:47 PM, said:

Well you need to get your facts straight. If you buy a  single 4GB stick and use it then order anouther 4GB stick of the same ram and it does not play nice with each other that's your problem. When you buy a motherboard and it states dual channel memory such as this it's telling you to buy dual channel memory sticks not one stick it's a matching pair.
Memory
Number of Memory Slots 4×240pin Memory Standard DDR3 2800+(OC)/2400(OC)/2133(OC)/1866(OC)/1600/1333/1066 Maximum Memory Supported 32GB Channel Supported Dual Channel   
Now if you do buy 2 seprate sticks and one fails out right will not work in your PC if it's installed by itself Gskill has a lifetime warranety no questions asked. Same thing if you buy dual channel memory and one stick fails they replace both sticks.

Uh guy, my facts are 100% straight.  Here in caps so you might be able to read them:

IF YOU BUY SEPERATE STICKS OF RAM THAT ARE MADE BY GSKILL AND THEY FAIL IN COMBINATION GSKILL WILL FAULT YOU FOR NOT BUYING THEM IN A PACK SET.

That IS the facts, like I have stated.  Anything you put forth has NO bearing on that fact.  I didn't state any OTHER fact concerning this.

You are just off on some tangent about how it doesn't matter, I am stating a fact that concerns the OPs choice for Ram by COMPANY, GSKILL.

[Zerk2012]

TGIFrisbie, on 29 November 2012 - 12:03 AM, said:

Uh guy, my facts are 100% straight.  Here in caps so you might be able to read them:

IF YOU BUY SEPERATE STICKS OF RAM THAT ARE MADE BY GSKILL AND THEY FAIL IN COMBINATION GSKILL WILL FAULT YOU FOR NOT BUYING THEM IN A PACK SET.

That IS the facts, like I have stated.  Anything you put forth has NO bearing on that fact.  I didn't state any OTHER fact concerning this.

You are just off on some tangent about how it doesn't matter, I am stating a fact that concerns the OPs choice for Ram by COMPANY, GSKILL.

Well just to set you in the right direction this is what you said.
If you go dual ram sticks make sure you buy it as a pack, not as seperate sticks. While the price may be cheaper as single sticks some companies will lay blame on the fact they weren't tested as a set if you happen to get a failure. This is 100% true in G.Skill's case, I bought a matched set and still had one fail initially.
This tells me 2 things 1 you know nothing about buying memory caps so you can read it YOU CAN NOT BUY MATCHING RAM ONE STICK AT A TIME IT COMES IN A 2 PACK THUS THE WORD MATCHING.
2 your memory did not play nice together if you had a actually bad stick that would not work in your PC as in the ram was dead then it's covered under warranety.

[Quaker]

TGIFrisbie, on 29 November 2012 - 12:03 AM, said:

IF YOU BUY SEPERATE STICKS OF RAM THAT ARE MADE BY GSKILL AND THEY FAIL IN COMBINATION GSKILL WILL FAULT YOU FOR NOT BUYING THEM IN A PACK SET.

Part of your problem is your use of the word "fail" or "failure". In the above quote from G.Skill they are referring to the RAMs not working "in combination". It's not that either RAM "fails", it's that they won't work together. G.Skill is saying "It's not our fault that you bought the wrong RAM". Duh.

This goes back to what I said about buying identical RAM. Obviously, if you buy one stick of DDR3-1333 and try to use it with a stick of DDR3-1600, you could have some "combination" issues. The same holds true if you get one stick of DDR3-1600 with 9-9-9-24 timings and try to run it with a stick with 8-8-8-21 timings, etc. (Especially if the motherboard tries to run both sticks with the 8-8-8-21 timings.)

However, if you were to buy 2 of these (separately) - http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16820231313
It would be the same as buying one of these - http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16820231314

It's all the same RAM, just that in one case 2 RAM sticks come in the same package. (You could also buy 2 of the Dual-channel kits to us in a quad-channel motherboard (socket2011).

Note#1, there is very little (if any) actual factory testing of RAM modules. Because of the low failure rate, it's cheaper for the company to simply replace bad RAM that the customer returns, rather than test it all.

I got a RAM stick once that actually had a loose capacitor sitting under one of the memory chips in such a way that half of the memory chip's legs were not contacting the circuit board. It was obvious once you looked at the stick, but no-one noticed until after I put it in the motherboard and it didn't work.

Note #2 - there is no such actual thing (at this time) as "dual-channel RAM" (not counting some specialty graphics RAM). They are all single channel sticks. It's the CPU that has single-, dual-, triple, or quad-channel "access". A "dual-channel" RAM kit is merely two single channel sticks packaged together.

Edited by Quaker, 29 November 2012 - 03:48 PM.

[Wynterarwyn]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

[Lord Sojar]

I should note that GSkill RAM is matched on the individual level when it comes back from fab.  They pair it with the best compatible stick they have from a given batch, repeating that until there no more perfectly compatible sticks in that batch.  Those sticks that weren't paired  are then recycled back into the next batch.  If after 3 batches, no match is found, they are discarded and fabcycled back out.    

So... yes, you buy GSkill RAM in pairs always.  There really are no companies that have better overall RAM than GSkill at this point.  Corsair went down the tubes a few years ago, Geil as well.  Kingston is hanging in there, and Crucial has made somewhat of a comeback, but otherwise, meh @ the rest.