Please Critique This Build for a Gaming Computer

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belaflek73

New Member
Hi everyone this is my first post. I'm a gaming enthusiast looking to build a gaming computer. I'm lame and won't be building this myself (I know my limitations). I was considering going through ibuypower because a friend of mine had a good experience with them. I'm a little at odds on choosing parts. I'm not that budget restricted, but I don't want to spend foolishly either. My goal is to build a computer that can handle just about any game out there on the highest video settings and be able to run my Cakewalk program which is a music recording program. I also want something that will run quiet.

What I'm afraid of is building a computer with say the world's best graphics card and the world's worst motherboard. I want to avoid the proverbial $4000 car stereo in a car worth $500 if you know what I mean. Anyways here's 2 build options I have if anyone can comment on which is better or general suggestions that would be great. Thank you.

Build 1 - and I will have them do 20% overclocking
PRICE: $2669

case: full tower Thermaltake Armor+
processor: intel i7-2600k
processor cooling: Asetek 550LC Liquid CPU Cooling System (Intel) with standard 120mm Fan
memory: 16 GB [4 GB X 4] DDR3-1600 corsair vengeance
video card: NVIDIA Geforce GTX 580 1.5GB
motherboard: [SLI] ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe -- 2GB LAN, 3x PCI-E x16, 4x USB 3.0, On-Board Bluetooth, Lucid Virtu Technology
SSD Cache: 30 GB Kingston SSDNow V Series [Is this necessary?]
power supply: 1200 Watt Thermaltake TR2 TRX-1200M
primary hard drive: 60 GB ADATA S511 SSD [Read: 550 MB/s, Write: 500 MB/s]
2nd hard drive: 2 TB HARD DRIVE [64M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0 Gb/s
optical drive: [12X Blu-Ray] Pioneer Blu-ray Re-Writer, DVD +-R/+-RW burner combo
sound card: creative labs sound blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatality Champion Series

Build 2 - everything the same except the following (still 20% overclocked)
PRICE - $3311

processor: intel i7-980x processor extreme edition
memory: 12 GB [4 GB X 3] DDR3-1600 corsair vengeance
motherboard: [3-way SLI] ASUS Rampage III Extreme w/4x PCI-E 2.0 x16 USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s RAID
 
CPU - could consider cheaper core i5 2500K. However, since you are spending that much of money, i don't think that extra $100 bother you

SSD cache - i don't think you need that as you use ssd for primary drive

RAM - do you really need 16GB? I think 2 x 4GB should enough


PSU - i am not sure the need of 1200W. 1000w should be enough.
optical drive - do you really need blu-ray writer? most ppl would get BD-combo
 
650-750w PSU is just fine for you.

That is a lot of money for a computer. Do you need liquid cooling? Air cooling is just fine if you get proper airflow.

You should consider building yourself. You could build a comparable machine for about $1000-1500.

16Gb is too much. You won't be using over 8GB gaming.
 
Thanks. I want to future proof this computer to an extent too.

This is what I have now:

Dell Studio XPS 8000
processor: Intel Core i7 CPU 860 @2.8 GHz
memory: 8 GB ram
video card: NVidia Geforce GTS 240

i can run games but they skip. I can not run Witcher 2 on the highest settings...it's very hesitant and jumpy. I have tons of free memory on the computer and I don't have any viruses or junk on it. What do you think is the limiting factor? not the ram right?
 
I think the efficiency of the PSU goes down a bit but I am not completely sure on that. There are some PSU gurus here hopefully they will some by and answer that for you better than I can.
 
I never took a computer science class i guess it would matter if your idle power usage is somehow higher with a higher power supply. Then you could argue it's more expensive to run your computer. But that's still a financial arguement. I wonder if anything bad could happen? Otherwise if you have the money what better way to future proof your computer than getting a say 1500w power supply?

I know 1500w is way more than you need and a waste of money but can it harm the computer? Does it generate more heat?
 
Yes a bit. You got it with the financial part but I'll take you through the calculations since it would be a bit hard to explain otherwise


Input (I) = Output (O)/Efficiency (E)

For an 850 watt with 85% efficiency

I = 850 (watts)/.85 (85% Efficiency)

I = 1000 watts

When you subtract the output for the PSU from the input wattage, you get the left over wattage.

1000 – 850 =150 watts

So in producing 850 watts it takes 1000W from the wall and 150W is produced as heat. So yes a higher wattage unit will produce more heat because more energy will be used in producing the target wattage for the PSU.

I know that is probably more than you were looking for but I hope it helps.

In my opinion it is best to get a PSU that will support a multi card configuration if you ever think that you might run one. You were looking at a GTX 580. for one I would go for a good 650 watt. You could get away with less but with overclocking you want some head room. For SLI I would think that an 850 watt would be a minimum. I would probably shoot for a 950 watt or slightly above.

EDIT: nothing bad will happen. You will just be producing more heat and using more energy than you really need to.
 
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is there a way to calculate specifically how much you need?

for instance on the label for the geforce 580x it says:

Minimum power supply requirement: 750 W



Would that mean if i had 2 geforce 580x cars i would need a minimum of 1500W?

When you look at the power supply requirement of your components are they additive...meaning do you total them up when figuring out how to buy the right power supply?
 
What you really need to look at is how many Amps are on the 12v Rail(s). Also, if you have a 1,200 Watt power supply, and you only use 400 watts max (what you would probably be using with build 1) constantly, you are well below 50% usage. Running a power supply like that can cause ripples and varying voltage spikes. It is best to get a power supply that is close to your max TDP wattage, which is based off all of your items, so you have the efficiency of the voltages, and so on.
 
no, one i think the 580 needs a like 600w to have some headroom, not sure where the 750 came from, and that is the amount for the entire system, for 2 580's you only need like 800 i think, and btw that is a horrable psu in the original post, didn't read the others, can you post the current build you have in mind, preferably with links to the part's pages.
 
belaflek73 said:
is there a way to calculate specifically how much you need?
Click to expand...

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp
This can give you a good idea of what the system needs

belaflek73 said:
When you look at the power supply requirement of your components are they additive...meaning do you total them up when figuring out how to buy the right power supply?
Click to expand...

Sometimes. you can total up some of the components. For example the i7 2600K is a 95w CPU. So at stock it will use 95w. Although once you start overclocking and raising the voltages you go over the 95w that it was originally going to draw.

Take a look at what the GTX 580 actually pulls while at load. Maybe that can clear up some of the confusion
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-580-review/7
 
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