Should I alter this Spec for a gaming rig?

G

GooberTheHat

Member
I am looking to buy a new gaming PC, I want it to be able to run BF3 and other games with similar demands.


I am currently going with a 3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 590 graphics card and 6GB KINGSTON HYPER-X T1 TRI-DDR3 2000MHz RAM. What I really want to know is would I be better off opting for two 1.5GB cards and/or more RAM (12GB) at a slower speed (1666mhz)?

Thanks for any advice.

Case
COOLERMASTER COSMOS 1000 SILVER SILENT CASE

Overclocked CPU
OverClocked Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-960 (3.20GHz @ max 3.8GHz)

OC Settings
CPU RATIO: 19
BCLK FREQ: 200
DRAM: 1603
UCLK: auto
CPU VOL: 1.3
QPI/DRAM: auto
DRAM BUS: 1.65
HYPER THREADING: enabled
SPEEDSTEP: enabled

NOTE: OverClock settings are configured by PC Specialist. They are here for your reference should you ever reset your BIOS.

Motherboard
ASUS® P6X58D-E: DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, 3-Way SLI

Memory (RAM)
6GB KINGSTON HYPER-X T1 TRI-DDR3 2000MHz, X.M.P (3 x 2GB KIT)

Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 590 - 2 DVI,mHDMI - 3D Vision Ready

2nd Graphics Card
NONE

3rd Graphics Card
NONE

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
80GB INTEL® 320 SERIES SSD, SATA 3 Gb/s (upto 270MB/sR | 90MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

RAID
NONE

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY RE-WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£79)

2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NONE

Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W PRO SERIES™ HX750-80 PLUS® SILVER MODULAR (£116)

Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO II C240 A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£99)

Thermal Paste
ARCTIC COOLING MX-3 HIGH THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)

Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs

USB Options
NZXT INTERNAL USB HEADER (4 Additional Powered Internal USB Ports) (£18)

Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

Floppy Disk Drive
NONE

Firewire & Video Editing
NONE

TV Card
NONE

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£109)

Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)

Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

Monitor
ASUS VG236HE 23" 120Hz 3D LCD, HDMI/DVI-D HD, 1920x1080 (£235)

2nd Monitor
NONE

DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE GOLD PLATED V1.4 HDMI CABLE (£8)

Eyefinity / GeForce 3D Vision
NVIDIA GEFORCE 3D VISION WIRELESS STEREOSCOPIC KIT (£109)

Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® G110 GAMING KEYBOARD WITH BACKLIGHTING (£58)

Mouse
LOGITECH® G700 WIRELESS LASER GAMING MOUSE (£68)

Speakers
NONE

Webcam
NONE

Headsets (VOIP)
NONE

Surge Protection
6 Socket Compact 2M UFO Surge Protector + Auto Power Off Function (£19)

Printer
NONE

External Hard Drive
NONE

Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

Home Installation
NONE

Data Recovery
NONE

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
 
sharplucas

sharplucas

Bronze Level Poster
Ok, well first off A Gtx 590 is more than enough to run Bf3 On max settings but if it's in your budget go with 2 Gtx 580's In SLI it's up to you though because you could get one Gtx 590 now and buy another later and SLI them and that would be very powerful!

Also you don't need advanced water-cooling unless your overclocking (but in my opinion it's good to go with water-cooling if your running 2 graphics cards) but it's up to you would be fine without water-cooling.

6gb of ram is more than enough for most games it's rare that you'll even go over 6Gb because 4gb's is more than enough but stick with the 1666mhz if your Overclocking other than that it's an awesome spec!
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
@sharplucas, watercooling would have no effect on the graphics card, its only for the CPU

590s get extremely hot so you probably would need a custom watercooling setup, so i recommend 2 580s which will stay much cooler

also does the cosmos have a side fan? if it doesnt i recommend getting a case with a big one
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
also on the alpha, even the 570 outperformed the 590 on bf3, and the 580 was the best results, just saying

also 590s are very hard to get and may leave you waiting a long while if PCS dont have any or it ends up breaking
 
G

GooberTheHat

Member
sharplucas said:
6gb of ram is more than enough for most games it's rare that you'll even go over 6Gb because 4gb's is more than enough but stick with the 1666mhz if your Overclocking other than that it's an awesome spec!
Click to expand...

Is there a reason to go with the 1600mhz rather than the 2000mhz I currently have because of the overclocking?

Also, Wozza, I can't really stretch to to 3GB 580's. would you recommend getting one and then getting a second later, or get one 590 and upgrade to a second later?
 
Tracker

Tracker

Enthusiast
Wozza365 said:
@sharplucas, watercooling would have no effect on the graphics card, its only for the CPU

590s get extremely hot so you probably would need a custom watercooling setup, so i recommend 2 580s which will stay much cooler
Click to expand...

Watercooling the CPU means that the heat is travelling through the water inside the tubing and is being vented directly out the back of the case, as opposed to air coolers which vent hot air into the case, which is then in turn vented out the back, watercooling more efficiently cools processors and can lower overall case temps (depending on case).

twin 590's will undoubtedly get toasty, definately a job for the bigger cases if thats what you're aiming for.

the extra memory on the 580s (3gb vs 1.5gb) will only come into play when you're going to extreme resolutions (typically multi monitor setups), this is where the 590 falls down, as it only has 3gb (1.5gb for each card) vs the 580 3gb model, which is why a pair of 580 3gb's will eat a GTX590 alive at extremely high resolutions (e.g, 2400 x 1080 and higher), you pay a biiig price premium for this though.

the difference between 2000mhz and 1600 mhz memory is only a tiny tiny gain, though there is a reasonable gain between 1333 and 1600 when you've overclocked, so stick with 1600mhz as the sweet spot.

Alternatively, have you considered going for one of the newer i7 processors, namely the i7-2600? in the vast majority of games and the like, fewer faster processors will outrun greater numbers of slower processors so you may find that performance gain is quite pronounced, especially if BF3 is as cpu reliant as BC2 was. I'll be very suprised if BF3 is able to take full advantage of all six cores on the 960, specially seeing as most people are still using dual core / quad core machines, it's definately something to look into.
 
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G

GooberTheHat

Member
@ traker

Thanks for your advice, I am only looking at running a one screen set-up, very occasionally a two monitor set-up. In my case would you recommend a single 590 or two 580s (I would have to buy the second at a later date)?
 
Teaz

Teaz

Godlike
You wouldnt even need an overclocked rig for bf3 and most of you i dont think its worthit to have an overclocked rig for gaming. the none overclocked spec has plenty of power on its own already. you can get 2 580s with a non overclocked sandy setup for about the same price which is alot better.

i would go for the sandy bridge spec. much better and cheaper.

you do not need more than 8gb for gaming. realistically, 4GB ram is enough to handle everything fine.

This spec sports 2 580s but 1 is plenty on its own to handle bf3 and other games (if not, there will certainly be problems) and its a non overclocked sandy setup which is recommend:

@Tracker the i7 960 is only a quad, not sic core :)

Case
COOLERMASTER COSMOS 1000 SILVER SILENT CASE i personaly dont recommend this case if youre going for 2 gpus, its somewhat lacking in my view. i recommend the raven rv03 which will give you better cooling for your gpus. if your going for 1 580 then this case or other gaming cases would be fine for cooling

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics non K variant i7 is fine as the K is for overclocking. you can overclock the non k variant but not to big crazy clocks as the K.

Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V PRO: USB 3.0, SATA 6GB/s, NVIDIA®SLI™, ATI®CrossFireX™

Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB) 8GB is plenty.

Graphics Card
1.5GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready 1.5gb is fine and plenty if you just plan to play it on any single screen unless you want to go for a multiple monitor setup, then you may want to go for the 3gb model.

2nd Graphics Card
1.5GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
80GB INTEL® 320 SERIES SSD, SATA 3 Gb/s (upto 270MB/sR | 90MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£45) since this is a gaming pc, im assuming you wont be writing/creating blu ray discs either which isnt a cheap thing to do, you can use your 2tb drive as your media. the blu ray rom drive does everything even watching/reading blu ray except creating/writing on blu ray discs. if you are planning to however then stick with the blu ray writer.

Power Supply
CORSAIR 1050W PRO SERIES™ HX1050-80 PLUS® SILVER MODULAR (£162)

Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO II A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£59) i would go for the smaller coolit cpu cooler. will be easier to manage.

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs

USB Options
NZXT INTERNAL USB HEADER (4 Additional Powered Internal USB Ports) (£18) not sure if you need internal usb headers or not but this case or other cases will provide you 2-4 of usbs along with more usbs from the motherboard itself.

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79) Not sure if you need the Pro Win7 or not but the home premium version is just the same as the Pro, the Pro just have a couple of extra features which will most likely not benefit you in gaming unless you wish to make use of those features like XP mode for something else? you can compare it here

Monitor
ASUS VG236HE 23" 120Hz 3D LCD, HDMI/DVI-D HD, 1920x1080 (£235)

DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE GOLD PLATED V1.4 HDMI CABLE (£8)

Eyefinity / GeForce 3D Vision
NVIDIA GEFORCE 3D VISION WIRELESS STEREOSCOPIC KIT (£109)

Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® G110 GAMING KEYBOARD WITH BACKLIGHTING (£58)

Mouse
LOGITECH® G700 WIRELESS LASER GAMING MOUSE (£68)

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Total: 2549

Configure it here :)

All this which is just roughly about the same or lower in price than the spec you came up with and is much better for your use.

you youre not looking to sli however then i would take out 1 580 and drop the psu down the the 750w mod psu.

In my view i would just recommend 1 580 or if you want to use multi monitors then a single 3gb 580 is fine.

Edit: woops, didnt see the other posts go up.
 
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Tracker

Tracker

Enthusiast
Conferring with Teaz's post, how you want to setup will depend on your intended target, Teaz's spec with a single 580 and a 2600 will be more than enough to handle BF3 at good framerates at good settings on a single monitor, if you want to max out settings and have everything on the highest detail levels it will go, you may need to improve the ystem by adding a second card or overclocking the cpu.

Obviously until it's released / properly benchmarked we can only speculate on the games performance, but judging from the previous iteration, bf BC 2, the game was actually alot more cpu dependant than most of its fps counterparts, so having a strong processor was important there, hence why it's important to have a strong cpu here to tie in with the powerful graphics card and elminate bottlenecks.

when deciding whether you're going to play multi monitor, it's important to note that typically multi monitor setups are three-screens, as this way the centre of your vision is actually on the middle screen, in a two monitor setup your centre of vision is actually the point between the two screens, and this feels awkard (imo), you may want to restrict games to the first screen alone and just stick to a single 580? depends on space / what you'd want to do with the extra screen.

only things i'd suggest to amend teaz's spec is ditch the watercooler completely on a non overclocked cpu as it's not needed, you'd be fine with a triple copper cooler, or a titan fenrir pro, and give serious consideration as to whether you want the extra 580, you could just get the one and add a second later on, the 580 in itself is still a monster of a card and you can't go far wrong with teaz's setup.
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
personally i think it will be 1.25GB 570 to max out at 45fps on 1080p, because it just wouldnt appeal to many people if they cant max out on their systems, which is why they will try optimizing performance as much as possible
 
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