New gaming build.

[AdamG1401]

Hey guys!

Was watching the livestream and figured I'd try it out! The forums quite good so I figured I'd post some stuff!

Here's some photos and specs regarding my new "gaming" rig.

For my CPU, I'm using an FX 8150 overclocked to 4GHz. Performance is ok, temps SEEM fine but I know how innacurate the AMD temps can be so ...

On the GPU side, I'm running two way SLI with 2 ASUS nVidia GTX 550 Ti's. Running them overclocked by about 10% and getting okay-ish temps on air.

RAM is 8GB's of Corsair Vengance 1600MHz.

Motherboard is an ASRock 990FX Extreme 3. I am however, upgrading to either an 990FX Extreme 4/Fatal1ty or an ASUS Sabertooth.

PSU is an OCZ ZS series 650W

Storage is done by a 2TB Seagate Barracuda, but I plan to put in an OCZ Vertex 3 SSD soon for the boot.

Finally, I've got an ASUS Xonar DX PCI audio card.

The perforamce in most games is fine, framerates above 50 FPS on ULTRA in most games. I can usually rocorg using FRAPS and still get around 30 FPS too!

I know, I know, I'm HEAVILY botlleknecked by my GPU's but they are seriously the best I could do, considering that I already had one and my budget was only around 700 quid.

Anyone got any ideas on upgrades or things I could do with the system for a better overall rig?

[zephiK]

Either the GPU or get a new motherboard/cpu combo to a Ivy Bridge (i5-3570K) and Z77.

[AdamG1401]

Yeah, I was thinking either a 580 or 590, maybe something else, not too sure on what actual new card to get! I was thinking about going Intel, but I just don't have a budget that allows for a decent Intel spec, so I was figuring just overclock on AMD? Dunno man. Thanks for the suggestions! :-)

[zephiK]

Yeah' date=' I was thinking either a 580 or 590, maybe something else, not too sure on what actual new card to get! I was thinking about going Intel, but I just don't have a budget that allows for a decent Intel spec, so I was figuring just overclock on AMD? Dunno man. Thanks for the suggestions! :-)[/quote']

Not sure where you live but if you live in U.S. near a Microcenter. You'd be in a great deal for a Intel Z77 CPU/motherboard combo. They sell REALLY REALLY well at Microcenter.

They were selling a 3570K for like ~$160. You could get a mobo and 3570k for ~$280ish probably from microcenter.

[Coonmeister Funkyfresh]

Yeah, I was thinking either a 580 or 590, maybe something else, not too sure on what actual new card to get! I was thinking about going Intel, but I just don't have a budget that allows for a decent Intel spec, so I was figuring just overclock on AMD? Dunno man. Thanks for the suggestions! :-)

HD 7950 is the way to go in terms of "bang for the buck". I'd also upgrade to Intel tbh.

[AdamG1401]

Yeah, I had looked at 7950 and 7970's. SO much cheaper than nVidia counterparts. I'd probably get 2 7950's and Crossfire X them or really gather the funds and get one of those Powercoulor 7990's :D. Ufortunatley I'm in Great Britain and there isn't much I can find in the way of like, really decent Intel stuff in my budget range tbh. I'm kinda holding out for something decent to come from AMD soon, maybe at CES, but i'll probably end up getting an Intel platform soon. AMD really need to do something to keep up man. :(

[christoi]

I know' date=' I know, I'm HEAVILY botlleknecked by my GPU's but they are seriously the best I could do, considering that I already had one and my budget was only around 700 quid. [/quote']

It seems more like you are CPU bottlenecked actually, the vast majority of games only utilize 2-4 cores, given the per-core performance of the 8150 is rather mediocre, it's probably more of the bottleneck. Upgrading either would still yield performance increases, but it's worth keeping that in mind. If you are going to upgrade the motherboard however, you might as well upgrade the CPU with it, given that the two are tied closely together.

Also, what monitor configuration are you using? If it's a 1080p display or worse, then there's really no point getting more than a single HD7950/7970 at this point, I would really only recommend crossfire for multi-monitor setups (especially since there's usually a number of issues that come with it).

[The Scanner Darkly]

Yeah your CPU is the bottleneck, the current AMD CPUs are horribly under-performing right now which is a shame. You'd get more performance per dollar/pound by upgrading your CPU, but if you have the money you'll want to upgrade both.

[AdamG1401]

I dunno man. I figured the CPU was fine for just my games cause when I record gameplay, i'm not losing many fps a tall, which, kinda made me thing the CPU had a lot of extra room to spare. I'm not going Intel just yet, I'll most likely wait for Haswell or something. Well, I'm mostly on single 1080p gaming with a 720p monitor as an auxilliary for temp readouts and stuff. I know CF and SLI tend to cause more problems than they solve, but 100% of the games I play have had no issues whatsoever and performance indicates that it they are all using both GPU's. Idk, I do sli and cf for the looks of it mainly, I'd rather have 2 big cards than 1. bit of a lame reason but there you go. so you guys are saying an Ivy Bride 3570K? maybe. all depends on money :/.

[zephiK]

I dunno man. I figured the CPU was fine for just my games cause when I record gameplay' date=' i'm not losing many fps a tall, which, kinda made me thing the CPU had a lot of extra room to spare. I'm not going Intel just yet, I'll most likely wait for Haswell or something. Well, I'm mostly on single 1080p gaming with a 720p monitor as an auxilliary for temp readouts and stuff. I know CF and SLI tend to cause more problems than they solve, but 100% of the games I play have had no issues whatsoever and performance indicates that it they are all using both GPU's. Idk, I do sli and cf for the looks of it mainly, I'd rather have 2 big cards than 1. bit of a lame reason but there you go. so you guys are saying an Ivy Bride 3570K? maybe. all depends on money :/. [/quote']

Yup, a Ivy Bridge 3570K is what you'd want.