Planning New Build

[jailer]

hi all just joined and love the site already tons of useful info .. as to which i'm hoping to get some now

 

i'm in the process of building a gaming rig and wondered if this is a balanced system (bottlenecks)  for a high end gaming rig

 

motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3

 

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4GHz Socket AM3+

 

Graphics Card: ASUS GTX 680 DirectCU II

 

Storage: Sandisk 120gig SSD / WD Caviar Green 2TB

 

PSU: OCZ ZX Series 1000W 80+ GOLD PSU Fully Modular

 

Sound: Creative SoundBlaster Recon3D PCI-E

 

RAM: Crucial 16Gig  DDR3 1866Mhz Ballistix Tactical Memory

 

Speakers: Logitech Z906 Surround Sound 5.1

 

Case: Coolermaster 690 II Advanced NVIDIA Edition

 

Monitor: Asus VG278HE 27" LCD

 

any help will be greatly helpful and thanks in advance

[Emkryan]

For the same price you can get a much better case, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119240

And the psu is way overkill. Save money and get a Corsair PSU and buy the sleeved cables for it

[Reaceskoda]

The build looks great, the only thing i would consider changing is the 1000W power supply. 1000 Watts is a bit overkill for a rig like this, in fact a nice 600W-700W PSU would be just as good. If your looking to change your PSU, some of the higher end Seasonic's like the X and the Platinum series would be great alternatives, while still being fully modular and also having all black cables to make your build look just that little bit cleaner. Also, you might want to consider getting a aftermarket CPU cooler to give you some potential overclocking headroom, that is if you want to of course :) Great build overall and good luck!

[MrDavid]

You may want to look into a higher resolution monitor depending on how far away from the monitor you plan to sit, because pixel density may be an issue. Otherwise, save a few bucks and get a 24"

[jailer]

yea sadly the case is one of the parts I already have (was birthday present from the partner)

 

I was going for the 1000w psu as thinking of adding a second 680 in the future (possibly a Christmas present if I'm lucky)

 

as for the aftermarket cooling I have a coolermaster A50 in my current system I shall be using as I don't feel confident enough to jump to water cooling plus i'm not planning any heavy overclocking

 

thanks for the info guys!

[mumbojumbogumbo]

Is this purely for gaming? You don't need 16GB of RAM or a sound card for gaming.

 

Samsung 840 120GB SSD is cheaper than the Sandisk and it doesn't use Sandforce.

 

You only need around 700w to power two 680s.

[XiaoPigs]

If you're not on a budget get a 3570k :) Linus has a 4 part series comparing the 8350 to the 3570k 

The only time you would want to get a 8350 over a 3570k is when you're livestreaming and gaming at the same time. The extra cores will help out a lot.

 

You might wanna look into getting a better case, not to say that the CM 690 II is a bad case, like a Carbide 400R or HAF XM. Everything else is enough and more for a system that you would be using to game and/or livestream.

 

Good luck with the build and if you need any help you know which forum to return to hahahahahaha :P

[jailer]

thanks for the advice MrDavid do you have any recommendations as all the 24" monitors I can find are 1080p 

 

thanks ebombzor I will look into the Samsung drives ... and not just for gaming I do a a lot of video editing / converting aswell

[amintha1992]

Is this purely for gaming? You don't need 16GB of RAM or a sound card for gaming.

 

Samsung 840 120GB SSD is cheaper than the Sandisk and it doesn't use Sandforce.

 

You only need around 700w to power two 680s.

noooooooooo keep the sound card. trust me its worth it. but change it to a ASUS Xonar sound card which ever fits your needs and the budget.

 

and change the 1000w psu to a 650w or 750w modular PSU.  dont use a Green drive there is no point it it. get a seagate 2TB drive its much better. and faster.

 

 

in the future, if you happen to SLI 2 680 700w is more than enough.

 

invest in a better and lager SSD. anything from a samsung 840pro, OCZ vector, Plextor M5(cant remember if it was pro or what it was please check it with others) anything non sandforce is the way to go.

 

only thing that i am concerned about it the mother board having too little features. see if  you can find a UD4 level motherboad or a same level one from asus or MSI because you might get less performance in terms of overclocking ability and connectivity options.

 

anyway the build sounds solid.

 

keep gaming. cheers.

 

 

PS: if you are planing to SLI 2 high end GPUs you are going to have to overclock the CPU so it can keep up with the GPUs. so plane ahead. 

[amintha1992]

thanks for the advice MrDavid do you have any recommendations as all the 24" monitors I can find are 1080p 

 

thanks ebombzor I will look into the Samsung drives ... and not just for gaming I do a a lot of video editing / converting aswell

its going to be tough to find 24inch monitors that has a higher resolution than 1080p. you might have better luck in the 27inch range.

[Reaceskoda]

Acer has recently released its H236hl, and despite it being 23" and glossy, for the price its a pretty good deal. If im not wrong Linus did a video on it a while back as well. If you do want a slightly bigger monitor however Dell makes some very nice cheap IPS monitors too! However these are all 1080p and as amintha said it'll be pretty hard to find something within the 24"-ish range that has a resolution higher than 1080p. 

[mumbojumbogumbo]

noooooooooo keep the sound card. trust me its worth it. but change it to a ASUS Xonar sound card which ever fits your needs and the budget.

 

and change the 1000w psu to a 650w or 750w modular PSU.  dont use a Green drive there is no point it it. get a seagate 2TB drive its much better. and faster.

 

 

in the future, if you happen to SLI 2 680 700w is more than enough.

 

invest in a better and lager SSD. anything from a samsung 840pro, OCZ vector, Plextor M5(cant remember if it was pro or what it was please check it with others) anything non sandforce is the way to go.

 

only thing that i am concerned about it the mother board having too little features. see if  you can find a UD4 level motherboad or a same level one from asus or MSI because you might get less performance in terms of overclocking ability and connectivity options.

 

anyway the build sounds solid.

 

keep gaming. cheers.

 

 

PS: if you are planing to SLI 2 high end GPUs you are going to have to overclock the CPU so it can keep up with the GPUs. so plane ahead. 

Gamers won't notice any benefit from a sound card. Only audiophiles will notice.

 

There is nothing wrong with Green drives. They are cheaper, cooler, and quieter than 7200RPM drives and if he's using it as a pure storage drive, performance doesn't suffer as much as people think.

[Glenwing]

Gamers won't notice any benefit from a sound card. Only audiophiles will notice.

 

There is nothing wrong with Green drives. They are cheaper, cooler, and quieter than 7200RPM drives and if he's using it as a pure storage drive, performance doesn't suffer as much as people think.

There aren't any audiophile gamers?  That being said I agree for the most part, onboard sound is pretty good these days so I'd drop the sound card.  If the integrated audio turns out to be not good enough for you, an audio card can always be added in at any time.

[amintha1992]

Gamers won't notice any benefit from a sound card. Only audiophiles will notice.

 

There is nothing wrong with Green drives. They are cheaper, cooler, and quieter than 7200RPM drives and if he's using it as a pure storage drive, performance doesn't suffer as much as people think.

i have a 7200RPM drive and a 5xxxRPM drive and the only one that makes a sound is the lower RPM drive. 

 

as for the sound card there is no argument about it, unless you are a deaf person you will hear the difference. hopefully he has good enough headsets or a sound system.  even if he does not have it right now he can always get it in a later day. because some thing like a speaker system you can carry on to the next builds.

[amintha1992]

There aren't any audiophile gamers?  That being said I agree for the most part, onboard sound is pretty good these days so I'd drop the sound card.  If the integrated audio turns out to be not good enough for you, an audio card can always be added in at any time.

i dont think this board have anything special.

[Glenwing]

i dont think this board have anything special.

 

Onboard sound is pretty good these days.

[mumbojumbogumbo]

i have a 7200RPM drive and a 5xxxRPM drive and the only one that makes a sound is the lower RPM drive. 

 

as for the sound card there is no argument about it, unless you are a deaf person you will hear the difference. hopefully he has good enough headsets or a sound system.  even if he does not have it right now he can always get it in a later day. because some thing like a speaker system you can carry on to the next builds.

Maybe you gotta a faulty drive. Lower RPMs = Less noise /end of discussion.