High end gaming and streaming rig

Jarf · March 3, 2013

Hi fans of Linus! I recently discovered Linus and I absolutely love his videos. Anyways, I've been a PC gamer for a year now. Built my first PC with the help of /r/buildapc here are the specs of that. AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE, Radeon 6850, 8gb RAM, Asrock 970 Extreme 3, and a WD blue hdd. My new PC is going to most likely be Intel/nvidia, unless someone can convince me otherwise. So here are the specs of the new one im planning on building within the coming months.

i7 3770k

EVGA 680 2gb (planning on getting another at a later date so I can SLI these bad boys)

Asus P8Z77-V Pro mobo

H100i CPU cooler

NZXT Switch 810 Full tower case or Thermaltake Chaser MK-I or Coolermaster CM Storm Trooper.

WD Black 1tb HDD

Kingston hyperX 3k 120gb ssd

Corsair vengeance 16gb ddr3 1600 ram

Any dvd burner

and I'm not sure which power supply to get.

The theme of the build is going to be black and white if I get the NZXT, the storm trooper or the chaser, the color scheme will be black and blue.

The reason for the upgrade is that I want to start streaming. With my current PC it doesn't stream very well. Also it's super fun building new computers. I absolutely love it.

So some questions about that build;

Is that Mobo good for OC'ing? I'm gunna want to OC the cpu to 4.5 or 4.3 or so.

Is the mobo good for sli'ing 680's or possibly 670 FTW's?

Is the WD Black worth it? I hear that seagate barricudas and basically the same thing and cheaper, but I also hear that the seagates are less reliable.

And I think thats it for now, I'll edit the post if I have anyother questions.

Glenwing · March 4, 2013

For a gaming rig, there's no difference between the i5-3570K and the i7-3770K, because games don't take advantage of hyperthreading which is the main difference between the two. So you can save $100 there. Although for streaming the AMD FX-8350 can shine pretty well in that regard.

I'll warn you if you get the H100i it will be basically spending extra money for looks, because an air cooler like the Noctua NH-D14 will give you great performance at a cheaper price. Even a Cooler Master Hyper 212 for $30 is a great unit that can handle some respectable overclocking. They can be a bit ugly looking though so if you want the clean looks then the H100i is still a good unit.

If you're getting an ATX motherboard then a full tower will be more costly and will basically just have more empty space in it than a mid tower. I won't harp on this too much since aesthetics is also a big part in choosing a case, but I will say that a good mid tower will have more than enough room unless you need room for radiators everywhere.

WD Black drives have a 5 year warranty, while Barracudas and WD Blues have a 2 year. Take from that what you will. They are a little faster as well but honestly who gets an HDD for speed :P The difference probably won't be noticeable in that regard. If you're using an SSD the speed difference will be moot, and it's just about the reliability. Also the ADATA XPG SX900 128GB is on sale right now for $100 on Newegg, I'd grab that if the sale is still going as that's a fantastic drive.

No reason for 16GB of RAM, even though RAM is relatively cheap at the moment. A gaming rig will struggle to use 8GB on the most intense games. I barely use above 4. Anywhere from 6-8GB will suffice, but I recommend 8GB in the interest of future preparation :)

For the power supply I'd look at a SeaSonic Platinum Series SS-760XP or SS-860XP2, as those units are very high quality and the cables look excellent, and their color scheme (or lack thereof) will fit in nicely with a black and white themed build. They are a bit on the pricey side too though. The SeaSonic G Series or Corsair HX Series are good for black and blue, although they are only semi-modular so the cabling may not look quite as nice.

Any Gigabyte or ASUS board will do, really, upwards of $120. I'd go for the Gigabyte Z77X-D3H or UD3H for a black and blue theme, or the UD4H for a black and white. For AMD options, the GA-990FX-UD3 (for black and white) or the UD5 (for black and blue).

March 4, 2013

Yeah as Glen said, I'd probably go the AMD 8350 over the intel options. Better multi tasking support especially streaming + gaming + other stuff. Other than that, follow Glens's ideas and you're set.