Help...Decent Gaming PC

[iamwhatiseem]

I know little about gaming PC's nor the requirements of Win7.
I want the computer to be made (assembled) in the US so that is an absolute.
I am unwilling to spend beyond $1200...anything more I don't consider worth it.

I am considering this:
SYX SG-125 Gaming PC (Systemax)
Core i7 3.4GHz
8 GB RAM
1 TB HDD
1GB NVIDEA GeForce GTX 550
Win 7 Prof. 64 Bit

What does anyone think?

 

[Ropey]

I know little about gaming PC's nor the requirements of Win7.
I want the computer to be made (assembled) in the US so that is an absolute.
I am unwilling to spend beyond $1200...anything more I don't consider worth it.

I am considering this:
SYX SG-125 Gaming PC (Systemax)
Core i7 3.4GHz
8 GB RAM
1 TB HDD
1GB NVIDEA GeForce GTX 550
Win 7 Prof. 64 Bit

What does anyone think?

I would go with an i5 2500K and a good motherboard. There's no game it can't play ultra fast.

I would go with two 500GB single platter drives. One platter for your OS and secondary overflow partition and the other platter to hold your games and swap files. Then you can backup your data to the secondary drive and achieve a fault tolerance.

Regarding the gaming card, what kinds of games and resolution/graphics settings would you be using?

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I know little about gaming PC's nor the requirements of Win7.
I want the computer to be made (assembled) in the US so that is an absolute.
I am unwilling to spend beyond $1200...anything more I don't consider worth it.

I am considering this:
SYX SG-125 Gaming PC (Systemax)
Core i7 3.4GHz
8 GB RAM
1 TB HDD
1GB NVIDEA GeForce GTX 550
Win 7 Prof. 64 Bit

What does anyone think?

I would go with an i5 2500K and a good motherboard. There's no game it can't play ultra fast.

I would go with two 500GB single platter drives. One platter for your OS and secondary overflow partition and the other platter to hold your games and swap files. Then you can backup your data to the secondary drive and achieve a fault tolerance.

Regarding the gaming card, what kinds of games and resolution/graphics settings would you be using?

Thank you...and that is a good idea on the 2 drives.
As for games..shooters primarily.
Call of Duty
Crysis
Gears of War
etc. etc.
resolution...1680x1050 is what I have now. Graphics is important to me...but I don't necessarily must have the highest settings

 

[Ropey]

I know little about gaming PC's nor the requirements of Win7.
I want the computer to be made (assembled) in the US so that is an absolute.
I am unwilling to spend beyond $1200...anything more I don't consider worth it.

I am considering this:
SYX SG-125 Gaming PC (Systemax)
Core i7 3.4GHz
8 GB RAM
1 TB HDD
1GB NVIDEA GeForce GTX 550
Win 7 Prof. 64 Bit

What does anyone think?

I would go with an i5 2500K and a good motherboard. There's no game it can't play ultra fast.

I would go with two 500GB single platter drives. One platter for your OS and secondary overflow partition and the other platter to hold your games and swap files. Then you can backup your data to the secondary drive and achieve a fault tolerance.

Regarding the gaming card, what kinds of games and resolution/graphics settings would you be using?

Thank you...and that is a good idea on the 2 drives.
As for games..shooters primarily.
Call of Duty
Crysis
Gears of War
etc. etc.
resolution...1680x1050 is what I have now. Graphics is important to me...but I don't necessarily must have the highest settings

With that size of a monitor you will be able to play just fine with advanced graphics settings on pretty much all of the games. You might have to scale down the AA with the Crysis engine, but otherwise I think you're pretty full bore.

The 2500K is a far better processor for gaming/mainstream use. If you're not running 2 high end video cards, then you would be far better off with a 2500K imo.

I hobby with gaming systems and create them for my friends as well. i7 is a quad core with each core hyperthreaded (allows two instructions per tick per thread. ) and is necessary for high end processing use such as multiplexing video and audio in real time while performing edits in that real time.

I'd look over that choice as you could save money on the processor and purchase a 120GB SSD as your main OS and then you could play your games from the SSD and use the one TB drive as a storage Drive.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I would go with an i5 2500K and a good motherboard. There's no game it can't play ultra fast.

I would go with two 500GB single platter drives. One platter for your OS and secondary overflow partition and the other platter to hold your games and swap files. Then you can backup your data to the secondary drive and achieve a fault tolerance.

Regarding the gaming card, what kinds of games and resolution/graphics settings would you be using?

Thank you...and that is a good idea on the 2 drives.
As for games..shooters primarily.
Call of Duty
Crysis
Gears of War
etc. etc.
resolution...1680x1050 is what I have now. Graphics is important to me...but I don't necessarily must have the highest settings

With that size of a monitor you will be able to play just fine with advanced graphics settings on pretty much all of the games. You might have to scale down the AA with the Crysis engine, but otherwise I think you're pretty full bore.

The 2500K is a far better processor for gaming/mainstream use. If you're not running 2 high end video cards, then you would be far better off with a 2500K imo.

I hobby with gaming systems and create them for my friends as well. i7 is a quad core with each core hyperthreaded (allows two instructions per tick per thread. ) and is necessary for high end processing use such as multiplexing video and audio in real time while performing edits in that real time.

I'd look over that choice as you could save money on the processor and purchase a 120GB SSD as your main OS and then you could play your games from the SSD and use the one TB drive as a storage Drive.

Hmm...never thought about an SSD...is that what you play from? How much faster does the game load up? I admit I am not a patient person...if there is a significant load-time and "chapter" load times - I will go for it.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I should have mentioned I also have a split monitor that runs 1920x1080

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Motherboard....between these - which one would you recommend?

[CrossFireX/SLI] ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 ATX Mainboard w/ Lucid Virtu, Intel SRT, UEFI & 7.1 THX TruStudio Audio, GbLAN, HDMI, USB3.0, SATA-III RAID, 3 Gen3 PCIe X16, 2 PCIe X1 & 2 PCI [+68]
[CrossFireX/SLI] ASRock Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3 Intel Z68 ATX Mainboard w/ Lucid Virtu, Intel SRT, UEFI F-Stream & 7.1 THX TruStudio Audio, Dual GbLan, 2x HDMI, USB3.0, SATA-III RAID, 3 Gen3 PCIe X16, 2 PCIe X1 & 2 PCI [+135]
[CrossFireX] Asus P8Z68-V LX Intel Z68 Chipset DDR3 ATX Mainboard LucidLogix Virtu and Intel Smart Response Technology & 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, 2x SATA-III RAID,2 3 PCIe Gen2, 2 PCIe X1 & 2 3CI (All Venom OC Certified)
[CrossFireX/SLI] Asus Maximus IV Gene-Z/GEN3 Intel Z68 mATX Mainboard w/ ROG Connect, Lucid Virtu and Intel SRT & 7.1 SupremeFX Audio, Intel GbLAN, HDMI, USB 3.0, SATA-III RAID, 2x Gen3 PCIe X16 & 1 PCIe X4 (All Venom OC Certified) [+96]
[CrossFireX/SLI] Asus P8Z68-V/GEN3 Intel Z68 Chipset DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ BT GO! Lucid Virtu and Intel SRT & 7.1 HD Audio, Intel GbLAN, USB3.0, 2x SATA-III RAID, 2x Gen3 & 1x Gen2 PCIe X16, 2 PCIe X1 & 2 PCI (All Venom OC Certified) [+94]
[CrossFireX/SLI] Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 Intel Z68 Chipset ATX Mainboard w/ BT GO! Lucid Virtu, Intel SRT, UEFI BIOS & 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, 4x SATA-III RAID, 2 Gen3 PCIe X16, 1 Gen2 PCIe X16, 2 PCIe X1 & 2 PCI (All Venom OC Certified) [+129]

 

[PeteEU]

i5 2500k
Asrock Pro 3 Gen 3 motherboard
Quality ram
SSD 120 GB for the OS and programs
500 GB+ for games and the rest of the crap

Use the money saved on a top end graphics card.

Although I would wait till the new ivy bridge processors come out in a month or two.

But basically buy only GEN 3 motherboards, stay away from Gigabyte since they dont use the "new" UEFI bioses. Asrock are cheap but also good. The Asrock I mentioned should cost 105 dollars on newegg.

i5 2500k can be overclocked to 5GHZ. 220 dollars

Ram.. make sure it is made for sandy/ivy bridge. GSkill RipJaws and Kingston and Cosair make such ram. RipJaws cost 43 dollars for 8 GB 1600MHZ.

SSD.. make sure it is SATA 3.. 500 read and write minimum. Intel coming out with a new one this week or next, but OCZ is good too. About 150ish dollars

That is 520 bucks and add a case and a real HD for storage, so lets say 650... that leaves you a 600 dollars for a graphics card or two!

 

[Ropey]

i5 2500k
Asrock Pro 3 Gen 3 motherboard
Quality ram
SSD 120 GB for the OS and programs
500 GB+ for games and the rest of the crap

Use the money saved on a top end graphics card.

Although I would wait till the new ivy bridge processors come out in a month or two.

But basically buy only GEN 3 motherboards, stay away from Gigabyte since they dont use the "new" UEFI bioses. Asrock are cheap but also good. The Asrock I mentioned should cost 105 dollars on newegg.

i5 2500k can be overclocked to 5GHZ. 220 dollars

Ram.. make sure it is made for sandy/ivy bridge. GSkill RipJaws and Kingston and Cosair make such ram. RipJaws cost 43 dollars for 8 GB 1600MHZ.

SSD.. make sure it is SATA 3.. 500 read and write minimum. Intel coming out with a new one this week or next, but OCZ is good too. About 150ish dollars

That is 520 bucks and add a case and a real HD for storage, so lets say 650... that leaves you a 600 dollars for a graphics card or two!

Can't say anything better than this.

+1

I should have mentioned I also have a split monitor that runs 1920x1080

Any decent graphics card will handle a split monitor configuration.

 

[Ropey]

Thank you...and that is a good idea on the 2 drives.
As for games..shooters primarily.
Call of Duty
Crysis
Gears of War
etc. etc.
resolution...1680x1050 is what I have now. Graphics is important to me...but I don't necessarily must have the highest settings

With that size of a monitor you will be able to play just fine with advanced graphics settings on pretty much all of the games. You might have to scale down the AA with the Crysis engine, but otherwise I think you're pretty full bore.

The 2500K is a far better processor for gaming/mainstream use. If you're not running 2 high end video cards, then you would be far better off with a 2500K imo.

I hobby with gaming systems and create them for my friends as well. i7 is a quad core with each core hyperthreaded (allows two instructions per tick per thread. ) and is necessary for high end processing use such as multiplexing video and audio in real time while performing edits in that real time.

I'd look over that choice as you could save money on the processor and purchase a 120GB SSD as your main OS and then you could play your games from the SSD and use the one TB drive as a storage Drive.

Hmm...never thought about an SSD...is that what you play from? How much faster does the game load up? I admit I am not a patient person...if there is a significant load-time and "chapter" load times - I will go for it.

I missed this post. Sorry. My games load much faster and I'm a FPS gamer as well. If it moves, shoot it and no strategy if it can be helped. I want to turn my mind off when I game. It's a release of thinking and moving to simply reacting.

Now for Crysis, the usual first load is about 20% faster but the mapping (load) transitions are blisteringly fast.

My boot is ~40% faster (with SSD and Sandybridge (Z68)) recovery from sleep is almost instantaneous. It did take a bit of work to get sleep mode working correctly.

I had to play with the releasing of the audio streaming mode and set it to null (not recognized) so that it would not come out of sleep mode. (Even though there was no audio streaming)

 

[PeteEU]

My boot with SSD is 8 seconds from when I press the power button.

 

[PeteEU]

I should have mentioned I also have a split monitor that runs 1920x1080

Any decent graphics card will handle a split monitor configuration.

I missed that part..

with Sandybridge and ivybridge you get an onboard intel graphics card that has the ability of running 2 screens. Most cheap graphics cards can run dual screens as well, and the mid-range and up cards can run 3 screen per card.. and if you add SLI/Crossfire then that number goes up.

I run 3 screens at the moment.. granted one is a TV since one screen went boom during a massive lighting storm .. else it would have been 4 heh

 

[Ringel05]

What Ropey and Pete said.

How-to: Build a killer gaming PC for under $1,000 | The Verge

(This is the 2012 version).

 

[PeteEU]

What Ropey and Pete said.

How-to: Build a killer gaming PC for under $1,000 | The Verge

(This is the 2012 version).

Yep nice rig.. although I dont agree on the motherboard.. Z68 chipset Gen 3 version or nothing.. they are same price often.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Thanks a lot guys...appreciate it.
I used to know just about everything there was to know 10 years back on hardware.
After I got out of IT support and been running Linux for years (and still will) - buying a Windows system is now foreign to me.

One more question...looking at Ringel's link and offerings on Cybermax I can get two video cards and stay within what I want to spend. I understand that motherboards today will automatically split the load between the two cards. Sooo...why not buy a 2GB card instead of two 1GB cards?

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Going by what you guys are saying...I now have this:

Price: $980.00

______________________________________________________________________


CPU:Intel® Core™ i5-2550K 3.40 GHz 6MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified)

HDD:1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (Single Drive)

HDD2: 60 GB OCZ Agility 3 SATA III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 525MB/s Read & 475MB/s Write

KEYBOARD:AZiO Levetron USB Gaming Keyboard [+30]

MEMORY:8GB (2GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Vengeance)

MOTHERBOARD:* [CrossFireX] Asus P8Z68-V LX Intel Z68 Chipset DDR3 ATX Mainboard LucidLogix Virtu and Intel Smart Response Technology & 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, 2x SATA-III RAID,2 3 PCIe Gen2, 2 PCIe X1 & 2 3CI (All Venom OC Certified)

OS:Microsoft® Windows 7 Professional [+135] (64-bit Edition)

VIDEO:NVIDIA GeForce GT 520 1GB 16X PCIe Video Card (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)

 

[PeteEU]

Thanks a lot guys...appreciate it.
I used to know just about everything there was to know 10 years back on hardware.
After I got out of IT support and been running Linux for years (and still will) - buying a Windows system is now foreign to me.

One more question...looking at Ringel's link and offerings on Cybermax I can get two video cards and stay within what I want to spend. I understand that motherboards today will automatically split the load between the two cards. Sooo...why not buy a 2GB card instead of two 1GB cards?

That totally depends on the motherboard. It needs to be Crossfire(ATI version)/SLI (Nvidia version) compatible.

The problem is not the amount of ram on the card, but the processor and what things have been "taken out" to save money. You have to be a bit careful. I bought a 5670 from Gigabyte, it was a great price.. or so I thought. I now know I should have spent the 20 extra Euros for the more expensive version.. why? Because on the cheap version only 2 of the 3 ports could be used at the same time. So I could have only 2 screens connected at the same time despite there being 3 ports for 3 screens and the chipset supporting it

Now, running Crossfire/SLI. I personally have never dabbled in it, but from what I understand it decreases the load on the individual card so that you can run with more features in the game on. Hence Crysis 2 with everything on will run much smoother with SLI/Crossfire cards than an individual card with double the ram of the 2 cards. You can also with SLI/Crossfire increase the resolution or so I believe... beyoned, wayyyy beyond the 1920x1080 full HD of most modern screens. Of course you need a screen to do it with hehe.

Also ATI and Nvidia both have a system where you can expand popular games over 3+ screens.. Starcraft on 3 screens is.... interesting and you get a much larger view.

But it also requires that you have 2 of the same card for it to work correctly.

It also means, that you can use one card for a game, and the other card for some video encoding or viewing or whatever.

Now saying that.. with the i5 2500k and the correct motherboard, you have access to the onboard graphics card, and with the bundled software you can actually do a cheap version of SLI/Crossfire.

Take my set up. My main 24 inch screen is on my dedicated card, and when I run games it is the card that takes the heat. At the same time my two other screens are run off the on board card, and do not impact the gaming in anyway, which means I can do encoding on the onboard and run crysis or whatever on the dedicated card. It works great.. I can run Star Wars the Old Republic with everything on with no problems, although I have turned a few things off to get a more smooth feel. My card aint exactly the top end.

Basically in my opinion... SLI/Crossfire should only be considered if you are a massive FPS in full effect mode with all the bells and whistles since it is rather expensive (2 x upper tier quality graphics cards) and you most likely will need to buy a new PSU since a modern graphics card eats power like a fat guy at a buffet... and 2 x is even worse. 800+ watt supply is needed as a minimum.. if not 1000 watt.

Thermaltake Power Supply Calculator

good place to calculate if what you are getting can work on the PSU you got.

Lets put it this way.. if I Crossfired my machine by buying a second card like the one I have.. not only would I need a bigger PSU most likely but on the bright side I would most likely have zero problems running any game in full graphics mode even the heavy hitters like Crysis 2 and Farcry 2 or whatever they are called. So 2 cards better than 1... if you want the ultimate experience and can afford it!

A good read from a review of a crossfire set up.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7970-crossfire-review/18

You can see that Crysis in 2560 x 1600 with everything on is running at 70 FPS.. which is... impressive. Where as the non crossfire version runs at only 37 FPS.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Thanks a lot guys...appreciate it.
I used to know just about everything there was to know 10 years back on hardware.
After I got out of IT support and been running Linux for years (and still will) - buying a Windows system is now foreign to me.

One more question...looking at Ringel's link and offerings on Cybermax I can get two video cards and stay within what I want to spend. I understand that motherboards today will automatically split the load between the two cards. Sooo...why not buy a 2GB card instead of two 1GB cards?

That totally depends on the motherboard. It needs to be Crossfire(ATI version)/SLI (Nvidia version) compatible.

The problem is not the amount of ram on the card, but the processor and what things have been "taken out" to save money. You have to be a bit careful. I bought a 5670 from Gigabyte, it was a great price.. or so I thought. I now know I should have spent the 20 extra Euros for the more expensive version.. why? Because on the cheap version only 2 of the 3 ports could be used at the same time. So I could have only 2 screens connected at the same time despite there being 3 ports for 3 screens and the chipset supporting it

Now, running Crossfire/SLI. I personally have never dabbled in it, but from what I understand it decreases the load on the individual card so that you can run with more features in the game on. Hence Crysis 2 with everything on will run much smoother with SLI/Crossfire cards than an individual card with double the ram of the 2 cards. You can also with SLI/Crossfire increase the resolution or so I believe... beyoned, wayyyy beyond the 1920x1080 full HD of most modern screens. Of course you need a screen to do it with hehe.

Also ATI and Nvidia both have a system where you can expand popular games over 3+ screens.. Starcraft on 3 screens is.... interesting and you get a much larger view.

But it also requires that you have 2 of the same card for it to work correctly.

It also means, that you can use one card for a game, and the other card for some video encoding or viewing or whatever.

Now saying that.. with the i5 2500k and the correct motherboard, you have access to the onboard graphics card, and with the bundled software you can actually do a cheap version of SLI/Crossfire.

Take my set up. My main 24 inch screen is on my dedicated card, and when I run games it is the card that takes the heat. At the same time my two other screens are run off the on board card, and do not impact the gaming in anyway, which means I can do encoding on the onboard and run crysis or whatever on the dedicated card. It works great.. I can run Star Wars the Old Republic with everything on with no problems, although I have turned a few things off to get a more smooth feel. My card aint exactly the top end.

Basically in my opinion... SLI/Crossfire should only be considered if you are a massive FPS in full effect mode with all the bells and whistles since it is rather expensive (2 x upper tier quality graphics cards) and you most likely will need to buy a new PSU since a modern graphics card eats power like a fat guy at a buffet... and 2 x is even worse. 800+ watt supply is needed as a minimum.. if not 1000 watt.

Thermaltake Power Supply Calculator

good place to calculate if what you are getting can work on the PSU you got.

Lets put it this way.. if I Crossfired my machine by buying a second card like the one I have.. not only would I need a bigger PSU most likely but on the bright side I would most likely have zero problems running any game in full graphics mode even the heavy hitters like Crysis 2 and Farcry 2 or whatever they are called. So 2 cards better than 1... if you want the ultimate experience and can afford it!

A good read from a review of a crossfire set up.

ASUS Radeon HD 7970 Crossfire review

You can see that Crysis in 2560 x 1600 with everything on is running at 70 FPS.. which is... impressive. Where as the non crossfire version runs at only 37 FPS.

Got it...so basically it just isn't worth it and your right - when I add the 2nd card I have to add wattage. Like I say, I want the graphics to be good - but I don't have to have the highest possible.

Did you see my latest specs above?
Thanks again.

 

[Ropey]

Now, running Crossfire/SLI. I personally have never dabbled in it, but from what I understand it decreases the load on the individual card so that you can run with more features in the game on. Hence Crysis 2 with everything on will run much smoother with SLI/Crossfire cards than an individual card with double the ram of the 2 cards. You can also with SLI/Crossfire increase the resolution or so I believe... beyoned, wayyyy beyond the 1920x1080 full HD of most modern screens. Of course you need a screen to do it with hehe. .

I've run both crossfire and SLi. I personally go with a single stand alone card for systems that are not using multiple monitor configurations whilst gaming. Then if I find I need extra gaming power in the future I have the ability to X-Fire/SLi.

Each card accepts a portion of the displays in different ways, but the results are much the same when SLi/Crossfire is used.

I've never found that need yet.

 

[Skull Pilot]

I know little about gaming PC's nor the requirements of Win7.
I want the computer to be made (assembled) in the US so that is an absolute.
I am unwilling to spend beyond $1200...anything more I don't consider worth it.

I am considering this:
SYX SG-125 Gaming PC (Systemax)
Core i7 3.4GHz
8 GB RAM
1 TB HDD
1GB NVIDEA GeForce GTX 550
Win 7 Prof. 64 Bit

What does anyone think?

Build it yourself

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