Gaming PC to last 3 Years

[collettnj]

Hi all,

A friend has asked me to consult the crowd here on the spec for a gaming PC he plans to build sometime within the next month.

He wants this to last for about three years without major modifications. The PC will be for gaming (Supreme Commander, GTA IV, Modern Warfare 2, Borderlands, Crysis) and general use.

He's looking to spend no more than £1300, and try to keep it as far below that as possible. (ie we're not looking to 'pad' the spec up to £1300!)

We've talked quite a bit about it, and have come up with the following base spec:

• Case - HAF932 as 'base' option, maybe looking at the Corsair Obsidian 800D if the extra £100 is justified. Is it? Cooling is a must, given the CPU overclock.
  
  
• CPU - i7 920. He'll probably OC it to 3GHz to start with, as nothing more than that is really needed for what he does at the moment I don't think, and the D0's do that happily with little voltage increase over stock (mine did). He currently runs an E6700 (2.66GHz), so doesn't need anything mighty AT THE MOMENT, but over the next three years he might require a higher overclock for whatever reason, so we want to be building a system capable of it.
  
  
• CPU cooler - TRUE 120 (is the corsair H50 really worth the extra?). Noctua NF-P12 to go on it - could anyone recommend a cheaper alternative?
  
  
• Mobo - Given a scenario 3 years down the line where he might want to run the 920 at 4GHz, would a 'standard' ASUS P6T be enough, or should he be getting the deluxe? I went for the P6TD as I wanted to run mine at 4GHz 24/7 for Flight Simulator 10, and the majority of online overclocking guides seemed to be for the ASUS board.
  
  
• Memory - 6GB Corsair Dominator CAS 8 was my thought - would he see any difference going for the CAS 9? It's quite a bit cheaper.
  
  
• PSU - Corsair HX850
  
  
• Graphics - He runs at 1920x1200. ATI 5850? This one seems (to my very untrained eye) to offer the best value for money of all the 5850s that scan offer. Is the 5850 a good bet? Would the 5870 actually be worth it for him? They are very expensive...
  
  
• HDD - 500GB Samsung F3. He recently got a couple of 1TB F3's for storage, so we don't need anything big. Would getting 2 500GB F3s in RAID 0 be worth it in terms of game loading times? How much faster would it be?
  
  
• No optical drive needed, he has a bluray drive already that he'll be putting in.

Above spec in scan basket form:



The above price is actually a bit below the limit he set, but I think he'd really like the Obsidian case, so that's an extra £100 on top of what we have above, and that's getting tight.

Thanks folks!

[Infinite]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=8&subcat=1389

Get this memory instead. It is exactly the same but 60 quid cheaper.

[piggin23]

I would stick with the Corsair as ASUS do not work very well with other brands.

As for the motherboard, have you looked at

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigab...00-SATA-II-ATX

and

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...-SATA-RAID-ATX

both will take the D0 over 4Ghz

[collettnj]

I would stick with the Corsair as ASUS do not work very well with other brands.

What issues are there with non-corsair RAM?

We looked at that gigabyte, but wanted commonality if possible between his and my motherboard so that I could help him overclock his CPU - this is his first self build. Of course commonality isn't anything to spend extra on, just something to keep in mind! All the ASUS boards seem to have similar BIOS's.

Would the P6T SE be less 'reliable' than the P6TD over the long term with an overclock? That's probably an awfully ignorant question..

[piggin23]

I have had different ASUS boards over the years and I have had numerous types of ram.
The problems that I have experienced have been varied but to ensure compatibility I would go with Corsair.

As for overclocking !!!
That is a different story and very much in the hands of god.
No one motherboard or chip is the same so the final clock can not be guaranteed.
Most of the bios's are very similar and once you get the feel you will not have problems (can always ask for help)
As for reliability, they are all very much the same, you are only paying for the extra features (that you may never use)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It is worth waiting for the Core i7 930 which should replace the Core i7 920 at a similar price point IIRC. OTH,it maybe worth going for a socket 1156 Core i7 as this should work out cheaper. However if you intend to use Crossfire or SLI socket 1366 is the way to go.

I would also think that the graphics card would need to be updated at some point during the lifespan of the build too. IMHO,it would be worth holding back £200 off the budget for a graphics card update at some point during the lifespan of the computer.

[collettnj]

As for overclocking !!!
That is a different story and very much in the hands of god.
No one motherboard or chip is the same so the final clock can not be guaranteed.

True

It maybe worth waiting for the Core i7 930 which should replace the Core i7 920 at a similar price point. OTH,it maybe worth going for a socket 1156 Core i7 as this should work out cheaper. However if you intend to use Crossfire or SLI socket 1366 is the way to go.

I would also think that the graphics card would need to be updated at some point during the lifespan of the build too. IMHO,it would be worth holding back £200 off the budget for a graphics card update at some point during the lifespan of the computer.

When is the 930 ETA roughly? I'm not sure how long he'd be prepared to wait.

We've toyed with the idea of 1156, but will the tri-channel memory not be more futureproof?

Do you mean hold off £200 in addition to buying a 5850 now?

[Terbinator]

True



When is the 930 ETA roughly? I'm not sure how long he'd be prepared to wait.

We've toyed with the idea of 1156, but will the tri-channel memory not be more futureproof?

Do you mean hold off £200 in addition to buying a 5850 now?

Tri-channel makes about as much difference in real performance as does the bandwith 'limitations' of the P55 platform.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

True



When is the 930 ETA roughly? I'm not sure how long he'd be prepared to wait.

We've toyed with the idea of 1156, but will the tri-channel memory not be more futureproof?

Do you mean hold off £200 in addition to buying a 5850 now?

I would save some of the budget towards a graphics upgrade at some point in the next few years.

The HD5850 is around £200 to £250 so imagine what type of £200 to £250 card would be available in two years time as an upgrade.

TBH,you could get the cost of your current build nearer the £1000 mark. I will have a quick check if it helps.

I would go with a socket 1156 based build unless you want to go Crossfire or SLI at PCI-E 2.0 16X.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is what I would look at getting:

Intel Core i7 920~ £205

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161171

Biostar TPOWER X58A ~ £140

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Biost...3Gb-s-RAID-ATX

6GB DDR3 ~ £102 excluding postage

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=8&subcat=1389

Suggested by Infinite

Coolermaster HAF932 case ~ £111

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coole...r-Case-w-o-PSU

Sapphire HD5850 ~ £219 excluding postage

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=GX-215-SP

650W Antec Signature Modular ~ £82

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/650W-...Silent-Fan-PSU

OR

750W Blue Antec Truepower New PSU ~ £92

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/750W-...-80plus-Bronze

Both Antec PSUs are well regarded by johnnyguru.

Samsung F3 500GB ~ £38

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/500Gb...-Cache-8ms-OEM

Noctua NH-U12P SE2 ~ £64 excluding postage

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...57&subcat=1395


The total comes to under £1000.

[collettnj]

Are there any downsides to buying the OEM 920? Obviously we don't need the intel supplied HSF, so that's not an issue, but is there any change to warranty etc?

As for going with an 1156 build, we toyed with that idea but decided on 1366 for future-proofing.

Realistically, however, an i7 860 should last him 3 years, and in any case, how 'upgradable' would current 1366 motherboards be in 3 years' time?

Am I correct in doubting that current 1366 motherboards will be capable of using 2013's CPUs, even if they are still using 1366? I'm just thinking along the lines of my 775 experience - my first 775 motherboard for P4 didn't support C2D, and my first 775 motherboard for C2D didn't support the later 45nm C2D's, and that was only over about 3 or 4 years.

[dirky]

AFAIK OEM chips come with 1 year warranty

[kalniel]

None of the 1156 socket quad core chips will be remotely limiting in three years time, and that's even without any overclocking.

Likewise dual channel memory will not be limiting. These boards can take up to 16gb, which again will still be overkill in three years time.

The ONLY thing that could possibly be limiting in three years time is the graphics card. Are you absolutely certain that he will never be able to upgrade parts? If he is going to help build the computer then he should be fine with swapping a graphics card down the line, and if so it's by far the best use of budget to get a good graphics card for todays games, then upgrade it as and when you need it. So if you want to save money get something like a 4890 now while it's not limiting anything, then each year upgrade to the best value for money card at the time - you'll spend about the same overall as if you went for a top card now, but you'll end up with a faster card when you need it.

But perhaps he is more interested in 'comparing' - in which case get the computer that suits the required e-peen size rather than makes any performance difference Also, you might be annoyed with him when you found out his 1156 socket chip was actually faster in most cases than your 920

[tombull]

Yeah - +1 for getting a Socket 1156. Spend the extra money on a Intel G2 SSD. Even just an 80Gb one for the boot drive will make your life heaven...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

TBH,you can still have a decent enough socket 1366 based build for under £1000. The bits in the spec I have come up with have all got very good reviews. For instance going for an 850W PSU in your original spec is OTT especially with the lower power consumption of the new generation DX11 graphics cards. The same goes with other bits which are needlessly expensive for what they offer. This gives the friend of the OP something like £300 out of their budget for upgrades over the next three years anyway! Also when you get a newer card you could sell the HD5850 anyway. With a decent £1000 budget I would not get an HD4890 but get a HD5850 instead especially since the latter are dropping in price now as the supply gets better.

Also if you even go for a Core i7 860 and a decent socket 1156 motherboard the price difference between a Core i7 920 and a lower cost socket 1366 based motherboard is going to minimal anyway.

You could go for this socket 1156 based setup:

Core i7 860 ~ £221

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172754

MSI P55-GD65 ~ £123

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172654

4GB DDR3 RAM ~ £82

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...L9D-4GBRL.html

[Blaineoliver]

I would say trim the fat elsewhere, get a 5870, especially if it has to last 3 years.