think this is a good build for making Game play commentary's vids on youtube?

[TGWTHF]

No they don't.

They are socket 1155 based CPUs and will work fine in any socket 1155 based motherboards. Your information is incorrect.

Edit!!

Here is my motherboard CPU support list:

http://ca.gigabyte.com/support-downl....aspx?pid=3783

Even when it was not on the list the CPU was supported.

My motherboard is an £80 H67 mini-ITX motherboard.

Even this £43 H61 motherboard supports the Xeon e3:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...vi-d-micro-atx

If the motherboard can run a Core i5 or Core i7 they can run a Xeon E3. The socket 1155 Xeon E3 CPUs are Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs but with the IGP disabled in some models and the full 8MB of L3 cache enabled in all models. The Core i5 have less L3 cache,ie,2MB is disabled unlike in the Core i7.

The I/O bottleneck is more the fact you are gaming and recording the gameplay at the same time. Ideally you would want both to be off separate disks.

from what i read online the xeon is a server processor and only works on xeon 1155 boards, or at least thats what the people on tomshardware said lol

also the motherboard im going for is the MSI Z77A-G43 it doesnt support the xeon model, and the micro-atx thing would look stupid in the tower i chose so im going for that cos its ATX form factor lol

separate disks?.. why?... i did some recording on my crappy 4 year old PC and it did just fine with recording and playing on the same disk, although i suppose you COULD partition the disk so the pc reads them as 2 separate disks, or would this not work?, if not i got 2 160GB sata drives here i can use to save the gameplay to lol

[Terbinator]

from what i read online the xeon is a server processor and only works on xeon 1155 boards, or at least thats what the people on tomshardware said lol

also the motherboard im going for is the MSI Z77A-G43 it doesnt support the xeon model, and the micro-atx thing would look stupid in the tower i chose so im going for that cos its ATX form factor lol

separate disks?.. why?... i did some recording on my crappy 4 year old PC and it did just fine with recording and playing on the same disk, although i suppose you COULD partition the disk so the pc reads them as 2 separate disks, or would this not work?, if not i got 2 160GB sata drives here i can use to save the gameplay to lol

I'm not too sure on the Xeon thing, but as i posted early on - for proper quality recording you will need a separate, fast, disk. Partitioning the drive doesn't work how you suggested either as it's still one physical rotating disk and read/write head.

You could try RAID'ing the two spare disks and record to them but I'm not sure if the Intel PCH would be up to the job of being put under the kosh properly.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

from what i read online the xeon is a server processor and only works on xeon 1155 boards, or at least thats what the people on tomshardware said lol

also the motherboard im going for is the MSI Z77A-G43 it doesnt support the xeon model, and the micro-atx thing would look stupid in the tower i chose so im going for that cos its ATX form factor lol

separate disks?.. why?... i did some recording on my crappy 4 year old PC and it did just fine with recording and playing on the same disk, although i suppose you COULD partition the disk so the pc reads them as 2 separate disks, or would this not work?, if not i got 2 160GB sata drives here i can use to save the gameplay to lol

Really - then how come people are running them in H67 and Z68 Shuttle systems fine even without official support. You do realise the retail Core i5,Core i7 and Xeon E3 CPUs ALL share the same dies? The only thing the socket 1155 based PRO boards offer is ECC memory support which the Xeon E3 CPUs have in addition to non-ECC memory support. They are all the same chips. The only reason I suggested ths Xeon is with newer multi-threaded games. Your video recording software will itself need at least one or two threads at the same time you are playing the game. If you are running a game based on an older engine then it will only probably really use two threads at most,so you will be fine with the software running in the background.

Perhaps you need to check what kind of performance hit there is with the software running with CPU intensive games which use multiple threads on a Core i5. Games based on nearly EOL engines like Skyrim would be fine with a Core i5 due to the fact it only really uses two threads. OTH,the other extreme is Rage which due to its megatexturing loves more threads.

Its not like I usually recommend Core i7 or Xeon E3 CPUs for purely gaming anyway:

http://forums.hexus.net/pc-hardware/...er-2011-a.html

However,it is the fact that you are gaming and capture video at the same time. I suspect whatever software you are using has forums dedicated to it?? Perhaps drop a line with them too,and people should give you feedback on any performance hit they see with newer engines.

Moreover,you seem to change from wanting an mATX motherboard to a ATX motherboard,to and fro ,so TBH you need to decide what you definitely want. You talk about the Asus maximus iv gene-z/gen3 which is a mATX motherboard so this is why I suggested a mATX mb with a case which can take any graphics card in existence(even an HD6990).The same with overclocking. Either you want to do or not. All these things add to the cost of your build. I have known people to dilly dally and end up wasting £50 to £60 on something they never used.

How about writing down exactly,what you want from the PC and what exactly you want to do with it and stick with it. Otherwise what tends to happen,is someone either overspends on something they don't use or underspends on the something they do need.

I always done this and got what has suited me fine,so I maximise my spending power and tend not to upgrade parts very often.

On top of this you talk about your old PC. Have you not considered that some of the newer games use much higher resolution textures which means they are more likely to load off the disc. Once the newer consoles start to be released from next year or,I can see the average texture quality starting to rise in many games.

[TGWTHF]

Really - then how come people are running them in H67 and Z68 Shuttle systems fine even without official support. You do realise the retail Core i5,Core i7 and Xeon E3 CPUs ALL share the same dies? The only thing the socket 1155 based PRO boards offer is ECC memory support which the Xeon E3 CPUs have in addition to non-ECC memory support. They are all the same chips. The only reason I suggested ths Xeon is with newer multi-threaded games. Your video recording software will itself need at least one or two threads at the same time you are playing the game. If you are running a game based on an older engine then it will only probably really use two threads at most,so you will be fine with the software running in the background.

Perhaps you need to check what kind of performance hit there is with the software running with CPU intensive games which use multiple threads on a Core i5. Games based on nearly EOL engines like Skyrim would be fine with a Core i5 due to the fact it only really uses two threads. OTH,the other extreme is Rage which due to its megatexturing loves more threads.

Its not like I usually recommend Core i7 or Xeon E3 CPUs for purely gaming anyway:

http://forums.hexus.net/pc-hardware/...er-2011-a.html

However,it is the fact that you are gaming and capture video at the same time. I suspect whatever software you are using has forums dedicated to it?? Perhaps drop a line with them too,and people should give you feedback on any performance hit they see with newer engines.

Moreover,you seem to change from wanting an mATX motherboard to a ATX motherboard,to and fro ,so TBH you need to decide what you definitely want. You talk about the Asus maximus iv gene-z/gen3 which is a mATX motherboard so this is why I suggested a mATX mb with a case which can take any graphics card in existence(even an HD6990).The same with overclocking. Either you want to do or not. All these things add to the cost of your build. I have known people to dilly dally and end up wasting £50 to £60 on something they never used.

How about writing down exactly,what you want from the PC and what exactly you want to do with it and stick with it. Otherwise what tends to happen,is someone either overspends on something they don't use or underspends on the something they do need.

I always done this and got what has suited me fine,so I maximise my spending power and tend not to upgrade parts very often.

On top of this you talk about your old PC. Have you not considered that some of the newer games use much higher resolution textures which means they are more likely to load off the disc. Once the newer consoles start to be released from next year or,I can see the average texture quality starting to rise in many games.

I've been told by so many people online that games nowadays, at maximum, use 2 cores, but much like with everything on the internet, you can't believe everything people tell you.

according to the FRAPS website, it uses your graphics card/drivers more than the CPU, and from what i did research on, many people say hyper-threading doesn't improve FRAPS' performance., and that the 2500k can run games with fraps running like it was childs play, not sure how much truth there is in that either.

I never once said that i want either, i merely changed my mind on motherboard, lowering the price as much as I could, its not a preference reallyy, bt the ATX is cheaper than mATX, and looks like it has more room for more addons.

like i said in the title what i WANT to do, is gaming mostly and recording the gameplay with smooth FPS, be that 30-40FPS or higher. its also a bonus if i can keep the price down as much as possible since my dad and sister wont let me spend more than 700 on one like i originally intended on doing..

have you not considered that my old PC was recording modern games, such as Saints row the third on medium setting with 19-24FPS? ((which is why im upgrading, because that isnt powerful enough and its laggy gameplay))

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I've been told by so many people online that games nowadays, at maximum, use 2 cores, but much like with everything on the internet, you can't believe everything people tell you.

according to the FRAPS website, it uses your graphics card/drivers more than the CPU, and from what i did research on, many people say hyper-threading doesn't improve FRAPS' performance., and that the 2500k can run games with fraps running like it was childs play, not sure how much truth there is in that either.

I never once said that i want either, i merely changed my mind on motherboard, lowering the price as much as I could, its not a preference reallyy, bt the ATX is cheaper than mATX, and looks like it has more room for more addons.

like i said in the title what i WANT to do, is gaming mostly and recording the gameplay with smooth FPS, be that 30-40FPS or higher. its also a bonus if i can keep the price down as much as possible since my dad and sister wont let me spend more than 700 on one like i originally intended on doing..

have you not considered that my old PC was recording modern games, such as Saints row the third on medium setting with 19-24FPS? ((which is why im upgrading, because that isnt powerful enough and its laggy gameplay))

The old engines use two threads,all newer engines use at least 4 threads:
1.)CryEngine 3 - 4 threads are used
2.)idTech 5 - even 8 threads can be used
3.)Frostbite 1.5 and 2 - 4 threads are used
4.)Later UE3 games - 4 threads are used(check the latest Deus Ex game)
5.)RED engine - 4 threads are used

UE4 will probably use at least 4 threads and is being demoed this year.

Older engines will use upto two threads but are now at their swansong.

So at least three to four threads are required. So a core i5 if you don't want to change the CPU for a few years,or a Core i3 for the time-being are what you should be considering. If FRAPs is not using the CPU that much it must be saving uncompressed screen grabs to your hard drive. If it were compressing them on the go that would use your CPU.

The 4 RAM slot capable B75 and H77 motherboards can be had for around £55 to £60 from Ebuyer but are mATX. ATX motherboards are closer to around £70 and you would want the H67 and Z68 ones,so you can use Quick Sync. The newer Z77 motherboards are nearer to £80. P67 ones with 4 RAM slots can be had for between £60 to £70 but you cannot use Quick Sync.

I had a look around for the cheapest Core i5.

You can get this Core i5 2320 for around £130 delivered:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/c...623i52320.html

TopCashback do 3.03% cashback on Novatech purchases,so that should push down the price to around £126.

Using Scan free postage you can get the following parts.



The total comes to around £660. The ZS series PSUs are not modular so cable routing will be a bit more different.

You might be able to get the HD7850 2GB a tad cheaper elsewhere,but the single fan cards are supposed to run a tad hot. RAM might be cheap delivered elsewhere but as long as it is decent 1.5V rated 1333MHZ or 1600MHZ RAM it will be fine.

Only 64 bit Windows will recognise all the RAM. However,8GB should be plenty and save you around £40.

Use the 160GB SATA drives to record you videos.

[TGWTHF]

The old engines use two threads,all newer engines use at least 4 threads:
1.)CryEngine 3 - 4 threads are used
2.)idTech 5 - even 8 threads can be used
3.)Frostbite 1.5 and 2 - 4 threads are used
4.)Later UE3 games - 4 threads are used(check the latest Deus Ex game)
5.)RED engine - 4 threads are used

UE4 will probably use at least 4 threads and is being demoed this year.

Older engines will use upto two threads but are now at their swansong.

So at least three to four threads are required. So a core i5 if you don't want to change the CPU for a few years,or a Core i3 for the time-being are what you should be considering. If FRAPs is not using the CPU that much it must be saving uncompressed screen grabs to your hard drive. If it were compressing them on the go that would use your CPU.

The 4 RAM slot capable B75 and H77 motherboards can be had for around £55 to £60 from Ebuyer but are mATX. ATX motherboards are closer to around £70 and you would want the H67 and Z68 ones,so you can use Quick Sync. The newer Z77 motherboards are nearer to £80. P67 ones with 4 RAM slots can be had for between £60 to £70 but you cannot use Quick Sync.

I had a look around for the cheapest Core i5.

You can get this Core i5 2320 for around £130 delivered:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/c...623i52320.html

TopCashback do 3.03% cashback on Novatech purchases,so that should push down the price to around £126.

Using Scan free postage you can get the following parts.



The total comes to around £660. The ZS series PSUs are not modular so cable routing will be a bit more different.

You might be able to get the HD7850 2GB a tad cheaper elsewhere,but the single fan cards are supposed to run a tad hot. RAM might be cheap delivered elsewhere but as long as it is decent 1.5V rated 1333MHZ or 1600MHZ RAM it will be fine.

Only 64 bit Windows will recognise all the RAM. However,8GB should be plenty and save you around £40.

Use the 160GB SATA drives to record you videos.

mm I see, i didn't know there were so many different engines lol...

and yes FRAPS files are completely RAW and uncompressed lol, thats why a like 3-4 minute video is about 3.2GBs in size

can I ask you your thoughts on the MSI Z77A-G43 motherboard?.. i can get it for £63

[Terbinator]

I think Frostbite 2 is scalable up to 16 threads.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

mm I see, i didn't know there were so many different engines lol...

and yes FRAPS files are completely RAW and uncompressed lol, thats why a like 3-4 minute video is about 3.2GBs in size

can I ask you your thoughts on the MSI Z77A-G43 motherboard?.. i can get it for £63

£63 delivered?? That is a good price. The Core i5 2320 cannot be overclocked that much(you increase the Turbo Boost artificially which is useful) but a Z77 based motherboard for £63 seems a good deal IMHO as it is the best socket 1155 chipset ATM. You won't get 8X/8X Crossfire too like the more expensive Z77 based motherboard.

I think Frostbite 2 is scalable up to 16 threads.

I wonder if the six core i7 CPUs run it better than a Core i5??

[TGWTHF]

£63 delivered?? That is a good price. The Core i5 2320 cannot be overclocked that much(you increase the Turbo Boost artificially which is useful) but a Z77 based motherboard for £63 seems a good deal IMHO as it is the best socket 1155 chipset ATM. You won't get 8X/8X Crossfire too like the more expensive Z77 based motherboard.



I wonder if the six core i7 CPUs run it better than a Core i5??

well no theres no free postage with it, but on this site all the parts, apart from the PSU are cheaper than on Scan, so if i bought them there the postage would be shared between the items making it a bit cheaper than just buying it alone lol
I didnt think the 2320 could be over-clocked at all apart from that built in turbo boost thing lol and yeah i know that, i decided that if i go Crossfire in the future, i'll likely get a new motherboard as well XD, but as a start im sure one card should be ok

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

well no theres no free postage with it, but on this site all the parts, apart from the PSU are cheaper than on Scan, so if i bought them there the postage would be shared between the items making it a bit cheaper than just buying it alone lol
I didnt think the 2320 could be over-clocked at all apart from that built in turbo boost thing lol and yeah i know that, i decided that if i go Crossfire in the future, i'll likely get a new motherboard as well XD, but as a start im sure one card should be ok

What retailer this out of interest?? I had a look for the MSI motherboard and I cannot find it under £70 without postage.

[TGWTHF]

What retailer this out of interest?? I had a look for the MSI motherboard and I cannot find it under £70 without postage.

its on aria.co.uk lol turns out in the basket it displays it WITHOUT VAT for some stupid reason ((I hate sites that do that, display no VAT as a bigger/more prominant price)) lol its about £75 with VAT