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[WIP] BF3 Build for non-technical friend

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Hey Everyone,

I know, I know. Another build thread. Just looking for peeps to help me out to ensure I'm not making any basic mistakes.

Disclaimer: I've never built an Intel system and this is an Intel system.

Budget:
Nothing concrete. Mostly looking for the best system that's a good deal (if this makes sense).

Purchased:
Case - COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Advanced RC-932-KKN5-GP Blac...
Memory - G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 S...
PSU - CORSAIR Professional Series HX850 (CMPSU-850HX) 85...
CPU - Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Tu...

Wishlist:
Mobo - GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI S...
HSF - COOLER MASTER Hyper N 520 RR-920-N520-GP 92mm Slee...
SSD - OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTX40G 2.5" 40GB SATA II MLC...
HDD - SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3....
Optical - GEAR HEAD 24x DVD Burner 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X D...


GPU(s):
Waiting here. Since BF3 is set for October, and rumors put AMDs 7000 series possibly in September, waiting probably doesn't hurt anything but supply of current cards. If we go current cards, Dual 6950s.


Notes:
This will not be overclocked.
We will be using the SSD Caching native to the Z68 chipset (there is probably a better SSD for this use.)
Components should preferably be black.


Looking for help on:
SSD for use with caching
CPU Cooler (anything big, black & silent?)


Comments are welcome. I'm well versed in AMD systems and Intel seems pretty straightforward but better safe than sorry, right?
 
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Syuzeren

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Everything looks fine, just 1 thing. If you ain't going to overclock then save some money by getting a 2600 without a K.

With crossfire 6950 you cant go wrong, remember to get the 2GB version. Otherwise you will run out of video ram in a game like BF3 with every single thing maxed out.
 
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If we're looking at the i7 vs i5-2500k it really doesn't make much sense to not spring for the K series. It's a $15 difference (5%) to ensure you haven't locked out any capability.

If we drop the proc we'd probably drop all the way to the i5-2500. I'd imagine that in a Crossfire/SLI setup, the i7 gives more of a benefit than in a single card setup but I haven't been able to find any reviews that pit the i5 against the i7 in a dual-GPU setup.
 

Syuzeren

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it really doesn't make much sense to not spring for the K series. It's a $15 difference (5%) to ensure you haven't locked out any capability.

the difference is that the K version has unlocked multipliers, which makes it great for overclocking. Since you said that there wasnt going to be any overclocking, getting a K version doesnt make any diffirence.

I don't think that a 2500k will bottleneck a SLI/Crossfire setup.
 

LordJummy

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I would go for the 2500k. It will definitely not bottle neck the setup, and you will save money. Even though you say there won't be any overclocking you still should get the 2500k. In my opinion there's no point in going for the locked one. One day he might all the sudden decide he wants to try his hand at OC'ing :)

I used to not like overclocking at all, but a few years ago I started really getting into it. He may change his mind.
 
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LordJummy, that was my thought as well. Pay a bit more and leave the opportunity open down the road. Finding out you have an unlocked CPU would be a better surprise than finding you have a locked one. ;-)

Have any of you seen benchmarks comparing i5 to i7 performance in the multi-GPU space? Not that I don't believe you, I just want to put a performance number to the $$ amount.

Thanks!
 

LordJummy

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As far as I know the difference is the hyper threading. When I have my 950 OC'd at 4.0 with hyperthreading it doesn't make any difference in dual GPU performance than when i turn hyperthreading off. The only difference is with HT off I get much lower temps. I, however, leave HT on because I just feel like I'm not getting my entire CPU if I don't.

I think the 2500k will give you the same effective performance as the 2600k. Not to mention if need be later down the road it can be overclocked dramatically.

*Oh but you might want to stick with the 2600k if he wants hyperthreading. It doesn't hurt to have 8 threads for video transcoding and all that good stuff.

I have seen benchmarks and games actually perform a little bit worse with HT on. It really just depends on how the software works. I'm assuming BF3 will be multithreaded and heavily optimized. The HT in that case should help.
 
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Thanks again LJ.

I've been looking at more benchmarks trying to quantitatively describe the performance gain with the i7 but there are too many games where it actually performs a bit worse.
 

Syuzeren

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some games prefer the i5 others the i7. Was going through the same thing when i choose my components. I took the i5 cause i don't need the HT and its cheaper :)

Your choice 2500k or 2600k, ask your friend about what he wants to use his PC for. If he just wants to game go for the 2500k.
 
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the 2600K has higher stock clocks, if not planning to OC that would be a plus over the 2500K but of course at a cost.
 
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Syuzeren

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both are great cards, ofcourse the gigabyte is overclocked and will give better performance, but it is also more expensive.
 
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JrRacinFan

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Those are all great suggestions RacinFan but as the case is listed under the "Purchased" category, I think it's unlikely we'll go with something else.
 
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Not a fan of that HDD setup. You're basically only going to get the OS on that SSD, and then you are offloading all your programs to a drive designed mostly for backing up massive amounts of files, not for something like gaming. Just my thoughts.
 
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The size of the SSD is fine. In Anandtech's article, the 20GB drive he tested provided SSD-like performance with the Z68 caching. His example of games getting evicted after using the whole Adobe Creative suite is unrealistic.

The point of this cache is it doesn't need to fit all of your programs + OS. It just needs to cache the parts that get used all the time to speed up loads.

Have you seen reviews of other drives being used with the Z68 caching feature? I'd assume there are drives other than the Agility 2 that would give better bang for your dollar.

Maybe this one?: OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-60G 2.5" 60GB SATA III M...
 
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