Midrange Gaming Build

[Chosen Juan]

I personally would go the Corsair water cooling solution over that abomination of a CPU cooler (Noctua). But thats just me. It looks hideous and I would never purchase anything like that no matter how well it cools. Im a big fan of looks/performance (in that order).



If the rumors are true, it looks like AMD is going to be making a comeback. I heard they are going with lower speeds (think 1.8GHz) and its kicking the shit out of Intel i7's. Again this ISNT official.

I know what you mean haha. But the ASUS Sabertooth P67 isn't a looker either. I'm not a fan of the olive green/bone white slots and heatsinks. But they both perform well though.

As for the Corsair H50, from the reviews that I've read it has to be set as an intake, and if I was to set it as exhaust then I'd have to get an extra fan for push-pull so the temps are cool. That would only be a few dollars away from an NH-D14 which cools better.

I could always get the Antec H2O 620...

 

[Funtoss]

lmao this looks better than my rig :\

anyways if your gonna be overclocking better invest in some good cooling as well

 

[Chosen Juan]

Hey guys, just wondering, have you guys heard anything (good) about the Asrock Fatal1ty P67? The color scheme is too sick (I'm a sucker for anything Red/Black combo) hehe it would match the ram, case, and graphics card

 

[JrRacinFan]

Didn't hear anything about that board particular but I do know that the Asrock brand is decent.

 

[Chosen Juan]

Didn't hear anything about that board particular but I do know that the Asrock brand is decent.

I was reading reviews and it seems like an excellent board...but I couldn't find much info on forums as for user experience.

 

[Chosen Juan]

One more question guys, all of this waiting is making me do some research.

HAF X or Silverstone Raven 2? I'm stuck between these two, and the Raven looks ridiculously nice compared to the HAF X, and the airflow seems great as well. But the HAF X is much bigger.

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

That boils down to personal preference. Make a list of pros and cons for each if you have to and weigh your decision based on that.

 

[Chosen Juan]

Well, I just pulled the trigger on CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM...

It's the only thing I've ordered since the deal was great. It's gonna be staring at me for a few weeks until I order the rest

 

[gpost3]

I would have suggested to save $50 on RAM and go with 4 GB. Crysis runs smoothly on 4 GB maxed out without a hint of I/O paging.

For graphics, I would recommend Geforce GTX 460 for mid range gaming. If you were thinking to get 6950 then I guess that isn't exactly "mid range".

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=54626.../OC&manufacture=MSI/MicroStar#CustomerReviews

 

[Iceni]

looks like I've just orderd Pretty much your rig LOL.

Make sure the Hd6950 is a referance card. That way you should be able to unlock the 6970 shaders. This will give you a 6970 in effect as you can use trixx or similar to run the card at 6970 speeds. Unless you get a shocking deal on a non referance gesign then this is the best way to gain more for less on the rig. I got the sapphire standard model and it works perfectly at 6970 speeds, others apparently are equally good. Avoid a full flash to the 6970 bios tho as i've seen a few cards die in forum threads. A quick google search will lead you down the shader unlock route.

I wen't for the Msi p67a - GD45 - rev 3.0. If you want to know how well it performs I'll be building and testing in the next few days with an i5 2500K and a coolermaster 212+. The noctua's are better i think, probably on a par with the closed loop water coolers. But the closed loop water coolers will be quieter still. Personally i got the 212+ with a mind to buying a full custom loop in summer. Means i can get the rig running and work out the niggles before i start to mess with the wet stuff. Your blue vengence would also sit nice in this mobo since it has blue dimm slots and black ones. And corsair do a black dimm set as well. I plan to get 4Gb blue and 4GB black to match the slots. Only black orderd atm. I know the mobo also comes with black sata cables as well so thats something you don't have to worry about.


Once it arrives I'm going to build and start to overclock it. The results will be poor to begin with! I very much doubt i'll break 4Ghz till i've had chance to digest the mobo options and then correlate them back to options other people have and start my tweaks.


Also buy yours fast! If we have almost identical rigs and you clock 1Ghz faster then me i want your settings

 

[Deleted member 74752]

I have tried the AsRock P67 Extreme 6 mb and found it needs a buttload of vcore just to boot into Windows compared to my Asus WR Revolution or Biostar TP67B+...

 

[gpost3]

I would strongly advise against ATI cards for now (here comes ATI fanboy) because you get physX if you go the nvidia route - Dirt 2 uses it and Dirt 3 will be using it too. Get a 460 GTX or a 480 GTX if you have the money.

 

[Chosen Juan]

I would have suggested to save $50 on RAM and go with 4 GB. Crysis runs smoothly on 4 GB maxed out without a hint of I/O paging.

For graphics, I would recommend Geforce GTX 460 for mid range gaming. If you were thinking to get 6950 then I guess that isn't exactly "mid range".

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=54626.../OC&manufacture=MSI/MicroStar#CustomerReviews

It was only $74.99 during the Shell Shocker deal so I jumped on it, or else I would have just gone with 4GB.

looks like I've just orderd Pretty much your rig LOL.

Make sure the Hd6950 is a referance card. That way you should be able to unlock the 6970 shaders. This will give you a 6970 in effect as you can use trixx or similar to run the card at 6970 speeds. Unless you get a shocking deal on a non referance gesign then this is the best way to gain more for less on the rig. I got the sapphire standard model and it works perfectly at 6970 speeds, others apparently are equally good. Avoid a full flash to the 6970 bios tho as i've seen a few cards die in forum threads. A quick google search will lead you down the shader unlock route.

I wen't for the Msi p67a - GD45 - rev 3.0. If you want to know how well it performs I'll be building and testing in the next few days with an i5 2500K and a coolermaster 212+. The noctua's are better i think, probably on a par with the closed loop water coolers. But the closed loop water coolers will be quieter still. Personally i got the 212+ with a mind to buying a full custom loop in summer. Means i can get the rig running and work out the niggles before i start to mess with the wet stuff. Your blue vengence would also sit nice in this mobo since it has blue dimm slots and black ones. And corsair do a black dimm set as well. I plan to get 4Gb blue and 4GB black to match the slots. Only black orderd atm. I know the mobo also comes with black sata cables as well so thats something you don't have to worry about.


Once it arrives I'm going to build and start to overclock it. The results will be poor to begin with! I very much doubt i'll break 4Ghz till i've had chance to digest the mobo options and then correlate them back to options other people have and start my tweaks.


Also buy yours fast! If we have almost identical rigs and you clock 1Ghz faster then me i want your settings

Yeah man I'll definitely get it soon, I'm just going to wait until finals are over or else there goes my GPA. I'm going with the Corsair H60 instead (or maybe Antec Kuhler). I really wanted to match colors this time around, but the blue Corsair memory doesn't exactly go with the red AMD video card. Oh well...

I have tried the AsRock P67 Extreme 6 mb and found it needs a buttload of vcore just to boot into Windows compared to my Asus WR Revolution or Biostar TP67B+...

I'm gonna go with the ASUS Sabertooth P67 instead, great reviews!

I would strongly advise against ATI cards for now (here comes ATI fanboy) because you get physX if you go the nvidia route - Dirt 2 uses it and Dirt 3 will be using it too. Get a 460 GTX or a 480 GTX if you have the money.

I honestly don't care much about PhysX, I'd rather get a 6950 rather than a 460. I don't play any of the games that require hardware PhysX, and if I did then I have an 8800GT waiting.

EDIT:
Well, I'm going to return the Corsair Vengeance 8GB that I just bought and buy GSkill RipJaws X 8GB instead. Pretty much the same exact thing, but it's red instead of blue. Prices are the same too, but I'm losing $11 for restocking fee and $8.50 for shipping

 

[Chosen Juan]

Hey guys, well it's been a while since I posted in this thread but I'm ready to order now, possibly any minute. Hopefully today. As of right now, this is the build I have with some changes:

Intel Core i5 2500K
After reading more reviews, I didn't see a reason to spend $100 just for HT and slightly more L3 cache. Saved money goes towards SSD

Xigmatek Aegir
Great reviews, just a few degrees hotter than a Noctua NH-D14, looks better, and can add a second fan.

G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB 2x4GB DDR3 1600
Already bought during the ShellShocker deal!

MSI R6950 Twin Frozr II
Reference cards are pretty much gone from newegg, great cooler.

Corsair HX750 Power Supply
Great reviews, modular, good cables too.

Crucial M4 64GB SSD

New SSD, and $35 coupon.

Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
Storage drive for media, etc.

ASUS DVD Burner
Cheap reliable DVD burner.

Corsair 600T Special Edition
Great looking case, might not cool as good as a HAF X but looks better.

As for the motherboard, I'm still undecided. I had my minds set on an ASRock Fatal1ty P67, but maybe there's a cheaper motherboard that could do the same features (maybe ASRock Extreme4, I honestly don't know). The reason for that motherboard was because I was going for a red/black theme, but now I'm going with a 600T instead of a HAF X, and the Twin Frozr 6950 isn't red/black like the reference cards.

So any recommendations, preferably a good motherboard with great features and cheap, but doesn't skimp out on the performance?

Thanks again!

 

[JrRacinFan]

Get this case instead and pickup a 2nd F3.
NZXT LEXA S LEXS - 001BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower...

 

[Chosen Juan]

Get this case instead and pickup a 2nd F3.
NZXT LEXA S LEXS - 001BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower...

And the second F3 would be for...?

 

[JrRacinFan]

Can never have too much storage space

 

[Chosen Juan]

Well, I pulled the trigger on the build I posted a few posts up, with the ASRock Fatal1ty P67 for the motherboard. I'm slightly sad that I didn't get an i7 2600k instead, but oh well , all the reviews I've seen show no significant difference for the stuff I'll be using it for. But I'm sure it'll keep lingering in my head that I didn't get the best that I could've gotten...that SSD better be worth it lol

Well, thanks for the help guys! I'll be posting in the user gallery or something when I'm done with it!

 

[Chosen Juan]

Well the build is here, and everything went great until I realized that I installed the heatsink with the plastic covering still on it! No wonder I was getting 80 degrees load haha. Well, gotta re install that but hopefully all is well after.

 

[n-ster]

Well the build is here, and everything went great until I realized that I installed the heatsink with the plastic covering still on it! No wonder I was getting 80 degrees load haha. Well, gotta re install that but hopefully all is well after.

Noob mistake