My new pc

[Raikan007]

Good day everyone, I am currently researching an upgrade for now and the future

These are the parts I am looking at now! 1 for the now and future and a cheaper one just to see your thoughts if I should spend the little extra cash now for easier/cheaper upgrade in the future

My realistic dream machine: (future upgrade in mind)

CPU: (the one and only)
http://www.landmarkpc.co.za/store/intel ... -6163.html

RAM: Will the 1866 for an extra R150 make a difference from the 1600 below be better for the future?
http://www.landmarkpc.co.za/store/gskil ... -6866.html

MOBO: Want an SLI board so in the future instead of upgrading everything I will just buy another GPU below? What do you think about it?
http://www.landmarkpc.co.za/store/asus- ... -6790.html

GPU: I can get this for R3699 at Pc Zone! What would in say about 1 years time having these two in SLI and just getting a new PSU (I currently have a 550w)
http://www.landmarkpc.co.za/store/n570g ... -6995.html

Should I rather look at two Gtx550's to run in SLI for about R3600-R4200 instead?? It also all depends on what happens at work with bonuses, If I get a big one I want the Gainward Phantom 3 Gtx 580

My budget gaming rig: Please suggest the best hardware/alternatives for the same or less value:

CPU: (the one and only)
http://www.landmarkpc.co.za/store/intel ... -6163.html

RAM: Which is better? Corsair or G-Skill? I heard G-Skill is better!
http://www.landmarkpc.co.za/store/corsa ... -6072.html
http://www.landmarkpc.co.za/store/gskil ... -6865.html

MOBO: Single slot PCI Express and a very good entry level board supposedley:
http://www.landmarkpc.co.za/store/biost ... -6957.html

There is also the ASROCK boards PC format did a few tests on last issue for around the same price! thoughts?

GPU: this is where I need help: The Gtx 570 above could be an option however I dont know if I should fork out the cash.. I have a GT 430 in at the moment! which is ****!

I know Nvidia cards (especially the Gtx 570 and Gtx 580 go perfectly with the Sandy Bridge as it bottlenecks on the AMD so only Nvidia cards really)

out of everything above I would realistically like to spend not more than R4600 on the CPU, RAM and MOBO and about R3500 on the GPU

thank you and I look forward to your responses and feedback!

[StarBound]

i7 has been out for 2 years now and it is no where near sated. Even the i5 is totally comparable to an i7 for gaming at current. With gaming going the way its going a 560gtx or prefered a 560ti will last you around 2 years. Go SLI if you really want to but my experience is unless you buy a screen capable of more than 60hz a 560ti will do the job just fine. But as you said you budgeted for a 570gtx so get it and replace it in 3 years times.

You mentioned you have a 550W psu. That is the only thing stopping you from getting the 570gtx if your budget is covered. You need a 600W+ psu for that monster.

As I am as close to what a perfectionist gets you will want to stick with a single card solution. Its been said in many posts why I prefer it so look for anything about microstutter or my SLI journal. I don't see why you would want to go past 1333mhz except that 1600mhz ddr3 seems to be more common. I also don't know about your overclocking intentions.

So boil it down, your budget system with a 560ti should do anything you want for the next 2-3 years and if consoles are as crappy as they are today it will be 5 before things start moving again. As you didnt mention the amount of ram I assume your going for 8gb?

[Slimshaedy]

i5 is perfect for gaming, GTX570 Twinfrozr is Legen... wait for it... Dary!! Awesome gpu dude. G skill is a pretty good brand, I've heard great things about them and i currently have G Skill RAM in my rig, and it hasnt let me down. Oh and to save money look at getting 4GB ram instead of 8, that'll cut your costs a little bit:) 4GB is more than enough for gaming, but if you're using alot of programs at once, or editing etc etc then go for the 8GB. !600mhz is the more common speed seen these days.

A 550W psu is recommended for the gtx570, but as Starbound said, you should look at getting something a little bigger, you're gonna need a bigger one later on anyway. As for the mobo the Asus one is awesome but if you cant afford it then i would do a little bit of homework. Look for a board thats gonna cover you til you're ready to upgrade, some boards come with only 3 sata 2, 3 sata3 ports and 1 PCIE slot etc so you're bound to find one that fits your budget.

I say this to everyone so hear goes. If you're not going to overclock you dont need the 2500K, the i5 2500 will do just fine. However if you want to overclock keep in mind you might want an aftermarket cooler, your budget mobo will take strain with the inferior caps,mosfets etc. And if you keep the 550W psu you run the risk of blowing the PSU and bringing down the rest of the rig with it.

[Raikan007]

cheers thank you for your help and suggestions:

how is this for a system?

Intel Socket 1155 Sandy Bridge i5-2500K Quad Core 3.3GHz CPU With Fan

R2112.31
including VAT

MSI N560GTX-TI Twin Frozr II OC 1GB nVidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti GPU

R2572.04
including VAT

G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866

R842.45
including VAT

Asus P8Z68-V Pro Intel Z68 Chipset ATX
R2381.46
including VAT

and getting another GTX560 in a year or so for an upgrade to SLI plus having the option to overlock the CPU (2500k) and the ASUS mobo which is really good for overclocking as well?

please suggest other cheaper/better alternatives for the Mobo and graphics cards? thank you

[CyberGecko]

Hi Raikan007,

Depending on your budget you might want to hold back a bit on the CPU. The 2700K is available very soon. Also, according to my suppliers the LGA2011 socket should be available next month or early Jan. It will most probably be replacing the LGA1366 at the high end market.

RAM: If you are planning on overclocking the RAM a bit the Corsair Vengeance LP Arctic White are nice due to extra low voltage @ 1.35V giving extra overclocking room. Also, the frequency is not the end of the world. Many good ram modules are 1600. Anything higher and you will start to eat into your wallet.

GPU: so many to choose from If you're not lucky enough to get your hands on a MARS II when it comes out soon then the Asus ROG Matrix GTX580 is great. It comes factory overclocked already and ROG simply have great overclocking software that ships with their products, making overclocking easy. The GTX580 is also in the top 3 in most benchmark charts, even beating the HD6990 dual GPU in some benchmarks. It will certainly last for quite while:)

Mobo: Z68 chip are overrated and overpriced. P67-B3 would give same performance at fraction of the cost. Again I would recommend Asus due to the ROG boards Maximus IV Extreme (P67) LGA1155 is a mother of a board


So, these are just some of my ideas. Might be bit over your budget but nonetheless they are good hardware. All depends on your level of gaming. Whether you will be overclocking, SLI/Xfire etc.

PS. You might want to upgrade your PSU slightly. 650-700W should be fine for bit of overclocking and decent GPU. Should also be able to handle SLI/Xfire if you have enough PCIe connectors.

[Slimshaedy]

The P67 is generally a few hundred rand cheaper than Z68. with the Z68 you get access to the on chip gpu and video transcoding hardware etc for about R100 extra which is worth it IMO.
IMO the 2700K is a waste of time, it is exactly the same as the 2600K, except it is 100mhz faster. you can overclock the 2600/K to 3.5 without touching the voltage at all.
8GB is good but overkill for gaming alone, as i said if you're dealing with alot of open apps at once etc then keep the 8GB. and 1600mhz is the more common frequency and this will not influence your gaming in any way.
If you want to overclock properly look at getting an aftermarket cooler, you can pick one up for about R300. (look at Coolermaster Hyper 212 or TX3)

[Ashlee Smith]

cheers thank you for your help and suggestions:

how is this for a system?

Intel Socket 1155 Sandy Bridge i5-2500K Quad Core 3.3GHz CPU With Fan

R2112.31
including VAT

MSI N560GTX-TI Twin Frozr II OC 1GB nVidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti GPU

R2572.04
including VAT

G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866

R842.45
including VAT

Asus P8Z68-V Pro Intel Z68 Chipset ATX
R2381.46
including VAT

and getting another GTX560 in a year or so for an upgrade to SLI plus having the option to overlock the CPU (2500k) and the ASUS mobo which is really good for overclocking as well?

please suggest other cheaper/better alternatives for the Mobo and graphics cards? thank you

hey man check this site out >> www.pcint.co.za they are the cheapest you will find a I5 2500 k cpu

[Raikan007]

hey guys, thanks for the input, cyber gecko, the hardware you suggested is a tad out of my range but thank you.

this is what I have decided on (so far) I am selling (trying to) my old box as well:

Chassis is not imperitive, I will find one at Pc Zone or Matrix where I will buy my Seagate and Dvd writer from.

This is supposedley a fantastic chassis as well:

http://www.landmarkpc.co.za/store/coole ... -3892.html

Coolermaster RC-334 Elite 334 Nvidia Edition with Windowed side panel

R518.70
including VAT


Corsair CX600W 600W PSU

R734.16
including VAT

Intel Socket 1155 Sandy Bridge i5-2500K Quad Core 3.3GHz CPU With Fan

R2112.31
including VAT



Biostar TZ68A+ Intel Z68 Chipset ATX (this is supposedley one hell of a mobo for really cheap, there is no SLI and only has a a few USB 3.0 but I dont need more than like one! plus when I upgrade in a year or two I will buy a new single GPU or a new mobo with sli and another gtx 570 (hopefully micro stuttering will be sorted by then)

R1127.46
including VAT


G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (I know its not much difference but for future speeds I would rather spend an extra R120 now)

R842.45
including VAT


MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr III Power Edition GTX570 1280MB nVidia GeForce GTX 570 GPU
R3692.46
including VAT

any other suggestions on a GPU? for less than R3700?

[Slimshaedy]

My opinion: I'd drop the ram to 4GB 1333 cl9 and spend that saved cash on a cooler to look after your 2500K.
But that's just me. No the gpu you have listed is awesome dude you could probably find a reference gtx570 for a lil bit cheaper but Twin Frozr is good. It'll keep your gpu temps low:)

[KALSTER]

Everything looks good. I actually typed a long reply two days ago, but accidentally closed the tab.

My Biostar board has been faultless for the last year and a half. They are not the most highly spec'ed, but with a 3 year warranty you should be fine.

8GB RAM is fine to allow some leeway in order to have one or two other applications open while gaming. It sucks having to close your browser in order to game.

While you'll need a good CPU cooler to OC, the standard one will be fine in normal circumstances.

GTX570 will be more than good enough.


That PC is going to fly!

[Raikan007]

ok this is my latest build (things in the finance department have taken a very good turn)

Intel Sandybridge lga1155 i5-2500K - Quad core
Coolermaster RC-692-KKN1 , cm690ii Plus
Asus P8Z68 Deluxe: all-in-one LGA1155
Corsair CX600 , Eps12V , ATX 12V V2.3 - 600w
G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866
Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB Sata 6G 7200RPM 32MB

now this where I need your suggestions? and even with the above components too, your feedback will be appreciated!

a single GPU like the:
MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr III Power Edition/OC GTX570 1280MB nVidia GeForce GTX 570 GPU R3834 or the
Inno3D GTX570, 1280mb 320bit DDR5, SLi for R2977

or running two of these in SLI?
http://rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_p ... ts_id=9506 or
http://rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_p ... ts_id=7487 or
http://rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_p ... ts_id=7868

for around the same/less of a price? or any other good GPU under R1850 per card?

This pc is only going to be used for gaming! I have a Samsung 22" LCD HD 2ms response 10 000:1 ratio (60hz) screen but might upgrade to a bigger LED monitor in the future as my HDMI port on the back of the screen is not working (I think) have to use adapters to plug in the normal VGA slots... so I do want to get a new one, just not right now and if someone could recommend a good model to I would appreciate that!

[Ron2K]

now this where I need your suggestions? and even with the above components too, your feedback will be appreciated!

a single GPU like the:
MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr III Power Edition/OC GTX570 1280MB nVidia GeForce GTX 570 GPU R3834 or the
Inno3D GTX570, 1280mb 320bit DDR5, SLi for R2977

or running two of these in SLI?
http://rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_p ... ts_id=9506 or
http://rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_p ... ts_id=7487 or
http://rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_p ... ts_id=7868

for around the same/less of a price? or any other good GPU under R1850 per card?

Single card solutions are usually preferred over multi-card solutions. Micro-stutter is a pretty good reason why.

[Stuart]

It sucks having to close your browser in order to game.

Sheesh, what are you doing in your browser that you have to close it to game.

[Slimshaedy]

I stand by my RAM suggestion. For the GPU I'd go for a reference design GTX570, and for the screen, they sell all sorts at PC Zone. 23" LED Syncmaster for around R1500

[KALSTER]

It sucks having to close your browser in order to game.

Sheesh, what are you doing in your browser that you have to close it to game.

I easily have like 30 or 40 tabs open at any one time in Opera and Yahoo email in IE, which really eats your RAM.

[Raikan007]

thank you for all your help and suggestions

So for the RAM if I were to get one like this it wont make a huge difference to games in comparison to the G Skill Sniper?

http://rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_p ... cts_id=146

Would it be beneficial to save the R600-R900 by getting this board, the P8P67 Deluxe instead of the P8Z68 Deluxe linked above? Just remember I am not super overclocker and will just increase the i5 2500k slightly in the future to get a little more performance out...

http://rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_p ... ts_id=6463
or should I spend a little more and get this?
http://www.landmarkpc.co.za/store/asus- ... -6208.html

[Sakkie81]

ooooo Maximus IV Extreme..../drool

I simply love RoG. But if your not planning on overclocking that much the MIVE is overkill imo. Rather save the money on the mobo and spend it on something else.

[Slimshaedy]

The RAM won't make any difference in gaming. I would suggest the P67 over the Z68 for such a huge price cut!! You're using a discreet GPU and your only using the PC for gaming so the P8P67 is perfect. You could save even more money by downgrading to the P8P67 Pro.
And as much as I love ROG, the Maximus 4 Extrene is total overkill for you.

[Raikan007]

so this RAM would be more than sufficient then?

http://www.ikonicit.co.za/memory-en/ddr ... 00mhz.html

in comparison to this one? (I could always get another kit at a later stage if I feel as though I need 8gb) I dont think I would ever need more than that for at least 4 years or so

http://www.landmarkpc.co.za/store/gskil ... -6866.html

thanks for all your help (especially you slimshaedy)

your views/experiences on this card in comparison to the Twin Frozr GTX570?

R3585.00 from Ikonic IT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130593 or

R3262.47 from Rebeltech
http://rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_p ... ts_id=9354

[Raikan007]

also, do I need a modular or non modular PSU? I do not know the difference and which one is good for the MOBO and GPU I want? R800 max I think should be more than enough?

thanks

[Slimshaedy]

Firstly I'd get the G Skill Ripjaws X 4GB kit because of their lower voltage, but for you I'd recommend the cheapest one because your not into overclocking too much.
I'd get the Twin Frozr GTX570 because it'll cool the gpu better when I overclock, again you're not into it so I'd recommend the cheaper version. A GTX570 is a GTX570 regardless of brand, some have been slightly modified in regards to quality but performance remains the same...
Anf finally the PSU I go for quality because I don't want my PSU failing while I'm running my rig overclocked to the max and drawing maximum current, potentially taking down my entire rig with it, so I got the TX750. A modular PSU means its power cords are removable and you can plug in only the ones you need. Personally I think they're overpriced and the remaining exposed plug sockets ruin the look of the rig. There's no difference in the performance, its about aesthetics

[Raikan007]

thanks Slim much appreciated mate