Is this a good gaming pc build?

[XipwnUX99]

No PC hardware is going to last you 5 years. 1 or 2 years without upgrading, yes. 5 years won't happen unless you have 4 of the highest end cards in SLI/Crossfire. I would wait until Intel releases Haswell and Nvidia releases the 700 series before building it and get one of those parts. And also, RAM doesn't come in 5GB sticks. How are you going to get 10GB?

[Beriallord]

You can easily go 3 years without upgrading if you got a mid-range GPU, and solid CPU. I got crossfire 6970s and I'm not gonna have to upgrade for a few more years at least, and this rig is already 2 years old. I might get 5 years out of it.

[Azndragon]

Wait for the 7xx series. They're just around the corner (end of this month or next), and wait for Haswell. Prices will drop or you can pay the same for better performance if you wait.
Me, I don't like waiting so I ended up going for an i7 3770k and 2x HD 7970s despite next gen hardware just being around the corner, and by far superior, rendering mine void.

 

Also, unless you're going to do some heavy video rendering or photoshopping, go for an i5 3/4xxx, games won't take advantage of the hyperthreads on the i7 series so you'll save another $100ish which you can invest in another area of your desktop, such as getting another 2TB storage drive, or a boot SSD. You could even get away with an i3 for gaming, as most games don't take advantage of more than 2 cores.

Edited May 20, 2013 by Azndragon

[SidneyCrosby]

Yeah sorry, I meant 8GB of RAM. I haven't decided on the motherboard yet, but I don't really plan on ever running 2 graphics cards.

 

Hey, Azndragon, what's your experience with your Kingston SSD, I've never owned an SSD? I plan on getting the SSDNow 300 240GB, and putting my OS and games on it. I download and delete mods for Skyrim quite regularly though, so would it be wise to put Skyrim and my mods for it on the SSD?

Edited May 26, 2013 by SidneyCrosby

[ThereIsDeadPeeps]

omg man that is a very good computer that will run anything you throw at it o and that will run skyrim at that level I can run it like that and my computers only i5 and 4 ram

Edited May 28, 2013 by ThereIsDeadPeeps

[FMod]

Well, the 700 series is here.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121770

 

It's really nothing more than a 680 with tweaked firmware and drivers.

But, the price is right, it costs like 5% less while being 2% faster, so a better deal than the old one.

 

 

Hey, Azndragon, what's your experience with your Kingston SSD, I've never owned an SSD?

Don't get a Kingston. Some of the buggiest SSD on the market, mostly on par with old Sandforces.

Crucial M500 is your friend:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=20-148-694&ParentOnly=1&IsVirtualParent=1

Very reliable maker, new product, and this is also one of the faster mid-upper range SSD offered for mid-lower range pricing.

 

Oh, and Haswell is here too, just days left till it's shipped. 4670K is enough for gaming. Unlike with last gens, you may consider 4770K, if you plan on hanging on to it for more than 2-3 years.

[kalikka]

Buggy SSD?

First time hearing that about kingston. At least from other than V200 (that was pretty bad, and to be clear: V+200 and V200 are different SSD:s).

And please, dont whine about sandforce. Sandforce was crappy when it first came out, same as windows 7 or any new operating system.

 

I have had two Kingston HyperX for over a year now, never had any kind of problems with it and speed is still the same as always.

Edited June 2, 2013 by kalikka

[FMod]

Buggy SSD?

They all are, only old-school enterprise SSD match decent HDD (non-Seagate) in reliability. Also a few old Intels (X25), even 320 has issues with some chipsets.

 

The difference is in how buggy: "Might lose performance", "May glitch in some cases", "Tends to die after sleep mode".

 

Micron/Crucial and Samsung are currently the two makers with the least severe problems, on a scale similar to Intel 320. Intel itself has gone down in this regard, and their pricing makes no sense. Of the two, Samsung (830 and 840Pro) tends to edge out in performance, but at too much premium compared to Crucial.

 

 

First time hearing that about kingston. At least from other than V200 (that was pretty bad, and to be clear: V+200 and V200 are different SSD:s).

And please, dont whine about sandforce. Sandforce was crappy when it first came out, same as windows 7 or any new operating system.

Sandforce is still one of the buggier popular controllers out there. Problems happen nowhere as often with 2000 series as with 1000, but they are the same problems.

 

The main problem with SF is the company is far more concerned with someone stealing their secrets (to making unreliable second-rate controllers, presumably) than with end customer experience. They don't allow clients access to firmware to fix their bugs and leave them throughout updates. This is why even their partner OCZ turned away from them.

 

A lot of Kingstons have been known for bugs, I'm not familiar with every single model, but it's enough. V300 is a sandforce to boot.

 

It's not even one of the better sandforces, in fact it performs worse than other SF2281 solutions:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/kingston-ssdnow-v300_5.html#sect0

 

 

I have had two Kingston HyperX for over a year now, never had any kind of problems with it and speed is still the same as always.

That's not entirely unlike "I've been driving a Pinto for over a year, and I'm still alive".

 

There isn't a price difference either.

 

Seriously, for the same amount of cash, $200, do you want:

A) An entry-level option from a known "el cheapo" brand with an old Sandforce controller with poor reliability record and below average performance.

B) New model from one of the two most reliable makers, on an updated version of a well-proven controller, that can trade blows with top dogs in performance.

 

...Is this even a question?

[kalikka]

I don't really understand what is your problem with sandforce.

I have 2 threads (Finnish overclockers) with over 8k posts about SSD:s and their reliability (a dedicated area for mass-storage related topics, total post count would be astronomical).

They still recommend V300 for the budget solution and Samsung 840 pro for high-end solution.

None, and I mean none of the forum users whine about the new sandforce SSD:s. All the SSD:s run out of juice at one point, that is how they are built.

 

Of course what kind of SSD you should get depends on your country. In Finland the crucial SSD:s are very rare and when they are available, they cost more than what they are worth (132€ for crucial m4? You kidding me?).

Remember, there are other countries than USA.

Edited June 7, 2013 by kalikka

[FMod]

I don't really understand what is your problem with sandforce.

I have 2 threads (Finnish overclockers) with over 8k posts about SSD:s and their reliability (a dedicated area for mass-storage related topics, total post count would be astronomical).

They still recommend V300 for the budget solution and Samsung 840 pro for high-end solution.

None, and I mean none of the forum users whine about the new sandforce SSD:s. All the SSD:s run out of juice at one point, that is how they are built.

It's a less reliable drive, and this one also comes with mediocre performance. Assuming the OP is in US/Canada, considerably better products are currently available for the same price.

 

Samsung 840 Pro is considerably more expensive (by 20%) for similar reliability/quality and only a small performance edge, which is why I consider M500 the best option at this moment. For equal price, take 840 Pro (must be Pro) over M500.

 

Wasn't so long ago that I recommended Agility 3 left and right, because SF-2281 in AGT3 was considerably cheaper than other drives, delivering what was then above average performance, and drives on more reliable controllers tended to be both slower and costlier.

 

 

I don't really understand what is your problem with sandforce.

I have 2 threads (Finnish overclockers) with over 8k posts about SSD:s and their reliability (a dedicated area for mass-storage related topics, total post count would be astronomical).

They still recommend V300 for the budget solution and Samsung 840 pro for high-end solution.

None, and I mean none of the forum users whine about the new sandforce SSD:s. All the SSD:s run out of juice at one point, that is how they are built.

No SATA SSD in an average system should have "run out of juice" by this day.

The write endurance cycles allow newer SSD to last 5+ years and older ones 10+. Consumer SSD have started coming on the mass market barely 5 years ago.

 

So every SSD that has died to this point in a typical usage pattern consumer PC has died due to poor design or controller bugs, not due to aging.