My new PC

[Witty]

Thanks again Meo

[Witty]

So, here it is. Does anyone have any suggestions before I go ahead with the order?

Thanks again for any feedback

Case

COOLERMASTER HAF 912 PLUS MID TOWER GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU)

Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics

Motherboard

ASUS® P8Z68-V PRO: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, NVIDIA® SLI™, ATI® CrossFireX™

Memory (RAM)

8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)

Graphics Cards

2 x 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX560 Ti - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - DX® 11, 3D Vision Ready

Memory - 1st Hard Disk

640GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD6402AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

Power Supply

800W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan

Processor Cooling

SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER

[Meo]

Watch this.

[Witty]

Thanks Meo. I have seen this video before.

In terms of FPS, the GTX560ti x2 sits between the GTX 580 and 590. Plus the 2 x GTX560's are cheaper than a single GTX580.

I'm happy to stick with Nvidia

[WindmillTilter]

If you're going with the i7-2600 I'd drop the extra $20 and get the 2600k. Unless you're positive you're never going to be interested in overclocking the price difference is too minimal not to have the unlocked multiplier. That said I agree with Meo, you're paying a lot for a pretty marginal increase in performance from the 2500k to the 2600k.

Anyway you look at it though it's gonna be a sweet build.

WT

[Witty]

Will the cache drop from 8mb to 6mb alter gaming performance (maximum settings)? If so, is it marginal?

Thanks everyone!

Edited May 26, 2011 by Witty

[Meo]

If you play at high resolution like 1920x1080, theres no difference. The question is, do you want and/or need hyper-threading? You could save a $100+ going with the 2500k and save the money for a SSD down the road that will boost performance a lot more, not in FPS but loading times. Imagine, entering a city could take like a second or two.

[Witty]

Hi Meo.....again

Probably not. I tend to close all applications before running any games (I also disable the internet connection). Plus, I only have a single monitor setup......

Ok, regarding the SSD, would this be of any benefit?

120GB INTEL® 320 SSD Interface 3 GB/s, capacity 120 GB, read speed Up to 270 MB/s, write speed Up to 130 MB/s.

Thanks again bud

But, if the SSD mentioned above is fine,I will go with the i72600k as I am still within my budget..........just

Edited May 26, 2011 by Witty

[Artisanix]

SSD is not for storage (at least not yet due to price/capacity ratio), but for putting OS and all programs there as they will load much faster than from HDD.

[Meo]

Like Trollf said, its not for storage but for the OS, programs and games. If you have a good deal, go for it. Any SSD performs better than every HDD.

[Witty]

Thanks both.

Please excuse my severe lack of PC knowledge, but does that mean I have to buy a SSD and a hard drive?

Cheers

Witty

[HeyYou]

Thanks both.

Please excuse my severe lack of PC knowledge, but does that mean I have to buy a SSD and a hard drive?

Cheers

Witty

You don't want to rely on just an SSD for all of your storage needs. They still have a finite number of Read/Write cycles before they stop working...... certain functions also will not work with SSD's in a raid configuration. (something to do with self defragmenting, don't remember the keyword/tricky phrase for it.)

Installing games on an SSD though, will dramatically reduce load times, and goes a long way to reduce load stutter in games like oblivion.

[Artisanix]

They still have a finite number of Read/Write cycles before they stop working...... certain functions also will not work with SSD's in a raid configuration. (something to do with self defragmenting, don't remember the keyword/tricky phrase for it.)

HY - please do not create urban legends about SSD to scare people away from them ;D

Let me clarify some things... ;]

It's not like SSD has finite number of reads - it only has finite number of writes. You can read from it infinite number of times without any degradation of the drive. So, let's say, after those five or more years of using it there will be no possible to write anything on some of its cells, but still those cells will be possible to read - in other words it will become a read-only medium over time ;]

To prolong the life of current SSDs, companies install some additional unused cells in them, and in case of any basic cells degradation these will be replaced by those unused ones. Besides in normal use shear amount of activities on drives are reads and not writes - you usually install system, game, program once and later these are usually read from the drive and loaded into memory. Thus some additional system optimizations are recommended in case of SSD - like moving swap file to other drive or even delete it if your system has a lot of memory, turn off indexing files service under windows, move system folder locations for temporary files to conventional drive, etc.

And as for that "self defragmenting" thing I can only say that any defrag- word should never be used in case of SSD - ever ;D

Defragmentation can improve things a bit on conventional HDD drive, but its completely pointless for SSD, and even degrades SSD by unnecessary writes.

The word you seek here is TRIM function ;]

Without TRIM command the SSD needs to empty the content of previously written cell (even while such a cell is no longer used) each time when it needs to write something there and only after that it can write data to it. And TRIM command just empties such unused cells in background and in advance before they will be overwritten, so it speeds up the write process by various amounts (10% or sometimes even much more).

Well, anyway, with or without TRIM command, in RAID config or else, SSD is always an improvement in speed over traditional HDD.

Even while it is supposed to degrade its write capability over time - such period is still so long for casual user (many years - at least 5, 10, more?) that the whole system spec may change once or twice during this time until any replacement will be needed for such SDD ;]

And those who install their systems on SDD never want to turn back to HDD anymore ;]

[Witty]

Hey guys!

So, this is it! Any last words?......................Meo?

Any final advice is much appreciated!

Case

COOLERMASTER HAF 912 PLUS MID TOWER GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU)

Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics

Motherboard

ASUS® P8Z68-V PRO: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, NVIDIA® SLI™, ATI® CrossFireX™

Memory (RAM)

8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)

Graphics Cards

2 x 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX560 Ti - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - DX® 11, 3D Vision Ready

Memory - 1st Hard Disk

750GB WD CAVIAR BLACK 6 G/bs 750 GB 7200 RPM 64 MB

Power Supply

800W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan

Processor Cooling

SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER

[donnato]

Wow...this looks really sweet Witty. This`ll be a fun build.

[Witty]

I will post pics in a few weeks! Thanks for all your help guys!

[Meo]

Looks great! Cant wait to see pics of it. Take the time to hide and attach all those wires/cables so its all clean and tidy in there. Those graphic cards are gonna need maximum airflow.

[Witty]

Hi all

As stated by Meo 'Those graphic cards are gonna need maximum airflow'.

At the moment I have one front 200 mm red LED fan along with a rear 120mm black fan (as standard). I have a Top: 200 mm and side 120/140mm fan space available.

What would you guys recommend? I guess a side fan could blow cool air onto the 2xGPU and the top fan could extract?

Cheers

Witty

[Meo]

Get the 200 and 140 for sure, it will make a difference.

[Witty]

Duly noted.

Thanks again