New - 2,560 x 1,440 Sandy Bridge PC Build.. Need advise.

[bud01 10]

Update: 9th Jan 2010.

Use [in full]:

Arma 2 + PR

Vmware for microsoft exams.

Poker

Watching movies, educational videos, audio books, some music.

Boxing videos, UFC.

I use Sennheiser HD515 headphones only.

Monitor = Dell U2711 £600

CPU = Intel CPU Core i5 2500K Unlocked Sandy Bridge Quad Core Processor £175

Motherboard Asus P8P67 Pro £142.40

Corsair Memory Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz CAS 9 - £106.94

PNY 1536MB GeForce GTX 580 GDDR5 NVIDIA Graphics Card £407

Corsair CMPSU-850HXUK HX 850W Modular Power Supply (PSU) £129.58

CPU Cooler H70 - £75

Case - Odsidan 700D £159

64GB SSD Crucial RealSSD C300 Solid State Drive £97.79

SSD Bracket - Akasa AK-MX010 Dual 2.5" (2x9.5mm) SSD/HDD 3.5" Bay Mounting Module, Black Aluminium Passive Cooler -£5.87

Sound Card Asus Xonar DX £60.24 inc VAT

Trackir £127.99

Optical drive SATA DVD-RW -Already have one

Storage (HDD) All ready have 2x250gb

OS: Windows 7 64-bit have already.

Mouse - Already have a Logitec G8

Total = £2082

Updates

- Go Nvidia, Confirmed get one single GTX 580 - dont get an overlocked card , overlock it yourself.

- Get a sound card.

- Dont waste money on an expensive keyboard and I have a mouse.

- Only need a small SSD (C300 64gb) since I have 2x250gb for storage.

Edited January 9, 2011 by bud01

[bangtail 0]

- I have been told to drop the GTX580 out for a 6950, and flash it to a 6970." If you need the extra performance, buy two; you'll end up with a far faster system, and the graphics setup will cost roughly the same".

- I have been told to drop the sound card

The 580 is faster than the 6950 or the 6970. Nvidia tends to be a better choice for ArmA 2 (and in general in my experience).

There is nothing wrong with AMD but Crossfire on the 5xxx and 6xxx series can be problematic where ArmA 2 is concerned.

Onboard sound sucks compared to a dedicated sound card.

Looks good otherwise :D

Edited January 9, 2011 by BangTail

[RN Escobar 0]

any multi GPU system is problematic, SLI is just as flakey as Xfire, IMHO buy the fastest single GPU card you can afford which at teh time of writing is the GTX580, i personally wouldn't buy an pre-overclocked version cuz they aren't worth the extra money, if you want it faster DL afterburner and OC it yourself.

If you are going to the bother of watercooling i would do it properly and not some use some poxy one box solution but get a proper block, rad and pump. I'd also lap both the CPU and the block.

I also wouldn't spend £115 on a keyboard.

Can't understand why your spending 2K+ on anything other than a 1366 system, integrated gfx in the CPU and a £500+ Gfx card???? WHY?????

for maybe a lil bit more money i'd take a I7-930, asus sabretooth X58, 6GB tri channel ram and a cheaper GTX580 and have a much better overall system.

at the end of the day its your money, you make your choices, you pay for it and you have the end result.

Esco

[bangtail 0]

any multi GPU system is problematic, SLI is just as flakey as Xfire, IMHO buy the fastest single GPU card you can afford which at teh time of writing is the GTX580, i personally wouldn't buy an pre-overclocked version cuz they aren't worth the extra money, if you want it faster DL afterburner and OC it yourself.

There are no issues with SLI.

I've used both extensively and SLI is the better of the two.

Single card wise, you can't go wrong with either.

Do not buy a 930 in place of a 2xxxK, that's just bad advice.

Edited January 9, 2011 by BangTail

[sailindawg 0]

@OP

I'm interested in seeing the results of your build. Regarding flashing the 6950, read the enthusiast forums. It's not all good. Some 6950's artifact after flashing, some don't. It's a lottery, why bother. If you've got the cash for a GTX 580, then get it. The new AMD 6xxx aren't much faster, if at all, than a 5870. At this time, the 5870's are over priced. I'm running a 5870, lastest drivers and ARMA II + all DLC runs very well. ARMA likes raw cpu horsepower more, but a very capable video card tops off quite nicely and is fully utilized by the cpu.

Water cooling - lots of opinions here - I like the Swiftech radiator / pump combos. They are pricey, but it's quality kit for water cooling. Simple build. Given your case choice, the Obsidian 700D, this combo rad/pump may fit the billin either the 220 or 320 configuration. Both combos should fit into the top part of the Obsidian case. Lot's of room to grow with the 320 version. Easily can cool cpu, gpu and motherboard. However, I doubt that a 1155 motherboard will need additional water cooling.

Good Luck, let us know how you make out! I'm interested to see how the 2500k/2600k stack up against my 775 Qx9650 running at 4.1 GHz. Reviews I've read so far, indicate the 3DMark Vantage cpu score for the stock 2600k running about 3 times higher than my 9650 at 4.1. Plus, the Sandys are optimized for video / graphics chores.

[Rich_R 1087]

Just to add to the Nvidia ati discussion, just changed from a pair of 5870's C/F to a pair of 570's in SLI. The difference is night and day. Aside from the game simply looking better, my textures popping in and out are gone I've maxed all video options (except resolution-still at 120%) and increased the viewing distance to 4000!

With all this additon eye-candy I still managed to keep the framerates up!

Amazing cards!

Edited January 9, 2011 by Mustangdelta

[PuFu 4591]

there are 2 existing threads for this sort of topic, both being STICKY!

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=72181

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=87256

[Flubadoo 10]

Keep the 580, and get a Logitech MX518 or G500. They are reliable, and work VERY well.

Also, the keyboard is a waste, IMO.

And also get an HDD. The SSD is only 128GB, not enough for anything. My recommendation:

Samsung F3 Spinpoint 1TB AND

Crucial OCZ 80GB SSD

Also, a PSU change: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/850w-silverstone-st85f-100modular-quad-pci-e-atx12v-22-and-eps12v-80-efficiency-rohs

It's 850w, compared to the HX750. It's also modular and 80+ SILVER.

I also recommend you get a CoolerMaster HAF 932. It's a MUCH better case than the obsidian, while being cheaper. It comes with much more powerful fans.

The obsidian comes with 3x140mm. It completely pales against the HAF 932's 3x230mm (!!!!!!!) and 1x140mm.

And since the HAF 932 also supports it, get this, and get even more airflow: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120mm-bitfenix-spectre-black-fan-red-led-quiet-fluid-dynamic-bearings-(fdb)-1000rpm

The HAF 932 is simply put, amazing.

Another tip: Get rid of the H70 cooler, there is no need for it.

With the new Sandy Bridge i5, you can easily get up to 4.8GHz (with a 1.445 overvolt) on the stock cooler. People have gotten up to 5.3GHz on the stock.

The H70 will provide little to no advantage, unless you plan to overclock to 6Ghz, which is overkill, and no reason to do so.

[PuFu 4591]

Another tip: Get rid of the H70 cooler, there is no need for it.

With the new Sandy Bridge i5, you can easily get up to 4.8GHz (with a 1.445 overvolt) on the stock cooler. People have gotten up to 5.3GHz on the stock.

The H70 will provide little to no advantage, unless you plan to overclock to 6Ghz, which is overkill, and no reason to do so.

Do you actually have first hand experience with the H70? Well, I do.

I got a i7 970 6 core OCed from 3.2 to 4Ghz, and it stays in idle bellow 20degrees, and never above 40degrees in full load...

Keeping you CPU cold means more lifespan from your hardware. Yes, you can OC your proc on stock cooler, but 60 degrees in idle and 90 in full load will not make it happu

1.445 is a lot for the i5, especially when it's stock is 1.1.

I also recommend you get a CoolerMaster HAF 932. It's a MUCH better case than the obsidian, while being cheaper. It comes with much more powerful fans.

But is also ugly as hell...For some it matters to have a slick case on your PC, without all the bling bling, leds and whatever else you like..

Edited January 9, 2011 by PuFu

[Flubadoo 10]

I think the HAF 932 looks good in my opinion, but if you want something looking sleek, then go Lian-Li.

And by overvolt, I meant 1.2-1.4.

Anyways, you don't even need to overvolt to get good results.

[PuFu 4591]

I got a Zalman MS1000HS1.

Without pushing the voltage over the top you won't be able to push the i5 2500k over the 4.2Ghz

I got a 1.3v for the 4Ghz OC

[bangtail 0]

Do you actually have first hand experience with the H70? Well, I do.

I got a i7 970 6 core OCed from 3.2 to 4Ghz, and it stays in idle bellow 20degrees, and never above 40degrees in full load...

Keeping you CPU cold means more lifespan from your hardware. Yes, you can OC your proc on stock cooler, but 60 degrees in idle and 90 in full load will not make it happu

1.445 is a lot for the i5, especially when it's stock is 1.1.

But is also ugly as hell...For some it matters to have a slick case on your PC, without all the bling bling, leds and whatever else you like..

Yep, the H50 and H70 are indispensable.

[avengerzx 10]

If you had i7-2600K would be better as you need not OC where you can get up to 3.8Ghz on Turbo boost. Also with the base frequency of 3.4Ghz

---------- Post added at 04:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:41 PM ----------

Corsair Obsidian 600T is also not bad

[Nicholas 5]

I don't understand why you'd need a GPU and CPU together. I'd get just a CPU instead of CPU+GPU together unless you want to get the CPU+GPU combo.

[bangtail 0]

Because the 2xxxK offers 980x performance in games and is extremely good value for money.

They OC extremely high on air as well.

The fact that it has an integrated GPU is irrelevant tbh.

Edited January 10, 2011 by BangTail

[tonton 0]

I have same monitor and have to use 2560x1440. You can expect around 30fps on very high setting. At least i get this with i7@4,0, 295 geforce and 6gb ram. Bottleneck for fps is videocard (arma doesnt use more than 2gb of ram, also CPU usage is usually around 80% on each core), so you should think about sli instead of ssd.

[liquidpinky 11]

I have same monitor and have to use 2560x1440. You can expect around 30fps on very high setting. At least i get this with i7@4,0, 295 geforce and 6gb ram. Bottleneck for fps is videocard (arma doesnt use more than 2gb of ram, also CPU usage is usually around 80% on each core), so you should think about sli instead of ssd.

My set up runs ARMA better with SLi disabled, hence why I have purchased a single 580 to run it now. I would get the SSD instead, through tests others have done regarding SSDs and RAMdisks for ARMA already.

ARMA 2 performance is like life, a lottery.

[Nicholas 5]

Because the 2xxxK offers 980x performance in games and is extremely good value for money.

They OC extremely high on air as well.

The fact that it has an integrated GPU is irrelevant tbh.

I never said that he shouldn't get it, only asking why he would want the GPU/CPU rolled into one. I didn't know if he accidentally picked that CPU or if he purposely wanted it which is why I said "unless you want to get the CPU+GPU combo."

[W0lle 1042]

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=72181