So I figured that a major update to my rig was in order, and I plan to replace almost every part of it. I've already come up with a wishlist on Newegg, and I'm pretty sure that everything will work fine together but I would like some other opinions. Any advice or criticism is welcome.

12 years ago*

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Core i7 @ 3.5Ghz min for CPU, Nvidia with 1GB for graphics, 4-8GB for RAM, 500GB HDD min, 22' monitor.

12 years ago
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Actually I'm thinking about an i5 instead, because it's a heck of a lot cheaper ($230 vs $350).

12 years ago
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If you plan on overclocking your cpu get sandybridge instead, also use the money you save on the i5 for an ssd, you will get alot more performance out of an ssd than you will get out of an i7.

12 years ago
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What benefit would getting a Sandy Bridge have? On Newegg, and i5 Sandy Bridge 3.4 Ghz (same clock speed as the Ivy Bridge on my wishlist) is actually more expensive. Are they more OC friendly?

Also, I was planning on getting an SSD, but later. It's not as important to me, and they're pretty expensive.

12 years ago
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Sandybridge is better for overcocking, ivybridge is better at stock clocks.

12 years ago
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I'll look into it. It is only an extra $10.

12 years ago
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if you don't plan on ever overclocking just go ivybridge

12 years ago
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I was planning on overclockinging anyways. If I can get a higher speed with the Sandy Bridge through OCing, I don't see why I wouldn't. Thanks for the info :)

EDIT: Actually, I'll go with the 3.3 Ghz Sandy Bridge and even save some money.

12 years ago
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It really depends on how much you want to push it. I'm not planning on pushing my processor too much (4.0 to 4.2) so I'm going with Ivy and a decent cpu cooler. With that same cooler however I could push a sandy farther because Ivy gets freakin hot a lot faster. But then again games don't really need a ton of processor.

12 years ago
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Yup, games won't have any use of hyperthreading. i5 is plenty enough.

12 years ago
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However, i7 is the way to go for games, especially the true quad core(8 logical cores).

12 years ago
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Games hardly even stress my cpu, let alone an i7, i have an i5 2500k and only oorly optimised games cause my cpu to be at even medium load.

12 years ago
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Wait till 2 years later, your com will be begging for a new CPU.

12 years ago
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2 years from now my cpu will be dead and i will have got the next architecture, anyway the majority of the stress is on the graphics card.

12 years ago
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My old 9300 wasnt maxed playing games like Metro, Crysis and so on, why would an OC'ed i5 be?

12 years ago
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I lol @ your suggestions. You suggest an i7 over an i5 (which will not have any difference in his games), and then you suggest a GPU with 1GB vram instead of 2GB+ vram (which will have a much bigger difference). No more suggesting for your.

12 years ago
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My 2 year com is having 1GB graphic RAM and yet is able to play most of the new games at a medium settings min, so what difference does a 2GB RAM there make? Seriously.

12 years ago
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Only medium settings for new games is the problem. If I don't want to upgrade in a year, 2 Gb is necessary.

12 years ago
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What I meant was that my com having a old 1GB graphic RAM is ABLE to play most of the games that come out this year with a medium settings on graphics minimum.

12 years ago
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Well anyways, I have a 1 Gb Vram card right now. Going to another 1 Gb card would be rather pointless.

12 years ago
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Agreed, so I guess 2GB will be better off for you to get, the 1GB can be used as a failsafe.

12 years ago
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lol "play most new games at medium settings". How about BF3 or Skyrim? my 570 2.5GB plays them on highest setting easily, using an i5.

12 years ago
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If I can get funds to get one, I'll surely test. But I don't sadly.

EDIT: That's why I said most new games, I don't have much of the new ones to test.

12 years ago
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But how much Vram does it ACTUALLY use and at what rez? Even at max settings Vram is at 6xxmb used on a 1gb card. Skyrim or Fallout NV with HD textures doesnt use all my Vram. Though I only have a 1680x1050 monitor so res will add more or less usage.

12 years ago
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You wont see any more noticeable performance increase from an i7 as you would from an i5, at least not enough to warrant the price. A small SSD would serve as a much better enhancer.

If you plan to OC heavily, go for sandy. My new i5 is @4ghz due to the temps, though its at 70C so I could go higher if I wanted.

70c using intel burn test*

12 years ago
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wow, thats getting hot, my i5 is at 4.8 Ghz and it stays steady at 40C

12 years ago
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It might also be the thermal paste. I will reapply some better stuff and see if it helps much. But Ivy does run a lot hotter much faster.

12 years ago
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At the most you will see a 2fps difference from a i5 to i7.

12 years ago
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Dude, that IS my EXACT PC. HOWD YOU KNOW!

12 years ago
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Click able rig
Is what I went with, though I RMA'ed the ram because one of the sticks was bad.
Got these instead.
Also got 5 off on the new ram which was nice.

12 years ago
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Last I checked you need an Ivy Bridge Processor to use PCI Express 3.0. So either you need a different Video Card or Processor.

Plus, no point in spending extra money on a Z77 Motherboard if you don't get an Ivy Bridge IMO.

12 years ago
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Ah crap you're right. Didn't even think of that. I guess I'll be going back to an Ivy Bridge.

12 years ago
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Unless your saving cash I agree about the z77 thing, but a lot of z67 boards cost the same as their z77 versions. As for PCI Express 3.0 it can be completely ignored. As of now and for a while the difference between PCI Express 3.0 and 2.0 is about 1 frame in a fully maxed game. No one will notice, plus PCIE 3.0 slots take 2.0 cards and visa versa, and a Sandy Processor in a PCIE 3.0 board just turns them into PCIE 2.0, so it can be ignored for now.

12 years ago
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I'll go with the Sandy Bridge then. If using PCIe 2 won't cause a huge bottleneck, then it's not a big deal.

12 years ago
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I guess in that case its more for Upgrading in the future.

If you think by the time you want to upgrade anything, that you will just update it all, then I guess it really isn't an issue.

I upgrade single things at a time myself normally, so I got a Z77 and Ivy Bridge, both working great. I haven't even got into overclocking yet myself, but am planing on it.

12 years ago
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Yeah I can see myself sitting on my Ivy processor for a long while.

12 years ago
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i5-2500K is sandy bridge and a bit better for overclocking than the ivy bridge counterpart.

12 years ago
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I'm actually taking a break from building my new rig right now! Bought the same processor, saw that ASRock too its a great deal. Any particular reason you went with the EVGA version of the 670, a lot of people seem to love the OC'd FTW though I went with a non-reference version that would work with my case better which is the same price as the one you picked but its not a stock version. Other than that I'm throwing a small SSD in mine to work as an OS boot drive and a cpu cooler to let me push that i5-3570K to 4.0 comfortably but also for aesthetics.

12 years ago
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I changed the 670 to the one that you got. I didn't even realize that there was a difference, thanks for pointing that out.

12 years ago
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Just make sure that ram will fit in with a CPU heatsink. I'm not sure how close the ram slots are, but the ram you picked would have been too tall for my motherboard + Hyper 212 heatsink. I went with this ram instead: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1682023146

12 years ago
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+1 Went with the same!

12 years ago
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It says the item was deactivated...

12 years ago
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oops i deleted a number off the link when trying to make it clickable.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231461

12 years ago
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So I take it those are physically smaller than the Corsair ones? But with the same performance?

12 years ago
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Yep. Only difference is the sniper has lower voltage (requires less power) and its not as tall.

12 years ago
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Sounds like only pros to me. I'll go with those.

12 years ago
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Closed 12 years ago by funymunky.