Building a Gaming Rig

Rhino · Post by **Rhino** » Thu Jun 30, 2011 12:33 am

Might be able to save some $$$ and get a lower Wattage PSU. No need for anything over 750Watts these days unless you're running 3 cards. Most PSUs in that range have adequate amperage on their 12v rails.

Tailhook · Post by **Tailhook** » Thu Jun 30, 2011 1:28 am

Redeye wrote:Corsair XMS3 CMP8GX3M2A1600C9 Dominator DHX+ 8GB DDR3 2X4GB DDR3-1600 CL 9-9-9-24 Memory Kit

Get these instead. They're faster, cheaper, and cooler looking.
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php? ... 3M2A1600C8

Redeye wrote:Coolermaster Silent Pro 1000W Modular Power Supply SLI ATX12V 24PIN Active PFC PCI-E 135mm Fan

What Rhino said. With this system you are only using roughly 480 watts so I would definitely recommend just getting a 750W. If you intend to possibly going crossfire with the cards than I would definitely get a 900W or 1000W.

Post by **Redeye** » Fri Jul 01, 2011 9:52 pm

Great information and thanks Rhino, Tailhook and LD.
I'm going SLI with the 560 Ti so I wanted to make sure all was well with the power.

Rhino · Post by **Rhino** » Fri Jul 01, 2011 11:55 pm

No problem. As long as you have 4 12v Rails at 30Amps, you would be ok. This Antec is only 750Watts yet has 4x12v Rails at 40Amps. Your power bill will be smaller as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817371049

Post by **Teej** » Sat Jul 02, 2011 12:00 am

I've always preferred power supplies that had a single 12v rail, but yeah, 30A per rail and you should be fine.

Post by **Lawndart** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 12:41 pm

This video is from back in June, but shows what a $500 rig can do at 1080p vs. one that's more balanced ($1,000). If you're on a tight budget, this is good watch:

Post by **Lawndart** » Thu May 31, 2012 3:02 pm

For anyone else like me thinking about the Ivy Bridge, this video has some basic tips and serves as a decent review at the same time:

Post by **Teej** » Thu May 31, 2012 3:14 pm

Not building a rig at the moment, but I'm converting mine to a somewhat more conventional water cooling system (vs. the self-contained Corsair cooler I've got on the CPU now).

I won't be the first person to do this, I know...but I'm going to put the heat exchanger down in the basement - pump the PC heat out of my office/man cave in the summer.

Post by **Lawndart** » Thu May 31, 2012 3:36 pm

Sounds elaborate. I think cooling is becoming less of an issue with anything newer than the 1st gen (Bloomfields), but I can appreciate keeping the man cave comfy! It tends to get pretty toasty here in the summer, too.

The Sandys (2nd gen) and Ivys (3rd gen) i7 processors from Intel run much cooler than the Bloomfields, and truth be told the Sandys are probably the coolest of the bunch because of the die size.

I'm also eying the i7-3820, but being marketed as an enthusiast CPU it would end up costing more to get a X79 mobo than sticking with a i7-3770K and a Z77 mobo. So far in benchmarks reports I've seen the 3770 still is on par if not better than the 3820 at stock speeds.

Post by **Teej** » Thu May 31, 2012 3:50 pm

Yeah. In one sense I'm kinda wondering if it'll really solve the problem...

But on the other hand...when the house is sitting at 72, if I have my cave closed off for a couple of hours (which I usually do at night once the wife goes to bed) I get warm enough that it takes me a while to cool down to sleep afterwards.

I think it's at least as much about the video card as it is the CPU, and I plan on running water for the GPU as well.

Post by **Lawndart** » Thu May 31, 2012 4:13 pm

Teej wrote:But on the other hand...when the house is sitting at 72, if I have my cave closed off for a couple of hours (which I usually do at night once the wife goes to bed) I get warm enough that it takes me a while to cool down to sleep afterwards.

I can relate! In the summer months the ambient room temp here is around 77 degrees, but after a few hours of gaming (CPUs/GPUs under load) it's easily above 80 degrees. I often leave the cave and walk into the living room feeling a rush of cold air hit my face. Winters aren't as bad, but even then the best case for me is the house around 72 degrees and upwards...

Let us know how the heat dissipation works out by routing the tubes to the basement.

I don't think an Ivy Bridge will sove the heat issues of living in the subtropics for me, but the overall heat output is relatively low even when OC'ed, its wattage is much lower thanks to its 22nm chip (reducing the power bill) and its OC potential rivals that of the Sandy Bridge. A good and very fast combination...

Post by **Lawndart** » Wed Jun 06, 2012 4:48 am

www.PCPartPicker.com is a database of PC components, with specs, ratings, and current pricing. An online form lets you easily configure your build and then buy the parts at the least expensive price. The blog provides sample configs and other hardware news.

Post by **Teej** » Wed Jun 06, 2012 11:06 am

Lawndart wrote:Let us know how the heat dissipation works out by routing the tubes to the basement.

I might get this done in the next few days. Everything but the tubing should be here tomorrow.

Current parts list:

CPU block: OCZ HF-MK1 (discontinued - picked it up for $20)
GPU block: Swiftech MCW82
Rad: XSPC 480
Pump: Danger Den CPX Pro
Res: Phobya Balancer 250

The radiator is (hopefully) overkill for my cooling needs for now. I'm not sure how many fans I'm going to stick on it - will let the cooling needs dictate that. I thought about using an automotive radiator or heating core, but it's hard to find one copper in stock - didn't want to wait for "special order" that could take weeks when the savings wasn't that dramatic. Didn't want an aluminum piece as I didn't want to deal with the corrosion issues of a mixed-metal system.

The Phobya reservoir is intended to be a nice convenient "top" of the loop to monitor/add coolant as needed. I may construct a larger (> 1 gallon) PVC reservoir at the bottom of the loop to increase the thermal capacity of the system if the radiator and fans allows too much temperature rise in a 1-2 hour gaming session. I doubt it'll be necessary though. I would _expect_ that if I have to load up the radiator with 4 fans it should be overkill for a GTX460 and an overclocked i7.

I was looking at ~ $30 for an automotive heater core...and 1 probably wouldn't have been enough...plus time I really don't have, and parts to modify it for my needs...to about $40-50 for a single 120mm radiator...and ~ $80 for the 4x120 I bought. 120mm fans are more plentiful than 140s, and even if they have to spin faster / be a bit noisier...the radiator/fans will be in the basement, so as long as it's quieter than a couple of graphics card fans running at full power, I'll never hear it.

If/when I upgrade video that may change the cooling needs, but I _think_ this'll still be sufficient.

Post by **Ray** » Wed Jun 06, 2012 10:50 pm

I was thinking about a liquid cooling setup like that when putting together my build - but figured it'd be overkill for gaming, would be a good idea for extreme benchmarking though.

I've been happy with the Corsair H80 so far, peak temps during gaming are ~60* C at 5.0 Ghz and 1.375V.

Post by **Teej** » Wed Jun 06, 2012 10:55 pm

Ray wrote:I was thinking about a liquid cooling setup like that when putting together my build - but figured it'd be overkill for gaming, would be a good idea for extreme benchmarking though.

I've been happy with the Corsair H80 so far, peak temps during gaming are ~60* C at 5.0 Ghz and 1.375V.

Yeah, for what we're doing most of the time, it is overkill. I did notice my system was blowing out 100F air under my desk while flying this afternoon. The H50 or whatever it is I'm using keeps the processor cool enough, but the computer is still a space heater which I don't want half the year.