New Computer Build

[kaplin42]

Just got to build myself a new desktop computer for Win. 8 research, and gaming naturally. I had a budget of $2k, and when I bought all the parts, it came out to $1,914. I just got it built up yesterday, with a Windows 8 install disk on a flash drive, the OS installed in 2 minutes, literally. Now, anyone got any good ideas for a game that will push the system?

Spoiler!

Link to public wishlist Sharktopus Build on Newegg

[kaplin42]

As a thank you for all the good feedback and continued suggestions of games.

NSFW

Spoiler!

[Fish]

I haven't had any issues with ATI video cards either. I've preferred ATI over NVIDIA for quite a while.

Do you use Omega drivers? I find them much more stable and customizable then the Catalyst drivers.

[kaplin42]

Originally Posted by Fish

I haven't had any issues with ATI video cards either. I've preferred ATI over NVIDIA for quite a while.

Do you use Omega drivers? I find them much more stable and customizable then the Catalyst drivers.

I have been using the Catalyst drivers, but am willing to try something new. However, a look at their site shows no support for Win 8 yet.

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by Buck

I can get a 660ti for about $240.

Who are you buying from?

[Buck]

Originally Posted by jd1020

Who are you buying from?

Newegg. 5 star reviews.

[QuikSsurfer]

Originally Posted by Buck

Newegg. 5 star reviews.

You gonna read my post? Asshole..

[Buck]

Originally Posted by QuikSsurfer

I owe you a game. Have you played Legend of Grimrock? I may pick it up for you if you haven't -- whether you want to play it or not -- awesome oldschool RPG.

Haven't played, but if you're gonna gift me something back if at least like some input.

What did I gift you?

[QuikSsurfer]

Originally Posted by Buck

Haven't played, but if you're gonna gift me something back if at least like some input.

What did I gift you?

The game is fantastic.. youtube a review for it - Legend of Grimrock. Fantastic indie game.
You gave me Terraria (which i played for maybe an hour -- i prefer minecraft). Figured a indie game for a indie game was a good trade.

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by Buck

Newegg. 5 star reviews.

Are you factoring in MIR into your price or something?

[Buck]

Originally Posted by jd1020

Are you factoring in MIR into your price or something?

Yes, why wouldn't I?

[jd1020]

I don't know. I don't count any rebates unless they are instant. I still send in the MIR's but its not til like 4 months later until you see your $20.

[hometeam]

Originally Posted by kaplin42

Will try to answer your questions, but first a brief story of why.

I do IT for a private school, and we change out all of our computer hardware (laptops, tablets, desktops) every 3 years. Well the next change will be coming summer 2014. When we do this, we usually have no choice but to use the current OS at the time, which will me Win 8 (we are windows shop). So, generally we get a budget to build a PC so that we can start researching the new OS, new software i.e. Adobe CS 6.0 vs 5.5, Office versions and a whole host of other crap. Unfortunately, my team all has to agree on the hardware that we order for the most part, we are allowed Cases and Video cards of our choice. So hopefully this explains why some of it is not "ideal" and perhaps overkill.

Motherboard was the better of the two choices we had, while none of us are serious OCer's, Gigabyte does have an app called Easy Tune which quickly OC's your system to mild, medium or insane. I just did the mild one, and went from a 3.5Ghz CPU speed to 4.1. No, i didn't look at how it stepped up the RAM, OCing is just not my thing, but I figure as easy as the Easy Tune is, why not. The Thunderbolt is a nice feature, and I will give it a go down the road, but for right now it's just chilling there.

I didn't buy an extra internal drive because we all have the 1 TB Western Digital Black, and I have a 3 TB External USB 3.0 drive, so the 512GB SSD was plenty for me. Plus, other then my movies, I just don't have that much stuff.

As for the amount of RAM, it was more of a "Just because we can" thing. Our last system that we built had 6 Gigs, and I barely used that, 32 is just ridiculous, but again, why not?

Windows 8 is because we have to do research to figure out how we are going to deploy it to our users in a way that will work for them, and meet our guidelines.

Power supply was an experiment, yes there were others, but along with our CPU cooling solution, we thought we would try this just to see.

My case is a Antec Dark Fleet-85 it's huge, but air flow is great, and I have never had any heat issues with it.

CPU cooling solution is the Antec Kuhler H20 620. We wanted to go with a different solution, but they were out, so this was a last minute decision and we thought we would try out the closed liquid cooling system. If it works, great, if not, we will find something else.

Honestly, I figured you just threw some shit against the wall with a nice graphics card and CPU and called it a day. That's about as good as an explanation for my questions is I could have gotten. One thing I do envy is the the 3770ks ability to use the new virtumvp software. With that though, you have to stick with the z77 platform when x79 is the new hotness and will be going forward for the next generation of ivy core processors.

I have a system that's a bit beefier than yours, (3930k@4.8ghz, ftw 670 gtx, corsair ssd etc etc) and I haven't had any game even hiccup it yet. Obviously, I haven't tried all games though, and i'm sure there is something out there to give me a run. I'm still running a single GPU so I think trying something like the new Crysis might tax both of these systems pretty well.

[hometeam]

I'm Also using a MONSTER Coolermaster case that is literally a piece of furniture in my house, and a Corsair h100 closed loop liquid cooler.

I really like the cooling performance of the pair, even with all 6 cores unparked and running at 4.8ghz I only max out at about 72c at the most intense usage, runs in the 50s for most games. I did get a stable OC at 5ghz on all 6 cores but bumping it up just another .2ghz gained me little actual performance increase, and about 8 degrees in temps, so I decided to back it down for longevity purposes.

[hometeam]

ohhhh.. another good idea.. get a monitor that runs 2440x1440 (I think that's right) as it actually takes exponentially more power to run at such a high res.

In fact, get 3 of em, fire up Guildwars 2 and let that baby sing~

[kaplin42]

Originally Posted by hometeam

ohhhh.. another good idea.. get a monitor that runs 2440x1440 (I think that's right) as it actually takes exponentially more power to run at such a high res.

In fact, get 3 of em, fire up Guildwars 2 and let that baby sing~

We started out with the z79 processor, but it just didn't fit the budget, and really tbh, other than photoshop and high end video editing, what is going to use that many cores. Games aren't doing it yet, not in any way that really matters.

We started off looking at the H60, the smaller version of your H100, but then went to some phamtecks or some shit. The antec cooler came because I was at frys and we needed something and that was it.

As for the monitors, the resolutions sounds awesome, but last time I checked, the human eye can't tell the difference after 1080p, and even 720p on anything smaller than a 36inch screen, so the higher resolution is really bragging rights more than anything.

In any event, i will be putting the system through it's paces soon. Im a big Civ 5 fan, and I know that once you get a huge map really going it slows the system down, so I plan on doing that soon just to see what I can push it too, I will also be giving the withcher 2 a go per quicksurfer's recommendation.


I =/= eye.....drunk posting FTW