PC Buyer's Guide - High End
Target Monitor Resolution: 2560x1600 or Multi-Monitor
This guide will only cover the box. Monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers are not included. I do this for brevity's sake, as the monitor alone would require its own guide, especially if I were to cover LCD monitors. Since this site is called "Guru3D" this guide will target a system intended for gaming primarily. So what sort of criteria do I take into account when deciding what parts to recommend?
- Price and Performance: First and foremost, what gives the most bang for your buck, in terms of gaming primarily of course.
- Reliability: Second on the list but just as important. This includes things such as compatibility (ever had RAM that worked on one motherboard but not in another?), trustworthiness of a brand overall (do they have a history of making reliable parts?) in addition to the reliability of the part in question.
- Overclockability: Overclocking can help squeeze out that extra performance out of a system and can make a big impact on price versus performance (why should you buy a $1000 CPU if you can overclock a $200 CPU to match it?) so this factor can always swing my decision.
- Heat and Power Issues: Heat is the enemy of a computer and it can affect the stability (and reliability) of your machine. Performance per watt has become a buzz word and as power requirements for computers rise I eye this more and more closely.
For those wondering about "Target Resolution," instead of listing a particular price point (since price will vary somewhat with vendor/e-tailer) I have listed here what type of resolutions you can expect to be playing most of today's games (with AA and AF on of course) on such a rig, both standard and widescreen resolutions were taken into consideration.
Intel Core i7 950 Bloomfield (Socket 1366)Unfortunately Intel still stands unchallenged at the high end for gaming. Yes I know there will be angry emails from people claiming "but most games are GPU limited." True, but some are not and when they aren't the Intel processors race way ahead. Also ask yourself what you are more likely to upgrade in the next year, your CPU or your video card? By now the Core i7 should be well known to you all, if not you can find all the information in our Guru3D review. Also another hearty thanks to Intel for making things as confusing to the consumer as possible by naming two different processor lines for two different sockets both Core i7. For those wondering what happened to my Socket 1156 recommendation, Intel will be debuting their new Sandy Bridge processors and a new socket that will be replacing the current 1156. If you are building a high priced machine you don't want it to be immediately obsolete. For a taste of what is to come have a peek below. Gigabyte P67A-UD4 Sandy Bridge Mobo Sneak Peek Asus P8P67 Deluxe Sandy Bridge Mobo Preview ECS P67H2-A Sandy Bridge Motherboard Preview On Intel's side my recommendation is really to wait. Intel will be debuting their new Sandy Bridge processors and a new socket, 1155 will be replacing the current 1156. For a taste of what is to come have a peek below. Gigabyte P67A-UD4 Sandy Bridge Mobo Sneak Peek Asus P8P67 Deluxe Sandy Bridge Mobo Preview ECS P67H2-A Sandy Bridge Motherboard PreviewNow why this choice over say a six Core 980X processor you ask? Because these six cores do absolutely nothing for gaming at the moment and this guide is about building a gaming PC.
Now this may come as a surprise to you but let's face it, for overclockers the Core i7 950 is pure gold at 300 USD. By going Socket 1366 you'll get the extra PCI-Express lanes of an Intel X58 based motherboard for those multi-GPU setups. You can opt for one the more expensive models of course, but overclock the 950 a little and your gaming experience will remain roughly the same. You can save so much money by not opting for that high-end Intel processor and put it to good use with a better more expensive graphics card (or dual GPU setup). But that's your call to make of course. However if you say, transcode a lot, sure go for that 1000 USD 980X if you really want though.
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Don't let me catch you cooling that high end processor with the stock cooler! Enthusiasts tend to have their own preferences as to what high end cooler is the best so allow me to provide a list of few of the favorites: Prolimatech Megahalems, Thermalright TRUE and Venomous X, Noctua NH-U12P, Thermaltake Frio.
What to look for when buying a motherboard, regardless of chipset or processor it supports:
- Good chipset cooling. Chipsets these days continue to run hotter. Better cooling means improved stability, improved longevity and better overclocking potential. Be mindful when using a passively cooled motherboard (even one with the works, including copper heatsinks and heatpipes) to ensure that you can provide the coolers with adequate airflow.
- Solid state capacitors. Offers improved longevity and heat resistance as well as avoids the dreaded "leaking" capacitor problem.
- Improved voltage regulator. Does the motherboard use a 3 phase voltage regulator or something higher? How do you determine the phase you ask? It is determined by the number of MOSFETs (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) used. As a rule the higher the number (and hence the phase) and quality of the MOSFETs, the cleaner (higher quality) the voltage delivered to the CPU, offering improved stability and overclockability of the CPU and improved thermals for the MOSFETs. Many motherboards now feature heatsinks to cool the MOSFETs as well, always nice.
- Features. What features do you need? Chipset features vary broadly as do features individual motherboards may offer. Do you need RAID? If so what type? If you chose to use onboard sound then take a close look at the audio chipset and its associated features as they differ widely. All things to consider.
Check out Guru3D related reviews:
- Asus Rampage III Gene
- Gigabyte X58A-UD9
- ASRock X58 Extreme3
- MSI Big Bang X58 XPower
- Asus Rampage III Extreme
- Asus P6T Deluxe Motherboard
- Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5P Motherboard
- ECS X58B-A Motherboard
- Intel X58 Extreme DX58SO Motherboard
Editor's Choice X58: Asus Sabertooth X58. Asus brings one of their most affordable X58 motherboards to the market and there's a lot to love including all the goodies like support for USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gbps as well as a very unique looking board/cooling solution. Check out our review of it here. As always if you don't like this recommendation there is a slew of X58 boards on the market to take your pick of.
Solid State Drive
A high end computer deserves a high end drive. Time to make the move to a solid state drive! It will be one of the biggest performance upgrades you have made to in some time (and also one of the most expensive). Be sure to do your research, SSD technology continues to change rapidly with new drives and new memory controllers popping up frequently. I also suggest you read read one of our many many reviews. Here are a few tips:
- SSD's need free space. Performance begins to degrade if you don't leave 20-25% free space on the drive, so I recommend not getting a drive smaller then 100 GB.
- Space is still a problem with SSD's as you can see. Before you upgrade check to see how much space you are using. When I upgraded to a SSD a quick check revealed my hard drive with OS and applications only installed already took up 120 GB, so I ended up going for a 160 GB SSD.
- TRIM support and Windows 7. You want it. You need it. Otherwise your SSD's performance will degrade over time.
- If you want to use RAID, you must use an Intel RAID contoller as currently Intel are the only ones who have provided drivers that can pass TRIM properly in this situation.
- Aim for a SSD using the Intel, Indilinx or Sandforce controllers. Sandforce is the newcomer and offers some of the fastest drives on the market, but comes at a premium. Indilinx offers good performance and is a bit more affordable. Intel drives are the most reliable and offer the lowest price per GB.
A final note: You will absolutely want a secondary traditional hard drive to store all your multimedia, it will not fit on that small SSD (for example I use a 160 GB Intel X-25M for OS and applications and a 1.5 TB hard drive for everything else).
Check out Guru3D related reviews:
- Corsair Force 120 (F120)
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- Corsair F100 Force
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- ADATA S599 100 GB
- Corsair Nova V128
- G.Skill Falcon II 128 GB
- OCZ Vertex 2 Pro
- Corsair X128
- OCZ Vertex Turbo
- OCZ Agility 120 GB
- Patriot Torqx 128 GB
6 GB 1600 MHz RAMSix GB seems like an odd number doesn't it? Well with the Nehalem's tri-channel memory controller you want to install RAM in three's instead of pairs for optimum performance, so if you went with the Socket 1366 platform, install in 3's. And with memory prices having taken a dive, I wouldn't fault you if you stepped up to a 12 GB kit. Now there are a lot of DDR3 modules available on the market but Intel has included one very large caveat with their Core i7 processors: that the memory voltage not exceed 1.65 volts if you wish to avoid premature processor death. So unless you are feeling particularly adventurous, you will want to be on the lookout for tri-memory kits made specifically for the Core i7 (most kits these days are). Also note that to use that 6 GB you're gonna need to install a 64 bit version of your OS of choice... And that choice better be Windows 7.
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- G.Skill Flare DDR3 2000 MHz C7
- G.Skill 2x4 GB CL7 1600 MHz Trident DDR3
- A-Data DDR3-2200+ DRAM XPG Plus
- G.Skill DDR3 2200 MHz C7 PI
- A-Data 6 GB Triple Channel PC3-12800
- OCZ Blade DDR3 2000 C7 Memory Kit
- G.Skill DDR3 PC3-16000 Triple Channel Memory
- Corsair Dominator 6 GB 1866 MHz DDR3
- G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 Triple Channel Memory
GeForce GTX 580Until AMD releases their somewhat delayed 6970, NVIDIA is sitting unchallenged with their latest GF110 chip.
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Asus Xonar D2X 7.1
Vista left the audio card market wide open by removing direct hardware access, thus taking away Creative's long enjoyed performance advantage thanks to EAX. Into the fray came Asus with their excellent Xonar series that offers a knock out punch:
Our own audiophile Brann Mitchel: Speaking of fearsome, it took all of 5 seconds of listening to the Xonar D2X to know that it is our new reference sound card. This unseats the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude at the high end (not that we really keep track of these things) as our favorite all-around card to game, listen to music, and watch movies with.
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LG WH10LS30K 10x Blu-ray BurnerLook at that, a blu-ray burner for under 100 USD, no reason not to make the step up now.This drive can do it all, reading and burning both Blu-ray and DVD as well as being Lightscribe capable. This will allow you to burn a label (or image or whatever you want) onto your disks, no more barely legible permanent marker labeling!
Okay Im going leave this one open to your decision. Cases are a love-hate thing, what one person likes another will not. So go find a case you think suites you. I have a few suggestions when looking for a case. Aluminum is a definite plus; it will make your computer significantly lighter. 120mm fans are the way to go as well, ensuring good airflow in your case while maintaining a minimum of noise. A removable motherboard tray is particularly useful in cramped cases.
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- Cooler Master HAF 912 Plus
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850 Watt or HigherThe power demands of the PC continue to escalate, thanks in large part to GPU's and the move to quad core CPU's. Be sure to go out and get the biggest and best power supply you can, do not skimp on the power supply! This is an often overlooked part and yet it's the source of so many computer woes. Be sure to check the amps on the 12V rail(s), you want a power supply that can handle a lot, multiple 12V rails is an additional plus (although not required, PC Power and Cooling is well known for their excellent single 12V rail power supplies).
For a frame of reference: For a single GeForce GTX 480 a 600 Watt power supply with 40 amps on the +12v rail is recommended. Just remember: don't try and buy a cheap generic brand to save some cash, just because it says 1000 Watts (or whatever the number is) doesn't mean it can actually handle that (sadly). Quality counts big, be sure to get a quality power supply or you can face any number of problems. Also remember it never hurts to err on the side of caution and get more watts then you need, then to come up short when you decide in 6 months to upgrade to that latest video card!
Check out some of our many power supply reviews here.
Editor's Choice: Corsair CMPSU-850TX. Corsair's power supplies are rock solid and that's what you want. Definitely a good baseline.
