Dragunov's gaming system

Hi,

The sad news, my laptop is dying (currently working on it), error beeps from BIOS (UEFI), the S key which works very bad, even after cleaning under those key and today no WiFi till a restart…

So my current goal was to build a gaming system of €1500, but had to change the goal I wanted to meet.

My old dying one:

CPU: Intel Core i7-2630QM @2Ghz

Memory: 8GB DDR3

GPU: AMD Radeon HD 6850M (1 GB DDR5)

HDD : 2 x 640 GB SATA (7200 rpm)

Drive: Blu Ray drive with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW double layer

My new system:

CPU: Intel Core i7 4770k

CPU cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 2

Mainboard: GA-G1 SNIPER 5

Memory: Kingston HyperX KHX1600C9D3K2 8GB (2x4GB )

GPU: 780 Ti EVGA 3GB DDR5

PSU: Corsair AX860i

Case: Coolermaster HAF X NVIDIA edition

Drive: LG BH16NS40 Retail Black

HDD : 1 X WD Black (WD2003FZEX) (2 TB ) 64 MB

No SSD?
I’m pretty sure you can salvage the laptop’s hard disks.

Yeah and memory aswell.

But my wife wants to use it to browse the web.

Not yet, still searching for the best SSD, both in speed, reliability and storage space.

I heard about HDD with SSD aswell, which onces are those?

I’m not an expert on SSDs, but I’m pretty sure that the Samsung 840 Pro is one of the best around.
Keep in mind that speed won’t be much different between SSDs, treat their benchmarks with a grain of salt.

Dunno about hybrids, but I don’t recommend that since it’ll complicate things. You’re better off having 2 distinct Hard Drives at their full potential.

Do you think a 2nd gen mobile i7 CPU could fit on a 1st gen i7 laptop motherboard? If so I might be interested to buy your CPU to replace my mobile i7 720qm

edit: googled it and it’s not pin-compatible :frowning:

If you’re building the system chiefly for gaming, you don’t need an i7; the i5 is more than capable. Save yourself some money there.

My video card is a GTX 580 - a couple generations older than the card you’re looking at - and it blows away every game I play on it on max settings at 1920x1080. Skyrim (with loads of graphics mods), Crysis 2, Metro 2033, whatever. The point being that a vanilla 780 - not the 780 Ti, which is a slightly higher tier - would probably serve you just as well, if you’re looking to shave off a few more bucks, unless you’re going to be gaming at some insane resolution.

Also, my system - the GTX 580/i5 combo, 16G RAM, three mechanical drives, an SSD, and a high-end sound card - runs off a Corsair TX650: a 650-Watt power supply. And the newer-generation stuff you’re looking at - nVidia 7 series as opposed to my 5, a Haswell processor as opposed to my Sandy Bridge - is only getting more power-efficient. Point being, power supply wattage requirements are often overstated - you could probably downgrade to a 750-watt or even 650-watt to save some more money, as long as it’s from a reputable brand. On that front, I can definitely vouch for Corsair. Mine is also partially modular, and modular is really nice. To be extra-sure, google “X power draw,” where X is each of your major components, and calculate the wattage requirement of your system yourself. A larger one also leaves you some headroom if you ever want to make a major upgrade.

I was trying to look up your CPU cooler to check its price - looks like its in the $100 range? I use a Coolermaster Hyper 212+, which is in the $30 range, and it works beautifully - my temps are consistently high 20s low 30s at idle, and rarely breach 50 even under full load.

Looks like a good system. Comparable components and brands to mine, and mine’s been running strong for two and half years. Money well spent, in my opinion.

Amazon - at least in the US - is having a Cyber Monday Sales Week on PC components right now. EVGA nVidia cards are on special. I bought most of my components from Amazon with no problems.

Actually, SSD speeds can vary quite dramatically. The speed you want to focus on the most is the read speed. Samsung is the fastest. Some are almost twice as fast as Kingston HyperX

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

I bought an i7 especially for new games to come (BF4 uses it)

I still need to buy a new screen, but have to find out more about them first, but for the GPU I just want one currently available which give me an enormous boost with less heat (first had a look to a R9 of AMD, but they said to place another GPU cooler on it, but then I void my warranty, never know the GPU, memory, board or capacitor fail and u need to get a new one in warranty, I think they not gonna give one if they see u placed a custom cooler on it…

I had some CPU coolers in mind, I read some reviews and tests and those Be quiet! is the best cooler together with some others.

PSU, well I never know what I gonna add or build in the future, so this PSU is future proof :wink:

About Amazon, yeah, but I live in Belgium, I guess carrying costs would be high

Can u tell me which one is currently the biggest and fastest?

Thanks!

For the monitor I expect you’ll be gaming at 1440p.

Check this out: 1440p LED IPS
https://www.ipsledmonitors.com/QNIX-QX2710-Evolution-II-Monitor-p/qni1.htm

Keep in mind that you can overclock the refresh rate straight out of the box.

Here are some stats on read speads
https://www.tomshardware.com/charts/ssd-charts-2013/AS-SSD-4K-Random-Read,2784.html

and here’s a link for all speed measurements
https://www.tomshardware.com/charts/ssd-charts-2013/benchmarks,129.html

What about a Samsung 840 series Pro 512GB ?

One of the bests but overkill IMO, unless you want the LOADING on Black Mesa to b ~1 second. You won’t get very massive in-game difference from other SSDs.

I’ve choosen a Crucial 2.5" M500 480GB.

IMO if you’re willing to go AMD get an R9 290 rather than that Nvidia 780 Ti. Comparable performance, free copy of BF4, cheaper, and possibly significantly better optimization depending on how mantle rolls out. The one downside is the current reference cards have shoddy cooling, if you’re willing to wait to buy you could get the aftermarket cards, heard they’re hitting the market in a month or two, could be wrong on that.

My laptop I’m currently using is failing, so I need a computer quite quickly, so my parts are ordered already.

I also received my Logitech G19 yesterday.

And I’m currently waiting till my IC Diamond 24 Carat Thermal Compound arrive

Shop called me he’s gonna bring all the parts tonight! WHOEHOE! :awesome:

Congratz, just finished my own new rig, I know that feeling :slight_smile: . Tell us how it goes.

Well just arrived at home, everything is delivered, except those Blu Ray burner, those arrives tomorrow over.

Which one did u build?

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/garthbartin/saved/2Wef

This guy here, it’s quite the beast.

Nice one!

My build is done aswell!

Received the drive already, instead of Friday, they brought the drive themselves.

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.