Advice on a new gaming PC

[petrivanzyl]

Hay Man,

Just a few notes: If your gonna spend R20k don't go i5, rather go i7. Also get a SSD for primary and normal HDD for secondary.

If you do go SSD - NEVER DO A DEFRAG! :bangdesk:

Asus and MSI are good brands, love them to bits (Foxconn is king). on HDD go Seagate or WD. Stay away from Epox, Maxtor, Samsung HDD's)

Also if your gonna load 8GB ram or more get 64bit OS 32bit isn't gonna read it.
Get Windows 7 Home Premium, don't go Pro, Enterprise or Ultimate (They only come with stuff you won't use unless your connected to a Server in a corporate environment)

If you want you can PM me I have a IT company in Centurion still can help you get parts at cost

Cool. Difference between the i5 3570k and the i7 3770k is only about R900 and I understand less than 5% performance gain? Is it really worth it? It might still go i7.

Yeah, definitely going SSD primary and HDD secondary. Was thinking of 2TB Seagate for the HDD. Any ideas on the best brand SSD? Size: 128GB or more?

Yeah, at least 8GB maybe 16GB and yes 64bit:thumbs:

 

[Rommies]

Hi guys

So my desktop PC decided to start with some gremlins.....Randomly freezes.

After restarting it keeps on freezing randomly sometimes while still posting, somethings while loading windows, sometimes windows loads and only then it freezes.....So I can't do anything.:thumbdo: Any ideas?

But since the PC is about 4 years old I think it time to get a new one anyway. Any advice on what to get? I need a proper gaming PC. Budget +- R20k

You can bring your PC in at our offices. I'll have a look for you.

I can also supply you any parts as our IT-comapny is registered with all suppliers nation wide.
:=):

 

[petrivanzyl]

Hi guys

So my desktop PC decided to start with some gremlins.....Randomly freezes.

After restarting it keeps on freezing randomly sometimes while still posting, somethings while loading windows, sometimes windows loads and only then it freezes.....So I can't do anything.:thumbdo: Any ideas?

But since the PC is about 4 years old I think it time to get a new one anyway. Any advice on what to get? I need a proper gaming PC. Budget +- R20k

You can bring your PC in at our offices. I'll have a look for you.

I can also supply you any parts as our IT-comapny is registered with all suppliers nation wide.
:=):

I solved the problem, it was a bad stick of ram...

 

[Rommies]

Cool man! no sweat!
:rollsmile:

goodluck! :thumbs:

 

[JoViX]

Hay Petri,

The 5% performance will depend on what you want from the machine, it varies from action to action (movie compression, to gaming, to video/image editing) But all in all its worth the extra bucks.

On the SSD, I've got an Intel in my machine and she's perfect for almost 1 1/2 years now, but I would trust Seagate too on this one. From years of Data Recovery experience those was the only 2 brands I considered. Size... in this scenario is a bitch.... hehe. I got a 128GB and its enough for me, just remember to map your My Docs etc to your secondary drive. But it's a price thing, I would recommend to spec your PC with a 64GB or 128GB if after all your other components you have change left up the primary HDD, but only as a last resort. Don't skimp on Graphics or CPU cause you want 256 or 512 SSD, it's only needed for applications - having you pictures/music/movies load at the speed of light isn't worth the money

 

[petrivanzyl]

So any advice on a nice set of RAM that will go with a Z77 motherboard?

 

[JoViX]

Hay Petri,

For the ram, seeing as your budget is good, go for "Paired Memory" Corsair is good also look at Kingston or Transcend. Basicly it's called Gaming memory, they test each ram module on the production line and pair them with one that runs the same on almost all levels. Thus you have 2 or 4 or 6 etc dimms that are perfectly in sync with each other (this makes a NICE difference). They are pricey and should be bought in 1 go, don't get a pair now and another later.

I would Prioritise your purchase like this:

1. CPU
2. Memory
3. Graphics
4. Motherboard specific for 1-3 (Go check manufacturer's pages for tested products or Tomshardware)
5. Primary HDD (SDD)
6. Chassis specific for 1 & 3 (Heat related)
7. The rest (These are things you can change later without compromising the PC like Secondary HDD, Cooling, Add-on Cards, Mouse, Speakers bla bla bla)

Even if you skip buying a R1000 mouse now and get it in 2 months don't skimp on 1-6 in the order they come.

 

[Jlw777]

Try rebeltech in four ways. Their service is superb and price very fair (usually cheapest).

Here how I break things down:

CPU - gaming only 3570k is plenty, as u can overlock it to about 4.5 ghz and it is enough to pull 2+ high end gfx cards.

If you do heavy CPU intensive work, consider a 3770k as it is basically a 3570k with hyper threading (4 physical core, 8 threads) which acts like a 8 core CPU for ur heavy lifting work (video editing, 3d rendering)

But if CPU intensive project is how u make a living, a 3930k is a good investment as it got 6 physical core and 12 threads. But that's x79(socket 2011) platform so price would go up substantially.

Mother board - get a z77 (I prefer asus) board as h77 is cheaper but won't allow overclocking, note that z77 is dual channel which supports up to 32 gb ram and x79 is quad channel and supports up to 64 gb ram.

Ssd - a must for a modern machine, it's low capacity means it is usually used for operating system drive only (bigger ssd price jump exponentially) but 120 gb is enough for windows. Make sure ssd has TRIM and sata 3. Nothing beats booting into windows in under 15 second.

Hard drive - since ssd taken care of windows, get a slower, high capacity 5200 rpm hdd as data drive and believe me it is more than sufficient for ur videos and photos (sea gate or wd green drives got 2 tb under 1k) or you can get a 3 tb barracuda xt for gaming + storage.

Power supply - 3570k and Nvidia 6 series even when over clocked are very power efficient compared to ur q6600. I suggest a 650 w non modular psu as 750w above is for 2 gfx or above (if u r considering 2 or more gfx, a minimum 850 w modular psu is recommended but easily go over 2500)

Gfx - Nvidia 670 is considered the price performance card for 2012. As over locked it can match a stock 680. I assume u game on 1920 x 1080 resolution which is an overkill with 670 but future proof (current generation gfx can support up to 3 monitors that's 5760 x 1080 or a new 2550 x 1440 ultra hd ips monitor when it becomes norm)

Ram - very cheap now, get 16 gb is like 1k. 1600 MHz. Above that is only good for bench marking which in real life use, u won't tell a difference between a few nano seconds.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[petrivanzyl]

Good advice. I agree with you on each point...

 

[Coisman]

Good advice. I agree with you on each point...

Well, lets see what my cousin can put together for you. :thumb:

 

[petrivanzyl]

Any suggestions on a SSD brand / model / size as primary/os drive?

I've been looking at the OCZ vertex 4 128GB....about R1250

 

[petrivanzyl]

I am now considering the ASRock Z77 Extreme 6 v the ASUS P8Z77-V Pro. Anyone has any experience with any of these?