I'm building a gaming spec PC for my flight sim. Has anyone played with the new GTX770 or Haswell processors? I'm about to drop dime on this:



and then get the water cooling for the CPU, the GTX770, and SSD drive next paycheck

 

I'd recommend a Gold power supply. It's much quieter and cooler. I put a Corsair Gold modular 850 W PSU into the Win 7 rig I built about 1 1/2 years ago.

The Haswell CPU is cutting edge now but I think there is a "sweet spot" for GPUs that is a bit below the GTX 770. You may want to research the video card a bit more.

- Jack

 

and a new surge protector?

 

Ah. I wish I was building a computer right now. I love building new computers. My current one should hold me over for a bit though. It's only a Sandy Bridge though. I don't have any experience with the Haswell.

My setup seems pretty similar to what you're purchasing.

Case: Corsair 600T

I had a tough time choosing the black or white. The white looked pretty awesome, straight storm trooper. I ended up with black because I thought I might get tired of a big white case. I don't know if you have seen one in person yet, but it is pretty much the largest mid-tower out there. I love this case. There was room for everything. Cable managment was really easy.

Power Supply: Corsair AX850

I second this. A modular power supply is really nice. It made cable management that much better.

HDD: 2TB WD Caviar Black

My plan was to get an SSD for the system, then add a second 2TB for backups. About the time I was going to purchase, the tsunami hit and prices shot up quite a bit. I figured I would wait it out until prices were low again.

Memory: 16GB Corsair Vengence

Can't say that I'm using all of it yet, but it's there.

CPU: i7-2600k

Motherboard: Asus P8P67 Deluxe

Graphics: XFX ATI RADEON HD 5770


I think that's about right.

 

Save your money. Get:

Asus P8Z77-V LK

Intel i5-3570K

Get the LOW PROFILE Vengeance ram, the ones with the tall heatsinks interfere with aftermarket CPU coolers. Also, get a DUAL CHANNEL kit, not a single module.

Stay away from Corsair PSU's these days unless you know for a fact it's made by Seasonic. The CX series is definitely not. Get this:

SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold

I don't trust Haswell yet, and Sabertooth boards are not worth the money. The i5 is all you need, there isn't a game out there that I know of that can make use of the hyperthreading capability of an i7.

The WD Black is your best choice.

 

yes patman, i got a new surge protector.

I pretty much went with everything I just pictured above. I priced it all out separately on different web sites a Newegg simply had a good combo deal for 150 bucks less I couldn't pass it up. the power supply isnt ideal, I may look for modular gold later. and yeah I've already got the dual channel on the way. it will be used for gaming but I also do a lot of multitasking so I think the i7 was a good decision. I'll post pictures when it all gets here

 

GLC, I've got a decision to make. Should I put the OS on the SSD? I usually keep my computer running 24/7, so bootup times are not important. Secondly, I know for a fact that my Flight Sim will be on the SSD, the performance from switching from HDD to SSD is almost as important as a good video card/processor. Altogether, my Flight Sim folder is about 80GB large, so I'm thinking of getting a 256GB and putting both the OS and FS on it. If there is no other benefit than bootup times, I'll just stick Win 7 on the HDD.

 

I'm not glc, but if the flight sim does a lot of disk writing, I would not put it on the SSD. If it mostly reads the disk, then it would be fine there.

- Jack

 

Yeah its mainly reading. Everything is on its way. Final list:

Case: Corsair Graphite-Series Arctic White 600T Mid-ATX
Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth Z87
Processor: Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell 3.5GHz
Cooling: Corsair Hydro-Series H100i Water Cooler, 1x 200mm case exhaust fan, 1x 120mm case intake fan
Video Card: Zotac nVidia GeForce GTX770 2GB GDDR5 256-bit
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB GDDR3 SDRAM
Hard Drive: 1x Western Digital Black 2TB 7200RPM HDD, 1x Corsair Neutron 256GB SDD
Power Supply: Corsair CX750 80-Plus Bronze

Cost: $1,678.73 inc S&H

 

Damn nice computer...I'm jealous

 

A surge protector?

I don't know what your power is like where you are but I've had a Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) for probably over 20 years here on any computer and never regretted the investment. Let your power brown or black on you just once while you're using the computer without one and you'll be cursing a blue streak. They don't cost much more than a decent surge protector and include excellent surge protection. And you're wasting your money imo buying cheap surge protector power bars if that is what you buy. It always amazes me how many people will think nothing of spending a couple thousand or more on a computer or big screen tv and then figure they can get away with a $5 surge protector. But you're not one of those right :-)

I bought my first one after (of course, best lessons are the hard ones) I lost a bunch of work because the local power utility decided they didn't need to take 2 minutes to inform the customer that they were changing the meter out because 1) it only interrupts the power for a couple seconds and 2) nobody is ever home in the afternoon. I was at the door inside of 10 seconds, from the second floor, to find out wth was going on and unloaded verbally on the employee when I found out what was going on. Didn't do any good, went right over his head, but I felt a little better. The kicker is I had been thinking about a UPS for a while but kept putting it off.

I repeat, buy yourself a UPS, even if you've never had a black out. You'll be shocked to discover just how often the power browns out and you'll be grateful if it ever does black out in the middle of using the computer.

 

^i agree...power can be deadly.

 

You need to put the OS on the SSD, along with the apps you use most.

From a RELIABILITY standpoint, get an Intel 520 SSD.

 

Yes, I think I will get the UPS. Anyone have any recommendations? I don't want to go to BestBuy and buy one based off the chart, because you all know me, I don't fall for marketing. I think something that would grant me enough time to save my work and shutdown (~5 min) would be ideal, so with a 750W power supply at moderate work load, what should I look for?

GLC, that SSD is pretty pricey. The Corsair model I bought is a 256GB, 5 yr warranty, and for $150, its got faster read/write speeds than any other similarly-priced unit. But I will go ahead and put both the OS and my Flight sim on the SSD. I just hope Windows 7 doesn't take up more than 100GB.

My order is still at the warehouse, should ship tomorrow and hopefully be here by Wednesday. I can't wait! This box is going to be HUGE. I'll post pics when it all gets here.

 

I would go with APC or Tripp-Lite. Both of their websites have load calculators to suggest products and run times. I'd see what they recommend based off of your needs and go from there. Don't forget to add any other devices to your calculations that you will need to save/continue work. Monitors, external/networking hard drives, and modems/gateways/routers if you aren't working locally.

I would also say go bigger than you really need. It leaves you room to upgrade or add more devices. The upfront difference isn't much when you compare it to having to buy a new unit all together.