Hey I would like to ask a question for some of you guys; I am looking into building a new gaming PC this summer (I have been out of PC gaming for a few years now) and I would really appreciate any opinions you guys could give. I am debating between a build similar to the OP (just instead of a crossfire set up, one AMD 6870 card, also a overclocked 965T processor). I am also open to an intel build, this is what I am considering so far:
-Intel i5 2500K (the unlocked version)
-GTX 560 TI
-850 Watt PSU
Both of my builds also have 8 gigs of DDR3 RAM, is that overkill? Should I just go for 4 now (2x2) and just expand to the 8 gigs later?
Any advice is greatly appreciated!
I5 2500K and I7 2600K are stupid easy to overclock and beat the heck out of the competition. If you want the 8 threads and do more than gaming get the I7 if you mainly just game get the I5 its just as fast in games. Id say it's time to do the 8 gigs since it is so cheap unless you buy the ridiculously fast 2100 stuff. You can get good ole' 1600 DDR3 sets pretty cheap. GTX 560TI is plenty fast enough for almost every game out there and is a supreme overclocker and is quiet. I recommend the EVGA card with their overclocking precision tool and adjusting the fan speeds to auto ramp up at a higher than stock ratio. I have mine set so it ramps up continually to keep the chip nice and cool around 60. I am uncomfy at above 65-70ish. At stock settings the EVGA 560TI SC will ramp up at 80C or so and I don't like that so I changed it. Just a little adjustment was all that was needed and the card stays nice and cool at around 75% fan with headroom. This is with a 950OC from stock 850 I think on the Superclocked edition. I bought a good solid cheap Seasonic SS-850HT 850W PS also.
Thanks very much. I am going to be using it mainly for gaming. I was planning on getting the EVGA card, but not a OC version, I was planning on bringing it up to about 905 Mhz if I needed to, otherwise leaving it completly stock. I have also read that you can bring the i5 2500k up to about 4.7 Ghz without any compromise... something strongly worth considering.
There are a couple of things to consider when overclocking these chips as in heat and voltage. There are a lot of noobians clocking their chips to high and running their voltage to high significantly shortening the life of their chips. make sure you do the deep research to pick up on what I'm laying down. I usually overclock to a nice stable cool load myself and beat the crap out of it with a cpu burner program (there are 2 or 3 good ones) so that I know the top end heat and get an eye on the voltage required. These chips aren't old school they are a whole new breed with new overclocking rules so look up the details carefully and get a good grasp on what's possible. The D1 stepping chips are doing better than the D2 chips but still I wouldn't go 4.7. That would require a voltage adjustment you may not be comfortable with once you read all the details.
» Thu Jun 17, 2010 5:22 am 
