Gaming Rig Configuration

Hello DS members. I'm new here and preparing to order my DS rig. I'm an avid gamer. From fps to mmorpg to strategy. I play it all. Preferably on max settings. I will be all over BF3, Diablo 3, SKYRIM, Dead Island, and just about any other new release. Youtube as well.. casual internet browsing. $$$ is tight as im a college student, and I'd prefer to keep it below $1.8k if possible. Can't go any higher than that really. Out of this rig there is only one thing I'm unsure of and that is the wireless internet card. I currently own a Linksys AE1000 Wireless Adapter(sheesh now that im reading reviews on it I wish I wouldve done my research). Anyway, should I stick with this or go with the one in my DS config? Like I said im an extreme gamer. Thanks for your time and input.

-Josh

Specifications:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master 942 HAF X
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30GHz (Unlocked CPU for Extreme Overclocking) (Quad Core)
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 (Intel P67 Chipset) (Features USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s)
System Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested) <b></b>
Power Supply: 800W Corsair GS (Dual SLI Compatible) <b></b>
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (1TB Western Digital Caviar (7200 RPM) (64MB Cache) (Model: Black Edition) <b></b>
Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Internet Access: Wireless PCI-E 802.11n Up to 300Mbps (Supports 802.11n/g/b) (Model: ASUS PCE-N15) <b></b>
Video Card: 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 1GB (PhysX) (EVGA SuperClocked 01G-P3-1372-TR)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 2: Corsair A70 Dual 120mm Fans High Performance Cooler <b></b>
H20 Tube Color:- Not Applicable, I do not have a FrostChill or Sub-Zero LCS Cooling System Selected
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: - No Thanks
Enhancements: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: FREE: Overclock the processor between 3.6GHz to 3.9GHz
Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Boost OS: FREE: Yes, Disable and tweak all of the non-crucial services on the operating system <b></b>
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition)
Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows 7 CD)
Virus Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Install/Test Game: - No Thanks
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
External Storage: - No Thanks
Exclusive T-Shirt: - No Thanks
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty

Ticket Number: 595745
Total Price with Instant Savings: $1,768.00

Just about to mention that sorry. 1920x1080.

A benchmark done on benchmarkreviews.com helped me come to the decision on 460s sli. They outperformed every card(single) to date excluding the 590 as it was not out yet.

Good to know. Any other recommendations? Whatever we end up with at the end of this thread is what Im ordering.

That is bad advise, for bf3 sli 460 will not cut it, also think about future performance.

vek17 is new on the forum and I'm not sure where he is getting his info, I do not agree with most of what he is saying if you want to listen to him go ahead just know most of us will not agree with his comments.

the 590 is out but its a horrible idea, sli 570 will do better then 590, also 590 is a single card but its internal sli, which is where its problems begin.

never go just by one review site, and just by one review.

Vek17 your info is false please stop using recommended requierments and nvidia's own bloated benches to tell poor unsuspecting people what to do.

every body know that the Recommended system requirements is not what is really needed:

I can bring benchmark after benchmark that show the 460 getting 35 fps at 1900 x 1200 with highest settings

Battlefield Bad Company 2 (DX11)


DirectX 11 enabled
8x Multi-sample Anti aliasing
16 Anisotropic filtering
All image quality settings enabled at maximum



so if the recommended system requierments are correct, then how come 34fps average is what we endup with?

if you take the time to read around you will see everybody that knows what they are talking about says that bf3 is gonna need much more gpu power to run than bf2.

Edited by DST4ME - 11 Sep 2011 at 12:57am

techspot is not a good place for reviews we don't use most of their reviews, same with toms, show me a creditable site, I see you edited your post, only good site you have up there now after your edit is guru3d.

second yes we are talking sli 460s however if sli 460 barely gets 60fps average then in bf3 its gonna be crying, we have already seen bf3 make a 580 cry in a preview from them.


the bad info you have is from the sources you are using, you need to start using creditable sites.

also when you recommend parts to people, keep in mind people use their pcs for more then today and tomorrow, sli 460 is not gonna do great at all in a year or so, games are just gonna get heavier, look at sli 460 with metro, it can't go crap.

so recommending parts to people is not as easy as looking at one benchmark and requierments, there is a lot more that go into it.

only good site you have up there now after your edit is guru3d.

You do know everything you find and post I already know right? if I didn't I would not be able to help people here, I would be torn to pieces by other members, you are lucky the others are not here.

Edited by DST4ME - 11 Sep 2011 at 1:10am

last time you checked was a long ago, what does sli 460 being better then single 570 have to do with it? for 1900 x 1200 res, and fps games and some mmos, we recommend sli 570.


I'm providing info on what he needs then he can respond about his budget and etc.

I rarely pass out my opinion here, most of the info I provide are facts.


I know all the benchmarks for different cards and have been here doing this for 3 years now ( see under my avatar, been doing this since 2008 here, been doing longer but other places) and in my experience, 460 sli might be good for some games this year, next year and year after that it won't be and for games like bf3 it won't be enough this year.


Edited by DST4ME - 11 Sep 2011 at 1:21am

Originally posted by joshxt Preferably on max settings.

Again I'm telling him what he needs and waiting for his response.

me and him can discuss his budget from there.

there is nothing reasonable about sli 460 and maxing out bf3.

most likley he will say he will lower the settings but its important that he knows now before he buys, that he will come up short for games like bf3 and most games to come.

I'm sure he does not appreciate being told that sli 460 will run bf3 maxed out with good aa, when it won't, and then find out when he goes to play, best he knows it now.

Also for $20 more he can have sli 560 which perform much better then sli 460. in bf3 at 1900 x 1200 sli 460 gets 60fps, sli 560 gets 80fps, that is more reasonable.

Edited by DST4ME - 11 Sep 2011 at 1:40am

For $20 more he can have sli 560 which perform much better then sli 460. in bf2 at 1900 x 1200 sli 460 gets 60fps, sli 560 gets 80fps, that is more reasonable.

Edited by DST4ME - 11 Sep 2011 at 1:40am

Please at least wait until the Beta goes live before making performance statements as a fact as everything available now is entirely speculation based on vague info. You said you primarily provide facts, but providing facts about unreleased games is impossible. I am sure your input is appreciated and helpful, but please don't state opinion as fact.

I have only attempted to offer insight about the 460, a card I have a lot of experience with and feel have at least some valid input. I take it that input is unwanted so I will stop.

Good luck with your computer joshxt, hope it does what you want at a price you find resonable.

Originally posted by Vek17 Good luck with your computer joshxt, hope it does what you want at a price you find resonable.

Thanks Vek17. I appreciate your input. I agree that the price/performance ratio on the 460s is fantastic.

No one has commented on my wireless network situation. Linksys AE1000 vs the options listed with DS. Anyone?

ALSO, ive read that the 560 TI is far superior to the 560 itself. Would that be something to consider? Still wondering if I should question the stability of the 5 series as opposed to the 4. I'll check back to this thread in the morning.

How well does the 560 OC out of curiosity?

I suppose that makes sense. 460 OC = 560 and 560 OC =570

That overclock is stable with decent temps? (as in below 75c)


Edited by Vek17 - 11 Sep 2011 at 5:48am

OCing a card can cause issues down the road and most times oced cards die sooner then stock cards, the best thing to do is to get the card you need, unless budget is absolute and strict, in which case here for example for 1900 x 1200 res you want sli 570, anything more is a waste at that res, very rarely will you see us recommend 580 or sli 580, so if you can't get 570 for that res then you try for 560ti, if that does not work you go for the 560, if that does not work then you are pretty much sh*t out of luck lol

so in short we never recommend oced cards, or ocing your card unless you have to.

just to be clear, getting anything more then sli 570 for 1900 x 1200 res is like pouring 2 liters of water in a one liter bottle.

@Vek17, you can't compare your temps with others and vise versa, temps all depend on room temp, case airflow/temp, those are different for everybody.

stable temps max at 85c, below that is perfectly fine, the lower the better of course, above 85c is not acceptable even tho the gpu is designed to run hotter then 85c, everybody draws the line at 85c, my personal like is 80c, but we all do that so that we are not pushing the card at max temps, but you can run it at max temps, and it will still be covered under warranty.

so to answer your question, if the room temp is good and case airflow and temps are good, yes the load temps will be lower then 85c with proper fan profile.

Edited by DST4ME - 11 Sep 2011 at 6:05am

Well here what we do is assume the person needs to keep the gpus for at least 2 years, specially when they are on a tight budget.

otherwise personally all my 4 cards are oced, and just like you I don't care for 2 reasons:

1. I got 5 year part warranty for my system.

2. even of the warranty was not there I wouldn't care if I had to replace them.

but here we can't assume everybody is like us, for me I fold with my gpus so every little bit of oc make a good difference there, but too much of nothing is good so I don't have them oced high, they are like at 750 at this time, I can run them at 830 stable with load temps of around 70c, but the card would be getting pushed and I don't like pushing things like that, so I have them at 750, its a good mid ground for me.

It does if you leave it as the default configuration.

Alex the p8p67 does not support sli you thinking of something else?


here are the specs from asus:



It only supports cf, also in cf you endup with one pci lane being x4 which is horrible.

to sli 580 you need a 1050Hx psu.

sli 560 out performs single 580/570.

but as I have mentioned a few times, your best bet for that res is 570 sli, or single 570 now and then you add a second 570 within a year or so.

adding gpu is easy.

Edited by DST4ME - 11 Sep 2011 at 3:27pm