New rig - build help

Budget:
Under 3.4k including tax and shipping

Expectations:
High FPS 50+ on high settings

Game Usage: SWTor, Farcry 3, Skyrim (with mods including HD packs), WoW, Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, Total war series.

Upcoming Titles: Elder Scrolls Online, Total War: Rome 2, upcoming Blizzard titles.

General usage: playing bluray movies. using Office applications for work (word, excel, powerpoint)

Special Need: Need WiFi in the build but it looks like getting a deluxe motherboard would be better then a separate wireless adapter.

Monitors: I already own two Dell S2340M Ultra IPS 23 inch monitors I run as a duel monitor setup. I game at 1900 x 1080 resolution.

Specification questions:

1. My current rig has 128GB SSD with 1TB HDD. The 128GB filled up quickly with OS/Apps/Games. Would getting a larger SSD on disk 1 be better then let's say 128GB OS/Apps, 240GB+ disk 2 for games, 1TB disk 3 for storage? If I separate the games to another SSD I can settle with 240GB+ SDD but if all combined on disk 1 I would need over 350GB+ for games and the office apps I run.

2. Windows 7 or Windows 8? I hear pro and cons concerning Windows 8. Would there be any need to get Windows 8 in terms of performance? Not referring to gaming but general performance.

customer config are welcome.Build away.

To add t bp22:

I like win 7 also and have not tested win 8 but I can tell you every-time a new os comes out, there is always lot of stuff floating around, but who knows how much of that stuff is real and happens to everybody.

I also like to point out while 16GB of ram is cheap, it makes trouble shooting ram a bit more difficult so think about both sides and then decide, I believe in getting what you need to keep it simple, less stuff = less things that can go wrong, but on the other-side its so cheap for 16GB lol, tough to say no, and I'm not saying don't get it, I'm just saying know what you are getting into.

I love the build bp has for you, you got some quality stuff there, very nice solid beast.

fyi for ssd, if your ssd with os is getting filled up, just add a second ssd as hdd3, and simply install games on that.

1. for 1900 x 1200 res 4GB gpu is completely pointless.

board do you mean gpu? borad = motherboard, graphic card = gpu.

if you want to go with one 670 now and then add a second later yourself, then more power to you, make sure you look at the cost and etc, if it turns out to cost the same either way, then its better to let DS to it, but if budget does not allow then the best thing about a customized pc is that you can upgrade it yourself with whatever you want.

again at your res 670 and 680 performance about the same mabye 2 to 6 fps difference where it counts.

2. sli only helps in games that utilize sli correctly, while all games support sli, not all utilize it correctly, lot of games need only one card to give you smooth gaming (60fps). With multi tasking, thats all dependent on your tasks, just remember what you take away from the system gpu-wise, you are also taking away from the game. Some games will do great with one gpu, some may need more power.

3. True, but in this case DS seems to be ocing them fine, I personally have not seen settings to confirm that tho, so in short while that comment is true, it does not mean its an issue here, when you load all the ram slots, it puts a little more stress on mobo and makes a little harder to oc, How much? thats different from build to build.

4. you can add any hdd/ssd to your system and use it however you like, I normally have 4 internal drives and upto 8 external drives, some are for backups and lot of them are storage. I have an icydock 4 hot swap bay externals, very easy to use and usb.

In short you can put OS on one ssd and apps/games on another ssd or os/games on ssd and company apps on hdd or second ssd, just about any configuration goes there, you decide how big and how many ssds you want to get.

I would do this:

hdd1 = ssd = os/games
hdd2 = ssd = work apps
hdd3 = hdd = file storage (1TB BC)

this way you can clone them(backup) to external drives so you never really lose any info if they go bad.



Edited by DST4ME - 02 Mar 2013 at 2:39pm

Correct I meant to mention that for skyrim he will have use for it and maybe couple of other games but forgot, thank you.

I need to slow down, in such hurry to read thru and answer all the questions, forgot an important part.

But to my defense I always catch it next time I come back to the thread to replay.


@blackcatfoe, as mentioned by storm, for skyrim you will have use for the 4GB cards so go sli 670 4GB.

Edited by DST4ME - 02 Mar 2013 at 2:46pm

For your single monitor a single 670 will give you high to max gaming with most games. There are a few games like Metro and Crysis Warhead that will need to be adjusted to high at best settings.

4gb vram on the video cards is useless for most as was said but Skyrim only with heavy texture mods is the exception for now.

8GB system ram is all gaming needs.   16 gig isn't an issue just not needed unless you have apps that need it.