By on 12 Mar, 2013 at 10:00 AM
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A Guide To Building A Mid-Range Gaming PC

A Guide To Building A Mid-Range Gaming PC

Buying a PC can be a tough decision, as there are vast chasms of pixelated differences between a R5,000 gaming machine and a R10,000 gaming machine. There’s also a definitive eye-popping difference between a R10,000 and R20,000 gaming machine. What is important to realise is that the movement upwards in price brackets nets you a smaller percentage increase in performance.

For example, a R7,000 build could be around 30 percent slower in games than a R10,000 build. Consequently a R12,000 build will be about 15 % slower than a R15,000 build–and so on. These percentages are pulled out of a “sun-don’t-shine kind of place”, but in a V for Vendetta inspired moment, I’m using lies to tell you the truth of diminishing returns.

The mid-range is probably the best place for a gamer to spend cash, because the mid-range satisfies what I have cheesily called the “Three P’s Model”: Purpose, Price and Performance. Each segment, from the low budget gaming PC to the ultra high “cost as much as a car” PC, offers variations within this Three P model, often favouring one aspect to the detriment of another.

For example, a budget orientated PC offers a palatable price tag, but it’s Purpose (to be a gaming PC) and Performance (its ability to be a Gaming PC) will suffer in the long run. Similarly an ultra high end PC can break the bank but allow you to frag/loot/teabag in graphical nirvana until you deplete your small cache of stale bread and water. This is why the mid-range is king; it gracefully balances out the Three P’s for the most effective compromises between them.

A balanced PC offers the most bang-for-buck performance while still being flexible enough to ensure some degree of upgradeability, to keep up with future developments. After doing some research I’ve decided that the budget for a mid-range PC falls between R10,000 and R12,000.

This verbose wordsmithery is an attempt to offer guidance and possible refinements to be made in your choice of gaming mistress. Hopefully–beyond it being purely a pc build guide–I can offer some degree of introspection which nudges you to spend more wisely on hardware, and if possible help you save some cash.

 

Choosing Your Motherboard & CPU

The combination of motherboard and CPU is the first stepping stone to building your PC. In this generation of hardware from Intel, and to a lesser degree AMD, there is a wide variety of choice for a mid-range PC. To initially help narrow down your choices of CPU and motherboard ask yourself: do you envision yourself overclocking your CPU? This basic question will send ripples through your final build, affecting your choice of CPU, motherboard, ram, cooling and PSU.

In case you didn’t know, Intel has quite deviously “monetised” the overclocking scene by offering two of effectively similar chips in their higher end segment: one that can overclock like a bat out of hell, and one that has its overclocking spark physically snuffed out. Therefore, if you have an overclocking itch, you can buy the pricey, high-end Ivy-bridge CPU–like the 3570k and 3770k. However, bear in mind you will also need a pricey overclocking motherboard, such as the P67, Z78 and Z77 chipset.

I would implore you to invest in an overclocking capable setup though; as in this generation of hardware it is dead easy, with most motherboard manufacturers even coming out with automatic overclocking options built in. Also, overclocking will allow you to stretch out the longevity of your system as the years roll-on by.

However, if you don’t succumb to the allure of overclocking, don’t feel ashamed. Intel’s neutering the overclocking balls off their mid- to high-range does not mean these chips are slouches. The emasculated 3570 and 3770 chips are still great to invest in.

AMD fans will notice that I have not cared to mention any AMD based system for the mid range, and this is purely because AMD’s top-of-the-range chip, the FX 8350, even when overclocked close to 5ghz, is still is not faster for gaming than Intel’s neutered 3570 running at a stock speed of 3.4ghz. The fact that the FX 8350 is more expensive than the 3570 also does it no favours winning the bang-for-buck award. So I cannot, out of good conscience backed by hard numbers, recommend a high-end AMD system over Intel’s mid-range for gaming.

Beyond deciding if you want an overclocking or non-overclocking board from Intel, an equally important aspect is the size or form factor of your future motherboard. Within the popular mid-range segment you get Micro-ATX and standard ATX of the overclocking and non-overclocking variety. Each form factor holds a different allure to satisfy different segments of the gamer market. The ATX is the de-facto mid-range motherboard as it has ample real-estate and functions to satisfy any gamer’s needs. Multiple add-in cards (WiFi card, sound card, dual graphics cards etc) can easily fit on the board along with at least eight Sata ports for hard drives. M-ATX is the middle child of the motherboard family. Most M-ATX boards are most often toned down smaller clones of their ATX counterparts and, more often than not, the only differentiating compromises amount to having less sata ports or extra PCI express slots.

Each form factor has its strengths and limitations, and the lower down you go in form factors the more limited you will be in upgrading certain components in the future. Although if you stick to a certain design, say a Micro-ATX based build, because you decided you will never have many internal hard drives or have more than one graphics card, then your choice is sound. Furthermore it makes more sense than spending more on an ATX board and never making use of the extra options it affords. A lack of critical introspection will either mean spending unnecessarily more money on the CPU and motherboard, or it could lead to cursing your past-self for buying your present-self into a corner.

 

RAM And Hard Drive

With RAM I would offer the common rule of thumb: more RAM running at average speeds is better than having less RAM running at faster speeds. The recommended performance sweet-spot for RAM in an Ivy-Bridge mid-range system is two 4GB kits running at 1600 Mhz. An important piece of advice when buying RAM is to always check whether the vendor is compatible with the motherboard, and if the RAM voltage is correctly specified for the motherboard.

Hard drives are quite important to a gaming computer. Without it where would our Steam folder go? It is also quite ironically the most “boring” part of the computer, bar the DVD-drive. Hard drives, then, are also overlooked by gamers as they bear little impact on gaming performance. This is true to a degree. They don’t alter in any way the FPS or image quality of a game but what they do affect is the general game and PC experiences like load times and install times. It is true that the mechanical drives in a PC are the biggest bottleneck of a modern computer. I can confidently say once you remove that bottleneck by replacing the dinosaur of a mechanical drive with a state-of-the-art Solid State Drive (SSD), your gaming and computer experience will be vastly change. Over the years, SSD’s have come down a lot in price, with some impressive 120GB drives hovering at just above the R1,000 mark. A simple strategy, though, is to use a 1-terabyte mechanical drive as a storage drive and have a 120GB SSD as your Windows and game drive.

 

The Graphics Card

The graphics card is really the heart and soul of a gaming computer. You can skimp out on the motherboard, and even the CPU to a degree, but never, if gaming is your one and only, skimp out on the graphics card. This slice of polygon pushing silicon is the one item that will make or break your PC as it gets older. Thankfully, we have duopoly in the gaming graphics card market, and because competition is rife, gamers can get ridiculous gaming grunt if they spend smartly and avoid being fanboys.

The pricing goal posts for mid-range graphics cards are between R2,400 and R3,600, where AMD has launched a great cards in this segment. AMD has really stepped up their efforts of wining-and-dining the gaming crowd to ensure that gamers get the “happy ending” they desire; a copulation of a cheap potent hardware with the resultant explosion of gaming goodness.

The mid-range melee would usually be a brawl between the green team’s nippy 660ti and the 660, where the red corner would have the 7870 and 7850. In recent times AMD has shifted the mid-range goal posts away from Nvidia, who has been left fumbling the competitive ball. You are able to get a 7950 at R3,199, a 7870 at R2,549 and a 7850 for R2,059. Consequently, and due to the price of the 7950, the equally performing 670 gtx has been priced out of relevance for a mid range PC. The 7950 is a high end card, but at this price it is firmly placed to go head to head with the mid-range 660ti. Picture, if you will, a baby green seal and a red shark in a small pool. It’s an unmitigated bloodbath.

Further gutting up the Nvidia mid-range is the extremely capable 7870. At this cool price it is now the direct competitor to the 660 and it simply steam rolls over it. Just to extend your already overstretched jaw even further, thanks to AMD’s Never Settle Game Bundle, you will also get at least two game download codes with purchases of their cards. And not games that have faded from memory either; recently released and unreleased AAA titles like Far Cry 3, BioShock Infinite, Crysis 3 and Tomb Raider. Nvidia has tried similar tactics to beef up their offering, but instead of offering AAA games, they offer in game credit to spend in free-to-play titles such as World of Tanks, Hawken and Planetside 2. It is admirable, but ultimately a lacklustre attempt at offering competing value.

 

Power Supply

This next piece of guidance is probably the most important. This single item is the most future proofing item you can get for your PC, and it can help you through multiple upgrades and systems over your gaming years. Most gamers overlook the PSU because they see it as an extra expense that has no impact on gaming performance, so gamers usually run out and get the first PSU they lay their eyes upon.

I’m not going to go into an overly technical diatribe on determining which PSU to get, but a good place to get you started is with a simple perusal on the internet, or on the packaging in the store, for a rating from the 80Plus® brand. This is a sure fire way to ensure it’s a good quality unit. Also, don’t let the supposed wattage nomenclature of the unit fool you as well. There is a popular proverb you can remember when buying power supplies: “Spend cheap, buy twice. Spend smart, buy once”.

Devious PSU manufacturers like Gigabyte and their Superb 720W units often proclaim their units in terms of peak wattage and not actual maximum wattage. Units that run at their peak wattage are like an unstable terrorist with your PC parts as hostages; sooner or later it will snap and will take as many parts as possible down with it.

In the gaming segment I strongly recommend going for quality units like the TX/HX or lower-range GS Corsairs, the Antec HCG range or Thermaltake Toughpower units. This is also not to say go out and buy the most expensive Kusile shaming Kilowatt unit. For the average gamer, the adage less is more applies quite well. The sweet spot for powering a modern day, mid-range system is around 550W – 650W. The watts needed to power the CPU and GPU keeps going down every generation, so a decent 650W model is likely to remain the sweet spot for some time to come.

 

The Case

The choice of case is a subjective purchase that will vary between people. It is also a piece of hardware that can last you through many incremental upgrades or total system changes, so choose wisely. The culmination of your PC’s prowess will often rely on the careful selection of your case and the features your case provides. If you want to dabble with overclocking, then a bigger case with good airflow is essential to keep temperatures in check. If you would prefer to have a quiet system, then invest in a case with noise absorbing foam or larger and thus more silent fans. If you have or plan to have many internal hard drives, then a case with enough space for this is essential. If you are a LAN-fanatic, a light weight case or a case with a sturdy handle is essential.

In the end, a case decision is something that’s fluid; you might initially build a system around your case or you might choose a case based around your system. In either case, one piece of advice always applies: make sure everything can fit, including your PSU and graphics card. Some great cases can be found in the R800 to R1,400 range, where I would heartily recommend cases like the Corsair 400R or 500R, Coolermaster Scout 2, CM690II or the Bitfenix Raider and Bitfenix Shinobi.

 

What Do We Get When We Put It All Together?

A rig that can offer 30+ FPS in DirectX 11, 1080p gaming goodness with a few taxing image quality settings like 4x Anti Aliasing on High to Ultra settings in recent titles such as Far Cry 3.

If you asked me which parts would I personally choose for you, well then.

  • Processor: Intel 3570K 3.4Ghz — R2,476
  • Motherboard: ASRock Z 77 Extreme4 — R1,697
  • Graphics Card: Powercolour Radeon HD 7950 — R3,199 or 7870 for R2,549
  • RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 — R650
  • HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB — R788
  • SSD: OCZ Vertex 3 120GB — R1,099
  • PSU: Corsair TX 650 V2 — R1,213
  • Case: Corsair Carbide 400R — R929 or Bitfenix Raider for R993
  • Total: R11,401 – R12,115

 
Further Reading
MSI’s OC Genie Feature
Overclocking the AMD FX 8350
AMD Game Bundles
Nvidia’s Gaming Tactics
80Plus Brand

If You Liked This, You Should Try These!

Name: Marco Bozza
Location: Durban
Position: Author, Tech

Marco has published 3 posts. Read all of Marco's posts.
  • http://www.facebook.com/nanonyous Theo Lubbe

    The system listed sounds more high-end and “a lot of money is going into stuff that’s actually unnecessary” than mid-range to me. Mid-range would be an i5, no SSD, a PSU that doesn’t cost as much as it does for the brand name tacked onto it and a case that doesn’t contribute a tenth to the total rig cost. No argument against the graphics card, though.

    https://www.nivo.co.za/#buy~gigabyte.odin.series.585.watts.active.pfc.power.supply~p29019

    Example for your remark about Gigabyte PSUs – true, they’re using its peak wattage in its name, but its nominal output is, if I recall, around 480watts. That’s still more than sufficient for running the listed system even with a second card thrown in – all while costing half as much as that Corsair PSU.

    https://www.nivo.co.za/buy~cooler.master.rc.431k.kwn1.mid.tower.chassis.black~p29450

    And there’s an example case that’s BTX format (though personally, I’d have a computer lying horizontally far sooner than having one standing vertically) and that doesn’t cost almost R1k.

    Personally I’d far sooner want my case out of sight and out of mind than have a big ugly neon-infested box sitting atop my desk (or under, as the case may be – hur hur). Hell, I’m using an old case I got over a decade ago that’s behind my desk lying flat. For airflow it has nothing but the GTX460 and PSU’s 120mm exhausting air, pulling air in from any openings along the case otherwise – and my graphics card never ticks over 90c even when my room is a balmy 39c.

    From the money saved getting the cheaper case and PSU you could afford to throw in a UPS, which is an unmentioned and potentially crucial component to a decent rig imo.

    • Michael Matusowsky

      You really need to invest in some Wootware bro.

    • Marco Bozza

      Thanks for the reply Theo :) I will address some points you have said…

      Powersupply. That unit….i’m sorry, for those reading this don’t listen to Theo, it is terribad PSU. Its maximum output is NOT 480 W, not anywhere close to that actually. It is not a 585 Watt unit, it is purely a naming convention that I warned you not to fall for. Even on gigabytes website they dont state the maximum output http://www.gigabyte.co.za/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3046#sp.

      That unit is at BEST capable of drawing 500W from the wall. That is only still how much power it draws from the wall. It still has to convert the AC into usable DC power for your machine, and this conversion is by no means a perfect 1=1. Lets be kind and state it has a 75-80% efficiency rating at room temps : when it draws 500W from the wall, 20-25% of it is wasted via heat etc.That means your supposed “585 watt” psu is only really capable of delivering 380-400W of power. And a running psu close to its edge will kill it a lot quicker. And no, you will not be able to power a second graphics card from any that I have mentioned

      So are you are saying buy cheaper now so you can buy more “advanced” but cheaper equivalents in the future? I think we have different definitions of what “mid range” effectively is. I see a mid range PC as one that must not be replaced from the ground up every 2 years. How can that be cheaper?? Saving R800 on a MB means you are really scrapping the bottom of the barrel in terms of a motherboard with little to no upgradeability, and upgradeability is something that makes the the mid range an attractive market for any gamer. And saving R1.3k on a CPU?Where are you looking? The next cheapest i5 quad core, 3450 (from a 3570 or 3570k) is around +-R500 cheaper. Not “massive” savings. And the cpu, 3570(k), I included is an i5? In my unedited edition I did have an addendum including a cheaper 3470 and mb as a cheaper option in the build, but seems to have not found its way to the final article :P

      Overclocking – overclocking on the new i7′s is really not as hit and miss as older intel chips. Presently Intel are selling you “overclocking chips” which means they are guaranteed to overclock. Obviously you might get duds, but on the whole and with those chips you can get at least a 20% overclock. Most 2500k’s will get to 4 ghz easily. http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1578110 Only once you start going above these values (4-4.6ghz) the OC potential does decreases.

      I know the cases in question are quite “big” but I did state the logic behind it: that they can see you through many upgrades. Sure, a cheaper R500 case can do that, but can it do it as well and with as many features you are looking for? Its subjective point that is pointless for me to argue which is better, but like I said, whichever case you go for, make sure it all fits.

      Also, ssd’s are optional and are not required for any gaming PC. I purely included it becasuse after the graphics card and cpu a SSD really is a great upgrade to consider. It is not as essential as say, having ram or a cpu :p

    • http://www.facebook.com/nanonyous Theo Lubbe

      I misread the 3570K as 3770K, and already edited in my reply that back when we built up my brother in law’s system, we got a i5 (Ivy-Bridge – at least, pretty sure it was Ivy-Bridge) for just R1.15k – who knows, maybe we were just lucky or I’ve made a terrible mistake in remembering how much his cpu ended up costing.

      As for your statement regarding ‘bottom of the barrel’ motherboards in terms of ‘upgrade-ability’; pray tell, what ‘upgrade-ability’ does a R1.7k motherboard offer that a R850 one of the same socket does not? Keeping in mind here that at a later stage, assuming one is truly using mid-range cards, getting a second card of the same model to the one you already have may not be possible or may simply not make sense. Power consumption and the fact electricity costs something in SA is an incredibly important factor to take into account, as the operating cost of your entire system will come into play when it comes time to upgrade, and practically dictates when would be sensible to do so.

      No, Intel are not selling you chips ‘guaranteed to overclock’. They are selling you chips that do not have clock multiplier limitations in place, nothing more.

      As for your remarks about the PSU, you’re wrong. Gigabyte may not list the full specifications of their PSUs on their site, but those specs *are* on the boxes, the PSUs and on the net on sites that aren’t Gigabyte’s own. I can’t tell you how often I’ve reported errors in the specs listed on XFX and EVGA’s sites for their regional sites’ listings, for their graphics cards – does that mean XFX and EVGA aren’t giving the correct specifications and/or that they’re misrepresenting their products? No, not really; it simply means that whoever is responsible for listing the info on those sites is doing a shoddy job of it and that clients may need to (though they shouldn’t have to be expected of to do so) do a bit more research before deciding to buy something.

      http://i.imgur.com/0cxkhFb.jpg
      http://i.imgur.com/07r9VRP.jpg

      I’ve been using the ’585watt’ PSU for going on three years now, and
      during that time it’s been running just fine in my uninsulated loft
      room where the temperatures easily exceed 39c (http://i.imgur.com/w8huWJc.jpg) on some days. For only part of one summer has this room really had aircon to keep things cool, and that aircon is broken right now (it’s 33c in my room at the moment and climbing).

      You *are* going to run a secondary card off a 400w 12v output psu just fine – it depends wholly on what the total build’s draw is as well as the cards’ draw.

      Example; you’re certainly not running more than one GTX Titan off this thing, but you’re more than capable of running two GTX650 to GTX660TIs off it – mid-range cards. Similarly I’m certain there are mid-range AMD cards that you could more than ‘safely’ run two of.

      As for your remark about cases – I’ve had my case for more than ten years and it’s still serving me just fine. Its sidepanel has a hole and mounts for an 80mm fan – I don’t use a fan on the sidepanel (anymore). It has two points at the back for 80mm fans, I don’t use fans there either. I think it has a 120mm fan point at the front of the case, though if it doesn’t then it definitely has an 80mm one – don’t use a fan there either.

      The mounting standards for mATX and ATX boards hasn’t changed in over two decades and is unlikely to change in the near future.

      Anyway, I find it amusing that you talk about the longevity of a PSU running close to peak without mentioning that overclocking a processor can effectively reduce the lifespan of the processor and/or memory.

    • Willem

      The thing is when your powersupply decides to peg, it can take a few other things with it. If your cpu pegs, your cpu pegs.

    • http://www.facebook.com/nanonyous Theo Lubbe

      Well, if I don’t end up selling this system and instead end up using it for another few years, I’ll be sure to come rub in your faces just how nicely it’s continued to run five years down the line.

      Also, other components can be damaged depending on the nature of a failure on your CPU’s part – the chances of that happening over a PSU without an automatic circuit to switch it off whenever it exceeds output thresholds/fluctuates too violently in output, however, is of course drastically lower.

    • Marco Bozza

      Well were do I begin…

      I repeat, that PSU is not a good quality unit. It will not run sli/crossfire safely of anything in what I offered as a final build.Granted, it can run a 660ti or a 7870 on it. But i’m offering a PSU that will last and allow future systems to be built around it. Even in your pics, that PSU is rated to run at a maximum wattage of 460W. Take power efficiency into the equation at a generous 80% and you get 386W. As for maximum wattage, it can run at it. Any PSU can take more than what it is rated at. My 650W psu can take 700W from the wall if I push it and it will survive for a time, but I guarantee it will die a horrible death the longer I have it running at that setup. With that gigabyte psu I can guarantee that it if you sli or cfx with the choice of graphics cards on offer here, sooner rather than later, there will be a smoldering pit where your computer once was :) Keep in mind a 660ti sli system will consume about 260W leaving you around 120W to power everything else…sure you can stretch that gigabyte psu to run at its maximum peak, but safely,I would not bet 00.1c on that.

      And wrt overclocking chips? Intel put out two chips, one unlocked and one locked….which one is sold as an overclocking chip? As I said you have more chance of getting a chip that will overclock to at least 20% above stock. Its not bargain bin duo core clocking days, these are some real easy clockers. And with the case, its subjective, so its a moot point to continue arguing it.

      An R800 Mb will have less sata ports, less pci-express ports, locked overclocking ability, less space for ram and most probably less warranty. Like I said, my missing addendum to my article had a lower priced MB and a lower priced chip. I believe the price of that MB was 1.2K.

    • http://www.facebook.com/nanonyous Theo Lubbe

      Funny then that all tests by people far more clued up than either of us on this PSU indicated that the PSU has a constant output wattage of 450-480watt (varying by sample) and a peak of around 550watts, indicating that the wattages listed on the box was after efficiency had been taken into account. It’s going on three years since I looked up information on this PSU so finding it now would be a massive chore just to prove a point.

      Overclocking of CPUs; your processor will dynamically apply greater voltage as necessary when utilizing turboboost, which if I’m not mistaken is still enabled (unless explicitly disabled) even if you’re overclocking. As the requirement for a higher voltage at higher clock speeds comes into play, so the motherboard will drive more voltage to it to make up that need. In ASUS’ case you can watch this happening with their software. If Speedfan supports graphics (I forget whether it does or not), you can watch your CPU drawing more as well. The only exception to this is if you disable a function such as an automatic ‘offset voltage’ in the bios – don’t know what other manufacturers refer to it with these days.

      Consequently, the higher temperatures that come along with the overclocking will automatically reduce the relative lifespan of the chip. Whether that’s a matter of reducing it from 10 years to 8, 8 years to 6 or 6 years to 4 doesn’t matter to anyone planning on binning the system in 2-4 years’ time, of course, but informing them that that will be mandated by the death of the component is still important. It’s just a matter of ensuring that all bases are covered – why say that the Gigabyte PSUs are crap (in your opinion) for the reasons you do if you won’t mention the reasons doing anything else with your system could reduce its lifespan or reliability?

      What about stacking hard-drives in a case ‘just because you have the space’? What if those drives run abnormally hot because of poor airflow, poor spacing between the drives or just an overall poorly built rig that turns into an oven within minutes of being turned on? Why not talk about external drives utilizing eSATA on your feature-laden R1.7k motherboard? Why not compare in realistic terms why someone should spend R900 more on their motherboard when the R800 – or cheaper – equivalent could serve more than their requirements may ever be?

      R800 motherboards have loads of overclocking capability these days. In your motherboard’s case, a lot of what you’re paying for is actually to have a rectifier array that’s of high enough quality to support the i7 hexa and octa-core Ivy-Bridge units’ overclocking. An R800 MB will easily and happily overclock an i5 3570K just fine, in comparison.

      Additionally, there are boards with dual PCI-E 3.0x slots and 4x memory slots that still have overclocking capability (along with 6x SATA ports, no less) in mATX form factor around the R1k mark.

      https://www.nivo.co.za/buy~gigabyte.intel.b75.socket.lga1155.microatx.motherboard.ga.b75m.d3h.~p32545

      ^example. ASUS has a similar offering for R1.1k, though it has only 2x memory slots (will the buyer ever realistically upgrade from 8gb? If they do, will 2x more 4gb sticks or 2x8gb sticks make sense? Will they ever need more than 16gb if they simply get that much now instead of later?) – the more important factor to look at would be whether the secondary PCI-E port is 4x/8x/16 electrical. Even then, again, will it make sense for the buyer to get another card of the same model by the time it’s a relevant purchase as opposed to buying the then mid-range card that may provide the same performance as 2x of their existing card provides? If they get a different card at that time for whatever reason, will their existing card still be worth selling or using? Will whatever card they end up dropping into the secondary slot warrant needing more than a 4x electrical PCI-E 2.0 connection?

      Do PCI-E 1x ports matter to the buyer? Will they ever realistically make use of it? Would that use still fall within the realm of mid-range usage, or would they have been better served by going for a higher-end board?

      My case does have rust. There was a period of time that I didn’t use it in which it stood in a damp cupboard, though it could’ve gotten water onto it from before that since I often lanned with it and so it would occasionally get a bit wet – naturally, being that it has rust on it, it’s a steel case, not an aluminium one. That makes it dense, heavy, and absorbs vibrations from the few fans running in the case quite nicely, though.

      Anyway, the reason I’m drilling you on this stuff is because I don’t want another columnist talking about hardware to turn into a Derrick Cramer as was seen on MyBB/MyGaming. That guy was simply a joke in terms of build recommendations and talking about hardware – you’re giving far more information in that regard, but you’re still missing crucial points/information for ‘why’ anything is recommended.

      To that end, automatically recommending a R1.7k motherboard over a R1k> board without explaining in specific details why anyone should get it over a cheaper alternative is potentially dangerous to buyers that simply don’t know what they’re doing – just as you’d happily tell people to ‘not listen to theo’ because you don’t believe that Gigabyte PSUs are worth anything – without explaining with information to back up your opinion *why* you believe they’re not worth anything.

    • Marco Bozza

      Haha :) Didn’t even know Derrick Cramer was still writing. Also I do realise that some reasoning behind certain item choice is somewhat lacking, but when you have describe in meticulous detail every items choice over an enormous variety of other items, you can get a really long and convoluted piece But I guess that’s what the comments section is for :) So I did try to make it as toned down as possible.

      Okay many points to get to, sorry if I miss anything….

      Firstly I am going to call you out on a few things: There are no hex or octo core Ivy-Bridge Cpu’s, They are, at the highest i7 3770, 4 core cpu’s, that with hyper threading, give you 8 logical processors. The 3570 is basically the same cpu but without hyper threading. There are Hex Sandy-Bridge-E cpu’s, but they are really for high end systems.

      Secondly: No R800 motherboard you get for Intel will be able to overclock the unlocked intel CPU. Period. End. Not possible. That gigabyte board you linked to will never overclock the 3570k cpu. And turboboosting is not overclocking :P The only motherboards that are able to manually overclock the k series cpu’s of Intel are the P67, Z78 and Z77. The rest, B75, h61, h67, h77 cannot overclock cpus and are cheaper boards overall. The absolute cheapest overclocking board i’ve found is 1.2k – http://www.rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=19&products_id=6039, which come to think of it is not a bad board to include in this guide.

      So one of my reasons for choosing a more expensive 1.7k board is purely because, contrary to what you have said, cheaper boards like the b75/h61/h77/p67 variety will not overclock, will have less slots for upgrades like sli/cfx and less sata slots for hdd/ssd. Like I said, in my unedited piece I had an addendum that said if you dont or wont overclock or have less internal HDD’s go for a cheaper, smaller and non-overclocking board. I said that when buying a MB, not in MY choice build at the end, but in the motherboard section in the body, choose a MB that will suit your needs. Dual graphics: atx board (or even a cramped mATX) 7870 buy it now then in a year buy a second hand 7870 on carbonite.co.za. That performance will kill whichever mid range card comes out in the next generation.

      Furthermore a case with lots of space for HDD’s usually has space for cooling them with a front intake fan(s) so why is that an issue? Like the cases I recommended, most have space to cool all the internals quite well and it is also why I recommended them. Also onto the point of externals, most ATX’s have more USB 2 and 3 ports than their mATX counterparts :)

      Overclocking a chip can reduce its lifespan, by how much we can never know. But if you take care not to overvolt or make sure the bios does not automatically overvolt too much, then you should be fine using that chip well past its warranty date. Like I said, applying voltage past a certain point for the CPU will definitely reduce its lifespan by a large amount, but keeping within its limits should not markedly reduce its lifespan. As with all things, do at your own risk.

      Also, overclocking a CPU and reducing its lifespan is not the same as buying a weaker PSU. There is considerably more risk to your system by using a bad PSU in a mid range system than overclocking your CPU.

      And now back to the PSU: Gigabyte do not make “bad” psu’s, some are really good. Just the one you have referred to is really not a great unit Going by what you have said that PSU should be rated as an 80+ efficiency unit and branded as such. Yet it is absent from the 80plus website of high quality gigabyte PSU’s http://www.plugloadsolutions.com/80PlusPowerSuppliesDetail.aspx?id=38&type=2

      And having those numbers on the side of the PSU is defintely not including efficiency offsets. Beyond that PSU having having unbelievable efficiency for its price, it would be the only PSU unit to have display its wattage on the side of the PSU after applying efficiency offsets :P. Also if it did have this high rating dont you think that gigabyte’s marketers would pounce on using it as a selling point :P? I see no mention of it’s superior efficiency on any packaging or review of the item….

      I must say though, thanks for this engaging debate. As A first article i’m please at the turn out :) Really allows me to flesh out, with your questions, a few reasons for the choices I made.

    • http://www.facebook.com/nanonyous Theo Lubbe

      Hah, fair enough, I’m actually wondering if I’m not wholly confusing the Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge line, including what generation of CPU we got for my BIL’s system…

      As for the P67/Z68/Z77 being the only three chipsets allowing overclocking, this is the first I’m hearing of this? Happen to have source info on it? (not for the sake of arguing, I’m curious) I can go digging on my own otherwise if you’re 100% certain of that – just don’t want to end up wasting my time going about it.

      Also, I didn’t say Turbo-Boost was ‘overclocking’, I said that even if overclocking, unless you explicitly turn it off it’s still going to happen on top of overclocking and that when utilized, to my knowledge, the CPU draws a higher voltage automatically – within the factory specs the increase in frequency and voltage may still be ‘normal’ or ‘acceptable’, but once you’re putting it over the top of overclocking you’re dealing with something that could reduce the lifespan of the CPU – not to mention the motherboard.

      For the case, not all cases have adequate spacing between drives, not all cases have a front intake fan, not all cases will have the alignment of such a fan and the drive bay in such a fashion that it will result in decent, let alone adequate airflow – and then we haven’t even taken into consideration the possibility of the bay being stupidly far into the ‘body’ of the case and people happening to use long cards, which in some cases can be a problem even if you’ve got a full ATX tower.

      This is again, of course, something that the buyer would need to research on their own and make themselves intimately aware of prior to making a purchase.

      As for the PSU, you’ll note that I mentioned in my last comment that there was significant variation between the samples tested in the articles I’d originally read – it’s because there was so much variation that it never got its rating. Only PSUs that fall within a fairly narrow margin of out-of-the-box performance vs specification stipulations ever get their ratings – assuming they are, of course, running with a greater than 80% efficiency to begin with.

      What I do know is that the article writers concluded that the wattages shown on the boxes and PSUs are essentially after an effiency deficit of roughly 20% had been taken into account. The Odin 585 as an example drew in excess of 750watts from the wall when it was made to put out 550watts, and around 600watts when the draw was around the 450-480 bracket. Worth noting – I’m partially pulling numbers out of the air here going by rough estimates of what I remember – all I do remember is that at the time there was virtually no sense in me buying the twice as expensive alternatives from the other brands considering their performance was roughly the same at the end of the day, the Gigabyte one just didn’t look at solidly built and, as you’re fully aware, had ‘fucked’ nomenclature and specifications listing when going by other manufacturers’ conventions.

      Anyway, as for adding more info into your articles without making them too verbose – link to information, include blurbs pointing out that there are things that ought to be taken into account regarding any specific choices.

      Example; assuming the requirement of a P67/Z77/Z78 board holds true for overclocking the Ivy Bridge generation processors (Sandby Bridge as well, then?), shouldn’t you explcitly be pointing out that these are fundamental requirements, and not just what could be misconstrued as a recommendation of what chipset the board should have for predictable results? Why not point out in a follow up on the bit you did put in, with a comma “, the chipsets yada yada herpa derp do not allow overclocking these processors at all”?

      Anyway, looks like I’ve got some major revising of my hardwarez to do before anyone comes ot me with system build questions again – it’s just as well that hasn’t been the case in a while now, and that in my BIL’s case I know that whatever he did end up getting was checked beforehand for overclocking capability (of which it has some, but very limited capability, mind you)

    • Marco Bozza

      Just a quick reply as I’m dead tired, in my original piece I had a paragraph like this : ” However, if you don’t succumb to the allure of overclocking, don’t feel ashamed by those e-peen hero’s into not getting the non- overclocking chips. Intel neutering the overclocking balls off their mid-high range does not mean these chips are slouches. Those emasculated 3570, 3770 chips and cheaper non-overclocking boards like the H67 and H77 are still great system to invest in and will easily provide enough gaming grunt for a while”

      This still might have made more clear what I was saying but it got edited out :/. No matter though, the editor did take out some fluff and made it more streamlined in the end and I thank him for that :),this piece might have nipped this misunderstanding early on. Although, like you said, I probably should have said something like this: Overclocking on the Intel system means having an unlocked CPU and a p67, Z78 and Z77 as all other chipsets like the h67 and h77 cannot alter the multiplier past the turboboost capacity of the chip. As for your request on source of “my” claims on overclockability motherboards my first google result: http://club.myce.com/f184/easy-overclocking-guide-intel-sandy-bridge-ivy-bridge-cpus-329214/

      Also I never knew a Z75 chipset existed 0_0

    • http://www.facebook.com/nanonyous Theo Lubbe

      Don’t worry, wasn’t implying they were ‘your’ ‘claims’ – as I said, I’m curious to find out about this since it’s the first I’m hearing of there being chipsets of Intel’s that don’t allow overclocking at all.

    • Marco Bozza

      Cool, did not mean to offend you by saying “my claims”. If you could provide a link to this review I’d like to see what testing they did. That is the only way i’d start to believe that this PSU is not as bad as I have read up on. Also with this PSU i’m not saying its “bad” and will explode immediately after using it, its just not, according to internet readings and on the box information, a conventional 585 Watt unit in the same way that other units are labelled “650W” Or “550W”. Curious to know what set up you have running on that unit?

      If you wanted a cheaper alternative, i’d say go for a corsair CX 600 http://www.rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=30&products_id=1763

      With that psu it has a 80+ bronze rating and you can probably get away with 660ti sli on it…

    • http://www.facebook.com/nanonyous Theo Lubbe

      Currently just an i3-530, ASUS P7H55D-M EVO, Club3D GTX460 1gb, 4x2gb Corsair XMS3 1600mhz (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9), Seagate 2tb (ST32000542AS). I’d previously tested this PSU driving an i5-750, 2x4gb, some ATX-sized board that was running 2xGTX460 1gb (my card being the other). His PSU was one of the Coolermaster 470w(?) units and wouldn’t boot with the extra card put in. Yes, we know we were pushing our luck, no, we didn’t expect it to work. He just wanted to see if it would.

      As for the review, if I haven’t gotten back to you within a week at least saying I haven’t found it, poke me at nanonyous@gmail.com – bit busy this week and gone this weekend. What I can remember is that they had a device they attached the PSU to that can apply load to the attached cables as required so they could take measurements on the various components of the PSU. How they determine what the ‘stable constant output wattage’ is was by measuring a nominal heat on certain components along with noise characteristics on the outputs, then measuring what they’re getting from the outputs against what’s being drawn from the wall.

      Figuring out what was exceeding the hardware’s specs would be as simple a matter as finding a sudden discrepancy in how much power is being drawn vs how much is being put out (as a ratio), high noise being shown on the outputs and a sudden increase in heat generated on the components in question.

      If you poke Dean, he’ll tell you that when I initially talked to him about doing articles for eGamer, he asked if I’d be able to test hardware (including PSUs), and I declined since I don’t have the hardware for those sorts of tests and know they’re expensive++, and so wouldn’t be able to provide what I deem worth-while reviews.

      Anyway, to get back to this Odin 585 – on the i5-750 and 2xGTX460, running furmark and prime95 in tandem, the PSU didn’t get much hotter than it does on my i3-530 and single GTX460, which leads me to believe it wasn’t quite at its limit for output just yet. I’ve felt PSUs running *hot* – ones that would run that hot for years before crapping out – and mine didn’t get to an ‘uncomfortably hot’ temperature.

    • http://twitter.com/Pansyfaust Marco Bozza

      Haha, that would have been one way to crap out that coolermaster psu! i’ll email you if I dont hear back from you.

      So was it you or the reviewers who were actually able to run 2X 460 1 gig cards on that PSU? I really need to see that review to understand what I am hearing. Two 460′s sli:(http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/geforce_gtx_460_sli_review,15.htmland these are the 786mb ones as well, lower consumption than the 1 gigs) This setup will need close to 400W, excluding the cpu consumption . So yeah, soon as I see some proof I will realign my expectations on that Odin PSU :), otherwise my opinion still stands; it is and will never be a PSU I recommend for a mid range build.

      And onto the point of testing PSU hardware effectively you do need some high tech and expensive gear to do it property. The most I could do on testing PSU’s is aesthetics,noise and possibly temperatures…

    • http://www.facebook.com/nanonyous Theo Lubbe

      @twitter-537263912:disqus whelp, didn’t manage to turn up the review I’d read on my PSU. That being said I didn’t manage to get a whole lot of searching in – been too busy.

      If I do ever find it I’ll be sure to pass it along.

    • http://twitter.com/Pansyfaust Marco Bozza

      Whelp? And cool, i’ll be waiting :)

    • http://www.facebook.com/nanonyous Theo Lubbe

      You’re not being called a ‘whelp’, it’s just another way of saying ‘well, stuff goes here’ :P Your name was put in to make sure you got a notification so you’d see the message and not miss it, thinking I’d forgotten about you.

  • http://twitter.com/MatuMikey Michael Matusowsky

    Would be cool to have a monthly column for this.

    • http://www.lomag.co.za/ NeoN

      Agreed! Was a very interesting read – including community comments. :)

    • farkyne

      Jip, I enjoy reading about the latest computer hardware, but for that I constantly have to open up different websites. I currently like reading http://www.pcper.com, they have well constructed articles, but I would rather have all my news on one website.

  • Willem

    Agreed with wootware.

    I agree with the article and solid states being optional. However why not consider 2x 1tb in raid0?
    From what I understand its faster than a normal hdd setup, slower than ssd, and you get 2tb storage instead of 1tb + 128gb. And its cheaper than the SSD solution.

    • http://www.facebook.com/nanonyous Theo Lubbe

      SSD is primarily beneficial for its latency, which in gaming can reduce or prevent chops from unoptimized engines seeking for crap on the hdd. A lot of games are, unfortunately, still not 64bit and so still can’t use much more than 2gb of ram effectively – which means time wasted by the game’s engine loading stuff from your drive it should’ve had a long time ago.

      The alternative to going the SSD route for that, though, is to use a ramdrive solution for caching purposes and to selectively have it cache the most frequently accessed files for a given game. If I’m not mistaken, some software packages even allow you to create profiles (and ones that can load automatically) for specific programs.

    • Willem

      You’re not understanding my question. I know what solid state does, I am just saying that for +/- 60-70% of the price of the solid state+1tb sata combo, you can have a faster than normal solution with twice the storage

    • http://www.facebook.com/nanonyous Theo Lubbe

      And I’m saying that it’s not the read speeds that matter so much as the latency, which is why I explained the ramdrive alternative that serves the same purpose by way of caching. ie: I understood perfectly well what you asked and explained why it’s not the case.

    • Marco Bozza

      This is a good point indeed. Raid offers a good compromise between Hdd and SSD speeds. Only problem is if one drive fails in the array there is no redundancy and everything is lost on both Hdd’s. If in your SSD + HDD setup if one drive fails, you still have the data on the other which did not fail :)

    • http://www.facebook.com/nanonyous Theo Lubbe

      Pretty sure there’s a three-drive RAID solution that essentially dedicates the third drive to parity information, so one could (at ~R750/1tb drive) stripe two and use a third as a parity drive at a total cost of R2.25k for the balance of throughput and storage – all while maintaining some redundancy. Latency’s still going be shit unless you use a nested RAID like RAID10 though, and even then it’s still not going to keep pace with an SSD by a very long shot.

  • http://www.lomag.co.za/ NeoN

    I bought my new rig last December and have come across almost all the points brought up in the article, as I researched the various components – it was fantastic to see it all covered in one article.

    Being an nVidia fanboy however, I went for the GTX670, which definitely wasn’t cheap. :P Didn’t know AMD’s options were more cost effective, so that’s something I learnt today.

  • AG_Sonday

    It’s great to have someone finally doing tech around here, welcome Marco. have you met Marko? :P

    • Marco Bozza

      Thanks buddy :) Good to be here. I have met a “Marko” before, but I dont think i’ve had the pleasure of meeting your one.

    • AG_Sonday

      Oh he’s not mine, nobody can tame Marko :P

  • farkyne

    I would maybe buy the i5 3570 vanilla (non unlockable clocking) because you save a good R300 off of its price. Also I understand why you have to buy an awesome graphics card, but 2.5k is just so expensive! I personally would maybe go for a GTX 650 2 gb R1630, to bring my pc closer to the R5000 mark. P. S. Where do you buy a AMD HD7870 for R2549, it’s very cheap! (also I would like to know about places you recommend to buy pc parts, so far http://www.pcint.co.za, is the cheapest and I bought with them before, they are reliable)

    • Marco Bozza

      In the future I will do an article focused a bit more on the budget conscious side. And the graphics cards in question can be found at wootware.co.za.

      I can heartily recommend rebeltech, landmark pc and prophecy. I’ve bought them all before. I have bought from PCint before, many years ago. Had no problem with em. And over the 650 i would save up just a tad more and get the 7850 for 2k from wootware. It is definitely the better buy.

    • Willem

      Wootware have Powercolor 7870s for that price.

      650 (non ti) is a very weak card. 2gb will not increase its performance at all, as its not fast enough to create a bottleneck. For the same price as the 2gb 650 you can get a ghz edition factory overclocked HD7770 which performs MUCH better. Otherwise for a little mroe you can get a 650ti and for a little more than that you can get a 7850 which imo is the best bang for hte buck mid ranged card money can buy.

  • jex2013

    Great post! It will benefit a lot of people here especially those who have no ideas about computer builds. I learned from this site: http://www.squidoo.com/best-gaming-computer-build I hope it will help others too. :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wesley-Fick/184346154999538 Wesley Fick

    So far I liked the article, although it glossed over a few niggles and nuances to system building and some misconceptions, especially regarding power efficiency and PSU power output, have been made in the comments section. I think I speak for any geek when I say that while putting together a system on the surface looks like a piece of cake (and when it comes to the assembly, it really is), a few factors in choosing which hardware you’re going with complicate things needlessly unless you have someone who knows why that board won’t go beyond 4GHz, or why that PSU has a high wattage but won’t boot with two GPUs plugged in.

    I actually think the crappiest part of the whole thing is choosing the chassis and then figuring out airflow, if you’re an enthusiast who likes to tinker. I personally have only a few criteria for choosing a chassis in my builder’s guides:

    1) Must have front-panel USB 3.0 support via an internal header
    2) Must accommodate at least one SSD and one HDD
    3) Cable management
    4) Enough space for an all-in-one water cooler and a side panel fan

    Everything else after that, including looks and colour, is secondary. Too many people choose form over function, IMO.

    • http://twitter.com/Pansyfaust Marco Bozza

      Hey Wesley, thanks for your input man :) I read your reviews and build guides and really enjoy them a lot! As for the glossing over, what niggles and nuances and misconceptions over power efficiency? I only ask as i am looking for any crit/input to improve my writing and reasoning behind the build choices I have in future articles. As for the case criteria I wholly agree with you. I would possibly add one thing to that list- must have at least one fan :)