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Note: This build-it originally ran in the July issue of Maximum PC--some pricing info may have changed.
THE MISSION Intel’s Ivy Bridge CPUs (and the corresponding Z77 Panther Point chipset) finally dropped in late April, and Ivy Bridge brings more than just the expected thermal and power improvements over Sandy Bridge. You can read an in-depth report on Ivy Bridge if you're interested, but for our purposes, it’s enough to know that the Ivy Bridge Core i7-3770K is the successor to the Sandy Bridge Core i7-2600K. It has a slightly faster clock speed than the 2600K, but it requires less power and delivers more performance per clock than its predecessor.
It doesn’t make sense to upgrade from a Sandy Bridge to an Ivy Bridge processor or motherboard, but if you’re building a new PC, Ivy Bridge is the way to go.
This month’s project, then, is simple: Build a new gaming PC with an Ivy Bridge motherboard and CPU. I’ll also be using Nvidia’s GTX 680 GPU and Western Digital’s new 1TB VelociRaptor, just for kicks.
THIS IS A MACHINE built from the CPU out. The CPU, of course, is Intel’s new Core i7-3770K, the successor to the 2600K. The 3770K is a quad-core 3.5GHz CPU with Hyper-Threading and 8MB of L3 cache, not to mention Intel’s new HD 4000 integrated graphics (which we won’t be using). And with a TDP of just 77W, it’s a power sipper.
The 3770K gets a brand-new motherboard to go with it. Asus’s P8Z77-V Pro gives the perfect mix of price and performance—it supports up to 32GB of RAM and it has two x16 PCIe 3.0 slots, two native Intel USB 3.0 ports as well as some Asmedia ones, and both native Intel and Asmedia 6Gb/s SATA ports. It also includes a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth dongle, which is cute and potentially useful.
Because of the CPU’s low TDP, Xigmatek’s Gaia cooler will be sufficient even with a moderate overclock. It can cool an overclocked Core-i7 3960X; it can handle this.
The PSU is a bit overkill, but it gives me breathing room if I want to add a second GPU later.
Nvidia’s GTX 680 is the new 900-pound gorilla; it’s faster than AMD’s Radeon HD 7970 in most benchmarks and it’s just $500. It also consumes less power than the 7970 during use.
With RAM so cheap, it’s tempting to get 16GB, but 8GB is plenty for a gaming machine, so I’ll stick with that for now.
Western Digital’s latest VelociRaptor is 1TB of 10,000rpm mechanical storage. It’s not as speedy as an SSD, but it averages 160MB/s read and writes with random-access times that are twice as fast as a standard mechanical drive. I normally prefer an SSD/HDD combo, but this is my chance to get out of my comfort zone a little bit and see what the VelociRaptor can do.
I’m also stepping out of my comfort zone with the case. Enermax’s Fulmo is a mid‑tower with plenty of stock air cooling, striking blue LED fans, and a look that’s reminiscent of Cooler Master’s 690 II Advanced, but with a far more interesting interior.
| INGREDIANTS | PART | URL | PRICE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Case | Enermax Fulmo Advance | www.enermaxusa.com | $99 |
| PSU | Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 850W | www.thermaltakeusa.com | $190 |
| Mobo | Asus P8Z77-V Pro | www.asus.com | $225 |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-3770K | www.intel.com | $315 |
| Cooler | Xigmatek Gaia | www.xigmatek.com | $30 |
| GPU | Nvidia GTX 680 | www.nvidia.com | $500 |
| RAM | 8GB Corsair Vengeance | www.corsair.com | $50 |
| Optical Drive | Samsung SH-222AB CD/DVD burner | www.samsung.com | $20 |
| Hard Drive | 1TB WD VelociRaptor | www.wdc.com | $320 |
| OS | Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (OEM) | www.microsoft.com | $139 |
| Total | $1,888 |
We tested both boards with a 3.3GHz Core i7-3960X, 16GB of DDR3/1600, a 150GB Western Digital Raptor, a GeForce GTX 580, and 64-bit Windows 7 Professional SP1. Performance scores for the SATA 6Gb/s and USB 3.0 were attained using CrystalDiskMark 3 run against an OCZ Enyo USB 3.0 drive and an OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD.
INSTALL the CPU, RAM, and cooler onto the motherboard before installing the mobo into the case, because the Xigmatek Gaia’s rubber fan mounts are friggin’ annoying. The i7-3770K is a standard LGA1155 CPU, so you’ll just need to open the lift arm, align the CPU into the socket, place it down gently, and re-secure it by closing the socket gate and lift arm. The Gaia uses a backplate with four tall mounting posts that poke through the motherboard to surround the socket; secure it to the motherboard with the knurled nuts.
Apply a smallish dot of thermal paste to the center of the CPU heat spreader, then slide the Gaia heatsink down the posts to rest on the CPU and secure with the mounting nuts. Secure the fan to the RAM side of the heatsink using the rubber mounting posts and plug the fan into the CPU_FAN header. Install the RAM into the two blue RAM slots.
THE FULMO includes front-panel fan speed and LED control, but in order for it to work the three controllable fans (two 12cm front panel fans and one 18cm side intake fan) have to be wired to specific controller boards inside the case, and I learned from experience that it’s easier to do this before any of the parts are in the case.
There are two 2-pin leads from the top of the case: The shorter one goes to the first connector in the LED control panel at the center-right of the motherboard tray, and the other goes to the fan‑speed control at the lower right of the mobo tray. Plug the 2-pin leads from the front fans into the LED control panel and the 3-pin leads to the lower two 3-pin connectors on the speed‑control panel. Each panel will have an extra connector; those are for the 18cm fan on the side panel.
Comments are closed on this article
NavarWynn
July 12, 2012 at 12:17pm
Overall, the article, and the tech, and the end product is pretty typical. A wicked fast gaming PC built w/ off the shelf parts (that would stress even most 1%ers budgets ;-)) But guys, I feel like you are missing a lot of the creativity. Here are just a *few* things *creative* you could try out...
A workstation based gaming rig? don't tell me the thought of 3 GPUs, 2 CPUS, 20 cores / 40 threads, and 512gb of RAM @ 1800mhz doesn't give you a bit of a stiffy. Sure it may not run all your benchmarks, but some of us have the $25k necessary to run a single machine like that... Maybe you could show us if it would really be worth it?
A *real* budget price/performance machine - say $400?
An upgradable custom case rig?
How about upgrading an existing case to improve thermals, access, capability, etc.? Even something as simple as lighting? (just an idea ;-) ) With benchmarks, and load tests to show how much you improved it?
Setup a proper test bench to load test individual components & individual component upgrades?
Pop the top off an Ivy bridge to upgrade it's thermal dispersion?
Maybe do some proper white pages (like in the past) on the proper procedures for your articles/ conclusions/predictions?
Frankly guys, while the 'everyday' MPC articles are usually decent, frankly, they are getting kind of boring. I know most of you (like us) are just geeks - not mechanical and electrical engineers, but maybe you could at least *stretch* the box a little (even if you don't actually go outside it)...
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compguytracy
July 08, 2012 at 7:28am
it looks like you went out of your way to get a crappy case, bad design, plastic clips, cable routing problems. why not get a better case?
waynesalt
July 08, 2012 at 4:50am
Curious, I know this is MPC, but is the kickass pc supposed to be budget friendly? I mean I Know that $1888 isn't Really pricey, but can't some of the things have been changed to fit a lower budget, for mainstream people? Like maybe a 2TB HDD and lose the SSD and V-raptor, a 7870 instead of 670, 8GB ram, a 3570k instead of a 3770k, should save at Least a couple hundred dollars...
Penterax
July 07, 2012 at 4:01am
Thanks for using the 1 TB VelociRaptor. It's nice to see someone build without following conventional "wisdom".
I keep wondering why no one tests 2 V-Raptors (or more) in RAID 0 against their SSDs; don't want to show up their favorites? Sure, they point to the single-drive numbers and say something like "See, even twice as fast, the hard drive just can't catch up to a modern SSD in any test." Okay then, bench it!
Okay okay I'm admitting it, I'm a V-Raptor fanboy looking to hold on to his favorite drives a bit longer. It'll be a bit sad for me, in a way, when I build again, and relegate my current ones to data drives behind that bad-boy SSD.
;)
Danthrax66
July 08, 2012 at 11:09am
velociraptors will always loose to SSDs. It isn't even a competition really since SSDs get 2-3x the read/write speeds and also have .1ms or less latency while the velociraptor has 7ms or more. Velociraptors are good for storage is you need speed, but even then you can get 15k rpm SAS drives that will perform better and more reliably.
Gezzer
July 07, 2012 at 3:46am
Okay this isn't a troll.
More of a gripe.I remember when Max PC didn't pad it's page count with a "build a PC" how-to in every issue. When I saw the last build 3 different PCs article with no how-to I breathed a sigh of relief. Only to find another build how-to further on in the mag.
Yes there are Max PC readers who have never built a PC before, all 5 of them. But give me a break. How about a link to an in depth how-to instead. Then just add the link after each story, and update the on-line content as/if needed.
I'm just saying.
Hilarity
July 07, 2012 at 12:29am
FX 4170 + 7950 + 8GB DDR3 1600MHz, pocket the cash saved. No, you don't need Intel for a 1080p gaming build, and no Bulldozer isn't THAT bad. I'd also drop the SSD and get a single 2TB drive, loading times are irrelevant for a gaming system. You need bulk storage for today's ~15GB console ports.
cldmstrsn
July 06, 2012 at 10:12pm
I have a 670 and in my experience runs better than a 7970. so if you are looking for a great card pick the 670.
waynesalt
July 06, 2012 at 8:50pm
Is the 670 worth getting over say a 7870? If you look at performance vs price, isnt the 7870 just slightly behind but a fair bit cheaper?
Hooded
July 06, 2012 at 7:28pm
I can't say that I would be using any spinning disc for a gaming rig these days.
I have at least two 120gb ssd's in each of my gaming rig's.
Whats with the 8gb of RAM? Boost it up to 16 so you can run without a swap file.
ohsnaps1104
July 07, 2012 at 12:31am
Who uses 16 gigs of RAM? I have 8 with page file disabled, works just fine.
aferrara50
July 09, 2012 at 8:01am
I have 64 gb and nearly all of it gets utilized. You set up a ram disk and load all of the applications that you commonly use off of the ram, especially games. Read/write speeds ~7,000mbs destroys even today's fastest ssds in raid 0.
BryceBooth
July 06, 2012 at 10:18pm
Optical drives have their uses, such as transcoding your own movies, ripping cd's. As for RAM, I certainly agree with the minor cost of upping it to 16 GB, however, it's usually best to leave the page file as is. Yes, it's a gaming rig, but what happens when you start multi-tasking, or dive into Photoshop?
Sometimes it's best to err on the side of caution.
Hooded
July 07, 2012 at 7:00am
Running an x58 system with 24gb ram no swap file.
Run Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash all at the same time while in and out of either Access or an MS SQL DB. Also playing music with iTunes have never had a problem. No Swap file.
SSD's especially the sata3 ones are fast enough not to require a swap file. On a spinning disc a swap file is accessed faster because of it's size and location on the disc. Preventing alot of disc seeking. SSD'd don't have this limitation.
BryceBooth
July 07, 2012 at 9:40am
I believe you, but I was simply stating that not everyone uses their rig the same as everyone else. Some may delve into Photoshop's settings, and allocate all their RAM to the program. Sure, one can disable the swap file, but it's not hurting you if it goes unused either.
xenetic
July 06, 2012 at 5:34pm
If you want to spend more money on less gaming performance, follow this guide. If you want more performance for around a grand, go with a 3570K (hyper-threading is rarely used in gaming, not worth the extra $100), and an OC'd GTX 670 (matches the performance of a stock 680). Also, ditch the velociraptor. Grab a 120 gig SSD for less than $100 and a 2TB HDD.
I made an account just to respond to this "Kick-Ass" gaming PC guide. You guys should probably remove this post. Surely Gordon knows better than this.
TheMissingPiece
July 06, 2012 at 7:11pm
This article was written before the GTX 670 was even available, and Maximium PC hadn't reviewed the 3570K to recommend it yet, thus justifying the selection of those two parts. The use of the Velociraptor was more of a personal choice, although it is a good hard drive for those who do not want to deal with the troubles of micromanaging an SSD.
metalsphere
July 06, 2012 at 2:56pm
This is a nice PC build with quality parts for gaming purposes, and the price isn't huge either.
RaptorJohnson
July 06, 2012 at 7:56pm
That was a nice comment with simple words for easy readability, and the length wasn't too bad either.
