Building new rig, please peer-review/answer a few q's (about OC'ing)

[precambrian 789]

I've been gaming since forever with a $10 Logitech keyboard + mouse combo on an hp dv-7 laptop... I think it's time to upgrade.

 

No case, monitor, or power supply to reuse; I'd like to actually get my hands on some decent peripherals for a change as well. Don't need an OS  or optical drive, will be running off wired connection so Wifi is unnecessary. Budget is variable: ideally I'd like to keep it below one grand USD, but I can stretch that to get some better parts if there will be a significant boost. Goal is to run modern games at a stable 60+fps on high/ultra at 1920X1080. Since I play WGLNA, it'd probably be nice to boost my tanks performance as well. I'm looking at two different tower builds. The cheaper, non-overclock-capable one is:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($159.99 @ Micro Center) 

Motherboard: ASRock H81 Pro BTC ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($41.99 @ Newegg) 

Memory: Patriot Viper 3 Low Profile Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($67.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($53.95 @ Amazon) 

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card  ($349.99 @ NCIX US) 

Case: Zalman Z11 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case  ($44.99 @ Micro Center) 

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($49.99 @ Newegg) 

Total: $768.89

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-28 14:37 EDT-0400

 

The more expensive wallet screaming bloody murder one is:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($199.99 @ Micro Center) 

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($28.98 @ OutletPC) 

Motherboard: ASRock Z97 EXTREME4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($104.99) 

Memory: Patriot Viper 3 Low Profile Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($67.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($53.95 @ Amazon) 

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card  ($349.99 @ NCIX US) 

Case: Zalman Z11 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case  ($44.99 @ Micro Center) 

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($49.99 @ Newegg) 

Total: $900.87

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-28 14:38 EDT-0400

 

Either build is a significant upgrade from what I'm currently rocking. Remember, I need peripherals too, so I need to set aside ~$250-$400 for those, depending on what I go for.

 

Obviously I understand the more money I put in, the better performance I get, but my main question is... how much better?

 

Questions:

 

1. For anyone that's overclocked their processor, what sort of boost to WOT framerates did you see? I'd rather save the money if I'm just going to jump from 60 to 80 or something like that, but if you can break 100 or even closer to 120, then I'm willing to break open the piggy bank. 

 

2. Wait for Broadwell, yay or nay? I'm not too sure what the performance increase will be... and honestly, with Skylake apparently coming out soon after, I'm tempted to just snag the H81 + 4590 combo and upgrade the mobo and processor when the new architecture is released. If I pay for the more expensive stuff upfront, I need it to last longer. 

 

3. Is wattage sufficient or do I need to spring for a 750W PSU? 

 

4. Go for a 144hz monitor or a standard, cheaper 60hz IPS? Again, this comes down to framerates; if tanks is too demanding for my framerates to benefit I'd rather just save cash now and upgrade later. I don't really care about 144hz for other games- when I'm playing single player I can live without pixel-perfect smoothness.

 

5. Just out of curiosity, is either i5 strong enough for Twitch streaming at say, 720p/60fps? I'm not willing to spring for the i7 just to stream, but it'd be interesting to know.

 

Answer any or all of the questions you can, or just review the builds, it's fine by me. Thanks in advance for assistance. 

[blackzaru 588]

All I can say: wait one month for black friday/cyber monday sales. It is worth the wait.

 

Also, upgrading to some i7 could be an idea, the i5 could become a bottleneck with some upcoming games.

 

And I'm not a fan of ASrock mobos.

[Brendanthekid 88]

1. For anyone that's overclocked their processor, what sort of boost to WOT framerates did you see? I'd rather save the money if I'm just going to jump from 60 to 80 or something like that, but if you can break 100 or even closer to 120, then I'm willing to break open the piggy bank. I have an i5 4670K, recently went from 3.4ghz to 3.9 without messing with the voltages, only gained a few FPS but my computer feels a lot more responsive now. Overclocking probably wont make the difference from 60 to 100fps.

 

2. Wait for Broadwell, yay or nay? I'm not too sure what the performance increase will be... and honestly, with Skylake apparently coming out soon after, I'm tempted to just snag the H81 + 4590 combo and upgrade the mobo and processor when the new architecture is released. If I pay for the more expensive stuff upfront, I need it to last longer. Have no idea about any of that, so I can't answer that question.

 

3. Is wattage sufficient or do I need to spring for a 750W PSU? The 650 should be fine, official Nvidia site recommends 500 minimum. 650 will be plenty.

 

4. Go for a 144hz monitor or a standard, cheaper 60hz IPS? Again, this comes down to framerates; if tanks is too demanding for my framerates to benefit I'd rather just save cash now and upgrade later. I don't really care about 144hz for other games- when I'm playing single player I can live without pixel-perfect smoothness. I've never played on a 144hz monitor personally but I feel that after 60fps you wouldn't notice much of a difference.

 

5. Just out of curiosity, is either i5 strong enough for Twitch streaming at say, 720p/60fps? I'm not willing to spring for the i7 just to stream, but it'd be interesting to know. Hell yeah, with my i5 I stream at 1080p/30fps perfectly fine.

[jackquerudo 2,405]

 

Questions:

 

1. For anyone that's overclocked their processor, what sort of boost to WOT framerates did you see? I'd rather save the money if I'm just going to jump from 60 to 80 or something like that, but if you can break 100 or even closer to 120, then I'm willing to break open the piggy bank. 

 

Mine went from 30-40 to >60 overclocking i7 930 to 4.0ghz. It's a hefty OC but Wot doesn't run well on these old cores. New architectures will be much better at handling WoT at stock frequencies, and more likely to hit constant 127fps.

 

2. Wait for Broadwell, yay or nay? I'm not too sure what the performance increase will be... and honestly, with Skylake apparently coming out soon after, I'm tempted to just snag the H81 + 4590 combo and upgrade the mobo and processor when the new architecture is released. If I pay for the more expensive stuff upfront, I need it to last longer. 

 

naw

 

3. Is wattage sufficient or do I need to spring for a 750W PSU? 

Looks fine, but 650W is limiting to future expansion options. But spring for a Corsair or Seasonic (or assorted Seasonic OEM'd units) if you can. Never cheap out on the PSU. Your build will probably draw 400W tops at load

 

4. Go for a 144hz monitor or a standard, cheaper 60hz IPS? Again, this comes down to framerates; if tanks is too demanding for my framerates to benefit I'd rather just save cash now and upgrade later. I don't really care about 144hz for other games- when I'm playing single player I can live without pixel-perfect smoothness.

 

60hz is still just fine for me, especially for tanks where twitch and smoothness is not as big of a factor. Color reproduction is much more important than refresh rate personally.

 

5. Just out of curiosity, is either i5 strong enough for Twitch streaming at say, 720p/60fps? I'm not willing to spring for the i7 just to stream, but it'd be interesting to know.

 

It's fine

 

Answer any or all of the questions you can, or just review the builds, it's fine by me. Thanks in advance for assistance. 

 

One more thing, go for gigabyte or ASUS in terms of mobos. MSI is okay as well. I've seen too much Asrocks die in my time

[Haswell 2,399]

1. Using a 2500k @ 4.8GHz myself. Haven't really tried tanks at stock clocks, but right now I'm averaging 75-150fps depending on the map. Dips below 60fps are rare unless 15 pz1c starts spamming shots at me.

 

2. The 2500k I bought back in 2011 still works perfectly even with the most demanding games (where it becomes GPU-bound). At this point I'd daresay it's impossible for Intel chips to not serve you less than 5 years (unless you are a hardware fanatic and always like shiny new stuff).

 

3. 650w is more than sufficient for an Intel chip + GTX 970.

 

4. If you have extra cash, go ahead and buy that ridiculous Asus monitor thing. But chances are you won't really be paying attention. Read for more info: http://www.logicalincrements.com/peripherals/index.html#standardscreen

 

5. I can encode gameplay at 720p/60fps on the fly just fine with my 2500k. You'd probably be limited by upload bandwidth than processor speed.

 

 

 

Also, treat yourself to a better cooler if you are planning to OC. The 212 EVO is not a high-end cooler and will struggle once you start OCing seriously.

[FendaIton 47]

Might sound like a dumb question, but what other games do you intend on playing? 

 

I have a i7 4770K 3.5GHz, and I've got it running at 4.6GHz however I use a Corsair H100i to keep it around 20 degrees idle, and 70-80 degrees Celsius on load. This gives me around 50-60 fps. (Winter maps aren't as fast as summer maps, or maps with lots of buildings, graphics card is a EVGA GTX 770 SC ACX) - I have that "don't go over 60fps for screen tearing option that I've forgotten the name of and I work in IT so I should know" enabled

 

I would go for a FSP Power supply, I got my gold rated 750W for like 180 NZD. 

 

r.e. the monitor refresh rate - I'm pretty sure that the human eye sees up to around 70hz doesn't it? The mod AALG runs a Dual CPU Motherboard with 4 graphics cards, and his WoT only runs at 120fps - it's a game limitation on how it's coded. (IIRC)

 

An i5 will be fine. 

 

 

Here is my build: (In NZD for me: http://pricespy.co.nz/list.php?l=123459&view=b )

 

 

 - Halswell, what are you using to cool that CPU?

[Gashtag 12,000]

1. For anyone that's overclocked their processor, what sort of boost to WOT framerates did you see? I'd rather save the money if I'm just going to jump from 60 to 80 or something like that, but if you can break 100 or even closer to 120, then I'm willing to break open the piggy bank. 

 

2. Wait for Broadwell, yay or nay? I'm not too sure what the performance increase will be... and honestly, with Skylake apparently coming out soon after, I'm tempted to just snag the H81 + 4590 combo and upgrade the mobo and processor when the new architecture is released. If I pay for the more expensive stuff upfront, I need it to last longer. 

 

3. Is wattage sufficient or do I need to spring for a 750W PSU? 

 

4. Go for a 144hz monitor or a standard, cheaper 60hz IPS? Again, this comes down to framerates; if tanks is too demanding for my framerates to benefit I'd rather just save cash now and upgrade later. I don't really care about 144hz for other games- when I'm playing single player I can live without pixel-perfect smoothness.

 

5. Just out of curiosity, is either i5 strong enough for Twitch streaming at say, 720p/60fps? I'm not willing to spring for the i7 just to stream, but it'd be interesting to know.

 

Answer any or all of the questions you can, or just review the builds, it's fine by me. Thanks in advance for assistance. 

 

1. 2500k @ 3.8 (from that intel turbo boost thing) -> 4.5GHz = 10 fps for me on sandy bridge (~40fps) iirc, take that number with a pinch of salt, I don't know if it's being bottlenecked or not.

 

2. Wait for broadwell... yes, to buy Haswell. Unless Intel really pull something out of the bag, you're not going to miss anything (it's also tick and will be first gen so errors and shit).

 

3. Wattage is more than you'll need.

 

4. Is this going to make a fucking difference if you can live without pixel-perfect? Go cheap and buy even cheaper when UHD is mainstream.

 

5. Sandy bridge i5 twitch here: http://www.twitch.tv/gashting/b/582111220

 

Final thoughts: future proofing doesn't exist. Make a comp that can be OC'd because you'll need it in a few years instead of having to rebuy everything. This'll probably last you until Intel break out some quantum computing shit after Cannonlake. 

[precambrian 789]

Thanks for all the advice thus far.

@fendalton, right now I'm kinda hardware limited to tanks and Cs:go.. So anything really. Things like shadow of mordor, dragon age inquisition, maybe battlefield or something.

One other q, I travel a lot between college and home. Don't mind lugging around a full tower, as long as it makes the trip safely... I'm assuming if I pack it well and try not to drive like a madman it should be safe to take with me, right?

[jackquerudo 2,405]

if you're driving it it's fine. The only worry is when you ship it where couriers literally throw it across the room. If you're truly paranoid, remove the heat sink and GPU before you move

[junyou 7]

The only thing I noticed is that even in your most expensive system, you're only pushing 8gig RAM.

 

I'd bump up to 16 or so cause looks like you may bottleneck on the RAM having a decently quick processor and that GPU.

 

Also, spend the extra bit of cash and get a Corsair or Seasonic PSU, I don't trust the EVGA, haven't heard much about them.

[Getsome 431]

One other q, I travel a lot between college and home. Don't mind lugging around a full tower, as long as it makes the trip safely... I'm assuming if I pack it well and try not to drive like a madman it should be safe to take with me, right?

 

Pack computer in car so that motherboard is on bottom of case. 

 

If video card is hanging on the PCI-E locking tab, add road vibration and predict the outcome.

[Gashtag 12,000]

I drove like a mad man with a not so well done acrylic bent loop and mine was fine, if you're dry, you've got no problems

[FendaIton 47]

EVGA is amazing, from my experiences. I would definitely go with them again. 

 

I do use an ASRock mobo, and I have heard of them dieing, but I thought I'd give it a shot. No complaints so far, it is handy to be able to use my phone to turn on my PC from work, and start them torrentz. 

 

CS:GO runs amazing compared to WoT as well, so you'll be happy there. 

 

If you're lugging it around, just put it in the rear passengers footwell, it won't move!

[Tedster59 989]

while I have an older processer (1st gen i7, xeon version x2), I used to run them at 4 ghz.  had to roll back to stock clocks (2.93 ghz), I noticed a massive difference in performance and responsiveness.

[cobra1540 7]

If you can get an ssd drive, it's worth the cash.

If you hard drive doesn't park the read/write heads a hard hit could kill the drive.

 

Pick your case carefully, It can last for many different systems.

 

I'd look for something with easily removable filters.

I went from an antec 900 to a 1200.

It's plenty big for my liquid cooing system and anything else I want to put in there, but to get at the filters I have to remove the front case fans.

Is it hard, no, but it takes longer than it should.

 

I recently dropped the overclock on my i2500k from 4.5Ghz. back to stock. I had a lot of bsod issues with WOT.

If I lost 5 FPS it would be allot, but I'm running 5670 x 1200 resolution, with a stock clocked amd 7970.

 

Like mentioned before, wait for the deals to start rolling out soon, black friday/ cyber monday.

Check techbargains and slickdeals as well as search for coupon/promo codes.

You might get lucky.

 

Good luck.

[Oxmathus 499]

if you're driving it it's fine. The only worry is when you ship it where couriers literally throw it across the room. If you're truly paranoid, remove the heat sink and GPU before you move

 

wow! great sig jacky!!!

[Hyttech 19]

I suggest 16Gb, and using non low profile ram (usually cheaper, and your cooler doesnt need ram clearance) Also an SSD would be nice for the budget, you can get a decent one for ~150 for 240gb

[Dlur 2,350]

I will probably never use another computer that doesn't boot off an SSD.

[Haswell 2,399]

I honestly don't get the hype for SSDs, aside from blazing fast access times.

 

Then again, I never shutdown my computers...

[precambrian 789]

Ugh, ssd = more money to spend D:

Thanks for the advice, I'll keep it in mind when I get around to ordering... Didn't realize stocks of the 970 were so scarce.

[Tedster59 989]

I honestly don't get the hype for SSDs, aside from blazing fast access times.

 

Then again, I never shutdown my computers...

SSD's are great for tanks, which tends to load resources mid battle (hence people complaining of lag when a new tank is spotted or they get shot).  it also means that xvm is the primary bottleneck at the battle loading screen.

[brdhntr 36]

Just an FYI, if you are getting your CPU from Micro Center, check on the mobo when you do.  They will often offer a discount on both if you buy them together.  

[Getsome 431]

Ugh, ssd = more money to spend D:

 

 

Are you planning a multi-monitor or 4K setup? 

 

If you are going to do single-monitor, you can take the ebay route to pick up a 7950 or a R9 280X for $75-$125.  Those cards are powerful enough to give you a really good experience with everything currently on the market, and open up some budget for an SSD, more RAM, or more beer.

[precambrian 789]

Single monitor for sure.

 

I'd rather buy new than used just for my own peace of mind, but I'll look into the R9s, thanks for the recommendation!

[Haswell 2,399]

SSD's are great for tanks, which tends to load resources mid battle (hence people complaining of lag when a new tank is spotted or they get shot).  it also means that xvm is the primary bottleneck at the battle loading screen.

I don't run XVM, or any mods at all... >.>

 

I never really noticed drive latency in tanks either, but maybe that's because I load WoT from my secondary drive. Coupled with my 16GB memory it means most WoT assets stay in the memory once it's loaded (never shutting down also helps).