Inviting opinions/suggestions for a 50K gaming rig

A.Dey

Right off the assembly line
Following are the responses to the standard questionnaire:-

1. What is the purpose of the computer? What all applications and games are you going to run? (Stupid answers like 'gaming' or 'office work' will not work. Be exact. Which games? Which applications? Avoid the word 'et cetera.')

Ans: 1> Playing demanding games such as Metro 2033, Witcher 2, Battlefield 3, Crysis 2, Skyrim V (in moderate to high settings); playing less demanding games (Starcraft 2, Call of Duty) in ultra to enthusiast setting.
2> Watching HD content
3> Running 2-3 MS Office 2010 applications simultaneously along with Google Chrome browser (several tabs opened together)
4> Running Matlab (not very frequently) and ETAP

2. What is your overall budget? If you can extend a bit for a more balanced configuration, then mention this too.

Ans: 45K-50K, Yes, I can stretch the budget by another 5K at most.

3. Planning to overclock?
Ans: Yes, to a small extent (3.33GHz to 4.0-4.1 GHz)

4. Which Operating System are you planning to use?
Ans: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

5. How much hard drive space is needed?
Ans: 1 Terabyte (internal)

6. Do you want to buy a monitor? If yes, please mention which screen size and resolution do you want. If you already have a monitor and want to reuse it, again mention the size and resolution of monitor you have.

Ans: Yes, 21.5”-22”,1920*1080 (full HD). Actually I was planning to get a LED tv (Philips 22 Inches Full HD LED 22PFL4556 ) next month and I was wondering whether I can use it as a full-fledged monitor. Please let me know if there will be any connectivity/compatibility issues with the rig suggested below. However I have also suggested a monitor below (if this doesn’t work)

7. Which components you DON'T want to buy or which components you already have and plan on reusing?

Ans: Keyboard, Mouse, Earphone/Headphone, Speaker, External HDD(already have); Will buy UPS later (if required?)

8. When are you planning to buy the system?
Ans: Between, October 2012- November 2012

9. Have you ever built a desktop before or will this be done by an assembler?
Ans: No. By assembler.

10. Where do you live? Are you buying locally? Are you open to buying stuff from online shops if you don't get locally?

Ans: Delhi, both locally and online (if stuff is not available locally or available at a cheaper rate online)

11. Anything else which you would like to say?

Ans: Yes, I have several queries/doubts apart from the above ones:-
Firstly, I am a novice when it comes to computers, so please be a bit patient with me and kindly tone down on the “techno” jargon (if you are planning to use any). Having said that, I have done some digging for the past couple of days and now know the basics of computer hardware (I would like to think so, and if not, I will be happy to google),and have also come up with the following budget rig:-
Component Make Price
CPU Intel Core i5 2500K, 3.3Ghz, Quad Core, 6Mb Cache 12970

GPU Sapphire AMD/ATI Radeon HD 6870 1 GB GDDR5 12243

MoBo ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 Motherboards 8750

RAM G.Skill RipjawsX DDR3 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) 3615

PSU/SMPS Corsair GS600 (CMPSU-600G) 4,408

Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 5399

Optical Drive Asus DRW-24B3ST Internal Optical Drive (Black) 1135

Case NZXT Source 210 Elite Mid Tower Cabinet 2600

Monitor Dell 21.5 inch LED - ST2220L 8445
TOTAL 50,815

Secondly, following are the points where I need your most valued opinions/suggestions/clarifications:
• Whether all the components suggested above are from reputed/trusted brands?
• Are there any issues with any of the particular makes suggested?
• Whether there will be any compatibility issues when using them together?
• Whether the case suggested above will have enough space for all the components?
• Whether I can overclock lightly (3.33GHz to 4.0-4.1 GHz) using the stock cooler only, also will the PSU be sufficient to overclock lightly?
• Please let me know if I can use the TV (specs) mentioned above (this one) as a proper monitor for the above mentioned applications.
• Also please comment on the above configuration and suggest better combinations of components if available within this budget and taking into account the following constraints/points :-
 Processor should be the same as suggested above
 Please take into account the answer to Q.8 as there is quite some time to go and there may be price fluctuations or new product launches in the meantime
• Although I mentioned only the online vendors, I would prefer to get the components locally, as I think I may get a better deal
• So, it would be really great if you could recommend some reliable local shops (specifically in Nehru Place)/online stores where I can find the components cheap and original.
Lastly, this is my first post in this forum and I apologize if you found it too long. Thanks for your time and patience.

PS: Actually I made a spreadsheet which contained links to vendors, customer reviews and specs for each component mentioned above. But I did not find any way to copy the links here. If I attempted to insert each link, it would become very cumbersome (9*3=27+a few more)
 

Cilus

laborare est orare
After looking at your requirements, I would suggest you to get a AMD Phenom II X6 6 core or Bulldozer FX 8 core processors and get a better Graphics card as for 1080P games @ high setting HD 6870 isn't good enough now. The apps you have mentioned are highly multi-threaded and can use 6 to 8 cores. So Phenom II X6 or FX 8150/8120 are really bang for buck solution.

Here is my suggestion:

AMD FX 8150 (8 core, 3.6 GHz, total 16 MB Cache, unlocked) @ 11.91K
AMD FX 8150 Zambezi 3.6GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8150FRGUBOX
Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 @ 6.6K
G-skill RipjawX F3-12800CL9S-4GBXL 2X4GB @ 3.2K
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB @ 5.4K
Asus DRW-24B3ST Internal Optical Drive (Black) @ 1.135K
NZXT Source 210 Elite Mid Tower Cabinet 2.6K
BenQ G2220HDL 21.5" Full HD LED @ 7.5K
Seasonic S12II 520 520W 80+ Bronze PSU @ 3.9K
Gigabyte HD 7850 OC 2 GB GDDR5 @ 15.4K
 

RiGOD

SoLa BeLLaToR...
^^The above config is good. Trying to accommodate a better PSU by making slight changes.

Component Make Price
CPU AMD FX 8120 9400
Motherboard Gigabyte MGA-970A-UD3 6600
RAM 2xG.Skill Ripjaws 4GB DDR3 3100
GPU Gigabyte HD 7850 OC 15400
HDD WD Caviar Blue 500 GB 4100
Optical Drive Asus DRW-24B3ST 1135
Case NZXT Source 210 Elite 2400
PSU SeaSonic S12 II 620 4620
Monitor Benq G2222HDL 7500
Total 54255

If you're experiencing serious voltage fluctuations or power failures, I strongly suggest that you get atleast a 800VA UPS, that from reputed brands like APC or Numeric.
 

vkl

Cyborg Agent
@op
Go with the config suggested by Cilus.To accomodate an i5 2500k either you have to extend your budget or else would have to cut down on components like graphic card.
Better to go with the config suggested by cilus instead of cutting down on gfx card.

@RiGOD
It would be better if OP opts for fx8150 instead of fx8120 as there is a considerable gap in performance of the two processors.
 
OP
A

A.Dey

Right off the assembly line
After looking at your requirements, I would suggest you to get a AMD Phenom II X6 6 core or Bulldozer FX 8 core processors and get a better Graphics card as for 1080P games @ high setting HD 6870 isn't good enough now. The apps you have mentioned are highly multi-threaded and can use 6 to 8 cores. So Phenom II X6 or FX 8150/8120 are really bang for buck solution.

Here is my suggestion:

AMD FX 8150 (8 core, 3.6 GHz, total 16 MB Cache, unlocked) @ 11.91K
AMD FX 8150 Zambezi 3.6GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8150FRGUBOX
Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 @ 6.6K
G-skill RipjawX F3-12800CL9S-4GBXL 2X4GB @ 3.2K
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB @ 5.4K
Asus DRW-24B3ST Internal Optical Drive (Black) @ 1.135K
NZXT Source 210 Elite Mid Tower Cabinet 2.6K
BenQ G2220HDL 21.5" Full HD LED @ 7.5K
Seasonic S12II 520 520W 80+ Bronze PSU @ 3.9K
Gigabyte HD 7850 OC 2 GB GDDR5 @ 15.4K

Thanks for the quick response; however, I mentioned that I would like to construct the rig around i5 2500k.
Other than Matlab (which I use rarely), the other applications are not very multi-threaded ( For ETAP, a 4-bus, 4-feeders, or 8-bus, 12-feeders grid simulation runs smoothly in my ancient intel core 2 duo laptop; ACER Aspire 4710). For higher real world grid simulations (100-1000 buses), you would require server based work stations (running on Xeon) . So, forget the 4th application.
I also mentioned that I can go up to 55K; So how about I replace the GPU in my config. with HD 7850, other components remaining same; then how would be the rig?
Also, please tell me if I can use Philips 22 Inches Full HD LED 22PFL4556 Television (Philips 22 Inches Full HD LED 22PFL4556 Television | Television | Flipkart.com) as a full fledged monitor?
Please comment on the monitor, I selected; it's the only full HD monitor with HDMI at this range? Is there any issue with this Dell monitor? I could not find many reviews/info on the net.
 
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