Custom PC, right specs/hardware?

[deviddiya]

I'm putting together my own desktop for the first time, i have quite good hardware knowledge and have done a lot of research, but just wanted a second opinion before I spend lots of money.

Would this system work, are they're any improvements i could make without spending too much more?

CPU - Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge)
Motherboard - Gigabyte motherboard GA-Z68AP-D3 LGA1155
GPU - ASUS Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti
RAM - 4x4GB 240 Pin DDR3 PC3-10600 1333MHz
PSU - ATX 750W

Also how many/what type of fans/cooling do I need (my case already has 3 integrated fans, do I need more?)

[Ualaa]

I would move from an i5 2500K to an i7 2600K.
The difference in price is about $100 (~$300 instead of ~$200), but the four logical cores do make a fairly significant difference when 5-boxing.

The i5 (which I overclocked on air (Corsair A70 cooler) to 4.5ghz) was smooth for most normal play.
In 40-man battlegrounds, such as AV/IoC, it was definitely playable but not a smooth/enjoyable experience; I'd imagine that would be true for 25-man raids as well.
Stormwind and Orgrimmar were a similar experience -- playable, but not smooth.
Even doing 5-man content was not smooth (but was playable) while streaming; pvp was not enjoyable while streaming with the o/c i5.

Upgrading to an i7 2600K, was night and day.
The system (prior to overclocking) was much smoother, than the i5 was (regular or overclocked), whether in smaller content or larger.
Prior to getting the i7, I figured the i5 was fine (it was a fairly significant improvement over my i7 920)...
After getting the i7, I cannot recommend anyone go with an i5 if boxing.

And the i7 overclocks as easily as the i5, if you want to go that route.
My 4.5ghz (on air) is a very conservative overclock which raises average CPU temperature under load from 40c to 60c (ambient temperature 25c).
The newer CPU's will auto shut-down, somewhere around 105c to prevent damage from overheating.

At stock speeds, the stock cooler will be fine.
If you want to overclock, I'd get an aftermarket cooler for the CPU; mine was $40, and I'm very happy with it.




16GB of ram is plenty.
For a 5-box, 8GB with 100+ addons per toon runs me around 7GB of ram used, which includes 15 tabs of Firefox, iTunes, Xsplit broadcasters, etc also running.




What is the memory on the 550 Ti?
A 1GB card, will need to run Direct X 9.0.
A card with more than 1.25GB of ram, will be able to use DX 11, with Warcraft.

DX 11 has some advantages, which if you have the requisite video ram, results in better eye-candy and some aspects being a bit smoother.
Overall, if your card has the ram you'd want to use DX11, but DX9 is quite fine too (I'm using DX9, on a 1GB GTX570).




The only improvement I'd go with, is putting Warcraft on a low end SSD drive.
Literally any SSD, purely as a gaming folder, will be a major improvement while in cities (because armor/weapon textures are constantly loading as people log in, move nearby etc)...
You'd only want a good SSD, if you're putting the operating system on it.

[kasper3577]

I agree with Ualaa, the i7 is far better for gaming. It is worth the extra $100.

If boxing, I would recommend getting a 560 GTX or 560 Ti over the 550...I am running a single 560 GTX on 5 boxing with no issues at max resolution of 1920x1080 on all 5 wow's. I generally get around 200 fps on each wow, cept in a few places like sw where half a million level 85's camp out all day and night. I know I could turn down the graphics level, but there is the only place I have any issues.

For the ram, 8 gigs is plenty, most people will never use more than that unless they are streaming, recording, processing videos, and 5-boxing all at the same time.

For the power supply, you really only need one that is large enough to run your graphics card...just make sure that the amperage on the psu is larger than the minimum for your gpu...double the amps is a bad thing too though, as it creates unnecessary heat on the gpu. But double the amps is a good thing if you have two cards. Basic idea is if one card says you need a minimum of 30 amps for a 560 GTX, try to find a psu that has between 36-50 amps on the 12v1 rail for single rails, or 12v2 for double rail psu's.

One last thing I have to recommend...a sealed water cooler for your cpu will help you overclock and stay cool. I have the antec 620 cooler on my i7 2600K and at stock it normally stays below 20 Degrees Celsius with all 5 wow's running(normally sits between 18C and 24C). With an air cooler, I think it was up around 35-40C, at stock speeds.

I agree with the low end SSD too, been looking at getting me a sata 3 30-60GB one lately. I am running sata 2 7200 RPM drives at the moment, and data transfer isn't slow, but it is no where near the 400+ MB/s a SSD can do.

[Tim]

I've heard some really good things about the sealed water cooler for your CPU. I personally have an i7 980 extreme that runs on a massive heatsink w/fan (fan is broke, lol) and maxed it is around 38*C. I've seen the exact same CPU running @ 18-20*C with that antec sealed cooler. One thing though: GET HIGH END THERMAL PASTE! Instead of spending $3, spend $15, get the best kind, it makes an abolutely girnormous difference (from 40* to 20* can often happen).

I personally strongly prefer one ultra high end GPU versus 2x lower ones.

Oh, about RAM, get a lot. As much as you can get. You'll use it some day and it is cheap! I love having a billion programs open at once and not having to close them. 24G of ram, even 32G, is super cheap these days.