So I've been thinking lately about building a gaming PC and I haven't built a computer in years because my primary machines are macs after my last pc had its head fall out its ass. I'm thinking along the lines of the following if its possible: i7 (idk lol..) 16GB of RAM 1x 256 SSD for Windows 1x 500 HDD for Hackintosh or Linux. 1x 2TB HDD for storage between the two OS's @ 7200rpm A decent graphics card that can run BF3, Skyrim maxed out without a hitch and hopefully wont be old news in a year. No water cooling (Am I being optimistic..?) And, well a motherboard that works with OSX, But I doubt anyone could help me with this. Not sure if you could call this a tall order or what, as I said I havent really done this in a while.
In my opinion as far as picking out components everything comes down to your budget even when building a hackintosh. With that said, your budget looks to be great based off the components that you mentioned. I am a certified computer technician & would be willing to help you as much as I can if you let me know how much you want to spend on everything. "Total" However, I do think you should look at... http://lifehacker.co...ng-a-hackintosh & http://www.hackint0sh.org/ to help you find more information about building a hackintosh. I am confident that between those two places you will find almost everything if not everything you want/need to know. I buy most of my components from Newegg / Newegg Business. The down side for me is that they charge tax in my state. "Tennessee" Sometimes the extra tax kills some of the deals you can find on FatWallet or SlickDeals. "They also charge tax in California & New Jersey." I also use PriceWatch & eBay from time to time however I will not buy from places/people I don't know unless they take PayPal. Anyway, If I can be of any more help please feel free to let me know. Thank You, Spencer
You don't need water cooling. Nobody needs water cooling. If you do need water cooling, it means you jumped the gun and bought a graphics card before it's technology was efficient enough for normal use. You can definitely get a graphics card that can do Skyrim and BF3 and be passively cooled. As for i7, don't do it. The difference between the i5 2500k and the i7 2600k is basically a slightly higher clock speed on the i7 and the i5 not being able to do hyperthreading. The latter bit is useful to almost no one, and certainly not a gamer. The i5 2500k is about the point where going any higher starts to diminish value for what you're paying. The RAM is also a tad overkill. I'd get a mobo with 4~ RAM slots and just fill two of them up with dual 4GB sticks. You'll be ready for a quick upgrade if you ever need it. Oh and one last thing. Get a nice PSU. That's important. Everything in your PC relies on the PSU. Higher wattage is better. Much better. http://tinyurl.com/falconguide That's the /g/entleman's guide. It's a good resource. Either use that to pick out parts from newegg, or find a reliable parts store in your city and get them to help you. I'm lucky enough to have several NCIX locations here.
Yeah most games are GPU-limited and not CPU-limited, you won't notice the benefit of the i7 family over the i5.
Regarding the difference between i7 and i5, anyone have any real world experience on a difference in PCSX2 or Dolphin performance comparison? I got PCSX2 running real nice on an i7 last summer, has made me want for one ever since, but if i5 is veritably the same even for emulation, I'd love to save myself a hundred bucks.
Well in general no. Some of the differences that used to exist may or may not with new models, the differences are a little flakey. Can't tell without the actual models.
Sandy bridge wasn't out last summer. The i7 you used is probably less powerful then the i5 2500k. The 2500k will do just fine for PC2X and Dolphin
Unless you're doing all that on a laptop. Then you'll need an entire freezer. I swear, laptops are the hottest things ever, besides pans on a stove.
What do you expect when you cram a powerful CPU (and GPU) in a tiny space with tiny heatsinks and virtually no airflow? BTW, I have water cooling for my CPU, in the form of the Corsair H60 cooler.
In NewZealand, i found that the 2600K was cheaper than the 2500k and ram only costs about 10$ a gig, however, unless you are hosting some server with 10+ clients, you dont need more than 8 gigs of ram.
No, it was a 2600K. It was available in August. I'd still like to hear if anyone has compared the i7 2600K with any Sandy bridge i5's. For emulation, specifically.
The only difference between the two is a 100MHz clock speed difference (Try overclocking if you really care), and the i5 is gimped out of hyperthreading. You can read up on hyperthreading if you want, but the long and the short of it is that it really won't help emulation or gaming at all. So go for the 2600k... if you can't keep your money in your pockets. Hell, the Ivy bridge series hits really soon. There is no bloody point in buying the very best in a line that will shortly be out dated. Edit: Yeah I was wrong about the Sandy bridge thing. Sorry bout that.
Hey one motherboard that I know of that works with mac is the Gigabyte UD3H-B3, real great board, lots of features, great price too. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128498
