Gaming PC Advise Please

[Klingklang]

2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3820 (10M Cache, Overclocked up to 4.1 GHz)
8GB (4 X 2GB) Quad Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 680 2GB GDDR5
Single Drive: Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BD-ROM, DVD±RW, CD-RW)
Creative Sound Blaster® Recon3D PCIe Audio Sound Card

I want to run these games:
Witcher 2
Civ 5
Sims 3
Dragon Age

Are these specs okay for that?
Thanks for your expertise

KK

[_I_]

for gaming get the i5 3570k
i7 if you need the ht (massive hd video editing, vms, photoshop, cad ect..)

make sure the ram kit is 1.5v
a 2x4g kit is better, 1155 only supports dual ch so a quad kit isnt needed

skip the bd drive unless you need it to play bd movies
cd/dvd drives are around $20

and the onboard sound cards work fine for most

[The Rock God]

I can only speak to Ci5, which would run pretty well on that. Depending on what size maps you want to play in Civ5, you may want to consider a 4GB 680. Huge maps can push RAM usage over 2GB. The OC will help turn times too. It's not a very well optimised game.

[bloodraven43]

stick with an i7 but get a z77 motherboard and a ivy cpu so you can utilize the pci-e 3.0 and intel smart response for a cache...alot of newer games use hyperthreading...plus the crap that runs in the backround while gaming is off loaded to your threads so your pc performs better.

[Klingklang]

Thanks- very handy advice

[_I_]

no current games use ht
and a quad is enough for game + windows background tasks

[..]

1. CPU is overkill. The i5-3570K is a fantastic gaming CPU.
2. Consider an HD 7970. Fantastic performance for quite a bit less $$$ than a GTX 680.

[bloodraven43]

@_I_ 20 minutes ago
no current games use ht
and a quad is enough for game + windows background tasks

there are many...one of these games is metro 2033 to be exact,,theres tons of them...and with hyperthreading you get 10-15 percent more fps...so a game at 48 fps will run at 59-60 fps constant and perform better.that no hyperthreading is bull...its been around since win xp

[[UFO] rad87gn]

There is no such thing as overkill CPU and i7's work just fine gaming. Unless you're on a tight budget go for an i7. That's what I did and I don't regret it.

[_I_]

spend $100 more for the i7 and gain 5fps in metro2033 and lose preformance in other games, or spend the extra $100 for a much better gpu

[Michael Murphy]

Publicado originalmente por Skittery Pete LaPubis:

1. CPU is overkill. The i5-3570K is a fantastic gaming CPU.
2. Consider an HD 7970. Fantastic performance for quite a bit less $$$ than a GTX 680.

Radeon HD 7950 is a better purchase than a 7970. 7970 is $100 more for only a minimal increase in performance (15%).

Furthermore, instead of a recon3d, if you are paying that much get a Sound Blaster Z.

[Klingklang]

This is an Alienware Aurora customized build - I did my best to fit the needs mentioned in my first post, and conserve money as much as possible
That model with all bells and whistles can run as much as 6-10 thousand

klingklang

[Trevor]

What is your mouther bourd I am just intrested how you got the I7 working becouse when I built mine you need 3 sticks of ram to get the I7 to run intel say and every one 3 stick of ram for I7 processorce.

[_I_]

oh
i7 3820 is socket 2011, and you got it from dell
im sorry, you paid way to much for a machine not designed for gaming

@trevor.shaw834 any system will work fine with 1 dimm (make sure its in slot 1a)
i5 (1155/1156/775) boards support dual channel ram and will work in single channel mode
1366 boards support tri channel (but its no faster than dual ch, but can be just as fast with 3 dimm configs)
2011 boards support quad ch (only shows slight impromvemnts vs dualch in benchmarks)

[Klingklang]

I don't know what motherboard it uses - information not given on the site

[Trevor]

I am talking about I7 not I5 lol and I know i5 you can run with 1 stick of ram. most moutherebourds manules tell you to run three stick of ram for I7 I know what I am talking about and thay tell you to stick it in a seakwinces.