Updated: The best high-end gaming PC you can build today

Adrian Rundle
03 April 2012, 1:00 PM


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Want to game with the best of them? This rig offers the best performance you can get in a gaming PC, but it'll cost you.


This machine will play everything on the market today at its highest detail level, at your monitor's highest resolution and with a frame rate that will have your friends offering you money to have a go.
 

Core System: $3,349


CPU: Intel Sandy Bridge Core i7 2600K - $340

    

The 2600K is a well-known favourite in the gaming world, with performance numbers unmatched by any AMD CPU on the market today. This little powerhouse also has the proven ability to reach a 5GHz real-world overclock. Until now this was pretty much unheard of. Now, not all CPUs are going to reach these sort of speeds unfortunately, but this system has had parts chosen to give you the best possible chance of getting there. A 4.5GHz OC would be recommended for everyday use.

NEW -- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H - $219



Intel’s newest s/1155 chipset, and from all reports it's a little faster and has slightly better power efficiency.  Wouldn’t go so far as to recommend you go out and replace your Z68 board with a Z77 board, but if you had the choice between the two, grab the new one. It also fully supports the new Ivy Bridge chip tipped for release very soon.

NEW -- Video cards: 2x HIS HD7970 ($629 each) - $1,258 total



That does seem like a lot of money, but you'll be running BF3 at 60fps running ultra settings at 5,670 x 1,080 over three screens! Simply awesome. Unlike the older Radeon cards, the new 7xxx card scale as well in Xfire as Nvidia cards do in SLI. What does that mean? Well, with SLI 2x Nvidia cards, you will usually get almost a 100% increase in frame rate (so it nearly doubles). Until now, running a card in Xfire would maybe give you a 75% gain, and less again when you add a third. Benchmarks are showing that the gains in Xfire are now more linear and closer to 100%, just like SLI.

Cooler: Custom water-cooling setup - $369

(See notes below for a complete list and breakdown of parts.) This is primarily a Koolance-based setup, and basically a mirror of my own personal water-cooling setup. I can tell you with my 2,500K 4.3GHz at 75% load (playing BF3), the CPU sits at about 5 degrees above the in-case ambient temp. For more detail, please read below.

RAM: Corsair Dominator GT 8GB (2x 4GB) 1,866MHz - $170



8GB is enough for any gaming system, but there is room to add more if you feel so inclined. The Corsair set will handle this system's intended overclock, and will take a good dose of voltage as well as having tight timings. It is also one of the few sets of RAM available that's had a water-cooling blow developed for it. The little red heatsinks detach, and block bolts to the top. Tricky stuff.

HDD/SSD: 2x Corsair Force Series GT 120GB SSD ($220 each) - $440 total



Drives set up in RAID0 (stripe array) to maximise performance. The Corsair Force GT series have to be the fastest SSDs on the market at the moment, running the fabled SandForce controller and having typical Corsair quality. I personally haven't seen any stories revolving around these being unstable drives (some other SandForce drives will crash and glitch if left for a longer than a 48-hour period), so Corsair must have really worked on their firmware.
 

Optical drive: LG CH12LS28 12X BD-R Blu-ray DVD Combo Drive - $89



I know you don't need one now, but isn't it only a matter of time before games start to ship on Blu-ray? I mean, Star Wars the Old Republic is pushing the 40GB limit, RAGE is supposed to be 25GB+ installed...  so isn't this the next evolutionary step? Besides, they are only $90. It'd cost you that much in labour to get the drive fitted if you can't do it yourself at a later date.

PSU: Enermax Revolution 87+ 1000W 80Plus Gold - $319



Enermax have been around for a long time, and if you haven't heard the name, you should look them up. Their PSUs are well known for their reliability and longevity (I have a 600w running a backup server somewhere, and it's pushing eight years old), and the Revolution 87+ line's the most efficient on the market, with 1,000w listed running 87-93% efficiency at 20-100% load.

Case: Fractal Design ARC Midi case - $145



This has to be one of the best layouts for a "budget" case I have had the pleasure to work on. In fact, I liked it so much, I bought one myself. There's a good 25mm between the motherboard tray and the side panel, room enough to hide all the unused cables on a non-modular PSU (not an issue here), easy-to-clean foam filters, 8x HDD slots (where each will cater for an SSD), but the best part of this case is the cooling. They ship with 3x 14cm fans and a fan controller, but Fractal has made provision specifically for a 2x 12cm radiator on the top of the case. This is offset as well, so unlike other cases, motherboard clearance is not an issue, even with a super deep rad. The only downside is it's only got 2x 5.25in drive bays. Most won't find this an issue, but if you want to run an in-bay reservoir, single bay reservoirs are a little hard to find (unless you don't want to use an optical drive).

Core system cost - $3,349


Water-cooling system - $369

There is nothing available “off the shelf” that would come close to cooling the above system properly. It’s an expensive setup, and this "budget" custom water-cooling loop will keep it all nice and cool. Parts list follows:
 

CPU Waterblock: Koolance CPU-370 - $85



The CPU-370 is pretty much the best CPU water block on the market. It’s also possibly the best looking. It ships with a set of impingement plates to fine-tune the flow of water in the system, meaning you can find the best trade-off of flow and pressure.

Pump/Reservoir: Koolance TNK400 (includes PMP-400 DDC pump) - $145



This all-in-one unit (pump, custom pump top and res) simplifies your setup immensely. The DDC pump is a very small, quiet unit, and with the acrylic res, you can see if the system needs a top-up, or how much air is in the system during the bleeding process.

Radiators: XSPC EX240 2x120mm fan radiator - $50



An extremely well-priced and well-built unit, the EX240 2x12cm radiator, "designed and optimized for low speed fans, so it can offer high performance cooling at very low noise levels". So even though it's a high-performance overclocked system, running this rad with the below fans will mean a very quiet system.

Fans: 2x Enermax Twister Bearing Silence 120mm PWM Fan ($19 each) - $38



These Enermax fans move a lot of air and are also PWM, so they can be run easily off the motherboard's fan controller. They are also modular, for easy cleaning.

Fittings, Hoses and Mounting hardware:

6x Bard Fittings, 3/8" ID ($5 each) - $30
4x Primoflex Clear 3/8ID 5/8OD ($3.50 per 30cm) - $14
1x 25mm Radiator Mount kit - $6
Hand full of ZIP ties - $1



Unlike the more expensive compression fittings that have a cover that screws down and seals over the barb, plain barb fittings are substantially cheaper, and if used correctly shouldn't leak. They don't look as good, but they are half the price. The Fan Mount kit screws posts into the radiator that the fans drop into and fastens to the case with a nut. This makes mounting a very easy process, especially for the ARC case.




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Wayfarer (New user):

What is with this need for constant water cooling pc's? It's just not necessary with today's pc tech unless you're over clocking to some absolutely stupid degree or live on the sun!

09 March 2012, 6:55 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Tin (User):

Quoting Wayfarer:
It's just not necessary with today's pc tech unless you're over clocking to some absolutely stupid degree or live on the sun!


Ummm - and perhaps people ARE overclocking...

11 March 2012, 12:52 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (User):

More than anything else, noise level. These things are dead quiet. Even @ overclocked levels.

AND yeah, these are build for over clocking. After all the dicussions on this site reg Overclocking, everything i've posted on here has been built to give that option if required.

water cooling is from what i can tell, the recomended setup for the new 2011 cpu's anyway

11 March 2012, 1:55 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Tin (User):

Quoting ss-rotel:
More than anything else, noise level. These things are dead quiet.

Yeah - assuming you get the right stuff. The 12cm Sunon fan I'm using is a big air mover, but it also has always made a terrible whining noise (much louder than the air flow noise).

11 March 2012, 9:13 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (User):

Quoting Tin:
The 12cm Sunon fan I'm using is a big air mover, but it also has always made a terrible whining noise


well... who's faults that? :P

These enemax fans are pretty quiet... even with everything turned up to 11 my setup's noisiest feature is this little bubble of air trapped in the top of my res, (the cap is hollow, so topped up to overflowing, i still get this lil bubble...), sounds like a fish tank... :)

12 March 2012, 1:23 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Tin (User):

Quoting ss-rotel:
my setup's noisiest feature is this little bubble of air trapped in the top of my res sounds like a fish tank

That wouldn't worry me - computer is on the left of the monitor, fish tank on the right :P

12 March 2012, 8:21 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Chris.Lampard (User):

Your case choice for both gaming pc's is a let down to say the least.... no gamer i know would use these boring things mate i know you'd be trying you can customise them and you would have used them to keep cost down for the other components but seriously there boring.

Chris.

10 March 2012, 1:25 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (User):

sure, i was going from a builder point of view, and this machine is a real builders case

alot of these funky looking ones are a little hard to work on. i built a machine for a mate last weekend using a new TT case, and it looked trick, but it was horrible to build the machine..

anyway CASE is a personal choice, so feel free to pick something else.

Just make sure if you DO use the water cooling setup posted here, that you allow for a 2x12cm rad. some cases DONT have this, instead they have a 20cm fan @ The top. you'd need to modify the case to make it fit

11 March 2012, 1:59 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Chris.Lampard (User):

Yeah i figured it was just a base the price range allows for a few cool case options either way just the big photo of the story looked so bland.

You also have to remember alot of these guys will never move the cabling once run mate there not upgrade-aholics like us haha. Maybe in 3 - 4 years time and normally its just a gfx card swap so cables stay anyways.

Just what i have noticed anyways. I mean a gaming case needs a window though in my opinion and also normally at least 1 lit fan normally signifies a gaming case PC for me well upon first look inspection can be different i spose its just the stereotype i have in my head.

Chris.

12 March 2012, 6:42 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Chris.Lampard (User):

From a builders POV they are gold but gaming wise i need a window and at least 1 light up fan to signify it as a gaming PC in my eyes anyways.

Chris.

12 March 2012, 6:43 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Chris.Lampard (User):

Wanna test out one of those GT drives against the MAX IOPS i got be a good match up i reckon and they MX has been reliable as 144hour plus system up time etc.

Chris.

12 March 2012, 6:45 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Chris.Lampard (User):

Wayfarer im a fan of the Closed loop off the shelf systems starting from $80 through to $160 my picks the Corsair H100 with 4 x CoolerMaster Excalibur's for a Push - Pull config.

Chris.

12 March 2012, 6:47 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (User):

Quoting Chris.Lampard:
the Corsair H100 with 4 x CoolerMaster Excalibur's for a Push - Pull config


really? these things have the smallest pump, which is build ontop of the heatsink, which must get hot, which is bad.

This is the biggest reason i wouldn't buy one... there is nothing to say how long these pumps have been tested for, and how well these little hoses they use in these closed loops will handle expansion.

if the pump dies, CPU overheating it the least of your worries, cos if the water in the system boils, the pipes will burst.

all the WC gear i've mentioned on these builds have featured pipe with a 1/4 inch think wall, (6.4mm), and are unlikely to burst.

The above to save $$$ i've used barb fittings, but if you use compression types, you'd not have to worry about it bursting off the fitting as much.

that said, there's nothing stopping any system once the pump dies and the water hits 100deg, the hoses bursting, but it's less likley to do so with this thick wall hose @ 70-95

anyway... i've had my system on pretty much every day since it was built, (not 24/7 but a good stint each time, and that's easy 6 months now), and i might have lost 5ml since i set it up? and i'm putting that down to tiny air bubbles trapped in the system, i dont have clear tube, so i couldn't see, but after setting up a mates watercooling gear, (pretty much identical to the extreme system), air seems to get stuck on the walls of the hose, in his system at least



13 March 2012, 10:23 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Chris.Lampard (User):

Well from my experience with a cheaper brand CoolIT it did bust a seam seal on the pipe which was a forum recorded fault however upon losing compression in the system it wouldn't boot. My pc would boot and then shutdown and beep so i know im pretty set for not overheating a cpu if there is a failure.

And also the non conductive fluid is quite safe on graphics cards i know this personally :) in a bad way but rectified that with a Corsair system end seals are much stronger.

And last of all the hoses shouldn't expand more than 3mm as they are corrugated inside the rubber exterior which triples the strength of the tubing. My CoolIT unit has bare hoses and the corrugation is quite clear.

Please let them know what happens if there is too much air in their system also rotel as the systems i mentioned require no filling and are no mess and also the unit has a 3 year warranty meaning its at least good for 3 years if not you'll get a replacement no questions asked either way.

Also the reason the H100 was my choice is the huge surface area on offer with the ease of set up, also the only thing i have read bad about the H100's was a batch that had failed fan controllers other than that the forums were nice.

Chris.

16 March 2012, 7:51 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (User):

Quoting Chris.Lampard:
Please let them know what happens if there is too much air in their system also rotel as the systems i mentioned require no filling and are no mess and also the unit has a 3 year warranty meaning its at least good for 3 years if not you'll get a replacement no questions asked either way.


OK, air in the system is only an issue if it get's stuck in the system, stopping water flowing in a specific part, or if it gets' soo low that the pump has no water in the chamber and is churning air.

The 2 pumps that are mostly used, (DDC and D5 style), will die quickly if they are on with no water in the pump chamber.

I will admit that these sealed units have merit, if they didn't work, they wouldn't sell, and would no longer be on the market.

but if you look up some of the reviews, i've found most of these systems are any more effecient then a good air cooler.

hey... i like full custom thing. it is not for the non-tech savy by any means. Until recently, none of this water cooling stuff was any good unless you went full custom.

you said so yourself, that coolit system wasn't really any good, and @ the time these started showing up, they weren't any more effecint or quiter then air cooling.

like i said, i like the whole custom thing, and there's some really cool stuff available.

27 March 2012, 8:49 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Chris.Lampard (User):

Yeah and i admitted its one downfall however the replacement unit hasn't reared its head at all and was readily replaced i did noticed the seal's were a different colour on the new unit and the texture was also smoother so i'd assume it was rectified.

You should do a equivalent closed loop setup with your custom setup like your doing with the SSD/HDD.

Chris.

03 April 2012, 7:56 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (User):

Quoting Chris.Lampard:
You should do a equivalent closed loop setup with your custom setup like your doing with the SSD/HDD.


Can't. Cost difference. i can with the drives cos they cost the same.

@ The end of the day. My setup is @ the higher end of the scale, and if it's too much, get something else. it can only save you money, right?

Quoting Chris.Lampard:
i did noticed the seal's were a different colour on the new unit and the texture was also smoother so i'd assume it was rectified.


There are heaps of different seal materials, infact, i can get "upgrade seal kits" for these sort of setups... but they are mostly just UV reative.

03 April 2012, 9:32 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Jo3y (New user):

*

03 April 2012, 2:01 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Jo3y (New user):

This build is so overkill it isn't funny and money is wasted left and right in areas better spent elsewhere!

For example the expensive ram? You can get a 2x4gb kit of 2133mhz g.skill for about $80 and clock it to the corsair speeds and tighten the timings, and then wasting over $300 for roughly a 4.5ghz OC when you can easily do 4.2ghz on air for over $200 cheaper?

And then you put it all into a budget case that doesnt won't even have enough spare bays for a nice fan controller setup & hard drivers down the track.

Just doesn't make sense.

03 April 2012, 2:08 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (User):

Unfortunately, i have to keep to an avareage price per part, not the cheapest street price. This ram is about $120 if you look. Of corse there are other brands that we could have considered, but this cosair ram is the most reliable when it comes to this sort of overclocking

I've had my run of g-skill ram, and in all honesty, NONE of the packs i have bought have lasted anywere near as long as the corsair ram i still own and use.

The other thing is this system was designed to be the optimum Built-it-your-self system. This case is VERY Easy to work on, and has 8x 3.5inch harddrive and 2x 5.25 bays, were each of the of the HDD brackets have 2.5inch mounting for SSDs.

This case was also designed specifially for the sort of raditator setup taht i have designed here. I ask you, have you actually had a look @ this case? it's not sexy looking like some of the more expensive cases, but it's layout is better than most cases 50% the price again.

AND sure, you can acheived VERY GOOD air cooled setups, and if you read some of my posts, my arguement is the same as yours, BUT they aren't quiet. I have a modified noctua setup that would cool as well as this, @ 1/2 the price personally, BUT it's 3-4time louder.

This setup, apart from the video cards, is a mirror of my own, so i can actually atest to the ease of build AND how quiet and effcient the setup actually is. 2500K @ 4.3ghz, underload, not more then 5deg C hotter then the ambient case temp.

and pretty much dead quiet, without the need for a fan controller.

03 April 2012, 8:29 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

John in Brisbane (User):

Super build! Although I'm disappointed you didn't spec it with a motorcycle radiator :)

I like the case choice a lot - it's low key and addresses exactly the problems I've had jamming hi-po stuff into cases.

Also happy with the price range of the mobo - if it gets the numbers, no need to spend $500+.

04 April 2012, 3:49 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (User):

Quoting John in Brisbane:
Super build! Although I'm disappointed you didn't spec it with a motorcycle radiator :)


you know... my very first watercooling build used one :) that was a long time ago, managed to get it to fit in the front of one of the orinigal Thermal Take Armour cases, will all custom CnC'd copper blocks and a huge ehiem pump for a fish tank.

Called an AMD s/754 XP3200+ engineer's sample @ 3ghz Was an impressive bit of kit back in the day... was also REALLY HEAVY. sysmtem pushed 50kg.

04 April 2012, 11:26 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

E-Dizzel (New user):

I don't know much about computers. Just the basic of the basics but I really want a sick as computer to play games on that wont lag or take a long time to do what its meant to do, and that I can have this computer working grate for a long time. Do you's think I should look at getting this one or a lower preformed one ?

14 June 2012, 6:45 PM (11 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

E-Dizzel (New user):

I don't know much about computers. Just the basic of the basics but I really want a sick as computer to play games on that wont lag or take a long time to do what its meant to do, and that I can have this computer working grate for a long time. Do you's think I should look at getting this one or a lower preformed one ?

14 June 2012, 6:47 PM (11 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (User):

Honestly man, the cooler is a bit of an extravagance, but i am using pretty much the same thing on my rig, and it's awesome.

you could do the same thing with a Corsair H100 cooler, or if you're not going to over clock, swap the CPU out with the i7 3770K ivy bridge CPU, and stick with the stock cooler.

AND to answer your question, spend your budget. if you can afford something like the above, get it. the more you spend now, the less you spend later, or the longer the machine will last before the need to upgrade again

14 June 2012, 9:45 PM (11 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

WickedSanta (New user):

One thing that gets me in these high performance builds is, no one speaks about how much it cost to run these systems. Like in energy cost per hour or half hour. Nice reading over all and informative but let's be real here, eh!

17 April 2013, 5:48 AM (1 month ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

John in Brisbane (User):

It's not as bad as you might think. A gaming rig isn't running at full tilt all the time. CPUs and GPUs are good at varying power usage and id say the the average power usage would be no more than 300 to 400 watts. The costs can add up but computers are not like air conditioners where you will spend more on power than the initial purchase price.

17 April 2013, 7:44 AM (1 month ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

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