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Message
re: Build the Best Gaming PC Your Money Can Buy: A Detailed Guide (Updated Sep 2014)
Posted on 9/29/13 at 2:12 am to ILikeLSUToo
Posted on 9/29/13 at 2:12 am to ILikeLSUToo
------------------------
++++ALERT: You are reading an out-of-date version of the guide and wasting your time. Read the PDF for the most accurate up-to-date info.It's best to download the PDF and use a proper PDF reader. Google's formatting of PDFs breaks all of the links. Link to directly download the PDF. I have stopped updating the text in the thread because the forum's limited code makes it far too time-consuming to change images and add text.++++
------------------------
====Northbridge and Southbridge (Chipset)====
The Northbridge is the chip that generally regulated crucial functions/components such as the CPU, memory, PCIe, and front-side bus (the pathway that connects the CPU to your other components). The Southbridge is a slower chip that interfaces with the Northbridge and handles basic input/output functions such as USB, audio, regular PCI bus, Ethernet, and others. Nowadays, many of the Northbridge controls have migrated to the CPU, and Southbridge chips have been removed, integrated, or renamed/reconfigured. For example, Intel CPUs now have an integrated memory controller and PCIe controller that comprise an integrated Northbridge chip. AMD CPUs also have integrated memory controllers, but still rely on a Northbridge for PCIe functions.
The functions traditionally provided by the Northbridge and Southbridge chips are now more commonly referred to as the chipset. Given the role that the chipset plays in regulating your hardware, it’s important to make the right choice (if the CPU is the brain of your PC, the chipset is the spine). There are multiple chipsets available for each socket, but the choice is easy for a gaming PC, as I’ll explain below.
###Intel Socket 1150 and Socket 1155 Chipsets###
The desirable chipsets for Socket 1150 and 1155 are Z87 and Z77 respectively. Here’s why:
> Full overclocking support for unlocked CPUs – you’re going to want this when you decide to learn about overclocking.
> Support for SLI/Crossfire – later down the road as games evolve and become more demanding, adding a second graphics card is an easy, cost-effective performance boost. You’ll need a chipset that supports it.
> More SATA 6 GB/s ports and USB 3.0 ports – not quite as important, but nice to have the extra ports for possible expansion later on.
> 2 DIMMs per memory channel – most, but not all, of the chipsets support this, but it’s handy to be able to run up to four sticks of RAM in dual channel, so you can later add more RAM by simply adding two more sticks of what you already have, rather than having to replace them.
There are several more things unique to the Z-series chipsets, but the above features are the ones you’re most likely to care about. The other available chipsets (H87/H77, B85/B75, and more) lack one or more of the above features and are generally more suitable for HTPCs and budget home/office systems.
And if you’re wondering, the main difference between Z77 and the Z87 is that Z87 supports more native SATA 6GB/s ports (more on that later) and more USB 3.0 ports. This shouldn’t influence your decision, because the two chipsets support entirely different CPUs. If you want an i5-3570K, you’ll be using a Z77 socket 1155 motherboard, and 4670K CPUs will use a Z87 socket 1150 board.
###Intel Socket 2011 Chipset###
Intel’s enthusiast/extreme platform currently uses the X79 chipset, which has similar features to Z77—the key differences being PCIe lanes and quad-channel memory (more on those later).
###AMD Socket AM3+ Chipsets###
One great thing about AMD is backwards compatibility. They stick with the same socket for a long time, and bios updates allow today’s AMD CPUs to work with chipsets that were released years ago. In fact, Some of the older AM3 (non-AM3+) chips are able to run on AM2+ motherboards with a proper bios update, and likewise for AM3+ chips and AM3 boards, provided the boards can handle the current. With careful attention to detail, AMD makes it possible to build a competent gaming PC at very low budgets. But for an inexperienced builder, it could be more headache than it’s worth, and you run the risk of selecting a motherboard that’s “mechanically” compatible but cripples the performance of your CPU. We’ll keep it simple and somewhat painless by narrowing the choices to two chipsets:
990FX and 970
The 990FX is AMD’s “top” chipset. It has the highest level of support for SLI/Crossfire (PCIe 2.0 x16/x16) and overclocking. The 970, on the other hand, is a slightly more budget-oriented chipset. Most of them don’t support crossfire/SLI, but there are a few that support a PCIe 2.0 x8/x8 configuration, which would give slightly reduced performance over x16/x16 but still viable. Overclocking performance on the 970 chipset, as far as I’ve read, is not as good as a 990FX, likely due to the quality of the voltage regulator circuit design and other components being scaled down to cut costs. In fact, there are a few 970 boards that only support 95W TDP CPUs (i.e., FX-6300, 4300, 6100, and 4100). The differences in these two chipsets aren’t too big, but it’s generally a good idea to pair a 125W TDP CPU (the 8350 or 8320) with the higher-end chipset, especially if overclocking and/or planning to SLI/Crossfire in the future.
====SATA Ports====
Serial Advance Technology Attachment (SATA) is the modern interface used to connect your internal drives (hard drives, solid state drives, and optical drives). There are several types (revisions) of SATA ports, the main difference being transfer speed. Today’s motherboards include a mixture of SATA 3Gbps and SATA 6Gbps ports, explained below:
====SATA 3Gbps (SATA Revision 2.0)====
This SATA revision has an advertised max throughput of 3.0 gigabits per second (Gbps). Note, this is a bit, not a byte—similar to the way your Internet download speed is advertised. There are 8 bits in a byte, so an Internet download speed of 12Mbps has a max download rate of 1.5 megabytes per second (MB/s). But to further complicate things, serial protocols like SATA use a type of wire encoding called 10b8b that essentially means only 80% of the bitrate is devoted to actual data throughput—in other words, the actual max throughput of SATA 3Gbps is 300 MB/s. If you want to read the geeky details about this, have at it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8b/10b_encoding
++++ALERT: You are reading an out-of-date version of the guide and wasting your time. Read the PDF for the most accurate up-to-date info.It's best to download the PDF and use a proper PDF reader. Google's formatting of PDFs breaks all of the links. Link to directly download the PDF. I have stopped updating the text in the thread because the forum's limited code makes it far too time-consuming to change images and add text.++++
------------------------
====Northbridge and Southbridge (Chipset)====
The Northbridge is the chip that generally regulated crucial functions/components such as the CPU, memory, PCIe, and front-side bus (the pathway that connects the CPU to your other components). The Southbridge is a slower chip that interfaces with the Northbridge and handles basic input/output functions such as USB, audio, regular PCI bus, Ethernet, and others. Nowadays, many of the Northbridge controls have migrated to the CPU, and Southbridge chips have been removed, integrated, or renamed/reconfigured. For example, Intel CPUs now have an integrated memory controller and PCIe controller that comprise an integrated Northbridge chip. AMD CPUs also have integrated memory controllers, but still rely on a Northbridge for PCIe functions.
The functions traditionally provided by the Northbridge and Southbridge chips are now more commonly referred to as the chipset. Given the role that the chipset plays in regulating your hardware, it’s important to make the right choice (if the CPU is the brain of your PC, the chipset is the spine). There are multiple chipsets available for each socket, but the choice is easy for a gaming PC, as I’ll explain below.
###Intel Socket 1150 and Socket 1155 Chipsets###
The desirable chipsets for Socket 1150 and 1155 are Z87 and Z77 respectively. Here’s why:
> Full overclocking support for unlocked CPUs – you’re going to want this when you decide to learn about overclocking.
> Support for SLI/Crossfire – later down the road as games evolve and become more demanding, adding a second graphics card is an easy, cost-effective performance boost. You’ll need a chipset that supports it.
> More SATA 6 GB/s ports and USB 3.0 ports – not quite as important, but nice to have the extra ports for possible expansion later on.
> 2 DIMMs per memory channel – most, but not all, of the chipsets support this, but it’s handy to be able to run up to four sticks of RAM in dual channel, so you can later add more RAM by simply adding two more sticks of what you already have, rather than having to replace them.
There are several more things unique to the Z-series chipsets, but the above features are the ones you’re most likely to care about. The other available chipsets (H87/H77, B85/B75, and more) lack one or more of the above features and are generally more suitable for HTPCs and budget home/office systems.
And if you’re wondering, the main difference between Z77 and the Z87 is that Z87 supports more native SATA 6GB/s ports (more on that later) and more USB 3.0 ports. This shouldn’t influence your decision, because the two chipsets support entirely different CPUs. If you want an i5-3570K, you’ll be using a Z77 socket 1155 motherboard, and 4670K CPUs will use a Z87 socket 1150 board.
###Intel Socket 2011 Chipset###
Intel’s enthusiast/extreme platform currently uses the X79 chipset, which has similar features to Z77—the key differences being PCIe lanes and quad-channel memory (more on those later).
###AMD Socket AM3+ Chipsets###
One great thing about AMD is backwards compatibility. They stick with the same socket for a long time, and bios updates allow today’s AMD CPUs to work with chipsets that were released years ago. In fact, Some of the older AM3 (non-AM3+) chips are able to run on AM2+ motherboards with a proper bios update, and likewise for AM3+ chips and AM3 boards, provided the boards can handle the current. With careful attention to detail, AMD makes it possible to build a competent gaming PC at very low budgets. But for an inexperienced builder, it could be more headache than it’s worth, and you run the risk of selecting a motherboard that’s “mechanically” compatible but cripples the performance of your CPU. We’ll keep it simple and somewhat painless by narrowing the choices to two chipsets:
990FX and 970
The 990FX is AMD’s “top” chipset. It has the highest level of support for SLI/Crossfire (PCIe 2.0 x16/x16) and overclocking. The 970, on the other hand, is a slightly more budget-oriented chipset. Most of them don’t support crossfire/SLI, but there are a few that support a PCIe 2.0 x8/x8 configuration, which would give slightly reduced performance over x16/x16 but still viable. Overclocking performance on the 970 chipset, as far as I’ve read, is not as good as a 990FX, likely due to the quality of the voltage regulator circuit design and other components being scaled down to cut costs. In fact, there are a few 970 boards that only support 95W TDP CPUs (i.e., FX-6300, 4300, 6100, and 4100). The differences in these two chipsets aren’t too big, but it’s generally a good idea to pair a 125W TDP CPU (the 8350 or 8320) with the higher-end chipset, especially if overclocking and/or planning to SLI/Crossfire in the future.
====SATA Ports====
Serial Advance Technology Attachment (SATA) is the modern interface used to connect your internal drives (hard drives, solid state drives, and optical drives). There are several types (revisions) of SATA ports, the main difference being transfer speed. Today’s motherboards include a mixture of SATA 3Gbps and SATA 6Gbps ports, explained below:
====SATA 3Gbps (SATA Revision 2.0)====
This SATA revision has an advertised max throughput of 3.0 gigabits per second (Gbps). Note, this is a bit, not a byte—similar to the way your Internet download speed is advertised. There are 8 bits in a byte, so an Internet download speed of 12Mbps has a max download rate of 1.5 megabytes per second (MB/s). But to further complicate things, serial protocols like SATA use a type of wire encoding called 10b8b that essentially means only 80% of the bitrate is devoted to actual data throughput—in other words, the actual max throughput of SATA 3Gbps is 300 MB/s. If you want to read the geeky details about this, have at it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8b/10b_encoding
This post was edited on 3/20/14 at 3:35 pm
1
Posted on 9/29/13 at 2:12 am to ILikeLSUToo
------------------------
++++ALERT: You are reading an out-of-date version of the guide and wasting your time. Read the PDF for the most accurate up-to-date info.It's best to download the PDF and use a proper PDF reader. Google's formatting of PDFs breaks all of the links. Link to directly download the PDF. I have stopped updating the text in the thread because the forum's limited code makes it far too time-consuming to change images and add text.++++
------------------------
###SATA 6Gbps (SATA Revision 3.0)###
SATA 6Gbps has an advertised throughput of 6.0Gbps—or 600 MB/s, by the definition stated above. As I stated in the discussion of chipsets, the number of native SATA 6Gbps ports on the motherboard will vary depending on the chipset. By native, I mean the ports that are actually supported and controlled by the chipset. However, motherboard manufacturers often include additional SATA 6Gbps ports using a different onboard controller—thus, non-native. A general rule of thumb is that the non-native ports will have slightly lower performance than native. While the theoretical throughput is the same, the way the controllers handle an individual storage device will vary.
More on that here: LINK
Typical array of SATA ports on a Z77 chipset motherboard.
Keep in mind that these advertised speeds have very little to do with the performance you’ll get from a particular hard drive. They really only indicate how fast data travels from your hard drive’s cache to the computer’s interface. In reality, this speed is heavily bottlenecked by how quickly the drive can actually access that data before it’s transferred, as well as how quickly a drive can write the new data on the other end for data transfers. Even taking SATA speed ratings out of the equation, the slower of the two drives in a data transfer will always be the bottleneck. At this point, there is no 7200 RPM hard drive that will even take advantage of SATA 3Gbps speeds, let alone SATA 6Gbps. This will be explained further in the Storage Drive section.
The number of SATA 6Gbps ports available should only be a consideration if you are trying to run multiple solid state drives in a high-end system. Pretty much any ATX motherboard is going to have at least 2 native SATA 6Gbps ports, and usually more. You’ll have more than you need for the builds discussed here. In fact, if you go with a 990FX, 970, or Z87 motherboard, you’ll have up to 6 native 6Gbps ports at your disposal, further bringing this whole discussion into “non-issue” status. But now you know why.
====Common Integrated Peripherals====
###Audio###
Today’s motherboards are going to have at least 8-channel audio. Most people use a 2.1-channel speaker setup or headphones. Personally, I use a 5.1-channel speaker setup when I’m not using headphones. You can do any of these with any of the audio solutions available on all of the chipsets we’ve mentioned above. Motherboard makers choose different codecs for their onboard audio chips (various revisions of Realtek chips are most common), and they largely all sound the same to most people. If you are an audiophile, you likely already have some general working knowledge of sampling rates, input/output resolutions, and the like. If so, your money and time would be better spent finding a suitable sound card rather than choosing a motherboard based on its onboard sound quality.
###Ethernet / Integrated Network Interface Card (NIC)###
Not much to say about this without getting overly detailed about networking, broadband, ping, and so on. Any modern motherboard worth buying will have a Gigabit Ethernet port powered by some company’s chip, be it Intel, Realtek, Broadcom, Qualcomm, and so on. Some are “better” than others, much like the onboard audio solutions out there. Most people use the integrated NIC, including myself, but there are plenty of dedicated cards out there if you want to do the research. I’ll just leave it at that.
###Universal Serial Bus (USB) Ports###
USB Ports are also a non-issue. The motherboards you’ll be using in a modern gaming build will have plenty of USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports at your disposal. In case you didn’t know, USB 2.0 has a max throughput of 35 MB/s, while USB 3.0 has a max throughput of around 400 MB/s. Huge difference. USB 3.0 also provides more power to devices, which is helpful for the ever-increasing capacity of portable hard drives or for charging a smartphone/tablet.
Most modern motherboards are going to have a mixture of both types, with at least 2 USB 3.0 ports. Nowadays, if you’re buying an external hard drive, it makes sense to buy one with a USB 3.0 interface for obvious reasons. It certainly won’t take full advantage of USB 3.0 speeds, but USB 2.0 would be a major bottleneck. That being said, your decision on how many USB 3.0 ports you need should be based only on the number of external USB 3.0 storage devices you plan to use at once. Your mouse, keyboard, and any other non-USB 3.0 gadgets you might have can be plugged into a USB 2.0 port with no performance loss.
Another USB standard not yet found on current motherboards is USB 3.1, which was announced in late July 2013. It is advertised to have more than double the throughput of USB 3.0, which will come in handy when high capacity solid state drives get even faster and become more affordable for external drive solutions.
###eSATA###
Another common feature of motherboards today is the use of an eSATA port. This is simply a SATA port that’s found among your other ports for integrated peripherals, allowing you to connect an external drive to a SATA port just like any other external drive interface such as USB.
Some computer cases also have an eSATA port available on the front, which is enabled by simply connecting the case’s SATA cable to one of your internal SATA ports. If you aren’t using an eSATA-capable external hard drive right now, there is no reason to buy one and no reason to care about this feature at all. Mechanical hard drives used in external storage solutions are the bottleneck, as discussed above, so you’ll see no performance difference between eSATA and USB 3.0.
###PS/2###
This is an old interface that’s been around since the late ‘80s, used to connect mice and keyboards. Most other legacy connectors have been long gone from modern motherboards, but this one is still pretty common today. Most likely, you’re using a USB mouse and keyboard like the rest of the 21st century. However, since USB support is largely a software-dependent function, it is technically possible to disable USB devices in Windows, either accidentally or due to a virus. If you want to undo that kind of damage, you’ll need a legacy interface such as PS/2 to run your mouse and keyboard until you can get your mouse and keyboard working. I’ve never seen this happen, so this is really just a theory. Obviously, PS/2 ports shouldn’t make or break a motherboard choice, unless you just really, really, really want to use your vintage IBM keyboard.
PS/2 Ports
++++ALERT: You are reading an out-of-date version of the guide and wasting your time. Read the PDF for the most accurate up-to-date info.It's best to download the PDF and use a proper PDF reader. Google's formatting of PDFs breaks all of the links. Link to directly download the PDF. I have stopped updating the text in the thread because the forum's limited code makes it far too time-consuming to change images and add text.++++
------------------------
###SATA 6Gbps (SATA Revision 3.0)###
SATA 6Gbps has an advertised throughput of 6.0Gbps—or 600 MB/s, by the definition stated above. As I stated in the discussion of chipsets, the number of native SATA 6Gbps ports on the motherboard will vary depending on the chipset. By native, I mean the ports that are actually supported and controlled by the chipset. However, motherboard manufacturers often include additional SATA 6Gbps ports using a different onboard controller—thus, non-native. A general rule of thumb is that the non-native ports will have slightly lower performance than native. While the theoretical throughput is the same, the way the controllers handle an individual storage device will vary.
More on that here: LINK
Typical array of SATA ports on a Z77 chipset motherboard.
Keep in mind that these advertised speeds have very little to do with the performance you’ll get from a particular hard drive. They really only indicate how fast data travels from your hard drive’s cache to the computer’s interface. In reality, this speed is heavily bottlenecked by how quickly the drive can actually access that data before it’s transferred, as well as how quickly a drive can write the new data on the other end for data transfers. Even taking SATA speed ratings out of the equation, the slower of the two drives in a data transfer will always be the bottleneck. At this point, there is no 7200 RPM hard drive that will even take advantage of SATA 3Gbps speeds, let alone SATA 6Gbps. This will be explained further in the Storage Drive section.
The number of SATA 6Gbps ports available should only be a consideration if you are trying to run multiple solid state drives in a high-end system. Pretty much any ATX motherboard is going to have at least 2 native SATA 6Gbps ports, and usually more. You’ll have more than you need for the builds discussed here. In fact, if you go with a 990FX, 970, or Z87 motherboard, you’ll have up to 6 native 6Gbps ports at your disposal, further bringing this whole discussion into “non-issue” status. But now you know why.
====Common Integrated Peripherals====
###Audio###
Today’s motherboards are going to have at least 8-channel audio. Most people use a 2.1-channel speaker setup or headphones. Personally, I use a 5.1-channel speaker setup when I’m not using headphones. You can do any of these with any of the audio solutions available on all of the chipsets we’ve mentioned above. Motherboard makers choose different codecs for their onboard audio chips (various revisions of Realtek chips are most common), and they largely all sound the same to most people. If you are an audiophile, you likely already have some general working knowledge of sampling rates, input/output resolutions, and the like. If so, your money and time would be better spent finding a suitable sound card rather than choosing a motherboard based on its onboard sound quality.
###Ethernet / Integrated Network Interface Card (NIC)###
Not much to say about this without getting overly detailed about networking, broadband, ping, and so on. Any modern motherboard worth buying will have a Gigabit Ethernet port powered by some company’s chip, be it Intel, Realtek, Broadcom, Qualcomm, and so on. Some are “better” than others, much like the onboard audio solutions out there. Most people use the integrated NIC, including myself, but there are plenty of dedicated cards out there if you want to do the research. I’ll just leave it at that.
###Universal Serial Bus (USB) Ports###
USB Ports are also a non-issue. The motherboards you’ll be using in a modern gaming build will have plenty of USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports at your disposal. In case you didn’t know, USB 2.0 has a max throughput of 35 MB/s, while USB 3.0 has a max throughput of around 400 MB/s. Huge difference. USB 3.0 also provides more power to devices, which is helpful for the ever-increasing capacity of portable hard drives or for charging a smartphone/tablet.
Most modern motherboards are going to have a mixture of both types, with at least 2 USB 3.0 ports. Nowadays, if you’re buying an external hard drive, it makes sense to buy one with a USB 3.0 interface for obvious reasons. It certainly won’t take full advantage of USB 3.0 speeds, but USB 2.0 would be a major bottleneck. That being said, your decision on how many USB 3.0 ports you need should be based only on the number of external USB 3.0 storage devices you plan to use at once. Your mouse, keyboard, and any other non-USB 3.0 gadgets you might have can be plugged into a USB 2.0 port with no performance loss.
Another USB standard not yet found on current motherboards is USB 3.1, which was announced in late July 2013. It is advertised to have more than double the throughput of USB 3.0, which will come in handy when high capacity solid state drives get even faster and become more affordable for external drive solutions.
###eSATA###
Another common feature of motherboards today is the use of an eSATA port. This is simply a SATA port that’s found among your other ports for integrated peripherals, allowing you to connect an external drive to a SATA port just like any other external drive interface such as USB.
Some computer cases also have an eSATA port available on the front, which is enabled by simply connecting the case’s SATA cable to one of your internal SATA ports. If you aren’t using an eSATA-capable external hard drive right now, there is no reason to buy one and no reason to care about this feature at all. Mechanical hard drives used in external storage solutions are the bottleneck, as discussed above, so you’ll see no performance difference between eSATA and USB 3.0.
###PS/2###
This is an old interface that’s been around since the late ‘80s, used to connect mice and keyboards. Most other legacy connectors have been long gone from modern motherboards, but this one is still pretty common today. Most likely, you’re using a USB mouse and keyboard like the rest of the 21st century. However, since USB support is largely a software-dependent function, it is technically possible to disable USB devices in Windows, either accidentally or due to a virus. If you want to undo that kind of damage, you’ll need a legacy interface such as PS/2 to run your mouse and keyboard until you can get your mouse and keyboard working. I’ve never seen this happen, so this is really just a theory. Obviously, PS/2 ports shouldn’t make or break a motherboard choice, unless you just really, really, really want to use your vintage IBM keyboard.
PS/2 Ports
This post was edited on 3/20/14 at 3:36 pm
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