How To : Build yourself a high-end Ivy Bridge gaming rig

If you’re planning to build an outrageously high-end gaming rig, then it better be future-proofed, so that any component within the box doesn’t get outdated too soon. The Intel Sandy Bridge platform was received quite well by both hardcore gamers and overclockers alike. And the latest Ivy Bridge platform, along with the latest generation AMD and Nvidia graphics processors have pushed performance to a new level. So, like each time when a new platform arrives, this time, too you have more headroom for overclocking, blazing data transfer rates and ultra-smooth game play with eye candy completely maxed out.

Mid-range gaming PCs stutter when games are run with ultra-high quality graphics and multiple resource hungry applications are thrown at them. But high-end PCs can gobble it all with ease and that too with some resources to spare. However, all that comes at a premium. So, is it really worth spending more than a lakh and a half to build a super high-end rig? Well, if you can actually use up all that power, then Hell Yeah!

Ivy Bridge is currently one of best CPUs in the market

CPU - Intel Core i7-3770K - 3.5 GHz (Rs.20,000)
This one's the most powerful Ivy Bridge processor you can buy. It's runs at a stock speed of 3.5GHz and the highest Turbo Boost speed it can attain is 3.9 GHz. Being an unlocked model, it's extremely overclock-friendly. Use a good cooler and you'll be able to push it to over 5 GHz!

Motherboard - Asus P8Z77-V PRO - Intel Z77 (Rs.16,200)
The Intel Z77 chipset is the best you can combine with an Ivy Bridge processor. You get native USB 3.0 ports, support for PCIE 3.0 and overclocking suppot among many other features. The Asus P8Z77-V Pro is a full ATX board featuring a good blend of expansion slots, excellent layout, and on-board Wi-Fi adapter.

RAM - Corsair Vengeance 8 GB - DDR3-2133 (Rs.6,550)
8GB of RAM is the least you should consider when building a high-end gaming rig. The Ivy Bridge  platform officially supports DDR3 speeds up to 1600 MHz. With Corsair Vengeance, you can push the memory speed up to 2133 MHz without worrying about the chips overheating.

SSD - Corsair Force GT - 120 GB (Rs.9,300)
A combination of a hard drive and an SSD is most ideal for a high-end gaming rig. So we suggest you use a good SandForce controller-driven SSD with SATA 6 GB/s interface, such as athe Corsair Force GT. 120GB should be enough to accommodate the operating system, applications and a couple of games. Read speed above 450 MB/s guaranteed!

An excellent choice

HDD - Seagate Barracuda - 1 TB (Rs.5,300)
With the hard drive prices going through the roof because of the floods in Thailand, a standard 1 TB hard drive is the best bet both price-wise and capacity-wise. Use it as a secondary drive to store everything else besides the operating system, applications and games.