63 replies to this topic

[ShoveI]

Was planning on spending around $1100 on the core components for a new comp. I don't plan on overclocking at first, but maybe down the line once I'm more familiar with how stuff works. This will be primarily a gaming rig for MW:O and SWTOR with some web browsing and light office work.

I'm looking for the main 8 components and I'm not a fanboy or naysayer on any specific brand, I'm mostly wanting the best price for performance. I'm not afraid to pay up to 25 or 30 bucks more on an item if it's a pretty significant boost on performance, also not afraid to drop about the same amount if there is an option that is only slightly inferior.

This will be my first build and I'm really quite nervous about it, so any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Edit:

For clarification I took out the 2 starting builds. New build is a few posts down for you guys to pick apart hehe.

PS: please no fanboy flaming

Edited by ShoveI, 31 March 2012 - 09:13 PM.

[JackDeth]

Personally I prefer the AMD CPU's.
I think you get more bang for the buck with them...price wise.
The power supply you have selected is marginal...at 600W you will be running it very close to full power when in game.
The vid card is good....the TX560 series is nice....I would not bother to go to the 680...the price/speed factor is poor at this time.
If you use the CoolerMaster case...ge a couple extra fans for it...it won't hurt.
I use an NZXT case (full tower) with 8 fans...nice to have some overhead in cooling.
As to RAM...8G is OK...but you might want to up it to 16G ....for the diff in price you will see the performance (using 64 bit op system).
In my case, I use the AMD CPU...8 cores...never have a slow down or blue screen...but I use Linux...so never a blue screen anyway.
Good luck with the build.
Remember to ground yourself and the chassis before starting to place components.
Jack

[Barbaric Soul]

in the lower priced build, concerning the GA-Z68AP-D3, I used the same board when I made the Sandy Bridge upgrade. Acouple things about it.

First, that board does not have UEFI bios. It's bios are the old style. You'll appreciate UEFI bios the first time you use them.

The PCIe slots on that board are not capable of *8/*8 for SLI or crossfireX. They can only do *16/*4. Though this only matters if you think you'll upgrade to either SLI or crossfireX in the future.

Finally, my board did not last for me. I bought it in Nov, and it died in Jan. Ok, granted I was running my 2600k @ 4.2ghz under full load for most that time, but still. Cheap board is cheap. I'd highly recommend getting the Asrock Pro3 Extreme 3 over it.

[LordDeathStrike]

get an ssd boot drive, one with room for main games if you can swing a couple hundred, it blows the socks off gaming off standard shabby speed hard drives.

[Vernius Ix]

Go with the second build.

[Catamount]

OP, the bottom $1070 build is nice, and really just about what you want, but doesn't include an OS, so if you do need one, it's really ~$1170 with shipping, because you have to figure on $100 for a copy of Windows.

Here's what I'd do to get it in budget if that's too much:

-ditch the CPU cooler; now it's $1140 (you can buy one later)

-Use this mobo: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813157230

You don't need Z68, it just enables the onboard video, and while PCIE 3.0 is nice on paper, GPUs aren't growing in power very quickly anymore, and we're really nowhere near saturating the PCIE 2.0 bus with single-GPU cards (we'll see if the 7990 and 690 meaningfully do, but even there I have my doubts).

~So now you're down to ~$1115. (shipping charges are reduced with the mobo change, so some difference comes from there). That sits you closer to your budget.

You could always switch to something like this for RAM as well: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820231422

The entire difference is the looks of the heatspreader; we're not coming close to saturating dual-channel DDR3 RAM, not even lower-end DDR3-1333. On the other hand, it's only $9 in savings.



Even if you don't need an OS ("core components"?), then that would get you down to like $1006, which would free up enough money to include a small SSD, like this one: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820226290

That would put you to about $1100 even, and net you one of the most worthwhile upgrades you can get (you'll only be able to fit your three or four most important games on a 90GB SSD, but with that and the OS/basic programs, it's MORE than worth it)

Edited by Catamount, 29 March 2012 - 06:39 AM.

[DV McKenna]

I read the second post and groaned, bad advice is bad. the 680 is a fantastic card at its price point (minus any AMD fanboyism) the 7870 on the AMD side is also a very nice card so either of those.

16GB of Ram for gaming and Office? no simply just no. 8GB is all he will need.

As Catamount above points out if your not planning on overclocking the standard CPU cool would be fine.

The only other way to improve that bottom system which is better, would be the addition of a Solid State drive for your OS and Main game/games.

Edited by DV^McKenna, 29 March 2012 - 07:50 AM.

[ShoveI]

Update: Taking these things into consideration. Here's the updated rig setup.

MoBo
ASRock Z68 Extreme3
http://www.newegg.co...0z68%20extreme3

CPU
Intel i5 2500k

RAM
G. Skill Sniper
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820231461

GPU
Gigabyte Radeon 7870
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814125418

HDD
Samsung Spinpoint 1TB
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822152185

SSD
Mushkin Enhanced Chronos 120gb
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820226236

PSU
Antec BP550 Plus
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817371016

Optical Drive
Asus 24x DVD Burner
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16827135204

Case
Cooler master HAF 932 Adv Blue Edition
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811119213

After taking all things into consideration I felt the 2nd build was the better of the two overall, after reading comments and researching a little more into the parts it just "felt" like a way better option for performance/price.

Now, getting to the comments/suggestions...I wanted to make it as future proof as I could while keeping the price/performance down to what I found reasonable. Trying to keep that in mind coupled with my lack of computer parts knowledge, I came up with the build I just posted here.

I left the MoBo thinking that it's more future proof than the one Catamount suggested and could be used for a greater time period while upgrading other components. The CPU, RAM, and HDD all seemed to be pretty good options so left them as is also.

I took Cata's suggestion on the SSD but opted for the 120gb which was only $6 more at the time I checked and seemed a better deal. After reading several reviews I also changed the PSU, cheaper, modular and better reviews. I also upgraded the case to a full tower that I intend to use for quite sometime (possibly 3 or 4 builds into the future), easier cable management, better air flow and more room to work in (very first build). That leads me to dropping the heatsink since I don't plan on overclocking anytime soon and can be picked up when I do. The build I listed didn't have an optical drive so after some quick research I opted for this one.

The GPU on the other hand I'm still a little iffy on. It seems like a great card but not much of an upgrade from the 7850 or the GTX 570 which are both quite a bit cheaper.

After all that, the build will cost roughly 1275 (+/- 25 due to coupons/rebates/bundles) and that's still w/o the OS or new peripherals. But I feel it is a much much better build now and should last me a few years before I seriously need to upgrade. I way appreciate everyone that posted comments/suggestions on the earlier starting builds and would like to ask again for help to finalize this one as I'm looking to purchase this by the end of the week. Thanks again guys and gals!


TLDR: Updated build, reasons why, are all my parts compatible with each other and should I change anything? Thanks

[Sn1per5566]

if you want to make it future proof i would get a larger power supply, especially since you have a full tower case. I would assume with a full tower case you would get into water cooling with all that extra room, so you will need power for pump(s). Also i can imagine you will have multiple HDD's and graphics cards. Just my .02 cents

I would say save a few bucks on the ssd and get a smaller one if its just for booting purposes. Newegg has had a lot for their shell shock deals lately, snag a 60 or 80 Gb ssd and put the extra into a larger power supply

Edited by Sn1per5566, 31 March 2012 - 08:02 PM.

[VPrime]

I gotta say guys, I totally disagree with the intel builds. I really like them for my laptop, really solid and stable, but an AMD has way more horsepower for less price. I really do agree that the 600w power supply (psu) is too low. that is the last thing to budget. Go with an 800w or 850w even if you don't plan on SLI or Crossfire. Just running multiple hdd's will tend to press your psu, and you never do know where you will go in the longrun with the PC. You may find you run out of space, add another HDD, maybe add a bluray player, then another HDD in 6 months, and all of a sudden you have gone past your 600w psu without even knowing it. I've seen it happen way to many times. In one case, a guy I knew got a 450w when he had no business going that low. it was so pressed all the time that the fan ran 100% of the time at 100% speed. And he had 2 cats and a long haired wife. the PSU actually caught fire. it was 2 years after the initial build, but you never want to have to replace everything at once if just some pre-planning and a bit of extra $ can fix the problem ahead of time.

[VPrime]

I am running an AMD Quad btw with 3.4 cores, 8 gigs of ram an an Asus board, and a cooler master V6 cooler with 2 120mm fans running the flowthrough. it cost me 450$ tax in canadian for the parts I mentioned. No way to get that much power for that low a price with Intel

[Fresh Meat]

may i recommend a 7850 instead of a gtx 560, its about the same price but has better benchmarks and 2gigs of ram.

[DV McKenna]

VPrime, on 31 March 2012 - 08:14 PM, said:

I gotta say guys, I totally disagree with the intel builds. I really like them for my laptop, really solid and stable, but an AMD has way more horsepower for less price. I really do agree that the 600w power supply (psu) is too low. that is the last thing to budget. Go with an 800w or 850w even if you don't plan on SLI or Crossfire. Just running multiple hdd's will tend to press your psu, and you never do know where you will go in the longrun with the PC. You may find you run out of space, add another HDD, maybe add a bluray player, then another HDD in 6 months, and all of a sudden you have gone past your 600w psu without even knowing it. I've seen it happen way to many times. In one case, a guy I knew got a 450w when he had no business going that low. it was so pressed all the time that the fan ran 100% of the time at 100% speed. And he had 2 cats and a long haired wife. the PSU actually caught fire. it was 2 years after the initial build, but you never want to have to replace everything at once if just some pre-planning and a bit of extra $ can fix the problem ahead of time.

Wrong, AMD has higher grunt at lower end specs, but there is no current comparrison between Bulldozer and SandyBridge chips.
The average power consumption for todays HDDs is somewhere between 5-10 Watts, a few hard drives is not going to be a problem on a 600W PSU, 800/850 is total overkill unless he plans to SLI/Xfire at some stage.
Even a 700W PSU will be sufficient, and leave plenty of headroom.

To the OP, build looks good, the 7870 is one of the best cards on the market at this time, the 570 is a good card also and will play whatever you want, however you would still be better with the 7870 or waiting even longer for more of Nvidia's cards to be released (assuming they are good).

[Barbaric Soul]

VPrime, on 31 March 2012 - 08:18 PM, said:

I am running an AMD Quad btw with 3.4 cores, 8 gigs of ram an an Asus board, and a cooler master V6 cooler with 2 120mm fans running the flowthrough. it cost me 450$ tax in canadian for the parts I mentioned. No way to get that much power for that low a price with Intel

Do you even know what your talking about? I paid $465 for my 2600k, a Gigabyte Z68 board, and 8 gig DDR3 1600 RAM.




But your right, no way you can get that kind of power from Intel for $450, much less for under $400.

Oh yeah, I forgot a heatsink for OC'ing for the 2500k, but that's ok, the 2500 is still alot faster than your Phenom II at stock speeds.

Edited by Barbaric Soul, 02 April 2012 - 07:00 AM.

[Catamount]

I don't get the hate either way. The Phenom IIs remain fine low-budget chips, while the i5-2500k is more or less proportionately more expensive for the performance gains.

It seems there's plenty room for both in the market.

[ShoveI]

@Sn1per, the case is something that i plan on keeping for quite awhile and doing future upgrades/builds in it that will more than likely require the room. I would rather have it and not need it (atm) than need it and not have it. i was told the power supply would be more than adequate for the build but you're right that later down the line i'll need more. that's one of the things i plan to upgrade but i was looking at PSUs and it seemed like there weren't any choices in higher ones that weren't trashy.

[JackDeth]

I used to be the Service and Production manager of a clone type company.
The first thing I learned is to use a good PS....and a quality MB.
It is the basis for the rest of the build.
Nowadays...the first thing I look for is future compliance with new chips (CPU) and boards (VID).
Even the best of deals today...may make you buy as new board next week.
PS's are all over the place in quality and price...get a good one...one that will last and power your rig for at least 3 years (so you don't spend you hard earned money twice).
Next....work backwards from your monitor (resolution) to the GPU...if the montitor will only show 1280X800 or whatever...not much use in spending $$$ for a board that will drive 2560X1600.
I like headphones when IO'm playing (keeps the wife off my back...LOL) so I chose a set that is really comfortable (Logitrech G35). I also use Mangler/Ventrillo.
If the case is as big as you can fit into your play space to start with...more than likely you will have it for years...just upgrading the stuff inside.
Bling maybe nice..but sometimes the LED's all over are kind of distracting and might be hidden under the desk anyway.
Most of all...it's yours...build it the way you want...have fun with it.
Jack

[LordDeathStrike]

JackDeth, on 02 April 2012 - 11:07 PM, said:

I used to be the Service and Production manager of a clone type company.
The first thing I learned is to use a good PS....and a quality MB.
It is the basis for the rest of the build.
Nowadays...the first thing I look for is future compliance with new chips (CPU) and boards (VID).
Even the best of deals today...may make you buy as new board next week.
PS's are all over the place in quality and price...get a good one...one that will last and power your rig for at least 3 years (so you don't spend you hard earned money twice).
Next....work backwards from your monitor (resolution) to the GPU...if the montitor will only show 1280X800 or whatever...not much use in spending $$$ for a board that will drive 2560X1600.
I like headphones when IO'm playing (keeps the wife off my back...LOL) so I chose a set that is really comfortable (Logitrech G35). I also use Mangler/Ventrillo.
If the case is as big as you can fit into your play space to start with...more than likely you will have it for years...just upgrading the stuff inside.
Bling maybe nice..but sometimes the LED's all over are kind of distracting and might be hidden under the desk anyway.
Most of all...it's yours...build it the way you want...have fun with it.
Jack

1280 x 800 monitor? the 90s are over bro, its 2012 now, even my laptop is 1920 1080 hehe.

that being said, it does make sense to not waste money on a video card until you research what its performance is at your screens native res, or multi screen setup if youre doing sli to get that or getting an amd card that can do it solo. its all about compatability after all, and spending 700 on a video card that you wont use half its potential is special ed to the tardcore.

[Mota Prefect]

Your build specs look sound however I would advise the following -

- RAM is dirt cheap right now, spend an extra 40$ and get 16GB or ram, anyone who says 16GB of ram is a waste is only saying that because their systems only have 8GB

- Get a larger PSU, at least 850w so in the next year or two when new games start coming out and slowing your system down, you already have the right power to add a 2nd video card in crossfire/sli

- You didnt mention what type of cooling you plan to go with for the cpu, I would go for water cooling via a corsiar H60 which costs as much or less then a compareable heatsink/fan with a couple major up sides. 1) Great cooling especially for overclocking 2) virtually noise-less operation 3) will almost never need to be cleaned. If you do decide to go with an h60 or similar water cooling solution, spend an extra 5-10$ on a 2nd fan for the radiator to utilize push/pull cooling.

Good Luck and see you on the battlefield!

[DV McKenna]

Mota Prefect, on 02 April 2012 - 11:26 PM, said:

- RAM is dirt cheap right now, spend an extra 40$ and get 16GB or ram, anyone who says 16GB of ram is a waste is only saying that because their systems only have 8GB

No they are saying it because its a proven fact, you get no benefit from 16gb of ram for gaming ;p