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New PC Build help plz!
Well, since my wife has requisitioned my PC, and I'm tired of negotiating with her to get her off her Facebook games, I've decided to just let her have it and build a new PC. As it's been quite a few years since I built a PC, I thought I'd ask for some help/suggestions. I'm looking to build a machine that will essentially be nothing but a gaming PC. I primarily play MMO's and RTS games witht he occasional RPG mixed in (Witcher 2, Dragon Age, Mass Effect). In going through Newegg, this is what I have so far:
Case Cooler Master Storm Enforcer and OS: $174.98
CPU (I5-2500K): $219.99
Mobo (ASRock P67 Extreme 4 Gen3): $154.99
- Not personally familiar with ASRock's products, should I consider a different board?
Memory (Corsair Vengeance 8GB): $58.99
PSU (Corsair Professional Series HX650): $119.99
SSD (OCZ Vertex 3, 120GB): $209.99
- never used an SSD before, should I consider different model?
HDD (WD Caviar Black, 500GB): $59.99
Video Card (HIS IceQ Radeon 6850): $174.99
- will this card be sufficient or should I go with a 6870 or 6950? Generally prefer Radeon, but can be convinced to go Nvidia
CPU Cooler (Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus): 26.99
Optical Drive (Asus 24x DVD burner) : $20.99
- It's a DVD drive, didn'treally feel the need to put much thought into it!
Total: $1221.89 (would like to get this down a bit to about $1000 to $1100, but not critical)
Pulled this together fairly quickly from Newegg, so really looking for any advice folks are willing to offer. Did I miss any essential parts? I'm not in a big rush to do this as I'm not heavily playing anything right now and mostly just messing around with some F2P games when I have time to spare. Would like to have it ready in time for SW:TOR, but again can wait if you think there will be any significant price drops or tech changes worth waiting for release.
Thanks, in advance, for any help you can offer!
Comments
I would drop the ASrock board for a better manufacturer, It's not going to change the price much. Wait around for Quizzical to answer for trimming the fat off the price, I won't even waste the time trying when I know he'll put more effort into it for you.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
Besides the GFX card it looks fine. You could probably get a cheaper and not as good PSU if you need to save some money, and Intels processors don't really need any special fans unless you are a clocker (and clocking the GPU makes more sense today unless you are working with raw data).
I don't think the prices will go down that much until TOR cames out, but ask Quizzical about that, he keeps a closer eye on things like that then me.
Another way to save money is to salvage the DVD drive and possibly the harddrive from your old computer, Since you will use an SSD for the OS and installed games speed isn't important anyways. We are not talking any huge savings here though.
Good luck.
Ways to save money:
Processor/motherboard combo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.738300
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.736065
(pick one)
Video card:
If you're paying enough to get a 6870, then get a 6870.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102948
Power supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151096
SSD:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233160
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227593
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442
(pick one)
Memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231424
See. There you have it. Thread could probably be closed now.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
Drop the SSD if it's pushing your budget and invest in a top brand Asus P67 motherboard that has SATA 6gh/s and get two good HDD with a large cache instead. If you don't mind spending the extra for SSD go for it as the drive to put your OS on and hook it up to the 6 g/s SATA.Then a get good brand HD like Wesern digital, you really don't need a SATA 6 g/s HDD, they never reach anywhere near that throughput, put the money in to a large cache 3gh/s SATA HD for your gaming drive.
Good brands to pick from motherboard are Asus and MSI for P67 chipsets. Never go cheap on mobo, its decides the overall performance of your Pc with its parts. I'd go for a Nvidia GTX 570, if you want to multi monitor 3 or 4 then ATI top end choice is a good choice. Don't go cheap on PSU either always a good brand, Antec another one, their gamer range is pretty good. As for ram, can't go wrong with Kingston or Jixsaw brand, DDR 3 running at 1333 will do fine as will the next one up, get no less then 8gigs.
intel i5 2005k CPU on the sandybridge is a top choice, the i7 just barely ahead in benchmarks for gaming and don't really need to spend the extra, the i5 just without the hyperthreading that's made a return, but you don't need that with the good the i5 and really doesn't make a noticable difference in every day gaming use.
Invest in a CPU cooling of your choice, air or water. Air fine for the i5, even for it's on the fly press the button overclock to 4ghz to 4.5ghz feature of the i5 sandybridge. Reason to get the 2005k since the multiplyer is unlocked.
Loke, really think the stock cooler will be sufficient? I've always been told that you should always upgrade the cooler? Of course it has been several years since I did a machine...
Thanks Quiz! I changed to the Asus mobo combo as I've always had good luck with their products in the past. I also went with your 6870 GPU and the Corsair SSD. I'm curious about the PSU you linked as I really don't know anything about SeaSonic PSU's? I picked the Corsair 650W mostly because I've always had good luck with Corsair. Is Seasonic a reliable product? While I'd like to get the overall build price down, I've never been unwilling to pay more for better quality.
Cooler cpu = longer life of said cpu. While a stock cooler may be sufficient, i always error on the side of caution.
The following statement is false
The previous statement is true
Corsair doesnt build power supplies. They rebrand power supplies, mainly built by Seasonic or Channel Well,
The Seasonic S12II is pretty good. It's not quite as good as the HX650, but it's close.
Huh, guess you do learn something new everyday. Ok, I think you sold me on it. Any thoughts on the HD I selected?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136795
Should I stick with this or go to a 1TB drive? or a different 500GB drive? I thought the single 500GB drive would befine since I won't use the machine for anything but gaming. For anything else, I have the PC that my wife has taken from me, as well as my laptop and about 5 external drives floating around with music, movies, and pictures stored on them.
in the current gen SSD's, the crucial M4's seem to have better reliability over others. something to consider before you hit the checkout button.
You can get a pretty good 1 tb HD for the same price as that Caviar Black. If it was me buyong an SSD as a first drive I'd get this as secondary: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185&Tpk=samsung%20f3