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PC Build/Hardware Question
Looking to build a PC. Budget $1000-$1200. Want to be able to play current generation of online PC games, a bit of future-proofing, and easily upgradable in a few years when parts become obsolete.
What changes would you make to this proposed build in order to better accomplish the above goals?
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2B8Di <--- Most recent build, based on your suggestions.
Thanks!
Comments
It looks solid for the budget and looks balanced - except 8 GB RAM is considered the standard now. Easily fixed I guess by simply spending another $50 if you see the need.
As far as I know, it should play any game pretty well at that resolution but it doesn't look easily upgradeable. Since you should be able to run stuff at 1920 x 1080 alright, the only point of an upgrade would be to get a larger monitor and higher resolution. For a higher resolution you'd need a better GPU. A faster GPU would be bottlenecked by your CPU though and to upgrade that you'd need a better PSU and a new Mobo.
Also... go visit local shops and have a look at the monitors. You might find you prefer a slightly larger monitor even if it's not such good quality. For $130 you can find a cheap 24". For LCDs don't trust the manufacturers, it's best to go see it yourself.
A great list of free games (mostly MMORPGs): http://www.mytop10games.com/
You did the right thing by coming to ask for advice. Some people would have bought something random and lived with the consequences. There are a lot of problems with your build, but they're easily fixable if you haven't bought anything yet.
First, you want two memory modules, not one. One module means you leave a memory channel vacant, and that cuts your memory bandwidth in half. That's why memory typically comes in "kits", often of exactly two modules. I'd usually recommend two 4 GB modules, for 8 GB in total.
Skip the discrete sound card. On $35 speakers, you won't be able to tell the difference between that an integrated sound, anyway. For that matter, even on high end speakers, it's far from guaranteed that you'd be able to tell the difference between a $44 sound card and integrated sound--since there might not actually be a difference.
Skip the thermal paste, too. The CPU cooler will come with thermal paste that is just as good.
Pairing that power supply with that GPU probably wouldn't blow anything up, but you'd be pushing a lot closer to it than I'd be comfortable with. If you have to jerry-rig power connectors because the power supply doesn't come with the connectors that the video card needs, you should be wary. If you haven't bought the power supply yet, switching to a different, higher power model is an easy choice.
With the launch of Kaveri mere hours away, I'd highly recommend waiting a day to see what it offers. It might be a more sensible purchase than what you're looking at. It's going to be slower than Ivy Bridge, but also cheaper, and whether it makes sense to buy depends on how much slower and how much cheaper.
I agree with most of this above, I would also add:
it looks like the Case doesn't come with any extra fans, so having that low PS with that video card, it's gonna get hot in there.
I don't use a gaming keyboard, never saw the point. just take that 50$ and but it into the above as well. Maybe you could get a free one from work, some IT department have old ones laying around.
Having just 1 HD leave you open to disk failure, I'd get another and mirror them
Nothing purchased yet, still in the early planning phase. Not going to buy until late February at the earliest (thinking of the build as a potential spring break project). Thanks for all the input.
Going with a smaller monitor at the moment, with the plan to add a second at a later date, running whatever game in windowed full-screen mode on one and pulling up whatever else on the second. Plus, the office space for the computer and monitor(s) isn't all that big.
Not too worried about the single HD. We have a larger shared HD on our home network for anything important, with redundancies built in.
So, here is the new build and the changes I made:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2B8Di <--- Most updated build.
1. Added a second stick of RAM.
2. Dumped the thermal paste, dedicated sound card, and the gaming keyboard (put a basic, wired keyboard on the build because, while I have an extra mouse, I do not have an extra keyboard, nor a way to pick up a freebie).
3. Bumped up the power supply to 500w.
4. Grabbed a case with what should be plenty of air flow.
Thoughts on the updated build?
You make me like charity
Get a SSD Drive for your OS Drive. Use the 1TB Drive for media and games. Consider getting another SSD Drive later down the road for your games then just use the 1TB for media.
Ditch the speakers, keyboard, and hyper 212 for now and don't worry about ssd, again for now....
Upgrade your RAM 2 cards 1600 4gb a piece. approx $75-$80
Upgrade your motherboard and PSU, I might reccomend corsair 750watt gold, and an msi g45 motherboard or asus z87
Downgrade ever so slightly your gpu to a gtx 660, they are around $185 right now and you only get 10% more out of a 760, there is nothing your 760 can handle that your 660 won't. (savings of $65)
Tower - check out the corsair 230T - they look nice and they have a ton of holes to keep you nice and cool. ($80 with window $70 without)
Might look into an overclockable processor, with the msig45 and 750watt supply (might as well spend the extra couple bucks incase you want to mess around with ocing at some point)
When your ready to spend the money on a gpu, your system will be ready to go in 2 to 3 years when you might actually use a better gpu, you can add an ssd, cooling..... you name it any time and it won't be a huge headache.
Otherwise good luck my friend, once it's all built and your up and running it's very rewarding and very reassuring to know you built it and you can fix it.
Updated w/different power supply. Starting to hit the $1200 budget ceiling.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2B8Di <--- Most updated build.
Seriously guys... so many cries about the PSU. It's a decent power supply and while yes, he is cutting it a little close he won't OC much with that setup so it's not like it matters. It should be enough for his needs.
Suggesting a 750 W PSU for what exactly? He won't be going SLI or putting a titan in there. >.<
Oh and yes, sorry, didn't catch that sound card. As Quizzical said, you can ditch that.
A Seasonic G-550 as linked in the last post is a very nice power supply, and I see no reason to upgrade above that.
At the other end, I'd argue that on a $1000+ budget, you've got the budget to get something nicer than a Corsair CX series power supply. It's not junk, but it's Corsair's low end for a reason.
This 2nd build is very solid, you could remove the CPU cooler tho as you are not going for overclocking, you will be fine with the standard intel cooler.
Or get the i5-3570k for overclocking but you will get up 25-30$
Yeah, I'm not going to be doing anything too crazy to pump out performance by overclocking or anything (obviously, from this build). I'm just looking to build a machine that I can turn on, load up a game, and play with good performance. We're talking games like WoW, Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, Hearthstone, LotRO, FF:AAR for now, maybe the TESO, Wildstar, and EQ:L/EQ:N type of games later... not PlanetSide 2 or any single player games.
As a point of comparison, I'm gaming on my YEARS old HP HDX Premium Series laptop. I'm just looking to build a little nicer rig now that I can upgrade a piece at a time later (like 2-5 years down the road) as the system requirements on future MMOs increases.
All that said, here's the updated build:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2B8Di
Thoughts on the most recent update?
Only a small point, for me when i was shopping around for an upgrade from my 'ageing' gainward 260 gtx, i settled finally on the MSI twin frozr 660 gtx, i can't 100% say its better than the Evga version, but if you are getting the Evga version, hopefully its this one;
Evga Geforce GTX 660 FTX ACX 2gb Gddr5 - 1072MHz Core, 1137MHz Boost, 6008MHz Memory, 960 CUDA Cores, DVI-I, DVI-D, HDMI, DPort, PCIe 3.0
it can be surprising how many versions are out there, i almost picked up the wrong MSI version of it on that basis
just checked, the manf code is different, so it might be the one listed is the lower end version of the card, something to bear in mind, the version i recommend has a Manf.Code: 02G-P4-3063-KR
the performance difference might be small, but probably it will be only a single fan version too, rather than the twin fan that the higher end version has.
Good point on the video card fans. That's why I love you guys so much... going to keep me on the straight & narrow! Updated the build:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2B8Di
Thoughts?
Lol you were the guy pushing Xb1 before release now you're suggesting Ps4. Remember ESRAM nothing like it on earth?Ahnog
Hokey religions are no replacement for a good blaster at your side.
If you want future-proofing, a LGA-1155 socket CPU + MB is not the way to go. Intel's latest socket is LGA-1150, which released with Haswell CPUs. There is a much greater chance of a new line of LGA-1150 CPUs being released than another LGA-1155.
Your CPU does not have the K suffix, which indicates an unlocked CPU on the Intel models. For gaming, it is ideal to buy a CPU that you can overclock. Spend the extra money to get an unlocked CPU, or save some money and get a cheaper CPU.
Even if you don't overclock, the stock Intel heatsinks are not very good. If your case and motherboard are compatible, the Hyper 212 Evo is a solid air cooling unit for ~$30.
A 120GB solid state drive is enough to put your OS and a couple games on. The SSD makes a huge difference in boot times, loading speed, and overall system responsiveness. I could go on about SSDs, but just know you're missing out on a major boost in performance for an affordable cost if you don't use a SSD.
He has a 64 bit Windows in that list....
It's pretty easy to get equivalent memory for a good bit cheaper than that.
You can't really future-proof a CPU socket. The transition to DDR4 is imminent, and that means new sockets for everything.
I know there are no guarantees when it comes to future-proofing a CPU socket. However, my point was that by going with a LGA1155 instead of LGA1150, that does guarantee you can't upgrade the CPU without replacing the motherboard.
Looking at Intel's recent history with CPU lines and sockets, we have two core architectures for both LGA1156 and LGA1155. Could LGA1150 be the same? Maybe. It depends on DDR4, like you say.
There is a chance the OP can upgrade their CPU if they go with LGA1150. There is ZERO chance to upgrade if they use LGA1155.
Personally, I wouldn't get a motherboard hoping to upgrade the CPU later on. Too much other stuff changes besides just the socket - SATA level, RAID controllers, USB level, PCI revisions, etc.
Usually, when it's time to upgrade the CPU (assuming you get a good CPU in the first place), it's also time to upgrade the motherboard.
Also, Intel's recent history doesn't mean much. There have been a lot of one-off sockets that have been used, and Intel was notorious for it just prior to 1155.