› ›

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In Register

Quick Links

Time for a new desktop.

MalzothMalzoth Member UncommonPosts: 6
in Hardware


  First time poster here. Thanks in advance for any information you are able to help with. I am looking to buy a gaming desktop with a $1200 budget. The monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers are already covered. Also I have no problem building one if it's more bang for the buck. Only thing I would prefer is that I can use Newegg, since I am familiar with them. Any suggestions?

Comments

  • jdnewelljdnewell Member UncommonPosts: 2,237

    Here is a build of stuff from Newegg.

    Some of these are brands I prefer and picked based on my experiences and what I might buy. This is an Intel build, you could always go AMD or change some components to cheaper / more expensive to fit your needs.

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130953

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182132

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231546

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131981

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116899

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147247

    Comes to $1170. Has $30 off in mail in rebates also, so $1140 after MIR. And a couple of promo codes you would have to apply.

    I picked windows 7, can pick win 7 or 8 as they are the same price. This should give you an idea of components to build with. You could always go with no HDD and only an SSD, get a better GPU, cheaper CPU, ect. Depending on how expensive a GPU you wanted.

     

    You could also add this GPU ( 770) instead of the 760 i linked above

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121770

    Total would be $1240 before $40 in Mail in rebates. $1200 after rebates.  Depending on if you had some leeway with the $1200 up front.

    With shipping its $1248 unless like me you live in a state with a newegg warehouse and get jabbed with taxes.

     

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,531

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116899

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130694

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313435

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820248016

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139025

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151118

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130953

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832416776

    Total:  $1213, including shipping and before $50 in rebates.

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,531

    jdnewell posted his build while I was working on mine, and his is a perfectly nice build, too.  He chose several of the same parts as me, but if you want a comparison:

    I picked a DVD burner that is $2 cheaper.  I'd definitely go for cheaper, as they're basically equivalent.

    I picked a much newer case that is also cheaper.  I have the Antec Three Hundred Illusion myself, and it's a fine case--but it's rather dated, as I bought mine in 2009.  It won't accommodate extra long video cards, doesn't have an SSD mounting bracket, and doesn't have USB 3.0 front ports, simply because when Antec designed it, no one wanted that.  The Corsair case I linked does have such modern amenities.

    I picked a much nicer, but also much more expensive power supply.  The Rosewill Hive isn't a bad unit, but it's not that good, either; you've got the budget for a fairly high end power supply, so I'd get one.

    jdnewell picked memory that cost $10 more than what I picked but has the same specs.  While I would tend to trust G.Skill more than Team, I wouldn't call it a $10 difference.  The one negative review of the memory I linked is from someone who says it's incompatible with his 4+ year old motherboard--and it's worth noting that his motherboard doesn't support memory at the rated specs of what he bought.

    jdnewell picked an arguably nicer but definitely more expensive motherboard.

    jdnewell picked Windows 7, while I picked 8.1; you can take either one, as you prefer--but do make sure that you get a 64-bit version.

    I picked an SSD with double the capacity of jdnewell's, and also a nicer drive even apart from capacity.  It's only an extra $50 for the additional capacity, and it's not that hard to fill up a 120 GB drive anymore.

  • MalzothMalzoth Member UncommonPosts: 6
    Thank you both for your input. greatly appreciated!
  • jdnewelljdnewell Member UncommonPosts: 2,237
    Originally posted by Quizzical

    jdnewell posted his build while I was working on mine, and his is a perfectly nice build, too.  He chose several of the same parts as me, but if you want a comparison:

    I picked a DVD burner that is $2 cheaper.  I'd definitely go for cheaper, as they're basically equivalent.  Agreed, cheaper is better all things considered.

    I picked a much newer case that is also cheaper.  I have the Antec Three Hundred Illusion myself, and it's a fine case--but it's rather dated, as I bought mine in 2009.  It won't accommodate extra long video cards, doesn't have an SSD mounting bracket, and doesn't have USB 3.0 front ports, simply because when Antec designed it, no one wanted that.  The Corsair case I linked does have such modern amenities.  Agreed. I had picked several cases to look at, missed the lack of modern amenities

    I picked a much nicer, but also much more expensive power supply.  The Rosewill Hive isn't a bad unit, but it's not that good, either; you've got the budget for a fairly high end power supply, so I'd get one. The hive isnt a bad psu and would suite his needs, up to him tho.

    jdnewell picked memory that cost $10 more than what I picked but has the same specs.  While I would tend to trust G.Skill more than Team, I wouldn't call it a $10 difference.  The one negative review of the memory I linked is from someone who says it's incompatible with his 4+ year old motherboard--and it's worth noting that his motherboard doesn't support memory at the rated specs of what he bought. I picked Gskill due to it being a bit more trustworthy. Agreed on the motherboard. The one you picked would do nicely for cheaper.

    jdnewell picked an arguably nicer but definitely more expensive motherboard.

    jdnewell picked Windows 7, while I picked 8.1; you can take either one, as you prefer--but do make sure that you get a 64-bit version.

    I picked an SSD with double the capacity of jdnewell's, and also a nicer drive even apart from capacity.  It's only an extra $50 for the additional capacity, and it's not that hard to fill up a 120 GB drive anymore. I also added an HDD for storage. For me a 120g works well for OS and the few games I play, the additional storage may or may not be needed, for me I use it.

    Edit:

    What did I miss on the motherboard & memory compatibility?  Does that mobo not support 1.5v ?

  • Blazer6992Blazer6992 Member UncommonPosts: 643

    I got mine here.

    http://www.ibuypower.com/

     

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,531
    Originally posted by jdnewell

    Edit:

    What did I miss on the motherboard & memory compatibility?  Does that mobo not support 1.5v ?

    There's nothing wrong with the motherboard you picked.  The person who complained that the memory I picked didn't work has a motherboard that doesn't support 1600 MHz memory.  Or perhaps rather, the motherboard might allow it, but the memory controller won't go over 1333 MHz.

  • jdnewelljdnewell Member UncommonPosts: 2,237
    Originally posted by Quizzical
    Originally posted by jdnewell

    Edit:

    What did I miss on the motherboard & memory compatibility?  Does that mobo not support 1.5v ?

    There's nothing wrong with the motherboard you picked.  The person who complained that the memory I picked didn't work has a motherboard that doesn't support 1600 MHz memory.  Or perhaps rather, the motherboard might allow it, but the memory controller won't go over 1333 MHz.

    Ah i see o.O Misread that. My bad

    I personally picked the Samsung because I own 3 Samsung SSDs and they have been great for my needs and have not failed yet. That could change of course. The one hard drive I have that failed on me was a Seagate. Now I use WD HDD and Samsung SSDs pretty much. But this is my own preference based on my experiences.

  • udonudon Member UncommonPosts: 1,803

    Don't skimp on the case.  I upgraded from a half tower generic POS case to a  Corsair 500R a couple years ago and the difference in temp's and just sound levels is night and day.  Also I have one of the those liquid cooling CPU coolers that vents out the top of the case and it made a pretty big difference as well.  Well worth the money just to get a computer that doesn't sound like a jet engine when you are playing games.

    Your going to be sitting next to that thing for long sessions so it should be as quite as possible.

  • grndzrogrndzro Member UncommonPosts: 1,163

    Only things I can see that I would change are

    I would get an AMD 280/280x if you can afford it. YES Mantle makes that big a difference in gaming. The minimum framerate is very good on top of the performance increase. Yes I use it in BF4 and the difference is night and day.

    I would opt for some CL7 DDR3-1600 or something faster. That Mobo can OC the mem to 3000

    Corsair power supplies have been excellent for quite a while now. Even the lower end ones.

    Might as well get Windows 8. It's rock solid now. I don't even use metro unless I need something bizzare that I dont have pinned. And you will miss out on DX11.2 if you stick with W7

  • jdnewelljdnewell Member UncommonPosts: 2,237
    Originally posted by grndzro

    Only things I can see that I would change are

    I would get an AMD 280/280x if you can afford it. YES Mantle makes that big a difference in gaming. The minimum framerate is very good on top of the performance increase. Yes I use it in BF4 and the difference is night and day.

    I would opt for some CL7 DDR3-1600 or something faster. That Mobo can OC the mem to 3000

    Corsair power supplies have been excellent for quite a while now. Even the lower end ones.

    Might as well get Windows 8. It's rock solid now. I don't even use metro unless I need something bizzare that I dont have pinned. And you will miss out on DX11.2 if you stick with W7

    To get a decent brand 280x  ( 3gb )is around $470+, To get an Asus gtx 770 is $320 ( 2gb) or $389 (4gb). I personally would choose the 770 model over the 280x based on price alone, and I am an AMD GPU fan, have them in both of my PCs

  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383

    Originally posted by grndzro
    I would get an AMD 280/280x if you can afford it. YES Mantle makes that big a difference in gaming. The minimum framerate is very good on top of the performance increase. Yes I use it in BF4 and the difference is night and day.

    Besides BF4 on Beta drivers, what else is Mantle good for right now? I agree, it can be impressive on BF4, but that's one game right now, and that only helps if you happen to really play that one game. Not every game will have Mantle in the future, in fact, it'll be lucky to be half a dozen by 2015.

    Maybe some stuff coming out soon will use it and prove it's around to stay. Right now, it's mostly just a marketing gimmick by AMD and I wouldn't tell anyone to definitely go with Mantle unless they are for certain they will spend a lot of time with Mantle-specific games.

    By the time we see wide spread Mantle support, if we see anything remotely close to wide spread support, it would be about time to upgrade a 280X anyway.

  • lafaiellafaiel Member UncommonPosts: 93
    Originally posted by grndzro

    Only things I can see that I would change are

    I would get an AMD 280/280x if you can afford it. YES Mantle makes that big a difference in gaming. The minimum framerate is very good on top of the performance increase. Yes I use it in BF4 and the difference is night and day.

    I would opt for some CL7 DDR3-1600 or something faster. That Mobo can OC the mem to 3000

    Corsair power supplies have been excellent for quite a while now. Even the lower end ones.

    Might as well get Windows 8. It's rock solid now. I don't even use metro unless I need something bizzare that I dont have pinned. And you will miss out on DX11.2 if you stick with W7

     AMD 280x and higher cards are $200 over MSRP because of the crypto currency mining craze right now, the 770GTX offers the same performance in most games for a  ton less money (god I never though I would ever say that about nvidia)

      CL7 memory is a lot more expensive than a CL9 kit.

    The good corsair PSU's are mostly made my seasonic, the makers of the PSU that Quizzical linked.

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,531
    Originally posted by grndzro

    Only things I can see that I would change are

    I would get an AMD 280/280x if you can afford it. YES Mantle makes that big a difference in gaming. The minimum framerate is very good on top of the performance increase. Yes I use it in BF4 and the difference is night and day.

    I would opt for some CL7 DDR3-1600 or something faster. That Mobo can OC the mem to 3000

    At the MSRP of $300, the Radeon R9 280X is a nice value.  The problem is that you can't find it for anywhere near MSRP.  At $400+, it's overpriced, and doesn't fit the budget.  It's faster than a GeForce GTX 760, yes, but not 50%+ faster, as it would need to be in order to justify the price tag--even with Mantle, which is currently used by all of one game.

    Getting faster memory adds a lot to the price tag, but the performance difference it makes is a rounding error.  Even if a motherboard can handle ridiculous memory clocks, that doesn't guarantee that the memory controller (which is built into the CPU) or the memory itself can handle such clock speeds.

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,531
    Originally posted by lafaiel

    The good corsair PSU's are mostly made my seasonic, the makers of the PSU that Quizzical linked.

    Corsair uses a lot of power supplies both from Seasonic and Channel Well, plus a few from Flextronics at the high end.

    -----

    If you like rebates and want a power supply at an intermediate price, either of these will work:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182262

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020

    Lest you get too caught up in the nominal wattage rating, note that the "650 W" Rosewill Hive is only rated at 552 W on the +12 V rail, which is what nearly all of the power will be drawn from.  The power supplies that I linked can all deliver nearly all of their rated wattage on the +12 V rail.

  • grndzrogrndzro Member UncommonPosts: 1,163

    I hate not being able to logically argue with anyone's points ^^

    I really dont trust Seagate though after reading a few reliabiity reports.

Sign In or Register to comment.