$1000 New Gaming PC from Australia. Welcome to discuss.

[Arctikuma]

Hello everyone from Tom's! This is my first post here, Please be nice to me (^_^)/

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Approximate Purchase Date: July 2013

Budget Range: $1000 After Shipping

System Usage: Gaming > Movie

Are you buying a monitor: Yes

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: staticice.com.au, pccasegear.com

Location: Melbourne (Metro), Victoria, Australia.

Parts Preferences: No

Overclocking: Yes (CPU)

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: I love playing first person shooter games. Battlefield 3 Multiplayer is my favourite, and the motivation for this build is the upcoming Battlefield 4 in November 2013. My number one concern is Performance/Price. By Performance, I strictly mean the Frame Rate I'm getting and the smoothness of the actual online gameplay.

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Current Build

CPU - AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor $139

Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler $35

Motherboard - ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2 Motherboard $95

Memory - G.Skill Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory $45

Video Card - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 OC Edition 2GB $329

Case - Fractal Design Define R4 Black Pearl $149

PSU - Antec High Current Gamer 520W HCG-520 $85

Monitor - BenQ RL2450H 24in LED Widescreen Gaming Monitor $199

Case Fans - 2x BitFenix Spectre Pro Black 140mm PWM Fan 2x$19 = $38

Storage - (Owned) Seagate Momentus laptop hard drive, 500GB, 7200RpM, SATA 3Gb/s

OS - (Owned) Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (32/64bit)

Total: $1114

First of all, could you find any flaw in terms of the compatibility? Secondly, are the parts reasonably priced? At last, could I achieve better perf./price without further stretching the budget?

I also have a headphone, Shure SRH440 impedance: 44ohm, do I need a sound card for this?

Please feel free to leave a comment, thanks =]

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My Responses
27/6/2013 Big thanks to all response. What graphics card is best for the price?

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Useful Articles
Graphic Card
#1 GeForce GTX 760 Review: GK104 Shows Up (And Off) At $250 From Tom's
#2 Best Graphics Cards For The Money: June 2013 From Tom's
#3 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 Review: The New Enthusiast Kepler From AnandTech

 

[jokyteddy]

1)Yes, everything is compatible.
2)The GTX 760 seems a bit unreasonably priced. A search on Newegg and you'll see most 760s are priced around $250 USD.
There are Mid ATX cases out there for half the price and still give you the same performance but if you really like the design
of that case then you should get it.
3)Generally, no. If you're only using your headphones or a 2.1 speaker system then you don't need a discrete sound card.

 

[p4nz3rm4d]

your headphones are relatively low impedance, but i still suggest investing in an external usb DAC... this will get rid of all static, and make the most of the headphones.
As for the build, everything is compatible. I would aim for at least 8gb ram, but it is not necessary. the GPU also seems a bit pricy, but a good choice nonetheless.

Nice build overall

 

[Arctikuma]

@jokyteddy Thank you for the peace of mind. I like how Define R4 allows the removal of its HHD cage for MAX air flow. Will you happen to know some other budget-orientated cases that have the similar design?
http://www.fractal-design.com/img_prod/FD-CA-DEF-R4-lower-hdd.jpg
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@p4nz3rm4d Thanks for the suggestions. I do worry about the static I might get from the front panel port. If that turns out to be the case (knock on wood), I'll probably get a proper S/C with 5.1 speakers.

I think it'd be nice to have 8GB of memory too, but it'll cost an extra $40-$45. From what I understand, the amount of memory doesn't affect much in terms of gaming experience. And I'm not planning on recording/editing video on this PC. Besides, when I feel like having the extra memory, I can always add another 2x2GB kit. =] What do you think?

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With regard to the overpriced graphic card, I'm very tempted to get this GTX760 because it's new on the market. XD But this hardly justified the $80 jump on a $260 card (30%UP) even after taking 10% GST into account.

I have an alternative in mind, AMD Radeon HD7950.
$289 Sapphire SA-7950-3GD5-OC-V2 (No idea what this card is)
$295 PowerColor PCS+ HD7950 3GB GDDR5 Boost State (1st choice)
$308 Gigabyte GV-R795WF3-3GD (2nd choice)
$315 Sapphire SA-7950-3GD5-OC-V3 OC Boost (Same, no idea)

Shall I wait AMD to release new mid-range card? Perhaps, Radeon HD8000? Afterall, 7950 w/boost is an almost-a-year-old card. Please enlighten me!

 

[jokyteddy]

Define R4 does look neat. Sorry I don't have a better alternative.

I had a HD 7950 before, it has huge over clock potential. If you push it to the limit, you can even compare it to a stock GTX 680. However NVIDIA cards generally perform much better in BF3 (5-10 fps difference). It wouldn't matter if you're only gaming on a single monitor tho. Both 7950 and 760 can max out BF3.
Quality+Popularity of 7950 goes like this Gigabyte>Sapphire>PowerColor.
Newegg is selling HD 7000 series GPUs with 4 free games (Crysis 3, Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite) so it's a pretty sweet deal.

I would wait and see AMD's response to NVIDIA's extremely competitively priced GTX 760. The HD 8000 series is scheduled to be released in Q3 (July-September).