$2000 Desktop Build

[firehawken]

I'm looking for some help on my first gaming PC build and want to stay around $2000 dollars. I have a basic design made of what i want but i would like help in improving if possible while staying within the price range.

My Design:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Qkok

P.S: I want to have a good SSD for quick bootup and performance. By the way the reason i need a sound card is for my astros which require 7.1 dolby to work properly.

 

[TimeLass]

- gaming PC = i5-3570K is more than enough.
- that MB is expensive, ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 is good enough.
- N.O NO, that ram = nonono, go for value ram. 8GB 1600 MHz value ram.
- air cooling is better.
- Samsung 840 pro/intel 520/plextor m5pro/OCZ vector.
- 7970 GHz is better, 670 is more worthy than 680.
- you dun really need a sound card, waste of money. Unless you are going to do some serious music productions tasks.
- get seasonic's psu.
- spend the rest on a good monitor~~
- go for Asus dc2 GPU,MSI, Gigabyte,sapphire.

 

[clutchc]

That's going to be hard to improve on. Of course, everyone will have their own pet "improvement". My only suggestion of any value would be to consider a bigger monitor. As long as you are spending 2 grand on a nice system, might as well watch it game on a 27" or larger display. If you are a Newegg regular that gets promo discounts, they have an AOC and a Benq 27" display on sale for a few more days at $200 and $210 respectively. Both with high ratings.

 

[ubercake]

My advice for a $2K build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H80i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($88.98 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LK ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($114.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.98 @ Outlet PC)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($162.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Microcenter)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($364.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($364.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Phantom (Black/Orange) ATX Full Tower Case ($133.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 750W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($144.78 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.96 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Monitor: Asus VH236H 23.0" Monitor ($157.58 @ Newegg)
Total: $1958.18
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-13 00:15 EDT-0400)

You can downgrade the CPU to the i5-3570k. You don't need a 3770K for a gaming machine.

The motherboard you had seemed a little pricey, plus the Asus P8Z77-V LK is an SLI ready board with surround sound. This also saved a bit of money. The on-board sound will be great for gaming. The motherboard has analog and digital outs for surround sound. As a result, you save the expense of the sound card.

Also, you're paying a premium for the dominator platinum memory. I don't see a reason for it other than the cool looking heat sinks. I switched this out to save additional money.

Further, through the cost savings above, I was able to get you a GTX 670 SLI system as well as upgrade your power supply to a Seasonic gold and keep you in your price range.

These changes maximize your performance for a system in this price range.