2013 Gaming Build

[Badante]

I want to hear of any opinions or ideas on my choices for parts. Im buying within these within 7 days.
My goal is a 1500$ gaming rig but to have a pc that will last a long time before i need a upgrade and also have a impressive look.
The hardware from what I can tell so far all seems to be compatible (I hope) and the extra fans and leds is really just for looks since I know two 230mm fans is enough. In the end I want to have the option of removing the LED left side panel and putting in the windowed side panel that will have two 120mm led fans installed. The idea is to have 4 different looks with one pc. A red or blue led panel look, or I can switch it out to the windowed panel to where I can have two red cathodes and one 120mm led fan on, or switch those off and turn on the blue cathodes and 120mm blue led. so it will be all red leds or all red blue leds for the wondow or full panel look. The fan controller led screen also changes to blue and red aswell. Tell me what you think. (no ssd yet until a few months down the road)


235.00-GPU - ASUS GTX660 TI-DC2O-2GD5 OC
219.00-CPU - i5 3570K 3.4Ghz
170.00-PC Case - BitFenix Colossus Blue/Red
130.00-MOBO - ASRock Z77 Extreme6
124.00-OS - Windows 7 Professional SP1 64bit
65.00-HDD - Seagate Barracuda 1 TB HDD SATA 6 Gb
65.00-RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws X 1600Mhz 9-9-9-24
65.00-PSU - SILVERSTONE Strider 600w 80+ Cert
50.00-KeyB - SteelSeries Merc Stealth Gaming KB
45.00-Speakers - Eagle Tech ET-AR504LR-BK 2.1
41.00-Headset - Rosewill RHTS-8206 USB 5.1 headset
40.00-Mouse - eSPORTS Theron Laser Gaming Mouse
40.00-Fan Controller - Bitfenix Recon fan controller
29.00-CPU Heat sink - Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
27.00-Disk Drive - ASUS DVD Burner 24X DVD+R
19.00-Optional Window Panel - Colossus Window Panel
10.00-Fan - 120mm Cooling Fan Red & Blue x 2
10.00-12" Cathode x 2 Blue and red
10.00-LED Mouse pad
8.00-Power Strip
2.99-Ethernet cable
5.00-HDMI cables 6ft
2.00-Electrical Tape (for help with placing the cathodes)
2.00-Zip Ties

 

[NorthernIrish]

My answer may not be appreciated much since im a new forum member but if you want that rig to last you for a few years to come without upgrading i would get at least an Nvidia GeForce 680. And it would be around your budget as what you have listed here is just over $1400, get a 680 if you can.

 

[ingtar33]

don't get a silverstone psu... seasonic, antec, corsair or xfx generally are the more respected manufacturers... silverstone makes some really crappy and overpriced psus

i'll have to think about it, but you really seem to be going overboard a bit. that motherboard is a bit unnecessary, and pricey, especially if all you're getting for your cpu cooler is a hyper evo 212. the hyper evo is a great bargain cpu cooler. but a high end motherboard screams high end overclocking which screams high end cpu cooler. a NH-D14 or h80i would fit that build better. that or a cheaper motherboard.

I think you'd want better gaming performance out of a rig if you're gonna drop 1500 on it then you'll get from a single 660ti. Especially since for $800 I could build an AMD system that would stomp on that one in gaming performance (or atleast match it)... if you're going to spend $1500 get your money's worth, get atleast a 780 or 2 760s in SLi or something.

 

[Badante]

My answer may not be appreciated much since im a new forum member but if you want that rig to last you for a few years to come without upgrading i would get at least an Nvidia GeForce 680. And it would be around your budget as what you have listed here is just over $1400, get a 680 if you can.

Sounds great but the GTX 660Ti is listed at 235.00$ and that 680 is 389.00$. I checked on the to be announced 2014 average game recommendations and for the summer of 2014 they are still way below the GTX 600Ti, thats why i ended up with that choice. and my original budget was supposed to be 1200.00 but yikes im already at 1447.00

 

[sizzling]

For that sort of build I would insist on an SSD

As pointed out you could get a cheaper motherboard and I would also get a cheaper case and then put that money into a better GPU and SSD

 

[burdenbound]

If you do decide to bump up your card I would look at the 7950 or 7970, they are priced really well right now and the 7970 out performs the 680 for the most part.

I would not get the ripjaws because the large heat spreader is going to get in the way of your CPU cooler.

 

[Badante]

don't get a silverstone psu... seasonic, antec, corsair or xfx generally are the more respected manufacturers... silverstone makes some really crappy and overpriced psus

i'll have to think about it, but you really seem to be going overboard a bit. that motherboard is a bit unnecessary, and pricey, especially if all you're getting for your cpu cooler is a hyper evo 212. the hyper evo is a great bargain cpu cooler. but a high end motherboard screams high end overclocking which screams high end cpu cooler. a NH-D14 or h80i would fit that build better. that or a cheaper motherboard.

I think you'd want better gaming performance out of a rig if you're gonna drop 1500 on it then you'll get from a single 660ti. Especially since for $800 I could build an AMD system that would stomp on that one in gaming performance (or atleast match it)... if you're going to spend $1500 get your money's worth, get atleast a 780 or 2 760s in SLi or something.

Yea I think ill look into the Seasonic PSU, I didnt know Silverstone was considered to be lack luster. The second part was one I had alot of trouble figuring out. I wanted a single GPU system since I could never get a solid answer from anywhere regarding games being effected by SLI , they would always say things like well it may or may not be better on SLI so basiclly no one had a solid answer and that seemed to be a bit of a risk when dealing with 1k+ machine. However it is setup to handle dual SLi for the future if i decide to add a 2nd GPU. I am interested in your thoughts on the MOBO aswell, my main concern was to get a dam good mobo for around 140 or less that can be OC or SLI in the future but also have a name brand. Toms hardware had really liked the Asrock Xtreme4 but this was the next model after and considered to have better quality, what are your thoughts for a solid mobo ????

 

[Badante]

Yea my friends are really hammering on that too but im way off my budget already, the main reason for the HDD to be installed first and have the SSD for later is because once i get back online ill be downloaded all the games from my steam account and we are talking 100 games atleast. But yes i agree SSD is needed ill have it prob like in Jan tho.

 

[badboyrog]

d ont waste your time with the 660 ti....
go for 760 (240$ approx) or better with 770 (389$ approx)

take a corsair psu or seasonic 750W approx..

and 8gb memory in dual channel kit should be good

OR presently we have a really big deal with AMD GPU you can have a HD 7950 for 289$ approx.... why they are so cheap now!!! ???????????????

 

[tachybana]

You out to try out this list. You would have $265 to spare for keyboard and other things. The case is fantastic, i own it myself and plenty of room to work and has 3 excellent fans (and all the zip ties you could ever want). I recommend to go haswell, since is the latest chipset you would have the future upgrade route covered.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/tachybana/saved/2mue

Also, why the heck would you want a mouse pad with a Laser mouse? Its been eons since i used one (save yourself the $10 for something else)

Best luck on your build

 

[Badante]

You out to try out this list. You would have $265 to spare for keyboard and other things. The case is fantastic, i own it myself and plenty of room to work and has 3 excellent fans (and all the zip ties you could ever want). I recommend to go haswell, since is the latest chipset you would have the future upgrade route covered.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/tachybana/saved/2mue

Also, why the heck would you want a mouse pad with a Laser mouse? Its been eons since i used one (save yourself the $10 for something else)

Best luck on your build

Some of those parts I like and im checking into now. especially that cpu 4670k i really like (10% better from the 3570K and only 10$ bucks more) , The heatsink .........wow 80 bucks is that really needed to go that much for a single GPU ?, And with the mouse i personally have never seen the difference between optical and laser so my search was done under optical and lasrer for best looking led mouse with adjustable dpi. the MOBO im searching through now since alot of peeps are telling me that my original choice is too much. but since im going with the 4670 now im back into looking for a good solid mobo that has 2+ PCIe, and is socket 1150, has atleast 2+ USB 3.0, and is either black or blue since ill be showing off the inside of the pc. Im diggin on that power supply you listed and will prob end up going with that one.

 

[Badante]

You out to try out this list. You would have $265 to spare for keyboard and other things. The case is fantastic, i own it myself and plenty of room to work and has 3 excellent fans (and all the zip ties you could ever want). I recommend to go haswell, since is the latest chipset you would have the future upgrade route covered.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/tachybana/saved/2mue

Also, why the heck would you want a mouse pad with a Laser mouse? Its been eons since i used one (save yourself the $10 for something else)

Best luck on your build

and that specific mouse pad i have just grown to love to im sort of a fan boy of it now, that mouse is 5600dpi

 

[Badante]

yea i saw that board at 180$ ish , for the Asus Z87-PRO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard, But this looks to be the same build under 128$ ASRock Z87 Extreme3 LGA 1150 Intel Z87

 

[badboyrog]

dont touch the ASRock Z87 Extreme3.... go for the extrem4 instead...

 

[Badante]

dont touch the ASRock Z87 Extreme3.... go for the extrem4 instead...

Ok checking that extreme4 now i think i will end up going with it since this site raved about it but i still need to check the features, right now i just got done checking on the parts i will be switching so no more silverstone psu instead ill get the Corsair CX 600W PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC , and instead of the i5 3570K ill get the i5-4670K. The video card 7970 was way too much. so currently checking the 7950 as compared to the GTX 660Ti but the 7950 is a really good price at 230-240 range

 

[Badante]

currently comparing the GTX 660 Ti 235.00 / HD7950 - 240.00/230.00 / GTX 760 2GB 250.00

 

[refllect]

Radeon 7950 is only $200 why not get that?

 

[Badante]

I wanted to thank everyone for heloing me out, its my first build and I just finished it this weekend and went from parts in boxes all over the place to a lil budget dream machine for my gaming and entertainment and it was all due to tomshadrware community. I took everyones responses to heart and you guys helped me out bigtime when no one else would or could. I have had a bl;ast doing this build and I know it will last a long time before I need to update anything, so here is what I ended up building this last weekend.

i5 4670K 3.4Ghx cpu
Gigabyte HD 7950 3Gb GPU
AsRock Extreme 4 motherboard
Gskill Sniper series 1600Mhz 8gig dual ch
240Gb SSD
1Tb HDD
NZXT Phantom 530 full tower
Asus 23' VX238H monitor
Corsair builder series CX 600 watt psu, bronze
3x140mm led fans
1x200mm led fan
NZXT Sentry 2 fan controller touch screen
Eagle Tech AR504LR-BK 2.1 speakers
Corsair Hyper 212 evo cpu cooler
Asus Internal dvd drive
Rosewill RHTS-8206 5.1 Ch vibrating headset (these are awesome!!!)
Thermaltake Gaming Mouse MOTRN006DT
SteelSeries Merc Stealth gaming keyboard