Approx. $1450 build - how does it look so far?

[Pinecones]

Hi, I'm looking to build a new computer to replace the old one I currently use. I'm planning to buy most (if not all) the parts from MSY, an Australian computer parts retailer.

Here's a few details about the build:

Approximate Purchase Date: this week or the next.
Budget Range: $1,300 to $1,450
System Usage: gaming, word processing, occasional video and image editing.
Buying a monitor : yes
Need to buy OS: yes
Location: Adelaide, Australia
Overclocking: no

Are these are the parts I've been considering:

Motherboard: ASUS P8Z770V, $195
CPU: Intel i5-3570, $208
Video Card: 3GB Radeon 7950, $329
Memory: 8GB Kit 1333 Kingston, $38
Storage: Seagate SATA2 2TB, $101
Storage: Kingston SVP 200S3 120GB SSD, $85
Power Supply: Corsair GS600-V2, $100
Case: Antec 100, $62
Monitor: 24” 5ms Samsung S24B300H, $165
Disc Drive: Liteon Blu-Ray Combo, $50
OS: Windows 8, $100

Total: $1433

This is my first build, and I'm not quite sure about the compatibility of the parts, so if you see any glaring errors, advice would be greatly appreciated. Other than that, what do you think so far? Should I make any changes?

Thanks much.

 

[butremor]

Hi
If you plan on overclocking then you're okay to go, BUT
if not, THEN
save some money and get Z75 or H77 motheboard and i5-3470.
Also, don't get SATA2, get SATA3 HDD it's two times faster.
And, you should reconsider lite-on, they're not very reliable, better choose samsung or whatever is available to you.
Little side note: might go for 1600 mhz ram, to get little more speed, but 1333 also fine.
And why you need Win8, it's the same as Win7 in games and applications, except Win7 is much more stable. Here http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/windows-8-gaming-performance,review-32553.html

 

[prodigydoo]

MSY -> The best and cheapest place to get parts in australia by FAR. Good decision man.

for your price range i would shoot for some 1600mhz ram, it will help with gaming and video/image editing... ram is cheap as hell anyway.

consider an OCZ agility 3 as similarly priced alternative ssd.. im not sure how they compare but i think the ocz might be a bit better

and yeh go for a sata 3 hdd, like a wd caviar black or blue


motherboards awsome, very expandable, its got capacity for more ram or another gpu

 

[excella1221]

Uh... there's virtually no difference between SATAII and SATAIII on HDDs. No existing HDD atm can make use of that high transfer rate anyway and it's only a marketing strategy.

SSDs are the only things that can make use of SATAIII. Also, the Agility 3 isn't very great - it has reliability issues and it uses a SandForce controller. Get the Vertex 4 instead.

Lite-on is okay for DVD ODDs, dunno about Blu-ray but I haven't heard of any issues with them so far.

+1 on getting 1600MHz of RAM, the price difference is negligible.

+1 on getting an H77 since you're not gonna OC, but there's no point on a z75, I think he meant a B75. You could also opt to get an i5-3470 instead, it's basically the 3570 minus a few GHz that won't really affect performance.

Motherboard is okay, but heavily overpriced for its features.

You didn't answer the part in the sticky where it asks if you're gonna SLI/Crossfire or not, so here's two builds.

W/ Crossfire.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($233.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($139.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($45.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($101.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($99.00 @ Scorptec)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($325.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Case: Cooler Master Storm Enforcer ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Plus 750W 80 PLUS Silver Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($145.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 3-Pack (64-bit) ($99.00 @ Scorptec)
Total: $1275.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-12 00:30 EST+1100)

W/o Crossfire.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($95.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($45.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($101.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($99.00 @ Scorptec)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($325.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Case: Cooler Master Storm Enforcer ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 520W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($83.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 3-Pack (64-bit) ($99.00 @ Scorptec)
Total: $1125.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-12 00:30 EST+1100)

P.S - I know you said you're buying from MSY, but some prices in the stores mentioned above could save you a lot of cash.

 

[butremor]

Uh... there's virtually no difference between SATAII and SATAIII on HDDs. No existing HDD atm can make use of that high transfer rate anyway and it's only a marketing strategy.

SSDs are the only things that can make use of SATAIII. Also, the Agility 3 isn't very great - it has reliability issues and it uses a SandForce controller. Get the Vertex 4 instead.

Lite-on is okay for DVD ODDs, dunno about Blu-ray but I haven't heard of any issues with them so far.

+1 on getting 1600MHz of RAM, the price difference is negligible.

+1 on getting an H77 since you're not gonna OC, but there's no point on a z75, I think he meant a B75. You could also opt to get an i5-3470 instead, it's basically the 3570 minus a few GHz that won't really affect performance.

Motherboard is okay, but heavily overpriced for its features.



.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z75%20Pro3/ - z75
Side question, so you're saying there's no difference betweet getting sata2 and sata3? Then why they make sata3 hdds? So if i'm about to build ne pc i should be getting sata2? Are there gonna be use of sata3 in forseable future? Also what about usb 3.0? Is it also marketing trick?

 

[excella1221]

I know there's a z75, I said there's no point to it because the CPU can't OC anyway, and that's the point of z75 and z77 boards.

And yes, there's no noticeable difference on SATAII and III on HDDs. Probably on bechmarks, but they're negligible.

USB 3.0 is different from SATA. I don't really know why you're comparing it with the other, but no it's not marketing. It's actually 10x faster than the USB 2.0.

 

[something_wild]

One suggestion to that build - get an aftermarket cpu cooler. Even if you're not overclocking they're a great investment, and a pain to add later. My biggest regret when building my pc was overlooking them.

Something like a coolermaster 212 gets good performance, and wont add a lot to your budget.

 

[Pizzaa]

I would recommend Excella1221's second build (the one without crossfire) and change the graphics card to either a Sapphire Vapor-X 7970 (3gb, not 6), or an Asus DCUII Top 680. The 680 would probably be a better choice here though, mainly because the 7970 only really shines when you start to overclock it. They would both fit into the price range you specified if you used the non-crossfire build (provided by excella1221) along with you adding another monitor.

Also, the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo is a great thing to have, keep my CPU (which I do have overclocked to 4.5 ghz with an i5 2500k) at under 60* at all times. Granted, I live in a cold climate anyways, but it's still nice to add some longevity to the chip.

Lastly, if you don't want to deal with overclocking, you definitely don't want to try your hand at the hassle called Crossfire or Sli. While sometimes it works great (the drivers currently work really well, especially if you use an aftermarket tool to reduce microstuttering http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7990-devil13-7970-x2,3329-11.html, it's called Radeon Pro), there are always occasions where someone's cards have communication issues, and refuse to talk to each other properly.

Bottom Line: Use the non-crossfire build provided, but change the graphics card for a Asus DCU Top 680 or a Sapphire Vapor-X 7970, and add a Hyper 212 Evo, they work wonders and will improve your gaming experience. (Edit: You will need a beefier PSU, so use the PSU in the crossfire build)

 

[excella1221]

^+1 to both posts above me.

Though I'll have to disagree with the 680. It's a very overpriced card, you're basically paying ~$100 for a 5% increase in performance from the 670. Also, the 7970 GHz outperforms it in every way(except power consumption). nVidia cards used to have an edge on nVidia-optimized games like BF3, but it's long gone now with the new Catalyst drivers.

 

[Pizzaa]

^+1 to both posts above me.

Though I'll have to disagree with the 680. It's a very overpriced card, you're basically paying ~$100 for a 5% increase in performance from the 670. Also, the 7970 GHz outperforms it in every way(except power consumption). nVidia cards used to have an edge on nVidia-optimized games like BF3, but it's long gone now with the new Catalyst drivers.

Fair enough. I was just listing the top card from each manufacturer, depending on whether they had a preference as to which one they wanted. I would personally get the 7970, but I am slightly AMD biased just because they get such good clocks and performance for their price.

 

[GoldenI]

Spend money on Windows 7 Professional. Windows 8 is garbage, unless you intend on having a touch-oriented computer. It is essentially placing a mobile-oriented OS on a desktop environment...

 

[Pizzaa]

Spend money on Windows 7 Professional. Windows 8 is garbage, unless you intend on having a touch-oriented computer. It is essentially placing a mobile-oriented OS on a desktop environment...

Ummmm...Nobody even mentioned Windows 8, except in the original post. By the way, Windows 8 does have a desktop, you realize. All they did was make the start menu full screen.

 

[Pinecones]

Thanks much for all the help, guys. And no, I don't plan to SLI/Crossfire - sorry, I should have said that earlier. I wasn't sure about OS, so I put down 8 for the time being - I take it from your response that I should stick with 7.

Taking your suggestions into account, here's my updated list:

Motherboard: ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP, $94
CPU: Intel i5-3470, $188
Cooler: Coolermaster Universal Hyper 212, $34
Video Card: 3GB Radeon 7950 Video Card, $329
Memory: G Skill Ares, $44
Storage: SATA3 2TB WD Green, $100
SSD: Samsung 830 Series 128GB, $105
Power: Antec HCG-520, $83
Case: Cooler Master Storm Enforcer ATX Mid Tower Case, $89
Monitor: 24” 5ms Samsung S24B300H, $165
Drive: Pioneer Blu-Ray Combo, $63
OS: Windows 7 OS, $99

Total: $1394.
(Prices are from MSY, and are mostly a smidge under the online prices)

Will the power supply be adequate for this combination, or should I upgrade it? Also, does anyone know much about the Samsung S24B300H monitor? Is it reasonable choice for the price bracket?

Anyway, thanks again for the help everyone.

 

[excella1221]

Everything looks great.

Yes, 520w would be enough for the single GPU system.

I beleive the Samsung monitor is good for the price.

 

[Pinecones]

Best answer selected by Pinecones.