Feedback on $1000 gaming computer build

[coolguy7676]

Does this look like a good build for a gaming computer? I'm not going to overclock my cpu and I tried to keep the price under $1000. I just want to know if there are any compatibility issues, if the power supply is large enough, or if there is a better component i can substitute in (while keeping the price at around $1000). I've already got the monitor, OS, and other peripherals. Thanks.

Case: Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case ($55)

HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive ($65)

Graphics Card: GIGABYTE GV-N770OC-2GD GeForce GTX 770 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready WindForce 3X 450W Video Card ($340)

Optical Drive: LITE-ON Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model iHDS118-04 - OEM ($22)

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL ($85)

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-H77-DS3H LGA 1155 Intel H77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard ($105)

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 Ivy Bridge 3.2GHz (3.6GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor ($190)

SSD: SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE120BW 2.5" 120GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) ($100)

PSU: CORSAIR CXM series CX600M 600W ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply ($80)

Total: $1052

 

[whitecat]

ssd Samsung 840 EVO is far faster than that you picked

 

[coolguy7676]

ssd Samsung 840 EVO is far faster than that you picked

Good point, I've edited that into my build. Unfortunately, it's currently sold out. Do you know how long items typically take to restock on Newegg?

 

[geofelt]

Good... yes.

I might make some suggestions:

1. There is little value in spending more for 4gb vram. 2gb is enough.
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Video-Card-Performance-2GB-vs-4GB-Memory-154/
Perhaps the difference will let you get a GTX770. Nothing wrong with the stock blower cooler either.

2. Seasonic psu is excellent. It is strong enough to run even a GTX780ti.

3. 120gb ssd is ok. It will hold the os and a handful of games.
Consider deferring on the hard drive and using a 240gb ssd instead. You can hold a large number of games so you may never need a hard drive at all. Samsung EVO would be my pick there.
4. Haswell is faster per clock. I might suggest a similarly priced i5 4430 or 4440
A B75 based motherboard should be no more expensive either.

 

[geofelt]

Outside of synthetic benchmarks, all modern ssd's will perform the same in desktop operations.
I prefer Intel and Samsung because they make their own nand chips.

The 240gb Samsung evo is in stock at $169.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W00YW3571

 

[whitecat]

your optical drive is only ROM
this one is better
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-optical-drive-sh224dbbebe
the psu is not modular at all , this one is better for the same money :
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cx600m
it has 46A x +12V = 552 W on +12V rail ,more than enough

the rest looks fine , it will have good 3D performance

 

[coolguy7676]

Good... yes.

I might make some suggestions:

1. There is little value in spending more for 4gb vram. 2gb is enough.
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Video-Card-Performance-2GB-vs-4GB-Memory-154/
Perhaps the difference will let you get a GTX770. Nothing wrong with the stock blower cooler either.

2. Seasonic psu is excellent. It is strong enough to run even a GTX780ti.

3. 120gb ssd is ok. It will hold the os and a handful of games.
Consider deferring on the hard drive and using a 240gb ssd instead. You can hold a large number of games so you may never need a hard drive at all. Samsung EVO would be my pick there.
4. Haswell is faster per clock. I might suggest a similarly priced i5 4430 or 4440
A B75 based motherboard should be no more expensive either.

Thanks for the article and advice. I think I'll probably switch out the 760 4g vram for this (GIGABYTE GV-N770OC-2GD GeForce GTX 770 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready WindForce 3X 450W Video Card) instead. Unfortunately a 250 gb harddrive most likely wouldn't work for me because I have quite a few pictures and videos I need to store in addition to games. Also, wouldn't the Haswell processors require a more expensive motherboard?

 

[coolguy7676]

your optical drive is only ROM
this one is better
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-optical-drive-sh224dbbebe
the psu is not modular at all , this one is better for the same money :
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cx600m
it has 46A x +12V = 552 W on +12V rail ,more than enough

the rest looks fine , it will have good 3D performance

Yup you're right, i completely forgot to make my psu modular. I've edited your choice in. Thanks again for the suggestion.

 

[whitecat]

it looks great !

 

[Praise_Gaben]

Go for Haswell, it is slightly faster but it has a lot of new features. It will be worth it in a few years.

 

[geofelt]

Pictures take up little space. Video's do take lots of space
My suggestion was to omit the hard drive initially since it is easy to add one later when you need to store video's.
That keeps you to your initial budget.
A ssd can slow down as it nears full, and a larger one initially gives you more flexibility.

A B85 based motherboard will be even less expensive. Here is a ECS motherboard for $55 after rebate:
Bhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681313535675
ECS is less known, but I was impressed by the quality I found in an earlier build with one.

Here is a chart of the different haswell chipsets:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_1150

 

[geofelt]

On the psu, I consider Seasonic to be superior quality.
I suggest this 620w unit for less:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151096

Modular should be a non issue.
You are going to use most of the leads anyway.
For the one or two that might be extra, it is easy to lay them out of the airflow in your case.

 

[whitecat]

Go for Haswell, it is slightly faster but it has a lot of new features. It will be worth it in a few years.

as for the 3D performance ,tests show. that the differeces are negligible -Ivy Bridge vs Haswell and 77 vs 87 chipsets , using dedicated video card. . Haswell iare just a bit faster .but if he wish
cpu i5 4570
mobo Asus H87 Plus

 

[coolguy7676]

Go for Haswell, it is slightly faster but it has a lot of new features. It will be worth it in a few years.

Yeah actually after looking around haswell doesn't seem too much more expensive. Do you have any motherboards you could recommend for this (Intel Core i5-4570 Haswell 3.2GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646I54570) cpu? Thanks.

 

[whitecat]

Go for Haswell, it is slightly faster but it has a lot of new features. It will be worth it in a few years.

Yeah actually after looking around haswell doesn't seem too much more expensive. Do you have any motherboards you could recommend for this (Intel Core i5-4570 Haswell 3.2GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646I54570) cpu? Thanks.

if you get Haswell the psu must be Haswell compatible , some guys use CX600M but it has no official support by now
what about this , BUT not modular
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-100b10600kr

found this in promo- full modular , efficiency Gold
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-120pg0650gr

Edit: psu for Haswell - low power consumption state- this i mean

 

[Praise_Gaben]

Go for Haswell, it is slightly faster but it has a lot of new features. It will be worth it in a few years.

Yeah actually after looking around haswell doesn't seem too much more expensive. Do you have any motherboards you could recommend for this (Intel Core i5-4570 Haswell 3.2GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646I54570) cpu? Thanks.

if you get Haswell the psu must be Haswell compatible , some guys use CX600M but it has no official support by now
what about this
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-100b10600kr

Correct me if i'm wrong but why "must" it be haswell compatible? It's just about saving power when the cpu is idle.

 

[Praise_Gaben]

Go for Haswell, it is slightly faster but it has a lot of new features. It will be worth it in a few years.

Yeah actually after looking around haswell doesn't seem too much more expensive. Do you have any motherboards you could recommend for this (Intel Core i5-4570 Haswell 3.2GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646I54570) cpu? Thanks.

Well i would just go for a cheap B85 motherboard ($70-$80) if you are not going to use the extra ports/connectors of H87.

 

[coolguy7676]

Go for Haswell, it is slightly faster but it has a lot of new features. It will be worth it in a few years.

Yeah actually after looking around haswell doesn't seem too much more expensive. Do you have any motherboards you could recommend for this (Intel Core i5-4570 Haswell 3.2GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646I54570) cpu? Thanks.

Well i would just go for a cheap B85 motherboard ($70-$80) if you are not going to use the extra ports/connectors of H87.

I'm most likely going to go for this motherboard (GIGABYTE GA-B85M-D3H LGA 1150 Intel B85 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard), along with a 4670 or 4570 i5. Micro ATX shouldn't cause any problems with the rest of my build right? I also think i'll reduce my psu to around 450 watts; most of the calculators i've used haven't really shown a load of over 400w for my system.

 

[coolguy7676]

Go for Haswell, it is slightly faster but it has a lot of new features. It will be worth it in a few years.

Yeah actually after looking around haswell doesn't seem too much more expensive. Do you have any motherboards you could recommend for this (Intel Core i5-4570 Haswell 3.2GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646I54570) cpu? Thanks.

Well i would just go for a cheap B85 motherboard ($70-$80) if you are not going to use the extra ports/connectors of H87.

I'm most likely going to go for this motherboard (GIGABYTE GA-B85M-D3H LGA 1150 Intel B85 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard), along with a 4670 or 4570 i5. Micro ATX shouldn't cause any problems with the rest of my build right? I also think i'll reduce my psu to around 450 watts; most of the calculators i've used haven't really shown a load of over 400w for my system.

 

[geofelt]

PSU calculators are deadly accurate. If you give it the right parameters.
Some of which are unknowable. What did you use for capacitor ageing? What is your future growth?

450w with a GTX770 is a mistake.
You will be hard pressed to find one with the 42a on the +12v rails that is recommended
A psu closer to 600w is about right.
Here is the evga GTX770 superclock requirements:
http://www.evga.com/products/pdf/02G-P4-3771.pdf

Fortunately, in the 500-65ow range., prices are not too different.
It is not wrong to overprovision a bit. Say by 20%.
A psu will consume only what is demanded of it, regardless of it's max capability. It will also run cooler, quieter, and more efficiently in the middle third of it's range.

The critical thing about selecting a psu is quality.
Use this list as a guide:
http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx

I like M-ATX size. You get 4 expansion slots. A ATX gives you 7. Past the X16 graphics slots, how many do we need?
M-ATX also gives you some options for a smaller case. There is no performance difference. Only if you are planning on sli(which I do not recommend) would a ATX size be better.

 

[whitecat]

ASRock H87 Pro4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157383
psu OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W 80+ Certified Semi-Modular .
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/ocz-power-supply-ocz600mxsp
ready for Haswell
http://ocz.com/consumer/psu/modxstream-pro-500w-700w-power-supply