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ctomlins

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Dec 18, 2012
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10,510
Hello everybody! I am new to building computers but have done a lot of research in the last 4 months before finally coming up with the following parts list. I am trying to keep the price below $1,800 to stay in line with my budget for the year. I'm just looking for advice on my build and if you guys think that there is a way I can make a better system or even cut down on price a little without making the build run slower. I am going to school for engineering and use a lot of programs like Solidworks as well as play a good amount of games so speed and the ability to run these programs well are the main traits i am looking for in this build. So far I only have the case. Thanks in advance for the time and thought and I lok forward to hearing what you have to say!

Current Build:

Case: NZXT Phantom 820

Motherboard: Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3 (Yes I intend to have more than 1 graphics card some day)

Graphics Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) (This is the piece i am most unsure about)

Processor: Intel 3770K I7 Ivey Bridge (3.5 GHz with 3.9 GHz Turbo) LGA 1155

PSU: Corsair Professional Series Gold AX750

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Z series 32 GB (4x8)

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 2 TB Drive

Boot Drive: Intel 330 Maple Crest SSD 120 GB

Het Sink Fan: ??? Any ideas, i know the chip will come with one but I plan to overclock.

Again Thanks a ton guys!
 
You can do much better than that. There's so many different combinations you can do for $1800 or less, lol. Try something like this...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($319.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme 81.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($95.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($129.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Gaming Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($109.00 @ B&H)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($307.55 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Phantom 820 (White) ATX Full Tower Case ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 750W 80 PLUS Silver Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($84.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.89 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $1480.36
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-18 01:22 EST-0500)

First off, the GTX 570 is weak in comparison to the HD 7950. You can even go with a stronger card if needed. You can try out the HD 7970 or GTX 670 if you'd like. Feel free to customize this build to your liking. I'm just trying to offer some ideas.

You could even step up the SSD to the 256gb version of the Samsung 830. Not sure if you need that much SSD space. If I had $1800 to blow on a computer, I sure as hell would.

I also don't see any need for 32gb of RAM. But then again, I'm not very familiar with the software you'll be running; therefore, my views could be ignorant lol. I'd recommend just getting 16gb for now. That should be plenty.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. I hope this helps; good luck!
 
This is what I came up with.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($214.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($129.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($88.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: A-Data S510 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital VelociRaptor 500GB 3.5" 10000RPM Internal Hard Drive ($139.98 @ Outlet PC)
Storage: Western Digital VelociRaptor 500GB 3.5" 10000RPM Internal Hard Drive ($139.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($279.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($279.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1000W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($185.01 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Lite-On IHBS312-98 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($85.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $1649.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-18 01:41 EST-0500)

First off, that is a nice budget to throw at someone for a build and I hope you don't mind the increase on your electricity bill. This is a beast and will be for quite sometime. I went with two 10000RPM Velociraptors in RAID 0 giving you a total of 1TB at blazing transfer rates. I think anything over 1TB is an over kill at this point (that's 100 games at 10GB ea.) A 120GB SSD for you OS drive. Big fan of SLI and why not with 2 beastly cards. 1000W PSU for no issues. You could even up the CPU to i7-3770k for another ~$100. Blu-Ray writer and the whole nine yards to boot.
 


A 1000w PSU is extremely overkill for that build. That build is estimated to only consume 510 watts give or take. The OP would be fine with a 650w PSU. However, I really don't see the need to SLI two weaker cards when the OP can just go with a single, strong card and still get the results he needs. If he needs to upgrade in the future, then he can Crossfire/SLI that single, strong card with another 7950, 7970 or GTX 670 (obviously depending on which GPU he chose in the first place).

The Velociraptors are a waste. Instead, you can just go with a 256gb SSD and be done with it. That's more than enough storage for most significant applications and games. Then just get a regular 7200 rpm drive for storing media. That's plenty of speed. Velociraptors are overpriced anyhow.
 
Wow, thanks for all the ideas guys. As I expected there would be a lot of different opinions on the matter. Yea i agree $1800 is a lot but I hope to have this machine running for a long time so I figured I'd put some money into it. I saw a couple comments that the original video card was a bit weak. Like I said this was the area I was most unsure about so thank you for the ideas. I did notice that both the suggested builds had the same motherboard as oppossed to the original one I had listed. I was just wondering if someone could explain to me why you guys went with that one over the Gigabyte. Again thanks a ton, its already been very helpful.
 
Unless you plan on taking advantage of its 6 Sata 6Gb/s ports and its 4 PCIe 3.0 x16 lanes, then that motherboard is extremely overkill and just not needed. The ASRock Z77 Extreme4 will more than serve your needs for half the price.

Don't even pay attention to the name. Manufactures give their products names such as "Sniper, Republic of Gamers, Maximus, Extreme" just so they can sell the product for more than it's worth. It's a marketing technique; don't fall prone to it.
 
It wasn't really the name of it that made the motherboard stand out to me but rather the features it had listed on Newegg, but after comparing the two they do seem to be pretty close as far as the features I'd be utilizing. The general feeling I got is that I need a better video card, less ram, and a more price friendly motherboard or is there something else I am missing. Seriously thanks for the time and help, it's awesome.
 
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