Help with building 1st gaming PC

[coc0nut]

I've been gaming on PCs for the last 12 years or so and it's time to upgrade my system (my current computer is dying) and I decided I wanted to build my own this time. I've been reading a lot about different builds and have some ideas of what I want but I would love any suggestions/input/advice that you have to offer.

My budget is ~$800 (USD) and I already have the peripherals, OS, and PSU (OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular Power Supply).

I'd prefer an Intel processor to AMD, and an Nvidia video card to AMD. Based on what I've read it seems like the processor of choice for this budget is the Intel Core i5-3570K and the video card would be the Nvidia 760. For the hard drive I'm planning on going with the Samsung 840 EVO 250gb.

This is where things get a bit confusing for me. I know that the 760 has gotten good reviews but I haven't been able to determine which 760 to go with or which manufacturer to go with.

With RAM, I have the same problem. I know I want 8gb of 1600Mhz DDR3 ram but I'm not sure which company to go with. I've seen G.Skill mentioned in a lot of builds so I'm leanings towards that.

Lastly, with the mobo, I have no idea what to pick. I know it should have SATA III, USB 3.0 and be intel comptatible but beyond that I'm having trouble narrowing down the different options. As of right now I don't have any plans to do SLI video cards but that is a possibility for the future. Same deal with overclocking, right now I don't feel comfortable doing that but after I build my computer and get a better sense of how it all works I may venture into overclocking.

Thanks!

 

[tachybana]

Wow $800 is incredibly tight. Considering that 30% or more of your budget will go toward the Video Card. What will you use this system for? this will determine if and i3 or i5 is sufficient for what you will need and do you need a case? and are you comfortable with overclocking (this will determine the mobo to recommend)

G.Skill and Crucial are excellent (Patriot is great, but only if you need a uber system and low CAS)

Try this build and see what you think

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1Cxaf

Please note that you will need to make certain that your existing DVR-W is not IDE and that your existing HDD have enough capacity (that they are not 250GB or less. Else you will eat up space real fast).

Best Luck

 

[badboyrog]

check this.....

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1Cxyb

 

[coc0nut]

Wow $800 is incredibly tight. Considering that 30% or more of your budget will go toward the Video Card. What will you use this system for? this will determine if and i3 or i5 is sufficient for what you will need and do you need a case? and are you comfortable with overclocking (this will determine the mobo to recommend)

G.Skill and Crucial are excellent (Patriot is great, but only if you need a uber system and low CAS)

Try this build and see what you think

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1Cxaf

Please note that you will need to make certain that your existing DVR-W is not IDE and that your existing HDD have enough capacity (that they are not 250GB or less. Else you will eat up space real fast).

Best Luck

Thanks so much for the prompt response and the insight. I'll be using the PC for gaming primarily, and I know that at the $800ish price point I won't have the top of the line machine that can run everything at ultra settings etc etc. but I'm looking for something that will be strong for the next couple of years. My current PC hasn't been updated since 2010, still uses windows XP and has 2GB of ram if that gives you any indication of how picky I am when it comes to game settings/frame rate etc.

Why did you pick that motherboard? $200 for just the motherboard seems really high, most of the ones I've been looking at/seen in other builds around the price point are in the mid-low $100 range.

Also, why did you add the aftermarket CPU cooler? If I'm going to overclock the CPU I understand upgrading the CPU cooler but since I'm not looking to do that right off the bat is there a need for the aftermarket CPU cooler?

Lastly, why did you go with the haswell chip over the ivy bridge? I thought that ivy bridge was supposed to be better if you're going to be overclocking (which I may in the future) and that the haswell wasn't much of an improvement over ivy bridge in general. Though I may be misinformed.

 

[coc0nut]

check this.....

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1Cxyb

Oh that's really tempting, thank you!

I have one question though regarding the video card. It seems like almost every other 760 card I see at that price point is 2GB, and the one you included is 4GB. The other 760 4GB cards all seem to be above the $300 price point. Is there a reason that this 760 4GB is the price of the other 760 2GB? I guess I'm just wondering if I'm missing something or how they're able to sell a 760 4GB at the price that other companies are selling 760 2GB cards.

 

[badboyrog]

4GB gpu is better for multitasking and multimonitor gaming pc , good for video editing too

 

[coc0nut]

4GB gpu is better for multitasking and multimonitor gaming pc , good for video editing too

Right - I get 4GB > 2GB in general. But in this case the card you picked which is 4GB has lower clock speeds than comparable 2GB cards from other manufactuers. Is it really better to get a 4GB card with a lower clock speed instead of a 2GB card with a higher clock speed?

The 2GB card I'm looking at is: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125466
Which has a core clock speed of 1085MHz vs the 4GB card which has a core clock speed of 993MHz

 

[tachybana]

Wow $800 is incredibly tight. Considering that 30% or more of your budget will go toward the Video Card. What will you use this system for? this will determine if and i3 or i5 is sufficient for what you will need and do you need a case? and are you comfortable with overclocking (this will determine the mobo to recommend)

G.Skill and Crucial are excellent (Patriot is great, but only if you need a uber system and low CAS)

Try this build and see what you think

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1Cxaf

Please note that you will need to make certain that your existing DVR-W is not IDE and that your existing HDD have enough capacity (that they are not 250GB or less. Else you will eat up space real fast).

Best Luck

Thanks so much for the prompt response and the insight. I'll be using the PC for gaming primarily, and I know that at the $800ish price point I won't have the top of the line machine that can run everything at ultra settings etc etc. but I'm looking for something that will be strong for the next couple of years. My current PC hasn't been updated since 2010, still uses windows XP and has 2GB of ram if that gives you any indication of how picky I am when it comes to game settings/frame rate etc.

Why did you pick that motherboard? $200 for just the motherboard seems really high, most of the ones I've been looking at/seen in other builds around the price point are in the mid-low $100 range.

Also, why did you add the aftermarket CPU cooler? If I'm going to overclock the CPU I understand upgrading the CPU cooler but since I'm not looking to do that right off the bat is there a need for the aftermarket CPU cooler?

Lastly, why did you go with the haswell chip over the ivy bridge? I thought that ivy bridge was supposed to be better if you're going to be overclocking (which I may in the future) and that the haswell wasn't much of an improvement over ivy bridge in general. Though I may be misinformed.

Why Haswell? I thought i read that you had been gaming for 12+ years, so i assumed that your system was that old, thus a Haswell upgrade was granted (why get 2 yrs ago technology when the latest was release just a few months ago, disregarding the 10% improvement for $10 more for IVB)

Now, you said you have an O/S, is it a 64bit version? Else you would only use 3.5GB of the 8GB you're upgrading. Also you would be extremely limited to the use of your video card (won't be able to use game with DX10 or higher)

Could you give me the current specs to your actual set up? This way i can point out whether this $800 is worth it. You might be (or not) at the same point i was a few weeks back. My i've had my system since 2004 and just bother upgrading the video card only, but hit a wall when 4gb RAM was my max, and my P4 couldn't process my 1080p SLR videos and a PSU upgrade was deemed necesaary. Went ahead upgraded and been holding off on the Video card till i get good news from BF4.

 

[coc0nut]

I'm at work right now but my current machine's specs are roughly: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (2.21 GHz); 2GB ram; Radeon 6700; Western Digital Black 500GB, 500 watt PSU, don't remember the motherboard off the top of my head.

I'll be using Windows 7, 64 bit for the operating system. I'm not including that in the $800ish budget because I'm looking to spend $800ish on just the hardware.

One question, going back to the Haswell vs IVB discussion. Are you saying that Haswell is 10% better than IVB or that IVB is 10% better than Haswell? My understanding was that Haswell didn't offer much of an improvement over IVB and that the only big difference was that it ran hotter so you couldn't overclock it to the same extent as IVB. I'm not sure if i'll be overclocking but I would rather keep my options open if everything else is equal.

Thanks for all of your help and suggestions!

 

[coc0nut]

Hi, have a look and see if the following will do, thing is if you're gonna be overclocking you will need a motherboard that will be stable under those conditions, so going cheap on that is not a good idea, but I've taken that into regard. As for the SSD, 250 might be to much but i added the one you mentioned in any case:

LGA 1155:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1CBL1

LGA 1150:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1CBDT

Thanks! I really appreciate those two builds. Do you have any thoughts on whether to go with the Haswell or Ivy Bridge processor? I've got some flexibility in my price so both builds are definitely in range. If it makes sense to go smaller on the SSD to get better performance I'm open to that as well.

 

[badboyrog]

''The 2GB card I'm looking at is: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Which has a core clock speed of 1085MHz vs the 4GB card which has a core clock speed of 993MHz''

check this instead .....
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1CCaq

 

[coc0nut]

Werner,

Thanks those articles were super helpful! I feel like I understand my options a lot better (especially the IVB vs Haswell debate). I think I'm going to go with the Haswell build you suggested. But, I have a few more questions for you.

1) Do you think it's worth it to drop the 250gb SSD and instead go with the i7-4770K (instead of the i5-4770K)? Will I see a noticeable difference or will that just be extra power that I don't really need.

2) For the motherboard, why did you chose that ASRock motherboard over others? Specifically these two motherboards looked interesting to me and I'd be interested to know your thoughts as to whether or not they'd be better than/equal to/worse than the ASRock you suggested:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=13-128-592&Tpk=N82E16813128592
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=13-130-693&Tpk=N82E16813130693

I know they're both more than the ASRock you suggested but I'm willing to spend a bit over my budget if the extra money up front will make a difference down the road (if spending an extra $100 now means my system will last longer I'd rather do that than save the $100 and have to upgrade sooner).

3) Lastly, with regards to the RAM -- thanks to a sale I could buy 8GB of G.Skill ram DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) (Timing 11-11-11-30) or 8GB of G.Skill ram DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200) (Timing 11-13-13-31) for slightly less than the 8GB G.Skill ram DDR 1600 you have in your build.

Is it worth it to go with the higher latency ram with the slower timing, or should I just stick with the tried and true 1600 ram?

 

[md1032]

Badboyrog is definitely pointing you in the right direction. Let me drop off a suggestion for the graphics card. I bought a refurb GTX 670 from Amazon recently for $250 and couldn't be happier. Great performance/dollar ratio.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B007Z574RU/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=1378998625&sr=8-2

It's the one from Tegra tech store. Refurbished, 90 day warranty. Mine looked literally brand new and had all of the original packaging, documentation, and everything.

Also, if you don't need SLI, the Asrock Z87 Pro4 will save you some cash. I would go with the 4670k myself...why not go with the newest processor gen if you can for virtually the same price?

 

[coc0nut]

Werner -- Thanks for the quick response! I appreciate you clearing up the i5 vs i7 issue and answering my other silly noob questions. I think I'll go with the gigabyte board than and if I go a little over budget, well these things happen. One last question and then I think I'll have everything figured out. MD1032 pointed out that refurbished 670 card that comes in at the same cost as the 760 card you had picked out. Which one would you go with?

It seems like the 670 is potentially a little faster but the 670 in question has a core clock speed of 965MHz vs the 760 which has a core clock speed of 1085MHz.


md1032 -- Thanks for pointing that out! I would never had found that on my own. Definitely something to consider.

 

[md1032]

The reason I went with the 670 was because I looked through several reviews of the 670 and 760 and the 670 gets better performance in the real world, just a few more FPS consistently here and there, and if they're the same price, why not? Just so you know, the 760 is essentially a 670 but further neutered (more cores disabled) compared to the 680 and with an increased clock speed to compensate. Normally I am a huge fan of "getting the newest hardware you can" especially with graphics cards where sheer processing power isn't always everything, however, the 670 and 760 have the same GK104 GPU inside of them, so although they appear to be a generation apart at first glance, the model numbers are superficial. Really, they are very similar cards and they both pack a lot of punch for the price, so it's totally up to you.

 

[badboyrog]

gtx 670 realy too expensive , go for 760 ( same performance)