Multiple Questions for First Gaming PC Build

[ifoughtamudcrab]

I am not sure which category this belongs in, due to the multiple questions that I have, but this was my best guess. Help to any question would be much appreciated since this is my first build. This being said, I have done some research. My budget is just north of 1000 dollars.

1. Is an SSD worth it? I have seen threads on this, but I am still not sure. I will have about 70 or so games installed on this computer, so I obviously can't fit them all on an SSD, but would it be worth the 90 or so dollars (samsung 120 gig) for it? Or just go for a faster hard drive?

2. Is there a best time to buy? Will there be large sales around times such as cyber monday when I can save a lot of money?

3. AMD or NVIDIA? I have seen lots of threads on this but I am re-asking because I want one that can preform well on a budget (all games on very high/ultra) but can also render 3d models in blender and work well with Unity for game programming.

4. Taking what I want above into account, is it worth getting an intel i7? Or stick with the i5?

5. What case has the best functionality (solid cooling, more than 2 usb ports, ect.) for the price?

I know this is a lot of questions but I would love any and all help you guys could provide. Thanks so much!

 

[challedude]

Hey!

1: SSD is definitely worth it, if your budget gets low buy a 60gb ssd and install win7 and all softwares on it.
A ssd will speed the overall computer performance alot. Then you buy a HDD for games storage.

2. Depends on where you live here in Finland we mostly have sales when you get a game with your gpu etc.

3.It really dosen't matter if you have AMD or NVIDIA in performance. Only benefit i see in AMD is that there is much more Crossfire ready motherboards than SLI boards. Fan boys will disagree thought 😛.

4. If your planning to use your computer mostly for gaming you will be fine whit a intel i5, Intel i7 is faster in overall computer speed, animations etc.

5. If you buy a modular psu you will be fine whit almost any case whit 120mm fan holes. If you decide to go oldscool you need to look for a case where the cables fit at the back of case.

Here are few suggestions for a non modular psu

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133199

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811345012

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811235027

Hope this helped

 

[ifoughtamudcrab]

Hey!

1: SSD is definitely worth it, if your budget gets low buy a 60gb ssd and install win7 and all softwares on it.
A ssd will speed the overall computer performance alot. Then you buy a HDD for games storage.

2. Depends on where you live here in Finland we mostly have sales when you get a game with your gpu etc.

3.It really dosen't matter if you have AMD or NVIDIA in performance. Only benefit i see in AMD is that there is much more Crossfire ready motherboards than SLI boards. Fan boys will disagree thought 😛.

4. If your planning to use your computer mostly for gaming you will be fine whit a intel i5, Intel i7 is faster in overall computer speed, animations etc.

5. If you buy a modular psu you will be fine whit almost any case whit 120mm fan holes. If you decide to go oldscool you need to look for a case where the cables fit at the back of case.

Here are few suggestions for a non modular psu

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133199

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811345012

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811235027

Hope this helped

This definitely did help, thanks a lot!

 

[P1nnacle]

I'll throw in my 2 cents,

1: If you only have a little over 1000 dollars, I'd stick with just a normal HDD for right now, SSDs can eat up a large chunk of your budget (even the lower end ones). After all, whats the point of paying for an SSD if you're going to buy one that isn't blazing fast?

2: While deals come and go there really isn't a "best time" to buy. It's best to buy when you're ready and bite the bullet. PC parts change so fast you'll never get what you want if you wait for big deals.

3: I think you can tell where I side, but I'm not against using AMD, AMD is definitely the way to go for budget boxes, as their CPUs, Motherboards and GPUs tend to be cheaper than Intel's and Nvidia's.

4: If you just have to go with Intel (don't get me wrong I'm an Intel fanboy) Take the i5. Unless you're really in need of multithreading (which most games aren't). Or if you want to save even more money (say to add to your GPU budget) you could go with AMD. A quad core FX will be just fine for gaming.

5: I love my Corsair Graphite 600T, tons of room for cable management, lots of fan ports good front panel.

Challedude is right, modular PSUs cause much less of a problem (I would definitely recommend them), but if your budget can't afford it then a case like the 600T will do you well.

 

[challedude]

Well a good performing 60gb ssd cost range is 60-70$

It also depends if your going for win8 or win7, whit win8 you wont notice a big difference.
win7 on the other hand performs much faster whit a ssd and you will love the booting times

If you'r going for hhd there is a trick of making it perform much better:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/255224/how_to_partition_your_hard_drive_to_optimize_performance.html

 

[P1nnacle]

Well a good performing 60gb ssd cost range is 60-70$

It also depends if your going for win8 or win7, whit win8 you wont notice a big difference.
win7 on the other hand performs much faster whit a ssd and you will love the booting times

If you'r going for hhd there is a trick of making it perform much better:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/255224/how_to_partition_your_hard_drive_to_optimize_performance.html

Good points, I'd just point out that lower sized models of SSDs tend to have lower read/write speeds (which kind of defeats the purpose).

Also, I don't really watch my computer boot, so whether or not it takes 10 seconds or 30 isn't very important to me, and I honestly don't think I've ever noticed huge wait times with a HDD. But hey, different people value different things.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

1. If you stare at the screen and make comparisons ...and SSD seems worth it. But basically it comes down to this:

Better HD's will boot in about 20 seconds
Better SSHD's will boot in about 16 seconds
Better SSD's will boot in 11-15 seconds

In a $1,000 build, I can't make a case for an SSD...maybe an SSHD (Seagate Momentus XT 750 GB 7200rpm). Im typing form a lappie with one.....one on next desk has SSD and HD.... you need a stopwatch or benchmark to tell which one is which.

2. The best time to buy is always 2 days after ya place ya order.... just watch for sales and specials

3. From the $140 price point up, I'm buying nVidia (650 Ti Boost level and up), I use AMD below that

4. If you have no apps that need hyperthreading, stick with the 4670k...

5. At $90, I don't see anything competing with the 500R ...especially with the combo discounts
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139010


This is $1,004

MoBo - $385 - MSI Z87-G45 http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1434463
GFX - included - MSI Gaming N760 TF 2GD5/OC GeForce GTX 760 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127745

CPU - $230 - Intel Core i5-4670k http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116899

Case - $170 - Corsair 500R http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1390812
PSU - included - Corsair TX750 $200 - $30 MIR

RAM - $80 - (2 x 4GB) Muskin CAS 9 DDR3-1866 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226223

Cooler - $30 - Hyper 212 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

HD - $90 - WD Black 1 TB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533
SSD - Later - Samsung 840 Pro 128GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147192

DVD Writer - $19 - Asus DVD Burner http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135304

 

[challedude]

Its true that 60$ for the performance that a ssd gives isin't probaly worth it.

Whit the 60-70$ you could buy a high end Cpu Cooler, overclock your i5 and get more performance boost compared to a ssd for the same price.
Totally up to your desires 😀

 

[P1nnacle]

If I'm building a 1000 dollar gaming PC, I'm looking for power in the GPU and CPU sections; Hell I can wait for the loading screen, I just don't want crappy visuals or stutter when I'm playing the game.

 

[challedude]

Well then we shouldent have a argumet about it 😛.

Have you thought about sli or crossfire in some cases you get more performance for the money.

Myself i prefer Sli but there is also many disavantages like:
- takes more room in case and produces more heat
- need more juice witch means you need bigger psu
- one card usualy performs better than 2 cards thought you get better fps whit 2
-you need a motherboard whit sli/crossfire compability
If you'r fine whit those disadvantages, then you can get the most performance for the money.

 

[P1nnacle]

Well then we shouldent have a argumet about it 😛.

Have you thought about sli or crossfire in some cases you get more performance for the money.

Myself i prefer Sli but there is also many disavantages like:
- takes more room in case and produces more heat
- need more juice witch means you need bigger psu
- one card usualy performs better than 2 cards thought you get better fps whit 2
-you need a motherboard whit sli/crossfire compability
If you'r fine whit those disadvantages, then you can get the most performance for the money.

Dont forget that it can be a complete pain to set up and maintain. When I upgrade I'll never think about doing SLI again.

 

[badboyrog]

about the SLI problems... it become a old story now with the new drivers and it depend on which games.. because you have a lot of games who are now SLI OPTIMIZED

 

[P1nnacle]

about the SLI problems... it become a old story now with the new drivers and it depend on which games.. because you have a lot of games who are now SLI OPTIMIZED

Not true. I actually just reinstalled Windows yesterday because SLI was giving me problems that neither Nvidia or EVGA could give me an answer for. SLI is an incredibly finicky system. The annoying part is that it wasn't a driver or game problem. It was a PCIe mistake.

 

[challedude]

I had alot of problems when i used HyperSli mod to enable Sli.

Now i got a good motherboard and dont have any problems with sli.

If you get the setup right u will be ok.

 

[P1nnacle]

I had alot of problems when i used HyperSli mod to enable Sli.

Now i got a good motherbard and dont have any problems witch sli.

If you get the setup right u will be ok.

True, but it's the little things that get you. My problem was that I had a 1x card in the 3rd x16 slot, which for whatever reason caused SLI to disable itself. Took me over a month to figure out that problem, and neither Nvidia or EVGA were able to provide the answer. I actually called them back and told them what I did so that they could help others like me.

 

[challedude]

Sli problems is usualy small misstakes that ruins the setup.

My self i struggled few days with red flickering screen, when you played a fullscreen game.
The problem was just the slibridge that needed a little push to sit correctly... 😀

 

[P1nnacle]

That's my point, all these silly little things, if OP is a first time builder then it will be so much more frustration than they will want.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Not true. I actually just reinstalled Windows yesterday because SLI was giving me problems that neither Nvidia or EVGA could give me an answer for. SLI is an incredibly finicky system. The annoying part is that it wasn't a driver or game problem. It was a PCIe mistake.

80% of the builds I have done since the 5xx series have been SLI.... not one user has reported a SLI related problem. I have two rules tho:

-Nothing less than a 650 Ti Boost.
-minimum 9.5 jonnyguru rated rated PSU .....10.0 if overclocking

 

[JackNaylorPE]

True, but it's the little things that get you. My problem was that I had a 1x card in the 3rd x16 slot, which for whatever reason caused SLI to disable itself. Took me over a month to figure out that problem, and neither Nvidia or EVGA were able to provide the answer. I actually called them back and told them what I did so that they could help others like me.

That information is usually in the reviews or manual. I always suggest downloading the manual after ya place the order (if not b4) and reading the manual cover to cover while waiting for the parts to arrive.

Unless the MoBo includes a PLX PEX8747 PCI-E 3.0 lane switch or something to handle the extra needed PCIE lanes, current MoBos are only able to support a pair of graphics cards at x8 speed. With three cards installed, sixteen PCI-E Gen 3 lanes from the processor will be split as x8/x4/x4.....which meets requirements for CF but not SLI

 

[P1nnacle]

True, but it's the little things that get you. My problem was that I had a 1x card in the 3rd x16 slot, which for whatever reason caused SLI to disable itself. Took me over a month to figure out that problem, and neither Nvidia or EVGA were able to provide the answer. I actually called them back and told them what I did so that they could help others like me.

That information is usually in the reviews or manual. I always suggest downloading the manual after ya place the order (if not b4) and reading the manual cover to cover while waiting for the parts to arrive.

Unless the MoBo includes a PLX PEX8747 PCI-E 3.0 lane switch or something to handle the extra needed PCIE lanes, current MoBos are only able to support a pair of graphics cards at x8 speed. With three cards installed, sixteen PCI-E Gen 3 lanes from the processor will be split as x8/x4/x4.....which meets requirements for CF but not SLI

I knew this, it just didn't occur to me at the time. I had to have my memory refreshed.