New Gaming Build, (~$900), Looking for Advice

[rtakeuchi11]

Hello, I would appreciate it if anyone could help me decide on a desktop build for moderate gaming, under $900. Thanks in advance.


Approximate Purchase Date: By the end of the year

Budget Range: 850-900 After rebates/shipping (I have Amazon Prime)

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming

Are you buying a monitor: No

Parts to Buy:

CPU (Intel Preferred)
RAM (8GB)
Graphics (Maybe GTX 660? Plan to game with for a while)
Hard Drive (Don't need SSD, 500GB is fine)
Power Supply
Case
Motherboard
Optical Drive


Do you need to buy OS: Yes, Windows 7

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Amazon, any is fine

Location: City, State/Region, Country - San Diego, CA

Parts Preferences: Intel, NVIDIA

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1600x900


And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Old desktop is out of date for gaming

 

[butremor]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($149.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($87.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ Microcenter)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB Video Card ($292.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-222BB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $876.96
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-21 12:28 EST-0500)


Video recommended from this article:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-ti-memory-bandwidth-anti-aliasing,3283-17.html

 

[andrewcarr]

Only thing I'd change is the GPU to this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202006
But besides that it looks great.

 

[iceclock]

both are good but actually the 660gtxti is a bit faster than the 7950 in some games.

so it all depends on what games u wanna play and whats cheaper atm.

but its certain that both cards are good bang for bucks choices

 

[andrewcarr]

Yes the 660 Ti is faster in some and the 7950 is faster in more. But overclock the 7950 and it'll be pretty much faster in all games even if you overclock the 660 Ti.

 

[DeusAres]

For the same price, you can get a 1TB HDD

Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=74462&vpn=WD10EZEX&manufacture=Western%20Digital%20WD&promoid=1285

 

[andrewcarr]

I'd rather have a black. Just since it's his only drive, you want the extra bit of speed.

 

[DeusAres]

Psh, I'd rather have double the storage and sacrifice a bit of speed. You're still getting a HDD that runs at 7200rpm and has a 64MB cache. If you want more speed, I'd go with a Seagate Barracuda 1TB.

Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM 64MB SATA 6Gbps
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=65701&vpn=ST1000DM003&manufacture=Seagate&promoid=1285

This is my opinion. The OP is more than welcome to choose whichever drive he wants.

 

[iceclock]

yes the caviar black is quite solid and faster than most. id recommand these over most hard-drives.

 

[butremor]

Why are you even talking about 7950, OP stated he wants nvidia.

 

[andrewcarr]

Missed that, my bad.

Also the Seagate drives have a higher failure rate and I'd never get one. Also they aren't faster.

 

[iceclock]

he said he prefers nvidia, no harm done in recommanding an alternative

 

[DeusAres]

Missed that, my bad.

Also the Seagate drives have a higher failure rate and I'd never get one. Also they aren't faster.

They are plenty fast. I never stated they were faster than the Caviar Blacks. However, they can compete. And every Seagate drive I have owned has performed well. Never had one fail on me. Been running strong for years. There's no reason to be brand loyal; especially when you can get double the storage for less.

Why are you even talking about 7950, OP stated he wants nvidia.

That doesn't mean we aren't allowed to offer suggestions and insights of our own. The HD 7950 is a worthy contender. However, for his resolution, it isn't necessary.

 

[andrewcarr]

By isn't really necessary he could really go down to a 660 then.

 

[iceclock]

there both decent, gtx 660ti or 7950, really depends on what games he plays some favour amd , some favour nvidia.

 

[jonjonjon]

I'd rather have a black. Just since it's his only drive, you want the extra bit of speed.

blacks are loud as hell. id take double the storage. id actually consider to go down to a 7870 or 660 and add a ssd but i know he said he doesnt want one.

 

[iceclock]

i take speed over noise anyday tbh. but thats just me

 

[jonjonjon]

i take speed over noise anyday tbh. but thats just me

how much speed are we talking about? will you be able to notice the difference they are both 7200RMP and 64MB cache. and the blacks i have had are really annoying.

 

[iceclock]

i just know the caviar blacks are one of the top mechanical 7200rpm drives, that doesnt include raptors but those are pricey adn 10k+rpm per second.

only other drive thats faster is the seagate xt but there like over 200$

 

[jonjonjon]

yea i'm not saying its not faster. i just don't know how much of a difference there would be.

 

[iceclock]

prob atleast 10-20megs read and write atleast i beleive.

 

[andrewcarr]

I have a 500 GB black and the noise doesn't bother me at all. As for the size let the OP decide. If he really thinks he could use the extra space then go for the larger drive but otherwise I'd just take the faster and more reliable one.

 

[iceclock]

+1 to andrews response

 

[rtakeuchi11]

Best answer selected by rtakeuchi11.

 

[rtakeuchi11]

Thank you guys for the replies, I wasn't near a computer so I wasn't able to check back on this thread.

Everything seems perfect, I really appreciate it.
Enjoy your holidays!