Next Build ~$1500 for Gaming

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Mythrol

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Feb 1, 2010
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I'm back again because every build I do I like it to pass through here and get you guys opinion on it. As usual I really appreciate all of the input that everyone gives and I thank you in advance.

Approximate Purchase Date: During the Month of April

Budget Range: ~$1500.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming.

Are you buying a monitor: No.


Parts to Upgrade:


CPU: $219. Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504

GPU: $439 AR. Galaxy 67NQH6DN6KXZ GeForce GTX 670 GC 4GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162118

MOBO: $139. GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD3H LGA 1155 Intel Z77
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128544

RAM: $124. CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233197

SSD: $139. SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD128BW 2.5" 128GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147192

PSU: $139. SeaSonic X750 Gold 750W 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151087

CASE: $99 AR. Corsair Carbide Series 500R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139010

HEATSINK: $109. CORSAIR Hydro Series H100i Water Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181032

TOTAL: $1407

Note** I already have two WD Black 1TB drives I will be using for this build.


Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg

Location: Louisiana, lets keep it to online purchases

Parts Preferences: None

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Your Monitor Resolution: 1080p

Additional Comments: if also like advice on fans because I want a quiet system.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Because its fun.
 
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($80.84 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LK ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($104.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($47.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card ($377.28 @ TigerDirect)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($104.45 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1100.51
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-06 10:18 EDT-0400)

This is going to be a quiet system. You could get some silent case fans, like the Corsair ones.
 


I do really like that case. Man that makes it a hard choice because it also has the top mount for a radiator. Thanks for your input.
 
This would be better.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($80.84 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-GD55 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($125.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($47.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($159.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card ($389.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Fractal Design Define XL R2 (Titanium Grey) ATX Full Tower Case ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1184.75
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-06 11:21 EDT-0400)
 
PSU and Ram are overkill, 6000W and 8GB 1600 MHz is enough.
ASUS GTX 670 Dcuii is better in terms of noise level compared to Galaxy's.
consider Swiftech H220 liquid cooler, which i believe is better in terms of noise level compared to H100i.
also, less case fans = less noise
 
Thanks for the comments guys.a couple of questions. Would the PSU be overkill if later I might add SLI? I do realize its expensive but being fully modular, high quality, and good for SLI as well as being 80Gold was what I was thinking. The ram I figured was overkill but is there any point to it, future proofing anything that would make sense for a gaming build to have 16gb? With the new consoles coming this year I kind of wanted a couple years of not having to really worry about upgrading except maybe SLI. It's the same reason I went with a 4gb GPU.

Ill be honest with you guys, I'm not going to be good with a liquid cooling system that I have to maintain at all. That's why I picked a close loop system with the H100i. I'm lazy and I work long hours, I know if I have to worry about adding liquids I'm going to forget and not do it or get frustrated with it. I have much respect for you guys that can but I know I'm not one.

Kamen a couple questions, why the switch from 670 to the 7970? Simply cutting costs? Also the same with the CPU cooler? I was under the impression that a radiator with a closed loop would be better than air based cooling.

I will say that's an awesome deal on that Samsung SSD and the CPU. Thank You. It's totally worth spending $20 extra on the SSD to almost double the size when you can save $30 on the CPU just by purchasing elsewhere.
 
the 4GB 670 has no real extra performance towards gaming but it helps with bandwidth issue a little bit. To put it short, its not really all that.

the 7970 is a lot stronger than the 670 and depending on what type of 7970 you can get, you can BIOS switch it to a 7970 GHz and make it an unlocked card.(gigabyte is locked fully even after bios switch)

H100i does not perform all that great for its price given. The only thing it allows you to do is have tall heatsink rams over the Air coolers which are far cheaper and give just as much performance.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Xigmatek AEGIR SD128264 89.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LK ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($104.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($47.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Plextor M5S Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($84.99 @ Microcenter)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB Video Card ($425.91 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Kingwin Lazer Platinum 850W 80 PLUS Platinum Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($15.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $1154.81
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-06 13:23 EDT-0400)

The GPUs that i wanted to get(regular 7970s) are pretty much sold out everywhere but if you do see a Sapphire 7970 come back, you should grab it. the regular sapphire 7970 is a dual-X card so it is pretty much a toned down Vapor-X and you can bios switch it to make it into a 7970 GHz.

You have quite a bit of money left over so you can either save it or spend it on:
-Bigger SSD(not really needed, small SSDs will do when you have HDDs already)
-Upgrading motherboard(again not needed since most people don't use a lot of features on high end boards or you can get a board with Dual BIOS is you are afraid of screwing something up)
-turn 8GB ram to 16GB(most games can't even achieve more than 4GB of ram but they are getting close. Also that you can reuse the Ram for a future build)
 
Extra money? spend it on case and PSU, get a bigger case or nicer looking case, better and higher wattage PSU. there is still extra money leftover? keep it for future upgrade.
 
Boulbox thanks for all the great information. You've really got me considering a Radeon which I hadn't done before. Also that power supply is an awesome find. I'm definitely getting that one.

I'm still on the fence about which cooler to get because I like the clean look of the H100i and being able to hide away the radiator as opposed to the big bulky look of an air cooler. You guys have saved me so much money with these suggestions that I might not mind overspending on the CPU cooler a bit to get a cleaner look I like.

Is there another self contained liquid cool system that would work better than the H100i?
 


Higher wattage is useless when the max you will use is 750-800 when CFX and OCed and if you get a higher wattage PSU, you might not be in the sweet spot where efficiency is the best not to mention he is not going to CFX at the start and lose more money by getting more watts

And yes i do agree that if he wanted to do a closed loop, h220 would be his option but if he is a bit experienced in watercooling, a custom loop would be pretty good too.
 
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($36.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($62.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($379.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($379.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 922 ATX Mid Tower Case ($105.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($83.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1479.89
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-06 23:40 EDT-0400)

This will get the best FPS of any listed above.
 
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($108.10 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V PRO/THUNDERBOLT ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($209.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($51.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 680 4GB Video Card ($589.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional 750W 80 PLUS Silver Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.96 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 Full (64-bit) ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1499.99
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-07 00:12 EDT-0400)

Didn't list storage, but I recommend SSHD from Seagate.
 


Oh please don't suggest a CX750, they are just crap and should only be gotten in the 400-500W range.

As for Aonor, i7 not needed, gives as much FPS as an i5. and if you say "many games are taking advantage of multi-core now" yes, while that is true, it is not the same for threads. i7 and i5 have the same amount of cores, i7 has hyperthreading so it has 8 threads instead of i5's 4 threads

680 is not worth it. The 670 has 95% the performance of a 680.
This PSU is pretty much the same as the HX series
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1750bbefx
made by the same OEM and has the silent fan feature where it does not turn on when it is not needed.

the ASUS z77-V pro is just overpriced and not needed when gigabyte motherboards will have the same thing for less cheaper and have the same quality.
 
I didn't expect this much of a response. Thank you to everyone. Weird the reviews I've read have the H100i as a good system. Rated higher than some of the others suggested.

Just from the Ram, PSU, and video card (think I'm going to go with a 7970) you guys have saved me a good chunk of cash.

Edit: I didn't even realize that the Sapphire 7970 comes with BSInfinite and Crysis 3. Two games I was holding off on purchasing until I built this system. That right there is huge incentive to get the 7970 because I look at that as nearly $100 savings right there.
 
your build is very good even i dont think you may need so much ram for gaming!
also there are many better cards of a 670!like the gigabyte oc edition windorce!
 
Just an update. With all the money saved on other parts and having a budget of $1500 I decided to change my focus just a bit because I think I'm going to want to record gameplay sessions sometimes and post them. So I changed my build using everyone's advice as well as choosing to keep certain things that I just have a person preference for and below is the final build unless someone sees something horrible standing out.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($309.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($108.10 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($109.99 @ Best Buy)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($159.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB Video Card ($425.91 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 500R White ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Kingwin Lazer Platinum 850W 80 PLUS Platinum Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($15.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $1459.93
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-07 13:42 EDT-0400)

I chose to upgrade the CPU for video editing purposes and to keep the 16GB of ram for the same reason. I'm using the Gigabyte Mobo because I trust them and the GPU I'm getting reviews say if you want to crossfire later then you need a Mobo that has two PCIE slots between the 3.0s which the Gigabyte has enough space for them.

Thanks to everyone it was a great help on this build.
 
It should actually have 2x3.0 slots, newegg made a mistake on that. but either way you can CFX/SLI with it. Also if you don't want to deal with the rebate, you can just switch back to the ud3h
 


Awesome. That's a great find. Thank you. Another $30 saved.
 


The diffrences in rendering times is a less then 5 min. on something that would take an hour on an i5. Not worth the 100 bucks, dude. It's more for people who render videos 12 hours a day, 5 days a week. Even when rendering i don't know if you will use all of 8gb, to be honest. Again, mostly not worth it. Dropping the i7 to i5, and 16gb to 8 gives you 140 less to save to get the next 7970. How many screens do you have? If it just one, one GPU is fine.
 


Thanks for this input. When put in that light it's totally not worth the "upgrades". Not for me yet. And yes for now I have 1 monitor. If I upgrade to a second 7970 it will be in a year or two after we start seeing the next generation of games dropping.
 
Don't bother with the "will upgrade in a year or two" bullshit. People always say that but 90% will never do. Do you know why? because many new cards will be out by then and most people will have the thought "should i buy a second one of this GPU or sell my GPU and buy a top of the line newest card on the market" and most of them will go with the second choice.

If doing so, just swap down to a 550W-650W to save some money
 


I guess I will have to check out what performance gains are had in 18 months and compare to see what I'm going to do. Either Crossfire or get an entirely new GPU. I do want the option however without having to upgrade my PSU as well.

On a side note the Sapphire 7970 GHZ is now out of stock everywhere!!! Darn. Is there another brand 7970 to look at or just wait for it to come in stock again?
 
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