Too Much of a Headache Deciding on a Build

[Z_H]

The past couple days I've been searching around the internet for a "good" gaming build. After watching several youtube videos, reading other people's opinions on forums and staring at charts for hours, I realized I'm in over my head. I want something that can play basically any game out there on max settings at 1080p at a smooth frame rate. I've been told that would this would be 60 FPS at least. I use the word "basically" loosely because I don't nessicerely play graphically intensive games like Farcry, but I would still like to have the option to. Price isn't really an issue I'd just like to be up to par, if you understand.

 

[sharingan5]

In that case, go for a very good graphics card, that is what decides the gaming experience. The parts will vary depending on where you are located.

 

[Jack Revenant]

The past couple days I've been searching around the internet for a "good" gaming build. After watching several youtube videos, reading other people's opinions on forums and staring at charts for hours, I realized I'm in over my head. I want something that can play basically any game out there on max settings at 1080p at a smooth frame rate. I've been told that would this would be 60 FPS at least. I use the word "basically" loosely because I don't nessicerely play graphically intensive games like Farcry, but I would still like to have the option to. Price isn't really an issue I'd just like to be up to par, if you understand.

We can certainly produce such a build, but we'd need to know your location, your planned use (that is, pure gaming, gaming/video editing, etc.), whether you were okay with CrossFire/SLI, and whether you wanted to overclock. Having a general budget is also helpful, because, honestly you can always add more interesting things to a PC, and some of us (myself in particular) have a hard time stopping until we run up against the limit of the budget.

 

[crisan_tiberiu]

Personaly my next build could look like:
Intel Core i5 3570K / AMD FX 8350 + a custom cooler (depending on personal preference)
A good Mobo with more than average features (personaly ill go for AsRock)
a minimum of 8GB of ram (i like Geil alot, but you are in the US and u cant buy them)
Constant 60FPS?? well then a min of GTX 670 or a Radeon 7970 (personalyy ill go for the 7970), not reference designs...(personaly i like Asus with the DirectCU coolers)
And ofc a min of 128GB SSD + 1TB of HDD storage
And a brand PSU of min 600W (personaly i would go for Enermax or Corsair)
Thats about it

 

[Z_H]

The past couple days I've been searching around the internet for a "good" gaming build. After watching several youtube videos, reading other people's opinions on forums and staring at charts for hours, I realized I'm in over my head. I want something that can play basically any game out there on max settings at 1080p at a smooth frame rate. I've been told that would this would be 60 FPS at least. I use the word "basically" loosely because I don't nessicerely play graphically intensive games like Farcry, but I would still like to have the option to. Price isn't really an issue I'd just like to be up to par, if you understand.

We can certainly produce such a build, but we'd need to know your location, your planned use (that is, pure gaming, gaming/video editing, etc.), whether you were okay with CrossFire/SLI, and whether you wanted to overclock. Having a general budget is also helpful, because, honestly you can always add more interesting things to a PC, and some of us (myself in particular) have a hard time stopping until we run up against the limit of the budget.

I'm in Canada. Gaming and video watching. I would defiantly like the option of CrossFire/SLI in the future. I am going to overclock. I understand what you mean about having a budget, but I honestly don't. I'm going to spend as much as I need to get the performance I'm looking for.

 

[Jack Revenant]

The past couple days I've been searching around the internet for a "good" gaming build. After watching several youtube videos, reading other people's opinions on forums and staring at charts for hours, I realized I'm in over my head. I want something that can play basically any game out there on max settings at 1080p at a smooth frame rate. I've been told that would this would be 60 FPS at least. I use the word "basically" loosely because I don't nessicerely play graphically intensive games like Farcry, but I would still like to have the option to. Price isn't really an issue I'd just like to be up to par, if you understand.

We can certainly produce such a build, but we'd need to know your location, your planned use (that is, pure gaming, gaming/video editing, etc.), whether you were okay with CrossFire/SLI, and whether you wanted to overclock. Having a general budget is also helpful, because, honestly you can always add more interesting things to a PC, and some of us (myself in particular) have a hard time stopping until we run up against the limit of the budget.

I'm in Canada. Gaming and video watching. I would defiantly like the option of CrossFire/SLI in the future. I am going to overclock. I understand what you mean about having a budget, but I honestly don't. I'm going to spend as much as I need to get the performance I'm looking for.

Alright, that being the case, you now face what I like to call the "Crysis choice". That is, do you want to max Crysis 3? If not, the build required will be much less costly. Crysis 3 is one of the few games I've seen that requires dual 7970 to max it at 1080p (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crysis-3-performance-benchmark-gaming,3451-6.html), and pretty much any other game can be handled with a single 7970 (though Far Cry also requires two, to my recallection). So you essentially face a choice between spending a much larger amount, but being able to max literally any game, or spending a more reasonable amount, and maxing any game which was made to be maxed with today's hardware.
I should also note, now, that buying at just this moment is somewhat unwise. Haswell is right around the corner, as is the nVidia 700 series, and both of those things will shake up build recommendations quite a lot.

Edit: That said, pretty much every other component will be unchanged, so you could still get 90% of a build done now, with Ivy Bride and current GPUs as stand-ins (heck, you may even keep the GPUs. We don't have benchmarks for the 700 series yet).

 

[Whisp_362]

Wait for less than a month and go with Haswell and the new Geforce 7xx series and new AMD series GFX.

As a hint the new battlefield (BF4) is optimised to run on a quad core and a duel slot 7990, duel graphics chip card.

Your system should include either a duel chip solution or SLI/Cross Fire and it should also include >4 cores..either an i7 or AMD..personally for performance go with intel.

 

[Jack Revenant]

Wait for less than a month and go with Haswell and the new Geforce 7xx series and new AMD series GFX.

As a hint the new battlefield (BF4) is optimised to run on a quad core and a duel slot 7990, duel graphics chip card.

Your system should include either a duel chip solution or SLI/Cross Fire and it should also include >4 cores..either an i7 or AMD..personally for performance go with intel.

Normally I would say that an i7 is overkill, but with a true "money is no object" build, the mild future-proofing of Hyperthreading may actually be justified.

 

[avjguy2362]

Expensive, but by no means over the top, just very high quality throughout. Set the over-provisioning on the Samsung 256Pro to 14%, double the standard amount to guarantee fast performance all the time. The 500GB data drive has slower writes, but just as fast reads for data. Add more 2 to 3 TB drives as needed, speed is not critical with these. The CPU and MB are premium, and will be just as powerful for non-gaming. 16GB Quad Channel Crucial Ballistic Tactical 1866 Memory as recommend by Tom's. The Corsair PS has literally no relevant ripple and silent, no fan when not gaming. The Swiftech water cooler is up-gradable to cool the GPUs with it's 6 watt pump. Add about $200 to $250 for GPU water blocks and you are near silent and cool. I could go with either AMD or NVidia 7970 or 680 GPU's, I have little preference at that level. I left out the case, but any full size case with dual120mm or larger fans on the top surface will work fine. Too many cases, all very similar. I actually Prefer Silverstone's rotated MB cases, but they are only good for air cooling as they have no where inside to put the dual 120MM WC radiators without screwing up the awesome bottom to top airflow. That's my take if I had several thousand dollars to throw at it and wanted a solid long lasting system.


Intel i7-3820: CPU > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115229
Asus Sabertooth X79: MB > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131801
Crucial Ballistic Tactical 1866 2X (2x4GB) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148555
Corsair i860: PS > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139041
Samsung 840Pro 256GB: OS SSD > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147193
Samsung 840 500GB: Data Drive > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147190
Sapphire 7970GhzOC: GPU X2 > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202005
Swiftech H220: Water Cooling > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835108183