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Right, so I'm planning on building my own PC for gaming. I have never done this before, so I'm after a bit of help, just to make sure that I haven't screwed any of this up.
Basically, overall I have around $1800~ to spend all up. So far my build prices out to around $1750~, with everything included. My basic goal is to be able to run all games at max settings. To make this a realistic goal in my price range, I'm going for 1080p, not 1440p.
I've seen a few other threads around here on the same subject, but everyone has their own needs, so I'm making one of my own. Here is my list of parts. I'm going to be buying this from the website www.pccasegear.com, so all the links go there.
Let's start with stuff I know nothing about:
Corsair Carbide 300R Compact Gaming Case $109
Ok, so I did quite a bit of research into the case. According to some reviews I looked at it's very good in terms of both fitting everything in there, keeping everything relatively cool, and not being noisy as hell. I also like the idea of having something small and not flashy that doesn't have 10 LEDs glowing blue all over the place. I like it's relatively simplicity, and that fact that it doesn't look like all that much. It seems quite subtle. So basically, am I missing something? Is there a reason I shouldn't get it?
Corsair TX-650M Modular Power Supply $129
I have no idea whatsoever about this. I think I just stole someone elses suggestion from another thread. Comments?
ASUS P8Z77-V LK Motherboard $165.
Same as above. I honestly know less than nothing about motherboards. Does this support all of the other things I'm buying? Should I be buying something better? I honestly don't understand what they do, apart from the fact that they're the thing you plug stuff into. All I know is that it's compatible with my CPU, my case says something about ATX, and so does this.
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler $36
Do I need a CPU cooler? Don't they come with one?
G.Skill Ripjaws F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 $59
It's ram. Should I get better ram? Should I get cheaper ram? Should I get more ram? I have no clue.
CPU:
Intel Core i5 3570K $239
It was either this, or the i5 2500k. Considering the new generation costs only $10 more, is there any reason not to get it?
I should also point out that at this stage I'm not really planning on overclocking. I may or may not decide to in the future though.
Graphics Card:
Gigabyte Radeon HD7870 2GB Overclocked $349
Ok, so this is probably the thing that I am most unsure about. I've read a lot of things, and none of them tell me specifically whether I should AMD or Nvidia. What I do know, is that this card seems to be very good, and it should be more than sufficient for 1080p gaming. This is the review I'm basing this on btw.
So basically, my question here is the same as before really. Am I missing some kind of information? Should I be going for a Nvidia card in the same price range? I don't really want to spend more than $350 on a graphics card at this point. Also, if I do decide to go to 1440p, is there any reason I couldn't just add another one of these cards, and do the crossfire?
The rest of the stuff:
Intel 330 Series 180GB SSD $169
So, I haven't had an SSD before, except in my iPhone. But I do know that I want one, and that I want one that can fit everything that I'll be primarily doing. I've read a review on this one that makes me unsure, but I don't really care about write speeds. The only reason I want an SSD is for my OS, general apps and games. Will this suffice for this?
Western Digital WD Green 2TB WD20EARX $115
Ok, so it's a 2TB HD that costs $115. I'll be using this for storing media, and whatever else I want to. Won't use it all that often. I plan to keep all my main stuff on my SSD. I've also had good experiences with WD on my elements external HD.
Samsung SH-222BB SATA DVDRW Drive OEM $22
I haven't used a CD or DVD drive in a long long time. But I figure i'll need one to actually install windows in the first place heh. I doubt i'll ever use it after that, but probably best to have it just in case.
Samsung S24B300H 24in Widescreen LED Monitor $179
So, I've got a friend who swears by Samsung for displays, and frankly, his does look pretty good. It seems to come down to this, or Asus. And Samsungs look better aesthetically imo.
Filco Majestouch2 $150
This is probably the thing I was the most indecisive over. Initially I was planning on the Razer Blackwidow Stealth version. But that sold out, and I've resigned myself to paying $150 for a keyboard. Is there something significantly better for the same price? I did a lot of reading, and this is the one I like the look of the most.
So, that's pretty much that. I'm basically looking for feedback about my selections, and whether I'd be better off doing something different somewhere. If this all looks good, I'll be pretty happy, as not only does it seem like it'll do what I want, it'll also do it for $1700. Which isn't bad considering that I have to buy everything except a mouse. (I have a Razer Deathadder, which I'll probably switch for a Steelseries sensei at some point)
I'm planning on buying all of this within the next week. Appreciate any comments.
I'll also add this to the end, just in case I missed any of it in the actual post.
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Primarily gaming, bit of web browsing.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
1750. The website im buying from is linked, I'll be picking the stuff up from the warehouse.
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Australia.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Is everything but a mouse a valid answer?
Anyway,everything's listed above.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Mouse.
6) Will you be overclocking?
Maybe, I like to keep my options open.
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
24" 1080p. Or, it will be.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within the next week.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
I honestly have no idea. I think the one I picked has all of that though.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, 64bit. Win7.
Edit: I was referred to this forum when I was asking for advice on another. I wish I'd found this place before I started thinking about building. Would of made my life a lot easier. You guys have great resources here though. I'll definitely be coming here more often in the future.
Basically, overall I have around $1800~ to spend all up. So far my build prices out to around $1750~, with everything included. My basic goal is to be able to run all games at max settings. To make this a realistic goal in my price range, I'm going for 1080p, not 1440p.
I've seen a few other threads around here on the same subject, but everyone has their own needs, so I'm making one of my own. Here is my list of parts. I'm going to be buying this from the website www.pccasegear.com, so all the links go there.
Let's start with stuff I know nothing about:
Corsair Carbide 300R Compact Gaming Case $109
Ok, so I did quite a bit of research into the case. According to some reviews I looked at it's very good in terms of both fitting everything in there, keeping everything relatively cool, and not being noisy as hell. I also like the idea of having something small and not flashy that doesn't have 10 LEDs glowing blue all over the place. I like it's relatively simplicity, and that fact that it doesn't look like all that much. It seems quite subtle. So basically, am I missing something? Is there a reason I shouldn't get it?
Corsair TX-650M Modular Power Supply $129
I have no idea whatsoever about this. I think I just stole someone elses suggestion from another thread. Comments?
ASUS P8Z77-V LK Motherboard $165.
Same as above. I honestly know less than nothing about motherboards. Does this support all of the other things I'm buying? Should I be buying something better? I honestly don't understand what they do, apart from the fact that they're the thing you plug stuff into. All I know is that it's compatible with my CPU, my case says something about ATX, and so does this.
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler $36
Do I need a CPU cooler? Don't they come with one?
G.Skill Ripjaws F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 $59
It's ram. Should I get better ram? Should I get cheaper ram? Should I get more ram? I have no clue.
CPU:
Intel Core i5 3570K $239
It was either this, or the i5 2500k. Considering the new generation costs only $10 more, is there any reason not to get it?
I should also point out that at this stage I'm not really planning on overclocking. I may or may not decide to in the future though.
Graphics Card:
Gigabyte Radeon HD7870 2GB Overclocked $349
Ok, so this is probably the thing that I am most unsure about. I've read a lot of things, and none of them tell me specifically whether I should AMD or Nvidia. What I do know, is that this card seems to be very good, and it should be more than sufficient for 1080p gaming. This is the review I'm basing this on btw.
So basically, my question here is the same as before really. Am I missing some kind of information? Should I be going for a Nvidia card in the same price range? I don't really want to spend more than $350 on a graphics card at this point. Also, if I do decide to go to 1440p, is there any reason I couldn't just add another one of these cards, and do the crossfire?
The rest of the stuff:
Intel 330 Series 180GB SSD $169
So, I haven't had an SSD before, except in my iPhone. But I do know that I want one, and that I want one that can fit everything that I'll be primarily doing. I've read a review on this one that makes me unsure, but I don't really care about write speeds. The only reason I want an SSD is for my OS, general apps and games. Will this suffice for this?
Western Digital WD Green 2TB WD20EARX $115
Ok, so it's a 2TB HD that costs $115. I'll be using this for storing media, and whatever else I want to. Won't use it all that often. I plan to keep all my main stuff on my SSD. I've also had good experiences with WD on my elements external HD.
Samsung SH-222BB SATA DVDRW Drive OEM $22
I haven't used a CD or DVD drive in a long long time. But I figure i'll need one to actually install windows in the first place heh. I doubt i'll ever use it after that, but probably best to have it just in case.
Samsung S24B300H 24in Widescreen LED Monitor $179
So, I've got a friend who swears by Samsung for displays, and frankly, his does look pretty good. It seems to come down to this, or Asus. And Samsungs look better aesthetically imo.
Filco Majestouch2 $150
This is probably the thing I was the most indecisive over. Initially I was planning on the Razer Blackwidow Stealth version. But that sold out, and I've resigned myself to paying $150 for a keyboard. Is there something significantly better for the same price? I did a lot of reading, and this is the one I like the look of the most.
So, that's pretty much that. I'm basically looking for feedback about my selections, and whether I'd be better off doing something different somewhere. If this all looks good, I'll be pretty happy, as not only does it seem like it'll do what I want, it'll also do it for $1700. Which isn't bad considering that I have to buy everything except a mouse. (I have a Razer Deathadder, which I'll probably switch for a Steelseries sensei at some point)
I'm planning on buying all of this within the next week. Appreciate any comments.
I'll also add this to the end, just in case I missed any of it in the actual post.
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Primarily gaming, bit of web browsing.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
1750. The website im buying from is linked, I'll be picking the stuff up from the warehouse.
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Australia.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Is everything but a mouse a valid answer?
Anyway,everything's listed above. 5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Mouse.
6) Will you be overclocking?
Maybe, I like to keep my options open.
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
24" 1080p. Or, it will be.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within the next week.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
I honestly have no idea.
I think the one I picked has all of that though.10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, 64bit. Win7.
Edit: I was referred to this forum when I was asking for advice on another. I wish I'd found this place before I started thinking about building. Would of made my life a lot easier.
You guys have great resources here though. I'll definitely be coming here more often in the future.
