New build soon, general advice welcome :D

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

Majority of what I'll be doing is gaming (certain MMO's, Borderlands 2 CS:GO etc. etc. etc.)

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

Around 2,000 u.s. dollars. I can go higher if there's a certain component that necessitates a slight hike in price/performance.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

Modesto California, United states.

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.

Trying to avoid using the word "Everything", this is a complete new build of all components to a desktop pc, aside from keyboard (Just bought a custom keyboard from wasdkeyboards.com). Case, mobo, gpu, cpu, ram, psu, hard drive (more than likely i'd like a decent SSD for my OS drive and then a decent 1tb'ish sized possibly western digital black for storage, optical drive (possibly a budget blu-ray player, if not dvd-rw will work,) 2x monitors (This is my first build that i'll be going dual monitor, not sure if i care about 120hz or not but we can discus this later) possibly a new mouse as my deathadder3500 has been double registering left clicks.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

Will not be re-using any parts aside from my keyboard as I just purchased it. rest of my current build will be used as a backup/secondary rig.

6) Will you be overclocking?

haven't done much before but am willing to.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?

will be buying new monitors in this build. prefer 23'ish inch 1920x1080 or whatever the "norm" is nowadays.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

after i receive my tax return. probably around early-mid february

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.

RAID I don't really use, but wouldn't object to having it. don't use firewire. Would like the possibility to crossfire/SLI. would also like USB 3.0, as well as SATA 6gb/s. onboard video and UEFI i don't care about.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

I have a legit copy of windows 7 professional both 32 and 64 bit already.




Thanks to all who are going to be helping me in this thread in advance. Please ask as many questions as possible, as I haven't put together a new rig in a couple years I could have forgotten to include some things. Main things as I said were that I am going to be using dual monitor and not sure if 120hz will hamper my performance within this budget too much or not. Also I have an external DAC/amp so no sound card needed. Biggest stressing issue is to have optimal video performance as I watch a lot of high resolution streams/videos while I have games open in the background (or in this case on my secondary monitor)

Once again thanks to all in advance.

Since you aren't building until February, come bump the thread at that time. Since our recommendations take into account current prices for value, prices change on a weekly basis. So bump when you within' 2 weeks of ordering.

Alright! Taxes are all filed, money should be here within 2'ish weeks (if last year was any indication) so that will be when I buy. Any and all advice greatly welcomed

Listen to Danny Bui.

He knows whats up.

^^ Wow, I didn't even posted in the thread yet

Anyway, just how serious is your willingness to overclock? I ask because it means a difference of $50 to $80 whether or not you really plan to overclock.

like previously mentioned i am willing to do it (if the build necessitates it) but i just also meant that if i were to put together a build that wasn't centered around OC'ing then I also wouldn't mind.

all I kind of meant though was that since I have a higher than normal budget, I'd rather not try to build a "budget" computer centered around oc'ing everything to hell just to stay within a certain price range, and would probably rather get beefier components that can stand the test of time. (I only build a new rig every 2-3 years)

$224 - Intel Core i5-3570K CPU
$135 - Asus P8Z77-V LK Intel Z77 ATX Motherboard
$80 - 2 x Patriot PSD38G13332 8GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$300 - Gigabyte GV-R795WF3-3GD Radeon HD 7950 3GB PCI-E Video Card
$90 - Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD1 2.5" 256GB SSD
$78 - Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$18 - LG iHAS124-04 DVD Burner
$70 - Corsair 650TX V2 650W PSU
$28 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156
$532 - 2 x Acer GD235HZbid 23" 120Hz LCD Monitor
---
Total: $1555 plus tax

As for the case, choose your own case. I recommend the following cases:
$65 - Corsair Carbide Series 300R ATX Case
$80 - Corsair Carbide Series 400R ATX Case
$100 - Antec 1100 ATX Case
$110 - Antec P280 ATX Case
$120 - Corsair Carbide Series 500R ATX Case
$120 - Lian Li PC-7HX Black Aluminum ATX Case
$120 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-002GR Black Finish w/Green Trim Full Tower ATX Case
$120 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White ATX Case
$126 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black ATX Case
$123 - Corsair Vengeance Series C70 Gunmetal Black ATX Case
$125 - Fractal Design Define R4 Arctic White ATX Case
$135 - Fractal Design Define R4 with Window Black Pearl ATX Case
$135 - Fractal Design Define R4 with Window Arctic White ATX Case
$135 - Fractal Design Define R4 with Window Titanium Grey ATX Case
$120 - Corsair Obsidian Series 550D ATX Case
$140 - Corsair Vengeance Series C70 Arctic White ATX Case
$144 - Silverstone RV03B-WA ATX case
$160 - Corsair Graphite Series 600TM ATX Case
$168 - Silverstone TJ04B-EW ATX Case
$160 - Corsair Obsidian Series 650D ATX Case
$168 - Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$230 - Silverstone FT02B-USB3.0 ATX Case
$240 - Silverstone FT02S-W-USB3.0 ATX Case
$245 - Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW ATX Case

Crucial M4 256 should be $190

Sage Osaka said:

Biggest stressing issue is to have optimal video performance as I watch a lot of high resolution streams/videos while I have games open in the background (or in this case on my secondary monitor)

Click to expand...

a good GPU (at least GTX 670) and a quality Intel NIC card should be mandatory for the type of performance you are looking for. good NIC cards are highly underrated in builds IMO.

As a completely unrelated side note I grew up in modesto! Beyer High class of 92 baby!

Danny, I currently have an i7 920, would that i5 beat it performance wise? also, how does that ram compare to more performance oriented memory?

Uhh... you have a 920 right now? Is it holding you back? The Ivy Bridge is faster, but IMHO not fast enough to warrant an upgrade. You might want to wait till Haswell comes out later this year. Its performance increase might be worth the money to uograde over your current 920.

As for memory. You wont notice a single thing. In fact, unless you overclock it to those advertised speeds its going to run at the slower speed anyway.

Yeah, for context the basics of my current build is an i7 920, 6gb of memory and a 5850. Seems like most of the decision around where I should go with my new build is centered around the CPU.

Well looking at what you want your new build to do, it doesnt look like your current cpu is limiting you. Especially if you overclock it. Your new build will seem to be faster/better simply because of the newer GPU and the SSD (unless you have an ssd now)

Yeah no I don't run an SSD in my current build either. I assume my GPU is my largest bottleneck by today's standards. With Danny's build, He spent about 1600'ish, would bumping the CPU up to a current gen i7 be a large enough upgrade over my current to justify it?

Danny's build is rock solid, not doubting that in anyway, shape or form. However just bumping up to the i7 Ivy Bridge (or Sandy Bridge) you wont notice a single bit of difference in gaming. You see, the major difference between the i5 and i7 is the i7 has hyper threading. Games simply do not take advantage of that technology. Giving the fact that HT has been around since the Pentium 5 a decade ago, I wont count on future games taking advantage of it either. With that being said, unless you are doing serious emulation, virtual machines, rendering, distributed computing, encoding/decoding video and sound, etc.. you simply wont need the i7 at all.

So to answer your question, no the performance increase will be slightly more, but nothing you do will take advantage of it. Therefore you'll still be in the same performance boost that the i5 provides you.

If it was me and you just want better FPS right now, I would probably get the 7950 right now and if I wanted my system to feel a little snappier, boot faster and just seem overall faster with daily use I'd grab the SSD now too as well. Then I would probably wait to see what kind of performance gains Haswell brings to the table. Chances are the increase will be slightly more than the increase from SB to IB, but it just might be enough to justify the upgrade from the i7 920. IMHO.

I'm rocking an i7 870 right now, which preforms similar to your i7 920. A friend of mine has an i5 2500k w/ 6950. Comparing his system to mine with a 470 GTX; the gaming experience isn't any different at all. In fact, when I play on his I do not feel his system is any faster than mine.

On the other hand, another buddy of mine has an 2500k w/ 6970 + 6990 Tri-fire in a triple display eyefinity setup. Now that gaming experience is noticeably different/better but only when gaming on all three screens. When on a single monitor, it doesn't seem any better even though the frames are usually pegged at the vsync of 60FPS.

What Skillz said + 1. Just wait till Haswell to do your CPU + mobo + RAM upgrade.

sounds good. what i'll probably do then by the sound of it is just buy that 7950 for now (and possibly an ssd) and then when haswell comes out do the full build. sound like an adequate plan given the circumstances?

also what are your guys' opinions on how much performance i'll actually gain with an SSD?

Yes a SSD + GPU upgrade would be a good idea.

As for the SSD question, it won't boost your FPS per se. However it will dramatically lower the load times for games and other applications. Almost instant-like.

I recommend the Crucial M4, Samsung 840 Pro, Intel 520, or Plextor M5S/M5P series SSDs.

I am curious what will be gained with Haswell? I haven't read anything about it.
Can you give us a few bullet points that gamers will care about the most?

talk2troy said:

I am curious what will be gained with Haswell? I haven't read anything about it.
Can you give us a few bullet points that gamers will care about the most?

Click to expand...

Just higher IPC or basically higher performance. As for how much of a performance increase, no one really knows. There's also the faster onboard video performance which means you have an even better backup GPU should your dedicated video card dies. Finally there's the lower power usage as well.

Since the OP already has a Nehalem based Core i7 920, it doesn't make much sense for him to upgrade to a platform only 1-2 generations newer. Haswell is 2-3 generations newer and therefore more of a worthwhile upgrade. I mean, he is switching to an entirely different platform so he might as get the latest Intel platform.

I'm a fellow i7 920 owner waiting for Haswell. You are not alone.

Hold onto your cash until June.