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$1500 New Build Help.

D

Darlok

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 22, 2006
Messages
131
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Mostly gaming, GW2, Secondlife, Elder Scrolls Online (when it's released) BF3-4

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$1400-1500, give or take $50-100, I don't want to to sacrifice quality by penny pinching, so $20-30 per component if it means a lil better brand is Okay with me.

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

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc.
Full Rig minus an older 1TB Western Digital which I'm planning on carrying over from my older build which i will be selling... Although Not sure if I should just get a new Drive, that HD is 4 yrs old.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
None! I'm selling my current 6 yr old+ rig which i spec'd here for $300 to a relative

6) Will you be overclocking?
I might be, I'm thinking about it. Temps in NYC aren't all that bad.. I don't know if I should and not sure if Water Cooling is too much maintenance or causes problems

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
It's a 24 Inch Dell at 1920x1080, but i might be upgrading.. Not doing 3 monitors though

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Less than a month (3rd day I'm researching) Kinda rushing into this

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)?
I'm a simple guy so I don't need much.. But I want an overall a nice reliable board.

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


Hi guys, I am trying to retire my 6 yr old rig and am currently on my 3rd day researching components for my next build which I am planning to get within a month (if that's a good idea?) I am looking for something solid that'll last me a a few yrs; Basically a PC that has pretty good Framerates for BF3, BF4 (Elder Scrolls Online), GW2 and will retain moderate to decent fps in upcoming furture games. In my 3 days I have come up with this so far... I'm not sure if it's an optimal build which is why I would like advice from the PROs.. I am not sure if I should go Water cooling or just do air... I prefer Air.. I'm not really sure what the difference is. My Budget is roughly around $1500

My spec so far is:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($78.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus SABERTOOTH Z77 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($199.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($113.41 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($219.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card ($418.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair Vengeance C70 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($109.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 650W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($126.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1516.31
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-05-24 16:32 EDT-0400)
 
You're actually planning a tad too early: Intel is supposedly planning on releasing their new Haswell CPUs in the June to July timeframe. The Haswell CPUs will be incompatible with every Intel socket out now so they will require a new motherboard socket. So pretty much any CPU and mobo we recommend today will pretty much be outdated in a month or two.

Not to mention that Nvidia just released their GTX 780 cards and more than likely the lower-end cards will be coming out in the next few months. So I recommend waiting until the actual release of the Haswell CPUs to start planning.

Then again if you were planning on buy right now today, the CPU, mobo, and RAM you chose are not the best choices for the money.
 
In addition to what Danny said, you do not need water cooling to overclock a CPU even in NYC climate. A descent tower cooler will do you just fine. Also that Microcenter price is for in-store only, so if the store is a long drive it might not be worth a trip JUST for the discount. However if it's within' ~30 minutes one way, then the cost of gas and your time wont be nearly as high. However over an hour one way, probably not so much worth the trip.

Also that I7 is not that great of a choice for a strict gaming CPU, as Danny mentioned. It's basically the same as the i5, only it has hyper threading on the CPU which is something games simply do not utilize. Therefore, games preform the same on the i5 and i7, so if you're just gaminng/web browsing most of the time save the money and go with the i5.

Although like Danny said, wait until Haswell and take the same advice I told you and apply it to the new CPUs.
 
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