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Building a Gaming PC

A

angryzoo

n00b
Joined
Jan 28, 2007
Messages
39
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming!!!
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
I have $3000 to spend, but dont really wanna spend all of it hopefully around $1500 I just want the best bang for my bucks
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
San Antonio TX
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.
Monitor,Video Card, Mother Board, Sound Card, Video Card,Hard Drive, Memory, DVD Drive, Power Supply, hope Im not missing anything
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.None
6) Will you be overclocking?
Dunno yet I overclocked my asus p4c800-e with 2.4c intel and my room got hot, hated it! and ya thats how old my rig is
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
The bigger the better!
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
I know hot deals usually come during christmas time so i dont mind waiting till then if i have too, but hopefully right now
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.
All these features came after I build my pc besides RAID, I still rock the agp ati 9800pro!
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
64 bit is best?

Its almost been 10 years since I build my last pc, and im tired of running with 30 fps on games. Also when I bought my parts newegg was the best site to go to, is this still true?
Also anything i should be aware of nowadays on pc buying?
 
What type of games do you play? Are you interested in building a 3xLCD setup? This has good immersion for MMOs, FPS and Racing/sims, but useless for LoL, DOTA, RTS and ARPG.

There's a few reasons why I suggest waiting about a month or two;
1. There's no killer good discounts on the processors & motherboards right now. Newegg and Microcenter have been discounting the new Haswell cpus & motherboards heavily. Microcenter has the best prices, giving a $40 discount with cpu/motherboard purchase, which is typical and can be expected even if you wait a month or two. Newegg had a $100 discount for cpu/mobo, then mobo&psu for the Haswell series, though we don't know if it's coming back.
2. AMD is expected to release the next generation Radeons in Sept/Oct. This new competition may lead to lower prices with Geforce cards or offer better performance. The Radeon 7950 has dropped $100 in price in the past month. This is a good sign that the new video cards are about to be released.

During the waiting time, you can purchase a 3TB hard drive and a solid state drive if you see a good deal on a Samsung 840. The 3TB sale price between $90-$110 come around every month or two.

Also, decide if you want a single large 27" LCD that can run 2560x1440, a 1920x1080p that can run Lightboost, or if you'd rather have a triple LCD setup. That will determine how much horsepower you need and how many video cards. This will lead us to decide on which power supply, which case and which motherboard. The processor should inevitably be a 3570k or 4670k; they're pretty much equal.
I haven't personally used Lightboost, but others swear by the smoothness. I have a Qnix QX2710 and have it overclocked to 120hz, and I think it's wonderful.

If you get a single video card, you can get a smaller case. Mini-ITX is becoming fairly popular due to the small size and there are a few cases now that can accomodate the larger video cards. However, I don't know of any that can house 2 video cards. Do you care if your case is small or not?

Feel like taking a short drive over to Austin or Houston?
The only decent deal I see right now is Microcenter has a 250GB Samsung 840 solid state drive for $159 when purchased with a cpu or motherboard. It shows that sale in their online ad.

The cpus & motherboard combo at Microcenter is much cheaper than newegg or amazon. I'd recommend getting the motherboard either there or at Amazon because as of the past year or two, there's been many users on the forum report that they sent their board back to newegg and supposedly the Newegg return center technicians are damaging the pins and the RMA then gets rejected.

We can't really make any recommendations without knowing your LCD setup. Tell us what you want to do for LCDs, read up on Lightboost, and understand the pros/cons of a surround/eyefinity setup. Decide if reduced motion blur is more important than higher resolution, because there aren't any 2560x1440 LCDs that support Lightboost currently.

Yes, you'll want to buy either Win7 or Win8 64-bit version. Do NOT get 32-bit Win7. It can only allocate 4GB of memory, and many video cards these days have 2GB-3GB of RAM, which means 32-bit Win7 would only be able to use 1GB-2GB of main system RAM.

*another edit*...
oh DANG! You're using a Radeon 9800 Pro right now?! HOLY COW! Well, heck I wouldn't want to wait either. I think I've had at least 8 video card upgrades in my main comp since I had one of those.
 
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I really appreciate your response!

I play mostly fps games and a bit of RTS I looked up on lightboost and it looks cool, I dont mind a smaller monitor as long as the quality is there. I tend to get close to the monitor when i focus on counter strike so I dont really need a HUGE screen. I dont really think I would like the triple monitor display seems a bit too much to look at as for the case size doesnt matter ;)
 
I really like 2560x1440, but I don't play FPS games frequently. I prefer RTS, but I will play good non-competitive FPS games (bioshock infinite, Stalker).

Before I got my 27" with 2560x1440, I figured that I didn't really need it. Now that I have it, I won't go back. Given that it's possible to overclock them to 120hz and minimize motion blur, is that one feature of Lightboost worth the sacrifice in resolution to you?

Some people aren't affected and don't notice motion blur. Until you try it, you may not know. If your current LCD and blur doesn't bother you, then I'd recommend getting a 2560x1440.
 
The only thing missing from your list is a CPU cooler.

For cases, look at the Silverstone FT series. All the cables come out the top so it's much more convenient, and the heat from the components rises directly up and out rather than having to be expelled out the back.

For monitors, whatever you decide for your gaming monitor, I suggest you consider a second monitor in portrait mode for browsing - particularly forums.
 
Non-Surround Setup:
Either
$290 matte finish QX2710 2560x1440 or gloss finish
or
Lightboost model LCDs: ASUS: VG248QE, ASUS VG278H, ASUS VG278HE,
BENQ XL2411T, BENQ XL2420T, BENQ XL2420TX, BENQ XL2420TE, BENQ XL2720T,
Acer HN274HBbmiiid
You will have to do some research to find out what Lightboost model LCD is best; as I've not spent any time researching the models.

Apparently LightBoost now works with Radeon video cards with the ToastyX Strobelight software.
http://www.blurbusters.com/easy-lightboost-toastyx-strobelight/

Now, onto the build:
Microcenter ad:
$338 4670k processor and MSI Z87-GD45 Motherboard ($199 + $159 -$40)
$159+tax Samsung 840 ssd 250GB (base price is $179 and $20 discount when purchased with cpu or motherboard) (avail for $183 -10% = $165 shipped at newegg using VME10BTS code and V.Me by Visa at checkout)

$91 Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
$60 - Corsair Low Profile 1.35V CMV8GX3M1A1600C11 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM

$410 - $10 rebate EVGA Superclock GTX 770
OR
$380 = 2x Radeon 7950's = ~$220x2 -10% Vme code - $20 rebate $440-44-20 = $380
(With the recent drop in prices, it's really hard to ignore the value, even for the most die-hard nVidia gamers.)

$75 Corsair H80i or $95 Corsair H100i (performance is about the same, H100i has thinner radiator but takes up two slots)
$16 - LG GH24NS95 SATA DVD burner

$80 Seagate 2TB or $127 Seagate 3TB storage drive
$115 Corsair HX750w
$140 Corsair Carbide Air 540
= $1600 ballpark

I like the idea and look of the Carbide Air 540, but there are so many cases available around $100, so just go browse newegg then shop for the best price at Microcenter or Amazon. Here's Danny's list of cases:

Danny Bui said:
I recommend any of the following cases:
$100 - Corsair Carbide Series 400R ATX Case
$100 - Antec 1100 ATX Case
$97 - Fractal Design Define R4 Arctic White ATX Case
$112 - Fractal Design Define R4 with Window Arctic White ATX Case
$110 - Antec P280 ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li PC-7HX Black Aluminum ATX Case
$105 - Corsair Carbide Series 500R ATX Case
$100 - Corsair Vengeance Series C70 Gunmetal Black ATX Case
$120 - Corsair Vengeance Series C70 Arctic White ATX Case
$115 - Corsair Graphite Series 600TM ATX Case
$135 - Fractal Design Define R4 with Window Black Pearl ATX Case
$135 - Fractal Design Define R4 with Window Titanium Grey ATX Case
$140 - Corsair Obsidian Series 550D ATX Case
$144 - Silverstone RV03B-W ATX case
$144 - Silverstone RV03B-WA ATX case
$154 - Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$168 - Silverstone TJ04B-EW ATX Case
$167 - Corsair Obsidian Series 650D ATX Case
$230 - Silverstone FT02B-USB3.0 ATX Case
$250 - Silverstone FT02S-W-USB3.0 ATX Case
$245 - Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW ATX Case
Click to expand...
 
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As for sound, it's a lot of discussion.
Which do you prefer? How much do you want to spend?

Headphones? (decent pair $100 + amp+ soundcard ~$300-$600)
Stereo Passive speakers? (lots of deskspace for the receiver or get a T-amp that's less powerful)
Stereo Powered speakers? (studio monitors, such as KRK Rokit + soundcard ~$400+soundcard)

There's far too much discussion without knowing the budget. Given $1000 remaining, one could get a pretty nice setup and a good pair of headphones. How much do you want to spend on sound?

I have a pair of M-audio AV40's, and they're great for a basic setup. They're fairly inexpensive too.
For versatility, I recommend staying away from pre-packaged speakers from Logitech or Corsair; as they're really not that good. A small passive speaker setup with a T-amp (Topping brand) is good and can be used for both speakers and headphones while taking up much less space than a traditional home theater receiver.

Some argue that DAC's on pc soundcards are better than the DAC's in a home theater receiver. I haven't used a soundcard for a number of years because I use an Onkyo receiver & passive bookshelf speakers with 6.5" drivers with a 10" sub. It sounds excellent to me, and I don't have to deal with Creative software or crappy Asus support.

By piecing a system together you can choose which speakers, which amp & which subwoofer to get and it will be much better than a $200 package from Logi-crap or Corsair. This is probably best discussed in the Audio subforum.
 
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