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Building First Gaming Pc

2

20q95

n00b
Joined
May 2, 2013
Messages
14
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming (LoL, WoW, BF3 etc) Web Browsing
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$1350 yes tax an shipping included purchasing from http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php
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.
Case, Power Supply Graphics Card, Hard Drive, RAM, MotherBoard, CD Drive, Processor and OS
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Not reusing any parts
6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
Whatever the max is on a 27 inch monitor
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP
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.
Not exactly sure...very new to the components of the motherboard
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Nope

My current list is http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=wish_lists&wlcId=153743&action=wish_lists
just trying to get a better idea of what to build

Thanks. :)
 
FYI purple is hard to read due to the forum background. Please change the color.

As for your build list, yeah I can see quite a bit of room of improevment. But I shall hold off on commenting until I can actually read your post.
 
1920 x 1080 is probably what you'll have, so no 2GB is not overkill.

Any particular reason you are going AMD processor over Ivy Bridge? The i5-3570K is a brute and can be overclocked pretty damn close to 5.0GHZ.

Edit: Make sure to check amazon for your prices, I see a few of your things that are quite cheaper on it.
 
Last edited:
Cpu
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=20138
Motherboard
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=19919
Video Card
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=19285
Ram
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=19629
HDD
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=19554
PSU
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=23170
Case
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=18313
Blu Ray Drive
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=18220

I kept the optical drive, hdd, and case that you liked. That with the os and norton will total out to Sub-Total: $1276.00

You will get way better performance out of this setup than with the one that you picked.
Yes AMD's cpu has more cores but it doesn't make it faster. Intel's quad core will beat it at almost everything including gaming. And the i5 will overclock to 4.2GHz with stock voltages, all you have to do is raise the multiplier. The 7950 3GB is leaps better than the 7870 2GB and will power your 27" for years without needing to upgrade. If you want performance then this is your best bet. Also it wouldn't hurt to research cpu and gpu reviews so that you can know what has the best performance for the price.

You don't need an creative sound card as the motherboard already has a sound chip on board which reproduces sounds very well. Now if you need it for a certain task or program then by all means go for it. But it will not be noticeable improvement for gaming or watching videos.

I hope I was able to help you out.
 
And as for the purple font :p I had to highlight all of your post to read it. Maybe use something that's not so dark on this dark background.

Good luck to ya with your new nerd child
 
Can I get you explanation behind your choices an we you lowered the RAM to 8gb much appreciated :)
 
Ca11idus said:
Cpu
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=20138
Motherboard
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=19919
Video Card
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=19285
Ram
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=19629
HDD
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=19554
PSU
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=23170
Case
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=18313
Blu Ray Drive
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=18220
Click to expand...
Not a bad start. With that said, it can be improved:

The Asus P8Z77-V LX hasn't had the best track record here in the U.S. I'd recommend getting the far more reliable Asus P8Z77-V LK:
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=20036

Current Intel platforms do not benefit from that much in real world apps and games with higher speed or lower latency RAM. As such, you can save t$14 and get virtually the same exact performance with this DDR3 1600 RAM:
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=22896

You're also missing a third party HSF: The OP plans to overclock AND he lives in Australia. That last bit alone warrants getting a 3rd party HSF. From good to best, I recommend the following HSF:
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=18670
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=17015
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=13232
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=22308

I haven't been able to find any properly done PSU review of that particular Xigmatek PSU. Considering that PSU is the one part you have to be 100% certain that it's a good part, no proper PSU review of that Xigmatek or a PSU based on a similar design means you should not get it. I recommend this confirmed quality PSU instead:
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_535&products_id=15135

20q95 said:
Can I get you explanation behind your choices an we you lowered the RAM to 8gb much appreciated :)
Click to expand...
You're only gaming so 8GB of RAM is more than enough. If you were doing a ton of video, 3D, or audio editing/rendering or virtualization work or photoshop work, then yeah you should get 16GB of RAM minimum. But you're only gaming so 8GB of RAM is more than enough. Not to mention that your original RAM choice was not a good one since:
1) It has tall heatsinks which means it'll interfere with the installation of many air-cooling HSF
2) It was overpriced for what it is
3) It's a 4 x 4GB set which means you won't be able to upgrade to 32GB of RAM later on.
 
Alright so an Updated version currently sits at:

CPU: Intel Core i5 3570K
Graphics Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD7950 3GB Overclocked
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 2TB ST2000DM001
Case: Thermaltake VN700M1W2N Overseer RX-I Case
Optical Drive: LG CH12LS28 12X BD-R Blu-ray DVD Combo Drive
HSF: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler
RAM: Corsair CMV8GX3M1A1600C11 8GB (1x8GB) DDR3
Mother Board: ASUS P8Z77-V LK Motherboard
PSU: Antec High Current Gamer 520W HCG-520
 
FYI, the forum doesn't recognize RGB code. Change the RGB to Dark Orange

Anyway, the setup looks better now.
 
No idea why people insist on changing the font color to some impossible to read color. I'm only posting because I had no intentions of trying to read the OP, due to the font color.

With that being said, GL with your build.
 
Didnt really think about the colour on colour difference....but any ways I just had a read of the graphics card specs and its 500w to run should I think bout looking a bigger watt battery?
 
20q95 said:
Didnt really think about the colour on colour difference....but any ways I just had a read of the graphics card specs and its 500w to run should I think bout looking a bigger watt battery?
Click to expand...

You do not need anymore PSU than you have selected in this post: http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1039849365&postcount=10

The reason why it's recommended to have a 500W PSU is to account for all the many shitty PSUs that might claim to be 500W PSUs, but in reality might only be a 250W PSU.

As you can see here, even highly overclocked on the CPU and GPU, it reached a total WALL power consumption of 529W. Do note that the CPU used in that test setup is more power hungry than the CPU you're using, so it'll be even less if you overclock your setup as well.
 
Thanks i'm just running through each part sussing it out.

Just checking that its all going to work before I finalise my build!

Thanks for the ongoing support :)
 
But doesn't the hardware such as mouse keyboard and headphones as well as other things like cd drive don't they all take up watts as well?
 
20q95 said:
But doesn't the hardware such as mouse keyboard and headphones as well as other things like cd drive don't they all take up watts as well?
Click to expand...
They do take up power but the amount is so miniscule that it's not even worth worrying about even if you pay a ton of money for power.
 
20q95 said:
Alright so an Updated version currently sits at:

CPU: Intel Core i5 3570K
Graphics Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD7950 3GB Overclocked
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 2TB ST2000DM001
Case: Thermaltake VN700M1W2N Overseer RX-I Case
Optical Drive: LG CH12LS28 12X BD-R Blu-ray DVD Combo Drive
HSF: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler
RAM: Corsair CMV8GX3M1A1600C11 8GB (1x8GB) DDR3
Mother Board: ASUS P8Z77-V LK Motherboard
PSU: Antec High Current Gamer 520W HCG-520
Click to expand...

Awesome build.

But, would a OS SSD not make it "perfect"?
 
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