Gaming build 1000-1200

[palpatineli]

I am trying to build a new gaming rig that hopefully will last a while
1) What will you be doing with this PC?
Gaming, and occasional programming (but I'll be careful and use noobuntu)
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$1000-1200, tax and shipping included (amazon is not taxed but neweggs is)
3) Which country do you live in?
Nashville, TN
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget?
CPU, RAM, motherboard, graphic card, hard drive. I hope I didn't miss something.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?
All the periphery.
Power supply: Antec EarthWatts EA-500D Green 500 Watt 80 PLUS BRONZE
Case: Cooler Master Elite 330 ATX Mid Tower
A 3.5 7200rpm 256GB hard drive I want to use as slave
6) Will you be overclocking?
Nope, except for the GPU I am looking at that comes "overclocked"
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
1680x1050
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP
9) What features do you need in a motherboard?
SATA 6GB/s, USB 3.0, preferably no UEFI or at least supports (K)Ubuntu
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
Win 7 64bit professional, but also a free key for win 8 64bit


And my current plan is: (mostly from this post: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1752066)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/2BVJ5R7OECGJ5/ref=topnav_lists_2
$220 Intel Core i5-3570K Quad-Core Processor 3.4 GHz 4 Core LGA 1155 - BX80637I53570K
$427 EVGA GeForce GTX 670 SuperClocked 4096MB GDDR5, 2x Dual-Link DVI, HDMI, DP, 4-Way SLI Ready Graphics Card (04G-P4-2673-KR&#8203
$115 MSI Computer Corp. DDR3 1600 Intel LGA 1155 Motherboards (Z77A-G43)
$103 Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (CMZ16GX3M2A160​0C10)
$229 Samsung Electronics 840 Pro Series 2.5-Inch 256 GB SATA 6GB/s Solid State Drive MZ-7PD256BW

Will the power supply be enough? Are the CPU, GPU and RAM balanced? I appreciate any comment on this rig.

 

[Climber]

The video card is absolute overkill for that resolution. The 660ti would be a much better cost effective option.

I'm not a huge fan of the case so if you're not partial to it there are a few others I would recommend. I would also consider adding a larger HDD to the mix, preferably 1tb or greater but that depends on your use. Do you need an optical drive?

 

[palpatineli]

The video card is absolute overkill for that resolution. The 660ti would be a much better cost effective option.

I'm not a huge fan of the case so if you're not partial to it there are a few others I would recommend. I would also consider adding a larger HDD to the mix, preferably 1tb or greater but that depends on your use. Do you need an optical drive?

I don't really know how powerful the GPU needs to be. I want max setting of Bioshock: infinity, large squad in Total War: Rome 2, and hopefully a moderate texture pack for the next gen Fallout.

What is the problem with this particular computer case? This one is old and I would like to get rid of it. But I am afraid that a new one would get me over budget even if I tune the GPU down to GTX 660ti (which is at $310 on amazon).

I don't think a optical drive would be necessary. I installed my current Win 7 with thumbdrive without problem. I also don't think that an extra HDD would be useful for me.

Thanks very much for the input.

 

[tiraides]

The Elite 330 is a bad case for a modern system. It uses a 80mm as the front intake fan and the HDD bay may interfere with some video cards. Even if you can't buy one now, you should start looking for a better case with more modern features. One like the NZXT Source 210 Elite doesn't cost an arm or a leg.

As an aside, I agree with Climber on the GTX 660 Ti recommendation. It can play most games well (at medium or default settings) at a 1920x1080 resolution, so it will be more than enough for your monitor's 1680x1050 resolution.

"Slave" hard drive? How old are your HDD and PSU? A SATA HDD built within the last couple of years would outperform your current HDD (but not the SSD). And PSUs generally degrade in quality over time, especially if they've been constantly pushed to their limit. Your PSU should be fine, but if it's over four years old, you should consider replacing it sooner rather than later.

If you're not overclocking, to save yourself some money, drop the processor down to the i5-3470. It performs nearly as fast as the i5-3570K at stock speeds. You could also save yourself some money by going with 8GB of RAM instead of 16GB (and you could save a bit more by going with DDR3 1333 RAM versus DDR3 1600 or DDR3 1866 RAM).

May I ask why UEFI is a no-go for you?

 

[palpatineli]

The Elite 330 is a bad case for a modern system. It uses a 80mm as the front intake fan and the HDD bay may interfere with some video cards. Even if you can't buy one now, you should start looking for a better case with more modern features. One like the NZXT Source 210 Elite doesn't cost an arm or a leg.

As an aside, I agree with Climber on the GTX 660 Ti recommendation. It can play most games well (at medium or default settings) at a 1920x1080 resolution, so it will be more than enough for your monitor's 1680x1050 resolution.

"Slave" hard drive? How old are your HDD and PSU? A SATA HDD built within the last couple of years would outperform your current HDD (but not the SSD). And PSUs generally degrade in quality over time, especially if they've been constantly pushed to their limit. Your PSU should be fine, but if it's over four years old, you should consider replacing it sooner rather than later.

If you're not overclocking, to save yourself some money, drop the processor down to the i5-3470. It performs nearly as fast as the i5-3570K at stock speeds. You could also save yourself some money by going with 8GB of RAM instead of 16GB (and you could save a bit more by going with DDR3 1333 RAM versus DDR3 1600 or DDR3 1866 RAM).

May I ask why UEFI is a no-go for you?

Thanks for the recommendations. I haven't had a dual hard drive rig for a long time so I still have the old mindset about those things
I can accept UEFI but as I understand, current it only works with (K)ubuntu and RedHat(Fedora). Maybe I will go Debian experimental or Arch, maybe not. It's just if I get to choose, UEFI is a minus for me.

 

[Dangman]

Thanks for the recommendations. I haven't had a dual hard drive rig for a long time so I still have the old mindset about those things
I can accept UEFI but as I understand, current it only works with (K)ubuntu and RedHat(Fedora). Maybe I will go Debian experimental or Arch, maybe not. It's just if I get to choose, UEFI is a minus for me.

You're gonna have to go with UEFI as the majority of well priced and good motherboards these days uses UEFI. You'd basically have to go with old, outdated, and overpriced motherboards if you don't want to deal with UEFI.

 

[Climber]

Since a build hasn't been proposed for you I went ahead and worked one up for you. I don't know much about the proposed Linux solutions so I'll let you decide if this will fit that need for you; however, like Danny said the majority of good boards will have UEFI.

i5-3470 189.00
Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H 105.00
Corsair Vengeance 16GB 94.00
Samsung 840 Pro 256gb SSD 229.00
Nzxt Source 210 Elite 63.00
EVGA 660ti 285.00
CX 600 60.00

Comes to 1023 Shipped. Leaves you some money to upgrade your monitor if you decide to.

 

[tiraides]

I have a couple of tweaks to Climber's build (which is otherwise good). First, swap out the Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H with the Biostar H77MU3. It has a similar set of features for less money.

Though this is more of a personal preference, swap out the Corsair Vengeance RAM for its low profile XMS3 cousin. The tall fins on the Vengeance's heatspreaders may interfere with any tall CPU cooler you decide to install later.

The good news is that the NZXT Source 210 Elite is back at $50, but supplies are limited.