Need a second opinion on building for a friend

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Breath_of_the_Dying

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jan 8, 2007
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My friend wants to build a rig before borderlands 2 comes out. Beyond normal surfing and video watching online, it will mainly be used for gaming. I'll be building it for him, so to play on the safe side I'm not going to be overclocking anything. The last upgrade i made for my computer was dropping in a 6950 and unlocking it to a 6970, and you can see that my computer was built a pretty long time ago, so I'm out of the loop on good prices for current tech. Thanks for all the help!

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Mainly gaming, nothing processor intensive beyond heavy gaming
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
I'll have to get back with that, I'm mostly looking to get help on bang/buck on the build I put together
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Dallas, 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.
See list below on the parts I recommended to him
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
He's selling his old computer, so it will be a brand new rig to my knowledge
6) Will you be overclocking?
None
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
His current is 1280x1024, but will most likely be selling it with his old computer. I'm going to recommend a 1920x1080 or 1920x1200 res monitor
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Before end of August
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.
Nothing special, just fast and smooth for gaming
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Will be buying an OEM Win7 64bit home from Newegg

CPU:
($209)i5-3550 Ivy Bridge: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116505
or
($199)i5-3470 Ivy Bridge: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115234&Tpk=3470

GPU:
($279 after $30 MIR) XFX Core Edition FX7870 2GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150604&Tpk=N82E16814150604

Motherboard:
($279) ASUS P8Z77: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131820
Given the rest of the system, this might be overkill for everything else since he doesnt need all the bells and whistles

PSU:
($109 and comes with a $10 prepaid card offer) Corsair TX750V2 750W Bronze: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139021

Memory:
($42) Corsair XMS3 2x4GB DDR 1600: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233202

Case:
($144) Cooler Master HAF932 Advanced: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160

OS:
($99) Win 7 OEM Home Premium: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

Hard Drives: I sent Him a recommendation of 1 platter, and up to 2 SSDs (one for OS other for gaming and other apps). He'll probably go with the 1HD + 1 SSD option
1 HD: ($89) Samsung F3 1TB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185
1st SSD: ($109) Crucial M4 128GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442&Tpk=N82E16820148442
2nd SDD (if he wants a second one for OS only) ($59) OCZ Solid 3 60GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227728

Then I told him he'll still need all this for a fully functional computer
Monitor
Mouse
Keyboards
Speakers
DVD drive
 
The motherboard for sure is a piss-poor choice for the money. Now before I can start recommending the CPU and mobo, please answer this question: How far are you from this Microcenter location?:
http://www.microcenter.com/at_the_stores/richardson.html

GPU wise, the HD 7870 isn't that great of a choice now that the GTX 660 Ti has been released. It's as fast if not faster than the $350 HD 7950 2GB but costs $300, the same price as the slower HD 7870. And to make things even better, right now this eVGA GTX 660 Ti comes with a free coupon for Borderlands 2. So this is simply the best bang for the buck deal now and I highly recommend buying this today or ASAP:
$300 - eVGA 02G-P4-3660-KR GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB PCI-E Video Card

PSU is overkill since you haven't mentioned SLI or Crossfire. For a single GPU setup, you'll be fine with this:
$64 - Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W PSU

As for the SSDs, avoid the OCZ: it's of lower quality, lower performance, and is from a company with poor customer support. I recommend keeping things simple and only recommend a 128GB or 256GB Crucial m4 SSD.

As for the case, IMO, that HAF 932's quality doesn't justify the price for it. I recommend any of these other cases instead:
$80 - Corsair Carbide Series 300R ATX Case
$90 - Corsair Carbide Series 400R ATX Case
$100 - Antec 1100 ATX Case
$105 - Fractal Design Define R4 with Window Arctic White ATX Case
$105 - Fractal Design Define R4 with Window Titanium Grey ATX Case
$105 - Fractal Design Define R4 with Window Black Pearl ATX Case
$110 - Fractal Design Define R4 Arctic White ATX Case
$110 - Fractal Design Define R4 Titanium Grey ATX Case
$110 - Fractal Design Define R4 Black Pearl ATX Case
$119 - Corsair Carbide Series 500R ATX Case
$120 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black ATX Case
$120 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-002OR Black Finish w/Green Trim Full Tower ATX Case
$120 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-002OR White Finish w/Red Trim Full Tower ATX Case
$130 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White ATX Case
$140 - Antec P280 ATX Case
$140 - Corsair Obsidian Series 550D ATX Case
$140 - Corsair Vengeance Series C70 Arctic White ATX Case
$140 - Corsair Vengeance Series C70 Gunmetal Black ATX Case
$144 - Silverstone RV03B-WA ATX case
 
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Thanks for the feedback so far. Yes, we could probably hit up MC next weekend( we're both busy this week). Still trying to get a final say on total budget. He's probably flexible if we can convince good bang/buck on the parts.

So far looking at replacing the gpu to the 660(we already had it preordered but he can sell it just as easily), cheaper PSU, mobo, and case.
 
Update

-His budget is around $1300
-He will be keeping is kb/m, monitor (1920x1080), and dvd drive, so we dont need to worry about that.
-He'd prefer everything from newegg, but we can also stop buy MC this week if we can find a good deal on parts.
-I gave him the list of Cases Danny Bui supplied so we can skim on that some more.
 
You will find a good deal on CPU and Motherboard. I'd pick this up from microcenter:
i5-3570k $190 + tax
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H $100 + tax.

Still comes out a lot cheaper than buying those two parts from newegg.
 
I recommend this setup:
$265 - Intel Core i5 3570K + Asus P8Z77-V LK Motherboard Microcenter Combo
$46 - G.Skill Ripjaws Series F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL 2 x 4GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$300 - eVGA 02G-P4-3660-KR GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB PCI-E Video Card
$199 - Samsung 830 Series 256GB SSD
$90 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$64 - Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W PSU
$100 - Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit OEM
---
Total: $1064 plus tax and shipping.
 
Looks great, I'll be going over with him this week. We'll probably hit up MC next weekend and order the rest of the parts to build it first of September. Thanks again.


Oh and that Mobo I listed is actually $179, not $279, but it looks like going MC will still save a ton of money over that.
 
Breath_of_the_Dying said:
Looks great, I'll be going over with him this week. We'll probably hit up MC next weekend and order the rest of the parts to build it first of September. Thanks again
Click to expand...
This upcom Again, the MC deals expire on the August 31st. So Friday is the last day if you want in on the current MC deals.
 
Breath_of_the_Dying said:
Oh and that Mobo I listed is actually $179, not $279, but it looks like going MC will still save a ton of money over that.
Click to expand...

In that case, that $179 Asus P8Z77-V mobo is worth it if one or more of these apply to you:

1) You intend to overclock the CPU past 4.4GHz or so (something that the limited-unlocked i5 CPUs that you listed don't allow) - in this case, get the i5-3570K instead of either of those non-K CPUs
2) Your build will be equipped with so many disks that you need the two extra ASMedia-powered SATA 6.0 Gbps ports
3) You are running something that works better with an Intel NIC than with a Realtek NIC
 
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