New gaming build using Newegg i7-4770K bundle?

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brennok

[H]ard|Gawd
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Nov 30, 2006
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1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

Primary use will be gaming, but I will also be doing some video editing and conversion.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

I would say $1500, but not a hard limit.

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

Florida and no access to Microcenter so only Newegg and Amazon

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.

CPU - leaning towards i7-4770K bundle
RAM - at least 16GB
Case - mid to full tower with good aircooling maybe Corsair 600T, NZXT Phantom, or CM HAF 932
Mobo - ASUS Z87-PRO, MSI Z87-G45, GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD3H, or ASRock Z87 Extreme6 due to Newegg $100 off bundlecomparison on Newegg
PSU
HDD - not ready to go SSD so looking at WD 1TB Black for OS and may buy two to dual boot just to avoid partitioning and in case of a drive failure.
Video Card - tend to like Nvidia drivers over AMD, but no loyalty either way. $300 would be the max I would want to spend on a video card.


5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

I have a spare Lite-ON DVD burner laying around along with speakers, mouse and keyboard. I also have a Dell S2209W but it is not great for gaming.


6) Will you be overclocking?

I always plan on it, but I never do.


7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?

Dell S2209W 21.5" 1920x1080. I would ultimately like to replace it at least with a 24" monitor.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

Originally was going to build before the new FPS games came out in October/November, but with the Newegg bundle till the 30th it seems the closest I will get to Microcenter pricing so I might as well build 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.

Usually the more Sata ports the better just for future use so I am leaning towards the Asus, Asrock and Gigabyte. I don't care about onboard wifi.

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

Yes, both Win 7 64 bit and Win 8 64 bit so planning on possibly dual booting.

Like I mentioned above I was really planning on waiting to build which would have given me more time to research, but the $100 off seems like something I may want to jump on. The boards look like good middle level boards, but I only found the offer last night so I haven't done much research. Of the three, Asrock, Asus, and Gigabyte, I have only used Gigabyte lately, but I am not against trying the others.

I think that covers it. Thanks guys.
 
I know you said you were not ready, but I highly advise getting an SSD. Even just a boot drive upgrade to an SSD will make a large difference in how your system feels.

/2cp
 
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How often are you going to convert or edit video? What programs do you use for those tasks?

How badly do you want to overclock? How high?

Absent your answers to the above questions, consider "dropping down" to the following processor/motherboard combo:

$340 - Intel Core i5 4670K and Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H combo

The heatspreaders on the G.Skill Sniper RAM you chose may interfere with some third-party CPU coolers. I recommend a low-profile RAM kit like:

$122 - Crucial Ballistix Sport 2x8GB DDR3 1600 (includes 10% discount promo code HASMEM10, expires 6/30)

Your $300 video card budget limits you to either the HD 7950 or the GTX 660 Ti. If you can increase it another $100, however, you could grab the HD 7970 or the GTX 770 (which is a rebranded GTX 680). The AMD cards are the better value right now as they come with up to four games free (Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, Far Cry 3/Blood Dragon, and Crysis 3).
 
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Regarding AMD video cards: The bundle of games is about ~$30 so don't overvalue that too much, especially if you weren't going to play the games.

If you can snag a 7970 for under 340, I would value it more than the 770. (There was a deal for $300 this past weekend) But at the $400 price point the 770 is a good value.
 
tiraides said:
How often are you going to convert or edit video? What programs do you use for those tasks?

How badly do you want to overclock? How high?

Absent your answers to the above questions, consider "dropping down" to the following processor/motherboard combo:

$340 - Intel Core i5 4670K and Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H combo

The heatspreaders on the G.Skill Sniper RAM you chose may interfere with some third-party CPU coolers. I recommend a low-profile RAM kit like:

$122 - Crucial Ballistix Sport 2x8GB DDR3 1600 (includes 10% discount promo code HASMEM10, expires 6/30)

Your $300 video card budget limits you to either the HD 7950 or the GTX 660 Ti. If you can increase it another $100, however, you could grab the HD 7970 or the GTX 770 (which is a rebranded GTX 680). The AMD cards are the better value right now as they come with up to four games free (Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, Far Cry 3/Blood Dragon, and Crysis 3).
Click to expand...

I am going to be using KMTTG to transfer and convert TiVo recordings from their Mpeg2 using FFmpeg and handbrake. My goal is just to encode some of the Mpeg2 into H.264 in a MKV so I can free up some space and then if I have time edit out commercials using something like VideoReDo. Right now my focus will be on just the encoding since my NAS is filling up quickly.

Not really an overclocker. I always say I am going to do it, but never mess with it figuring if the PC starts feeling slow I will do it then. Of course by then I am ready to just build a new PC. My builds tend to last me at least 3 years. This will be replacing a i5-651 with 4GB of ram that had a GTX 460 that seems to have died.
 
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I am probably ordering today so figured I would see if anyone had any additional recommendations. I am going back and forth on the 7970 Vapor-X from Newegg for $349 or if I should just buy a 760 that launched today since I tend to like Nvidia.

EDIT: Ordered with the Vapor-X.
 
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The GTX 760 is a solid choice.

As for your choice of RAM, I recommend this RAM instead since DDR3 1866 RAM offers little to no real world performance improvement over DDR3 1333 RAM let alone DDR3 1600:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104340

At $130 for the PSU, I recommend getting the Corsair HX750 instead due ot the higher chance of better customer support:
$120 - Corsair HX750 750W Modular PSU
 
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Thanks, but unfortunately had already pulled the trigger earlier today so I can hopefully have it by the weekend. Newegg always seems to take an extra day to ship so even with Shoprunner it might not get here till Monday. I wish Amazon would pricematch.

I still wonder if I made the right choice going AMD since the 760 looked good. I have just been happy with all of my Nvidia cards so it feels odd going AMD.

I realize you should never count on rebates, but I figured with the rebate it came in at $110 since I had looked at both. I think Corsair is what I have been buying the last few builds.

I don't know how I missed those. I must have filtered them since I don't remember seeing the Kingston as 10% off when I looked.
 
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