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New Gaming Rig

J

jeres88

n00b
Joined
Dec 29, 2011
Messages
8
I'm working on building a new gaming computer and giving my current gaming computer to my wife. I have built gaming computers in the past, but I would like to get some advice, especially in some of the areas I don't know as well.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming/Programming/General Use

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
I would like to stay at or below $2.5k, my current build is around $2.2k.

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

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, Speakers, Hard Drive (preferably SSD), Keyboard, gpu, cpu, motherboard, ram, Blue Ray Drive.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
mouse (Razer Death Adder), monitor(Samsung Syncmaster 1920X1080)

6) Will you be overclocking?
I'm hoping to build a computer powerful enough not to need to.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
1920X1080, but I may upgrade to a 30" (2560 x 1600) sometime in the future.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within the next couple of weeks

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)? etc.
SLI Support (for future upgrades).

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
I plan on getting Win7 64-bit Home Premium and my programming environment is 64-bit Debian.

A few Notes: The biggest area that I don't know about are SSDs, speakers, and Power Supplies. I picked Corsair for the SSD since I know the company and have never had problems with them, but I would really like some advice on my pick and possible alternatives. I chose the Power Supply based on some comments I read on other gaming builds on here, though I'm not sure if 750W is going to be enough. It's what I ahve in my current system, but the new system is a pretty big bump up. As for speakers, I don't know anything. I'm not a huge audiophile, but I don't want really cheap speakers that crackle or sound bad when they are turned up.

Here is the link to my newegg wishlist that has the parts that I'm looking at using.

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=22789307
 
Any reason you chose to go with the expensive 2x8GB RAM, instead of 4x4? This G.Skill set is almost half the price ($79):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231497

Personally, I'd go with the cheaper Crucial M4 ($379) over the Corsair, just because Crucial has a good reputation for reliability, and the M4 will perform the same as the Corsair in normal use.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148443

Also, unless you are wedded to Nvidia, you an save a bundle, with very little drop in performance, by going with a AMD HD 6970 like this one ($299 after rebate):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150517

The 750W power supply is plenty for a single card (the high quality Corsair HX750 is a bit cheaper than the one you picked), but if you plan on going CrossFire/SLI down the road, you might consider this cheaper but higher wattage Corsair HX850 PSU ($149 after rebate):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139011

Nothing wrong with your choices, just some options to think about.

Edit: There are combo deals for both the 2600K and the case you picked, and for the 2600K and the Corsair HX850, if you choose to go that way:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.776226
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.787411

There's also a combo for the case and 16GB of Corsair RAM (4x4):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.776755
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the reply!

I tend to find a company that I find reliable and stick with them, that's why I chose the corsair RAM. I have heard some good things about G.Skill though, so I will definitely consider that one.

Thanks for the SSD suggestion, I won't complain about cheaper. As I said, I don't really know much about SSD's, I've just heard good things about them.

I'm a bit nervous about AMD cards... I've had a lot of driver problems in the past with them and never had any problems with Nvidia. I have heard that the drivers are a lot better now, but it still makes me nervous. If I do decide to try AMD cards again, do you think I should wait for the 7000 series?

I'm definitely glad to hear that I did well with my selections! I've been looking into it for awhile. Anyway, thanks for the advice
 
Hard to say on waiting with the cards still unavailable/unannounced. The 7970 is going to be pricey and likely hard to find initially, and I don't recall seeing any prices for the 7950, but you have to figure it is going to be pretty expensive as well, based on the 7970 price. However, if you are definitely going with a 30" monitor, and can afford the price/wait, then it might not hurt to see what the 7950 brings, since it should be equal to GTX 580 performance.
 
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