PC Build Help Advice for me

[bkt5789]

I'm building a machine for a friend, we aren't sure as to what specs to use.

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

PC will be used for gaming, as well was papers, web browsing, and possibly virtual machines.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included? $3000, we would be happy to keep it under that, but wouldn't cry too much if it goes over.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
New York, and New Jersey, USA (we live on both sides of the border)

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.

We currently don't have any parts. So CPU, GPU, power supply, ram, cooling system, a case to put it all in, mobo..

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

No.

6) Will you be overclocking? No.

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

We currently don't have a monitor, but are debating on either 21 or 24 inch monitor, or perhaps maybe a larger one?

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Within the month! Unless some cool part is going to come out a little later. But ideally this month would be great.

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.

RAID would be nice! Crossfire or SLI would be really good as well. USB 3.0 would be great. Not quite sure what that other stuff is but if you recommend it I think it would be good too!

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

We don't have that unfortunately. Should we go with Windows 8, and if windows 8 should we go with a touch screen?

Thanks for your help guys I hope my answers were not too vague. I'm kind of a beginner to building machines, but I'm really excited! It would be my second one. The one I built in school was a lot of fun to do for me.

 

[Deleted member 88227]

Do you not need an optical drive or hard drive/solid state drive?

Will the monitor be part of your budget?

How serious are you going to be using virtual machines? Something to play around with or for work?

Just because you go with W8 doesn't mean you need a touch screen.

 

[bkt5789]

Oh yes. Will need an optical drive. Probably a blue ray. Maybe a burner?
I was told its a good idea to put the OS on the solid state drive, and then use another HDD for other storage purposes so I'll be getting a solid state drive as well.
The monitor is not apart of the $3000, I have a monitor here, but I want to upgrade that soon after this machine is built, so I'm open to suggestions on monitors anyways.

I don't have a job yet, but I liked using virtual machines in class to test out different operating systems that I should probably learn to get an IT job. So far I've tinkered around with Linux Arch and it was quite the learning experience! Its something I'd like to be able to continue doing.

Oooo and as far as overclocking... I'm okay with getting overclocked parts from a good vendor provided it will be stable n' everything. But I don't feel comfortable overclocking anything myself yet.

 

[tiraides]

How close do you live to one of the NY/NJ Micro Center locations (Paterson, Long Island/Westbury, Yonkers)? I ask because Micro Center's in-store processor/motherboard bundles are comparatively better than NewEgg or Amazon.

What are you going to use RAID for?

Why do you want a Blu-ray drive? Do you already have the media playback software for it?

We could possibly fit in a new monitor with your $3000 budget. But I have a few questions:

1) Is gaming the primary use of this monitor? What else?
2) How large do you want the screen? Do you have a preferred resolution?
3) How much, at most, do you want to spend on the monitor itself?

 

[bkt5789]

How close do you live to one of the NY/NJ Micro Center locations (Paterson, Long Island/Westbury, Yonkers)? I ask because Micro Center's in-store processor/motherboard bundles are comparatively better than NewEgg or Amazon.

What are you going to use RAID for?

Why do you want a Blu-ray drive? Do you already have the media playback software for it?

We could possibly fit in a new monitor with your $3000 budget. But I have a few questions:

1) Is gaming the primary use of this monitor? What else?
2) How large do you want the screen? Do you have a preferred resolution?
3) How much, at most, do you want to spend on the monitor itself?

I set raid up on my fathers computer, and when one of his hard drives went bad, the other hard drive picked up the slack and he lost no information... i just switched out the burned out hdd. I liked that.

media playback software??? Hmm... I have blu rays.... Thats about it.
screen?? 1920x1080 or 1920x1200 maybe even 2560x1440 (I saw a 27 inch monitor with that)
I think like maybe tops $400 for a monitor.

Oh I'm really close to the microcenter at paterson, like 20 minutes away.

 

[tiraides]

Excellent:

$280 - Intel Core i7-4770K
$105 - Asus Z87-A
$30 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
$120 - Crucial Ballistix Sport 2x8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$400 - Gigabyte GTX 770 2GB
$230 - Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD
$95 - Seagate Barracuda 2TB HDD
$74 - Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS SATA Blu-ray burner
$75 - Seasonic G Series SSR-650RM 650 watt modular power supply
$60 - Corsair 200R
$89 - Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit OEM
$158 - Asus VS247H-P 23.6" 1920x1080 monitor
=====
$1716 - Subtotal (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)

Get the motherboard, processor, and CPU cooler at Micro Center and everything else at Amazon. The above setup allows you to overclock right away, if you prefer. (It's also considerably cheaper at Micro Center than most competing NewEgg combo deals.)

I chose the i7-4770K as its Hyper Threading support would benefit in virtual machine use. You could save $80 by going with the i5-4670K instead, but it doesn't have Hyper Threading. (You can run VMs on both processors, but the i7-4770K performs better.)

The Seasonic power supply is on sale, so you may want to jump on that first, if nothing else.

Use the SSD as your primary drive and only store your most frequently used programs on it. Use the HDD for everything else. If you believe that 256GB is too little space for your needs, you could easily afford the 512GB version.

I went with a 24 inch (OK, 23.6 inches, but who's counting?) monitor to meet your gaming preferences. While a 27 inch, 2560x1440 monitor gives you plenty of visual real estate, it's not so great for gaming in comparison.

 

[bkt5789]

Excellent:

$280 - Intel Core i7-4770K
$105 - Asus Z87-A
$30 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
$120 - Crucial Ballistix Sport 2x8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$400 - Gigabyte GTX 770 2GB
$230 - Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD
$95 - Seagate Barracuda 2TB HDD
$74 - Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS SATA Blu-ray burner
$75 - Seasonic G Series SSR-650RM 650 watt modular power supply
$60 - Corsair 200R
$89 - Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit OEM
$158 - Asus VS247H-P 23.6" 1920x1080 monitor
=====
$1716 - Subtotal (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)

Get the motherboard, processor, and CPU cooler at Micro Center and everything else at Amazon. The above setup allows you to overclock right away, if you prefer. (It's also considerably cheaper at Micro Center than most competing NewEgg combo deals.)

I chose the i7-4770K as its Hyper Threading support would benefit in virtual machine use. You could save $80 by going with the i5-4670K instead, but it doesn't have Hyper Threading. (You can run VMs on both processors, but the i7-4770K performs better.)

The Seasonic power supply is on sale, so you may want to jump on that first, if nothing else.

Use the SSD as your primary drive and only store your most frequently used programs on it. Use the HDD for everything else. If you believe that 256GB is too little space for your needs, you could easily afford the 512GB version.

I went with a 24 inch (OK, 23.6 inches, but who's counting?) monitor to meet your gaming preferences. While a 27 inch, 2560x1440 monitor gives you plenty of visual real estate, it's not so great for gaming in comparison.

I like a lot of those specs!!! But I think I might bump that video card up another $50, because $50 more gets me double the vram. I'm also going to get two of them.

I may also go for the noctua cooling system, and an asus pro z87 mobo. I was also curious, would a fractal design define r4 be a good case to put all of this in?

I have a question about power supplies, I found a really nice one in a friends old machine, its a 1000w gold power supply... is that overkill? and is overkill bad for a machine?

 

[Dangman]

I like a lot of those specs!!! But I think I might bump that video card up another $50, because $50 more gets me double the vram. I'm also going to get two of them.

For 1920x1080, you don't need a . In order for the 4GB version of that GTX 770 to be really worth it, you're gonna need a monitor with at least a resolution of 2560x1440. Same goes for SLI: You're gonna need a resolution of 2560x1440 in order for GTX 770 2GB SLI to be worth it let alone GTX 770 4GB SLI. So either find a new monitor with a higher resolution or just stick with a single GPU.

I may also go for the noctua cooling system

Which one? Not all Noctua HSF are actually good buys.

and an asus pro z87 mobo.

Why? You're not overclocking.

I was also curious, would a fractal design define r4 be a good case to put all of this in?

It's an ok choice. Though if you're planning on SLI, the R4 isn't a good choice. I'd aim for the Silverstone FT02 in that case.

I have a question about power supplies, I found a really nice one in a friends old machine, its a 1000w gold power supply... is that overkill? and is overkill bad for a machine?

1000W is indeed overkill. Overkill isn't bad per se. However, not all 1000W Gold PSUs are actually good PSUs. It's actually really easy to cheat the 80Plus testing to get any color you want.

 

[techbob]

Since you're not overclocking and want to use virtual machines, DO NOT get a "k" processor. The processor should support VT-D.

 

[Dangman]

Since you're not overclocking and want to use virtual machines, DO NOT get a "k" processor. The processor should support VT-D.

You really only need VT-D if you're planning on using a Type 1 Hypervisor like ESXi or Hyper-V, etc.

 

[techbob]

You really only need VT-D if you're planning on using a Type 1 Hypervisor like ESXi or Hyper-V, etc.

I assume the OP might be using Vmware. The K processors would have less versatility. Just something to consider and I the K processor shouldn't necessarily be ruled out.

 

[Quartz-1]

With that budget you should consider a second monitor,

 

[bkt5789]

if i do go the overclocking route, I am open to modest overclocking of the processor. I am only slightly worried about it because I don't wanna burn out parts.

I had a friend with an i5 2370k processor (I think thats what it was, ivy bridge), and he put it at 4.2? he liked it.. so maybe something to consider, just apprehensive... don't wanna mess up lol.

 

[Dangman]

if i do go the overclocking route, I am open to modest overclocking of the processor. I am only slightly worried about it because I don't wanna burn out parts.

I had a friend with an i5 2370k processor (I think thats what it was, ivy bridge), and he put it at 4.2? he liked it.. so maybe something to consider, just apprehensive... don't wanna mess up lol.

Your friend had the Core i5 3570K. There's not such CPU with the name you listed.

As for overclocking, decide now if you want to overclock as that will mean that you have to spend quite a bit of money on the CPU cooling ($60 to $85). As for the mobo, I still don't see a reason for you to get the Z87 Pro.

Please answer my last few questions.

 

[bkt5789]

Danny yes that one!!!! I knew I got the numbers mixed up sorry...
I would love to overclock! It sounds like it would run everything faster.

I was looking at this noctua cooler, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018

As far as the asus mobo... I just read some reviews and thought it sounded nice...

 

[tiraides]

How high are you looking to overclock?

The Noctua NH-D14 is a pretty good CPU cooler, but the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO is capable of handling a moderate overclock.

 

[bkt5789]

well im not sure what you'd recommend.. its base is 3.5, what if i clock it to 3.9?

 

[neel14]

On z77 series boards , the mobo has a feature called multi core enhancement which runs all the
cores of a 3770k at 3.9 at turbo.The stock cooler is able to handle that. As for z87 I dont know
if that feature is still there.If it is just enable in the bios and u will get 3.9. no need to oc.
If you want higher, you shoul get a cooler as haswell seems to run hotter than ivy.The noctua is preety good.

 

[tiraides]

well im not sure what you'd recommend.. its base is 3.5, what if i clock it to 3.9?

You need to determine how far you want to overclock.

Regarding your choice in CPU cooler, get the Noctua if you can grab it on sale (for less than the NewEgg "retail" price). Otherwise, go with the Corsair H80i.