Suggestions for New Rig

P

Pez

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 9, 2006
Messages
1,840
It's been three years since you guys helped me design my old rig. The mobo is starting to go on it, so it's time to build a new one.

I'm not looking for anything water cooled, and I don't really need any fancy options or a super-awesome looking case. I just need something that will look good on a 30 inch monitor running 2560 x 1600 resolution and will last a couple of years.

I live within driving distance to Tiger Direct, Fry's, Microcenter, HHGregg and ABT (never been to the last two though).

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

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Decently open on this. I have a wedding and house to save up for, but I know my priorities. Under $1500 would be nice.

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

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget?
The only item I am salvaging is my 30 inch monitor. I'll need case, mobo, psu, cpu, gpu (used to prefer ATI, but it doesn't matter if Nvidia is better these days), mouse, keyboard, ram and hard drives.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?
N/A

6) Will you be overclocking?
Not planning on it.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
30 inch - 2560 x 1600

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Pretty soon, if possible

9) What features do you need in a motherboard?
I'm open to ideas for the best config.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
I will need to purchase a new copy of Windows. I'll let the experts decide the best build.

Thanks in advance.
 
Hi Danny. You helped me design my rig 3 years ago.

Fry's, Microcenter and TigerDirect are all within 30 minutes or so from me - one of the few benefits of this horrible state. That and our governors high felony conviction rate.
 
Yup, helping you with your build again :)

$350 - Core i5 2500K CPU + Asus P8Z68-V Pro Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard combo deal from Microcenter
$585 - 2 x XFX HD-695X-CNFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB PCI-E Video Card + Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003 2TB 5900 RPM Hard Drive Combo
$115 - Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SSD
$60 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$135 - Corsair 850TX V2 850W PSU + Corsair Vengeance CML16GX3M4A1600C9B 4 x 4GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$100 - Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit OEM
---
Total: $1345 plus tax and shipping.

Basically have the OS + small/heavily used applications + one or two games on the SSD and your data and large game installs on the Samsung 1TB drive. Use the Seagate drive for large media and the such. Due to your high resolution, I believe HD 6950 2GB Crossfire is a good choice.

Choose your own case. I recommend the following cases:
$100 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance nVidia Edition ATX Case
$100 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$100 - Corsair Carbide Series 400R ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58W ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$110 - Lian Li PC-60FN ATX Case
$125 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$125 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Full Tower ATX Case
$125 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-002OR Black Finish w/Orange Trim Full Tower ATX Case
$130 - Corsair Carbide Series 500R ATX Case
$140 - Lian Li PC-9F ATX Case
URL=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139007]$160[/URL] - Corsair Graphite Series 600TM ATX Case
$160 - Silverstone RV02B-W ATX case
$170 - Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$178 - Silverstone RV02B-EW ATX case
$190 - Corsair Obsidian Series 650D ATX Case
 
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Thanks Danny. I'm curious, why not go for the i7's or 2x8GB ram sticks? Would the improvement be negligible since I'm not planning on overclocking/optimizing the system?
 
Because the 2600k (i7) isn't any faster in gaming than the 2500k (i5) to justify the ~$100 price difference. In fact, in some cases the 2500k (i5) is faster than the 2600k (i7). The only main difference between the i5 and i7 is the i7 has hyper threading, games don't seem to benefit from hyper threading.

8Gb sticks costs a lot. Since games right now don't seem to make use of more than ~4Gb, going with 16Gb is overkill, going with 32Gb is a complete waste since it costs so much. With the cheap prices of RAM, if you have the money then get a 16Gb, 4 DIMM kit for ~$95 or less.
 
I ended up going with the Corsair Carbide from Microcenter because it had the best price (after MIR). Loving the case so far. NewEgg had a weekly deal on Windows last week, so I got that discounted. I also went with the G500 mouse. My old G5 was having issues, but I liked it enough to get an upgrade for it's replacement. I'll be keeping my old keyboard though.

The only thing I'm missing (that I didn't know I'd need) is a mounting bracket for my SSD. I'm making due, but I'll definitely need to pick something up. I'm really looking forward to getting home tonight, finishing some software updates on it and getting to play something pretty.

Thanks for the help all!
 
You really don't need a mounting bracket per se. You can stick that SSD anywhere data and power cables can reach it.

In any case, did you already buy the rest of the parts?
 
Yeah, I've purchased everything, and have a fully functional machine right now. I put the SSD into the plastic bracket that came with the case, but it wasn't designed for a SSD so it's a little funky. I'll pick up something better for it next time I'm at a store just to keep it neat, but there's nothing else I need for my machine now (except some awesome games and maybe a fan or two).
 
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