Tax Return Gaming build

[FlamingTP]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Heavy gaming, light photoshop, standard office work, (heavy video storage!)
C&C Generals 2, minecraft, ARMA 3,
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
12-1500 US tax and shipping not included, try to keep it closer to 1200
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

USA colorado
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, thinking this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119225
Mobo, CPU, video, need help deciding intel or AMD want a bit future proof. 2-3TB HDD
Cooling if current wont fit, this is the closest to what I have: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103176
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
1600 DDR3 8GB Gskill
OCz ZT series 750w 80% bronze modular
Monitor/kb/mouse/speakers
blu ray drive
120 GB SSD
1TB internal 7200 RPM
1TB External
6) Will you be overclocking?
Beginner overclock possible
7) 7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
22 inch asus 1920x1080
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Tax return around march 7-15th
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.
No SLI one card setup
Audio
enough for all case fans and 2 CPU fans or alternative cooler option
USB 3.0
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
win7 home premium 64 bit


I want the most bang for the buck here, if intel is so much better than AMD I want to go that route. video card brand doesn't matter to me though. SLI seems like a waste to me as long as we are going at least 2 gigs of vram.

 

[tiraides]

If you're really concerned about "future-proofing," you should wait for Intel's Haswell to arrive, which is expected to arrive this Summer. Are you willing to wait that long? (Regardless, you're looking at an Intel-based setup, which you could easily afford.)

You need to be more specific in describing the parts that you're reusing. Give us the model number (as well as the brands for the storage drives) and their age. You should also try to find out which specific CPU cooler you have; you may not need to purchase a new one.

 

[devilb4me]

With the money you have available, you have some pretty solid options. WIthout looking terribly hard for great deals or sales..the following is what I came up with...

Case has 13 HDD bays with built in HDD cooling over the 6 that comes with the HAF
CPU can be swapped out for a non unlocked to save a few bucks if you arent to keen on the OC'ing
GPU Great card IMO good performance for the gaming and the Photoshop work
Mobo solid board, 6 rear USB 3.0 and 1 internal header
2TB HDD and there you have it.

At the time of posting, these items came out to a subtotal ot $1341.90 with free supersaver shipping

Need to figure out your CPU cooler though, may need a replacement, may not.

There are of course cheaper options that may suit your needs as well, case is a spendy option, its the one I have and I love it personally. But find a differenct case option, save money there and go for the GTX 680 version instead if you deem appropriate.

Hope it helps.

 

[Climber]

If you live near South Denver Microcenter will be a worthwhile trip and more than likely have a number of tax deals or sales going on around that time. Might be worth checking back in then.

 

[tiraides]

I gotta nitpick a few things....

Cooler Master Cosmos II has 13 HDD bays with built in HDD cooling over the 6 that comes with the HAF
Intel Core i7-3770K can be swapped out for a non unlocked to save a few bucks if you arent to keen on the OC'ing
MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 OC 2GB Great card IMO good performance for the gaming and the Photoshop work
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H solid board, 6 rear USB 3.0 and 1 internal header
WD Black 2TB HDD and there you have it.

With what you told us earlier, you don't really need the i7-3770K. Neither gaming nor Photoshop benefits from the i7-3770K's Hyper Threading support, which is the only significant benefit that processor has over the cheaper yet still capable i5-3570K.

I have no problems about the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H in general, but the Asus P8Z77-V LK would work just as well for your needs.

I do have a slight problem, however, with the GTX 670. I believe that it's overkill for your gaming needs. I recommend that you instead "downgrade" to the GTX 660 Ti.

I believe that the Cooler Master Cosmos II is too much case for the majority of people. I'll wait for Danny Bui to offer his two cents on cases, but I think you should stick with the HAF X (assuming that you only want that case).

Since we're closer to the end of February than the beginning of March, let's wait a week before we start finalizing parts for this build. At this time, it would help us immensely if you could address the earlier concerns that Climber and I brought up.

 

[FlamingTP]

Hardware feedback:

Ok, I have taken a look as deep as I can and newegg records only go back to ~2010 here I what I got back:

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145260 turns out its corsair my bad.

Cooler: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

Optical: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136239

PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341052

HDD: SSD brand new 120GB (OS and basic programs, the occasional game that needs it), HDD1TB: WD cav black 7200 ~3-4 years old, will update when I get back home. External 1TB drive: Seagate older than them hills, seems to work fine.

Other questions:

Can I wait for new intel? yes I can probably, but I really really want at least the case done now and a new video card here is my current build as it stands now:

NZXT case, to heavy/big/crap proprietary fans, must go.
Mobo: MSi P55 GD 65 got some fan pins that came off, as long as the board still works I might be able to wait to new intel arcatecture.
Video: Sapphire AMD 5870 (probably being bottlenecked by CPU I would imagine)
CPU: i5 750 2.66 no overclock
Aforementioned reused parts

The HAF X appears to be available at my local computer store, I will give it an in person look to see if I like it, the video new egg provides is very convincing since they use an identical video card to mine to display the workspace.

I'll check the suggestions in this thread and see what I think.

 

[FlamingTP]

after looking at suggestions offered so far I've got a bit more feedback:

No need for that ultra tower case, not sure if I'm going with the HAF but I'll find out tonight after I take a look at it. cant imagine paying 300+ for a case, I want some expansion room to store my movie collection music and games. but I figure I'll never use more than 6-9 TB and thats if I become a junkie. it is a nice case though. I am still open to any case suggestions.

I will gladly drive to the microcenter but not in march, if I ultimately decide to wait until the new intel chip comes out I'll make the journey. Never been there before so I should probably go just to see it.

If hyper threading is indeed absolutely useless then I see no need for it the most I will be doing is maybe playing a game with net browsing on a second monitor or light activity a movie/audio the machine is primarily for internet icon/signature photoshop and hardcore gaming. if there is no point I'm going with the 3570 suggested.

Clarification on overclocking. I want to do basic stuff if I see the need for it. stuff I can do via motherboard features I dont have to tinker with. like if the MB has a small overclock feature I can just switch on without worry of frying a system due to user stupidity.

I looked at video card benchmarks on passmark the difference on rand 2 versus rank 8 over all. My question is is the extra money going to be worth it for the overkill 670 over the 660 Ti? crisis 3 benchs pointed out here is about a 5 FPS difference. I wont be playing it much though. Comes free with the card anyway right? I was a massive C&C Generals fan and number 2 is hitting with the battlefield 3 engine. I want that to look as smooth as possible. Is the "better" card going to give me the money's worth or is it going to get old and die before I start to see the need for the extra horses?

Really want a new card though, those new cards on the crysis 3 benchmarks are destroying my 5870.

Lets talk about Haswell, any info on it yet? if the performance increase is an easy 25+% bump then I'll probably wait. but at the very lease I want the case and the video come tax return time. Does it use the same socket as my i5 750? if so I'd like to get the board sooner rather than later too.

 

[Dangman]

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145260 turns out its corsair my bad.

Huh, surprised the system has lasted as long as it did. If you do go with a new CPU and mobo, you will have to replace the RAM as the max recommended RAM voltage for current Intel CPUs is 1.5V.

Video: Sapphire AMD 5870 (probably being bottlenecked by CPU I would imagine)
CPU: i5 750 2.66 no overclock

Actually that 5870 isn't being bottlenecked by the CPU. With that said, I would highly recommend that you overclock the CPU anyway as that'll easily extend the useful performance life of the CPU by at least another six months to maybe even a year.

No need for that ultra tower case, not sure if I'm going with the HAF but I'll find out tonight after I take a look at it. cant imagine paying 300+ for a case, I want some expansion room to store my movie collection music and games. but I figure I'll never use more than 6-9 TB and thats if I become a junkie. it is a nice case though. I am still open to any case suggestions.

I recommend any of these cases:
$60 - Corsair Carbide Series 200R ATX Case
$65 - Corsair Carbide Series 300R ATX Case
$98 - Corsair Carbide Series 400R ATX Case
$100 - Antec 1100 ATX Case
$110 - Antec P280 ATX Case
$110 - Fractal Design Define R4 Arctic White ATX Case
$110 - Fractal Design Define R4 with Window Arctic White ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7HX Black Aluminum ATX Case
$118 - Corsair Carbide Series 500R ATX Case
$120 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-002GR Black Finish w/Green Trim Full Tower ATX Case
$120 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White ATX Case
$126 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black ATX Case
$120 - Corsair Vengeance Series C70 Gunmetal Black ATX Case
$120 - Corsair Vengeance Series C70 Arctic White ATX Case
$136 - Corsair Obsidian Series 550D ATX Case
$144 - Silverstone RV03B-W ATX case
$144 - Silverstone RV03B-WA ATX case
$160 - Corsair Graphite Series 600TM ATX Case
$165 - Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$168 - Silverstone TJ04B-EW ATX Case
$167 - Corsair Obsidian Series 650D ATX Case
$230 - Silverstone FT02B-USB3.0 ATX Case
$240 - Silverstone FT02S-W-USB3.0 ATX Case

I will gladly drive to the microcenter but not in march, if I ultimately decide to wait until the new intel chip comes out I'll make the journey. Never been there before so I should probably go just to see it.

How far is that Microcenter from you?

If hyper threading is indeed absolutely useless then I see no need for it the most I will be doing is maybe playing a game with net browsing on a second monitor or light activity a movie/audio the machine is primarily for internet icon/signature photoshop and hardcore gaming. if there is no point I'm going with the 3570 suggested.

A tad nitpicky but it's the Core i5 3570K that was recommended, not the regular Core i5 3570. They're two different CPUs: The regular Core i5 3570 can only be OC'd by an extra 400Mhz whereas the Core i5 3570K can be OC'd an additional 1Ghz+.

I looked at video card benchmarks on passmark the difference on rand 2 versus rank 8 over all. My question is is the extra money going to be worth it for the overkill 670 over the 660 Ti? crisis 3 benchs pointed out here is about a 5 FPS difference. I wont be playing it much though. Comes free with the card anyway right? I was a massive C&C Generals fan and number 2 is hitting with the battlefield 3 engine. I want that to look as smooth as possible. Is the "better" card going to give me the money's worth or is it going to get old and die before I start to see the need for the extra horses?

IMO, if you can afford it, go for the GTX 670. Otherwise, the GTX 660 TI is a solid choice.

Lets talk about Haswell, any info on it yet? if the performance increase is an easy 25+% bump then I'll probably wait. but at the very lease I want the case and the video come tax return time. Does it use the same socket as my i5 750? if so I'd like to get the board sooner rather than later too.

Early rumors are saying that there's roughly a 5% to 10% performance increase over current Intel Ivy Bridge CPUs. So yeah you'll easily see at least a 15% to 25% performance increase in games assuming the rummors are true. Intel Haswell will be using a completely different socket that won't be released until Haswell is released. As such, you're basically looking at new RAM, CPU, and mobo if you dp the Haswell upgrade.

 

[FlamingTP]

Man that's a lot of info to go through, all of it valuable, strange that the RAM works fine if the voltage is too high, neweggs compatibility system said the ram was a solid choice, but I guess I need to pay more attention.

Am I still safe using the ram I have until then? I've had zero issue so far despite the pointed out voltage issue.

by the looks of things I'd say I'm looking at a slower upgrade then. I'll take a good look at all the cases shown here, and I'll grab a new video card come march, I'm going to wait for the new architecture to hit the shelves before I get a new board and CPU. Now I just need to think of a safe overclock until the big switch.

So lets break it down.
Come march I'll be getting: case, video, and RAM if you really think I'll need the ram. I'm going to get proper RAM anyway down the line. My current set up works fine for all the games I have, just some video overheat on a couple of games at times.

The new socket makes me sad, would have been nice to build the whole thing and just drop the new chip in in july but I have no problem waiting. Gives me more money to save too.

 

[Dangman]

Am I still safe using the ram I have until then? I've had zero issue so far despite the pointed out voltage issue.

Yeah might as well keep using it.

And yes your current plans for March sounds about right.