Ultimate Build for Gaming and Music Production

deaf to light · Mar 25, 2013

Approximate Purchase Date: e.g.: Within the next couple of months

Budget Range: ~$2000-$2300

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming and Music Recording/Production

Are you buying a monitor: Maybe, still have a great BENQ 24" I got 5 years ago.

Parts to Upgrade: All New

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Parts Preferences: Whatever's best, Intel obviously, but torn between NVidia AMD for gfx

Overclocking: But of course

SLI or Crossfire: I'm guessing the smartest idea is to do it down the line when

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080 (i forget if I'm on 1080 or 1200... it is a widescreen monitor but that doesn't always mean the biggest number and there's so many resolution choices now).

Additional Comments: Really would like to be able to play all games at max settings. I imagine the best bang for my buck though would be to go for a high-end card now, and then SLI or CrossFire in the near future. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that seems to be the smartest way to go about things while keeping up with technology and providing the best bang for the buck.

I chose 32GB RAM and the i7 over the i5 because although I heard the i7 is not worth it for gaming, I figured it would be for running Pro Tools. Also I figured anything over 850W for a PSU was unnecessary... let me know if I'm wrong and need to go any higher, especially down the line with SLI/Crossfire.

I like the aesthetics of the case I chose... but do I need to be buying any separate fans?

I hate Windows 8, but with the new DirectX 11.1 being 8 exclusive, should I actually be considering it?

Please steer me in the right direction if you see any "stupid" decisions on my build... I'm not a noob, but keeping up with the market in high detail is extremely time-consuming, so I'm not that guy who's able to spout off 8 different graphics card models and how much better one is than the other.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: It's been 5 years.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($329.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($36.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($234.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($249.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB Video Card ($445.91 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF X Blue ATX Full Tower Case ($224.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic X Series 850W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($151.29 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $2154.10
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-25 15:10 EDT-0400)

inzone · Mar 25, 2013

I would say that you've done a good job in picking the parts and putting together a top quality build, I may have chosen an Asus motherboard over the Asrock but that's my preference. Good choices.

deaf to light · Mar 25, 2013

Thanks, I appreciate it. The motherboard was something I was wondering about, because I used to always think ASUS is the best, but had some good experiences recently with ASRock boards for some office computers I had to build. I was wondering if anyone could chime in on the motherboard scenario, as the difference between paying less than $200 and over $300 for a motherboard appears to be getting smaller to me as of late...

g-unit1111 · Mar 25, 2013

You don't need 850W for a single GPU setup but otherwise that is a pretty nice configuration there, I say go for it.

deaf to light · Mar 26, 2013

Yeah, but I'm thinking SLI/CrossFire down the line. Do you guys think that's the smartest choice? I mean if I forked over $1000 for a 690 now (I read they perform better than Titans), would I be asking for trouble? I'm under the impression now that purchasing a card now, and then getting the same card down the line when its price drops is not only more economical, but probably better for performance. And on my last build, I got the most expensive card at the time (9800GX2) only to find out that it had horrible overheating issues.

The only thing I'm worried about though is if I want to add a card for SLI/CrossFire down the line, the card is discontinued and due to supply and demand I don't get any price drop, or perhaps end up paying more. A perfect example of this is DDR2 RAM being more expensive than DDR3... DDR3 is way cheaper than DDR2, so you either pay more to just upgrade your RAM, or you have to upgrade your whole mobo, CPU, etc. I've never rocked an SLI/CrossFire setup so I've never really paid close attention to the fluctuation of market prices for identical cards.

inzone · Mar 26, 2013

With the GTX 690 you essentially have two video cards in one because it has two gpu's on the one pcb, so you may not be needing to add a second 690 for quad sli? I would think that you would be fine with the one 690 untill you decide to build another computer. I currently have two gtx 680's and that's going to be the setup untill I upgrade to a new build and those two 680s are pretty much the same as the one 690. If you were going to get a Titan now and upgrade to a second one later then that makes more sense because two Titans will crush a 690. The Titan card has one Gpu , the same as the 680 but a different Gpu design.

deaf to light · Apr 4, 2013

I was wondering if I need to get any extra fans for this? I've always had a hard time figuring out if I need to spend money on extra cooling (aside from an aftermarket CPU cooler).

Also, I was thinking of going with a liquid CPU cooler... is it worth the money and time (pain in the ass to put together)?

g-unit1111 · Apr 4, 2013

deaf to light :

No closed liquid loops are definitely not worth it, and I would advise against a real liquid cooling setup if it's your first time building.

There's no need to get any additional fans until you get your system built. The reason being that your system's air flow is determined by the position of your heat sink, and you can't buy more fans than your case has the mounts for. And the fans your case can support is determined by the mounts already on the case, and the size and position of those fans do matter.

deaf to light · Apr 4, 2013

Thanks. It's actually far from my first build. Second high-end build for myself, but I've built many for the office at my job.

I'll probably end up waiting for Haswell, cause I would hate to buy an i7 now only to get outperformed by a new socket in a couple of months.

g-unit1111 · Apr 4, 2013

deaf to light :

It's not going to be that much of an improvement. The difference between Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge is only like a 10% increase between the two, and the difference between Ivy and Haswell is going to be about the same.

CPUs don't bottleneck and depreciate in value as quickly as GPUs do. People are still using Q6600s and i7-920s and they still work with any GPU you can think of.

deaf to light · Apr 4, 2013

Well perhaps there will be a good price drop of current processors around the release of Haswell? My one gripe is that I'm running on an E6750 right now, back when they said Duo Core would be fine and Quad Core wouldn't be necessary for awhile. I should have ended up going with Quad Core back then, cause from what I've read surely my CPU would bottleneck GPUs today.

inzone · Apr 4, 2013

Don't hold your breath for any good price reductions on Intel cpus just because a new line is released. Intel is notorious for keeping pricing high, if you look at the i7-2600k and the i5-2500 they are still around the same price give or take $5 as when they were released and Intel still wants $1000 for the i7-990x. If your into overclocking then Ivy Bridge is not the cpu since Sandy Bridge overclocks much better and because of the lower wattage requirement for first Ivy Bridge and now Haswell overclocking may be diffacult on the Haswell cpu also. If overclocking is not important then ok wait for Haswell.

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