Final thoughts on build?? First time build!

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/N66h

Bf3 and stuff ultra no problem

Dont buy the prebuilds, they even dint have a graphics card

First off, the build from ebay is going off dedicated graphics. So, unless you want to spend another 170 dollars after you buy it. I wouldn't recommend it.

Something like this will pleasantly surprise you. I am using the 7850 and play everything so far (with the exception of crysis 3 which i haven't tried) on High-Ultra settings.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($92.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: MSI 760GM-P34(FX) Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($42.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($47.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake Commander MS-I ID ATX Mid Tower Case ($41.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($35.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $607.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-30 08:19 EDT-0400)

Very good, best so far

Hi there Tom,

First off those pre-builts are out of the window. The 5750/5770 (the graphics cards), are very (2 generations, approaching 3) old, so the fact that he qualifies them with "NEW!" seems a bit dodgy. They were the low end even on release, so honestly don't bother, you can do much better for yourself.

Of the three cases you listed, the first looks like a it would be better at giving you a nice deep cut rather than store your PC components (honestly cheap cases like that are really, really dangerous -- a friend of mine sprayed blood all over his new components cause of a sharp corner). Features like bottom mounted power supply (the Tiveco has it at the top, which is not optimal) and a painted interior (looks better and prevents short circuiting if you do something silly) should be easy to find in your price range. The other two look alright though, with the Thermaltake being slightly better than the Raidmax in my eyes. What is more important to you for the case, quality or looks? For example the Antec One is a very high quality budget case, which lacks some of the looks of the cases you've linked, but probably makes up for it with better construction and features.

SLI/CrossFire since you were confused is where you use 2 or more graphics cards in tandem, in order to boost your gaming performance by a significant amount (in some cases nearly double). It's not relevant at all though unless you are looking for gaming across multiple monitors (which I assume you aren't!).

As far as monitor is concerned I would recommend 1080p. It's pretty much the standard for gaming now days. For $600 you should be able to get a rig which can handle 1080p high/ultra settings (assuming cutting edge games, anything like LoL, Diablo, WoW will be maxed out probably even at 2.5k with no issues) as long as that 1080p monitor isn't part of the $600. If so you're going to have to really cut costs on the PC, so you might as well just stick with what you have.

Now onto the actual build (this is minus the case/OS):

PCPartPicker part list

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($118.79 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock H77M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($47.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Hitachi 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($55.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card ($234.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $557.72

I haven't included a DVD drive, since most people don't use them now days (I certainly haven't) esp. with you having mentioned all online games.

This build should easily be able to run modern titles at high/ultra settings at 1080p. At anything less than 1080p, it will naturally destroy games as well.

In retrospect it would probably be best to dial back the CPU to a Phenom II X4, as in one of the builds above. That way you should have no problem staying within budget no matter what case you choose. The 7870 XT is an amazing graphics card. The 7870 model number is misleading, it's actually a slightly gimped 7950 (2% slower I believe) so in terms of straight line value you you're really bagging yourself a deal with a 7870 XT.

If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask.

All the best,

M

Yeah Marcopolo's build is missing a storage device. Probably just forgot to add one, they are a relatively boring piece of hardware .

M

Its also missing a operating system and a optical drive.

@tenaclousk I think optical drives have had their day (esp. considering nearly all the games he mentioned are only available online). In the cases where it's necessary to have one, I think the person will know this in advance, which is why I tend to leave one out of my cheaper builds as they can simply add it in themselves (rather than the flipside where they might buy it only because I suggested it, and not because they wanted it). Valid point about the OS though. I realise I should have included that in my build as well, as currently my build would be quite a bit over-budget, once everything is included.

To surmise tenaciousk's build is more in line with your budget than mine, and so probably a better bet. Personally I'd drop the Optical Drive, get a cheaper 500 GB hard drive, get the CX 500w (it's cheaper than the 430W with a discount) and spend the extra cash upgrading to a 7870 XT. They are just unbeatable value for the price (value wise, probably the best card under $400).

In regards to one of your earlier questions which I didn't see Tom, overclocking is really a personal preference, and more often than not done because people enjoy it rather than they that they NEED the performance for playability reasons. If you want to overclock the CPU, you need to stick with AMD and get an aftermarket cooler. Intel CPUs are not possible to overclock until you spend upwards of $300 on a motherboard/CPU combo, which just isn't possible at this budget. Graphics cards though, esp. AMD are very overclockable, and can boost your FPS by upward of 10-15 FPS (which doesn't sound like much, but in some games that's the difference between 45 and 60 FPS, which is fairly big). It all depends on how comfortable you are with the extra heat, noise and very, very slight risk it brings (this risk is practically nil if you don't touch the voltage).

EDIT: Coolers are included with CPUs, which is why none are linked. You only need an aftermarket cooler if you intend to overclock.

M

You shouldn't bump on this forums, mods really don't like it . People will get to you when they have the time (esp. since you've already had quite a few answers). If you want a reply, it's often better to ask a specific question rather than a generic bump, or just "say more stuff to me".

You're on a fairly tight budget really (we can't suggest things like SLI/CrossFire), and there are only 2 choices for each of the two major components (nVidia/AMD for graphics and Intel/AMD for processor). The fact is almost universally (perhaps no longer with the 650 Ti Boost) AMD is better value than nVidia for graphics power, and likewise until your budget can afford an i5 or arguably an i3, you're probably better off with AMD again. The rest of the components are just kept at as low a price as possible (except the PSU which has to be of a certain quality) while retaining the necessary features, in order to push as much of the budget into the GPU/CPU (note the order, always try and spend more on the GPU for a gaming build), as they are what defines the performance of a given system. There's a reason you don't see people suggesting Motherboards like the Sabertooth Z77 here. So there's no real choices there either, simply the best priced components are chosen, unless there's a specific feature desired.

Is there something you feel 'missing' from the builds above? The thing is there are certain components (the 7850 was until the 650 Ti Boost came along, and now the 7870 XT is a perfect example) which are pretty much universally deemed to be the best at their specific price range.

M

You could make the jump to a 7950 with that budget. It's a lot easier to find in stock than a 7870 XT as well:

PCPartPicker part list

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($118.79 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI B75A-G43 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($55.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Hitachi 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($55.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($269.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Zalman Z9 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case ($46.84 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $656.55

On the other hand you could perhaps upgrade to an i5:

PCPartPicker part list

CPU: Intel Core i5-3350P 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI B75A-G43 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($55.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($39.99 @ Microcenter)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card ($234.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Zalman Z5 ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $650.91

The choice is yours

M

Bad power supply

Because brand matters a lot when you looks at power supply units. Have a look at this review of a similar power supply by Logisys, their '600w' unit: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Logisys-PS600A12-Power-Supply-Review/1211/1 The review shows it can't even deliever 2/3 of its specificed power and starts to melt at 375W of power draw. That's not exactly what anyone would want in their system.

The only brands you should be looking at are Corsair, SeaSonic and PC Power and Cooling (XFX and Antec also have fairly decent units -- XFX stuff is produced by SeaSonic). These are pretty much guaranteed to be solid units, and not ticking time bombs that take your system down with them when they fry up (since A) they won't and B) they have the correct electrical protection in place, unlike many of the cheaper units). A Corsair Builder Series 500W would be great for your needs, and is only like $20 more with rebates. If that's not worth it it to prevent your computer from exploding (many bad power supplies have been known to do this) well OK then...

Also don't both buying a fan, until you have the system up and running and know you need one, it just adds cost/noise that you might find out you don't actually need in the end.

Finally I'd recommend spending a little more on the GPU than the CPU, in your build currently they have about the same amount of budget assigned to each. As a general rule of thumb, people normally should spend maybe twice as much on the GPU for a purely gaming build. Having said that, I had that exact combo of an i5 and a 7850 at the end of last year, and it was very solid for 1080p. I would think a 7870 or better would pair more nicely with an i5 however.

Otherwise the build seems fairly good.

M

Buy atleast a bronze certified from a good brand.
Better gold but it costs more

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182263
Best for the price

Kingwing lzg 550