Planning on my next computer....

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William Reed

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Apr 11, 2013
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I'm currently in the planning stages of building my next computer. Its been awhile since I've been involved in the technology of computers. I'm a quick study though and love to do research.

I'm going to use this thread as a log of sorts to document my progress and decisions while getting feedback from the community here. I've used this site many times researching solutions to other problems and its been extremely helpful.

My budget is between $800-$1200 for a machine that can play on high end setting for games like Elder Scrolls series and maybe a few FPS'ers. In this regard, I'm looking maybe for a Corvette...not a Ferrari...maybe even a Mustang if the performance is negligible. Expandablity (i.e. ability to upgrade) and potential for overclocking also warrant attention.

So far what I've come across is the following:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ Outlet PC)
Thermal Compound: Zalman ZM - STG1 3.5g Thermal Paste ($6.98 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($134.49 @ Amazon)
Memory: Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($47.98 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 922 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: Cooler Master Megaflow 110.0 CFM 200mm Fan ($11.93 @ NCIX US)
Case Fan: Masscool FD12038S1M3/4 107.5 CFM 120mm Fan ($8.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Monitor: Asus VE228H 21.5" Monitor ($134.99 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Logitech Call of Duty: MW3 Edition Wired Gaming Keyboard ($27.50 @ Amazon)
Mouse: Gigabyte GM-M6800 Wired Optical Mouse ($16.99 @ Amazon)
Speakers: Creative Labs A60 4W 2ch Speakers ($19.55 @ Amazon)
Total: $1177.29
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-13 20:39 EDT-0400)

Why I choose what I choose:

CPU: Seems this is the standard CPU for non-extremist builds. It also in conjunction with the motherboard has the ability to overclock.

CPU Cooler: Seen this recommend before and went with it. Really could not know what to look for here. EDIT: I found a thread talking about energy savings and I live Las Vegas. It made sense to go with a efficient PSU.

Motherboard: This motherboard comes highly recommended for mid to high range gaming and ability to overclock.

Storage: Strictly only a gaming computer and I really wanted a SSD. The first upgrade I get will be another hard drive.

Video Card: Read a bunch of stuff on this. Seems like at this price point, this card is an all around beast. While not a fan boy, I am more familiar with NVIDIA products so this was the deciding factor over the 7850. There is a reasonable argument to skimp somewhere else to get the strictly better Radeon HD 7870 LE but I did not think the price difference was worth what you gain especially with the ability to OC. IMO there is a certain level where performance of the GPU has diminishing return per dollar. While I want great graphics, I think this card will provide it for me.


Case: After doing some research HAF's come highly recommended. What sold me on this case was the fan included add additional value from having to buy more fans.

Case fan: No clue..just picked one...have to do more research and I also need to find out how many I need.


This list will be very close to what I purchase. At first it's almost overwhelming having to learn so much about so many different components and manufactures of the components. However, once I grapsed the basics by doing a lot of searching via Google and this forum I'v discovered those almost limitless options provide value when you are building with finite resources.





 
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SlitWeaver

SlitWeaver

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CPU:
Great, perfect!

Motherboard:
After my friend just received four dead ASUS mobos in a row...I wouldn't buy from them, but that's just a 'personal experience' thing. My current recommendation would be the ASRock Extreme 3. It has two SATA III ports (all I need), but if you plan on having more than two hard drives (HDDs + SSDs), I would go with an Extreme 4 (which has one less GPU slot). GIGABYTE also offers a great selection of motherboards.

GPU:
Don't buy anything from Walmart...you're just trying to shoot yourself in the foot by doing that! :lol:
Without knowing the rest of your build it's hard to offer you a GPU option that fits well into your budget, but if you can spend $1500 then a GTX 670 does not sound out of your price range, or even an EVGA GTX 680 ($500).

Case:
Many questions need to be asked...
Do you care how it looks?
Do you want a big or small case?
Do you like having ridiculously bright and blue LEDs illuminating your house, which can now be seen from space?
Do you care what color the case is?
Do you want liquid/water cooling or are you fine with plane jane air?

Power Supply Unit (PSU):
Depends what GPU you get really. Higher-end cards require larger PSUs. It also depends on if you plan on going to SLI (two GPUs linked together as one, basically).
 
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William Reed

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Thanks!

Case:


Aesthetics are completely irrelevant when it comes to the case. In other words, I would rather not pay for for fancy looking stuff but would pay for a case that does the job well....not necessarily the best as I honestly think there are negligible differences between good and great. Size is no relevance other than the ability to upgrade or expand my machine if I desire.

Cooling

is a mystery to me...I'm not sure it's worth investing in liquid cooling. I suppose I would want some cooling for peace of mind but I do not anticipate overclocking out of the box however I may want to in the future. If I do decide to OC I''d probably upgrade the cooling system at time. So no real need to go overboard with cooling I guess. If my computer needs cooling I'll buy it...I'll buy what ever does the job at the cheapest price.


GPU:

Wal Mart was the cheapest place I found the GPU....I got that idea from here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2013/jan/30/build-a-gaming-pc-2013

My mind set on the GPU is I'm going to upgrade every 18 months as needed. I do not need an Italian sports car but a card that will give great performance for the dollar. I've had a high end machine before and the performance was wasted mostly. I'm open to ideas on the GPU....I'd hope not to hit high range of my budget but if the difference in GPU is that big of deal, I might consider it.


 
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William Reed

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Updated the PSU and case.



PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ Outlet PC)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Cooling MX-2 4g Thermal Paste ($4.98 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($134.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($63.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Wireless Network Adapter: Rosewill RNX-N150HG 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter ($13.32 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 922 ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: Enermax UCTVD12A 71.8 CFM 120mm Fan ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Monitor: Asus VS247H-P 23.6" Monitor ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Speakers: Creative Labs A60 4W 2ch Speakers ($19.55 @ Amazon)
Total: $1151.69
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-12 21:47 EDT-0400)
 
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SlitWeaver

SlitWeaver

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CPU: Awesome.

Cooler: Awesome.

Thermal Compound: Dunno, always just go with what comes on it, up to you! :)

Motherboard: In terms of GPU upgradability, the Extreme 3 is better (3 GPU slots vs 2, which is great for 3-way SLI or 2-way SLI + PhysX slave). Really you just have to look for what you want/need.

RAM: Good for upgrading to 16GB if you absolutely need it. If you want ONLY 8GB, then I would buy 4x2GB sticks.

Storage: Are you only going to have an SSD...?

GPU: Very nice card! :D (It's what I have ;) )

WNA: Know nothing about this except that USB 2.0 is really, really, really slow. :) Wireless internet is really bad for gaming too, especially if you have more than one device on your wireless.

Case: Good, solid, reliable, etc. If I got a tower (I personally don't like towers) this is probably what I would have gotten.

Case Fans: I prefer fans like these (fluid bearings) because they are quiet and last longer, but it's up to you.

PSU: Energy efficiency is awesome. Modular is a plus. Good choice.

Optical Drive: If it's not a blu-ray drive, just get whatever is the absolute cheapest. If it breaks? No big. With almost everything being digital now-a-days, I've only used my optical drive like...10 times in the past 2-3 years?

OS: I would upgrade to Win7 Pro if you want to play older games (Win XP, etc.).

Monitor: Entirely up to you. I just use my TV because it's huge :)

Speakers: Another thing that is personal preference. I got my nice sound system (basically a home theater) for free as a "hand me down" so yeah :p

Good luck :)
 
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William Reed

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I scrapped the wireless deal...my computer will be right next to my modem/router. Monitor is strictly budget right now. I'll never need three GPU's unless I become a fanatic (which I do not foresee) I do leave room for the option to go to 2 x SLI though and some overclock. I'll be getting a second hard drive later on, if not at the time I purchase this. I'm still a few months from purchasing this. OS will be a game time decision. Probably change the optical drive for budget reason too. I do not forsee using it past the intitiall install and construction of the computer, nice to have one in emergency. Just have not updated my list or changed it yet. Thanks for the feedback. For the price, features and such I'm right where I need to be. I've thought about switching to the ASUS but its really negligible it seems the difference so I'll stick with what I got. Speakers and additional storage will be first upgrades.

A few things have changed:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ Outlet PC)
Thermal Compound: Zalman ZM - STG1 3.5g Thermal Paste ($6.98 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($134.49 @ Amazon)
Memory: Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($47.98 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 922 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: Cooler Master Megaflow 110.0 CFM 200mm Fan ($11.93 @ NCIX US)
Case Fan: Masscool FD12038S1M3/4 107.5 CFM 120mm Fan ($8.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Monitor: Asus VE228H 21.5" Monitor ($134.99 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Logitech Call of Duty: MW3 Edition Wired Gaming Keyboard ($27.50 @ Amazon)
Mouse: Gigabyte GM-M6800 Wired Optical Mouse ($16.99 @ Amazon)
Speakers: Creative Labs A60 4W 2ch Speakers ($19.55 @ Amazon)
Total: $1177.29
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-13 20:21 EDT-0400)
 
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SlitWeaver

SlitWeaver

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Good stuff. The 212 EVO probably fits, but I'd just double check all the dimensions again, or a quick Google search. Warning with the Extreme 4 (I have it), the mobo has very, very weird dimensions, so it actually will not reach your furthest mobo mounts, so when pressing the RAM in, it feels like the mobo will snap, it won't just push til the RAM snaps in. :)

Also, IIRC, sleeve bearings are the worst. I could remember wrong, but I'd still go with fluid bearing. Longest life and most quiet. :)

Build seems pretty solid, good luck getting all the parts and putting it together! :D
 
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William Reed

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Also, IIRC, sleeve bearings are the worst. I could remember wrong, but I'd still go with fluid bearing. Longest life and most quiet.
Click to expand...

Can you elaborate on this?

Warning with the Extreme 4 (I have it), the mobo has very, very weird dimensions, so it actually will not reach your furthest mobo mounts, so when pressing the RAM in, it feels like the mobo will snap, it won't just push til the RAM snaps in.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I read about something like this in review.
 
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Gammyduck

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Posting here to follow your progress, good luck
sigtoco.jpg
 
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SlitWeaver

SlitWeaver

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I'm patient! ;) Besides, once you update this thread, we can see it in the little box in the top-right of the site telling us you've got the parts! :D
 
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William Reed

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You know anything about the cycle of hardware? In other words, when new golf equipment all the last year stuff is discounted...is that same with components, which if it is, when does this normally occur?
 
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Gammyduck

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I don't reccomend doing this with hardware, generally you want to pick a budget and pick the parts on the week you purchase. Hardware are considered to go "obsolete" within 9 months, as they will be replaced with a better component that has a superior bang per buck.
 
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William Reed

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While I understand and do not doubt what your saying but that is only in respect o other hardware and not necessarily true when looking at software. Specifically games, which if I understand, developers target the widest possible audience and that is not normally the ones with the latest hardware technology. So while I'll agree that compared to other hardware, I'd risk buying obsolete equipment by doing this, I do not yet believe when applied to real world application its that big of a concern, unless I'm wrong.
 
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SlitWeaver

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If you look at how intense games are becoming (Metro 2033, Crysis 1 and 3, etc.) you can see how older equipment can become outdated very rapidly. H***, I have a GTX 660 2GB (with a GTS 450 as PhysX slave) and it runs Metro 2033 on Medium at like 25-50FPS (depending what's on the screen). As Nvidia will not be making the next-gen 700 series until 2015-2016, you can "hold off" on buying the 660, but waiting too long to buy 'older parts' (currently new) could yield a reduction in performance and "bang for buck" (as said above). If you're going to wait a few months, you might as well just buy whatever new things Intel and/or AMD throw out into the market. :)
 
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William Reed

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Mouse trap is a term for business's when they have a product that captivates an audience. Unfortunately, people like the mouse trap...so they keep getting caught in it. I understand what you are saying though and I sure my set up will change...but at least now I have a clear comparison as of today when new stuff or price flux happens...I'll have a better understanding of the value/cost when I do purchase.
 
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SlitWeaver

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Do what cha gotta do :)
 
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