$1500 Gaming PC Build Component Choice

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roguecatfish

roguecatfish

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May 5, 2013
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I'm looking to build a new gaming PC. I currently own a laptop, the DV7T Quad Edition which is labeled as a Gaming PC but it is most definitely not. It cannot run a single game at over 30 FPS on lowest settings (Around 13 FPS in Minecraft, everything turned down). So basically, I'm looking for a build that will just crush everything that I throw at it on max settings, games like DayZ, ARMA 3, Battlefield 3, Bioshock Infinite, Black Ops 2, Borderlands 2, Skyrim, and a lot of the other triple A titles. My budget is at $1500 but if hiking up the budget a bit will vastly increase my performance, I'll go for it. I'm also going to be using this build for just some basic video editing. Also, I was looking to be doing some Multi-Monitoring, just two 27" 1080p monitors, one running my game and on the other side possibly just my Email or Youtube open. I have also been trying to decide between a GTX 680 FTW 4GB or a Sapphire AMD 7970 3GB GHz edition, could someone post some pros and cons of the two cards down here and what your favored choice of which that I should choose for my setup is. All answers are very appreciated and any advice that you guys can give me will help. Thank you for your time.
 
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ksham

ksham

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Do you actually want to include monitors into the budget? I've include the OS just in case. 27" monitors are expensive though.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($79.98 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($134.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($63.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($139.57 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($67.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card ($389.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.95 @ Amazon)
Total: $1384.42
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
 
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roguecatfish

roguecatfish

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May 5, 2013
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Alright thanks, just a few questions that I still have about the build that you sent me. Number one, so is the 7970 better than the GTX 680? I've heard that the 680 excels in games like Battlefield 3 and Borderlands 2 whereas the 7970 excels in games like Skyrim. What are the pros and cons of each card? Number two, is 16GB of RAM necessary for a build running multi-monitors or should I just stick with the 8GB? Do you ever think that 16GB will be necessary for future proofing because I'm not looking to upgrade for a while. Number 3, I've heard a lot of debate over the i5 vs the i7. I know the basics such as the i7 3770k is better for video editing and such but what are the real pros and cons of the two processors and is the i7 worth it? Number 4, I was hoping to not have to upgrade any individual parts other than the Graphics Card anytime in the near future so if there are any better components such as hard drives and motherboards that just cost a little bit extra that would future proof the build for a while, could you send me a link of those ones. And finally number 5, I was planning on possibly doing SLI in the future with my build, what are your thoughts on SLI setups with the 7970? I still have a bit of room to hike up the price because I was not planning on including Windows 7 or the Monitor into the budget, this is strictly the PC budget. Are there any other things you would recommend upgrading on since I have another $200-$300 to spare? Thanks for the quick reply and all of your time on picking the parts.

 
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roguecatfish

roguecatfish

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In reply to you saying that 27" monitors are expensive, this is the one that I was looking at:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009HNEBLK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

I didn't want to skimp out on the monitor so I got a 1MS response time 27" ASUS monitor, any thoughts on this one?
 
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ksham

ksham

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Mar 29, 2013
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Statistically no but the GTX 680 isn't worth its price. It's $100 more and you only get a 5% performance increase.



RAM has nothing to do with the amount of monitors you run. That's allocated to the GPU VRAM. 16GB is good if you multitask (have other apps open while you are gaming). Though, I run some 8GB gaming rigs and I've never really passed it even with Firefox, Skype, and a few other things opened. I won't say it's better or worse. Your call. :)



For gaming, no. The whole future proof idea never works and never will work. Gamers like to play top games at high resolution. The fact is: we don't control the requirements for running said games in high resolution. So if games become more of a burden, you'll be forced to upgrade. At which point, neither the i5 or i7 will measure up to the newer CPUs on the market. So you're paying more now for little gain in terms of gaming.



They're fine for now. When the new Intel models come out, they will be using newer sockets so motherboards you buy now won't fit the new CPUs soon-to-be-released anyway.



You cannot SLI a HD 7970. SLI is for nvidia cards. CrossFire is for AMD cards. Unless you need more monitors, I wouldn't CrossFire or SLI. You can just get a better single card. The performance boost is immense with 7970 CrossFire, but for now, CrossFire is broken and you have to fiddle with CrossFire / SLI settings. They also generate more heat, more resolution issues, and more driver issues.



Well ... $300 is expensive to me. I'm not rich. :(
 
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roguecatfish

roguecatfish

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Alright well thanks a ton for all of the info ksham! So in your overall opinion, do you think that this build will be able to run all the games that I specified above at High-Max settings at a constant well over 30 FPS? Sorry for asking so many questions but I've never built a PC before and I want to be sure that I'm going to be getting the best for my money before I go out and spend $1500+ dollars. Also, with your saying that $300 is expensive for a monitor, are there any other cheaper solutions that you would recommend for me to go with?

 
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giltyler

giltyler

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The only parts that I consider "Future Proof" are a High quality case and large modular power supply.
If you change every other part those can remain.
I would recomend a GTX 670 4 gig version since games are always using more memory and in muti card set ups you are bound by the card with the least vram.
I have the EVGA GTX 670SC 4 gig currently and had the EVGA GTX 680 4 gig before and they are very close.
 
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roguecatfish

roguecatfish

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3-4" doesn't make that much of a difference. If there's a cheaper alternative that is a decent monitor just give me some links to a few :)

 
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ksham

ksham

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Mar 29, 2013
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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($134.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($63.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($139.34 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($67.19 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card ($389.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.94 @ Outlet PC)
Monitor: Asus VH238H 23.0" Monitor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1473.37
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)



For a bit over, you can also fit another monitor in there if you don't mind a cheap case and a slightly not-as-good SSD. That will give you more multi-tasking capabilities (having two monitors) at the expense of a lesser quality case and SSD. The SSD will still be really good though, just not as good.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($134.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($63.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: A-Data XPG SX900 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($114.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($67.20 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card ($389.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.95 @ Amazon)
Monitor: Asus VH238H 23.0" Monitor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VH238H 23.0" Monitor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1514.04
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
 
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roguecatfish

roguecatfish

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May 5, 2013
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I don't think that I am ready to make that many downgrades to the build. You removed the 16GB RAM, 3TB Hard Drive, and SSD. I'll just stick with my current build and push the budget a bit to fit the monitor into there. But do you think that this build will actually be able to run dual monitors at playable frame rates? Here is the link to the current build I'm buying in the next week so if you think I should change anything I need a response quickly http://pcpartpicker.com/p/VGnn
 
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