$2000 Gaming Future-Proof PC Build (Updated specs)

CPU: Intel i7 4770k (it's relased today, but you can google it) - 340$

GPU: HD7990 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103237) - 1019$

RAM: Viper 3 16GB RAM (2x8) DDR3 1600MHz (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220735) - 120$

MOBO: MSI Z87-GD65 GAMING (LGA 1150) (not yet relased, in couple of days) - 160$

HDD: Western Digital Red 1TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236342) - 75$

SSD: Kingston HyperX 3K 120 GB SATA III (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007R67FNA?ie=UTF8&tag=techoftomo-20&linkCode=shr&camp=213733&creative=393185&creativeASIN=B007R67FNA&=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=electronics&qid=1358792211&sr=1-3) - 120$

PSU: Corsair 750W(http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Builder-Series-Bronze-Certified/dp/B008RJZQSW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370130583&sr=8-1&keywords=CX750) - 90$

PC CASE: Coolermaster HAF192RC (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233)

I think I made a nice build which would enhance you at least 5 years of joy in gaming. That HD7990 can run anything, they took such card to show off newest BF4 next gen graphics. HD7990 is more powerful than GTX690 and it actually represents 7970s in SLI, but it has less power consumption, noise and such.

Total build cost: 1984$. If you're not going to overclock try to buy version without K. Overclocking 4770k would be meaningless now as CPU runs everything, it's the best CPU available except high end i7 extreme series.

I believe so. Asus always was a little bit more pricey than other companies, especially MSI. MSI/Gygabyte always had the lowest pricest, as far I see. I took MSI z87 because it's basicly a budget mobo, but with extended features for overclocking, BIOS and such. From Asus you can expect high end Maximus VI, whom prices are going to be ~300$ I belive and that surely breaks the budget limit you posted. I personally think you would be fine with MSI, you should focus more on GPU. In this case that is 7990 which is a behemoth among GPUs.

Point is, in future, you could buy custom cpu fan and overclock shit out of 4770k, people easily get it @ 5GHz.

I don't think you should buy PS4 after this, this PC will stomp any consoles that are coming soon. I would recommend buying PS4 only if you're addicted to God Of War series and such PS4 only upcoming titles.

I think that's a crazy awful build.

First off, 16GB RAM is not needed.

Second, while the 7990 is a high-end card, it has huge frame latencies.

So you can put it like this: Even if card X can deliver X amount of high FPS, that won't

matter much, if it takes X amount of [very long time] to deliver each frame. Since you'll then get stutter.

Thus it's better to go for a GTX 700 something card, as they're powerful, but also have lower frame latencies.

Did I also mention that the 7990 is a huge card? Very long? Why recommend a MID TOWER case in a 2000$

build? I find this insane. A Full Tower HAF X would be much better suited for everything the OP wants.

More upgradeable, more features, more space, more everything. More awesome.

Also, Haswell isn't such a big upgrade from Ivy Bridge, so you could save yourself cash by not

upgrading it. I think the OP could get by on upgrading his GPU and RAM. . . But he's free to do otherwise.

And although it appears we received fairly overclockable samples of the -4770K, industry consensus amongst the companies with hundreds of these chips on-hand is that, at safe input voltages, 4.3 or 4.4 GHz should be OK. The luckiest enthusiasts might get 4.5 or 4.6 GHz. Skill won’t get you far; Haswell is all about luck of the draw due to its integrated voltage regulator.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/core-i7-4770k-haswell-review,review-32699-19.html

If he's going to get a 2000$, he's not gonna go for old generation of CPUs..

I think that's a crazy awful build.

First off, 16GB RAM is not needed.

Click to expand...

The title is:$2000 Gaming Future-Proof PC Build. That's why I suggested 16GB RAM, he's not gonna pay 2000$ for a PC which has 8GB of RAM.

I took mid tower because it's smaller and I personally hate full tower cases. What's the point of having a huge case? Maybe there's point there for you, idk..

My friend has 7990 and I find it awesome card. I doubt you ever saw the video card in real life and it's performance. It's breath taking, I didn't see any problems, frame issues, stutter, whatsoever. It stomped GTX680 and it would stomp GTX7xx. GTX770 is just rebranded old gen GTX680 and GTX780 is just not worth it imo!

About 5GHz, well ok, still you miss the point of the sentence. In future when this build stops being top notch, he could overclock the cpu..

Stop trolling and go somewhere else!

You've got to think of this phrase "future-proof".

Now I know you're a gamer, but what do you play?

Which games do you intend to play?

Do you intend to always be cutting edge? Or are you often fine with 1-3 titles for a long time?

All these things factor into how future proof something is. If you're just going to play minecraft, then

a build with an i7 and GTX 770 is INSANELY future proof! But if you're wanting to go Max resolution on

3 monitors on the newest shooters, then it won't be for as long. Micro ATX is very small for someone who's

willing to drop 2k$ on a build. Go for at least a mid tower if anything. Personally I think you don't need to spend

2k$ on a build. Maybe this kind of thinking isn't for you, but for me, I'd split things up and get what I NEED now

and then save a bunch of other cash to then next big (or incremental) upgrade. Since then I'll stay current.

Some people will go even further and spend many times your budget here, for a kind of "one big" build.

But after a few years, that too, will be old and aging. And about your case, invest in a good one. Again with

your budget, something like a HAF X full tower. Because good cases can last you many builds over and the bigger

the case, the more tech you can fit inside it.

Eh, actually I was right, lol. I double checked.

So, X79 firstly recommends cost/power unffective GTX770.

GTX 770 is more expensive than HD7970GHz edition and it doesn't bring improvement. GTX770 is actually rebranded GTX680.

Then tells you to buy a PC case to make it more cost effective.

I think this is wrong, this dude didn't keep even case from his current build.

Please recheck my last reply, I edited it again . I wasn't quite sure, but yes, I would not recommend you getting GTX770 at all.

Future-proof as in playing next-gen titles.

Click to expand...

As a gamer myself I understand that very well. I can't wait to get my hands on Watch Dogs, BF4, CoD Ghosts and such =)

I suggested 7990 at first place because you offered enormous budget and I think it would be shame not to have a high end card in that build. If you want to save some money you could wait until late 2013 for HD8970 or HD9970. Nobody knows will AMD skip HD8000 series or they're just modifying them to own GTX7xx.

From Nvidia side, you could take GTX780 which is a decent GPU indeed but for 650$ (here it's even 700$), I just don't like it.

P.S: Don't take GTX Titan at all, it's same as 7990 and gives less performance.

Ahhaa, well now you come in phase when you wanna wait for new generation to come

Nvidia won't make 800 a beast that will own 700s without a problem. It's not competitive market. 880 will own 780 similar like 780 owns 680. If you want something in middle, wait for upcoming 8000/9000 series.

Friend of mine, uses this solution:

Now he owns HD7870 Tahiti LE video card which isn't the best of 7000s series but it runs every game maxed out during this year. Then, after 8000/9000s come, he will sell this one and add 100$-50$ to buy 8870 or 8950. In this way he will always have good GPU. You could try that instead of getting 1000$ 7990 at once.

It's a good idea as GPUs are not like CPU where i7 2700k still owns even to new 4700k. They don't get so easily outdated.

Yes man, but it won't be that much great. Such thing would discourage people from buying current GTX700 and Nvidia DOES NOT want that. I'd personally go for 7990 and enjoy in playing everything smoothly for a while, I don't like that change GPU annually stuff, too much bugging for me, you have to find someone buy it, then earn additional cash..

Sure he can OC later, though it doesn't look like there will be much room for it.

The point of a huge case, is that you get the future-proofness that he's wanting. As I said, if he

for instance got himself a CM HAF X, he'd most likely be able to re-use the case again and again.

He'd have lots of space for upgrades and not least huge cards like your beloved 7990. There would

be better cable-management features, which helps keep things orderly and can also improve airflow.

It's fair enough you don't like full towers, they're not for everybody. But if this thread was about you, you

would be the OP. A bigger case would furthermore allow for more easy (as well as advanced) forms of cooling for the

OC'ing you've mentioned. So to me, it all makes for a better deal in the long run, with a proper case.

Also, you'd be right that I've not held a 7990 in my hands, but now you're getting subjective.

I'm not saying it's a bad card or that it doesn't have some neat performance. I'm saying, that due to the price

and the frame latencies, it has some pretty unattractive traits for such an expensive card. I'd sooner recommend

a 7970 than 7990, which is also what you'll find recommended here:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-graphics-card-review,review-32693-5.html

And I also very much agree with you on the Titan. It's too expensive and doesn't offer enough of a performance

gain over many other cards to justify a purchase of it; even though it has some great features. I've also read that the

GTX 690 stands up pretty well to the 7990 in terms of FPS, but also uses less power and is a bit quieter. There's also

less of a frame latency in the Nvidia cards tested, as I've mentioned before:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/radeon-hd-7990-review-benchmark,review-32675-18.html

And if you go back a little in that article, there's also some gamers who comment on which feels more smooth; the

GTX 690 or Radeon 7990. The GTX 690 won out in all cases. Granted, the 7990 was running on prototype drivers or

so, but apparently AMD will only be releasing the full drivers in the second half of 2013. . . But when we combine the quantitative data enabled by video capture-based performance analysis and the subjective judgments of a panel of gaming enthusiasts who simply want to play their favorite titles on the best hardware possible, Nvidia’s thousand-dollar GeForce GTX 690 outshines the similarly-priced Radeon HD 7990. Our early look at AMD’s prototype driver suggests that more evenly pacing the rate at which frames are shown on-screen helps minimize frame time variance, which our gamers definitely noticed. But that release isn’t expected for months—the second half of 2013 is as specific as AMD gets.


I know what he said about 2k$ and future-proof. But if what you've said you wanted to do (not

use up his entire budget) then 16GB RAM doesn't make so much sense. Games run optimally with 8GB

and it's usually only if you're into using programs like Maya or 3ds Max or Photoshop heavily, that you

want to go over that, just for some extra buffering (despite 8GB being recommended for at least photoshop

I believe).


As for the GTX 770 being a power inefficient card; I don't know where you're getting that from. If you

look here, you'll see it performs better than a 7970 at the very least:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/geforce-gtx-770-gk104-review,review-32698-25.html

You're right that the GTX 770 is much the same as the GTX 680; but that alone doesn't make it a bad card.

Here's the cheapest Radeon 7970 I could find:

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/powercolor-video-card-ax79703gbd52dhv3


Here's the cheapest GTX 780 I could find:

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/zotac-video-card-zt7020110p


Here's the cheapest GTX 770 I could find:

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/zotac-video-card-zt7030110p

And lastly here's a benchmark between all of them:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU13/583

For BF3 at least, with all graphical settings at Max, both the GTX 770 and 80 have more

FPS than the 7970. But of course that comes at a heavy pricing too. So in that regard you're

right that the GTX is cost ineffective. But power? I don't think so. But you're wrong in that it doesn't

bring an improvement.



And to top it all off, here's a build which would save you around 1k$ for your next build, while still giving you

some really great performance and such. You can add in a monitor, keyboard etc. etc. as you see fit:


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($9.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($129.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($55.25 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($93.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card ($329.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Cooler Master HAF X ATX Full Tower Case ($170.00 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($64.99 @ Microcenter)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $1188.13
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-01 21:54 EDT-0400)


But if you want the complete set:


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($9.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($129.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($55.25 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($93.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card ($329.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Cooler Master HAF X ATX Full Tower Case ($170.00 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($64.99 @ Microcenter)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Monitor: Acer H236HLbid 60Hz 23.0" Monitor ($169.99 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Corsair Vengeance K90 Wired Gaming Keyboard ($125.00 @ Mechanical Keyboards)
Mouse: Razer DeathAdder Wired Optical Mouse ($43.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1527.11
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-01 21:57 EDT-0400)

Then you'll wind up with a great keyboard, monitor and mouse, which you can re-use for your future builds too.

You'll still be saving 500$, as there's no really wasted parts. You can even OC the CPU too, when it gets to

that point.

P.S. I'm not trolling.

Alright. Well I hope you're going to be playing some shooters then.

I wouldn't say it's essential... But it's nice.

Here's a 27"

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-vs278qp


Here's a 23"

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-vx238h

If you want mid-tower, you go with mid-tower. I like a case like this:

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-case-rc431pkwn2


They say that an upgrade is only worth it once it's 3 tiers above your GPU.

Yes, if the choice is between a PS4 or Xbox One and there's some games you want to play.

PCs are really more powerful and upgradeable. But I mean, if you're able to wait, I think that's

a good idea too. You did say it should be "this year" right. Now like "this week" or anything similar.

Here's a bench:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/156?vs=171

Struggling with the 30FPS in Crysis. Although the settings are higher.

I wonder if it's possible for you to say "alright" and get a next-gen console.

Play that for a year or however long until a good upgrade in GPUs and then

upgrade your computer later on, when you feel there's a bigger delta between your

current GPU and the newer ones. Just a thought.

Shouldn't be hard at all.

HD 7970GHz edition 3GB version costs 400$ while GTX770 costs like 460$ if I'm right. Imo, Tom's getting paid to praise 770, I can't stop ads here about new GTX770... Look independent YouTube reviewers, they clearly show 7970 stands strong against 770.

Both cards reviewed in 2560x1600 resolution, as you can see HD7970GHZ edition won in most of games.
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2271340/nvidias-geforce-gtx-770-comes-close-to-the-radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition

I'm tellinga ya, GTX770 costs more and it's worse choice.

This card I was going to buy, but then I decided to wait for HD8000/9000 series.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202001

All videos show that 7970GHz edition is slightly superior to 770 in 1080p and superior in 1440p. AMD always was better in multi monitor..

I can post video about it if you want too.
Plus, with 7970GHz you get CRAZY BUNDLE OF GAMES!