Yet another Gaming PC Build help thread!

Bakz424

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Hello,

I am Luke. A Aussie uni student, studying IT. I have hated my computer over the last couple of years(i7q, 4gb ram, non-dedicated graphics). Anyways, I have finally decided to upgrade and I want to go big. I have about $1500 Australian to spend.

I have a keyboard, a mouse, 1 monitor(probs want another for duel screens) and a dvd drive.

I have done heappppps of researched and learnt heaps about computers and gpu's over the last couple weeks. I'm pretty sure I know what to build, I just want to know if I'm missing anything, example, I've noticed some video cards don't support openGL, which means playing minecraft would suffer. So, I'll quickly say what the comp will be used for, let you know what I'm thinking of going with, and await your input.

Comp Usage:
50% of the time, internet surfing, youtube, facebook, pc forums, and porn(im not afraid to admit it).
20-30% of the time, some sort of coding. Java, js, html, c++. something like that, never really anything graphical though.
the other 20-30% of the time is gaming. I can imagine with a good computer the gaming would climb to 50% and the web surfing would drop.

So, Firstly, I am not a typical gamer, who needs the newest games, runnning in the highest resolution, with the maxxed graphical settings and huge 60+fps. However, I do enjoy gaming, and would love the option of playing new title games, with descent graphic and resolution at playable fps rates. For this reason, I have decided that the GTX 660 Ti Boost is the GPU for me. I am looking at MSI's twin frozr 3gb gddr5 video card. The reason, being it is the most "highend" 660ti on the market and I don't want a rear exhausting video card, as i've heard they are loud as hell.

So anyways,
CPU: Im thinking either: i7 3770k or i5 4560k. I'm not fussed about hyper threading because its usless to me i think so i7, doesn't matter. I've only heard good things about haswell(4rth gen intel) thus why im thinking more about the 4560k. I don't plan on over clocking for now, but I kinda want the option for when I get better with all this computer tech stuff, thus why I went for the "k" versions for either cpu.

GPU: MSI Twin Frozr GTX 660ti boost 3gb gddr5. For the reasons mentioned above. It seems decent bang to buck without going overboard.

Memory: 16gb Cosair Vengeance 1600mhz(2x8gb)
Reason: I want lost of ram to future proof the system and also so i can always beat my friends in a "who has more memory" competition.

PSU: 500watt Cosair 500m. Modular is good right?

Motherboard: Whatever really suits all this and can support overclocking and perhaps SLI, as one day I might decide to try it. Leaning towards asus, but I hate how much bloatware they put on there products.

Case: No idea. Something with good airflow, not to big, not to small, so midtower(?). Dont really need al lthe flashy light, but they are welcomed.Will buy extra fans to put in.

Optical: already have some old dvd thingy im going to use

Storage: 1tb HDD seagate 7200rpm and a cheapish, 128gb samsung ssd for windows.

Software: Windows 7 home edition(64-bit). **Note, I dont want win8. Its bad for gaming and looks like a touchpad not a computer. No hate though.

Screen: Something, big cheap and good... if that exists.

Sound cards etc: Do I need a soundcard? I might buy some cheap speakers down the road but till then I will use my headphones.

Wireless cards: Is this worth it? Can I game of a wifi connection. We have good internet and my room is close to the router, but a cord may not be an option. So if i cant game of wifi, I will probs put the computer in the room with the modem/router and just use a cat5.

Have I missed anything?

Also, My room faces west, which means that the sun beems down onto threwout the afternoon. Sometimes I am not home and when I come into my room, if the curtains were left open, It must be about 50 celcuis. Could that damage the comp, if it is running.

1 more thing, I plan on running remote desktop from school to my home comp sometimes(not needed but would be cool) must I buy anything for that? Other than software that I can install later?

Thanks for any help. :)
 

TheMohammadmo

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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($278.00 @ CPL Online)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($202.00 @ CPL Online)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($115.00 @ CPL Online)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($109.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($439.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 300R Windowed ATX Mid Tower Case ($115.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Plus 750W 80+ Silver Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($149.00 @ CPL Online)
Total: $1476.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-15 15:12 EST+1100)
 

Scionyde

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Jun 22, 2013
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I know you wanted a monitor, but I think you're better off just sticking with the one you have currently, and save up for something down the road. Peripherals are easy to add, it's best to dedicate your budget to hardware if you can. Also, 8 GB of RAM is most likely going to be perfectly fine for gaming for several years at least.

Sorry I went slightly overbudget, but I think an aftermarket 290 is worth it. I'd have preferred to add a CPU cooler to this build, but the couple I'm familiar with didn't show up on Aussie PCPartPicker :/

Edited the build to change to 64-bit OS and better RAM

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($278.00 @ CPL Online)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Pro4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($138.00 @ CPL Online)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($108.00 @ CPL Online)
Storage: Crucial M500 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($99.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 4GB Video Card ($549.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Case: Cooler Master K380 ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.00 @ CPL Online)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($125.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($115.00 @ CPL Online)
Total: $1535.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-16 04:09 EST+1100)
 

Scionyde

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Wow, competitive much? lol. Also, you forgot to factor in the cost of the OS into your build.

The R9-290 is about equal with the GTX 780, it is significantly better than the GTX 770. http://www.anandtech.com/show/7481/the-amd-radeon-r9-290-review/4 GPUBoss isn't a great way to make your GPU choice anyway, and it doesn't compare aftermarket cards. The score the 290 gets in that "noise and power" section would definitely get improved with the aftermarket card's cooler that I suggested.

The Samsung 840 EVO vs. Crucial M500? The EVO is slightly better, sure. But honestly, almost all users are not going to notice those slight read/write speed differences, and in the end both are going to be way better than an HDD. I chose the M500 because it was $10 cheaper, and when you're trying to fit an awesome card like the R9-290, you need to save everywhere you can.

The only thing I'll agree with you is that I picked bad RAM. I was in a rush and I didn't notice it was CAS 11. My bad.

Your case is better, but it costs over twice as much. With cases, you do get what you pay for, but in my book, as long as it as USB 3.0, an option to route behind the motherboard tray, fan filters, and build quality that isn't crappy, it's fine for me.

Your PSU is also in that weird spot where it's overkill for 1 GTX 770, but probably a little too weak for putting them in SLI. As for efficiency, the 80+ silver vs. 80+ Bronze power savings will probably be minimal. Generally, Antec is recognized as one of the 'Big 4' for best brands to buy PSU's from. The one I picked is sufficient to power the 290, modular, from a trusted brand, and it's at a decent price.

EDIT: In the end, did I sacrifice too much in my attempt to get a R9-290 in the build? Dunno. Using better RAM than I suggested would add an additional $10 to the price, and if somebody wanted a better case, another $20-30 might do it. If the OP's not willing to stretch the budget that much, a 280X would be a possible choice. I should mention though, that we are talking Aussie prices here so AMD would probably be a better choice over Nvidia in this country.

Another alternative would be to use something like an FX-8320 instead of the i5-4670k, or even a cheaper Intel quad core. *shrug*
 

Evil Blanket

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Excuse me, newbie question but shouldn't the OP go for a 64-bit OS? Since the 32-bit wont use more than 4gb of ram?

Thanks.
 

Scionyde

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Haha oh wow, I screwed up pretty bad by not noticing that. You're perfectly right, 64-bit all the way.

 

Bakz424

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This setup looks good and all but I think it may be a... a bit... overkill? Should I consider downing the gcard down to a 670 or 660 ti to save some money, that way I can buy a screen aswell? What screen is good btw?

Thanks for all the answers so far :)
 

TheMohammadmo

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The asus vx238 is a really good monitor, not sure if its available in australia buts its a good monitor. Or any 2ms or 1ms response time monitor is ok. Ans yeah, if you wanna lower it, go with the 670, the 660ti is pointless. I would just wait right now because new tech is coming out soon.
 

Bakz424

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Really, even if i got the 660 ti 3gb version by msi?
The 670 will play farcry 3 in ultra @ 1080p or should i get the 760 as its slightly cheaper than the 670 but better then the 660?

and one last thing, how long are we talking before the next gen stuff?
 

Scionyde

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Overkill? Heresy!!! :p

What kind of games do you play? A 290 will let you be able to max graphical settings on almost all of the games you could possibly want to play, currently. And with the new consoles, we'll probably see more games that are even more graphically intensive.

If you don't want to spend that full $1500 on a build, that's perfectly fine. But I wouldn't just solely downgrade the GPU and call it a day - I'd pull money from the CPU, the motherboard, and then reevaluate the GPU. You want to pick good quality parts that won't severely bottleneck your system, but if it's a gaming PC, the GPU is the most important component.

As for a second screen, what's your current one? If this second screen is just going to be used for browsing while your first one is for gaming, you don't really need anything special. I'd just grab the cheapest IPS monitor at the size you want, from brands like Asus, Acer, LG, or Dell.
 

Bakz424

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Yeh, I need to down size budget simply because I didn't factor in the fact my car needs a service so I am more around 1200 AUD

I made this, if you think it is ok? I'll stick the the one screen I have atm, its 23" and 2ms so its not that bad.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($278.00 @ CPL Online)
Thermal Compound: Noctua NT-H1 3.5g Thermal Paste ($12.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($202.00 @ CPL Online)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($212.99 @ Mwave Australia)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($109.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 4GB Video Card
Case: Cooler Master K380 ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.00 @ CPL Online)
Case Fan: Cougar Dual-X 73.2 CFM 140mm Fan ($25.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Case Fan: Cougar Dual-X 73.2 CFM 140mm Fan ($25.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($105.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($22.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($115.00 @ CPL Online)
Total: $1228.99
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-16 17:16 EST+1100)

Went the slightest bit over budget.



Also how long till next gen stuff comes out? I kinda want this system build and out of the way by the time uni starts in 2 weeks.

Thanks for the help again guys! :)

p.s went for the 760, as its kinda like a slightly better, slightly more expensive 660ti. I also went the 4gb version as it was only an extra 50 bucks over the 2gb.
 

Scionyde

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I think you'd end up being over $1200 there, for some reason PCPP didn't list a price for the 760 so you're quite a bit over that budget, actually.

To be honest, the 4 GB GTX 760 isn't really worth it unless you're trying resolutions higher than 1080p or multi-monitor gaming. You'd be better off going for spending a little more and going for a 2 GB GTX 770. If you really want Nvidia, that's perfectly fine - features like Shadowplay, PhysX, and G-Sync are pretty cool. Just keep in mind that for whatever reason (import costs, taxes, etc.) Nvidia is a little bit more expensive for the same performance as AMD in Australia. The closest AMD offerings to the GTX 760/770 is the 270X and 280X, so they can be worth looking at.

Also, while that's good thermal paste, I think you'd probably be better off just getting an aftermarket CPU cooler which will come with its own paste. (Sorry, should've put one in my build before). Since you said you've thought about overclocking possibly, it's probably good to pick one up now. I highly recommend the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO, but since I didn't see it on PCPP's list, another decent one is the NZXT Respire T40, or so I've heard. http://au.pcpartpicker.com/part/nzxt-cpu-cooler-rcrst4001

Those case fans are nice, but for the most part, the fans that come with the case are usually decent. If you really want those fans, I'd kinda recommend just saving up and buying them later since you're on a tight budget. Speaking of which, after TheMohammadmo's posts, I looked a little more into the case I suggested (the K380). It's hard to get info about it, and I'm not sure it has a front dust filter, which isn't too big a problem, but it would require you cleaning out dust now and then. Also, it comes with only the one fan. I might recommend spending a little more and getting something like the Zalman Z5? http://au.pcpartpicker.com/part/zalman-case-z5plus

Heh, you *really* want that 16 GB of RAM, eh? I think it'll be years before you'll need anything more than 8 GB for gaming, and when that happens you could just upgrade your RAM then. (Hell, DDR4 might a viable choice by then, who knows). I strongly recommend sticking with 8 GB unless you do video editing work.

Like I said, since PCPP didn't give a price to that 760, you're kind of over budget. In the interest of keeping a strong GPU, you might want to consider getting a cheaper CPU. If you still want to have the option of overclocking, you'd probably need to look at AMD for the CPU. The FX-8320 is a pretty decent choice.

Let me know your thoughts, and I can take another stab at it.
 

Bakz424

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Feb 14, 2014
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Hmm didn't notice that...

would 270x (msi gaming edition) allow bf4 in ultra 1080p? and next car game in ultra and stuff like that?
or should i stick with the gtx760 2gb and actually factor it in to the build?

As for CPU, overclocking won't be happening till this time next year if it does, simply as I won't have time to research it and do it, so after market fan doesnt matter to much for the time being. I do want to stick to intel, simply because I feel comfortable with intel(i know that its stupid but hey, doesnt really matter). I prefer i5 as i7 won't benefit me much and I want haswell with high clock speeds for sure so what would you reccomend there?

If you really think 8gb ram is enough then I'll try that and see how i go.

Tbh, Not a fan of the looks of the case you suggested, know of any others?
I hate to ask but could you mabee do another build, aiming at 1200 with windows, but no screen? please stay to intel and keep the ssd in if possible... ohh and try color matching gpu and case? if possible :)
 

TheMohammadmo

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WOAHAHO this thread has moved a lot, sorry for not responding. I prefer the gtx 760 over the 270x but thats personal opinion http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R9-270X-vs-GeForce-GTX-760 8gb is perfectly fine for gaming and here is the build


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($230.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: ASRock H87 Performance ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($125.00 @ CPL Online)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($115.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($329.00 @ CPL Online)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($85.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($114.21 @ Mwave Australia)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($22.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($115.00 @ CPL Online)
Total: $1204.21
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-17 00:05 EST+1100)


sorry man, I couldnt get the case and gpu to match but the motherboard and the gpu are and I couldnt fit in the ssd, sorry.
 

Bakz424

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no probs, i can go a lil over 1200 so i can still get one probs. i posted another thread, coz i noticed this didnt have the correct format so thats why this hasnt got too much attention.
New thread here!

I do appreciate everyone's input though, been great so far, just want to see a few more options.

Thanks Luke.
 

Scionyde

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The build TheMohammadmo posted is pretty good, but keep in mind that it's not really an overclocker (CPU and motherboard choice), and you've lost the SSD.

If you had to rank the following things in importance, how would you do it?

-Presence of SSD
-Ability to Overclock
-Intel CPU

If having that Intel CPU is priority, I'd probably also suggest that build to you.
 

Bakz424

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Come to the new thread and see the build on there. and of those 3 things, SSD, Intel, overlocking. in that order.