$2500AU Build. Help an old guy out.

Negsy

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Apr 26, 2014
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Oh ye Gods of Tom's forums please help me with this. Long time lurker about to bite the bullet.

I'll be as brief as possible...

As above, $2500 build. Gaming. No peripherals. Need OS, probably Win 8. The core of the system will need to last me 3-5 years gaming at only 1080p.

The key for me here is reliability. I live in a city that gets insanely hot over summer. Melbourne hits 40+ celsius for days on end, hit 49.6 or something a couple of years ago (that's over 120 for the Americans). Crazy hot. My pc sits in a cooled room however no matter how long you run the aircon in that heat it will hit 35 or so over the summer months.

Must be from Scorptec Use the custom system option if it's easier. Here Just ignore the cost of the build etc.

OC = not sure. Prrrrrrrooooobably not. I'm not afraid of doing it, just not convinced of its benefits vs risk.

250 Gig+ SSD

PSU with gold as a minimum and a 5 year warranty. (I do like the look of the 760AX).

I'd prefer an 8 core (thread) cpu, pretty sold on that but may be swayed. Oh, must be intel. Mainly play bf4 multiplayer and can see the consoles leveraging the 8 cores sooner rather than later.

Plain black case, nothing pseudo futuristic. I'd like the 350D however am willing to go for something like the R4 if atx size will help noticeably with cooling and reliability. Will probably need extra case fans given the ambient temps.

Air cooler on CPU only please (reliability).

I'm leaning towards an r9 290 for the price/performance and will most likely upgrade the gpu in about 2 years time. Always went Nvidia however their prices at the moment are absurd. NO GIGABYTE CARDS. I've had three fail and won't go back.

Mobo. Really lack knowledge here. z97 Sabertooth mk II? 5yr warranty. Modern chipset. Asrock z97 extreme 4? Seriously, I've not much of an idea.

I'm open to any suggestions.

Thank you.

I love you all.
 

IHaveDaBestPC

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May 22, 2014
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PCPartPicker part list: http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/3PsKa
Price breakdown by merchant: http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/3PsKa/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/3PsKa/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($239.00 @ Mwave Australia)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($149.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99X EVO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($159.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($99.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($175.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ CPL Online)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Superclocked Video Card ($855.00 @ CPL Online)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($148.00 @ CPL Online)
Power Supply: XFX XTR 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($169.00 @ PLE Computers)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($21.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($109.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition 67.8 CFM 140mm Fan ($20.00 @ CPL Online)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition 67.8 CFM 140mm Fan ($20.00 @ CPL Online)
Total: $2232.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-24 02:20 EST+1000)

This is an AMD rig, if you want intel just change to i5 4570 and an ASUS H97, drop the cpu water cooling and replace it with 1 ~ 2 120mm fans
 

Negsy

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Apr 26, 2014
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Thanks for the reply, appreciate the time you took.

However... Please cut/paste from Scorptec using the links above, there are many parts in that build that I cannot purchase from them.

http://www.scorptec.com.au/systems/custom_system/

Intel CPU (pref i7 if possible). Air cooler. r9 290 as I will upgrade it in about 2 years and I'm only using a 1080p monitor. Is a 780ti worth nearly double the 290? If it is I'm willing however I'm not so sure.