Gaming PC, 1300-1600$

wafflefries

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APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: 1-2 months

BUDGET RANGE: 1300-1600*after rebate*

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, movies, music, surfing

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Starting fresh, need everything

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: newegg.ca, ncix, or wherever is cheapest for the specific part

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Canada

PARTS PREFERENCES: I like Nvidia, and intel but am open to AMD.

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe, not likely. have never done it

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: eventually

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080, 1920x1200, going to need a monitor as well.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Probably looking to do the assembly through NCIX or someone else.

Upgrading from a 14 inch laptop with an ati x1600 to something I can play new games on.

GPU
Like the look of the 460 GTX 1 GB, probably MSI, and i can sli later on:

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=54624&vpn=N460GTX%20Cyclone1GD5%2FOC&manufacture=MSI%2FMicroStar
(254.99)

i5 750:
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=42499&vpn=BX80605I5750&manufacture=Intel (227.99)

Monitor:??
either a 22 or a 24 inch monitor, i cant decide on this... does response time matter much these days? 5 vs 2? id like to be able to watch at 1080

Samsung F2380 23IN Widescreen LCD Monitor cPVA 1920X1080 16:9 150000:1DC DVI-D 3000:1 Static VGA
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=44317&vpn=LS23NVTABW%2FZC&manufacture=Samsung&promoid=1058 (259.99)

BLU RAY: ASUS BC-08B1ST Blu Ray BD-ROM & DVD Writer Combo Drive SATA Black With Software
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=48875&vpn=BC-08B1ST%20BLACK&manufacture=ASUS (83.15)

MOBO: MSI P55-GD55 ATX LGA1156 P55 DDR3 2XPCI-E16 3XPCI-E1 2XPCI RAID Audio GBLAN CrossFire Motherboard
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=49452&vpn=P55-GD55&manufacture=MSI%2FMicroStar (89.99)

RAM: OCZ Gold OCZ3G1600LV4GK 4GB DDR3 2X2GB DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 CL 8-8-8-24 Dual Channel Memory Kit (Gskill worth the 20 bucks?)
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=42868&vpn=OCZ3G1600LV4GK&manufacture=OCZ%20Technology&promoid=1058 (80.00)

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA2 3.5IN 8.5MS 7200RPM 32MB Hard Drive OEM *3YR MFR Warranty* (80.00)
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=37232&vpn=ST31000528AS&manufacture=Seagate

Corsair TX650W 650W ATX 12V 52A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 120MM Fan (79.99)
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=26414&vpn=CMPSU-650TX&manufacture=Corsair&promoid=1058

Total= 1156.10 without shopping around for better prices.



plus keyboard, mouse, speakers, assembly costs

Appreciate the help
 
Solution

SSD's are worth it, get an OCZ vertex 60gig

1) change your hard drive to a SpinPoint F3
2) I would get this ram, OCZ just isnt the best company.. http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=46501&vpn=F3-12800CL7D-4GBECO&manufacture=G.Skill
3) This monitor is LED backlit, very nice for the right price http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=53466&vpn=ET.VS1HP.001&manufacture=Acer
Only change your power supply if you are upgrading soon to another graphics card soon, for example half a year.

Now for my questions,
1) Do you really need blu-ray?
2) assembly costs? You won't be building it yourself?
Total=...

Mr Pizza

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SSD's are worth it, get an OCZ vertex 60gig

1) change your hard drive to a SpinPoint F3
2) I would get this ram, OCZ just isnt the best company.. http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=46501&vpn=F3-12800CL7D-4GBECO&manufacture=G.Skill
3) This monitor is LED backlit, very nice for the right price http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=53466&vpn=ET.VS1HP.001&manufacture=Acer
Only change your power supply if you are upgrading soon to another graphics card soon, for example half a year.

Now for my questions,
1) Do you really need blu-ray?
2) assembly costs? You won't be building it yourself?
Total= 1156.10 without shopping around for better prices.



plus keyboard, mouse, speakers, assembly costs

Appreciate the help

Overall,
Solid build, will be great for what you are doing, :)
 
Solution

asteldian

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SSDs are worth it if you hate loading times. It wont be doing anything for your actual gaming performance though. So, it is up to you whether you want one or not, though my understanding is the prices are finally dropping on them so likely worth waiting a bit.

Your motherboard is not suitable for a SLI/Crossfire set up, you want at least the MSI P55 GD65, or ideally if you can afford it the Asus P7P55D E Pro board. The difference between the 2 is that the Asus board has USB/SATA III which is good if you do want to SSD in future.

Mr Pizza has linked you some great RAM, definately a better choice than OCZ.

You may want to adjust the PSU to 750W just in case you end up OCing the GTX 460s and your CPU.

Once you make those adjustments then see what its costing and then you can consider an SSD - SSD is a nice to have but it is nothing more than a bonus item for a system.
 

wafflefries

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The monitor looks nice but this review on a similar monitor makes me wonder:

http://www.digitalversus.com/acer-s243hl-p357_7728_38.html

The reason i liked the samsung was that it was a pva style and not a tn.

http://www.digitalversus.com/samsung-syncmaster-f2380-p357_6954_36.html
if only the responsiveness was a bit better.

alright g.skill it is. why the samsung hdd?
would this be a better one to get for 100? double the cache and .5 more tb? or is it a brand thing?
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=48813&vpn=WD15EARS&manufacture=Western%20Digital%20WD

Might as well do a bit larger PSU:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=26415&vpn=CMPSU-750TX&manufacture=Corsair&promoid=1058
(104.99)

i don't necessarily need a blu ray, im moving into my own place and probably wont be buying a tv for a bit, it can be bought later, but id like it.

Building it myself, i haven't ever really considered doing to be honest. i'd be very worried about messing it up lol.

Asteldian:

good call on the mobo... which one?

http://www.ncix.com/search/?categoryid=0&q=asus+p7p

will this one do?
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=43119&vpn=P7P55D%20EVO&manufacture=ASUS

so after all of those changes (psu, mobo, ram, hdd) that brings the total to roughly 1301

if i were to spend more, lets say 100-200 what should i put it into? nicer monitor, gpu, cooling?
lol i just realized i didnt pick a case. what type of case do i need?
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=35742&vpn=RV01B-W&manufacture=Silverstone%20Technology

total=1528.41
 

wafflefries

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price matching:

460gtx
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=12980BD4704

$239.26

i5 750

http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/220425/Intel/BX80605I5750/

207.79

blu ray
http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/225312/ASUS/BC_08B1ST_BLACK/

75.23

ram
102.98


spintpoint
http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/227468/Samsung/HD103UJ/

70.95

mobo

http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/227476/ASUS/P7P55D_E_LX/

131.34

case
http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/204835/Silverstone_Technology/RV01B_W/

205.01

new total= 1397.45! with the 259 monitor, 1357 without blu ray
 

Mr Pizza

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What would i change? That case is HUGE and kind of overkill, get something like the Haf 922, Haf 932, or if you want haf x (don't flame me)
 

wafflefries

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yeah youre right, thats a waste of a hundred bucks.

http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/216224/RC-922M-KKN1-GP/COOLERMASTER/

92.40

brings my running total to 1284.84

i also noticed a i5 760 is about 8 dollars more than the 750

so 1292.84
 

Mr Pizza

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stay with the 760 ;)
 

wafflefries

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http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/222604/ASUS/SABERTOOTH_55I/
 

coldsleep

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Just a note, if you're still thinking of getting an SSD (I can't tell what your most recent build is), get the OCZ Vertex 2. Don't get the original Vertex. The original uses an outdated controller that doesn't offer the same performance as the Vertex 2.
 

wafflefries

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Than for the advice, i decided to wait on the SSD for the moment and upgrade at a later date.

Current build:

Coolermaster Haf 922 Mid Tower ATX Case Black 5X5.25 5X3.5INT Front Audio USB eSATA No PSU

ASUS Sabertooth I55 LGA1156 P55 DDR3 3PCI-E16 3PCI-E1 2PCI Sound GBLAN 1394 Motherboard

Intel Core i5 760 Quad Core Processor Lynnfield LGA1156 2.8GHZ 8MB Cache Retail Box

MSI GeForce GTX 460 Fermi Cyclone OC 725MHZ 1024MB GDDR5 Dual DVI Mini-HDMI DX11 PCI-E Video Card

Corsair TX750W 750W ATX 12V 60A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 140MM Fan

Samsung F2380 23IN Widescreen LCD Monitor cPVA 1920X1080 16:9 150000:1DC DVI-D 3000:1 Static VGA

BLU RAY: ASUS BC-08B1ST Blu Ray BD-ROM & DVD Writer Combo Drive SATA Black With Software

Western Digital WD15EARS Caviar Green 1.5TB SATA 64MB Cache 3.5IN Hard Drive OEM

G.SKILL F3-12800CL7D-4GBECO Eco PC3-12800 4GB 2X2GB DDR3-1600 CL7-8-7-24 1.35V Memory Kit