First Gaming Build $1,500+

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ursexiechino

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Apr 12, 2011
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Hey guys!

So now I am going all in on a new build. I will most likely be using this to game as well as for photography; i.e. editing images on PS and possibly looking into videography some time into the future. So therefore, I will be looking to have a LOT of ram. And please forgive me for some dumb questions I will most likely have. This is all pretty new to me and scary. I was originally thinking about just letting CyberPower or IBuyPower build a build for me but those guys have the most horrible reputation so I'm taking this route. All the help would be much appreciated. Here is the template list as follows. Thx again.


Approximate Purchase Date: As soon as I get all the expert advice that I need here, I will be making the purchase. I would hope to be able to make the purchase within the next two days.


Budget Range: Around $1,500. I have to buy everything from essentials to a new mouse, keyboard, and even monitor. The pricing for the items below are not coherent for this $1,500 budget as I'm looking at what I need before I hinder my build based on price. I'm willing to go over the $1,500 limit if need be but not unnecessarily.


System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, photography, surfing net, videography


Parts Not Required: speakers I will not need for the time being. Also a sound card considering I should be ok with a decent motherboard yea? Otherwise, I will pretty much need everything else.


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg I guess?


Country of Origin: USA, NY

___________________________________________________________
Parts Preferences:
Motherboard: I can't decide between a P67 or x58 motherboard for this build. To be quite honest, I'm not too sure if there will be a big difference. Some folks (and articles I've read) have told me the difference s but it just seems one is a little more future proof and that the other may be better to house two video cards which I would like to do eventually.

CPU: I was thinking about a i950 or higher. That is if I go with the x58.

Video Card: No particular brand in mind but I'm thinking about but I was thinking about SAPPHIRE 100311-2SR Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1

Case: I was thinking about the COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case. This looks like a good case with good airflow. Though I'm not too big on the red leds and all. I"m sure I can change 'em later.

Power Supply: I am not sure about this one because there are so many and I don't have the slightest clue as to which one I should get. I don't want the electric bill skyrocketing but I may possibly get another video card within the year. I may not if one is sufficient enough. And then there's the issue of

Hard Drives: I definitely want to get a SSD as I'm told the load times are much lower than that of SATAs and it's speedier. I'm wondering if I install games like Starcraft II or Crysis if there will be improved performance in terms of load times or what not. Or maybe improved performance in terms of Photoshopping. Then, I plan on having secondary, tertiary, etc drives. Mainly SATAs for storage.

Anyway, here is one I am considering for SSD. OCZ Agility 2 OCZSSD3-2AGT90G 3.5" 90GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

I won't bother putting up SATA links since the SSD is more important. Though I do wonder if I should get a SATA II or III. Is there much a difference in speed and performance?

Disk Drive: I am considering a blu-ray drive to future proof myself if games come out on blu-ray in the future. I also have a big selection of blu-ray movies though I have a big screen TV for that so I don't know...

Pioneer Black Blu-ray Burner SATA BDR-206DBKS

CPU Fan: Thinking about the ZALMAN CNPS9900ALED 120mm 2 Ball Low-noise Blue LED CPU Cooler

Memory: I am considering the G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory

Monitor: Considering the ASUS VH238H Black 23" Full HD HDMI LED Backlight LCD Monitor w/Speakers 250 cd/m2 ASCR 50,000,000:1
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Overclocking: Yes. But it's not the biggest factor for me. I'm kind of new to the overclocking too. Not sure if it's really necessary either.


SLI or Crossfire: Yes...but for now, just one.


Monitor Resolution: I was thinking a 22-24inch monitor...any recommendations? If there's a quality monitor that is a little smaller and cheaper, that'll work too.


Additional Comments:
DIY Combo: I am also thinking about this combo from Newegg. They had a build that I really liked about 2 weeks ago but not anymore. This is a build that seems decent to me. Let me know what you guys think. It's not the CoolerMaster HAF X case but the CoolerMaster 932 still sounds decent to me (fulltower). The only thing this build is missing mainly for me is a SSD.

Core i7-960/GIGABYTE X58 OC SuperCombo

Finally one big thing I worry about is the compatibility of all these things which I'm not very sure I know how to check.

Thanks for all the help.
 
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IntelEnthusiast

IntelEnthusiast

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Really if you are going to be gaming then maybe you should be looking at the Intel® Core™ I5 2500K and a P67 based board. Getting everything else just the way it is listed except the ram in which case you only need 4GB (2x2GB) sticks. In the end this set up should give you better performance and easier time overclocking and may even be a few bucks cheaper.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team
 
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U

ursexiechino

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Thx for the reply Christian. I interested on what you think about the I5 2500K compared to the Intel Core i7-2600K. Is there a big difference? I recall someone saying one is better off getting the i5 as overclocking the i5 will get me the same performance (or close to at least) as the i7-2600k (unless I overclock this which gives me a slightly better performance than the i5). Is that about right?

Also, which P67 board would you recommend? And why is 4GB sufficient?

Thx again!
 
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ursexiechino

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Thx for the reply Christian. I interested on what you think about the I5 2500K compared to the Intel Core i7-2600K. Is there a big difference? I recall someone saying one is better off getting the i5 as overclocking the i5 will get me the same performance (or close to at least) as the i7-2600k (unless I overclock this which gives me a slightly better performance than the i5). Is that about right?

Also, which P67 board would you recommend? And why is 4GB sufficient?

Thx again!
 
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1foxracing

1foxracing

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If you are editing RAW photo files with Photoshop CS5 go with the 8g's of RAM and I would recommend 16 G's even. People that recommend 4gigs of RAM for photo editing must be working with cell phone pics or using the consumer version (Elements)
I personally run 16 Gigs of RAM and have a friend that uses 24Gigs, it does make a difference.
 
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ursexiechino

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16GB's huh? I would've actually gone with 4. Thx for the heads up.

I will be editing RAW images and definitely need the memory for it.


I'm looking up what hyperthreading is right now; not sure what it means.

What MOBO would you guys recommend for a P67 then? Is is going to make things easier to transition to the new architecture of LGA 2011 (I think) at the end of the year?

Thx
 
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nvranka

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I wont waste time explaining what hyperthreading is, you can look it up. But if this is a "gaming" PC as you titled it, you do not need hyperthreading, and thus the i5 will be great.

However, now that talk of editing and rendering images is going on...you may want it after all. If you do video editing you definitely want HT.

You need to make a clear decision what the comp will be primarily used for. If its games...i5. If you will actually be doing A LOT of photo/video work...i7.

The reasoning here is that games simply will not benefit from the HT that the i7 provides...and thus you will be wasting your hard earned cash on something that you wont even be using.
 
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duk3

duk3

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Hyperthreading means that each core of the processor simulates 2 virtual cores.
This can improve performance in some applications coded to use them, which is usually not games. I am not sure how much photoshop uses hyperthreading, but it may be helpful especially if you are doing video editing, which hyperthreading usually does speed up depending on the program you are using.
Check out this list of benchmarks and see if you can find any programs you are using:
=on&prod[4788]=on]http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/desktop-cpu-charts-2010/compare,2426.html?prod[4785]=on&prod[4788]=on
 
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JackNaylorPE

JackNaylorPE

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Case - $155 - Antec DF-85 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129087
PSU - $110 - Antec CP-850 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371024
Case Fan - $15 - Antec Red 120 mm http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209013
MoBo - $395 - ASUS P8P67 Pro http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.622007
CPU - incl above - Intel Core i5-2500K
Cooler - $40 - Scythe Mugen 2 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185142
TIM - $5 Shin Etsu 751 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835150080
RAM - $84 - (2 x 4GB) Corsair CAS 9 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145324
GFX - $230 - Gigabyte GTX 560 Ti 900 Mhz http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125363
GFX - Later - as above
HD - $65 - Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200 rpm http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185
SSD - $300 - Vertex 3 120 GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227706
DVD Writer - $90 - Plextor BR Combo Drive w/ LS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827249055

Case / PSU - You mentioned the HAF-X which is an excellent case. It and the DF-85 are my two favorites but I gotta give the edge to the DF. One of the main reasons is the ability to handle CPX power supplies which are inherently quieter. If ya stick with the HAF-X, I'd suggest the XFX Black Edition 850....The DF-85/CP-850 is $265 ... The HAF-C / XFX Black 850 is $310.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story4&reid=142
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article971-page7.html

I wouldn't worry about ya electric bill .....

30 hours per week x 350 watts average draw x $0.10 per kw-hr x 4.3 weeks per month = $4.52

SSD / HD - My last build included the Veretx 3 which is generally accepted as the fastest SSD available. During boot, one can select either to boot from the HD or the SSD. Booting from the SSD takes 15.6 seconds ..... Booting to the HD takes 21.2 seconds. Just wanted to point that out as many expect larger differences. Given your intended photo / videography usage, I'd look at upgrading those HD's to something built for the task.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=708&Itemid=60&limit=1&limitstart=10
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=717&Itemid=60&limit=1&limitstart=11

Optical - Playing BR movies appears to be your goal and with this you can burn DVD's too .... burning BR however is very expensive due to media costs so dropped the BR burner capability.

RAM - The corsair's have the same specs but are cheaper than the Gskills. However for the photo editing and video work, ya may want to invest in something a bit better having lower CAS latency. 2 x 4Gb of these work nicely but if ya spending any serious time with the photos and video stuff, ya might wanna plan on upgrading to 2 x 4Gb at some point

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226178

The monitpr is a very good one ..... if you are serious about photography though, you'll eventually want to move to a IPS Monitor. The entry point for the past few years has generally been considered to be the Dell U2410 ($500-ish). Asus however has an IPS panel but I have no direct experience with it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236122

GFX - The 6950 and the 560 Ti are very close in performance.....at 2560 x 1600, I'd get the 2GB 6950 .... at 1920 x 1200, I'd get the 560 Ti. The 560 can use CUDA which will be of benefit on video editing if ya use CUDA compliant software / plug-ins. Here's the results of Guru3D's gaming test suite at 1920 x 1200.

$250.00 6950 (479 fps as single card / 751 fps in CF)
$0.52 per frame as single card - $0.67 per frame in SLI

$230.00 560 Ti - 900 Mhz (495 fps w/ single card / 862 fps in SLI)
$0.46 per frame as single card - $0.53 per frame in SLI

Cooler / TIM - The best $40 ya can spend on a cooler. The TIM equals AS5's thermal performance but w/o AS5's 200 hour curing issues.

CPU - I wouldn't want you to get the impression you can't have the best of both worlds so to speak. From what I have seen other peeps accomplish, the 2600k seems to get higher OC's than the 2500k. But at the same Ghz, the 2500k will run cooler (as much as 7C at 4.8Ghz). For your video editing especially, the HT will come on very handy. In gaming, it doesn't do anything for ya, at least not with the games we've seen so far. If ya spring for the 2600k, my recommendation would be a 4.4 GHz OC profile for every day usage in ya programs with HT (8 cores) and then a 4.8 Ghz profile w/ HT turned off for extreme gaming....at least that's what I am gonna shoot for once I can get my hands on my latest build. I built of for Son No. 3 but w/ him home on spring break this week, I haven't been able to get near the thing :)

The stuff below isn't in ya $1500 budget but I'm taking ya statement to heart with regard to "I'm looking at what I need before I hinder my build based on price. I'm willing to go over the $1,500 limit if need be but not unnecessarily. ". The G110 is a nice, solid no frills KB, the 510 adds the mini LCD which come sin real handy for gaming and system monitoring, music playing etc.

Keyboard - $65 - Logitech G110 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126087
Keyboard - $105 - Logitech G510 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126100

Mouse - $50 - Logitech G500 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826104318

Card Reader $35 AFT XM-35U http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820176016
Card Reader $50 55 in 1 Card Reader http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820314001

Windows 7 64 - $140 - bit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116992
 
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ursexiechino

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Holy crap dude, THX so much for all the info. I have taken pretty much everything you've said into consideration and have been sitting here literally for about 5-7 hours just researching. My friggin neck hurts and I'm exhausted. Time to hit the sack. Will most likely post a new rig with the list of the parts that I have selected for approval from the community and you tomorrow morning. This is definitely going to run past the $1,500 budget limit but I am excited. Hopefully you guys'll be able to offer some ways to cut cost on the new build tomorrow. Thx again!
 
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ursexiechino

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So here is the new build so far. Let me know what you guys think.


CASE:I decided to go with your recommendation on the Antec DF-85 case as it seems to be cheaper and I like that the PSU is much quieter and bigger (though I'm not sure bigger is much of a benefit...especially if it might hinder video card space.
Antec DF-85 Black ATX Full Tower Computer Case
PSU: I was originally considering the CP-850 you recommended but saw a CP-1000 for only $15 more so I figured why not. Not sure if it'll jack up the electric bill though. Let me know what you think on that one.
Antec CP-1000 1000W Continuous ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
I don't know why they call this the ATX12V when it's a CPX but what do I know. Can someone clarify this?
CPU: I'm deciding on the i5-2500k as while I will be doing some heavy duty photo editing I won't really be needing the video capabilities the way I'll need to game or photo edit. Was deciding to go with P8P67 Deluxe but it is much cheaper with the Pro considering not only is it cheaper by standards, NewEgg has a combo with the CPU for $20 cheaper.
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
CPU COOLER: Though I'm not sold on the look, quality, nor the performance of this fan (because it looks so much like a stock cooler), the reviews beg to differ so I will go with the Scythe SCMG-2100 Sleeve CPU Cooler
MOBO: As said before, deciding to go with the P8P67-PRO. ASUS P8P67 PRO (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
TIM: MASSCOOL G751 Shin-Etsu Thermal Interface Material
RAM: Going to go with the Mushkin Enhanced Redline 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model 996981
GRX: right off the back as I realistically won't bother upgrading memory like that later, I might as well do it now. I've read that the lower CAS Latency of 7 is better than the Corsair CAS 9 that you recommended. Does the two digit difference really make a difference? And if so, in terms of what?
SSD:It looks like the crazy expensive Vertex 3 120 GB got rave reviews and is super fast so probably the maker here.
HDD: Going with the SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive as suggested. It's cheap.
OPDRIVE: Thinking about the HP BD Combo SATA Model BD240I-h01 LightScribe Support as the reviews for the Plextor shows that it tends to arrive DOA. Not sure I want that lol. Plus this is a little cheaper.
MONTR: You know, I am so glad that you mentioned the IPS as I had no idea they existed and that LCD Panel's even broke down under these different levels of functions and quality. Considering the . There is also the [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824116421&Tpk=ViewSonic%20VP2365wb]ViewSonic VP2365wb Black 23"IPS LCD Monitor w/4-port USB hub,height&pivot adjustment 300 cd/m2 1000:1 that I was considering but the Asus is much cheaper though the ViewSonic seems to have a better stand.
OS: Going to get the [urlhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116992]Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit 1-Pack - OEM [/url] I assume this'll be alright to install freshly as I don't have a previous version of Windows to upgrade from.

I think that's all for now. Hopefully I didn't leave anything out. Thx again
 
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norleras

norleras

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Definitely build your own sir. I learned the hard way with Ibuypower. =/ Get yourself educated and have fun! I've got to tell you, after building your own for the first time, you'll never wanna go back! It's an amazing sense of accomplishment and pride. :D
 
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