$1400-$1600 PC - Primarily gaming, internet, and some video editing

apple2000

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Sep 10, 2011
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18,510
Hi,

I am completely new to building computers. I am looking to replace my iMac with a new custom built windows PC. The iMac i had was the 27 inch top of the line 2011 model, but I sold it for $1600 to fund this new pc.

The first PC will have a max of a $1600 budget. I would however not mind spending a bit less. But I want a fast PC that will handle anything I throw at it. I have a 1080p 27 inch monitor. I have one question about that - I know the screen won't be as great as my old iMac, but will things appear fuzzy at 1080p at 27 inch? This is coming from 1440p BTW. I have a friend that will trade me his 24 inch 1080p monitor for mine, so if the 3 inches less means extra clarity I might go with it.

Monitor I own: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003GBRXKU

I am looking for a nice case that has good cooling and won't make it overly complicated to build the PC.

I do plan to overclock later along the line - so a 2500k or 2600k is needed.

I would like a 64gb SSD + 1TB HDD.

Blu-ray is not needed

I am leaning towards a 6970, but if it is worth it I might go 580? Need advice on that.

Usage will be 50% gaming (AC REV, Skyrim, BF3 need to be maxed or atleast very high settings)
30% internet/document proccessing
20% video editing

I prefer to buy on newegg or amazon.

I would greatly appreciate it if you guys showed me a few builds.

Thanks so much for the help!

 
I am on a 28'' monitor at 1920x1200 and everything seems pretty clear to me to be honest. I think you will be fine. As for the build i would go with this:

Intel Core i5-2500k - $219.99
The obvious choice at the moment, awesome bang for your buck with gaming and will breeze through light video editing etc.

8GB Corsair XMS3 - $41.99
8GB because RAM is cheap and 16GB would be pointless for gaming. Corsair is also a good brand.

ASRock Z68 Extreme3 - $124.99
Good price on a good board, nice for overclocking and SLI/Crossfire.

Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB - $59.99
Usual performance drive of choice, fast for the price with plenty of storage.

Crucial M4 128GB - $199.99
Probably the most reliable SSD around at the moment, still one of the faster ones too.

MSI Lightning Radeon HD 6970 - $386.99
Good choice of card, this is a particularly cool and quiet version.

Corsair TX-850M - $149.99
Good performance, quiet and modular. Enough power for another HD 6970 and any overclocking too.

Coolermaster HAF 932 - $149.99
Insane cooling and big enough for anything you want to throw at it.

Noctua NH-D14 - $75.87
Among the best cooling available and still pretty quiet.

Samsung DVD Burner - $19.99
Reliable brand and this has free delivery.

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - $99.99

Total - $1529.77 before shipping and rebates ($25)
 
Whatever you decide on, do not get rid of that monitor. It's a terrific monitor and will do great with games. The cost of his build can be reduced by switching out the case to the $90 CM 922 which is a large case in it self and has great cooling. It lacks dust filters though that this Corsair down below doesn't. That board down below has a NF200 Bridge allowing dual cards to run @ x16 & x16 instead of the usual x8 & x8.

This build includes Windows 7, and is set up to add another one of those gtx 580's in SLI.

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Graphite-Mid-Tower-Computer-CC600TM/dp/B004X63JWS/ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1315697882&sr=1-5 $159.99 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping
Corsair Graphite Series 600T Mid-Tower Gaming Computer Case with Mesh Side Panel CC600TM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703028 $149.99 - $129.99 after mail-in rebate card FREE SHIPPING 10% off with promo code PCPowerSep1, ends 9/15
PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk II 950W High Performance 80PLUS Silver SLI CrossFire ready Power Supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157269 $279.99 $10 off w/ promo code EMCKAKA32, ends 9/15
ASRock Z68 Extreme7 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.723046 $304.98 FREE SHIPPING
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K

http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Hyper-Sleeve-RR-B10-212P-G1/dp/B002G1YPH0/ref=pd_cp_e_1 $29.07 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler, RR-B10-212P-G1

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233186 $52.99 FREE SHIPPING
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Profile Desktop Memory Model CML8GX3M2A1600C9

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.696136 $72.48
Sony Optiarc CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model AD-7260S-0B - OEM
Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220602 $109.99 - $89.99 after mail-in rebate card FREE SHIPPING
Patriot Pyro PP60GS25SSDR 2.5" 60GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121429 $499.99 FREE SHIPPING
ASUS ENGTX580 DCII/2DIS/1536MD5 GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Total: $1,659.57 *not including shipping, rebates, and promo codes

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=Z68%20Extreme7%20Gen3 <---- A better look at that board

http://www.asrock.com/microsite/PCIe3/ <----- PCI-E 3.0 supported by the new 22nm Ivy Bridge cpu's due out in April/May

http://www.asrock.com/microsite/IntelZ68/index.asp <----- Z68 Features

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,2995.html <----- Review done here on Toms a few weeks ago showing that board with the NF200 Bridge reduce micro stutter.
 
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K $219.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL $54.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428&cm_sp=Cat_Memory-_-Daily_Deal-_-20-231-428

EVGA Z68 FTW 160-SB-E689-KR LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard $269.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188098

MSI N580GTX Lightning GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $524.99 with a $25 rebate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127579

Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $114.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148441

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1501FASS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $109.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136592

COOLER MASTER Storm Sniper SGC-6000-KXN1-GP Black Steel, ABS Plastic, Mesh bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $149.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119194

Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-750 750W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply $99.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371049

COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler Intel Core i7 compatible $57.99 with a $10 rebate

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103055

LG CD/DVD Burner 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black IDE Model GH22LP21 LightScribe Support - OEM $22.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136221

$1590.99
 

apple2000

Distinguished
Sep 10, 2011
13
0
18,510
Thanks guys for all the answers! A few questions:

On this build:

I am on a 28'' monitor at 1920x1200 and everything seems pretty clear to me to be honest. I think you will be fine. As for the build i would go with this:

Intel Core i5-2500k - $219.99
The obvious choice at the moment, awesome bang for your buck with gaming and will breeze through light video editing etc.

8GB Corsair XMS3 - $41.99
8GB because RAM is cheap and 16GB would be pointless for gaming. Corsair is also a good brand.

ASRock Z68 Extreme3 - $124.99
Good price on a good board, nice for overclocking and SLI/Crossfire.

Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB - $59.99
Usual performance drive of choice, fast for the price with plenty of storage.

Crucial M4 128GB - $199.99
Probably the most reliable SSD around at the moment, still one of the faster ones too.

MSI Lightning Radeon HD 6970 - $386.99
Good choice of card, this is a particularly cool and quiet version.

Corsair TX-850M - $149.99
Good performance, quiet and modular. Enough power for another HD 6970 and any overclocking too.

Coolermaster HAF 932 - $149.99
Insane cooling and big enough for anything you want to throw at it.

Noctua NH-D14 - $75.87
Among the best cooling available and still pretty quiet.

Samsung DVD Burner - $19.99
Reliable brand and this has free delivery.

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - $99.99

Total - $1529.77 before shipping and rebates ($25)


First of all, I don't need windows 7 so we can cut a hundred off of that.

Second, what use will I get out of a $75 CPU Cooler? That seems a bit excessive to me. What kind of stable OC'ing could i get out of that?

Does the mobo here support ivy bridge and bulldozer for when it comes out?

And, What are the cons of going with the 922 instead of 932 for the case?

Lastly, I know that phenoms are relatively weak to sandy bridge when comparing clock to clock. I see that the bulldozers have fairly good clock speeds well above sandy bridge. Will the AMD Cpu be able to match intel clock for clock or will it be like the way it is now with a phenom 955 at 3.2ghz quad core barely matching a 3.3ghz dual core i3?

Thanks so much for the help guys
 
I put the Noctua there because it's among the best cooling you can get and still quiet.

Yes Ivy bridge is the same socket, won't support Bulldozer obviously because that is AMD.

932 is bigger, thats mostly it.

We won't know anything about Bulldozer until people have had chance to test them.