New Gaming rig for $1300 give or take

[Gilgamesh5]

Approximate Purchase Date: late December early Jan.

Budget Range: 1200-1400 Before Rebates

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, movies/shows, photo editing, web surfing

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, optic drive.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg

Country: USA

Overclocking: minor OC maybe but prefer not to

SLI or Crossfire: not for now, but would like sli support for future upgrades.

monitor res: 2x 1920x1080 monitors

Additional Comments: live in florida, meaning it's always hot, and thus the air temp in doors isn't always "cold" so def need a system that wont melt when playing games like skyrim.

would like to be able to enjoy bf3/skyrim on high, but I'm not expecting to max out every possible setting.

also would like some input on the usefulness of pci based NICs, worth it? given i only get about 1.5MB/s (14mb/s)


currently looking at:


case - antec df-85
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129087

mobo - asus sabertooth 990 fx or asus crosshair V
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131736
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131735


psu - antec hcp-850
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371053

cpu - amd fx 8120 3.1ghz 8 core
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103961

ram - 16gb (4x4) corsair vengeance 1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233235

cpu heatsink - coolmaster hyper 212 evo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

vid card - EVGA geforce 560 ti or ASUS ENGTX560 TI
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121425

thermal compound - arctic silver 5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007

os - windows 7 home premium sp1 (and likely dual boot Ubuntu)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

hd - Hitachi 1tb 7200rpm
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145533

 

[danraies]

Gaming performance is going to be much better on an Intel system. The i5-2500K on a Z68 motherboard is going to be about the same price and the 2500K outperforms bulldozer in all but the most heavily multithreaded applications and the performance gap is particularly wide in games.

The rest of the parts are good choices but if you're looking to get the best performance out of your budget, Sandy Bridge is the way to go.

 

[calguyhunk]

CPU: $225 Intel Core i5-2500K

Board: $115 ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3

RAM: $90 CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB

GPU: $500 EVGA SuperClocked GeForce GTX 580

SSD: $200 Intel 320 Series 2.5" 120GB

PSU: $80 CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2

SLI option: $130 PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk II 950W

Case: $95 Corsair Carbide Series 400R

Total: $1305 after rebates (Plus shipping). Will own the proposed build above

$1355 with the more expensive PSU. The FX/GTX 560ti build you would never max out bf3 on 3840X1920. I dunno if even this build will let you play on ultra with decent frames, but hey! it's a start

 

[calguyhunk]

Approximate Purchase Date: late December early Jan.

Wait a few more weeks for for Ivy Bridge + GTX 6xx/Radeon HD 7xxx.

also would like some input on the usefulness of pci based NICs, worth it? given i only get about 1.5MB/s (14mb/s)

What would you need that for? Wi-fi or Ethernet? Modern day boards have Gigabit LAN Ethernet build into them. If your connection speed is not fast enough, a card ain't gonna help much.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

MoBo is a nice choice with great warranty but I can't make a case for an AMD build over $800. I like 5 years but am comfy with the 3 year industry standard...... I avoid anythng w/ less than a 3 year warranty.

16GB does nothing for ya but the bug tall toothy heat sinks are to be avoided as they do absolutely nothing but "look cool" and interfere with lotta aftermarket heat sinks.

The CP-850 is made specifically for the DF-85 (P183, P192, 1200) case, has it all over the HCP-850 and is $65 cheaper.

AS 5 takes over 200 hours of thermal cycling to cure.

The twin 560's are 40% faster than the 580 .... youngest son has the twin 560's and middle guy has the 580


This is $1,284

Case - $ 105 - Antec 902 V3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129097
PSU - $ 90 - XFX Core Edition 850 PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139022
MoBo - $ 180 - ASUS P8Z68-V/GEN3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131792
CPU - $ 220 - Intel Core i5-2500K http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
Cooler - $ 50 - Scythe Mugen 3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065
TIM - Later - Shin Etsu http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835150080
RAM - $ 50 - (2 x 4GB) Corsair CAS 9 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233196
GFX - $ 225 - Asus GTX 560 Ti 900 Mhz http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121425
GFX - $ 225 - Same
HD - $ 120 - Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148697
SSD - Later - OCZ Vertex 3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227706
DVD Writer - $ 19 - Asus 24X http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Alternate Case / PSU choice (+$90)

Case - $ 155 - Antec DF-85 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129087
Case Fans - $ 15 - Antec Red 120 mm http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209013
PSU - $ 115 - Antec CP-850 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371024


I'd hold off 10 days tho until the new 560's come out .....

http://www.guru3d.com/news/geforce-gtx-560-ti-448-core-gets-detailed-launches-nov-29/

The rest of the core includes 56 texture units, 40 ROP units and a 320-bit memory bus connected to 1.25GB of video buffer, just as is the case with the GeForce GTX 570.

The card's operating frequencies will also mimic those of its older brother as the GPU will work at 732MHz, while the GDDR5 video buffer is clocked at 950MHz (3.80GHz effective). Together with the increased performance offered by the new graphics core, the power consumption of the card has also grown since the GTX 560 Ti 448 uses the same 0.950V to 1.100V voltage range as the GTX 570.

 

[danraies]

I like both of calguyhunk's and JackNaylorPE's builds with a slight edge toward calguyhunk's because I prefer the option to upgrade to two 580's later over the immediate performance of the two 560ti's. If you never plan on adding a second 580 or if you prefer the immediate increased power of the two 560ti's then that's fine, but a single 580 is still a very powerful card today.

I agree with everyone that very few programs today will exceed 8GB or RAM so unless you have a particular application in mind that uses a lot of RAM, get a 2x4GB kit and upgrade later if/when 8GB isn't enough any more.

I'm going to put in a vote for the Crucial M4. The OCZ Vertex 3 is fast but has reliability issues (if you believe OCZ's reputation for SSD's, which I do) and the Intel 320 Series is about the most reliable drive in the world but it's only SATA II so it will be slower. The Crucial M4 is about as fast as OCZ (especially in random reads and writes) and is probably not quite as reliable as the Intel drives, but is certainly more reliable than the OCZ SSD's. I have a Crucial M4 and it sees some pretty impressive benchmarks.

I also agree that a network card is a total waste of money on your average in-home connection.

 

[Gilgamesh5]

I'm not a huge fan of Intel in all honesty, so i was trying to avoid them if possible though seems everyone swears by the sandy bridge. will likely stick with the same case simply because I'm a die hard believer in full atx over mid.

that said i am rather liking jack's overall build, and having it come in cheaper is a def plus. I've def got a lot to think about now on which way i want to go. and the reason for the excessive ram was due in part to the fact i do a lot of virtual machine work for testing out this and that.

and @calguy, was really just asking in general about the whole pci NICs, namely the visiontek bigfoot killer NIC. and i may be waiting a bit longer then i had hoped unless i choose to put the rig on a credit card anyways so may actually wait for the gtx 6 series, will have to see how they look price/performance wise closer to their release

edit: looking at the build posted by jack he lists the mugen 3 heatsink, but linked the hyper 212 plus (prefer evo imho but /shrug). I'm assuming he meant to link the mugen which I've herd isn't a bad heatsink but I'm wondering if the thermal is really necessary given the scythe comes with some already.

open ended question:
what's your thoughts on the crosshair V's intel equiv? my last 2 rigs have all used their ROG mobo's, and while the price is a bit higher but I've grown to trust them. believe it'd be the rampage 3? or is the i5's the maximus 4...

 

[calguyhunk]

SLI or Crossfire: not for now, but would like sli support for future upgrades.

The twin 560's are 40% faster than the 580 ....

GFX - $ 225 - Asus GTX 560 Ti 900 Mhz http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121425
GFX - $ 225 - Same

I recommended 16GB RAM 'coz this time last year, everyone was building their i5-7xx (LGA 1156) PCs with just the 4GB and see how quickly that got outdated. Even though 4GB is mostly enough for gaming, for editing purposes, more the merrier. It only costs you ~40 odd extra anyways. Makes you a whole lot futureproof that ways especially if you wanna keep your PC for quite a few years without much upgrade costs.

P.S: BTW, why have you been wasting money on ROG boards when you don't OC?

Those are for OC'ers looking to extract the very last Mhz outta their chips. For non-OC'ers, you just need the cheapest chipset available that will run your chosen CPU. Now I did recommend you the priciest 1155 chipset because you might wanna OC a little as you say, but also because it is so much easier to OC on this platform than it's ever been on any previous Intel or AMD platforms taken together.

EDIT: If you don't really wanna OC, your build price will fall by another ~$50 odd, I'll say. Also, I did not recommend an aftermarket HSF because non-OC'er's never need one. The stock Intel HSF that will come with your retail box will be plenty good.

 

[Gilgamesh5]

P.S: BTW, why have you been wasting money on ROG boards when you don't OC?

it's not that i don't want to OC, i just don't like it being a factor in why a specific item is picked. yes some things OC better then others, but i didn't want it to be "well you should buy this because once it's OC'd it's better then this". currently sitting on a phenom II OC'd to 4.8ghz, and I'll likely do the same to my new system. from a shopping perspective though i assume i wont OC simply because it's easier to buy an item assuming I'd run it at it's defaults but "may" overclock it then assuming I'm going to overclock it and "may" run at stock, a lot of factors go into if/how much i truly feel like i NEED to OC an item.

 

[Gilgamesh5]

Best answer selected by Gilgamesh5.