New to PC building.

[Mgreygor]

Approximate Purchase Date: Next Month

Budget Range: 1000-1300 USD

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Surfing the Internet

Parts Not Required: Mouse

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg.com is fine

Country: USA

Parts Preferences: N/a

Overclocking: N/a

SLI or Crossfire: N/a

Monitor Resolution: Whatever fits to get me the graphics that I'd like.

Additional Comments: I'm looking to run WoW or GW2 (when it finally comes out) at high-ultra settings. I'm new to actually building a computer, please no trolls.

 

[Raiddinn]

2500k
Gigabyte 1155 motherboard ~$125
2x 4GBs Corsair or Kingston RAM
580 video card
XFX 650w PSU
decent case like Antec 300 Illusion or a HAF case from Cooler Master.
Crucial M4 SSD.
Regular 500 GB hard drive if you don't have one you can bring forward from another computer.
Windows 7 x64 home or professional.


Should work fine.

 

[Mgreygor]

First off, thank you very much for responding.
I took what you said and searched around to find some parts
I could not find the "XFX 650w PSU". On new egg it wasn't in stock and I could not seem to find it anywhere else.

Also, If you wouldn't mind looking over my list, i found

2500k
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

Gigabyte 1155 motherboard ~$125
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128506

2x 4GBs Corsair or Kingston RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145315

580 video card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130587

XFX 650w PSU

decent case like Antec 300 Illusion or a HAF case from Cooler Master.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066

Crucial M4 SSD.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148441

Regular 500 GB hard drive if you don't have one you can bring forward from another computer.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136314

Windows 7 x64 home or professional.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

So far that comes to $1360, without the XFX 650w PSU, so if anyone can suggest a different item for any of these, please do.

 

[elayman]

If you have a micro center nearby you can save a lot on the 2500k and motherboard by getting a combo. Also drop the 580 and get either a 560 Ti (stick with EVGA) or 6950 (Sapphire or Diamond or HIS or MSI twin frozr). You still haven't included a monitor or cd drive so factor that into cost too.

 

[Mgreygor]

Switched the 580 to a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604 Would that still work?
Are there any specific cd drives i need to look at? or is it anything? I don't know too much about the specifics when it comes to computers.

 

[Raiddinn]

Sorry about the RAM, I meant Crucial or Kingston, use this instead

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148465

This xfx 650w isn't sold out

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207014

The 500 GB WD is too slow at 5400 RPMs so get this instead

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148701

It comes with a free DVD drive if you need one and you get the deal. Probably an MSI dvd drive which isn't great, but for a price of $0 you can't complain about it.

The Windows version also won't work. If you use it you must sell the computer to someone else once you get done making it and it can't be resold by the buyer.

If you own a legal copy of windows right now you qualify to use an upgrade CD like this one

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116713

which has all the files needed for a fresh install already on it.

Those changes add about $60 to the price net of rebates and you figured 1360 before so that means you need to drop about $120.

If you have a hard drive you can bring forward from another computer that would take care of most of the overage if you just buy an Asus 24x DVD drive (the one with 2500+ ratings and 5 stars) for $19.

Alternatively you could drop the SSD. It is a nice thing to have if you can get it but not necessary. That would cut $140 from the budget too.

Or you could do as elayman suggested and drop back to a worse graphics card like a 570. The 570 would shave off about the same amount coming back from a 580.

- Edit - If you intend to get this next month, you may be able to find $130 worth of good deals on the parts between now and then and you may not need to sacrifice anything.

 

[erikalikesfire]

You have a laptop hard drive there Try this or this.

I prefer G.Skill RAM myself. I'd also go for the Samsung 830 SSD, or an OCZ Agility/Vertex 3.

Some other power supplies you can use:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341017
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020

 

[Raiddinn]

G.Skill RAM failure rates have been trending up lately and OCZ SSDs have among the highest failure rates in the industry (just like their RAM).

Both Seagate and Western Digital are about the same for HDs.

The Samsung SSDs have low failure rates, but not as low as the Crucial M4, afaik.

I would stick with all the stuff from my last post if it were me instead of trying to shave off $20 here and there and taking parts with high failure rates in the process.

I think I would rather just omit the SSD entirely rather than cheaping out on 6 or 7 different parts. The OP could always just start saving for one in the future or just live without it as people on budgets usually do.

 

[Mgreygor]

I've read through the suggestions and comments that you have made, would this list work? I'll have a bit extra in my budget, the amount i listed was just around where id like to spend.

I5 2500k
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072 $220

Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128506 $174

Ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148465&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=o5vsfhpspf92$100

Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604$250

Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207014$90

Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066 $68

SSD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148441 $139

Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148701&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=1cfzvke5d5wsy$100

Windows
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986 $100

Dvd drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204 $20

 

[Raiddinn]

Change the RAM to this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148476

It costs 40% as much and has the same 8GB total and close to the same performance. It just takes up 2 slots instead of 1, which is fine because a lot of boards have trouble recognizing single sticks of 8GB anyway and 8GBs is still a good amount.

If you really need 16GB later, you can just buy the same thing again.

The video card link doesn't work for some reason, btw. Neither does the PSU link.

The Windows won't work legally so you should change that to what I said also.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116713&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3899435&SID=skim1402X558040X2700e0d253f0962eb9daa4697f4386ba

Here is the 650w PSU I mentioned earlier

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207014&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3899435&SID=skim1402X558040X4393c917bbd5905f8362ddeef9e8c9b8

and here is the 570 graphics card I mentioned earlier

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130622

 

[Mgreygor]

Sorry about the links, had the PSU the same as yours, and the video card was the one that elayman had suggested earlier. Would it drastically hurt my performance if I bought a 560 instead of a 570 or 580? Again, I'm new to this whole computer building thing.

 

[Raiddinn]

It depends on what you mean by drastically.

I will give a couple examples of 560 TI vs 570 performance vs 580 performance and you can consider with solid benchmarks.

http://www.hwcompare.com/8999/geforce-gtx-560-ti-vs-geforce-gtx-570/

For some reason I can't reach the Anandtech website at this moment, so better benchmarking isn't available. If you can get to it, then they have a good video card benchmark thing you can try out.

In any event, keep in mind that is a standard 570, not the 570 superclocked that I linked, which should be slightly better than the standard 570.

You are looking at maybe 20% performance advantage for the 570.

For Battlefield Bad Company 2, the difference would be visually noticeable since everything up to 60 FPS tends to be noticeable.

Dirt 2 = no noticeable difference

Just Cause 2 = Barely noticeable

Mafia 2 = not noticeable

Those aren't the best benchmarks, but with Anandtech down I can't do much better at this moment.

Anyway, a 560 TI is still a really good card, but if you can get a 570 without any real sacrifices performance wise it just matters how much you want to get the budget lower.

 

[elayman]

Get the 560 Ti if you're going to get a 560 at all. It's worth the extra $$. Otherwise the 570 is great or a 6950/6970

 

[AntiZig]

sorry to butt in, but wouldn't it be better to get a 2x4Gb RAM kit for the same 8Gb total amount. It's about half the price that way.

something like this?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148544

Edit: lol, nevermind, these guys have typing demons working for them so they can post 20x faster

 

[azeem40]

You have a laptop hard drive there Try this or this.

I prefer G.Skill RAM myself. I'd also go for the Samsung 830 SSD, or an OCZ Agility/Vertex 3.

Some other power supplies you can use:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341017
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020

Laptop HDDs still work with Desktops.

 

[Raiddinn]

They do, they are just much worse for the same $ than ones designed to be used with desktops.

 

[erikalikesfire]

Laptop HDDs still work with Desktops.

Yeah, but he was paying more and getting less cache, for a small form factor he didn't need.