New gaming/home computer. $3,000 budget. Would love advice.

[Adjurer]

Approximate Purchase Date: Within the next couple of weeks.

Budget Range: ~$3,000

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, music sequencing/recording, word/excel/power point for work, surfing the internet, music/movies.

Parts Not Required: Keyboard, mouse

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: www.newegg.com

Country: USA

Parts Preferences:

Motherboard:
ASUS P8P67 DELUXE (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131701

Processor:
Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I72600K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070&Tpk=i7%202600k

RAM: (4 of these)
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M1A1600C10
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233218

Power Supply:
CORSAIR Professional Series HX750 (CMPSU-750HX) 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010&Tpk=N82E16817139010

Blu-Ray Drive:
LG Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Drive Model UH12LS28 OEM LightScribe Support - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136232

Hard Drive: (2 of these)
SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152245

Case:
COOLER MASTER Storm Sniper SGC-6000-KXN1-GP Black Steel, ABS Plastic, Mesh bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119194

Need help with finding a video card ($400-ish), monitor ($200-ish), speakers (preferably a pretty good set), and sound card (if you think it's necessary).


Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Monitor Resolution: Don't know yet. heh.

Additional Comments: Looking for a quality PC with a bit of splurging. Would love advice and/or thoughts for parts I've already selected. I have very little knowledge of hardware, so what has been chosen was by a friend who DOES know a bit about hardware. He suggested I post here to receive more knowledgeable advice and feedback.

 

[azeem40]

That Motherboard is made for Dual Channel, so you'd gain a performance benefit from 2 4GB RAM 1600 MHz.

For the GPU, the 7950 is pretty powerful. With your Processor it can max BF3 on Ultra with frame rates sometimes dipping into the 40s for those intense firing sessions (just an example of a game). For Monitor, try the ASUS 24" HD Monitor with LED Backlight.

 

[Adjurer]

That Motherboard is made for Dual Channel, so you'd gain a performance benefit from 2 4GB RAM 1600 MHz.

For the GPU, the 7950 is pretty powerful. With your Processor it can max BF3 on Ultra with frame rates sometimes dipping into the 40s for those intense firing sessions (just an example of a game). For Monitor, try the ASUS 24" HD Monitor with LED Backlight.

Just a guess here, but does Dual Channel have to do with RAM sticks working better in pairs? If so, would I benefit from pairs of 8GB more than pairs of 4GB.

 

[zolton33]

Pairs generally mean they were clocked and set up together so work well with each other. I noticed you have not chosen an operating system any particular reason you haven't? And with that much to put into a new pc i'd wait for the new ivy bridge cpus to be released soon. They say within the second quarter of this year which is like a month maybe 3 away.

Just a suggestion as you are already going for a $329.99 cpu if you'd get a newer ivy bridge (set to be a bit better then the sandy bridge or so most reports say) and its better then the sandy you'd not be replacing your motherboard and cpu quite as much or as often to keep up technologically. If you can't wait (which i couldn't lol even knowing that if i had the money in hand my building itch becomes a nasty rash it ain't pretty so i wouldn't be able to stop myself lol).

 

[cbag]

So your budget is 3k but looks like you don't want to push it up that high if you don't need to (based on your selections so far).

I would get a ssd like crucial m4 as a boot drive at least.

You may want a 5.1 speaker surround sound system or just a 5.1 or 7.1 headset for gaming.

Instead of 1 monitor you may do a 3 monitor array with either single or xfire 7950 or 7970 AMD radeon

 

[sevenus]

As for a soundcard, I recommend the m-audio delta series. I have a Delta-44, which has a breakout box with 4 ins and 4 outs. They run around $500. It really depends what kind of recording you are doing (multitrack?- if not, you can go a lot cheaper too) or what kind of music software (protools? - then you would want a protools compatible card).

 

[hellfire24]

here's my suggestion for ya-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146068
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127645
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161399
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703028
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145345
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131790
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139599
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129087
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236102
this is going to be a high performance machine.212+ will take of your temp and noise level as well aw 'maybe' overclocking decision.

 

[Adjurer]

Sorry. I forgot to put in OS. I intend to be using Windows 7 Professional.

 

[hellfire24]

make sure it's 64 bit

 

[zolton33]

Sorry. I forgot to put in OS. I intend to be using Windows 7 Professional.

No need to apologize. I just wanted to make sure you got it before you forgot it. lol Building a great rig like your planning with no os is like building a llamborghini and forgetting the motor lol

 

[hellfire24]

^ lollllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[LOCSTA]

I am working on a build for about the same amount of money, although mine includes mouse + kb and has more allocated for a monitor, less for graphics, and no O.S., you can check it out and maybe see some other options too.

CASE

THERMALTAKE LEVEL 10 GT 250 EITHER

M/B

ASUS P8Z68-V 170 NEWEGG

CPU

INTEL CORE I7-2600K 320 TD

RAM

CORSAIR 8B(2PC X 4GB) VENGEANCE 1600MHZ-BLUE 50 NEWEGG

HEATSINK

CORSAIR H100 LIQUID COOLING SET 110 TD

GRAPHICS CARD

560ti - CHEAPEST NAMEBRAND 220 CHECK

MOUSE

RAZER NAGA EPIC WIRELESS MMO 120 TIGER

KEYBOARD

CORSAIR VENGEANCE K90 MECHANICAL BACKLIT 130 EITHER

MONITOR

ACER/ASUS 27" 3D VISION READY LCD 700 CHECK

SPEAKERS

LOGITECH Z506 5.1 SURROUND 90 TIGER
LOGITECH LS21 2.1 SET 23 TIGER

GAMEPADS

LOGITECH G13 68 NEWEGG
LOGITECH F510 RUMBLE XINPUT CONTROLLER 33 NEWEGG

MOUSEPAD

TT eSPORTS CONKOR GAMING PAD 20 TIGER

FRONT PANEL MEMORY CARD READER

REMOVED FOR NOW 0 OUT

SOUNDCARD

CREATIVE SOUNDBLASTER X-FI 100 NEWEGG

OPTICAL DRIVE

LG BLURAY RE WITH LIGHTSCRIBE 88 NEWEGG

POWER SUPPLY

THERMALTAKE TR2 RX 750W BRONZE80 12V ATX 90 NEWEGG

SOLID STATE OS DRIVE

OCZ PETROL PTL1 128 GB 2.5" SATA-III INTERNAL 140 NEWEGG

HARD DRIVE

2TB SEAGATE BARRICUDA 170 NEWEGG

 

[zolton33]

I am working on a build for about the same amount of money, although mine includes mouse + kb and has more allocated for a monitor, less for graphics, and no O.S., you can check it out and maybe see some other options too.

CASE

THERMALTAKE LEVEL 10 GT 250 EITHER

M/B

ASUS P8Z68-V 170 NEWEGG

CPU

INTEL CORE I7-2600K 320 TD

RAM

CORSAIR 8B(2PC X 4GB) VENGEANCE 1600MHZ-BLUE 50 NEWEGG

HEATSINK

CORSAIR H100 LIQUID COOLING SET 110 TD

GRAPHICS CARD

560ti - CHEAPEST NAMEBRAND 220 CHECK

MOUSE

RAZER NAGA EPIC WIRELESS MMO 120 TIGER

KEYBOARD

CORSAIR VENGEANCE K90 MECHANICAL BACKLIT 130 EITHER

MONITOR

ACER/ASUS 27" 3D VISION READY LCD 700 CHECK

SPEAKERS

LOGITECH Z506 5.1 SURROUND 90 TIGER
LOGITECH LS21 2.1 SET 23 TIGER

GAMEPADS

LOGITECH G13 68 NEWEGG
LOGITECH F510 RUMBLE XINPUT CONTROLLER 33 NEWEGG

MOUSEPAD

TT eSPORTS CONKOR GAMING PAD 20 TIGER

FRONT PANEL MEMORY CARD READER

REMOVED FOR NOW 0 OUT

SOUNDCARD

CREATIVE SOUNDBLASTER X-FI 100 NEWEGG

OPTICAL DRIVE

LG BLURAY RE WITH LIGHTSCRIBE 88 NEWEGG

POWER SUPPLY

THERMALTAKE TR2 RX 750W BRONZE80 12V ATX 90 NEWEGG

SOLID STATE OS DRIVE

OCZ PETROL PTL1 128 GB 2.5" SATA-III INTERNAL 140 NEWEGG

HARD DRIVE

2TB SEAGATE BARRICUDA 170 NEWEGG

No offence but you are much better off creating your own topic as to not get the two of you confused for one thing and its kind of rude to hijack some one elses thread. >_<

 

[a4mula]

3930k
Asrock Extreme3 2011
7950
Corsair XMS 4x4
WD 2TB Green
OCZ Synapse 64GB
Silverstone Raven RV02B-EW
CM Silent Pro 850w
Dell u2412hm
Rosewill 9000B Mechanical KB
Noctua NH-D14 2011

This is about $2700, leaving $300 or so for some type of sound card. At this budget I'd really be looking towards LGA2011. If you'd rather spend more money towards sound you can aways drop to the 3820 vs the 3930K, that'll save $275 or so.

 

[Adjurer]

No need to apologize. I just wanted to make sure you got it before you forgot it. lol Building a great rig like your planning with no os is like building a llamborghini and forgetting the motor lol

Haha. Yeah, I actually just kinda figured all the software stuff wasn't necessary, unless it was something to be used as an example for what I wanted the computer to be able to do.

 

[Adjurer]

Ok guys. Thanks a ton for the advice! You've been super helpful!! I'm posting an updated version of things below. Let me know what you think. Thanks again!


Motherboard:
ASUS P8P67 DELUXE (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131701

Processor:
Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I72600K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070&Tpk=i7%202600k

RAM: (2 sets of these)
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-16GBXL
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231486

Power Supply:
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=N82E16817703028&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=1mbafc3jkd1p1

Disc Drive: (Because I realized blu-ray in my computer is actually useless)
LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model iHAS124-04 - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=1g5ffq26jh7tk

Video Card:
SAPPHIRE 11196-00-40G Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102962&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&PageSize=10&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&IsFeedbackTab=true#scrollFullInfo

Hard Drive: (2 of these)
SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152245

Solid State Drive: (for the OS and such)
Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442

Case:
NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Steel / Plastic Enthusiast ATX Full Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146068&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=h4beo9ecy64m

Monitor: (possibly 2 of these, maybe only 1)
Asus VE228H 21.5" Full HD HDMI LED BackLight LCD Monitor w/Speakers ASCR 10,000,000:1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236100

Speakers:
Logitech Z506 75 watts RMS 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121044

Sound Card:
Creative 70SB073A00000 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102006

OS:
Microsoft Office 2010 Professional - 1 PC Academic Version



That's what I have as my potential "final" draft. The total (including some other software) comes to about $2,750 right now. I could get another monitor maybe. The case has the possibility for a "Dual radiator support and quad watercooling tube cutouts on backplate". Should I take advantage of that? If so, what should I look at? Is there anything else that anyone can think of?

Thanks again, guys and gals!

 

[Adjurer]

Ooooops. haha. Obviously I'm not using Microsoft Office as my OS. I'm using:

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit - OEM

 

[Youngmind]

You should definitely get another monitor so you can play games on 3 monitors and make use of the peripheral vision.

 

[sevenus]

I highly reccomend LibreOffice over Microsoft Office. It is free, open source, and just as powerful. It is also compatible.
And you might as well go with a z68 motherboard. something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131790
or this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131791

 

[Adjurer]

So should I not worry about a radiator or watercooling?

 

[zolton33]

If you are going to over clock then yes if not i don't think so but buy some better thermal paste to ensure your cpu can stay cool and better cooled.

(overclocking puts more power to the cpu to force more processing power causing it to heat up and you need a better processor cooler then the one that comes with it to keep it cool the one that comes with it is designed to keep it cool through regular use so it will struggle to keep your cpu cool while its over clocked. If your cpu gets to hot your system will hopefully shut down before it gets to hot and takes out your cpu and motherboard)

 

[angaddev]

3930k
Asrock Extreme3 2011
7950
Corsair XMS 4x4
WD 2TB Green
OCZ Synapse 64GB
Silverstone Raven RV02B-EW
CM Silent Pro 850w
Dell u2412hm
Rosewill 9000B Mechanical KB
Noctua NH-D14 2011

This is about $2700, leaving $300 or so for some type of sound card. At this budget I'd really be looking towards LGA2011. If you'd rather spend more money towards sound you can aways drop to the 3820 vs the 3930K, that'll save $275 or so.

+1 to this

 

[ionut19]

My suggestion is to go for a 2011 socket platform. Buy a nice CPU, a 7950 or 7970 witch does not come with a stock cooler, don't buy too much HDD storage right now because they are expensive, don't buy a small monitor as you will regret it later.

Have you ever considered buying one of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007617%20600012686&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Order=RATING&PageSize=20 ?

With a 1.8k configuration you will not get everything what you want right away but you can also invest in the PC later ok.

 

[Adjurer]

A couple people have told me to switch from the 1155 socket to the 2011 socket....

The mobo I've chosen is rated 5 eggs after 1200+ reviews, and has won a few awards. There isn't any mobos with the 2011 socket that come even close to that kind of review.

So, my question is... would there be a noticeable difference between the two? If not, what's the point in spending the excess money on a newer, not yet amazingly reviewed item, when mobos go out of style after 2-3 years anyway?

 

[a4mula]

2011 supports pci-e 3.0 and 40 ondie pci-e lanes. What this means is you have quadruple the pci-e bandwidth as 1155 @ SB.

The reason you don't see motherboards with 1200 reviews is because 2011 is only a month old, while 1155 is going on a year old now.

Z68 is also being phased out in April for Z77. X79 will be relevant until at least IB-e and even then while there might be a new platform, it's unlikely the socket will change.

You'll have people tell you that pci-e 3.0 and 40 lanes doesn't matter. For the casual user this is probably the case, that is until they want the next generation of SSDs. At that point they're screwed because SATA 6Gb/s is already saturated. So the only other solution is pci-e. If that means a thunderbolt pci-e card, or if that means direct connect SSDs like the Revo 3x2, or if that means a HBA/RAID card, or SATA Express. Doesn't matter, it's still going to have to connect via pci-e.

Going from a Z68 + 2600K setup to a X79 + 3820 is going to have a very minimum premium associated with it, and in some cases you come out cheaper with X79 (NF200 Z68).

All I can say is do some research and see what it is you require.