$1250 Gaming PC (Incl. OS and Wifi Card)

Hyperaxe1

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Dec 31, 2011
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Approximate Purchase Date: Approx 3 weeks from now

Budget Range: <$1300

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, internet browsing, work

Parts Not Required: Keyboard, mouse, monitor

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: www.pccasegear.com
www.msy.com.au

Country: Australia

Parts Preferences: Intel CPU, Nvidia GPU

Overclocking: Some small tweaks to the GPU and CPU

SLI or Crossfire: In the future

Monitor Resolution: 1680x1050

Additional Comments: Currently my build looks something like...
Motherboard GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3 $155
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=17724
CPU Intel Core i5-2500K $215
http://www.msy.com.au/product.jsp?productId=7581
CPU Cooler CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO $39
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=18670
Primary Drive Crucial M4 64GB SSD $109
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=17684
Secondary Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM $99
http://www.msy.com.au/product.jsp?productId=7386
GPU MSI GTX560 TWIN FROZR II OC $250
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1193&products_id=16578
Power Supply Thermaltake 800W TR2 $124
http://www.msy.com.au/product.jsp?productId=7603#
Optical Drive Sony AD7280SGB DVDRW OEM $21
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=17834
RAM G.SKILL Ripjaws X (2x4GB) 1600 $55
http://msy.com.au/product.jsp?productId=7262
Case SHARKOON T28 Red $69
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=25_1279&products_id=19677

On a side note, I'm trying to decrease the price but still have the computer future-proofed for further upgrading. The wifi card and OS cost $20 and $93, respectively, so add $113 to the final price :p
 

ltpenguin

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Dec 23, 2011
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If you are just doing a small over clock don't bother, get a core i5-2400 and drop the cpu cooler, the stock cooler will run it fine, so long as you don't O.C. . Future proofing can't and shouldn't be attempted, the only parts that a semi-future proof is the case and power supply. The psu you have is fine but you can spend more on your case it would be more reusable. Also if you are not going to sli within 2 months you most likely will not sli at all - A new series of Nvidia cards are launching later this month and you will probably just end up getting one of those. Remember buy for what you want now not what you want in the future, things will change.

Also you might want to look into the option of using Ethernet cables instead of wi-fi due to the stability for gaming :)
 

Hyperaxe1

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Dec 31, 2011
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Since the motherboard I'm getting is apparently good for overclocking I'll probably try to get the i5-2500K to about 4ghz. I would use an ethernet cable but my computer is on the other side of the house and it would be too expensive running a cable all the way through. That, and I don't have a long enough ethernet cable :p
 

g-unit1111

Titan
Moderator


I'd definitely second this - while you can't OC an i5-2400 - it will save you quite a bit of money by dropping that and the cooler, and that will give you an extra $100 to play with and I'd use that to upgrade your GPU.

I like that choice for motherboard and while both my systems have Gigabyte boards I'm not a fan of their proprietary blue / white color scheme - if you can get the UD3H instead - it's only a $5 difference: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=138_711_1183&products_id=17549

If you put the difference you'd save on the CPU into upgrading your GPU, I'd highly suggest a Radeon 7870 - right now they're matching and in some cases beating the GTX 580, check out the numbers: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7870-review-benchmark,3148.html

The card I'd recommend would be the Sapphire GHz edition: http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1160&pid=1473&psn=&lid=1&leg=0
 

ltpenguin

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Dec 23, 2011
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there are also power line adapters you could look into i hear they are quiet good

@g-unit1111 i also hate the colour of that motherboard X.x although the 7870 is more around $350 i think it is worth the value now.
 

ltpenguin

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Dec 23, 2011
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from the article linked by g-unit1111 it appears to have a few problems as of now. Not to say they are not fixable problems, but problems none the less of course i don't have a 7850 this is just what i took from reading the article ( i know a lot of the problems was due to the platform)