Is this a good build for what I want?

[Hurley0519]

Hey everyone. I've never built a gaming pc before, so before I do I want to see if I have the parts I need to build the pc I want. In case it isn't obvious I don't know too much about computer parts so I appreciate any help I can get.

Approximate Purchase Date: April 2012

Budget Range: $1,500 max

System usage: Gaming, surfing the web, watching videos/movies, listening to music, homework (Essays, powerpoints, research papers).

Preferred website: www.tigerdirect.com

Country: USA

Parts Preference: None

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: Yes

Monitor Resolution: 1600x900 (No real preference)

Additional Comments: Prefer it to be as quiet as possible, want to be able to run games like Starcraft 2, The Witcher 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and others at high or highest graphic settings. I also want it to be able to run games that will come out in the future, like Guild Wars 2, Tera, Diablo 3, etc, at high graphic settings or at medium graphics. Sorry in advance for the wall of text and if I broke a rule for the forums (never been to this site before) and thanks in advance to anyone that helps!

Here's a list of parts I've already picked.

BIOSTAR TA75M+ AMD A Series Motherboard - Micro ATX, SOcket FM1, AMD A75 Chipset, 2000MHz DDR3 (O.C.), SATA 6.0 Gb/s, RAID, 8-CH Audio, Gigabit LAN, SuperSpeed USB 3.0, AMD Dual Graphics Ready

AMD A8-Series AD3850WNGXBOX Quad-Core A8-3850 APU - 4MB L2 Cache, 2.9GHz, Socket FM1, Radeon HD 6550D (400 Cores), Dual Graphics Ready, DirectX 11, Fan, Retail

Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1866C9 Vengeance 8GB PC15000 DDR3 RAM - 1866MHz, 2x4096MB, Non-ECC, Unbuffered

XFX HD-687A-ZHFC Radeon HD 6870 900M Video Card - 1GB, GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.1 (x16), 1x HDMI, Dual DVI, 2x Mini DisplayPort, DirectX 11, Dual-Slot, CrossFireX Ready

Azza CSAZ-1000 Solano 1000 Full Tower Gaming Case - ATX, Micro-ATX, E-ATX, 10x Ext 5.25", 1x Ext 3.5", 8x Int 3.5", 1x 120mm Fan, 2x 140mm Fans, 2 x 230mm Fans, 3x USB, e-SATA, Blue LED

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64BIT Operating System Software - OEM DVD, English

Asus Xonar DX PCIe 7.1 Sound Card

Corsair CMPSU-650TXV2 Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 Power Supply - 650 Watts, ATX, 140mm Fan, 80 Plus Bronze, SLI Ready, Active PFC

Logitech MK550 920-002555 Wireless Wave Mouse and Keyboard

Acer S200HL Abd 20" Class Widescreen LED Backlit Monitor - 1600 x 900, 16:9, 100000000:1 Dynamic, 600:1 Native, 60Hz, 5ms, DVI, VGA, Energy Star

Seagate ST1000DM003 Barracuda 1TB Hard Drive - 1TB, 7200RPM, 64MB, SATA 6Gb/s

Eagle Tech ET-AR504LR-BK Soundstage Speakers w/ Subwoofer - 2.1 Channels, 35 Watts RMS, 3" Midrange, 1" Tweeter, 15 Watts RMS 5.25" Subwoofer, Remote Control

 

[truegenius]

:lol:
amd apu!?!?
Get a i5-2550k instead of that apu in that budget

 

[Hurley0519]

Hmm well like I said I don't know much about what parts are better than others, but thanks for letting me know that I made a bad pick. Now I might have to rethink the parts I picked completely. Any other recommended parts based on my budget and requirements?

 

[truegenius]

1. no need to buy a sound card as inbuilt is enough.
2. Get a i5-2550k with z68 or p67 board.
3. Get hd7 or gtx6 series graphics card as they have better performance and lower power consumption.
4. A 600w good quality psu with atleast 40A current capacity on 12v (if not going to crossfire or sli)
5. A 128gb ssd (for os and caching if using z68 board)

 

[Hurley0519]

Thanks for your help! I appreciate the advice, though I hope I can get some other replies just to get some other perspectives on it.

 

[azeem40]

At $1500, get the i5-2500k with ASUS P8Z68-V/Gen3 MOBO and a Radeon 7950.

 

[g-unit1111]

Hmm well like I said I don't know much about what parts are better than others, but thanks for letting me know that I made a bad pick. Now I might have to rethink the parts I picked completely. Any other recommended parts based on my budget and requirements?

I definitely agree that the APU is not a good choice. But the 2550K isn't a good choice either as it disables the onboard video and only it's a slightly faster 1% clock.

Here's what I recommend with a $1500 budget:

Case: Corsair Carbide 400R - $99.99
PSU: Corsiar TX750 V2 - $104.99
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3H - $149.99
CPU: 3.30GHz Intel Core i5-2500K - $229.99
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo - $34.99
RAM: Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 8GB 1333MHz 1.5V - $34.99
SSD: 128GB Crucial M4 - $174.99
HD: Seagate Barracuda ST 1TB - $109.99
Optical: Lite On DVD Burner - $17.99
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 - $459.99
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium - $99.99

Total: $1,516.89

 

[Hurley0519]

I definitely agree that the APU is not a good choice. But the 2550K isn't a good choice either as it disables the onboard video and only it's a slightly faster 1% clock.

Here's what I recommend with a $1500 budget:

Case: Corsair Carbide 400R - $99.99
PSU: Corsiar TX750 V2 - $104.99
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3H - $149.99
CPU: 3.30GHz Intel Core i5-2500K - $229.99
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo - $34.99
RAM: Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 8GB 1333MHz 1.5V - $34.99
SSD: 128GB Crucial M4 - $174.99
HD: Seagate Barracuda ST 1TB - $109.99
Optical: Lite On DVD Burner - $17.99
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 - $459.99
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium - $99.99

Total: $1,516.89

Cool dude thanks for the suggestions! I'll look into these too. It's always kind of hard to pick when one person recommends something but then someone else says they wouldn't recommend it.

 

[azeem40]

Yeah, that can be a problem. With my build, I was torn between the Mushkin Enhanced Chronos 120GB SSD and Crucial M4 SSD, but went with Mushkin cuz it was on sale for $130 compared to $175 for the Crucial M4.

 

[Hurley0519]

One thing I'm wondering out of curiosity is why the amd apu isn't a good choice. It has good ratings on tigerdirect so I guess I was misled.

 

[azeem40]

Cuz Intel leads in gaming right now for all price points. Even the G630 beats an FX 4100 in gaming.

 

[Hurley0519]

Cuz Intel leads in gaming right now for all price points. Even the G630 beats an FX 4100 in gaming.

Oh ok I guess that makes sense. I'm really showing how little I know about computer hardware. :/

 

[azeem40]

Dw, I used to be just like you back in January. Now, after research and with this forums help, I know a lot more than I thought I'd learn!

 

[g-unit1111]

One thing I'm wondering out of curiosity is why the amd apu isn't a good choice. It has good ratings on tigerdirect so I guess I was misled.

The AMD APU is the lowest low end of the spectrum. Don't judge a product by the number of reviews it gets on Newegg or Tiger Direct - you want to read a variety of source from a number of different websites and magazines before you make a decision.

 

[fil1p]

I looked over the replies, and I agree with what most people are saying. First of all don't go with AMD CPU's. Go for a i5-2500k as others have said, you could go for an i7-2600k but in gaming you will see little difference in performance. Also as for GPU, don't get the hd6870, get a hd7870 or a hd7950, or wait a while for nvidia to release the follow up cards to the gtx680, like the gtx670 (not yet released). Other than that you are in more or less the right direction, just loose the sound card as it is not necessary. If you choose a pc with the specification people have advised you will be able to play not only the games you listed, but practically any game on very high settings, with maybe an exception or two (depending on what components you chose). Look at some of the benchmarks for the i5-2500k, it does very well, and even beats AMD's FX-8000 processors.

Hope this helps!

 

[fil1p]

Also i agree with g-unit1111, but for $50 more you can get a gtx680 with much better performance, it is $50 more than a hd7950, and $50-79 less than the hf7970, and it outperforms both of them. Look at the benchmarks for the gtx680 here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5699/nvidia-geforce-gtx-680-review

 

[g-unit1111]

Also i agree with g-unit1111, but for $50 more you can get a gtx680 with much better performance, it is $50 more than a hd7950, and $50-79 less than the hf7970, and it outperforms both of them. Look at the benchmarks for the gtx680 here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5699/nvidia-geforce-gtx-680-review

They're both good choices - you can't go wrong either way. I'm about to pull the trigger on getting the Radeon 7870 for my system - the 680 is a bit too rich for my blood.

If you choose a pc with the specification people have advised you will be able to play not only the games you listed, but practically any game on very high settings, with maybe an exception or two (depending on what components you chose). Look at some of the benchmarks for the i5-2500k, it does very well, and even beats AMD's FX-8000 processors.

The Pentium G620 beats the FX-8100. :lol:

 

[fil1p]

@g-unit1111- Hahaha, the fx series with 8 cores fail against a pentium. I laughed when i saw the benchmarks, especially after all the hype.

 

[truegenius]

igpu will have no use in gaming when dgpu is there.
2550k is clocked 3% higher than 2500k and disabled gpu can help to keep temps low and to achieve higher clocks during overclocking

a g620@2.6ghz is equal to 2 core fx @4.4ghz in every tasks.
g620 can beat fx8 but only in handpicked less threaded tasks like less threaded games.

since you are buying a graphics card so inbuilt gpu of apu will have no use.
apus are for low budget mini pc, but your budget is high so apu will not suit you.

 

[Hurley0519]

Thanks everyone for all the help and info! I'm glad that I'm even closer to getting the pc I've wanted for my gaming needs. I think I've already learned some important lessons on selecting computer hardware. I might delay actually buying the parts so I can do some more research on the stuff you guys suggested. If there's any other advice I'm all ears!

 

[g-unit1111]

@g-unit1111- Hahaha, the fx series with 8 cores fail against a pentium. I laughed when i saw the benchmarks, especially after all the hype.

I did too... that article was full of :lol:. Which is why I'm taking a wait and see attitude with all future hardware and not buying into the Apple-esque overhype that Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, and several other manufacturers are trying.

igpu will have no use in gaming when dgpu is there.
2550k is clocked 3% higher than 2500k and disabled gpu can help to keep temps low and to achieve higher clocks during overclocking

True but even the Intel onboard video beats the AMD onboard video with the APUs and FX/Phenom series.

g620 can beat fx8 but only in handpicked less threaded tasks like less threaded games.

Nah, the FX series has been FUBAR from day one. The problem is that AMD relied on offloading most of the CPU's primary instructions to Windows where they belong on the CPU. Having most of the higher end instructions needed for gaming being relied on the software rather than the hardware is what's been causing the FX to produce the incredibly low numbers it's been producing.