Gaming pc budget 1500-2000 need input

[j3d1]

Approximate Purchase Date: within 2 weeks

Budget Range: 1500-2000

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming is most important

Parts Not Required:need everything but speakers/keyboard/mouse

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com

Country: US

Parts Preferences:I like asus/msi the best but im not too picky

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: 1080p full hd

Additional Comments: building this for a friend so need this to turn out well. The one thing i havnt put into the build that it requires is a 3rd party cooler for the 2500k. I am not very familiar with coolers so some suggestions would be awsome

CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
i5-2500k 220$

Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146068
NZXT Phantom black 130$

Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131837
Asus Z77 145$

Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233246
Corsair Vengeance 16GB(2X8GB) 120$

Harddrive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185
Samsung Singpoint F3 1tb 110$

SSD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226168
Mushkin Enhanced 40GB 75$

Cd combo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204
Asus CD/DVD combo 18$

Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150588
XFX Radeon 7950 3GB 420$

PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010
Corsair Pro Series 750W Modular 150$

Monitor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236174
Asus 23.6 Backlit LCD 190$

OS
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit 100$


Total before shipping: $ 1677.89

Shipping: $17.01

Grand Total: $1694.90

 

[azeem40]

Ditch the ASUS Board. Get the Pro3 Gen3 since you're not SLI/CFing. For one 7950, you won't need more than a 650W PSU. Get the TX650. For CPU, splurge $30 more and get the i5-3570k. You forgot a CPU Cooler. Get the Hyper 212 EVO and a Scythe fan for the cooler for a push-pull config.

 

[j3d1]

what is a push/pull config exactly?

 

[slicedtoad]

okay, looking at azeems advice and your build, this is what i'd reccomend.

nzxt phantom
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146068

i5-3570k COMBO with ASRock Z77 Pro3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.910435

Crucial m4 - a 40GB SSD at this budget is a bad idea. It will get very annoying. 128 is the way to go.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442

hyper 212+ cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

8GB S.SKILL RAM @ 1600mhz - faster or more than this is useless for gaming. If you don't like the look, tell me and i'll pick another good kit in black or blue.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442

sapphire 7970 - With a 1500-2000 budget, this is the card to go with. Unless you can find a 680 for around 500... grab that if it's in stock when you order.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102982

Seasonic M12II 620W - excellent PSU. You don't need anything close 750W for a single card setup.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151095

1TB spinpoint
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

asus dvd burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

asus monitor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236174

windows 7
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

and all that comes to cheaper than your original, 1659.54 before shipping.

edit:
push/pull is when you have a fan on both the front and back of your cpu cooler. The hyper 212+ only comes with one fan but two mounting brackets. All you need for push/pull is a second fan.

 

[azeem40]

Joined: Mar 2010
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 291
Rep: 8 (Unique: 7)


Its like making a sort of sandwich with a radiator between 2 fans, 1 pushing air trought while the other one helps pulling the air trought.
In this case, the "radiator" is the heatsink of the CPU Cooler.

 

[slicedtoad]

^might want to edit that...

Also if your friend wants to spend all of his 2k there are several attractive options. I'll go into more detail if any of these sound attractive:

-2nd gpu. More power than you'd need but awesome.
-A high end mobo + cpu cooler for better overclocking. Not worth the performance per dollar but if you like overclocking it's a good idea. A third party cooler for the gpu is an idea too.
-watercooling. Totally not worth it for price to performance but it's cool. Also takes some (yearly) maintenance
-huge ssd (256GB). Why not store all your games on the ssd?
-A higher end [strike]mobo[/strike] psu. Not very useful but some people like saving energy.
-three screens or a 2560p screen.

also, make sure he's not using a $10 laser mouse with an equally poor keyboard. It's very sad to spend thousands on your system only ruin it with low end peripherals.

 

[azeem40]

^might want to edit that...

Why?

 

[j3d1]

what monitor and high end mobo did u have in mind toad?


appreciate the help btw

 

[slicedtoad]

Joined: Mar 2010
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 291
Rep: 8 (Unique: 7).

unless there is something i'm missing... can't really see what this is for. Looks like it's from an OCN profile.

As to monitors, until the (hopefully upcoming) price drop happens, three 21" 1920x1080 one would be best. 2560p would go a bit above your budget if you were to get a decent one. I don't know a ton about screens though...

For the mobo, something like the sabertooth z77 would look and perform very well. If you went with another chipset you have plenty more options as well.

edit:
if you went with z68, which is higher end than z77 but also a generation older, you could get something from the first couple of this list:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100006519%2040000280%20600158412&IsNodeId=1&name=Intel%20Z68
High end mobos are for heavy overclocking and SLI/CF though, so there's no real point unless he is seriously interested.

 

[Why_Me]

Approximate Purchase Date: within 2 weeks

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: 1080p full hd

Additional Comments: building this for a friend so need this to turn out well. The one thing i havnt put into the build that it requires is a 3rd party cooler for the 2500k. I am not very familiar with coolers so some suggestions would be awsome

Two things stand out. The board and the RAM.

This is a gaming build correct? If that's so then your friend doesn't need 16GB of RAM. Also that board you chose is horrible at over clocking yet it's meant for dual vid cards.

Look at these boards down below for a single card set up that over clocks.

For hard core over clocking and a board meant for a single card build then it would be this board...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157298 $159.99
ASRock Z77 Performance LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=Fatal1ty%20Z77%20Performance <----- another look at that board

Another decent single card board that over clocks is this one here.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157296 $119.99
ASRock Z77 Pro4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=Z77%20Pro4 <----- another look at that board


8GB of low profile RAM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231544 $44.99 FREE SHIPPING
G.SKILL Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9D-8GAO

 

[slicedtoad]

^ i agree with his board choice. Going with anything more expensive is useless without sli/cf so ignore my z68 suggestion. The sabertooth is still an option, overpriced but it's a good board.

That orange ram is very ugly though. For $1500 you should get something that looks nice. Here's some low profile black ram (low profile helps avoid cooler interference):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233186

Along with the mobo, I'd grab a nicer cooler to help with temps.
the best is:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018
these phantecs perform nearly the same if you don't like the brown/off white color scheme:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100006519%2050060115%2040000574&IsNodeId=1&SubCategory=574&Manufactory=60115&SpeTabStoreType=1

edit:
something I just saw, cpus are much cheaper at microcenter atm. You need to pick up in store but check out the prices online. You could save quite a bit by buying from them id one is close to you.
http://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.phtml?N=4294966995+4294930330