Looking to create a new gaming PC

[hardwareman11]

Hello everyone, I have been away for several months and have not kept up with any of the current technologies. I am totally blind as to what the current GPU's are and CPU'S are etc. Last I remember is that ATI 6870 was really good and the INTEL Core i5 2500k was the best cpu for gaming. (games I will be playing are: Skyrim, Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, Metro 2033, Crysis series etc.) I am aiming for a build taht can run games on as high a settings as possible.

I would like a current-tech 2012 gaming PC. I would like an INTEL/NVIDIA build and an AMD/ATI build to review then come to a conclusion about what is best; including the case, any aftermarket coolers, Windows 8 OS etc. etc.

PRICE range for these two builds: $900-$1300 range.

USES for the computer: Gaming, Internet searching.

P.S. NO WATER COOLING, I will not be overclocking, I will eventually upgrade to a DUAL GPU set-up and will have a dual HDD RAID set-up.

ALSO, is there any real difference between the GTX 570 era and today's cards? including last years' intel core i5 2500k to today's CPU'S?

 

[tdoughtony]

Well are you going to overclock it and by how much? For a video card I would get the Geforce GTX 670. Depending on what brand you buy they cost 400-440.

 

[hardwareman11]

I am NOT planning to overclock. However I am planning; later down the line to have a DUAL GPU set-up after a few years I guess to keep up performance.

Also is there any leap in performance from the gtx 570 card? to today's cards?

 

[tdoughtony]

Check out the 570 vs 670 here http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/598?vs=518. Also I would get a Ivy bridge.

 

[hardwareman11]

I would like a straight-forward build type-in; like this.

CASE:

MOBO:

RAM:

CPU:

GPU:

POWER SUPPLY:

OS:

everything like that. Good and simple

 

[blazorthon]

What resolution do you want to game on with your monitor? If it's below 2560x1600, then there isn't much incentive to spend a lot of money on a graphics card such as the GTX 670. At 1080p, the Radeon 7850 is generally the best choice overall. If you do want to game at 2560x1600, then the GTX 670 is a good choice, although I'd recommend a 4GB model for future-proofing if you want to keep this card for a while and simply SLI it with another later on because 2GB could become limiting in some games.

 

[hardwareman11]

For awhile I have used a Vizio HD t.v., so it will be 1080p. One of the most important things is longevity for this system build too.

I agree but, I stated that my said budget is $900-$1300.

 

[blazorthon]

The 7850 is pretty fast at stock and there are some highly factory overclock models that can fly past a GTX 570 (although they won't beat the GTX 670, the 670 is $150 to $200 more expensive and generally doesn't come with one or two free games). For 1080p, the 7850 is excellent. It can be put in Crossfire with another 7850 for almost double the performance (the GCN architecture scales excellently) if it ever becomes too slow. For 1080p, the GTX 670 is too much. The 670 is better for higher resolutions where it's very high performance can actually be put to use.

Are you staying clear of overclocking for longevity's sake? If so, then you might like to know that so long as you don't increase the voltage of a part, overclocking doesn't increase risk. Overclocking on stock voltage is basically free extra performance.

Overclocking with up to moderate voltage increases has minimal risk, but overclocking on stock voltage has effectively zero risk, so there's little point in not doing it IMO. Up to 1.3v is safe on the 7850 and up to about 1.24 is safe long term voltage for the 7850. That's enough to give it an overclock to over 1150MHz to 1300MHz, depending on the card, usually over 1200MHz. This way, it will beat the Radeon 7950 and really creep up on a GTX 670, although it would be roughly one tier below the 670. Not bad for a card that is almost half the price of the 670 (especially considering that the 670 is already an excellent value).

 

[hardwareman11]

Okay. I will look-up ATI cards now.

I just simply want to play at stock settings; partly because I do not know how to tweak performance of a cpu and gpu.

Wow, alright. That is pretty astounding.

So what about the cpu?

 

[blazorthon]

Intel i5-3450 is my recommendation for the CPU.

As for overclocking, all you do is open up the Catalyst control center (can be downloaded strait from AMD's site and is often included with AMD's driver downloads), go to overdrive, and move the sliders over a little Higher MHz is higher performance so long as the card has high enough voltage and has cooling that can handle it. A 7850 should be able to hit about 1100MHz to 1200MHz core clock without a voltage change and a decent memory overclock too.

CPUs aren't much more difficult, especially with the Ivy Bridge CPUs. Intel has a program that like the CCC above, can let you easily overclock without even knowing what everything means (although you should still look up overclocking guides to know the proper voltages for certain performance levels and such).

 

[hardwareman11]

Alright. I will check it out. I have been looking at the GTX 570. It seems to be, for the most part, at level with the 7870 and the 7850 is about the same as the 570.
Hm...I used to go for amd/ati builds but want to have an intel/Nvidia. Choices.

 

[blazorthon]

The reference 7870 is on-par with the reference GTX 580, the reference 7850 is on-par with the reference GTX 570. Factory overclocked 7850s can be almost on-par with the GTX 580 while being cheaper than the GTX 570. The 570 also has too little VRAM for it's performance (1.25GB can easily become a huge bottle-neck, sometimes even at 1080p) and uses a lot of power, perhaps twice as much as the Radeon 7850, if not more.

Intel CPU plus AMD video card is better at 1080p than Intel CPU plus Nvidia video card, although the lines get blurred in the high end with the Radeon 7950 and Radeon 7970 versus the GTX 670 and GTX 680.

The 7850 has almost equal overclocking performance to the 7870, so for overclocking, it is a huge value, especially compared to the GTX 570 and GTX 580. The amount of power saved by the 7850 versus the GTX 570 and GTX 580 is also huge. You can actually save over $100 each year in the electric bill. Sure, that's less than $10 per month, but it's something all right.

 

[hardwareman11]

Interesting!, Sounds like the 7850 is a good card.

What about the 600 series from Nvidia?

 

[blazorthon]

Nvidia has no mid-range or lower high end cards from the GTX 600 series. It goes from the GT 640 that is on-par with a Radeon 6670 and then jumps all the way to the GTX 670 with no cards between them. The 6670 is a lower entry level video card, not even fast enough to be a low end card. There is no GTX 600 competition for the 7850 yet.

 

[Ironslice]

Well the 670 is the cheapest nvidia card out at the moment and it's $400, but it's an AMAZING card. However, nvidia is pretty much set to announce/release the GTX 660 this week at computex and it sounds promising so I would probably get that if I were you

 

[hardwareman11]

I am liking the GTX 570, price wise. However. I have no total list posted on here in order to factor in the MOBO, CASE, RAM etc.; and then with the remaining bucks; choose a GPU.

 

[Ironslice]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($142.86 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Low Voltage Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($51.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Antec Nine Hundred ATX Mid Tower Case ($112.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($25.97 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1008.75
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-06-05 23:42 EDT-0400)

This build will do you wonders, is 100% future proof and will support SLI if you want to later on. IMO, you should wait this week and possibly next week out to see what price the GTX 660 will come out, but I have a feeling it will be about the same price as the GTX 570 is now except a much better card.

If you want you can also get a nicer Power Supply such as this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010&Tpk=HX750

 

[hardwareman11]

Alright, thanks. I have something to modify now. The HDD's raid enabled errr?

 

[loops]

1

Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Item #: N82E16811129066
Return Policy: Limited Replacement Only Return Policy
-$10.00 Instant
$10.00 Mail-in Rebate


$69.99
$59.99
1

HGST HDS721050CLA362 (0F10381) 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #: N82E16822145299
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
-$10.00 Instant


$79.99
$69.99
1

EVGA 02G-P4-2678-KR GeForce GTX 670 FTW 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
Item #: N82E16814130787
Return Policy: VGA Standard Return Policy


$419.99
1

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM
Item #: N82E16832116986
Return Policy: Software Standard Return Policy


$99.99
1

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel ...
Item #: N82E16835103065
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
-$5.00 Instant


$34.99
$29.99
1

Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Item #: N82E16820148442
Return Policy: Limited Replacement Only Return Policy
-$25.00 Instant


$149.99
$124.99
1


CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power ...
Item #: N82E16817139021
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B
Item #: N82E16820145345
Return Policy: Memory Standard Return Policy
-$30.00 Instant
-$15.00 Combo
$20.00 Mail-in Rebate Card


$194.98
$149.98
1


Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 ...
Item #: N82E16819115072
Return Policy: CPU Replacement Only Return Policy
GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813128498
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
-$30.00 Instant
-$16.00 Combo
$20.00 Mail-in Rebate Card


$389.98
$343.98
Subtotal: $1,298.90

newegg (note use of combos)

no need to go past a 670 or 2500k