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Gaming Build

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Hey guys! I'm looking to build a new computer system this summer and I've done some research and I have a setup in mind. I'm a hardcore gamer so I chose parts that fit my needs but also I didn't want to do anything unnecessary(except for my case : P) and waste money. So I will list the build I have in mind and please correct anything if I accidentally chose incompatible parts or if you guys have any suggestions that would better suit my case : ) ( I don't want to go any more over the current budget I am at)

AMD FX-6200 Zambezi Processor - 160$
EVGA GTX 480 Fermi 1.5GB Graphics Card - 220$
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU fan - 35$
G.Skill Ripjaws 2x4GB 1600 RAM - 50$
Corsair Carbide 400R Case - 110$ (or the NZXT phantom 120$)
ASRock 970 Extreme 3 AM3+ Mobo - 85$
Western Digital RE4 WD5003ABYX 500GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - 100$
ULTRA LSP 650watt Power supply - 55$
Random optical drive(doesnt really matter) - 20$
I already have a copy of windows

So after taxes and shpping it comes to about 850$ so if there are any better deals or upgrades or anything to add please feel free to add : ) thanks

More about : gaming build

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Homebuilt system Authority

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($32.12 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($127.86 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($46.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($52.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling 500W ATX12V Power Supply ($55.98 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS90 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $818.90
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-06-08 22:12 EDT-0400)
Homebuilt system Authority

Prefer amd here you go bud i fit your case in there to ;)  PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($119.98 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($32.12 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 EXTREME4 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($107.86 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($46.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT Phantom (Black) ATX Full Tower Case ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair 650W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS90 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $839.90
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-06-08 22:22 EDT-0400)
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Homebuilt system Expert

the 7850 will be weaker than the 480 at stock(albeit much lower temperature and power consumption as well) once overclocked, they are at similarish levels. the 7850 though will outperform the 6950.
Homebuilt system Master

All of them are decent setups, I will say thought that if you are considering an AMD FX CPU, buy the 8120 model, not the 6200. They're almost the same price and the 8120 while not completely impressive at stock speeds, can be quite powerful when its overclocked.

Regarding a Phenom II build, the 965 model is available for the same price as the 955 is at NCIX from Newegg.com.

The initial power supply you picked is a rather bad idea. I would go with the Corsair TX650 bigcyco suggested or even a Corsair CX500 should be enough as well.

Since he also recommended the NZXT Phantom case, I own one as well, so I'll tell you that it is indeed an awesome case. Its huge, so you'll never have to worry about needing room for expansion, also its very well made, very heavy duty plastic on the front bezel, and solid metal for the panels, very sturdy, this case will last you a lifetime.

pcpartpicker really isnt accurate when pricing out Intel builds, due to the fact that itll always choose microcenter due to their awesome deals on Intel. Problem is you have to have a Microcenter within driving distance as they dont honor that price for online buyers.
Homebuilt system Master

Right, the i5-2500K is in-store only. Not only that, the low prices of online buying from MicroCenter is notoriously misleading anyway. They hit you up with shipping and sales tax (regardless of whether or not your state requires it for online purchases), and it ends up being no cheaper than if you had ordered with free shipping from TigerDirect or Newegg. And having ordered online from all 3, I'll say that TD and Newegg ship a hell of a lot faster than MicroCenter.

The time I ordered online from MicroCenter I ordered parts from TigerDirect and Newegg on a sunday morning to do the build I have in my sig. Newegg and TigerDirect both had the parts to me by Tuesday (free shipping), come Thursday MicroCenter STILL had the order "processing". Called em up, was put on hold and cancelled it, drove 3 hours to get my 8GB RAM sticks from the closest MicroCenter.

Silly in hindsight, at the time 8GB sticks were relatively new and hard to find. Unfortunately, this was before I properly appreciated that I didn't really need 16GB of RAM :lol: 

hmmm okay i found out there is a micro center only like 20 minutes from my house so if I were to get an intel cpu from there would the 3570k be worth the extra 20 bucks? or is the 2500k fine
Homebuilt system Authority

enemenz said:
hmmm okay i found out there is a micro center only like 20 minutes from my house so if I were to get an intel cpu from there would the 3570k be worth the extra 20 bucks? or is the 2500k fine
Ivy Bridge offers a good ~15% performance improvement at the same speed as i5-2500k and the i5-3570k is clocked 100MHz faster than the Core i5-2500K by default.

You also get PCI-Express 3.0 vs 2.0 for Sandy Bridge, which future-proofs your build,Ivy Bridge only runs very hot when overclocking if you raise the voltage a lot. Raise it a tad less and you can still overclock it a lot with reasonable temperatures.But,if higher overclocking is important then stick with Sandy Bridge. Just because.GPU performance greatly improved compared to last generation,Support for DirectX 11,Driver maturity improved,Turbo Boost to dynamically adjust graphics clocks,and Dedicated transcoding hardware basically ivy is slightly better then sandy except for in overclocking sandy is much better hope this helps mate good luck! ;) 
Homebuilt system Master

enemenz said:
hmmm okay i found out there is a micro center only like 20 minutes from my house so if I were to get an intel cpu from there would the 3570k be worth the extra 20 bucks? or is the 2500k fine

In my opinion the extra money for the 3570K IS NOT worth it. Benchmarks have proven the performance gain is about 6%, not 15 percent. For gaming, almost none since most games are limited by the video card not the CPU. Also, for power usage, the difference in the Ivy Bridge will not translate to enough on your electric bill to equate to the extra 20 bucks you will pay up front for the 3570K. (About a penny a day under the best of circumstances)

http://vr-zone.com/articles/ivy-bridge-vs-sandy-bridge-...


As far as a Z77 chipset and the PCI 3.0. This has as also been benchmarked, and there is no advantage to it either.


http://www.overclock.net/t/1188376/hardwarecanucks-hd-7...


Also, getting a Z77 does not really future proof your system any more than Z68 due to the fact that next year Intel will be using a new socket for their CPUs, and it will not be backward compatible. Meaning in 2 years from now, if you decided you wanted to upgrade your CPU, you'll be buying a new motherboard to put it on.
Homebuilt system Authority

nekulturny said:
In my opinion the extra money for the 3570K IS NOT worth it. Benchmarks have proven the performance gain is about 6%, not 15 percent. For gaming, almost none since most games are limited by the video card not the CPU. Also, for power usage, the different in the Ivy Bridge will not translate to enough on your electric bill to equate to the extra 20 bucks you will pay up front for the 3570K. (About a penny a day under the best of circumstances)

http://vr-zone.com/articles/ivy-bridge-vs-sandy-bridge-...


As far as a Z77 chipset and the PCI 3.0. This has as also been benchmarked, and there is no advantage to it either.


http://www.overclock.net/t/1188376/hardwarecanucks-hd-7...


Also, getting a Z77 does not really future proof your system any more than Z68 due to the fact that next year Intel will be using a new socket for their CPUs, and it will not be backward compatible. Meaning in 2 years from now, if you decided you wanted to upgrade your CPU, you'll be buying a new motherboard to put it on.
Yeah,i am confused of the whole thing to be honest different benchmark say different things i don't know what to believe that is why i just stuck with my i5-2500K :lol: 
Homebuilt system Master

Well, I think it gets muddled a little bit. Many people are confusing what Intel initially said the performance gains would be with what they actually were. Since Intel already makes better CPUs than AMD, its hard to call them a "failure" as loudly, but easily said Ivy Bridge like Bulldozer, got much more hype and fanfare than it really deserved.
Homebuilt system Authority

nekulturny said:
Well, I think it gets muddled a little bit. Many people are confusing what Intel initially said the performance gains would be with what they actually were. Since Intel already makes better CPUs than AMD, its hard to call them a "failure" as loudly, but easily said Ivy Bridge like Bulldozer, got much more hype and fanfare than it really deserved.
I agree ;) 
Homebuilt system Authority

enemenz said:
mkay thanks guys and for 250 dollars is the 7850 my best bet?
Yes i would say so a gtx480 is good but it runs hot and is a powerhog so take that into account your best bet is gtx480 or 7850 imo ;) 
Homebuilt system Master

Your best bet is a GTX 680, but most of us live in the real world and don't have 500 bucks to lay down on a video card..

Even so. the 7850 for modern video cards is probably the best you can do at the price point, that being said, there are some older generation video cards floating around that are fairly cheap from what they were when they were new.

Stock to stock, the 7850 is almost as good as an Nvidia GTX 570, the 7850s are monsters for overclocking, its not unusual for one to be overclocked 30% over its stock setting, from what I've heard, this effectively puts it very close to stock GTX 580, and steps right over stock 570s (which are more expensive)

That being said, you can also get your hands on an old GTX 480 right now for fairly cheap.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

They're a little better than stock 7850s, but the trade off is they get fairly hot and use a lot more electricity.
Homebuilt system Authority

GTX 570 is the faster card, hands-down. The 7850 uses less power,has more VRAM capacity, and is 20 usd cheaper and may reach a higher overclock frequency.. but as we all know, you can't compare clock frequencies between cards of different architectures.The GTX570 has it cons higher power usage, lower VRAM capacity,bottom line... IDK why so many people have said they are near identical performance wise The 7870 is more or less identical to the GTX 570 in terms of performance but not the 7850. Not stock vs stock or max OC vs max OC.at least not according to these benchmarks http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7850_HD_7870/...
Homebuilt system Authority

GTX 480:


Pros:
* The best performance/price ratio
* Very nice performance - beaten only by GTX 570
* Loads of VRAM - 1.5 GB is enough for moderate 3 screen gaming
* Overclocks better than GTX 570


Cons:
* Very hot - have good airflow!
* Highest power consumption (average - 257W)


HD 7850


Pros:
* Lowest power consumption, lowest temperatures as well
* Overclocks well
* 2 GB of VRAM means it will run nice if you try gaming above 2560x1600


Cons:
* Worst performance/price ratio
* More expensive than GTX 480 but performs slower


GTX 570


Neutral:
* Average performance/price ratio


Pros:
* Fastest out of four cards
* Overclocks well enough (though HD 7850 may be overclocked relatively more, but doesn't get more performance than GTX 570)
* 1.25 GB of VRAM will be enough up to resolutions of 2560x1600


Cons:
* Power consumption - 197 watts, twice as much as HD 7850
* Highest price would you say that's a fair judgement

*sniff* I smell something here..... The difference between the 2 cards, 570 and 7850 is pretty minimal. Its basically the consumers choice really. The 480 is nice but its 2 generations old already, wouldnt advise anyone to move to that card, but thats my opinion :) 
Homebuilt system Master

Doesn't really matter to me either way, I'm not the one that has to be happy with the computer, and I'm not getting paid commission for my contributions to the forum. You cant really "go wrong" with any of the 3 video cards.
Homebuilt system Authority

nekulturny said:
Doesn't really matter to me either way, I'm not the one that has to be happy with the computer, and I'm not getting paid commission for my contributions to the forum. You cant really "go wrong" with any of the 3 video cards.
I agree with you can't go wrong with any of the three :) 
Homebuilt system Master

Quote:
you can't compare clock frequencies between cards of different architectures.


I will respond to this however, you can compare them somewhat. You have to, even though they're designed differently, the perform the same purpose. We do this with car engines. For example a Dodge Hemi and a Ford Triton engine.

Whats the difference? They're completely different designs, the Hemi is a 2 valve pushrod engine with conical cylinders, and the Ford Triton is a 3 valve with overhead camshafts, and a pent-roof cylinder design.

We measure them how they compare against each other by measuring torque, horsepower and efficiency. Hemis have terrible efficiency compared to a Triton motor, but the Hemi has more torque.

Hmm I thought about it for a while and i guess what nukulturny and bigcyco1 said is right. I'm going to be playing at 1080 resolution and i guess that its not like none of my choices will not be able to play the games i want at the frames i want. The differences are minimal. Ive chosen to go witht he 7850 because of the ifinity feature since im going to be using dual monitors. I appreciate all your help : )
Homebuilt system Authority

enemenz said:
Hmm I thought about it for a while and i guess what nukulturny and bigcyco1 said is right. I'm going to be playing at 1080 resolution and i guess that its not like none of my choices will not be able to play the games i want at the frames i want. The differences are minimal. Ive chosen to go witht he 7850 because of the ifinity feature since im going to be using dual monitors. I appreciate all your help : )
No problem!Your welcome! ;) 
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