Help with part selection of around $1200 gaming PC

[oconnell9812]

Approximate Purchase Date: Next 6 months tops

Budget Range: Around 1.2-1.3 thousand, not including rebates

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Mainly just for gaming, and rendering/editing videos.

Parts Not Required: Mouse, Keyboard, Monitor

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Doesn't really bother me

Country: Australia

Parts Preferences: Not really any preferences, this is the first PC I have attempted to build, so I'm open to suggestions.

Overclocking: To begin with, no, but that may change in the future.

SLI or Crossfire: Depends on advice - is it worth doing and what are the cons of doing it.

Monitor Resolution: 1024x780

Additional Comments: Want it to be able to game + process quite quickly, preferably with a decent ram size. Hard drive would need to be 500gb+, and I'd like a good looking case, the one I've currently got my eye on is the Antec Nine Hundred. Current parts that I'm considering are below, what I really need is advice on what I should change, even if your advice is to scrap the entire part selection I have and start anew. Thank you in advance.

Graphics Card - HIS H775F1GD Radeon HD 7750 Video Card ~ $110

Power - Cooler Master Silent Pro M 850W ~$135

Shell/Case - Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with Upgraded USB 3.0 ~$100

Optic Drive - Plextor PX-L890SA-26 ~$40

Hard Drive - Seagate Barracuda 1TB ST31000524AS ~$95

Network Card - EVGA Killer Xeno Pro Gaming Network Card ~$60

Mother Board - Intel Desktop Board DP67BGB3 ~$160

CPU/Processor - Intel Core i5-2500K ~$220

Cooler - Corsair A70 Dual Fan ~$60

RAM - Corsair Vengeance 4x4 16GB total ~$124

Sound Card - Auzentech AZT-FORTE X-Fi Forte 7.1 ~$150

 

[Outlander_04]

A build like that needs less than a 500 watt psu . The graphics card is the power hungry component in most builds and yours is fairly basic .

Drop the NIC . It wont work better than the one built in to the mb

The CM hyper 212 evo is more than adequate and should save you some too

Unless you have $500 speakers you wont hear a difference over using the onboard sound . Even then if you are over about 25 years old you still wont hear the difference .

The mb you have selected uses the older P67 chipset . Its been improved a lot with Z68 and subsequently Z77 . Use one of those instead .
Use some of the money you save by not buying those parts you dont need to include a 60 - 64 gig SSD in your build as a cache drive . That will speed boot and loading tmes and make your comp feel much faster


Id also recommend a better graphics card , but your monitor is such a low res unit that I think you should replace that instead

 

[TheBigTroll]

http://pcpartpicker.com/au/p/ayxf

you can either set up the SSD as a cache for the hard drive (intel smart response technology) or as a independent boot drive. if you are to use the ssd as a boot drive, you wont be able to store that much info in it (only OS)

 

[manofchalk]

When the sound card cost's more than the GPU in a gaming rig, something is very much out of balance.

Drop the Sound card and the Network card, both are supported adequately by the motherboard. Only reason for a network card would be wireless connections.

PSU is way overkill, you only need 600W and even that's overdoing it on the very efficient and not all that powerful GPU you'v got in there. But get 600W so you can sub in a better Graphics Card later without worrying.

The CPU cooler should be a Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO, its one of the best budget aftermarket coolers out there, and will come in about $25 cheaper than what you'v got listed.

That optical drive is too expensive, or its a very cheap BLU-Ray (which I doubt). Any $20 SATA optical drive will do, its not that important.

With the money saved, get yourself a Z77 motherboard (AsRock Extreme4 is a good one) and an i7-3770k. That will be much better than the old tech (and mid-range at the time) you have got right now.

If you'v still got cash, up the GPU to a 7850 or 7870. Those will game noticeably better. Though like Outlander said, replace the monitor to a 1920x1080 res unit before upping the card.

Make sure that RAM is rated at 1600Mhz and at 1.5V. anything above or below that is pointless or inefficient (unless is 1.35V, thats fine).

 

[motorneuron]

I agree 100% with Manofchalk (and everyone else).

You really, really need a higher-res monitor. And that video card is the lowest performing of the HD 7000 series; you really need something more powerful. Get a 1920x1080 monitor and a 7850, or if not that, at least one of the good cards from last generation (560 Ti, 6950, even a 480). Fortunately, you have places to cut money from your build: As others have said, ditch the network card and the sound card, pick a less expensive cooler, and try to find 8 GB of 1600 1.5 RAM.