Caveat - I've picked up just enough to get myself into trouble and not enough to dust myself off...
Approximate Purchase Date: The sooner the better
Budget Range: Up to 2k$, though preferably between 1-1.5k$ (I get to shop on a Mac-sized budget :lol: )
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming (WoW & DIII primarily), web browsing (I regularly run Firefox sessions up to ~2GB of RAM), multimedia
Are you buying a monitor: Not now (I run 1680x1050x2, but will undoubtedly upgrade at some point)
Parts to Upgrade: Everything except a storage hard drive & peripherals
Do you need to buy OS: No
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg, TigerDirect, Amazon, Fry's, anything reputable and reasonably priced really...
Location: Mountain View, CA (Willing to drive up to an hour or so if it gets me an awesome deal, I have a Prius and a lot of spare time)
Overclocking: Probably not. I'd be starting from scratch and it seems like it wouldn't be worth the trouble for me.
SLI or Crossfire: Not currently, but potentially in the future - as I understand it, it's a great way to get a performance boost without "completely" replacing your GPU.
Tentative shopping list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/bVXv
Explanations/thought processes:
■CPU - Yes, i7 is overkill for a mostly gaming machine, but it's what I've decided I want. Saving $ on not needing to buy a storage drive, OS, or peripherals in any case... 3770K seems to have a marginal speed boost over 3770, but is that worth ~70$ assuming I can get the 3770 for the discounted in-store price MicroCenter's running?
■GPU - Leaning towards Nvidia, because WoW seems to like them better and that's what I play the most. GTX 670 seems to offer the best performance/price combo.
■Motherboard - Less familiar territory here, running mostly on reviews and ratings. Want the option of running SLI later on, and like gobs of USB ports (I tie up 4 at bare minimum). Perfectly happy to be pointed in some other direction on this one.
■Memory - Given the (comparatively) minimal increase in price, don't see a reason *not* to spring for 16GB rather than 8. Don't know enough to be sure how to weigh better speeds vs. better latencies - this page seems to suggest Ivy Bridge CPUs like faster speeds so I went with that.
■Hard Drive - Don't need a storage drive, but I've been informed I ought to get an SSD. Most stuff will (of course) be dumped on the secondary or external drives, but I can think of ~30GB of "stuff" that'll end up on the SSD in addition to Windows so I snagged the drive listed here as a compromise between space and price.
■Optical - Got a couple DVD burners for a second drive, but threw in what seems like a decent Blu-ray burner for potential future use (cost increase was negligible over a Blu-ray reader, so why not?).
■Case - Seeing a lot of neat looking cases, but for a first pick went with the one recommended in the most recent case round-up. (Cross-referencing measurements from that round-up and Newegg's page for the GPU I'm look at makes it look like the card might be a tight fit - is that the case and/or is that going to be an issue?) Open to suggestions though, with a few restrictions... I want at least one USB 3.0 reachable up front, and the more of either flavor of USB the better. If it has a front panel door, it can only be top-half (desk support would block full doors) and preferably would open to the right (facing it). There is also the possibility of a cat sleeping on top of it, so if it has top-mounted fans they need to not include kitty bits in their diet.
■PSU - 750W seemed a decent balance between current usage levels and a bit of padding for future-proofing...
■CPU Cooler - I picked something modestly priced that I've seen in a few other builds around here, but again open to suggestions.
(Thanks in advance! )
Approximate Purchase Date: The sooner the better
Budget Range: Up to 2k$, though preferably between 1-1.5k$ (I get to shop on a Mac-sized budget :lol: )
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming (WoW & DIII primarily), web browsing (I regularly run Firefox sessions up to ~2GB of RAM), multimedia
Are you buying a monitor: Not now (I run 1680x1050x2, but will undoubtedly upgrade at some point)
Parts to Upgrade: Everything except a storage hard drive & peripherals
Do you need to buy OS: No
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg, TigerDirect, Amazon, Fry's, anything reputable and reasonably priced really...
Location: Mountain View, CA (Willing to drive up to an hour or so if it gets me an awesome deal, I have a Prius and a lot of spare time)
Overclocking: Probably not. I'd be starting from scratch and it seems like it wouldn't be worth the trouble for me.
SLI or Crossfire: Not currently, but potentially in the future - as I understand it, it's a great way to get a performance boost without "completely" replacing your GPU.
Tentative shopping list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/bVXv
Explanations/thought processes:
■CPU - Yes, i7 is overkill for a mostly gaming machine, but it's what I've decided I want. Saving $ on not needing to buy a storage drive, OS, or peripherals in any case... 3770K seems to have a marginal speed boost over 3770, but is that worth ~70$ assuming I can get the 3770 for the discounted in-store price MicroCenter's running?
■GPU - Leaning towards Nvidia, because WoW seems to like them better and that's what I play the most. GTX 670 seems to offer the best performance/price combo.
■Motherboard - Less familiar territory here, running mostly on reviews and ratings. Want the option of running SLI later on, and like gobs of USB ports (I tie up 4 at bare minimum). Perfectly happy to be pointed in some other direction on this one.
■Memory - Given the (comparatively) minimal increase in price, don't see a reason *not* to spring for 16GB rather than 8. Don't know enough to be sure how to weigh better speeds vs. better latencies - this page seems to suggest Ivy Bridge CPUs like faster speeds so I went with that.
■Hard Drive - Don't need a storage drive, but I've been informed I ought to get an SSD. Most stuff will (of course) be dumped on the secondary or external drives, but I can think of ~30GB of "stuff" that'll end up on the SSD in addition to Windows so I snagged the drive listed here as a compromise between space and price.
■Optical - Got a couple DVD burners for a second drive, but threw in what seems like a decent Blu-ray burner for potential future use (cost increase was negligible over a Blu-ray reader, so why not?).
■Case - Seeing a lot of neat looking cases, but for a first pick went with the one recommended in the most recent case round-up. (Cross-referencing measurements from that round-up and Newegg's page for the GPU I'm look at makes it look like the card might be a tight fit - is that the case and/or is that going to be an issue?) Open to suggestions though, with a few restrictions... I want at least one USB 3.0 reachable up front, and the more of either flavor of USB the better. If it has a front panel door, it can only be top-half (desk support would block full doors) and preferably would open to the right (facing it). There is also the possibility of a cat sleeping on top of it, so if it has top-mounted fans they need to not include kitty bits in their diet.
■PSU - 750W seemed a decent balance between current usage levels and a bit of padding for future-proofing...
■CPU Cooler - I picked something modestly priced that I've seen in a few other builds around here, but again open to suggestions.
(Thanks in advance! )