~$1200 Gaming PC Build Help

[dklittle]

Hello,

I am building a new gaming PC for around 1200 dollars.

I have found some components that I think look good, but I am by no means a computer hardware whiz...

Specifically, I need help picking out a graphics card and mother board.

I was hoping you could take a look at what I have, and also help me choose those components that I am still missing.

I would like for this computer to be able to successfully play top of the line games for the next 6-7 years if possible.

Approximate Purchase Date: Ready to purchase immediately.

Budget Range: ~1200, less is fine if it meets my needs

System Usage: Gaming. (examples: Mass Effect 3, Arkham City)

Are you buying a monitor: Maybe.

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Things I need (with my current ideas linked):

CPU: Intel i7 3.6 GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115229

Hard Drive: WD Caviar Black 7200 RPM 64 MB cache
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533

Case: Cooler Master HAF X
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119225

RAM: 8 GB G.Skill Ripsaw Series. (I can't tell the difference between these
two.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428

Mother Board: ??? I would like a mother board that has a good on board sound card so that I do not need to mess with a sound card.

Graphics Card: ??? nVidia preferred.

Cooling System: ???

Power Supply: ???

Monitor: I'd love a new monitor, but it would have to be a good value. (Not part of the 1200 dollar build cost.)

Location: Houston, TX

Parts Preferences: I would prefer an Intel processor and an nVidia graphics card.

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1280x1024

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: My current PC is dying on simple Steam games. I figure its time for a new one.

 

[Rise and Shine]

If you want to be on a 1200 bucks budget, you can't go for SB-E, that platform is too expensive.
And if you're on that budget, I wouldn't recommend you going for that res.
I'd recommend you to go for 1920x1080. And OC is recommended in your budget too.
Here ya go something without OC.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/dfyQ

Edit: I can't get the link to work, so copy and paste the direction.

 

[TheBigTroll]

if you live near a microcenter, it makes things much cheaper


http://pcpartpicker.com/p/dfAw

 

[Kamen_BG]

Hi! Im going to make two builds for you.And there are some things you should know.You PC will probably not be good for gaming 6-7 years ago.If you buy a seven year old top-end PC right now it's not even going to run most of today's games.And the ones that it can run will look just ugly.Let's just be realistic and assume your PC will be good for another 4 years.

The first one is pretty much everything you want.A fast responsive PC in a cool case.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3820 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($279.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS10X Performa CPU Cooler ($27.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI X79A-GD45 (8D) ATX LGA2011 Motherboard ($179.98 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($46.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: OCZ Vertex 3 60GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($77.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card ($369.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Zalman Z11 Plus HF1 ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.98 @ Outlet PC)
Power Supply: OCZ 800W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($63.98 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1198.87
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-07-28 08:56 EDT-0400)



And the second one is what i think you should buy.It's a build that will outperform the first one in almost all games.But there might be a bottleneck in some games so you should overclock the CPU.That shouldnt be too hard though because the CPU is unlocked.You also shouldnt worry about heat problems becasue of the water cooler.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8120 3.1GHz 8-Core Processor ($159.99 @ CompUSA)
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Water 2.0 Pro 81.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($72.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI 990XA-GD55 ATX AM3+/AM3 Motherboard ($112.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($46.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($77.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (CrossFire) ($304.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (CrossFire) ($304.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Antec Three Hundred Illusion ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: OCZ 800W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($63.98 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1211.45
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-07-28 09:08 EDT-0400)

And finally the monitor.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236201&Tpk=asus%20pa238Q
This is pretty much the best non-professional monitor you can buy at a decent price.
Dont let the 6ms reaction time fool you.Its faster than most 2ms monitors.

 

[deadbart]

Acer V223HQVb 21.5 inch Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black (VGA, 1920 x 1080,
Corsair CMPSU-600CXV2UK Builder Series 600W Power Supply
Sapphire 11200-00-20G HD7850 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card
Antec Three Hundred Two Midi Tower Case - ATX, M-ATX, M-ITX, 2 x USB 3.0
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU-Kühler (120mm)
Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B 8GB 1600Mhz CL9 DDR3 Vengeance Memory Module Kit
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATAIII 6Gb/s 16MB Cache 3.5 inch Internal Hard Drive OEM
Sony AD-7261S-0B 24x Internal DVDRWRAM SATA Black Lightscribe
AsRock Z68 Pro3 Gen3 Motherboard (Socket 1155, DDR3, PCI Express 3.0, 7.1 HD Audio, ATX, ASRock On/Off Play Technology)
Intel Sandybridge i5-2500K Unlocked Core i5 Quad-Core Processor (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache, Socket 1155) -

$1200 with a monitor? idk

 

[TheBigTroll]

Hi! Im going to make two builds for you.And there are some things you should know.You PC will probably not be good for gaming 6-7 years ago.If you buy a seven year old top-end PC right now it's not even going to run most of today's games.And the ones that it can run will look just ugly.Let's just be realistic and assume your PC will be good for another 4 years.

The first one is pretty much everything you want.A fast responsive PC in a cool case.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3820 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($279.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS10X Performa CPU Cooler ($27.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI X79A-GD45 (8D) ATX LGA2011 Motherboard ($179.98 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($46.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: OCZ Vertex 3 60GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($77.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card ($369.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Zalman Z11 Plus HF1 ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.98 @ Outlet PC)
Power Supply: OCZ 800W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($63.98 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1198.87
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-07-28 08:56 EDT-0400)



And the second one is what i think you should buy.It's a build that will outperform the first one in almost all games.But there might be a bottleneck in some games so you should overclock the CPU.That shouldnt be too hard though because the CPU is unlocked.You also shouldnt worry about heat problems becasue of the water cooler.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8120 3.1GHz 8-Core Processor ($159.99 @ CompUSA)
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Water 2.0 Pro 81.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($72.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI 990XA-GD55 ATX AM3+/AM3 Motherboard ($112.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($46.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($77.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (CrossFire) ($304.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (CrossFire) ($304.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Antec Three Hundred Illusion ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: OCZ 800W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($63.98 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1211.45
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-07-28 09:08 EDT-0400)

And finally the monitor.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236201&Tpk=asus%20pa238Q
This is pretty much the best non-professional monitor you can buy at a decent price.
Dont let the 6ms reaction time fool you.Its faster than most 2ms monitors.

i see a ton of mistakes first of all with both builds (or improvements)

1st build

1: why x79 in the first place when z77 is cheaper and better
2:you do know that x79 is optimized for quad channel. it would work fine in z77 though
3:no thanks to the vertex 3
4:no thanks on the power supply. ocz isnt near good

2nd build

1:you do know that a i3 2120 beats fx in about every game
2:makes more sense to just go with a single card now than 2 cards now since prices only go down.


smart move on the monitor though. i have one myself but its the pa238qr. basically no picture in picture, no pre color calibration, and no smart fit. it has game mode though and its cheaper. same panel with different features

q is for professionals
qr is for regular/games

 

[dklittle]

Best answer selected by dklittle.