- Aug 31, 2012
- 2
- 0
- 10,510
Hello everyone! First time poster here, so thank you in advance for your help. I'm looking to build a new high-end gaming rig and really need some help choosing components. Any help is highly appreciated! Here's my info.
Approximate Purchase Date: Before December 2012
Budget Range: $2500~$3500 overall, which might exclude monitors.
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming first and foremost. Much further down the list are listening to music, watching TV/movies, surfing the net, modding, Word processing
Parts Not Required: Keyboard, mouse, speakers
Are you buying a monitor: Yes
Do you need to buy OS: Yes - planning on Windows 7, because I've heard 8 is not an improvement
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Any trusted site is fine, but I used Newegg and Amazon for my last build.
Location: Utah, USA
Parts Preferences: Intel CPU, NVIDIA GPU
Overclocking: Maybe?
SLI or Crossfire: Maybe SLI, if I decide on dual GPUs. Not sure what the pros/cons are.
Your Monitor Resolution: Not sure yet. Probably 1920x1080, x2
Additional Comments:
I'm an avid gamer, 30+ hours a week, including Guild Wars 2, Skyrim, Fallout 3, Diablo 3, Prototype 2, The Witcher 2... Looking forward to Borderlands 2. I play a lot of Japanese games, both simple visual novels and more intensive 3D. I also mod a bit for Skyrim, nothing too fancy. Finally, I play music and watch a lot of videos, mostly streaming but some Blu-ray/DVD as well.
The problem is I'm not a big hardware pro... My friend did most of the work on my last build. He moved away so I'm on my own this time. I'm not sure exactly what to look for in components, especially in terms of compatibility. My goal is to build a high-end gaming rig that will last for another four years without slowing down too much on new games, and despite intensive daily use. Not the very top-of-the-line, but up there.
I plan to use a dual-monitor setup. I'll continue using my relatively new Logitech G110 keyboard, which needs USB 2.0 capability, and my old MX518 mouse. I also use Turtle Beach Earforce Z6A headphones, if that matters for the sound card. I use my headphones pretty much 100% of the time. I'll need quite a few USB ports for my external hard drives, keyboard, mouse and headphones, plus iPod and iPad. I'm hoping to get a pair of 2TB internal hard drives so I'll have plenty of space for my dozens of games, plus mods and other applications.
I'm considering the GeForce GTX 680 for graphics, maybe even two if that will help them last longer. I'm also thinking an Intel i7 processor, though I don't know which one, and don't understand the difference between Ivy and Sandy Bridge. Maybe 16GB RAM? I don't know much about motherboards, cases or power supplies, so any help there would be great. I'm hoping to stick to a black color for the case, if possible.
And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading:
A friend of mine built my current PC four years ago. Both of the two internal 500 GB hard drives are almost full (of games and applications, which I can't move to my numerous externals) and the GPU crashes pretty frequently. It likes to crash whenever I stream video from Youtube and the like, for some reason. The USB ports seem to be dying, as one time out of four when I start up the computer, my Logitech G110 keyboard won't work. The registry is also a bit messed up, after a few install/uninstall fiascos.
I could upgrade the components in my current machine, but I think I'd need to replace pretty much everything from the GPU to the motherboard to the RAM, so I'd rather just start from scratch and use my current PC as a secondary for surfing the web and streaming music. I'm still using Windows XP and would like to finally upgrade to 7. Price isn't a huge issue, as I've been saving up for this for years now, but I don't want to throw away money either.
Thank you!
Approximate Purchase Date: Before December 2012
Budget Range: $2500~$3500 overall, which might exclude monitors.
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming first and foremost. Much further down the list are listening to music, watching TV/movies, surfing the net, modding, Word processing
Parts Not Required: Keyboard, mouse, speakers
Are you buying a monitor: Yes
Do you need to buy OS: Yes - planning on Windows 7, because I've heard 8 is not an improvement
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Any trusted site is fine, but I used Newegg and Amazon for my last build.
Location: Utah, USA
Parts Preferences: Intel CPU, NVIDIA GPU
Overclocking: Maybe?
SLI or Crossfire: Maybe SLI, if I decide on dual GPUs. Not sure what the pros/cons are.
Your Monitor Resolution: Not sure yet. Probably 1920x1080, x2
Additional Comments:
I'm an avid gamer, 30+ hours a week, including Guild Wars 2, Skyrim, Fallout 3, Diablo 3, Prototype 2, The Witcher 2... Looking forward to Borderlands 2. I play a lot of Japanese games, both simple visual novels and more intensive 3D. I also mod a bit for Skyrim, nothing too fancy. Finally, I play music and watch a lot of videos, mostly streaming but some Blu-ray/DVD as well.
The problem is I'm not a big hardware pro... My friend did most of the work on my last build. He moved away so I'm on my own this time. I'm not sure exactly what to look for in components, especially in terms of compatibility. My goal is to build a high-end gaming rig that will last for another four years without slowing down too much on new games, and despite intensive daily use. Not the very top-of-the-line, but up there.
I plan to use a dual-monitor setup. I'll continue using my relatively new Logitech G110 keyboard, which needs USB 2.0 capability, and my old MX518 mouse. I also use Turtle Beach Earforce Z6A headphones, if that matters for the sound card. I use my headphones pretty much 100% of the time. I'll need quite a few USB ports for my external hard drives, keyboard, mouse and headphones, plus iPod and iPad. I'm hoping to get a pair of 2TB internal hard drives so I'll have plenty of space for my dozens of games, plus mods and other applications.
I'm considering the GeForce GTX 680 for graphics, maybe even two if that will help them last longer. I'm also thinking an Intel i7 processor, though I don't know which one, and don't understand the difference between Ivy and Sandy Bridge. Maybe 16GB RAM? I don't know much about motherboards, cases or power supplies, so any help there would be great. I'm hoping to stick to a black color for the case, if possible.
And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading:
A friend of mine built my current PC four years ago. Both of the two internal 500 GB hard drives are almost full (of games and applications, which I can't move to my numerous externals) and the GPU crashes pretty frequently. It likes to crash whenever I stream video from Youtube and the like, for some reason. The USB ports seem to be dying, as one time out of four when I start up the computer, my Logitech G110 keyboard won't work. The registry is also a bit messed up, after a few install/uninstall fiascos.
I could upgrade the components in my current machine, but I think I'd need to replace pretty much everything from the GPU to the motherboard to the RAM, so I'd rather just start from scratch and use my current PC as a secondary for surfing the web and streaming music. I'm still using Windows XP and would like to finally upgrade to 7. Price isn't a huge issue, as I've been saving up for this for years now, but I don't want to throw away money either.
Thank you!
even under heavy gaming and i have a stock cooler on a 3570k 
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram