Approximate Purchase Date: A week or so. No rush though. Wanna make sure I'm getting a decent system
Budget Range: 1000-1500$
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Recording Video(gaming for Let's plays, etc), Editing video. Web use.
Are you buying a monitor: Not right now, probably for Christmas or so though.
Parts to Upgrade: All parts new. Do not need keyboard/mouse/speakers/monitor.
Do you need to buy OS: Yes (Windows 7 Ultimate)
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com
Location: Lake Charles, LA. Only stores in town are Best Buy(a small version) Walmart, Office Depot.
Parts Preferences: none really.
Overclocking: No
SLI or Crossfire: No
Your Monitor Resolution: current 1680x1050. Would probably upgrade to the next resolution size up, or up to what my new GPU can handle.
Additional Comments: I don't care so much about top of the line graphics and performance, just so as it works well enough to not notice hiccups. But I do care that this PC will last with minimal upgrades. Just as an idea, My current PC is 7 years old, Only thing I changed in it is the video card, which is 4 years old (Geforce 9500 GT) And almost all new games I do have to play on the lowest settings possible. But I can still play them without issues(save 1-2 games) and they still look decent. Only issues I've had are for Diablo 3, it was an FPS crash, had to limit foreground FPS to 45 or lower. Also in Act 2 with the water I have a bit of graphic lag.
Games I'm currenting playing: Guild Wars 2, Deus Ex:Human Revolution, Diablo 3. Gaming I will be playing in the future: X-Com:Enemy Unknown, SimCity, Giana Sisters project(the demo was chugging for me on my current PC, but could be due to demo build. Also might not have had all settings at lowest possible, but I know most were)
And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: It's that time. As mentioned, current PC is 7 years old. Also looking towards the future and wanna make sure I can run upcoming games (X-Com Enemy Unknown, the new Sim City, and whatever else catches my fancy)
Here's a wishlist on newegg of what I've selected for my parts (Detailed parts list will be below)
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx...
I used the guides on this site to get to that list. Few things I'm unsure of though. Is the case big enough? or should be big enough anyway? And the Power Supply. Is it enough? or too much? is that an issue if it is (too much that is)
And a detailed part list:
Spoiler
Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Chose this case based off of good reviews. I'm guessing a midsize will work for me. If not will have to change. Also seemed like a cool case with the fans.
ASUS P8H77-V LGA 1155 Intel H77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
After reading the reviews/guides on this site I settled on the H77 chipset.
EVGA 01G-P3-1561-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Again, after reading reviews here and at newegg the GTX 560 Ti seemed to be for me. (Pretty much everything was reading reviews here and at newegg)
CORSAIR HX Series HX850 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
This one I got to again as above, but also went looking for 80+ Gold Certified as my minimum starting point.
Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT51264BD1339
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
This is one more thing I'm not 100% on, I may want more just to go ahead and get it. Would probably just double up to 16 gigs. My worry is SimCity. The new one will be pretty hefty as I understand it, every person and car will be simulated and have a "point" to them. IE every person walking on the street is there for a reason, either going to work/home/friends or something. It's more a true simulation(well it isn't a *true* simulation, but a lot more than previous versions), and my experience with simulations are they need RAM (Supreme Command caused me many a crashes due to ram shortage)
Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F90GBGT-BK 2.5" 90GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
SSD for OS and needed files install. Might be bigger than I need, but would rather have a bit extra than cut it close. Again future proofing too.
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
HDD for data.
ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Optic Drive. Don't really see the point in going for BluRay player/burner right now. Disks are still a bit pricey, and I don't watch movies on my computer. DVD's hold enough for me.
That's about it I think. To anyone reading and offering opinions, a very big pre-emptive THANK YOU!