$1500 Budget - Complete New Gaming Build

Skryn · Sep 12, 2012

Approximate Purchase Date: February - 2013 (after income tax return, I'd like to start planning now)

Budget Range: $1500 - give or take, and considering rebates.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Programming, Photoshop, Media (Watching/Listening), Media Capturing & Editing (Fraps/Premiere)

Are you buying a monitor: No

Parts to Upgrade: Everything but optical drive and monitor. New Build.

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg, but wherever is cheapest, but is still safe/reputable.

Location: Pensacola, FL

Parts Preferences: I have no preferences. I'm used to using NVIDIA and Intel, but whatever gives the most bang for the buck.

Overclocking: Yes - preferrably. I have never overclocked, but would love a system that's acceptable to OCing once I've researched how.

SLI or Crossfire: If it fits within the budget, sure.

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments
I like to play whatever the newest game is. Regularly, I play WoW, Guild Wars 2, Battle Field 3, Skyrim occassionally. Like I mentioned, though, I love to play the newest games (even if it's just for a couple days or whatnot). I plan on playing Borderlands 2 a lot. I love to crank the graphics as high as possible. I realize that my build date isn't for a few months, and that would change prices (assuming price drops on items), or better parts become more affordable. That's fine. If it's possible, could you list a possible better part that may be out of the budget, but may be due for a cut in cost in the upcoming months?

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading
My current computer is about 5 years old, and wasn't anything spectatular when I got it. It's a dual core, and the only thing I've upgraded in the last few years has been the PSU (850w) and the Video Card (Budget, got a GTX 250 cheap). I've bought a very nice monitor, keyboard, headset, mouse, etc, so only need the PC. I can run most of the newest games, but for example, Guild Wars 2, I have to run on medium settings to gain playable frame rates. That's starting to happen quite often now. This will be my first PC build. I'm comfortable with the building process, but picking the best parts is not what I'm comfortable with and would love help.

Let me know if there's anything else I can provide to further assist with the process (or something I may have forgotten!). Thank you guys. I really appreciate any and all advice and assistance in this matter.

blazorthon · Sep 12, 2012

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/hbPi

What do you think of this? It has huge overclocking headroom on all parts.

Also, I'm not sure if you'd do it, but you might want 16GB of memory instead of the 8GB kit that is in this build if you're doing photoshop, so here's a good 16GB kit link just in case you'd prefer that:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f31600c10d16gao

Skryn · Sep 12, 2012

blazorthon :

Well, I forgot to put in the main thread, that I have a 2TB HD, and would just need the SSD for OS/main games/etc. So I could subtract that from your build, that saves like $63. Question about the PSU - I currently have a 850w "Gaming Series" PSU. It's black, with red letters that say "850w Gaming Series" on the side, so it may be some offbrand PSU, but I haven't had issues (I think) with it so far. Is the one you listed better, even though the wattage is smaller? I know very little on that. Could I bump up to get a "better" PSU with the $63 saved on the HD?

Also, on the RAM - I might be open to getting more as you mentioned. Is G. SKILL a better brand? Photoshop is just a sometimes hobby, not something I'm serious about. I'm more concerned about gaming performance above all else. I currently have 4GB of whatever RAM was at this PC store I went to a couple years back. It's Corsair, I believe, but nothing special.

And again, my noobness shows, would liquid cooling for the cpu be worth looking into? Newegg prices for decent Liquid cooling sets don't look bad - would that be better than the heatsink you listed, and possibly allow for better OC?

I didn't think SLI would be obtainable in my budget. I like that you could get that in. Are those decent cards? I know very little of ATI. What would they equate to in NVIDIA terms?

Also, with the CPU you listed - what's the difference between that one and this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115229

That's a bit cheaper and a higher version? Again, I know nothing! Don't hate me.

lol

I really do appreciate it blazorthorn, you've definitely delivered. Are there any opinions on differing equipment that may or may not be better/more stable? I am interested in overclocking, and you mentioned huge OCing headroom (I'm excited about that as well), so is this build mainly "dependent" on the heavy OCing ability?

blazorthon · Sep 12, 2012

Unless you know the brand of your PSU, I can't tell you it's quality. I'm not familiar enough with them all to go off the info that you provided. The brand for my choice, XFX, is on-par with Seasonic (in fact, Seasonic actually manufactures at least some of the XFX PSUs), often regarded as one of the best if not the best PSU brand of them all.

Using an older PSU, depending on its age and usage, can be kinda risky because you're relying on a PSU that has already seen some wear over time. How long have you had it and what hardware did you run on it? If you would rather replace it and with another 850W model, then there is also an XFX 850W PSU and it's only $5 more expensive than the 750W:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1850snlb9
I think that a 750W would be plenty, but an 850W wouldn't be overkill and might be more future-proofed. For only $5 more, it's a reasonable choice if you want it.

G.Skill, Corsair, and Crucial are generally the best RAM brands. Patriot, Kingston, and a few others are also generally good. If Photoshop isn't a serious thing for you, then I reommend going with the 8GB memory kit and also going down to an i5-3570K instead of an i7-3770K because for gaming, unlike professional work such as Photoshop, LGA 1155 i5s and i7s perform on-par with each other because gaming currently doesn't make use of more than four threads (except for BF3 MP which uses 6, but that's the only exception to date) and i5s have four threads (one per core), so that i7s have eight (still four cores, but also a virtual thread in addition to each physical thread of each core) doesn't make much of a difference at all.

The i7-3820 is a different CPU for a different platform. It uses much more expensive LGA 2011-socket motherboards and uses the slightly more power-hungry Sandy Bridge architecture. It's the lowest end CPU for the LGA 2011 socket and I don't recommend it because of the expensive motherboards. That platform is better for high-end professional systems. You might save a little money on the CPU, but the motherboard would cost would increase by far more than you'd save by getting the i7-3820 instead of the i7-3770.

I don't recommend water cooling unless you're willing to make a custom loop. Closed loop coolers (retailing water coolers) are generally no better than high-end air coolers such as the unit that I chose from Noctua.

The build isn't dependent on overclocking at all, but it has a lot of headroom on both the graphics and the CPU for it.

One Radeon 7950 is between the GTX 660 Ti and the GTX 670 when you don't overclock it. When you do, it'll compete with an overclocked GTX 680 in gaming performance, sometimes beating it. Two Radeon 7950s handle Crossfire (AMD's multi-GPU tech that competes with SLI) are excellent because they scale almost perfectly in most games.

The Radeon 7950 that I selected can generally go to about 1.2GHz-1.3GHz GPU frequency and 1.6GHz-1.7GHz memory frequency if you overvolt them a little, although you might want to tone that expectation down to 1.05GHz-1.2GHz on the CPU and 1.5GHz-1.65GHz on the memory if you're not an experienced overclocker. The i7-3770 should be able to hit around 4.6GHz or 4.7GHz with the Noctua cooler that I selected.

I say should. There is no guarantee. Sometimes, you just get a bad CPU or graphics card(s) and they don't overclock as much as the average for that unit is. Sometimes, the opposite is true. Those frequencies are just what are usually able to be done, maybe not necessarily what you'll get (although they are what you'll probably get around to).

idroid · Sep 12, 2012

here:

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($314.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 612 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($49.98 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($119.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($86.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($88.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($98.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB Video Card ($413.78 @ NCIX US)
Case: Corsair 500R White ATX Mid Tower Case ($101.93 @ Mac Connection)
Power Supply: XFX 750W 80 PLUS Silver Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($111.71 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $1404.32

blazorthon · Sep 12, 2012

OP, this is my revised recommendation due to your response:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/hcyY

I dropped from the i7 down to the i5 because you said that Photoshop and such aren't highly important for you. The money saved from that went towards a higher capacity 256GB Vertex 4 SSD and a higher efficiency XFX 80+ Silver, 850W, and modular PSU. The total comes in at $1469.82, so it's basically the best gaming build possible at your budget that doesn't sacrifice a potent SSD for Radeon 7970 GHz Edition cards that would maybe be 10-20% faster for gaming performance. I don't think that that would be worth giving up a great SSD that'll help greatly with loading times and such.

@idroid
Your build sacrifices a far more powerful Crossfire setup and focuses on things that OP has said do not need to be top of the line (IE an i7) as well as things that OP already has (hard drive and optical disk drive).

blazorthon · Sep 12, 2012

idroid :

OP is overclocking. These 7950s have somewhat higher average overclocking performance than a GTX 670. Not even going up to Radeon 7970 GHz Edition CF, easily the fastest dual-single GPU card solution, would beat this by more than about 10-20% and that's quite a ways ahead of GTX 670 SLI. It'd take Asus GTX 670 TOP to keep up and although those could fit into this budget, they are difficult to find in stock.

idroid · Sep 12, 2012

blazorthon :

OP, this is my revised recommendation due to your response:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/hcyY

I dropped from the i7 down to the i5 because you said that Photoshop and such aren't highly important for you. The money saved from that went towards a higher capacity 256GB Vertex 4 SSD and a higher efficiency XFX 80+ Silver, 850W, and modular PSU. The total comes in at $1469.82, so it's basically the best gaming build possible at your budget that doesn't sacrifice a potent SSD for Radeon 7970 GHz Edition cards that would maybe be 10-20% faster for gaming performance. I don't think that that would be worth giving up a great SSD that'll help greatly with loading times and such.

@idroid
Your build sacrifices a far more powerful Crossfire setup and focuses on things that OP has said do not need to be top of the line (IE an i7) as well as things that OP already has (hard drive and optical disk drive).

Is that so?? this is a lot better than your build.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/hcJu

JackNaylorPE · Sep 12, 2012

idroid · Sep 12, 2012

blazorthon :

wo wo wo easy boy.

a 7950 DOES NOT beat a GTX670, and both the GTX670 and 7950 have a lot of overclocking headroom and clock vs clock the GTX670 is faster, the GTX670 i linked is know for overclocking beyond 1.2Ghz so.... keep that in mind

blazorthon · Sep 12, 2012

JackNaylorPE :

A $250+ motherboard is a waste of money, a single GTX 670 won't even manage to be much more than about half of overclocked Radeon 7950 CF in gaming performance and that second 670 would put the budget up to $2000 and wouldn't be able to beat the two 7950s in CF by much if at all anyway, the link that you gave shows the Vertex 4 256 GB clearly outperforming the Chronos Delux by a little and it's also about the same price with more capacity, and OP already has a hard drive and an optical disk drive. The only good thing that I saw here was the cooler that is better than my Noctua recommendation and I'll not put that in my recommended build. At least idroid's 670 SLI build makes sense and isn't far behind in performance at the same price.

blazorthon · Sep 12, 2012

idroid :

I kept that in mind. A Gigabyte Windforce Radeon 7950 generally has more headroom than any 670 except maybe the TOP. 7950s can overclock about equally well to a 7970 with the same cooler because the hardware difference in the GPU from the 7950 having four fewer blocks is minimal and the performance difference is actually pretty much just the clock frequencies. Overclocking solves that and the 7950s have roughly equal average headroom to a 7970 with the same cooler (although a GHz Edition can pull ahead due to its superior binning), so they can easily stay somewhat ahead of most 670s.

DeusAres · Sep 12, 2012

Here's my recommendation...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($314.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($83.74 @ Mwave)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V PRO ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($189.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Gaming Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($94.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($199.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card ($399.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Antec Eleven Hundred ATX Full Tower Case ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($83.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS90 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1475.66
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-09-11 21:01 EDT-0400)

It's pretty similar to everyone else's build. The only major difference with mine is the GPU. I chose the GTX 670 for it's PHYSX feature. I noticed you said you'll be playing lots of Borderlands 2; if so, then that game will take huge advantage of an Nvidia based card. Also, this card has huge potential for overclocking. It's faster than a gtx 680 straight out of the box.

Hope this helps; good luck.

blazorthon · Sep 12, 2012

DeusAres :

i7s aren't any better than i5s for gaming and OP doesn't plan on doing anything serious with Photoshop and such, just working with game media, so the i5 will be plenty for that. The same is true about going down to a 2x4GB memory kit instead of a 2x8GB memory kit. The motherboard is more expensive than I'd recommend for this build, but that's more of a personal preference thing that I can't fairly say is better or worse.

Oh, I missed that OP wants to focus on Borderlands 2... In that case, I recommend taking my build and dropping back down to a 128GB Vertex 4 and getting two GTX 670s instead of two Radeon 7950s. For that game, the 670s will undoubtedly win because it is a very Nvidia optimized game.

idroid · Sep 12, 2012

blazorthon :

i actually with you.... anyways, both cards are awesome but nvidia has better features.

Off topic: i am really happy for AMD graphics division, they really make a huge improvement to their cards. not like their series 5xxx and 6xxx that were easily raped by their Nvidia counterparts

blazorthon · Sep 12, 2012

idroid :

Nvidia has PhyxX and AMD has DirectC/OpenCL lighting features that Nvidia Kepler cards can't run with playable performance. AMD has features too, but like PhysX and the others, most games don't support them either.

I have to disagree to an extent about saying that Radeon 5xxx/6xxx were beaten badly by Nvidia. I'd put the Radeon 6950 and 6970 above the GTX 560 Ti and the GTX 570, although I have to hand the 560 the win over the 6870 because it overclocks better. The 6770 generally competed with the much more expensive 550 Ti in performance.

The Radeon 5xxx series spent a whole six months competing with the GTX 2xx series, so I'd have been surprised if Nvidia couldn't beat it, but Nvidia had such high power consumption that I'm not sure if I'd necessarily give them the win in every situation either.

However, AMD definitely improved in many ways.

idroid · Sep 12, 2012

blazorthon :

well for GPGPU performance a 7770 beats a GTX680 by 33% at luxmark AMD rules in OpenCL

DeusAres · Sep 12, 2012

For 1920x1080 res gaming, 2 gtx 670s is overkill. He may as well get something that will help out with the applications he'll be using.

A better CPU and more RAM isn't gonna hurt his budget or the gaming performance. He mentioned he'll be playing around in photoshop and will be doing some video editing. The i7 will greatly help with this more so than an i5 and 8gb of RAM. Sure, he mentioned it's more than a hobby than anything, but at his budget, he may as well go ahead and prepare for the future. He may end up doing more CPU intensive tasks than he first thought.

blazorthon · Sep 12, 2012

idroid :

That's what I'm saying. AMD has the compute performance advantage with this generation and some games have features that rely on Direct Compute and/or OpenCL that Nvidia cards simply can't play well enough, so they're kinda like AMD's PhysX competitors (they don't do the same thing, but they are a feature that like PhysX with AMD, Nvidia lacks).

idroid · Sep 12, 2012

blazorthon :

If only their CPU division was as good as their GPU division..... :??:

it would be pretty cool to bring back the price wars between Intel and AMD + the fanboyism.... things wouldn't be so boring as they are now

blazorthon · Sep 12, 2012

DeusAres :

Pump up the AA and tessellation and other settings and 720p could be unplayable with some things maxed out even on GTX 670 SLI. Still, that's a good point, but I think that I'd call it more of a personal preference choice now. For example, OP could go for the i7 for a more future-proofed CPU with adequate graphics, but OP could instead go for the graphics for a more future-proofed graphics solution with an adequate CPU. OP, you'll have to decide what you want to do. Pretty much any option here gives you the capability to overclock the graphics and CPU significantly if you want to and excellent performance where you want it to be.

DeusAres · Sep 12, 2012

If you want to save some cash, you can drop the motherboard down a few notches. As blazorthon mentioned, the motherboard doesn't need to be overly expensive in order to get all the features you need. Here's another recommendation...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($314.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($83.74 @ Mwave)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($119.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Gaming Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($94.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($199.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card ($399.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Antec Eleven Hundred ATX Full Tower Case ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($83.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS90 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1405.66
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-09-11 21:20 EDT-0400)

idroid · Sep 12, 2012

blazorthon :

name a ONE game that a single GTX660ti can't handle @1280x720 with every detail maxed out!

blazorthon · Sep 12, 2012

idroid :

Did you ever hear of x32 CSAA or SSAA? They can bring even quad SLI GTX 680s or quad Crossfire Radeon 7970s to their knees in some situations.

blazorthon · Sep 12, 2012

Also, Ray Tracing. Enough said.

$1500 Budget - Complete New Gaming Build

Honorable

Glorious

Honorable

Glorious

Honorable

Glorious

Glorious

Honorable

Titan

Honorable

Glorious

Glorious

Distinguished

Glorious

Honorable

Glorious

Honorable

Distinguished

Glorious

Honorable

Glorious

Distinguished

Honorable

Glorious

Glorious

Share this page