Hi all,
After 10 years of building gaming rigs in my youth, and then taking 10 years off to build a family, I'm trying to put together a gaming system at around the $1k Canadian price point to replace my 8 year old stock Dell P4 Inspiron system. I've spent a few weeks reading the excellent material here and other places, and think I've made some good selections, but a sanity check would be appreciated before taking the plunge.
To start:
- I'm pretty confident on CPU and GPU based on performance per price. Mobo was chosen from Tom's recommended list (mostly due to low price). Not concerned about memory brand or case aesthetics (it's going to be tucked away out of sight). Not sure if PSU will be sufficient for future needs (I don't ever expect to run two GPUs but I would like the ability to upgrade video and CPU a few years down the road if needed)
- Unless there is a measurable performance increase with no system stability cost or risk, I will not bother with OCing.
- I know a SSD is a luxury at this price point, especially since I need basically everything else, but I really want one and my current HD is only 74GB so it's actually an increase in capacity for me. I'll pick up a second drive for data storage in a few months time.
- I am hoping to come up with a creative way to get around not having an optical drive for OS install (e.g. boot from USB key) - I want to buy a Blu-Ray drive but don't have budget now for it, and don't want to buy an intermediate optical drive.
- I also know I'm slightly over my budget with the current configuration (part list doesn't include tax or shipping) but it's not a deal breaker. I'd prefer any changes not move the cost too much up however.
Approximate Purchase Date: Would prefer by end of October, but I have some flexibility in this if it's significantly worth waiting longer.
Budget Range: target is $1k Canadian all in
System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, watching movies
Are you buying a monitor: No
Parts to Upgrade: all main components excl. monitor and keyboard/mouse
Do you need to buy OS: Yes
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Any Canadian based sellers
Location: Windsor, ON, Canada
Parts Preferences: None
Overclocking: Probably not
SLI or Crossfire: No
Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ NCIX)
Motherboard: Biostar TZ77XE3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($139.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Grey 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.98 @ NCIX)
Storage: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($99.99 @ Memory Express)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($289.99 @ Memory Express)
Case: Rosewill Blackbone ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Power Supply: OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($39.99 @ Canada Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) ($95.99 @ Computer Valley)
Total: $960.91
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-09-23 01:07 EDT-0400)
After 10 years of building gaming rigs in my youth, and then taking 10 years off to build a family, I'm trying to put together a gaming system at around the $1k Canadian price point to replace my 8 year old stock Dell P4 Inspiron system. I've spent a few weeks reading the excellent material here and other places, and think I've made some good selections, but a sanity check would be appreciated before taking the plunge.
To start:
- I'm pretty confident on CPU and GPU based on performance per price. Mobo was chosen from Tom's recommended list (mostly due to low price). Not concerned about memory brand or case aesthetics (it's going to be tucked away out of sight). Not sure if PSU will be sufficient for future needs (I don't ever expect to run two GPUs but I would like the ability to upgrade video and CPU a few years down the road if needed)
- Unless there is a measurable performance increase with no system stability cost or risk, I will not bother with OCing.
- I know a SSD is a luxury at this price point, especially since I need basically everything else, but I really want one and my current HD is only 74GB so it's actually an increase in capacity for me. I'll pick up a second drive for data storage in a few months time.
- I am hoping to come up with a creative way to get around not having an optical drive for OS install (e.g. boot from USB key) - I want to buy a Blu-Ray drive but don't have budget now for it, and don't want to buy an intermediate optical drive.
- I also know I'm slightly over my budget with the current configuration (part list doesn't include tax or shipping) but it's not a deal breaker. I'd prefer any changes not move the cost too much up however.
Approximate Purchase Date: Would prefer by end of October, but I have some flexibility in this if it's significantly worth waiting longer.
Budget Range: target is $1k Canadian all in
System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, watching movies
Are you buying a monitor: No
Parts to Upgrade: all main components excl. monitor and keyboard/mouse
Do you need to buy OS: Yes
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Any Canadian based sellers
Location: Windsor, ON, Canada
Parts Preferences: None
Overclocking: Probably not
SLI or Crossfire: No
Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ NCIX)
Motherboard: Biostar TZ77XE3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($139.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Grey 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.98 @ NCIX)
Storage: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($99.99 @ Memory Express)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($289.99 @ Memory Express)
Case: Rosewill Blackbone ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Power Supply: OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($39.99 @ Canada Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) ($95.99 @ Computer Valley)
Total: $960.91
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-09-23 01:07 EDT-0400)
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram