$1500-2000 Gamiing Rig/Future use

[zketch87]

Approximate Purchase Date: by the end of the year beginning of the next

Budget Range:$1500-$2000 Before Rebates; After Shipping

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, watching movies, surfing the internet, etc (Might do video editing and Graphic design in the future but it's a might)

Are you buying a monitor: No, I have one



Parts to Upgrade: All New

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: No Preference but rather order more at once, whatever is cheaper

Location: Hampton, VA

Parts Preferences: Intel CPU, Nvidia GPU

Overclocking: Maybe in the furniture but not now

SLI or Crossfire: Yes, for future upgrade but not a must

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1200

Additional Comments: I want to mainly play games on it but also possible do future work on it. I want it to last me for sometime but I don't want to blow too much money as later it would probably be cheaper to upgrade then to have the best of now. The main thing I'm looking for is advice on parts that I could possible downgrade with a good Price decrease but not have that much performance loss (at least that I would notice). I also plan on trying to Overclock later but not as of now, I feel I am too new in the subject to mess with new expensive hardware. I'm also postponing on buying my parts just yet as I have read it's better to buy during the holiday sales and begining of next year as new stuff will come out making the not so new stuff cheap but still good (please correct me if wrong)

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: My laptop Screen goes black and the audio begins to loop whenever I play games for a while or that are too intensive. and well I don't like laptops, got it because I use to travel a lot for the job.

THIS IS A LINK TO MY BUILD (Everything else not there I either have or will get on the side): My Current Build




Parts

Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770K

CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100) Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

ASUS Maximus V EXTREME LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard

G.SKILL Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200) Desktop Memory Model F3-2400C10D-16GTX

SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC256B/WW 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Seagate Barracuda ST3000DM001 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

EVGA 04G-P4-3687-KR GeForce GTX 680 FTW+ w/Backplate 4GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case

CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX750 (CMPSU-750AX) 750W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

I know it looks like a bit of an overkill but I rather start with good stuff and see where I deduct here and there. Thank you everyone for the help and I'm all ears to constructive criticism

 

[strife_ff7]

If you're waiting til the beginning of next year you should just wait a little longer and get a haswell cpu and lga 1150 motherboard. That way you will have an upgrade path.

 

[zketch87]

If you're waiting til the beginning of next year you should just wait a little longer and get a haswell cpu and lga 1150 motherboard. That way you will have an upgrade path.

I mean for my build to be complete by the end of the year. what I was trying to say is that since that new technology is coming out the ivy bridge and LGA 1155 boards should go down in price right? also isn't the new coming hardware that comes out very expensive and not have that many products that support it or out for it upon release? how big will the difference in performance really be? I don't really care for 3D and the 10% speed improvement does sound enticing but is it worth it? and once again thank you for all the help.

 

[Blake1221]

I am new to building as well but I just wanted to mention one thing:

From my experience with PC's and with gaming, I do not think the i7 will be any different than the i5 as far as gaming goes. Therefore, if you want to save some money you could go with an Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core. I do not think you will lose any noticeable performance by going with the i5.


However, I see that you have quite a bit of time between now and the holiday season when you may purchase so you may get a better deal on the i7 you have selected.

 

[Sidian]

Looks pretty good, but two things stand out as needless:

1) The CPU: You are going to see non-existent, or best case scenario miniscule differences in performance between the 3570k and the 3770k. So I'd go for the former.

2) The motherboard. Unnecessary again; I'd get the cheaper ASRock Z77 Extreme4

Just from these two changes which will have no effect on your gaming performance at all, you save about $350. If you do think the minimal benefits are worth it, or if you are going to do a lot of non-gaming things, then fine, just be aware of this.

The rest looks good. You might get some people saying to go for a 7970 instead of a 680 GPU, but they're pretty close in performance with the 680 winning more often than not from what I've seen.

If you're waiting until the end of the year or early next year though, you'll probably be changing this dramatically with the new 8000s series of ATI cards coming out and whatnot. According to leaked specifications, the performance increase will be at least 20%, and they might launch them cheaper than their current competitors. There's always something around the corner when it comes to PC hardware, though.

 

[Blake1221]

Looks pretty good, but two things stand out as needless:

1) The CPU: You are going to see non-existent, or best case scenario miniscule differences in performance between the 3570k and the 3770k. So I'd go for the former.

2) The motherboard. Unnecessary again; I'd get the cheaper ASRock Z77 Extreme4

Just from these two changes which will have no effect on your gaming performance at all, you save about $350. If you do think the minimal benefits are worth it, or if you are going to do a lot of non-gaming things, then fine, just be aware of this.

The rest looks good. You might get some people saying to go for a 7970 instead of a 680 GPU, but they're pretty close in performance with the 680 winning more often than not from what I've seen.

If you're waiting until the end of the year or early next year though, you'll probably be changing this dramatically with the new 8000s series of ATI cards coming out and whatnot. According to leaked specifications, the performance increase will be at least 20%, and they might launch them cheaper than their current competitors. There's always something around the corner when it comes to PC hardware, though.

I agree! Good call.

 

[zketch87]

Looks pretty good, but two things stand out as needless:

1) The CPU: You are going to see non-existent, or best case scenario miniscule differences in performance between the 3570k and the 3770k. So I'd go for the former.

2) The motherboard. Unnecessary again; I'd get the cheaper ASRock Z77 Extreme4

Just from these two changes which will have no effect on your gaming performance at all, you save about $350. If you do think the minimal benefits are worth it, or if you are going to do a lot of non-gaming things, then fine, just be aware of this.

The rest looks good. You might get some people saying to go for a 7970 instead of a 680 GPU, but they're pretty close in performance with the 680 winning more often than not from what I've seen.

If you're waiting until the end of the year or early next year though, you'll probably be changing this dramatically with the new 8000s series of ATI cards coming out and whatnot. According to leaked specifications, the performance increase will be at least 20%, and they might launch them cheaper than their current competitors. There's always something around the corner when it comes to PC hardware, though.

Wow all really good infor man, thanks a lot.

I know the mobo is kind of an overkill and was the first item I was thinking of changing but I read a lot of people getting DOA ASrock boards or them dying soon after so I don't know if to trust them. also will these 2 items not be cheaper during he holidays? ( Hopefully : ))

about the 8000 series, I have never really gone Radeon before, is there a big difference between the 2 as Nvidia has done me good so far and I don't think I want to wait that long to build this puppy but 20% increase does sound pretty nice. that's why I hate buying technology because once you do they just come out with something better and what you paid for is so much more cheaper. thanks once again for all the help, all of it is appreciated.

 

[Nw333]

nVidia performs better in some games (BF3, Skyrim, etc.) and AMD performs well on a broad range of games.

670 is 90% of a 680 for $100 less. And please, dont get one from EVGA. They are overpriced for the reference coolers they use. Get one from MSI (Power Editon) or Asus. (The Asus GTX670 DirectCUII TOP performs like a 680, and it is the only card to be given a 10.0 rating by HardwareCanucks(?) I forget the forum lol.)

Waiting til 2013 isnt a great idea. I suggest spending $1500 on this build and save the extra $500 for the new Haswell processors and motherboards next year. GPUs arent much of a sensible upgrade since there will ALWAYS be new GPUs and the next generation is only bound to bring like 30% more performance. Haswell should be around the same price range as current Ivy Bridge processors.

 

[zketch87]

nVidia performs better in some games (BF3, Skyrim, etc.) and AMD performs well on a broad range of games.

670 is 90% of a 680 for $100 less. And please, dont get one from EVGA. They are overpriced for the reference coolers they use. Get one from MSI (Power Editon) or Asus. (The Asus GTX670 DirectCUII TOP performs like a 680, and it is the only card to be given a 10.0 rating by HardwareCanucks(?) I forget the forum lol.)

Waiting til 2013 isnt a great idea. I suggest spending $1500 on this build and save the extra $500 for the new Haswell processors and motherboards next year. GPUs arent much of a sensible upgrade since there will ALWAYS be new GPUs and the next generation is only bound to bring like 30% more performance. Haswell should be around the same price range as current Ivy Bridge processors.

the main games I play are: LOL, WOW, GW2, also BF3, TF2, DOD2, BL2, DIABLO 3, SC2 and so on the side

so I did some reading on the Asus card you recommended and a ton of people claim it to be unstable so I think I might not be picking that card up but I will take a look at the GTX670's as you said.


So I took everyone's advice and here is a rebuild with a few item changes: New Lower Cost Build

Let me know what everyone thinks and if there are any changes I should make to that... thank you

 

[Nw333]

Sabertooth is unnecessary, unless you really, really want that red theme going on. Get the Asrock Extreme4.