Build Advice Please

[omerta777]

Approximate Purchase Date: Early November 2012

Budget Range: 500-600

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming and Music Editing/Recording

Are you buying a monitor: No

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: No Preference

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Parts Preferences: I trust the community here knows more than I do.

Overclocking: Unsure

SLI or Crossfire: Unsure

Your Monitor Resolution: 1440x900 or higher, I have a very large monitor in storage but am unsure of it's default resolution.

Additional Comments: I want to use this computer for music editing/recording as well as gaming. I'm not a diehard FPS player so my hardware need isn't extremely great, but I'd like to run games smoothly for a couple years. The music editing and recording I do isn't extremely high end or anything, but programs like pro-tools can get pretty slow without adequate memory. If possible, I'd also like room to upgrade as significantly and inexpensively as possible in about 2 years.

Also, I've never built a computer before. I have a basic knowledge about computers and a little bit of a better than average ability to follow directions but no prior experience. Do you recommend I try to build myself or go through something like Cyberpower/Ibuypower?

Thank you guys for all the time and help you give people on here.

 

[mastrom101]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/iV79

Use the leftover $ for an SSD or a sound card.

Building a computer is not that hard to do. You can watch some videos on YouTube or some guides on Tom's, and you'll realize it's not too difficult.

Good Luck!

 

[bigshootr8]

I will do my best to do help you out although I may suggest waiting till the black friday sales because you will be able to get something really good in that time frame. Aldo judging by you not needing the OS it sounds like you are not going to need a case you may which may cost you between 40-200 dollars depending on how awesome of a case you want. Also your optical drive you may or may not need you didn't specify but it almost sounds like you don't need one. Also like I said you may want to wait till Black Friday to get on the deals for example for editing and recording you may want to get a core i7 the hyper threading in the core i7's makes them a beast for that sort of thing. And also you may want to look into getting maybe 16 gigs of ram depending on what you are doing. Game wise I think the 650 will be okay from nvidia or maybe the 7750's with AMD/ATi SLi you won't be able to accomplish with your budget and in the end a good single card is better for people SLi/CF typically only looks amazing in benchmarks and few games fully use SLi/CF. Hope this helps man.

CPU: Intel Core i5 3450 = $194.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116506
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8 GB = $44.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145345
Graphics: Nvidia GTX650 = $139.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125444
Power Supply: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 = $89.99 w/$20 mail in rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020

Total comes down to $623.40 cents that includes shipping to the LA area and Newegg ships from City of Industry in that area I live in Orange County that's where it ships from with Newegg.

 

[aznshinobi]

With your budget, you could build a pretty decent.

Check out my $500-$650 build here:
http://www.squidoo.com/electronicandmore#module146695821
Gives you a 7850 which is MUCH better than the GTX 650 or 660. The i3 3220 is a great chip and will do you fine, but if you want an i5 the i5 3450 will be plenty. Considering you're from LA, go check out Microcenter, the i5 3450 is only $150 with local pickup. That would put you with a total of only $600 flat.
http://www.microcenter.com/product/388579/Core_i5_3450_31GHz_LGA_1155_Processor

 

[bigshootr8]

aznshinobi you forgot a power supply in your list which will drive up the cost

 

[aznshinobi]

Look a little closer... I have the 520w Neo Eco...

 

[bigshootr8]

oh right right I must of misread the article oops

 

[Kamen_BG]

This build is kind of overbudget but, for gaming you can't do much better tha that.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99X EVO ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($104.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Patriot Intel Extreme Master, Limited Ed 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($30.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Antec Three Hundred ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.98 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $600.92
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

It's also incredibly future proof.

 

[bigshootr8]

Only negative is the AMD CPU if he could manage to get a i5 of any kind if would blow anything amd has out of the water considering its ivy bridge.

 

[aznshinobi]

This build is kind of overbudget but, for gaming you can't do much better tha that.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99X EVO ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($104.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Patriot Intel Extreme Master, Limited Ed 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($30.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Antec Three Hundred ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.98 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $600.92
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

It's also incredibly future proof.

Keep in mind about the MIRS.

Also, the 7870 is out of stock. Good find though.

 

[Kamen_BG]

It's in stock actually.Since yesterday.

 

[Kamen_BG]

ugh sorry for my mistake it was in stock 14 hours ago :O.

 

[mastrom101]

Look at his resolution, a 7770 will be more than enough.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/iWHT

Minor change.

 

[aznshinobi]

He says or higher, keep in mind if he upgrades to a 1080P the 7770 will be strongly lacking.

 

[omerta777]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I'm thinking aout taking bigshootr8's advice and waiting for black friday. Everyone think it'll make a big enough difference to justify waiting that long? Do you guys know if black friday sales on sites like newegg are only valid for black friday or will there be a week/weekend of deals? Should I go with one of the builds you guys have recommended or should I be making decisions based on the sale prices come black friday? Any direction is most appreciated. Thanks so much, you guys are great.

 

[bigshootr8]

I mean lets be real you may see a core i5 around 100 dollars or a graphics card 50-100 dollars cheaper. But yea I'm interested what others think

 

[aznshinobi]

^ That's pretty false.

Black Friday hardly gets any deals on current generation CPUs and GPUs. I waited 2 years ago for the same result, no deals to be found for the then beast i5 750. I would not expect anymore than a $10-$25 coupon on one or the other. Most likely if there is a discount it will be MIR. Not an immediate discount.

 

[mastrom101]

I mean lets be real you may see a core i5 around 100 dollars or a graphics card 50-100 dollars cheaper. But yea I'm interested what others think

The 2500K or the 3570K will probably never go for under $150 for several years. Expect maybe $20 off.

 

[bigshootr8]

I was throwing out a arbitrary number. I'm just throwing that you may save a little bit here and a little there during black Friday. This guy is building an entire system. Here is a link to last years sales through newegg.

http://promotions.newegg.com/neemail/nov-0-2011/pre-blackfriday21/index-landing.html#HD
http://promotions.newegg.com/NEemail/Nov-0-2011/72HSale11/index-landing.html?nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL111111&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL111111-_-EMC-111111-Index-_-E0-_-ShopBF

I really don't appreciate someone going off on me about being exactly correct I'm not going to give a asian math nerd a finite number but I'm giving him an idea that he can save during that time.

and 20 dollars off this
and 20 dollars off that
may in the end, end up equaling a 100 dollars money is money now days. And may I add there are plenty of deals that DON'T REQUIRE A REBATE.

 

[aznshinobi]

Thanks for the "Asian math nerd" part. <sarcasm>

Keep in mind there was barely any CPU sales and the only one that did go on sale was the i7 950. Which at the time was outdated, Sandy Bridge was already released at the time.

Newegg's black friday sale for computer parts is equivalent to a good weekend sale they'll have or a clearance sale. I've scanned BF ads for Newegg for the past few years and they never have a FANTASTIC deal on CPU/MB/GPU things. No will ever because otherwise they will lose a large portion of the profit. Maybe things they're trying to get on clearance, hence why they had X58 things on sale last BF.

 

[bigshootr8]

Well then it would make sense then for Sandy Bridge to possibly be on sale you don't know. You have the new Haswell Chips coming out in March ish 2013 which uses the 1150 socket so its possible not everything is ever clear. last year the big thing that went on sale if I'm not mistaken was SSD's there were some really crazy deals.

 

[aznshinobi]

Alright Big, I'm not going to argue with you on this. I just know for a fact for the past few years of watching the sales, I've been pretty disappointed.

 

[bigshootr8]

Yea I mean. I will agree with you on a couple of things. You will see something you like and you will see an item you want and when black Friday comes you wont always see that item on sale but you will see other things on sale. So I can see where your disappointment lies and the only company I've dealt with that there mail in rebate rocked was MSI they give you the option to take a part of the rebate off 30 dollars went down to 27 dollars for me and the instantly sent me a rebate.