~$3000 gaming/video editing build

flamenader

Distinguished
Feb 13, 2012
61
0
18,630
Approximate Purchase Date: end of october

Budget Range: $3000 before rebates

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, video editing, blu ray, school work

Are you buying a monitor: Yes

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg, NCIX, Amazon

Location: City, State/Region, Country - U.S. of A.

Parts Preferences: Intel Cpu, open to any other brand for other components

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Your Monitor Resolution: need 1920x1080 under 24 inches

Additional Comments: play games like battlefield and do edit quite a lot of videos

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: bought a pre build computer a while ago that was way overpriced, thought id do it myself this time

Thanks
 

redeemer

Distinguished
May 30, 2004
2,470
0
19,960
i7 3770k
Havik 140
Cool Master Stryker
16 GB 2133 G.Skill
Sapphire Vapor X 7970 3GB
Dell U2412M
Gigabyte UD5H
Plextor M5P 256 SSD
2TB WD Black HDD
Corsair AX850
Blu-Ray player Sony
Windows 7 Home Premium
Asus Xonar STX Essence
Audioengine 5+ Speakers

 

evilqueens

Honorable
Sep 17, 2012
215
0
10,710
redeemer posted a good starting point. You should look into specifics and different parts/specs on your own and go from there. Use http://pcpartpicker.com/ to create a build and when you have a better idea, share it again and we'll be able to give even more feedback
 

mjmjpfaff

Distinguished
Dell Ultrasharp U2412M/U2312HM- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260047 / http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260055 310$ / 260$ The first one is a 24", the second one is a 23". This site has the first one as a recommended by for its superb performance compared to other 24" monitors

Intel i7 3770k- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116501 330$

Asrock Z77 Extreme6- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157295 180$

Corsair Vengeance LP 16gb 1600mhz- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233197 80$ This is enough for video editing and fast enough for any application.

Silverstone Heligon CPU Cooler- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835220047&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&PageSize=10&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&IsFeedbackTab=true#scrollFullInfo 75$ Silverstone always makes very high quality products.

Asus GTX 680 DirectCU II- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121635 530$

Lepa G850 850w PSU- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817494009 135$

Asus Blu Ray Burner- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135252 85$

Corsair 600t- http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-CC600TWM-WHT-Special-Graphite-Computer/dp/B004O0PAKW/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1349505507&sr=8-4&keywords=corsair+mid+tower 147$
or
NZXT Switch 810- http://www.amazon.com/Technologies-Switch-810-Matte-Black/dp/B0081CRTPS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1349535985&sr=8-2&keywords=switch+810 180$ If you want a full tower.

Seagate 2tb 5900rpm- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148681 120$

Plextor M5S 256gb SSD- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820249025 200$

Total=~2200$
That leaves you quite a bit of money to buy good peripherals. I recommend a mechanical keyboard (I prefer Cherry MX Brown; they can be a little more expensive than other types)and a good mouse. I have the Logitech G9X and love it. Also make sure you get Windows Professional, it allows for more than 16gb of ram if you plan to upgrade in the future.
 

excella1221

Honorable
Aug 23, 2012
2,415
0
12,160
Here you go. You can check out the "Price breakdown by merchant" link if you wanna buy from just one store. :)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($309.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($83.26 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme6 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($77.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($95.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Plextor M5S Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB Video Card ($413.78 @ NCIX US)
Case: Cooler Master HAF X ATX Full Tower Case ($179.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 850W 80 PLUS Silver Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($119.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($59.98 @ NCIX US)
Monitor: Acer GD235HZbid 120Hz 23.6" Monitor ($249.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) ($91.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $2062.93
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

This should serve you very well for anything.

The 850w PSU will allow you to add another 7970 GHz for Crossfire anytime and you won't need an upgrade on wattage.

2TB WD Green is for storage of large files, downloads, etc.

The Plextor 256gb SSD is where you'll install the OS, games, and your favorite apps/programs. It's supposedly more consistent than a Vertex 4 according to a recent Tom's review.

The monitor I listed is 23.6", with a 120Hz refresh rate for you to give you the best and very smooth experience in gaming, and the most out of your video card.
 

redeemer

Distinguished
May 30, 2004
2,470
0
19,960



Have you ever heard Xonar Essence STX vs Integrated sound? The difference is night and day of course good speakers are a must Audioengine even SP2500 will play low mids and high incredibly well. Its well worth spending some cash on a good sound setup up especially when you have the budget
 

excella1221

Honorable
Aug 23, 2012
2,415
0
12,160
^7970 Vapor-X is the best 7970 GHz imo, but very hard to catch on stock, sadly. :(
750w is a bit on the edge when he adds another card, it's gonna be on an estimated 735w, leaving very little headroom and a dangerous spot to play.
 

redeemer

Distinguished
May 30, 2004
2,470
0
19,960



750 is fine though I prefer 1000w when running dual GPU's runs cooler and more efficently on higher loads.
 

mjmjpfaff

Distinguished

I totally agree with you.

Also why the 7970 over the 680? The 7970 is more power hungry, louder (especially the GHZ edition) and @ 1080p and the lower resolutions is where the 680 shines way above the 7970.
 
That is the only 7970ghz i like i try two others they had coil wine i can't stand that drive me nuts :lol:
 

excella1221

Honorable
Aug 23, 2012
2,415
0
12,160

Because the 680 is an overpriced card. The 7970 GHz is a whole lot cheaper, but outperforms it on most games. The only ones where the 680 has an edge are on Nvidia-optimized games such as BF3 and Portal 2. You can throw in Batman too.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/618?vs=555

A lot of things have improved since the recent catalyst releases.
 

mjmjpfaff

Distinguished

750w is O.K. for 2 680's but it is on the line for 2 7970's. You would be working that PSU pretty hard.
 

mjmjpfaff

Distinguished

It is not that much cheaper (70$ out of a 3000$ budget). And one should think about power consumption because those costs will add up. And when you are preaching about having good audio, you should also think about how much sound your parts are going to produce.

It does beat the 7970 GHz pretty badly in BF3 and if we were talking about a die hard Crysis player I would have recommended the 7970 but we are talking about a BF3 player.
 

excella1221

Honorable
Aug 23, 2012
2,415
0
12,160

Budget has nothing to do with how cheap a component is. Our goal here is to give the best bang for buck on their builds. $70 is ALOT.
I also don't see where he says he's a BF3 player. And even if he is, it's one game. He won't be playing it for the whole duration of the computer's life.

About the alleged 'noise', it's all about what bigcyco1 said- coil whine. If your card is showing coil whine, then it's subject to RMA.

I don't get the audio thing though, I didn't 'preach' anything.
 

beethree

Honorable
May 23, 2012
122
0
10,690
To the original poster. Does the editing programs you use have CUDA support?

If it has CUDA support then I would maybe sort of recommend looking at a 600 series part.

If not, then hands down for other than gaming I would go with Radeon.
 

redeemer

Distinguished
May 30, 2004
2,470
0
19,960



Power consumption shouldnt matter its a desktop we are talking about here, I would say that the stock 7970Ghz and 680 are pretty much neck and neck at 1080p gaming both trading blows depite the 680 boosting clocks automatically. When you overclock the 7970 it will blow the 680 out of the water no matter what clock speed the 680 is at. The reason for this is the architecture, Tahiti scales better. As far as noise goes my reference 680's are loud at 75% fans, again this should not matter because ou have the option of buy non-reference cards.
 

redeemer

Distinguished
May 30, 2004
2,470
0
19,960



3b82fa1c.png

39d3a5e9.gif