My First Rig

[mdastuto]

Alright guys and gals,

First off, this site is incredible and has been a huge help in navigating the new waters of computer building for me.

I decided I needed a desktop PC because all I currently have is a 4 year old macbook that is starting to show its age and my pockets are getting empty trying to keep it up to date.

I figured if I was going to build a rig, that I wanted to build a gaming PC and transition away from consoles. I don't do a ton of gaming but im looking forward to titles like Far Cry 3 and Assassins Creed 3 this fall. Id say I spend about 5 to 10 hours a week playing games.

So far heres what I've got. I would say $800 is about as much as I want to spend right now.

Intel i5-3450 - $195
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 - $135
Radeon HD 7850 - $200
CORSAIR CX 600 80 Plus Bronze Cerified 600W - $70
16 GB Patriot Gamer 2 Series DDR3 1333 SDRAM - $68

Critiques, advice, criticisms, concerns and suggestions would all be appreciated.

 

[DRosencraft]

Congratulations on tackling your first build! You've picked a decent set of parts. I don't see any particular issues. One thing I would consider is going for DDR3 1600 memory. It's not hugely important, but it would give you a little better performance.

What kind of HDD/SSD are you thinking about? What kind of case? That will cost you around an extra $100. Also, don't forget your optical drive and to consider the cost of a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Speakers may also be a consideration unless you plan on only using headphones. Since it doesn't sound like you're a heavy gamer you probably don't need to spend too much on top-end stuff. Finally, you might want to think about cooling. I don't personally have experience with that motherboard and CPU, but adding an aftermarket CPU later down the line might be another thing to consider if your system starts running too hot.

 

[TheBigTroll]

id get this
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jBF5

-the 3470 is faster and cheaper than the 3450
-the cx600 isnt that great. my xfx 550w can supply more usable wattage
-you dont need a z77 board for a non-overclocking situation
-you can upgrade to a 7870 for not much more
-you dont need that much ram for a gaming rig

 

[mdastuto]

Thanks for the advice. I might go with 8gb of 1600 RAM. Right now I have a 1TB Hitatchi HD for about $70 and a Rosewill ATX mid tower case that comes stock with 2 120mm fans and 1 140mm fan thats going to cost $50. I've considered that i will also need a monitor, keyboard, speakers, OS, ect. Im willing to go over $800 total, was just trying to keep the tower around $800.

Congratulations on tackling your first build! You've picked a decent set of parts. I don't see any particular issues. One thing I would consider is going for DDR3 1600 memory. It's not hugely important, but it would give you a little better performance.

What kind of HDD/SSD are you thinking about? What kind of case? That will cost you around an extra $100. Also, don't forget your optical drive and to consider the cost of a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Speakers may also be a consideration unless you plan on only using headphones. Since it doesn't sound like you're a heavy gamer you probably don't need to spend too much on top-end stuff. Finally, you might want to think about cooling. I don't personally have experience with that motherboard and CPU, but adding an aftermarket CPU later down the line might be another thing to consider if your system starts running too hot.

 

[mdastuto]

Thanks man. Yeah, I had originally picked out 8 gb of RAM. Then for some reason I thought maybe id go with 16. I think im going to go back to 8. I'll look into the 3470 and the xfx 550w. Thanks for the suggestion rig too. v

id get this
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jBF5

-the 3470 is faster and cheaper than the 3450
-the cx600 isnt that great. my xfx 550w can supply more usable wattage
-you dont need a z77 board for a non-overclocking situation
-you can upgrade to a 7870 for not much more
-you dont need that much ram for a gaming rig