General Advice on First Build (Discussion)

[eliteclone25]

Hi everybody, I was wondering if y7ou could give some advice on this build of mine and please don't say any intel processors they are too expensive for my build. This build will be primarily used for gaming.
Here are my components:

Western Digital WD Green WD10EZRX 1TB IntelliPower SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

HIS IceQ X H785QN2G2M Radeon HD 7850 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

SeaSonic M12II 520 Bronze 520W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS 12V v2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR

ASUS Black Blu-ray Drive SATA Model BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM

BIOSTAR TA970XE AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

AMD FX-6200 Zambezi 3.8GHz (4.1GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor FD6200FRGUBOX

Alright, right now I could really use some recommendations on some cheap, 19''-21'' inch monitors that would be good for gaming and if I used 2 of them at the same time.
Thanks,
Elite

 

[TheBigTroll]

please give us a budget, location, parts not required, and if you are overclocking or doing SLI/crossfire in the future.

i dont recommend FX chips at all. either get a 965 BE or get intel

 

[g-unit1111]

please give us a budget, location, parts not required, and if you are overclocking or doing SLI/crossfire in the future.

i dont recommend FX chips at all. either get a 965 BE or get intel

I agree with this - there's no reason to purchase an FX chip. The 4170 is a good value but if you're going to do that get the 965BE or go Intel.

 

[eliteclone25]

please give us a budget, location, parts not required, and if you are overclocking or doing SLI/crossfire in the future.

i dont recommend FX chips at all. either get a 965 BE or get intel

Budget is $500-700, I am not going to get a sound card and I forgot to add in my case: Corsair Vengeance Series C70 Arctic White Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case.
I am pretty sure I am not going to be overclocking or using Crossfire and I also have a CompUsa in my town, though some of there stuff is more expensive than newegg's where I got all of my components.

 

[TheBigTroll]

the 4170 is decent but when you compare to a i3 that performs similarly, it draws at least 2x the power

 

[eliteclone25]

If the FX series isnt good then how about this: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX

 

[firestorm09]

what's ur budget for ur processor?

 

[g-unit1111]

the 4170 is decent but when you compare to a i3 that performs similarly, it draws at least 2x the power

Tom's did a thorough comparison between the 4170 and the i3-3220, and the 4170 showed some very interesting promise, read this: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fx-4170-core-i3-3220-benchmarks,3314.html

The A10-5800K also looks to be a really excellent CPU for the money. Maybe AMD is attempting to make a comeback.

Budget is $500-700, I am not going to get a sound card and I forgot to add in my case: Corsair Vengeance Series C70 Arctic White Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case.
I am pretty sure I am not going to be overclocking or using Crossfire and I also have a CompUsa in my town, though some of there stuff is more expensive than newegg's where I got all of my components.

Paying $150 for a case on a $700 build is really ridiculous. That's literally 1/5 of your budget. If you're dead set on that case that's OK I guess but you really have to sacrifice hardware somewhere. I'd say get the Corsair 300R and then you can afford to pay more for the motherboard and CPU.

Try something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($184.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($38.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB Video Card ($251.97 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($22.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $778.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

I went a bit over but this will be a far better use of $700.

 

[eliteclone25]

what's ur budget for ur processor?

I'd say around $175ish dollars is the most I would spend.

 

[eliteclone25]

Okay so either the 4170 or something else but whats so wrong with 6200?

 

[eliteclone25]

Also, maybe the CoolerMaster 431 Elite for a Case?

 

[firestorm09]

CPU Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor: $199.99
CPU Cooler Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler: $23.44
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard: $99.99
Memory PNY Optima 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory: $27.51
Storage Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive : $84.99
Video Card EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB Video Card: $159.99
Case Cooler Master Storm Scout ATX Mid Tower Case: $77.99
Power Supply Antec EarthWatts Green 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply: $74.51
Optical Drive Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer: $16.99
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total......................................................................................................................................................$765.40

Make sure to overclock the processor

 

[TheBigTroll]

id get this build instead.

the 6200 doesnt perform any better than a 4170 since games like higher frequencies and only a couple of threads, not 6

the c70 is apparantly a hot house of a case

id suggest this
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/kZtd

 

[g-unit1111]

CPU Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor: $199.99
CPU Cooler Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler: $23.44
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard: $99.99
Memory PNY Optima 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory: $27.51
Storage Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive : $84.99
Video Card EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB Video Card: $159.99
Case Cooler Master Storm Scout ATX Mid Tower Case: $77.99
Power Supply Antec EarthWatts Green 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply: $74.51
Optical Drive Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer: $16.99
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total......................................................................................................................................................$765.40

Make sure to overclock the processor

You're using a lot of outdated hardware on this build. There's no reason to pair a 2500K with a Z77 as you lose a lot of the board's functionality. The 560TI has been replaced by the 660TI (and is beaten by the 7870).