First pc for 750-800$

[Dexter123456789]

Hey guys, I am building my first custom pc build and I would like to make sure I have the maximum bang for my buck! I also need help choosing/improving the 3 builds I made. Thanks in advance!


Approximate Purchase Date: November or December 2012

Budget Range: 750-800$, preferably before rebates but after shipping

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Surfing the Internet, MS Office, Watching movies, Schoolwork

Are you buying a monitor: No

Parts to Upgrade: All except Storage and Optical Drive

Do you need to buy OS: Yes


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Any website that has a Canadian version or that ships to Canada, such as tigerdirect.ca, NCIX.ca, directcanada.ca (preferably no Newegg.ca because they charge ridiculous shipping to where I live)

Location: Montreal, Canada

Parts Preferences: None

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe in the future

Your Monitor Resolution: 1600 x 1200, but will probably upgrade in the future

Additional Comments: I already have some nice hard drives and spare optical drives so I will not be needing to buy any.



Okay. I have been researching PC parts and builds and such for easily 50+ hours now. This will be my first custom build. I will mainly be using this PC for gaming. So after all this research, I have narrowed it down to three builds. One is an Intel ATX build, one is an AMD ATX build and the last one is an Intel mItx build. I have configured them on directcanada.ca and on NCIX.ca, as directcanada.ca has some low prices compared to other sellers and offer free shipping but has a slightly lower selection of products (they dont offer products from certain companies, like Rosewill or Bitfenix) and NCIX.ca has some good prices but have a larger selection of items. So here they are :

1- Intel mItx build :

Case : Bitfenix Prodigy - 79.99$
http://www.ncix.ca/products/?sku=71144&vpn=BFC-PRO-300-WWXKW-RP&manufacture=BitFenix

CPU : i5 3570k - 219.99$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=16950BD5850

Motherboard : Gigabyte Z77N-Wifi mItx - 126.53$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=16950BD8718&vpn=GA-Z77N-Wifi&manufacture=Others

GPU : PowerColor Radeon HD 7770 1Ghz Edition 1GB - 126.14$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=13630BD5181&vpn=AX7770%201GBD5-2DH&manufacture=POWERCOLOR

PSU : Antec Basiq BP550 Plus 550W Modular Power Supply - 59.79$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10370AC4832&vpn=BP-550%20Plus&manufacture=ANTEC

RAM : Corsair Vengeance Blue 8gb 2 x 4gb DDR3-1600 Dual Channel - 34.79$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=16950BD9401&vpn=CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B&manufacture=CORSAIR

CPU Cooler : Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo - 31.05$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11130AC0554

OS : Microsoft Windows 8 64Bit Full Version English OEM - 98.90$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=12850SW5214

Total : 777.18$, since the GPU is a bit weak, I will survive with it for a while and upgrade it to probably a 7950 in the future.



2- Intel ATX Build :

Case : Any 40-70$ case, I've got the HAF 912 so far, but would prefer something a bit more "lit up". - 58.60$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11130AC0700&vpn=RC-912-KKN1&manufacture=COOLERMASTER

CPU : i5 3570k - 219.99$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=16950BD5850

Motherboard : Gigabyte Z77-D3H ATX LGA1155 - 124.03$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=16950BD5990&vpn=GA-Z77-D3H&manufacture=GIGABYTE

GPU : PowerColor Radeon HD 7770 1Ghz Edition 1GB - 126.14$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=13630BD5181&vpn=AX7770%201GBD5-2DH&manufacture=POWERCOLOR

PSU : Antec Basiq BP550 Plus 550W Modular Power Supply - 59.79$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10370AC4832&vpn=BP-550%20Plus&manufacture=ANTEC

RAM : Corsair Vengeance Blue 8gb 2 x 4gb DDR3-1600 Dual Channel - 34.79$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=16950BD9401&vpn=CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B&manufacture=CORSAIR

CPU Cooler : Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo - 31.05$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11130AC0554

OS : Microsoft Windows 8 64Bit Full Version English OEM - 98.90$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=12850SW5214

Total : 755.18$, which leaves me a tiny bit of room for some upgrades. Since the GPU is weak, I will upgrade it to a probably 7950 in the future.



3- AMD ATX Build :

Case : Any 40-70$ case, I've got the HAF 912 so far, but would prefer something a bit more "lit up". - 58.60$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11130AC0700&vpn=RC-912-KKN1&manufacture=COOLERMASTER

CPU : FX-6300 - 131.39$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10360BD9623

Motherboard : Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 AMD970 ATX AM3+ - 107.79$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=16950BD4598

GPU : XFX Radeon HD 7870 Core Ed. 1000MHZ 2GB 4.8GHZ - 221.40$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=16950BD9515&vpn=FX787ACNFC&manufacture=Others

PSU : Antec Basiq BP550 Plus 550W Modular Power Supply - 59.79$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10370AC4832&vpn=BP-550%20Plus&manufacture=ANTEC

RAM : Corsair Vengeance Blue 8gb 2 x 4gb DDR3-1600 Dual Channel - 34.79$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=16950BD9401&vpn=CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B&manufacture=CORSAIR

CPU Cooler : Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo - 31.05$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11130AC0554

OS : Microsoft Windows 8 64Bit Full Version English OEM - 98.90$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=12850SW5214

Total : 743.71$, which leaves me a bit more room for a nicer case/nicer other component

Thanks in advance!

 

[strife_ff7]

Overclocking the cpu adds very little to gaming performance I'd go with this http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/p/nCVP
With this you can have the hd 7950 now and just save for the better monitor. With the mobo you can still add a second hd 7950 for a good crossfire setup later too. You want to get the best gpu you can then add parts that won't bottleneck it. I made the mistake of getting an i5 2500k, cpu cooler and hd 7870 when I should of got an i5 34xx and a hd 7950. In gaming it's almost all about the gpu.