Gaming / General Use Build

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
C

Cptdan

Honorable
Dec 22, 2012
8
0
10,510
Approximate Purchase Date: Early/Mid January

Budget Range: 1200-1500 All-in

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Games (mostly wow, but skyrim, civ5, etc sometimes) Graphic Design

Are you buying a monitor: Eventually, but not in this build. I have two monitors now that work fine, future use i'll get a High-Res Build



Parts to Upgrade: Full System, I'd like to give away my current build

Do you need to buy OS: Not Sure, I bought the copy of windows when I built my last rig

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg is fine, but I don't mind multiple Stores

Location: City, State/Region, Country - Phoenix, AZ, USA

Parts Preferences: None Really, except I'd prefer Intel CPU

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Possibly, if the system runs cool and quiet enough

Your Monitor Resolution: Currently 1920 x 1080 (dual monitors) Future plans to upgrade to High Res 27"

Additional Comments: I want to build a mid/high end system with adequate power and future use to grow with, but not super hot or super loud

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading:Mainly: because I can, but also, because I want to do this build better

I do have an SSD that I may carry over with this rig, it's 128GB, can't recall the brand name or anything


Thank you so much for any help provided.

Daniel
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
ilysaml

ilysaml

Splendid
Oct 30, 2010
4,854
0
23,460
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($329.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master TPC 812 86.2 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($112.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card ($379.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Storm Enforcer ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD/CD Writer ($18.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1261.89
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-22 05:56 EST-0500)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
mrdowntownkiller

mrdowntownkiller

Honorable
Sep 14, 2012
725
0
11,060
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($214.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($41.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($67.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (CrossFire) ($307.55 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (CrossFire) ($307.55 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 400R ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 750W 80 PLUS Silver Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($94.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB/RSBS DVD/CD Writer ($20.95 @ Amazon)
Total: $1405.96
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-22 06:55 EST-0500)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
butremor

butremor

Honorable
Oct 23, 2012
1,563
0
12,160
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ Microcenter)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($90.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: VisionTek Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card ($444.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-222BB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $1057.91
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-22 06:56 EST-0500)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Kamen_BG

Kamen_BG

Distinguished
Jul 12, 2011
1,578
1
20,160
You don't really need to spend all your money on a PC in order to get an excellent gaming experiance.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI P67A-GD80 (B3) ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($35.20 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card ($366.97 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 220 ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD/CD Writer ($18.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($84.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1037.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-22 08:46 EST-0500)

I reccomend this build.

Or if you want to get the best you can afford go with this one.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI P67A-GD80 (B3) ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($35.20 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($35.20 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($339.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($339.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Lian-Li K60B ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 750W 80 PLUS Silver Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($84.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD/CD Writer ($18.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($84.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1484.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-22 08:59 EST-0500)

This build will allow you to play almost every game at its maximum settings.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Kamen_BG

Kamen_BG

Distinguished
Jul 12, 2011
1,578
1
20,160
I'll just try to summarize all of the pros and cons of all of the builds posted here.

mrdowntownkiller's build :
Very, Very powerfull and made almost 100% of high quality parts (Seagate Drives are kind of unreliable)
Performance wise it's almost as fast as the second build i made, but it's FPS won't be nearly as smooth.(unless you're an advanced user and know how to deal with Crossfire)


butremor's build
I don't really reccomend this one.Most of the things he chose just aren't good for their money.Not worth it IMO.


My builds
The first one is pretty much the better version of butremor's build (except the hard drive).
Performance wise its more than what you need for a high end gaming experiance.

And my second build is, i'd say for smooth gaming without overclocking the fastest of the PC's listed here.It's made entirely of high end parts and it's whati think you should buy.




 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

Cptdan

Honorable
Dec 22, 2012
8
0
10,510
How much of a performance gain is the SLI offering up in terms of gaming? Would a single GPU around the same combined cost be as/more effective? I'm not arguing merely curious. This is still mostly new territory for me
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ilysaml

ilysaml

Splendid
Oct 30, 2010
4,854
0
23,460

The games you listed works pretty well with a single powerful GPU and it had to be patched many times to support CF and SLI.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

Cptdan

Honorable
Dec 22, 2012
8
0
10,510



So, single GPU then? And which is doing better AMD or Nvidia?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

Cptdan

Honorable
Dec 22, 2012
8
0
10,510



I really like the second build. I've been reading up on a lot of the individual components (I like to learn, so?) It does seem pretty good. My question is, would dropping the Dual Card setup in lieu of a Single Card provide better FPS in a game like WoW? Also, is there anything compelling in the Z77 Mobo? I could drop the 2nd Video Card, and possibly get a better CPU and Motherboard. This is a blast, and I'm really excited to build one with more knowledge and such backing it. My system now just isn't keeping up with Mists of Pandaria and with ultra settings i'm lucky to get 40FPS with nothing going on, dropping further below that during instances/Raids. If I turn on the AA it's even lower. I'd like to get a machine that will play wow on Ultra while also having the power to do my photography editing well. I imagine that having the game maxed out will defacto do my editing programs well.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
mrdowntownkiller

mrdowntownkiller

Honorable
Sep 14, 2012
725
0
11,060
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($214.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($41.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($67.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($99.10 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($359.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($359.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 400R ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 750W 80 PLUS Silver Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($94.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.89 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $1486.89
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-23 07:01 EST-0500)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
mrdowntownkiller

mrdowntownkiller

Honorable
Sep 14, 2012
725
0
11,060

wouldn't use msi board and caviar green in a build like this !
also you say that the seagate is not reliable , i used caviar black , green , blue before and now am using 1tb seagate in my personal rig and i have faced no issue at all , and about the speed it has the same writing and reading speed as the Blue caviar. if you want to upgrade from seagate go the caviar black.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

Cptdan

Honorable
Dec 22, 2012
8
0
10,510
Since this thread is all about learning, and you guys really are helpful: a couple of other questions:

1. In the future, I'd like to study up on Overclocking the CPU, what considerations can I take at the time of building to ensure I'm better set up to achieve safer/more stable Overclocking performance?

2. I still haven't decided on the SLI vs Single GPU for gaming, is an SLI set up harder to keep cool? My current rig has almost no extra room and the GPU is pressing lightly against the fan housing of the case (the case sucks though)

3. I'm really liking what I'm reading on the I5 3750K build, It's most likely the one I'll go with. I'm reading up on cases now, it's no easy decision. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I want it to both look good and be functional it's an area where I would willingly increase the budget for ample returns. Cable management, air flow, and noise suppression are all things that I want to maximize in this build. I know no one really looks inside the computer, but I'll know and I like to do things right.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
mrdowntownkiller

mrdowntownkiller

Honorable
Sep 14, 2012
725
0
11,060
for the overclocking am not so pro on this part , but for the sli i will say just an advice to you as i do with my brother and my friends , why don't get a 2 cards , because you will probably pay about $750 or maybe more , so after one two years for example you will have 2 outdated cards in your rig and this will be hard to sell also you will loose most of the money you paid , but this is just my advice take it or leave it.
for the case i really recommend something like the 400R and Nzxt 410 phantom , both have perfect airflow and cable managemt , but when it comes to cases every one has his own taste.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Kamen_BG

Kamen_BG

Distinguished
Jul 12, 2011
1,578
1
20,160
If you'd like your system to be easily overclockable you need a CPU with an unlocked multiplier.
Intel marks its unlocked CPU's with K at the end (eg. 2500K/3570K)
And for your overclock to be truly stable you need to have a cool running system and prefferably a high end or at least good mid range motherboard.
The only motherboards that support overclocking on Intel CPU's feature P67,Z68 and Z77 chipsets.
Here are the differences between those chipsets.

Lets use the P67 as the basic overclocking chipset.
The Z68 adds some features like allowing you to overclock the integrated GPU which you'll never use, SSD caching and Quicksync which helps convert videos.
Z77 has all of those and adds PCI-E 3.0 support, Virtu MVP, Rapid Start and Smart Control.
And most importantly P67 and Z68 motherboards require a BIOS update in order to run with a Ivy Bridge CPU (3570K/3770K).
Note that there are Z68 motherboards that support PCI-E 3.
PCI-E 3 provides double the bandwidth of PCI-E 2.1 although in the real world there are no advantages.

SLI and Crossfire are Nvidia and AMD's way of saying "Multiple GPU".
Basicly adding another card increases the performance in games by around 85% on avarage.Sometimes it can reach 100 and sometimes it doesn't increase it at all.
It all depends on how well the game you're playing supports SLI or Crossfire.
Generraly SLI is considered to be better than Crossfire because not only it doubles your avarage frame rates, it doubles your minimums as well, unlike Crossfire which requires manual configuratoin in order to work that well.

Having two cards does mean that your case will be a bit hotter but if you've got a good case there will be no issues at all.

2500K vs 3570K PROS and cons here
3570K Pros:
Faster at stock speeds
Consumes less power

2500K Pros:
Runs cooler
Faster when overclocked

About expensive cases... in my opinion your money is better served elsewhere
But still here are some of the best cases available (in no particular order)

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-case-rc942kkn1
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/lian-li-case-pca75
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/rosewill-case-thorv2
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/nzxt-case-casw810w1
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/silverstone-case-rv03bw

And here is the, in my opinion absolute best case
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/silverstone-case-tj11bw

By the way i do not reccomend the Asrock Z77 Extreme4
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z77-express-ivy-bridge-benchmark,3254-33.html
It's just waiting to overheat.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

Cptdan

Honorable
Dec 22, 2012
8
0
10,510
Good catch on the Asrock, I have an ASUS board right now that I'm pretty pleased with, I haven't had any issues with it, I'll consider a few different ones though, And for cases I really, really like the Nzxt Switch case. I watched a very long review of it and it looks really solid, especially at that price point. I'm also leaning still, very heavily towards the 3570k. In the beginning I won't be over clocking. I want to get a bit more experience and learning before I jump into that. I just want to have the set up so that I can do it in the future. I'll be building this over the next couple weeks and I'll do a video of it, and with some help from the forum people I'll do some benchmarking and show what the exact build did in real world testing as a whole
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom