Making $2,000 Rig, but I have some questions.

[Devilin]

I have been looking around for help from other posts, but none of them had my same situation. I recently decided I want to build my own rig. As of now all I have is my 13" Macbook pro, so I need to get a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Also I will be using this computer for LAN parties. I have a budget of $2,000 dollar BTW. I also have some extra questions:
1) Should I get a Bitfenix Prodigy or Fractal Arc Midi?
2) I want to water cool my rig, so does anyone recommend any good parts or manufacturers?
3) Is water cooling a little too much? I want to overclock my CPU and GPU alot.

I put together some parts before so here they are:
Motherboard (If I go with the prodigy): EVGA Stinger
Motherboard (If I go with the Arc Mini): ASUS Maximus V Gene
CPU: i7 3770k
RAM: 16GB Corsair Dominator Platinum
GPU: MSI N680GTX Lightning GTX 680
SSD: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB
HD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 650W

I also found a water cooling kit, but I don't know if it is good.
RayStorm Twin D5 AX240

Also any good monitors, keyboards, and mice?

 

[Devilin]

Bump.

 

[i8myhippo]

In my opinion, I don't think water cooling is worth the trouble. There are plenty good <$100 coolers that do a great job. However, if you choose to go with water cooling, DO NOT GO CHEAP. I don't think I need to explain why.

For monitors, you'll need to give us some more info. Roughly what size do you want? What resolution do you want? I know that there are Korean 27" IPS monitors (the top-tier technology in color reproduction and accuracy) that have 2560x1440/1600. Do you prefer 16x9 or 16x10?

Now I'm going to try to stop you from wasting money. The 680 is a waste of money. A good model 670 can overclock PAST the overclocked 680. A lot of good 670's actually have the 680 PCB on them! So, save yourself some money and look at 670's.

As far as the 3770k goes, I think this is strong overkill for LAN parties. If you were to do video editing, or something similar, it may be justifiable, but otherwise, I'd drop it for the i5-3570k. What you're buying with the i7 is multitheading: a technology that games do not yet utilize.

For the Motherboards, I really know very little about those, so hopefully somebody wiser comes by.

 

[Praxeology]

I have been looking around for help from other posts, but none of them had my same situation. I recently decided I want to build my own rig. As of now all I have is my 13" Macbook pro, so I need to get a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Also I will be using this computer for LAN parties. I have a budget of $2,000 dollar BTW. I also have some extra questions:
1) Should I get a Bitfenix Prodigy or Fractal Arc Midi?
2) I want to water cool my rig, so does anyone recommend any good parts or manufacturers?
3) Is water cooling a little too much? I want to overclock my CPU and GPU alot.

I put together some parts before so here they are:
Motherboard (If I go with the prodigy): EVGA Stinger
Motherboard (If I go with the Arc Mini): ASUS Maximus V Gene
CPU: i7 3770k
RAM: 16GB Corsair Dominator Platinum
GPU: MSI N680GTX Lightning GTX 680
SSD: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB
HD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 650W

I also found a water cooling kit, but I don't know if it is good.
RayStorm Twin D5 AX240

Also any good monitors, keyboards, and mice?

1: Between those two choices I would definitely recommend the fractal over the Bitfenix. Overall however I do not like either of those cases. I would want a full tower regardless if I was going to lan parties or not.

2: Water-cooling is a great idea if you are familiar with overclocking things. If all you own is a macbook pro and are just now looking to getting into a desktop gaming PC, it would make logical sense that you have next to no experience overclocking. I doubt you would be to effectively utilize a water-cooled system. As a side note, those 2 cases are in the complete opposite direction of a 2k gaming PC water-cooled.

3: Is it too much? In your case definitely.

As far as the build is concerned, since you need monitor case and PSU, along with mouse and keyboard, you want an i5k build. Either an MSI or ASrock motherboard in the 100-150 dollar range. Combine that with a HAF 932 advanced. Hyper 212 evo CPU cooler. Corsair 850 gold. OCZ vertex 4/Samsung Pro 840/Corsair GTX 120GB SSD. 23'' monitor less than 150. And finally depending on what games you play a 7970, or 670. 7970 being more powerful but certain games, and newer games in the future will run better on the Nvidia. Those would be my recommendations. For monitors, dell and LG would be my choices. Keyboards I would go with gigabyte's mechanical http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823334013 and their krypton mouse http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826146028

GL

 

[Kamen_BG]

Here's what i think you should get

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H80i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($106.13 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe Mini ITX LGA1155 Motherboard ($179.90 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Plextor M5P Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Video Card ($469.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Silverstone SST-SG08B Mini ITX Desktop Case w/600W Power Supply ($208.47 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SN-208BB DVD/CD Writer ($21.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Monitor: Asus VS278Q-P 27.0" Monitor ($308.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Keyboard: Cooler Master Storm QuickFire Rapid Wired Gaming Keyboard ($78.00 @ Mechanical Keyboards)
Mouse: SteelSeries Sensei RAW Wired Laser Mouse ($44.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1988.41
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-22 16:22 EST-0500)

Or... if you could sacrifice a lot of performance you should definetly go for a laptop instead you can just configure this system any way you want
http://www.xoticpc.com/msi-gt60-0nc004us-p-4332.html?wconfigure=yes

 

[DeusAres]

Unless you pan on doing heavy video editing/rendering, I wouldn't suggest you get the i7. The i5 is perfect for gaming and light video editing. I also wouldn't suggest getting miniITX cases. Instead, I would get a mid or full tower case. Some of the Cooler Master cases offer sturdy handles on their cases. This would come in handy if you plan on attending LAN parties often. Here's my recommendation...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($79.98 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Patriot Intel Extreme Master, Limited Ed 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($31.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($67.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: A-Data XPG SX900 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($182.94 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card ($359.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Storm Trooper ATX Full Tower Case ($134.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 750W 80 PLUS Silver Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($84.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.89 @ Outlet PC)
Monitor: Asus VE248Q 24.0" Monitor ($179.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1460.73
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-22 16:48 EST-0500)

Also, I wouldn't bother water cooling. You can get similar performance from the Noctua air cooler. It'll allow you to push your processor to 4.5GHz easily. As for your GPU, just get a case with plenty of airflow and you should be able to overclock your GPU fairly far.

Here's some more case recommendations...

COOLER MASTER Storm Scout
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119196

COOLER MASTER CM Storm Scout 2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119263

COOLER MASTER Storm Stryker
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119260&Tpk=storm%20stryker

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. I hope this helps; good luck!

 

[Praxeology]

Well I just spent the last hour looking over parts on Newegg and would have to recommend the following build, for the best performance/future.

Freezer Case

Platinum Full Modular PSU

Best Motherboard/Price

Intel Core i5-3570K

CORSAIR Vengeance C7

MSI Lightning 7970

Samsung 840 Pro 256GB

Western Digital WD Blue 7200RPM/64MB Cache

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO

ASUS 24X DVD Burner

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64B

These are the base components, Total Price: $1,757.89 (Places to skimp could be the operating system, the SSD downsized to 128GB, and the power supply. Dropping down to a bronze PSU and a smaller SSD brings the price, roughly, to $1,557.89 however I recommend keeping all the above parts. If you are more of an Nvidia guy, that 7970 can be swapped out easily enough, but I would encourage you to make sure the cooler has 2 fans on whatever video card you might settle on. Below are the comfort accessories.

Best Mechanical Keyboard Sold

Great Mouse but so is the G9X/500/600 series from Logitech.

27'' Monitor Steal Definately not a bad option for the price. But if space is an issue or you want something a little higher quality I would go with the HP

Total Price with either monitor + keyboard/mouse + build as I have it: $2,157.86

Decent Monitor And I figure'd I would add a cheaper alternative monitor if you didn't like the ones above. Going with this would naturally drop the price by 80 bucks.

GL, consider these parts wisely

Edit* Good review between the 680vs7970

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/07/23/msi_geforce_gtx_680_lightning_video_card_review/9

They are using the Sapphire 7970 which is 369.99 and overclocked it pretty awesomely. Comparing it to the MSI 680 lightning. Bit of a leepfrog, as both cards are fine. Price difference is considerable though.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127671 That's the 680.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202008 That's the 7970.

Hope that might help you if you're unsure on going AMD or Nvidia, either way your golden xD.

Edit* Forgot the video card link!

 

[techdude9]

In my opinion, I don't think water cooling is worth the trouble. There are plenty good <$100 coolers that do a great job. However, if you choose to go with water cooling, DO NOT GO CHEAP. I don't think I need to explain why.

For monitors, you'll need to give us some more info. Roughly what size do you want? What resolution do you want? I know that there are Korean 27" IPS monitors (the top-tier technology in color reproduction and accuracy) that have 2560x1440/1600. Do you prefer 16x9 or 16x10?

Now I'm going to try to stop you from wasting money. The 680 is a waste of money. A good model 670 can overclock PAST the overclocked 680. A lot of good 670's actually have the 680 PCB on them! So, save yourself some money and look at 670's.

As far as the 3770k goes, I think this is strong overkill for LAN parties. If you were to do video editing, or something similar, it may be justifiable, but otherwise, I'd drop it for the i5-3570k. What you're buying with the i7 is multitheading: a technology that games do not yet utilize.

For the Motherboards, I really know very little about those, so hopefully somebody wiser comes by.

How much are those korean monitors?

 

[jonjonjon]

the monitors are $300+ on ebay. also if you are going to bring your pc to lan parties water cooling might not be the best idea.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1215866/reviewed-400-2560x1440-ips-no-ag-90hz-achieva-shimian-qh270-and-catleap-q270

 

[Devilin]

I am going to do water cooling. That is that. And nobody will persuade me otherwise. Since I AM doing water cooling, what parts do people recommend that can fit in the Prodigy? BTW Windows isn't a problem, I have a Ultimate Copy. The reason why I am sticking with the Bitfenix Prodigy is because of its size. It would be much harder for me to take the other cases. I will go with the i5 instead. Also is it possible for me to hit 4.8Ghz with water cooling?

 

[Devilin]

Best answer selected by devilin.