NEWWW GAMING RIG- NEED EXPERT HELP.!

[kevinwants2know]

Hey there. I've been planning to build up my own gaming rig for a while now, but never put the time into it. I'm finally putting some effort into it now, and need some assistance. I've been doing some research on bits and pieces, which i will be pasting below for commenting.

Basic Summary for what i'm looking for: i want a rig that will give me high-end performance. Some of the titles i play are Star Craft 2, Guild Wars 2, Aion, Mine Craft, couple Strategy's and a few more MMO's. From what I've heard, these games are far more CPU consuming than GPU consuming. I don't play any FPS on PC, so I've heard that will save some buks on a SUPER Graphics card i dont need for lets say overclocking BATTLEFIELD 3, or Black Ops 2. -.- Um, "overclocking" is another topic i'm not too familiar with, but i don't think ill be needing it for myself since i might not be straining my video cards. (In any regards towards that comment please criticize) Yes, "Cards", as in more than 1-, because i also have my heart set on an Cross fire Eyefinity 3 Monitor set up. about 24"- 26". 1080p. HDMI, Native Port [whatever that stuff means]. umm, really im looking for something that will last, will give me an awesome experience, and that will give me a significant satisfaction towards my goal Now here's the fun part, Im really hoping to spend round $1,500, seeing how that's my budget, But if for a significant performance boost id need to hit maybe 1,900 or 2,000, i can squeeze.

What i have so far: ( If i can save $$ anywhere please comment )

Corsair Obsidian Series 650D Mid-Tower Gaming Case w/ dual 200mm fans, integrated fan controller, front USB 3.0 Port & Side-Panel Window [+124]


LG 12X Internal Blu-ray Drive & DVDRW, 3D Playback Combo Drive (BLACK COLOR)


24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive [+20] (BLACK COLOR)


Intel® Core™ i7-3820 Quad-Core 3.60 GHz 10MB Intel Smart Cache LGA2011 (All Venom OC Certified)

Maximum 120MM Case Cooling Fans for your selected case [+9]

Asetek 570LX Liquid Cooling system w/ 240MM Radiator and Dual Fans (Extreme Overclocking Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA) [+43]

2TB (2TBx1) SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (Single Drive)

8GB (2GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Quad Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand


MOTHERBOARD:* (3-way SLI/CrossFireX Support) GIGABYTE GA-X79S-UP5-WIFI Intel X79 Chipset Quad Channel DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ Ultra Durable 5, Intel C606 Chipset w/ SAS, Bluetooth 4.0/WiFi Card, 7.1 HD Audio, Dual GbLAN, 4 Gen3 PCIe x16, 1 PCIe x1 & 1 PCI [+90]

NETWORKnboard Gigabit LAN Network


OS:Microsoft® Windows 8 (64-bit Edition)

NO OVERCLOCKING

800 Watts - Standard Power Supply - SLI/CrossFireX Ready [+15]

ASUS Xonar DG 5.1 Channels PCI Xonar DG Sound Card [+29]

VIDEO:AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB 16X PCIe 3.0 Video Card [+110] (Major Brand Powered by AMD)

VIDEO2:AMD Radeon HD 7770 1GB 16X PCIe 3.0 Video Card [+98] (Major Brand Powered by AMD)

TOTAL PRICE: $1,922.00 - WITHOUT MONITORS- or Peripherals such as Mouse, Keyboard, Speakers.

 

[faster23rd]

Well, a lot of folks here at Tom's would begin at recommending you to ditch that water-cooling solutions since you won't be overclocking. Do you plan to eventually go Crossfire or SLI? If not you can change your mobo and pick a PSU with lower wattage. While I assume that you're going with the i7 because you want to have peace of mind without overclocking, I would still like to suggest the i5-3570k as it performs exceptionally well in modern applications and am convinced that i7s are simply too much.

 

[Soda-88]

Pointless getting LGA2011 platform if you aren't getting 3930K, especially if it's not a 3+ GPU setup.
While statement that the games you listed require beefy CPU is true, Starcraft II can stretch out a graphics card if you turn on all bells and whistles.
Either way, if you won't overclock you'll be more than fine with an Z77 board (provides more PCI-e lanes than H77) and i5 3470/3570.
I'd get a single 7950 for now and add another one when you'll need extra GPU horsepower because you can't fit 2 in $1,500 budget (although I'm confused whether you meant USD or GBP since you linked british sites; anyway I went with ~930£). 850W PSU for future CrossFire purposes.
Liquid cooling is a waste if you won't do serious overclock.
Also, you'll want an SSD because not having one today in such a rig is silly.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£152.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£25.45 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-G43 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£74.12 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£34.50 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£103.44 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£78.96 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (£234.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 650D ATX Mid Tower Case (£144.77 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast 850W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£97.25 @ Ebuyer)
Optical Drive: Asus BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer (£47.09 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £993.56
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-13 14:59 GMT+0000)

Windows 8 64-bit OEM is roughly 70£.
If you want to further trim down the costs, I'd get a cheaper case. There are decent ones at around 50£ mark.

Either way, this totals to around $1,700.00 with Windows.

Edit: Forgot to mention that buying 3570K version for 10£ extra is a wise choice since the cooler I listed can easily handle 4,4-4,5GHz overclock, and it's very simple to do even for a newbie if you take a day of your time to do some reseach (it's basically increasing vcore, and CPU multiplier in BIOS; the board I listed has Click BIOS software which is basically BIOS in Windows environment making everything that much easier). After all, it's ~30% raw CPU performance increase for little bit of effort.

 

[kevinwants2know]

Thank you, you've been very helpful. So, the PC itself will come out in all about $1,700 without the monitors. So you wouldn't recommend me going with another Graphics card ? I am planning to have 3 monitors. Idk if its called eyefinity, or SLI, or crossfire.

 

[hiti3]

Thank you, you've been very helpful. So, the PC itself will come out in all about $1,700 without the monitors. So you wouldn't recommend me going with another Graphics card ? I am planning to have 3 monitors. Idk if its called eyefinity, or SLI, or crossfire.

If you're going for teh 7970 you will not need another one.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been moved from the section Graphics & Displays to section Systems by Mousemonkey

 

[DarkSable]

Can I just throw out there that it looks like you're buying from a website that builds the computer for you?

Don't do that. They're going to take, between parts and assembly, about $3-500 off the top. If you buy the parts yourself, you get way better performance for the same price, and putting them together is actually quite easy. Look up the youtube videos on it by NCIX or Newegg, and watch them once all the way through, then go back and watch them again, pausing to follow the steps. It's just like LEGOs for adults.

(And if it's the warranty you're worried about, parts come with their own warranties - anywhere from one to five years to a lifetime.)

 

[kevinwants2know]

Thanks for the tip, and yeah was planning on buying it, but i think i should build it myself. Real quick, for eyefinity, dont you need a display port or something like that? Just wanted to know if this Monitor could work for eyefinity. -http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-vh236h