Building a New Computer, Need Help

[ION Kyle Rayner]

I am building a gaming a computer and need lots of help. Through researching I have come up with the I7 3770k for the processor and a WD Black Desktop 1TB SATA 6.0 GB/s 7200 RPM 3.5-Inch Internal Desktop Hard Drive Retail Kit for the HDD...thats about it :/

I have read that I only need 8 GB of RAM and not 16.

Also Video Cards confuse the crap out of me, I don't know what to look for. It isn't like processors where you can compare a number. (I'm sure there is more with those too, but I just know the Ghz and cores).

I also do not know what to get for motherboards and everything else.

Also I was wondering if Windows 8 is rockstar or if I should stick with Windows 7.

AAaand last question..Is NCIX.com a reliable store to get parts? I heard they price match microcenter and stuff, which would be amazing since I do not have a micro center around here.

Thank you anyone that helps. I want to hopefully build this by the middle to end of february.

 

[payturr]

You DON'T need a 3770K unless you plan on doing lots of video editing. Just get a 3570K. Yes, you only need 8GB, I recommend to go with Crucial, they're a trusted brand. With video cards, unless you're running multiple monitors, 2GB of RAM is good, and I can advise you on what cards are good if you tell me what games you plan on playing. Motherboard wise, you wanna go with a Z77 chipset from a company like ASUS, Gigabyte, or MSI. This is great for overclocking & those companies are awesome. Windows 8 is good, I'd buy it now before the price goes up - its performance increases over Windows 7 is worth it considering the current price. NCIX is a trusted site, I recommend to buy from them. Also, you may want an SSD for a boot drive - good for Windows. And, lastly, Cooler Master is awesome for cases & CPU coolers.
Hope I helped!

 

[ION Kyle Rayner]

Thank you for the quick reply!

I will probably be playing BF3, Diablo 3 and the new sim city to start. I want to to handle whatever the heck I want to play though.

I was looking at maybe getting a SSD, but they are so small for little space. Is it really good enough to get both a HDD and a SSD?

I MIGHT run CAD software in the future, and I wanted my processor to be rockstar for a while so I dont have to upgrade it in a few years.

I heard that I need to look at some kind of number with RAM. I cant remember what it was, but I do remember that the lower the number the better.

What is a decent price on Windows 8? I see it for $69.99 on newegg right now, but I believe that is just if you already have windows 7.

Oh, and yes, you helped a lot.

Edit: I think I may be able to get the 3770k for 229.99, thats one reason I was going for that one.

 

[computernewb]

you can max out diablo 3 easily with a mid range computer. BF3 on the other hand is very demanding. If you state your budget people can build you the best price to performance computer.

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi

As i say to customers in my shops who want us to build A GAMING machine for them...

You NEED to spend 33% of your TOTAL budget as a MINIMUM on the graphics card...

All the best Brett

 

[payturr]

If you wanna go 3770K, certainly go! Just make sure you get a good aftermarket cooler, the Intel stock one is GARBAGE. For the games you wanna play, a Radeon 7870 GHz Edition card, Radeon 7950, GeForce GTX 660ti or GeForce GTX 670 should suffice. I recommend these cards from companies like EVGA, XFX, MSI, Gigabyte, and ASUS. All AWESOME companies. Ah, with RAM you're talking about latency. If you get RAM with a 9-9-9-27 timing, that's good & should suffice, the lower the better, though. :3 The price you see for Windows 8 is an upgrade, the official install license is 140$ for Pro, BUY IT NOW because it's gonna go up over 200$ next month. And yes, having both an SSD & HDD is a great thing - I would run 2 HDDs, however, in RAID 1 - it'll set the 2 TB drives to look like 1 TB drive, and all the data written to one will be copied to the other, so if one drive dies, you lose NOTHING, you just take the dead drive out & replace it, and all the data will be copied over to the new one after you boot up, so you get a safety measure. Also, you can do this with SSDs as well, if you please.

 

[timil]

dont go i7 what a waste for gaming

 

[lazyboy947]

I'd go i7 if i had an extra $100 to spare, i mean gaming performance its not better but overall good for multi tasking etc, and nice to have it when its needed than not have it when it is. Win 8 to most sucks terribly lol I prefer Win 7 and call 8 Vista 2.0

 

[ION Kyle Rayner]

One person says Windows 8 is good, and one says it is like vista (bad). :/ any other opinions?

My budget is about 1300, but that is MAX, I want to spend 1000-1100 max(not including monitor/keyboard etc.)

If this 3770k doesnt price match like I am hoping it will, then the 3570k is the next step down? How far of a step down is that, and will my computer need a new processor in a few years?

Thank you everyone for the quick responses.

Edit:
Also after searching for each of those processors, it came up with a ton of different options for the same video card, just made by different comanies or something. If it is same card, why are there so many options? Do they have different specs or something?

 

[lazyboy947]

the i7 has HT which is not utilized in games, so the performance is the same for gaming but editing HT is used and is preferred over the i5.

Win8 loads faster than 7 as in boot times, they got rid of aero the transparency bars, got rid of the start button and taskbar, has the tiles, and the shutdown button and stuff is in the settings area hidden in the win tiles area and appears when hovered over from the corner, i find it very annoying, if they took wat they improved in from 7 like the boot times etc and kept everything the same it would be a great OS, but again then if they didnt change it no one would switch over from 7 to 8.

All gpus have different specs as for memory and speed, but its they have the same model number there a variation or the same to the reference design made by AMD/NVIDIA. For higher end cards basically AMD 7850 up and NVIDIA 660 GTX up i prefer ASUS for their direct CUII cooling design which is quiet, cools great, and has amazing build quality. A 670 GTX is usually the best for the cost in games like BF3, but a 7970 and maybe a 7950 will beat it, a 7870 or 660 gtx ti are a good compromise from high end and low end, there not mid end lol for their cost to performance there pretty good. A reference design 670 can be bought for like $340-370, where the asus,gigabyte are usually $400.

Most games prefer nvidia like bf3 and others but cant remember off the top of my head, AMD is better at eyeinfinity(AMD Only) or multi monitor display, and the 79xx series usually have 3gb vRAM which is used for high resolution multi monitor setups, and isnt terribly off against like the 670, searching benchmarks from sites against the other competition in games u play or editing programs u use to determine ur choice. There will be plenty of comparisons for the top tier nvidia vs amd like 670 and 7970 etc.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been moved from the section CPU & Components to section Systems by Mousemonkey

 

[ION Kyle Rayner]

Ok so I have decided to get these so far (the CPU depends on what happens with the price)

Is there a recommended motherboard? I saw a Z77 which runs for around 250, but I wasnt sure if I needed such an expensive motherboard, or if that is crucial to keeping the computer updated. Also what power supply will I need? I am guessing once the power supply is chosen, the cooling system would be easier to pick?

CPU: either the i7 3770k or the i5 3750k

RAM: Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer 2x4 GB

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=75533&vpn=BLT2KIT4G3D1608DT2TXOB&manufacture=CRUCIAL%20TECHNOLOGY

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130787&Tpk=02G-P4-2678-KR

HDD: WD Black Desktop 1TB SATA 6.0 GB/s 7200 RPM 3.5-Inch Internal Desktop Hard Drive

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Desktop-3-5-Inch-Internal-Retail/dp/B0046RE3M4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358214822&sr=8-1&keywords=WD+Black+Desktop+1TB+SATA+6.0+GB%2Fs+7200+RPM+3.5-Inch+Internal+Desktop+Hard+Drive

Drive:
I figure I do not need an expensive one of these right?

Samsung SH-224BB/BEBE Internal 24X DVD Burner -Tray, SATA, 1.5MB Buffer Memory, 16x DVD-R Read, 48x CD-R Write (OEM)

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4814646&Sku=S203-8592+OEM&SRCCODE=LINKSHARE&cm_mmc_o=-ddCjC1bELltzywCjC-d2CjCdwwp&AffiliateID=iFudSkud_Rc-GmqcCA8tD8aT7yS3TIC8VA

A SSD for booting: Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

I think this should be good enough?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148441&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-Internal+SSD-_-N82E16820148441&gclid=CPHPmNjg97QCFQ45nAod6EsA3g

Case:

Yaaa...I guess a coolermaster is as good as any, I wouldn't know, but that was a recommended case.

 

[iceclock]

whats ur total budget, and do u need os.key.mouse.monitor?

 

[ION Kyle Rayner]

without os key mouse monitor it is MAX $1300, but I would like to keep it around $1100. (doesnt seem to be floating that way after the video card and MOBO.)

 

[iceclock]

do u want monitor.os.+keyboard+mouse for 1300 i can make it happen

 

[ION Kyle Rayner]

That includes the other specs right? lol Give me what you got!

 

[iceclock]

yes.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/yD7k
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/yD7k/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/yD7k/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($184.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake CLP0596 88.8 CFM CPU Cooler ($46.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($124.62 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($74.98 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Sandisk Extreme 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($105.59 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($297.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 370 ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: XFX 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($74.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.98 @ Outlet PC)
Monitor: LG EB2242T-BN 22.0" Monitor ($129.98 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($84.99 @ NCIX US)
Keyboard: SteelSeries Zboard Wired Gaming Keyboard ($38.98 @ Newegg)
Mouse: Logitech G300 Wired Optical Mouse ($32.60 @ Amazon)
Total: $1321.65
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-20 15:51 EST-0500)

Base Total: $1345.67
Mail-in Rebates: -$35.00
Shipping: $10.98
Total: $1321.65

overclocking monster rig there. gotta blast tru zombies like butter