How is this build? Potential gaming PC/ 500

[linkgx1]

Sorry for not using pcpartpicker, but that website doesn't seem Microcenter friendly.

Intel Core i5 3570K 3.4GHz LGA 1155 Processor - 189.99 (Microcenter)
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB DDR3-1600 PC3-12800) - 39.99 (Microcenter)
Samsung 830 Series MZ-7PC064D/AM 64GB SATA 6.0Gb/s - 59.99 (Microcenter)
Thermaltake V3 Black Edition ATX Mid Tower Computer- 35.99
Thermaltake TR2 Series 600 Watt ATX Power Supply - 49.99/39.99 rebate (Microcenter)
Microsoft Windows 8 Professional 32/64-bit 1 User - 58.88 (Microcneter)/ friend giving me an unused copy of win 7
ASUS P8Z77-V LX Socket 1155 Z77 ATX Intel Motherboard- 84.99

Total: $459.83

This will eventually be a gaming computer, will add in graphics card later. In fact, there are some other things I can add later.

 

[djangoringo]

I wouldn't get a thermaltake psu, get a psu from corsair, the cx series, with 500-600w.
You might want the asus z77 LK, its better and it's 80$ with discount combo with the i5-3570k.
The capacity of that ssd, is too low in my opinion, either scrap it, or get one with 120/128GB.

 

[scottiemedic]

Newegg has a couple great deals on OCZ 120gb SSDs right now, but move fast...

 

[linkgx1]

I wouldn't get a thermaltake psu, get a psu from corsair, the cx series, with 500-600w.
You might want the asus z77 LK, its better and it's 80$ with discount combo with the i5-3570k.
The capacity of that ssd, is too low in my opinion, either scrap it, or get one with 120/128GB.

I was more or less thinking of using it as a boot drive. But I guess I can get a 120 gb.....

Ok, so a differerent power supply.

 

[djangoringo]

It will prove to be a better investment going with a 120 GB ssd, and you'll get a better value in terms of cost $/ per GB.

 

[linkgx1]

It will prove to be a better investment going with a 120 GB ssd, and you'll get a better value in terms of cost $/ per GB.

That's true. That way I can go just a few months on the 120 GB ssd.

Then eventually I plan on getting a better monitor and GPU. I hope ATI comes out with their new card soon.

 

[ingtar33]

you'll be handicapped with your budget... I mean intel hd 4000 isn't really up to par, or even gaming capable.

I think you should look into what's good "enough" for your purposes. for example, if all you're doing is word processing and web surfing and gaming on a 60hz monitor, you probably will never be able to tell you have an i5-3570k... i know i've built and played with enough pcs... the performance differences are literally unnoticeable at these usage levels...

scale the cpu back to an AMD FX 6300, amd motherboards run about 2/3 the price similar featured intel motherboards run, so you'll not only save money on the cpu, but on the mb. Get yourself a discrete GPU with the saved cash and game today. I guarantee even dropping just $60 on a stupid Radeon HD 6670 (with gddr5 ram) will result in a PC that will run circles out of the gate around the one you're cobbling together.

Not that a hd 6670 is much of a gaming card... but it's lightyears better then the joke that is intel hd4000 graphics. Eventually you can put a real GPU in the system, and as long as you're not looking at putting together some sort of 3 monitor display, with 120hz monitors you'll never know you don't have the i5-3570k.

now if you're doing some video encoding... that's a different conversation for another time.

 

[linkgx1]

you'll be handicapped with your budget... I mean intel hd 4000 isn't really up to par, or even gaming capable.

I think you should look into what's good "enough" for your purposes. for example, if all you're doing is word processing and web surfing and gaming on a 60hz monitor, you probably will never be able to tell you have an i5-3570k... i know i've built and played with enough pcs... the performance differences are literally unnoticeable at these usage levels...

scale the cpu back to an AMD FX 6300, amd motherboards run about 2/3 the price similar featured intel motherboards run, so you'll not only save money on the cpu, but on the mb. Get yourself a discrete GPU with the saved cash and game today. I guarantee even dropping just $60 on a stupid Radeon HD 6670 (with gddr5 ram) will result in a PC that will run circles out of the gate around the one you're cobbling together.

Not that a hd 6670 is much of a gaming card... but it's lightyears better then the joke that is intel hd4000 graphics. Eventually you can put a real GPU in the system, and as long as you're not looking at putting together some sort of 3 monitor display, with 120hz monitors you'll never know you don't have the i5-3570k.

now if you're doing some video encoding... that's a different conversation for another time.

I was planning on getting a gpu on like 2-3 months. Might sell my wii U for it.

 

[djangoringo]

It just with an i5-3570k in microcenter you get at the same price as a FX-6300 with mobo, for e.g. the i5-3570k+msi z77a-g41 combo totals 230$, for a fx-6300 it's around 130$ and a good mobo around 80-100$.
What he might pick is the i5-3470 for 150$ in microcenter + h77 mobo, it totals about 210$.
For gaming it's obvious he needs a card, but it depends on the wait, either get a good one or wait for the newer generation of cards that will come this year from both sides.
With 450$ budget, it's hard to get a decent one including everything on microcenter.

 

[ingtar33]

I was planning on getting a gpu on like 2-3 months. Might sell my wii U for it.

I understand what you're saying, i'm just saying that your future usage is important. If all you want is a gaming machine on 60hz monitors, you'll only ever get 60fps displayable performance... at that point getting an i5-3570k just so you can theoretically push out 120fps, vs the fx6300 with the same discreat gpu measly 98fps doesn't matter in the end.

with both systems all you'll ever see is 60fps. it doesn't matter what the theoretical max is.

The only times you'll ever notice the i5 vs the fx6300 would be doing "uncommon" tasks... like zipping huge files, or video encoding or something. You'd probably notice it in the rapidly dwindling number of games which are heavily single threaded cpu dependent... the games that support multiple cores however... you won't notice anything at all.

so what i'm trying to say is your budget is tight, so build to your needs not for bragging rights. If you have no intention of dropping $500 on a 120hz flatscreen monitor, but instead are happy with spending $150 on a 60hz flatscreen monitor, then you might want to look at lower cost options at CPU... as the human eye won't be able to tell the difference between the two.

 

[linkgx1]

I understand what you're saying, i'm just saying that your future usage is important. If all you want is a gaming machine on 60hz monitors, you'll only ever get 60fps displayable performance... at that point getting an i5-3570k just so you can theoretically push out 120fps, vs the fx6300 with the same discreat gpu measly 98fps doesn't matter in the end.

with both systems all you'll ever see is 60fps. it doesn't matter what the theoretical max is.

The only times you'll ever notice the i5 vs the fx6300 would be doing "uncommon" tasks... like zipping huge files, or video encoding or something. You'd probably notice it in the rapidly dwindling number of games which are heavily single threaded cpu dependent... the games that support multiple cores however... you won't notice anything at all.

so what i'm trying to say is your budget is tight, so build to your needs not for bragging rights. If you have no intention of dropping $500 on a 120hz flatscreen monitor, but instead are happy with spending $150 on a 60hz flatscreen monitor, then you might want to look at lower cost options at CPU... as the human eye won't be able to tell the difference between the two.

So I should consider an AMD build instead? Maybe that will be better. I'm a college student right now trying to finish up in the next two semesters, so I guess it will be better that way to get a cheaper build. I'm assuming (or hope) when I get a much better paying job then I can get the max I want. I really didn't consider the monitor at all. Hmmm. If I do get an fx 6300, then what graphics card is recommended?

 

[linkgx1]

My only problem with switching to AMD is that the AMD price isn't the biggest difference. My configurations still get me around a $600ish payout. Might take a little bit of sacrifices, but the i5 still seems like a great buy @ 180.

 

[ingtar33]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($129.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Silverline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($33.84 @ NCIX US)
Storage: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($118.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7770 1GB Video Card ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill REDBONE U3 ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Thermaltake TR2 600W ATX12V Power Supply ($39.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $537.78
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-22 23:32 EST-0500)

upgraded the ssd so you can put a game or two on it. the GPU is robust enough to be a gaming gpu for a while and not too expensive to make you feel like you just wasted money when you replace it in a few months (it's also new enough you should be able to resell it for a few bucks on ebay).

overall this will be a superior gaming rig right out the door... and unless your planning something interesting with your monitors you'll never miss the i5-3570k

 

[linkgx1]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($129.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Silverline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($33.84 @ NCIX US)
Storage: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($118.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7770 1GB Video Card ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill REDBONE U3 ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Thermaltake TR2 600W ATX12V Power Supply ($39.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $537.78
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-22 23:32 EST-0500)

upgraded the ssd so you can put a game or two on it. the GPU is robust enough to be a gaming gpu for a while and not too expensive to make you feel like you just wasted money when you replace it in a few months (it's also new enough you should be able to resell it for a few bucks on ebay).

overall this will be a superior gaming rig right out the door... and unless your planning something interesting with your monitors you'll never miss the i5-3570k

But I'm just afraid of getting something I'm going to regret. I feel like I'm going to comprimise just for the purpose of saving money, when the Intel will save me in the long run.

But if you say that I can resell it, then I guess I can sell it when the Haswell based CPUs come out in the Summer. Can this setup even run Far Cry 3? I understand what you say about the monitors but.. 30 frames per second seems low on some games.

I just don't like buying cheap, only to have to find out I need to upgrade not too long after....

 

[linkgx1]

Nevermind, maybe it'll work http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GZ-skZN_VU

 

[ingtar33]

But I'm just afraid of getting something I'm going to regret. I feel like I'm going to comprimise just for the purpose of saving money, when the Intel will save me in the long run.

But if you say that I can resell it, then I guess I can sell it when the Haswell based CPUs come out in the Summer. Can this setup even run Far Cry 3? I understand what you say about the monitors but.. 30 frames per second seems low on some games.

I just don't like buying cheap, only to have to find out I need to upgrade not too long after....

it comes down to your monitor. do you have a true HD monitor? if not then this will be plenty. Do you plan on getting a true HD monitor? if so you might want to update the GPU at that time... depending on the size of the screen.

The FX6300 will be more then enough CPU to meet your needs unless you're planning on sporting a 3 monitor system or something, or are planning on playing a lot of guildwars 2 (which has got to be one of the worst coded games ever, utilizing a single cpu core to render world pvp battles is an idea only an idiot would use, but apparently is how guildwars 2 works).

if you have a standard (non 1080p) monitor and don't plan on getting one soon, that pc will be more then you could ever use. And if you plan on getting an hd monitor, it won't be the cpu that will bottleneck you, you'll just grab yourself a gpu in the 7870-660ti-7950 range and call it a day.

But the point is, with this build you can respectfully game without spending another dime now. not months from now. and you'll be able to game with what you currently have.

 

[linkgx1]

it comes down to your monitor. do you have a true HD monitor? if not then this will be plenty. Do you plan on getting a true HD monitor? if so you might want to update the GPU at that time... depending on the size of the screen.

The FX6300 will be more then enough CPU to meet your needs unless you're planning on sporting a 3 monitor system or something, or are planning on playing a lot of guildwars 2 (which has got to be one of the worst coded games ever, utilizing a single cpu core to render world pvp battles is an idea only an idiot would use, but apparently is how guildwars 2 works).

if you have a standard (non 1080p) monitor and don't plan on getting one soon, that pc will be more then you could ever use. And if you plan on getting an hd monitor, it won't be the cpu that will bottleneck you, you'll just grab yourself a gpu in the 7870-660ti-7950 range and call it a day.

But the point is, with this build you can respectfully game without spending another dime now. not months from now. and you'll be able to game with what you currently have.

Well I have a 1080p TV.....Panasonic ST50 if that helps...

My monitor....meh....it's from like 2008 and I think it's a dell. I'll have to update you on it, but I don't its 1080p.

Yeah, I think gaming now would be good. I'm not really seeing any big games in the horizon that won't work with those GPUs you mentioned. I think I'll go with the AMD build.