Thoughts/Advice on my build..Thank You!

speef22

Honorable
Feb 11, 2013
7
0
10,510
Hello Community, I have been out of the homebuild game for about 8 years, and I am itching to get back in with a budget build to get started. I mainly game on my PC, so that is my aim here. I am very budget minded ATM with $1000-1100 being my target. All items I have selected are from Newegg as I trust them the most, and I am trying to get into their current 12/mo no interest program. Thank you in advance for replies and thoughts!! :)
-J

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit
$99.99

Corel Winzip 17 Standard - Product Key Card(free add-on)
0.00

BIOSTAR TZ77B LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
$99.99

Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model BLS8G3D1609DS1S00(free add-on)
0.00

EVGA SuperClocked 02G-P4-2662-KR GeForce GTX 660 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
$219.99

Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570K
$229.99

Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
$99.99

Thermaltake Black Widow W0319RU 850W ATX 12V v2.3, EPS 12V v2.91 CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
89.99

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with Upgraded USB 3.0
99.99

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM
$53.99

Grand Total: $993.92
 

g-unit1111

Titan
Moderator
The Antec 900 is outdated and lacks cable management. Thermaltake PSUs are not that great, and for the same price the Radeon 7870 GHz outperforms a reference GTX 660.

This is what I would suggest:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($51.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($295.66 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case ($92.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 600W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($22.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1103.55
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-11 14:02 EST-0500)
 

speef22

Honorable
Feb 11, 2013
7
0
10,510
G-Unit, first off sweet pic of the BBoys, one of my all time favs from WAY back! :D Secondly, and more importantly, thanks for advice! I have read the cable management shortcomings of the Antec, it seemed to rate high and looks sweet, but I'd go functionality over looks at this point, so Ill look hard at your case suggestion. How do you feel about the drivers with the Radeons? Ive got a laptop with the GeForce GTX 560M 2Gb now and it rocks, so Ive been impressed with nVidia, and I've read a good amount of posts regarding the driver shortcomings of Radeons versus nVidia cards. Ironically I can pull my old DVD out of the '04 build as its pretty close to that drive and save a little. My thinking with 850W PSU was future growth, but I guess I'd need to be looking at a better MB/GPU for better future performance anyway, so a PSU up grade could happen then. Hadn't really considered a CPU cooler with this lower end build, but @ 30 bucks might be a nice addition. I've also seen that the Caviar Blue vs. Black is really a wash in performance, is this true? If so another couple dollars saved!
Again, Thanks G!!
 

sanilmahambre

Distinguished
Dec 9, 2012
580
0
19,060
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/CScR
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/CScR/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/CScR/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H55 57.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-G45 Thunderbolt ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($152.86 @ Newegg)
Memory: Patriot Intel Extreme Master, Limited Ed 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($62.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card ($384.98 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Gamma Classic (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($45.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB/RSBS DVD/CD Writer ($25.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1232.74
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-11 14:51 EST-0500)
 

speef22

Honorable
Feb 11, 2013
7
0
10,510
Wow much beefier system than I would have thought 1200+ could get you....oh man its going to be hard to stick hardline to this budget with great ideas flowing in LOL I'll take a hard look at these specs....maybe combine with orginal to knock down total by 100+....thanks again Sani!! :)



 

MrSlavw

Distinguished
Feb 3, 2012
108
0
18,680
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($51.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($295.66 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case ($92.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 600W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($22.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1103.55
nice i like it to , the only option here is to buy maybe:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202004
7850 its nice to , and u can crossfire in a future , it will score about 30-40% more with two 7850s
 

speef22

Honorable
Feb 11, 2013
7
0
10,510
Mr.S, first off thank you for the time/effort(that goes for all btw!!) my old build from around 2004 had amd x850 in it, it was great, so I do have good feelings toward radeons, was mostly basing my questions about drivers on forum discussions i have seen. But given the number of posters here that went AMD seems like a solid choice :) amazed I can score a 3Gb card for under $300!
I think if I do go for a little higher end MB that I will pony up for the 850W and be set for 2 GPUs in the future and any other additions for that matter. It might be overkill for a year or two but nice to have the option for increase in power if needed. Back to shopping/dreaming!
Thanks again!


 

g-unit1111

Titan
Moderator


The Radeon drivers keep getting better with each release - 13.1 greatly improves on everything that the old drivers lack.

The thing you have to remember is that laptop GPUs and CPUs are nowhere near their desktop counterparts. The

Ironically I can pull my old DVD out of the '04 build as its pretty close to that drive and save a little.

Yeah definitely reuse anything you can to save money, I do that all the time.

My thinking with 850W PSU was future growth, but I guess I'd need to be looking at a better MB/GPU for better future performance anyway, so a PSU up grade could happen then.

Actually that's the opposite - GPUs are getting far more energy efficient with each generation, the days of 1KW PSUs are becoming less and less of a necessity.

Hadn't really considered a CPU cooler with this lower end build, but @ 30 bucks might be a nice addition.

Yeah you need one if you're planning to overclock.

I've also seen that the Caviar Blue vs. Black is really a wash in performance, is this true? If so another couple dollars saved!

All mechanical hard drives pretty much come off the same assembly line in Thailand. All 7200 RPM hard drives perform almost exactly the same - there's no real difference between any of them other than what logo is printed on the sticker. :lol:

SSDs are a completely different beast though as there's lots of different controllers out there (Sandforce, Bigfoot, Indilinx, LAMD, Marvell, etc, etc) and each one performs and behaves differently as the next drive.

I need to be honest , this build i have is a copy and paste from gunit-1111, I should have quoted it, sorry.

Hey, I'll take it as a compliment! :lol:
 

speef22

Honorable
Feb 11, 2013
7
0
10,510
Wow great reply G! Thanks! So nice to find a helpful, mature community that I can ask a question and with confidence know I'll get intelligent, thoughtful answers...and won't cause an all out fanboi flame war LOL :) thanks again all and keep the thoughts coming, my build is really taking shape here!
 

speef22

Honorable
Feb 11, 2013
7
0
10,510
"Actually that's the opposite - GPUs are getting far more energy efficient with each generation, the days of 1KW PSUs are becoming less and less of a necessity. "

I can see it now, won't be long before companies catch on to lower power needs and adjust prices accordingly.....so guess we can expect PSUs with lower wattages to become more expensive because they are 'High Efficiency' unit compared to higher wattage ,'wasteful' PSUs LOL :-D
 

g-unit1111

Titan
Moderator


Yup - they're already available like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182082

Or this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171075 :lol: