First Gaming PC Build Plan

BigWiggly

Honorable
Feb 20, 2013
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10,510
Hi everyone,

I've been on and off about building a gaming PC for a year now, but I've never been able to justify it. Now I have some extra money around. My original budget was $800 CAD, but after doing research I've put together this build which will cost me about $1000 CAD. I already have a monitor, keyboard and mouse that I am very happy with. I'm looking for personal opinions on my hardware choices.

Motherboard:

ASUS P8Z77-V LX Z77 $120

CPU:

Intel Core i5 3570K $226

GPU:

Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 1200MHZ 2GB $227

HD:

WD 2TB Caviar Green $95

PSU:

Corsair CX750M $85

RAM:

8GB 2x4GB $48

Case:

Cougar Solution Gaming Case $40

Wireless Card:

ASUS PCE-N53 $38

 

drg889

Distinguished
Feb 4, 2010
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18,710
the HDD you have, WD Caviar Green, is typically a storage drive that people use to hold movies, large files, etc.

As far as WD's lineup goes, Black is for "performance," Blue is a "value" version of black if you will, Green is storage/energy efficient and quiet, Red is a NAS version that is meant to run long-term.

If you have extra money in your budget, I'd also toss in a SSD for a boot drive and also applications (i was previously using a 60GB 1st gen OCZ for years and it worked super well) and also maybe a WD Black or Blue drive for games, etc. Add an extra green if you have a ton of stuff to store. You can also go with other HDD's as well Seagate/Toshiba, etc. up for preference, WD just has that "name" for reliability i guess, warranty ain't bad too.

Everything else looks fine, I personally would want to spend a bit more on a higher level GPU just so it lasts longer, but yours works perfectly fine as well. Last thing, I'd add a new heatsink/fan for your CPU, keeps it cool and opens up any OC'ing possibilities as well.

 

BigWiggly

Honorable
Feb 20, 2013
2
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10,510
Thank you for the advice, I really appreciate your comment on the WD hard drives. That's something I never knew before. I might look into a Seagate or WD Black/Blue instead.
As for an SSD, I know I can always toss one in at a later date, so I think I might be best off waiting for the prices to drop or the capacity to increase a bit more. I don't mind the extra effort of reformatting the OS for it.

As for the CPU, I can't seem to find out if it comes with a fan. If it does not I'd prefer to find one that does in the first place.
Again though, a fan seems like something that would be a simple upgrade in the future if I felt like OC'ing.

I doubt I would bother OC'ing anytime soon because I am unfamiliar with it still. I might try it in the future when the CPU needs that extra boost to stay competetive.
 

drg889

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Feb 4, 2010
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No problem, and the retail box of the CPU should come with the stock fan. It works as intended and keeps the CPU cool to the "minimum." It can get somewhat loud sometimes if the CPU is heating up a ton, but yeah, you can always wait until you plan to OC and need a bigger heatsink/fan.