Hows this PC for gaming?

[techdude9]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.00 @ Vuugo)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($122.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB Video Card ($119.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Power Supply: OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($64.99 @ Memory Express)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($99.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Keyboard: Cooler Master Storm QuickFire Rapid Wired Gaming Keyboard ($64.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Total: $586.93
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-02 13:35 EST-0500)

Hey guys. I was just curious how this pc would run gaming, specifically the GPU. You'll probably question the PSU because it's OCZ, but the reviews seem good(atleast it won't blow up), its in my price range, modular (which is a must), and 600W which I will need as I plan to crossfire the 7770 GHz in a bit if it's an effective enough card. I already have an i5 3570k, 8GB G.Skill Ripjaws X Series, and a CM HAF 922. I play pretty much every game, and hope to be able to run high/ultra on Black Ops 2, Skyrim, Metro2033, and some F2P games on steam. The reviewers on this GPU seem to achieve this. I am also wondeing if this mobo is good enough to OC, as I will be OCing a lot, and if the mobo is stable. Thanks

 

[twelve25]

What resolution is your monitor? 7770 will play most games on high at up to about 1400x900.

I fear you might find it the weak link in an overclocked 3570K system, though. Based on the rest of your system, I'd probably be recommending a 7870 Tahiti.

 

[techdude9]

What resolution is your monitor? 7770 will play most games on high at up to about 1400x900.

I fear you might find it the weak link in an overclocked 3570K system, though. Based on the rest of your system, I'd probably be recommending a 7870 Tahiti.

1920x1080

And how is it a weak link? GPU's don't bottleneck. I also don't have the budget for a 7870. Doubt even a 7850.

 

[Guest]

Upgrade that Caviar blue hard drive crap to a black. Running on high and ultra in every game requires a beefy GPU at your res, I'm thinking more 7950 for you. Just advice.

 

[techdude9]

Look at what I linked. If I could afford a 7950, I wouldn't choose a 7770 and caviar blue.

 

[photonboy]

Do NOT CROSSFIRE!

You'll get micro-stutter. Any expert will tell you to get the best single-GPU card you can afford.

And yes, GPU's do bottleneck systems. If you bought an HD7870 and your games ran better then that means the HD7770 was a bottleneck. (almost any part can be a bottleneck at times. A hard drive is the bottleneck when loading data, a CPU can be a bottleneck at times, RAM can be a bottleneck if too slow, even a motherboard can bottleneck such as an HD7970 on a PCIe v1 slot.)

An HD7770 may be on the current-gen low-end, but it's still a very good card and there are many, many games it can run on high or near high settings.

I wouldn't recommend it at all for Far Cry 3, but it will play SKYRIM very nicely. As with any setup though, it's highly recommended to tweak for high frame rates rather than simply run a game at the highest settings.

*If money's an issue, then I have only two recommendations:
1) WAIT until you have the money for a better graphics card, or
2) Buy the HD7770 and use it for at least a year then sell it and buy a better graphics card.

If you got a cheaper AMD setup you could save about $100 probably and put that towards a better graphics card and that computer would be a better gaming machine overall (it's about balance).

On the other hand, if you're pretty sure you'd buy a better graphics card within two years then the cheaper AMD CPU would bottleneck things a bit.

**I know you thought you could just add a second HD7770, but again there are micro-stutter, profile and other issues and it's just not a good idea. My best advice for you is to wait and buy your system when you have the money to get what you want.

 

[techdude9]

Do NOT CROSSFIRE!

You'll get micro-stutter. Any expert will tell you to get the best single-GPU card you can afford.

And yes, GPU's do bottleneck systems. If you bought an HD7870 and your games ran better then that means the HD7770 was a bottleneck. (almost any part can be a bottleneck at times. A hard drive is the bottleneck when loading data, a CPU can be a bottleneck at times, RAM can be a bottleneck if too slow, even a motherboard can bottleneck such as an HD7970 on a PCIe v1 slot.)

An HD7770 may be on the current-gen low-end, but it's still a very good card and there are many, many games it can run on high or near high settings.

I wouldn't recommend it at all for Far Cry 3, but it will play SKYRIM very nicely. As with any setup though, it's highly recommended to tweak for high frame rates rather than simply run a game at the highest settings.

*If money's an issue, then I have only two recommendations:
1) WAIT until you have the money for a better graphics card, or
2) Buy the HD7770 and use it for at least a year then sell it and buy a better graphics card.

If you got a cheaper AMD setup you could save about $100 probably and put that towards a better graphics card and that computer would be a better gaming machine overall (it's about balance).

On the other hand, if you're pretty sure you'd buy a better graphics card within two years then the cheaper AMD CPU would bottleneck things a bit.

**I know you thought you could just add a second HD7770, but again there are micro-stutter, profile and other issues and it's just not a good idea. My best advice for you is to wait and buy your system when you have the money to get what you want.

Thanks for the reply. But my current PC is an Acer Aspire all in one, Intel Pentium G620 with Intel Family HD graphics, I need anything I can get and I have all these games I can't even run past the intro, or I have to play on the lowest resolution/settings windowed so I need something I can use now. I will def be able to afford a 7870, or hopefully a 7950-7970 in the next couple months. Do you think the 7770 will be fine until then? I could afford an EVGA 660 Superclocked like I was going to, but shipping and tax screwed me over, and that's without the mechanical keyboard. ):

And also, my friend plays Far Cry 3 on a 6xxx series on low-medium 1920x1080 smoothly. FPS's, (Even tho Far Cry isn't an fps) I can careless about highest settings, just 1920x1080. RPGs and MMO's on the other hand, I do. =P

 

[techdude9]

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/H2uD

How about this?

I might be able to get that without shipping and tax stopping me, but it'll be reallllly close. Can someone who's good at math make an estimate? Lol

EDIT: Btw I have exactly $650

 

[DarkSable]

Thanks for the reply. But my current PC is an Acer Aspire all in one, Intel Pentium G620 with Intel Family HD graphics, I need anything I can get and I have all these games I can't even run past the intro, or I have to play on the lowest resolution/settings windowed so I need something I can use now. I will def be able to afford a 7870, or hopefully a 7950-7970 in the next couple months. Do you think the 7770 will be fine until then? I could afford an EVGA 660 Superclocked like I was going to, but shipping and tax screwed me over, and that's without the mechanical keyboard. ):

And also, my friend plays Far Cry 3 on a 6xxx series on low-medium 1920x1080 smoothly. FPS's, (Even tho Far Cry isn't
an fps) I can careless about highest settings, just 1920x1080. RPGs and MMO's on the other hand, I do. =P

Go with the 7770 for now, and upgrade to a 7870XT or 7950 when you can afford it. (The 7870 XT is the best price to performance card out there right now, and will hit exactly what you're looking for - the 795will be a tiny bit more powerful, but has huge overclocking headroom.) Do not try to crossfire low-end cards, as it will only end in pain and suffering.

now to correct a few mistakes you made:
1) Of COURSE graphics cards can cause a bottleneck! This seems kinda obvious - if the CPU is able to process way more frames than the graphics card can push out, you have a bottleneck - i.e. the GPU is holding the system back. Any part can cause a bottleneck.

2) OCZ power supplies are known to be of pretty decent quality - they aren't the best, but they're good PSUs.

3) Caviar Blue drives are faster than Caviar Blacks - the reason people get Blacks is for the name and the 5 year warranty. (Soldier is dead wrong in what he thinks - blues are the newer, thus faster and more reliable, drives.)

Now two more points:

a) Don't buy that keyboard - it's ripping you off. Any non-mechanical keyboard should be no more than $20. With keyboards like the one you selected, you're paying for three things: 1) Lights (sometimes, and they're pointless anyways, as gamers need to pay attention to the screen, not their keyboard); 2) Macro keys (Again, totally pointless, as you can assign any key, such as the number pad or page up / page down set to run macros); 3) The word "gaming" in the name.

Mechanical keyboards are more expensive than that, and more plain, but they're like typing on a cloud of boobs.

Either fork over the money for a quality keyboard, or get a normal one instead of forking over the money for a normal one with the word 'gaming' in its name.

b) Since you play MMOs and RPGs, I highly, HIGHLY recommend you buy a 128GB ssd. Putting you MMOs on there will feel like nothing you've ever experienced - loading screens go past before you can read the text.

 

[ikes9711]

Here is the cheapest 7850 out there...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161426&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-Desktop+Graphics+Cards-_-N82E16814161426&gclid=CP2lpcDw3rUCFe9aMgodrQYACA

 

[techdude9]

Go with the 7770 for now, and upgrade to a 7870XT or 7950 when you can afford it. (The 7870 XT is the best price to performance card out there right now, and will hit exactly what you're looking for - the 795will be a tiny bit more powerful, but has huge overclocking headroom.) Do not try to crossfire low-end cards, as it will only end in pain and suffering.

now to correct a few mistakes you made:
1) Of COURSE graphics cards can cause a bottleneck! This seems kinda obvious - if the CPU is able to process way more frames than the graphics card can push out, you have a bottleneck - i.e. the GPU is holding the system back. Any part can cause a bottleneck.

2) OCZ power supplies are known to be of pretty decent quality - they aren't the best, but they're good PSUs.

3) Caviar Blue drives are faster than Caviar Blacks - the reason people get Blacks is for the name and the 5 year warranty. (Soldier is dead wrong in what he thinks - blues are the newer, thus faster and more reliable, drives.)

Now two more points:

a) Don't buy that keyboard - it's ripping you off. Any non-mechanical keyboard should be no more than $20. With keyboards like the one you selected, you're paying for three things: 1) Lights (sometimes, and they're pointless anyways, as gamers need to pay attention to the screen, not their keyboard); 2) Macro keys (Again, totally pointless, as you can assign any key, such as the number pad or page up / page down set to run macros); 3) The word "gaming" in the name.

Mechanical keyboards are more expensive than that, and more plain, but they're like typing on a cloud of boobs.

Either fork over the money for a quality keyboard, or get a normal one instead of forking over the money for a normal one with the word 'gaming' in its name.

b) Since you play MMOs and RPGs, I highly, HIGHLY recommend you buy a 128GB ssd. Putting you MMOs on there will feel like nothing you've ever experienced - loading screens go past before you can read the text.

The keyboard I linked is mechanical (Blue switches), isn't backlit (That would be the CM Storm Quickfire TK), and no macro keys. I'm paying for quality, and pure mechanical. In WoW, you can't bind macros to num pad or something so far away, I have them on my mouse. And I have a standard razer arctosa keyboard and I hate playing WoW with it because it's not mechanical. Probably the only way I wouldn't get one, is if I could get rid of it to afford a better GPU, but since I have room for it in my budget with a 7770, I don't see why not. :O

 

[techdude9]

If I get rid of optical drive, I could fit a 120 Samsung 840 SSD in the build.
http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/H2UD

Maybe I can install windows 7 with a usb?

 

[darkspartenwarrior]

The Caviar Black is actually faster, because it has dual processors, however for the price of a Black 1TB you can get a Green 2TB and since larger drive=faster drive(data density+all), the 2TB is the better choice all around.

Also alternatively instead of a dedicated gaming mech. keyboard, you can find one of the old IBM or Dell OEM keyboards that feel very much like a mechanical, you can even bind unused keys(F-keys/numpad) to macros.

 

[bryonhowley]

I have done Crossfire and SLI over the years and would agree get the best single GPU you can afford and forgo Crossfire/SLI if you can. The performance is just better and you will have less problems with a single card.

 

[DarkSable]

The keyboard I linked is mechanical (Blue switches), isn't backlit (That would be the CM Storm Quickfire TK), and no macro keys. I'm paying for quality, and pure mechanical. In WoW, you can't bind macros to num pad or something so far away, I have them on my mouse. And I have a standard razer arctosa keyboard and I hate playing WoW with it because it's not mechanical. Probably the only way I wouldn't get one, is if I could get rid of it to afford a better GPU, but since I have room for it in my budget with a 7770, I don't see why not. :O

Ha, my bad. I presumed you couldn't get a mechanical keyboard for that price.
As for getting macros on the numpad, have you considered using autohotkey or something like that? I can't speak for WoW, but for DDO it works great.

But yeah, just save up and upgrade to a 7870XT or 7950 - though I think you'll be impressed with the 7770 and blown away by how much the 7870XT offers for $220.

If I get rid of optical drive, I could fit a 120 Samsung 840 SSD in the build.
http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/H2UD

Maybe I can install windows 7 with a usb?

It's extremely easy to install windows 7 from USB - scrap that optical drive in an instant. There's nothing like having an SSD, and anyone who has experience with them will tell you that they'd pick a dual core cpu with an ssd over a quad core with a normal hard drive.
(That being said, see if you can get an OCZ Vertex 4 or Samsung 830 over an 840 non-pro.)

 

[DarkSable]

The Caviar Black is actually faster, because it has dual processors, however for the price of a Black 1TB you can get a Green 2TB and since larger drive=faster drive(data density+all), the 2TB is the better choice all around.

Also alternatively instead of a dedicated gaming mech. keyboard, you can find one of the old IBM or Dell OEM keyboards that feel very much like a mechanical, you can even bind unused keys(F-keys/numpad) to macros.

Do you have benchmarks backup up that the Black is faster than a comparable Blue?

That being said, don't go with a Green - it will not even come close to being faster. Yes, a larger drive is faster, all else being comparable, but the greens are "eco" drives - they run at a lower speed to save heat and power... at the cost of performance.

 

[FLanighan]

I once had an SLI setup (GTX 275) and noticed no microstutters whatsoever. Even if there is micro stuttering going on, its probably better than having consistently low fps.

 

[techdude9]

Ha, my bad. I presumed you couldn't get a mechanical keyboard for that price.
As for getting macros on the numpad, have you considered using autohotkey or something like that? I can't speak for WoW, but for DDO it works great.

But yeah, just save up and upgrade to a 7870XT or 7950 - though I think you'll be impressed with the 7770 and blown away by how much the 7870XT offers for $220.


It's extremely easy to install windows 7 from USB - scrap that optical drive in an instant. There's nothing like having an SSD, and anyone who has experience with them will tell you that they'd pick a dual core cpu with an ssd over a quad core with a normal hard drive.
(That being said, see if you can get an OCZ Vertex 4 or Samsung 830 over an 840 non-pro.)

The only samsung 830 is 512gb, and that's $400. What's wrong with the 840 non-pro? Reviews are great

 

[DarkSable]

Oh. That's a little expensive. (But a bloody good deal for a 512gb drive that fast - where'd you find it?)

Nothing's wrong, per say, with the non-pro840, but it uses TLC nand instead of the MLC that's in the 830 and 840 pro. The read performance is going to be similar between all of them, but the write performance suffers with TLC nand.

I once had an SLI setup (GTX 275) and noticed no microstutters whatsoever. Even if there is micro stuttering going on, its probably better than having consistently low fps.

Good anecdotal evidence, but the fact of the matter is that it's there; some people notice, and are bothered by, it much more.
But that's beside the point - crossfiring 7770s is not going to give better frames a second than a single, quality card. The only times when crossfire or SLI are something to be considered are when a single powerhouse card isn't cutting it. (Two 7770s are going to be LESS powerful than a 7950, will have microstuttering and driver issues, and won't even work in a fair number of games.)

 

[twelve25]

1920x1080

And how is it a weak link? GPU's don't bottleneck. I also don't have the budget for a 7870. Doubt even a 7850.

When you are playing a game, the GPU is doing most of the work. So yes, they definitely bottleneck gaming performance. Overclocking a 3570 to even 5Ghz is not going to get you more than a couple fps if you are running a lower end card, because the card will be limiting your experience.

@1920x1080, I'm running an overclocked 7850 and an i5 and I'm doing well with most games if I turn down MSAA. I kind of wish I would have bought a 7870 so I didn't even have to think about anything but clicking high or Ultra.

7770 is a very powerful card for the low budget price, but it's going to struggle at 1080p, plain and simple. If you are having budget concerns, A gtx650 TI is a nice compromise between the 7770 and the 7850. It's quite a bit more powerful than the 7770, but not much more expensive. Although, if you are really low on cash, spending $65 on a keyboard at the expense of an upgraded GPU is pretty silly.

 

[Outlander_04]

1920x1080

And how is it a weak link? GPU's don't bottleneck. I also don't have the budget for a 7870. Doubt even a 7850.

a 7770 is not that good at 1080p resolution

ditch the cpu cooler and the really expensive keyboard and you can easily fit a 7850 in to that build

 

[techdude9]

a 7770 is not that good at 1080p resolution

ditch the cpu cooler and the really expensive keyboard and you can easily fit a 7850 in to that build

And cool my cpu with what? I'm overclocking it...

 

[twelve25]

And cool my cpu with what? I'm overclocking it...

But to what end? If this is for gaming, an overclocked processor or even an underclocked processor will perform the same with a lower end (or even mid-range) graphics card.

 

[techdude9]

But to what end? If this is for gaming, an overclocked processor or even an underclocked processor will perform the same with a lower end (or even mid-range) graphics card.

Prob overclocking to 4.2Ghz, maybe more depending on if my mobo and Cpu cooler will allow me to. I just don't get why that guy told me to ditch the cpu cooler for a 7850, my cpu will prob overheat without even overclocking it. The intel stock cooler sucks.

 

[twelve25]

I mean, what are you hoping to accomplish with an overclocked CPU?