Fresh Gaming Build

[bugcola]

Hi everyone and thanks for checking out the thread first of all and advance thank you on advice given .

Anyway i'm looking to build a gaming rig to play current and future games for the next 2 years ill say before an upgrade is needed. ( long shot i know).

Approximate Purchase Date: roughly and hopefully by the end of this month

Budget Range: $800-roughly $1200

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, 3D movies/games and video editing (youtube)

Are you buying a monitor: No currently have a 120hz 1080p 3d 50 inch tv. ( any users have a similar setup?)


Parts to Upgrade: Fresh Build

Do you need to buy OS: Yes, thinking Windows 8


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Amazon(preferred to save on taxes), Tiger direct, Newegg

Location: Hollywood FL 33021

Parts Preferences: Up in the air, hear mixed feelings on AMD or Intel, So far intel has won. Prefer Nvidia for 3D capabilities

Overclocking: Maybe ( always nervous of heating)

SLI or Crossfire: Yes near future unless its cheaper and more effective to use two cards over one for better performance.

Your Monitor Resolution: 50 inch passive 3d, 120hz, vizio, 1080p.

Additional Comments: Would like it to be at least 1 or 2 colors that match, sound can be medium but can handle something slightly loud..


I have a build i kinda just threw together tonight http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2l7IL

I know i need a cpu cooler, fans, and thinking if i should buy a sound card or not.
I did want to water cool the entire PC but that seems out of the question since the price is high atm, so any advice on the next best way cover great cooling would be perfect.

 

[Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 SLI is da best]

Okay, so I recommend you go with an intel core i7 for gaming. For LIGHT gaming, like minecraft, go with an i5. For video editing and watching 3d movies, you need a descent graphics card too. I'd go with a Nvidia Geforce GTX 780 SLI. I guarantee you, it will be really good for gaming and rendering videos without it taking 4 hours. You could also go with dual graphics card for double the speed, but if you are doing that, go with 2 Nvidia geforce GTX 675m or something like that. Unless you are a real extreme gamer who expect to get many fps on ultra setting on battlefield 4, dont go with dual GTX 780 SLI's, it's not worth it.

And you said you wanted two or one colors to match? That will propably be a bit hard BUT if you put some led lights in your PC you can get it really awesome and you wont see the different colors on the parts.

Peew. I hope this helped!

 

[ps3hacker12]

I don't understand why you are going for such a weak graphics card, if one of your main uses are gaming?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($319.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($109.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($57.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: PNY XLR8 PRO 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card ($319.99 @ B&H)
Case: NZXT Phantom (Black/Green) ATX Full Tower Case ($95.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Microcenter)
Optical Drive: LG UH12NS30 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - OEM (64-bit) ($94.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1308.87
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-16 10:58 EST-0500)

sound cards are really unnecessary, onboard audio on good motherboards are already fantastic

 

[bugcola]

Hey all thanks for stopping by.

I have been out of the loop with upgrades and new cards I kinda just picked one didn't think it was that weak.
I'm use to radeons its all I ever owned, but with having a 3d TV I want to make full use of that and NVIDIA has drivers to support that.
I could be mistaken but not sure if radeon can support 3d.

Edit: for the soundcard I thought the same but heard different feelings on that as well for sound. I will want/have this hooked up to a 5.1 Samsung surround sound system I use for my TV atm. Via optical cable, will the average onboard support that much.

 

[ps3hacker12]

AMD cards can also support 3D gaming, infact they can do 3D gaming, stereoscopic 3D, 3D bluray, 3D image editing, the lot:
http://www.amd.com/us/products/technologies/amd-hd3d/Pages/hd3d.aspx

the GTX770 would be the close Nvidia competitor to the 280X if you are an Nvidia fan

The GTX660 is a fairly old card now, and in comparison to new cards, it's not that great:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/783?vs=829

 

[bugcola]

I'll be damned, shows how long I've been out of the loop. I just remember NVIDIA being only 3d, I might rebuild my list from scratch to kinda lower the price and maybe get better components, AMD is usually cheaper than NVIDIA right?

 

[ps3hacker12]

I'll be damned, shows how long I've been out of the loop. I just remember NVIDIA being only 3d, I might rebuild my list from scratch to kinda lower the price and maybe get better components, AMD is usually cheaper than NVIDIA right?

Recently AMD have been offering fantastic performance per dollar, they provide more value for money, once custom r9-290 cards and r9-290x cards come out, I can't imagine many 780TI or Titan reccommendations anywhere.

 

[bugcola]

I wonder if it would be worth it to change to a AMD CPU to save cash to better upgrade the video card, like i said im working roughly with 800-1200, hoping to get some money back as its for *educational* purpose on my taxes =p

edit: looking at AMD website they mention 3rd party software to play 3d blu-ray and other things. Does it not come native to the cards or is a whole other program needed to just access the 3d on the card

 

[ps3hacker12]

Currently Intel's Haswell and Ivy bridge processors have a huge clock for clock and single core performance advantage over any AMD processor out there. If you are going for a high end build, an i5-4670k/3570k or an i7-4770k/3770k is what you should be looking at

 

[bugcola]

Currently Intel's Haswell and Ivy bridge processors have a huge clock for clock and single core performance advantage over any AMD processor out there. If you are going for a high end build, an i5-4670k/3570k or an i7-4770k/3770k is what you should be looking at

yeah thats what i was thinking lol my first build (currently on) was an intel quad and have great performance till now. think its 775 socket and ram is ddr2 so you can see why i need to rebuild lol.

I just think im spending alot of the Case but i have always wanted that case just looks sexy to me plus looks like it would make a nice water cool setup in the future once im done with college

 

[ps3hacker12]

AMD processors are great don't get me wrong, but at specific budgets

The FX8350 is a good compromise if you really want to save on the processor side. But again high end is where Haswell and Ivy are at.

 

[bugcola]

yeah thats true but i might as well go big or go home right haha. i could go the I7 and case and sacrifice say 8 gigs of ram for 4, drop the video card to a medium to hard core one to make it more cost friendly and that way leave me with room for future upgrades.

 

[bugcola]

Hey guys i went back into my first list and changed/moved and added new things, How does it look. again gaming rig

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2lruU

Also the case has alot of big fans with the option of a 120 on the bottom which i will get of course. but looking at how well the air flow is should i even bother with a water cooler for the cpu or just go all air and get a big after market cooler.

 

[bugcola]

Bump: also has anyone ever used the XS-PC brand water cool kits? how nice are they

 

[bugcola]

double posted

 

[ps3hacker12]

New thread time I think

If your planning on running those SSDs in RAID0, have you read about the impact it has in the lifespan of the SSDs?

 

[bugcola]

New thread time I think

If your planning on running those SSDs in RAID0, have you read about the impact it has in the lifespan of the SSDs?

might be time lol, and actually i derped alittle. I want my OS on the SSD alone for sure but want other items like wow ( forget how big that file is now) dota2 and a few others. reason for the 2nd ssd but 120 seems to small for big MMOs so might remove the 2nd and go with a hybrid or just a 1TB HDD. Plus i plan on doing youtube in the future so will need storage space for the video files.

and just to further expand my knowledge, i have never used any raid mode and how bad does it kill those anyway.

 

[ps3hacker12]

For only $5 more than 2 120gb 840 EVOs, you could get 1 XLR8 PRO 240GB drive plus a 1TB drive:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Storage: PNY XLR8 PRO 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital RE3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($55.94 @ Amazon)
Total: $185.93
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-17 11:16 EST-0500)

The XLR8 pro actually has slightly better for sequentialwrite speeds, but is a little behind in random reads

 

[bugcola]

For only $5 more than 2 120gb 840 EVOs, you could get 1 XLR8 PRO 240GB drive plus a 1TB drive:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Storage: PNY XLR8 PRO 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital RE3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($55.94 @ Amazon)
Total: $185.93
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-17 11:16 EST-0500)

The XLR8 pro actually has slightly better for sequentialwrite speeds, but is a little behind in random reads

that actually seems like a better deal, plus plenty of space for the OS and maybe a MMO or two on the SSD for fast booting