Hardcore PC gamers, need your help

[Shini]

I would go with an Ivy Bridge i5 or Sandy Bridge i7 for multi-tasking
8-12 Gig Ram should be fine
Nvidia 660 Ti
Asus Mobo

You could get all that plus a decent case/power supply and a LOW Space SSD for your budget.


the 660 Ti is just under the 670 in performance, and it's about $100 less, so thats definitely a good budget buy

Also I'd do all your shopping on newegg or amazon

For n00bz its pretty easy, look for the parts with a crapton of good reviews, thats what you buy

 

[Shini]

Ok, getting close to the budget so I will have to stretch

List:

Graphics Card :GIGABYTE GV-N670OC-2GD GeForce GTX 670 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Power Supply :CORSAIR Professional Series HX650 650W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Processor : Intel Core i7 3770K 3.5GHz LGA 1155 OR i5-3570K

^ can get great deals on both, with the i5 being 100$ cheaper either way, will be around 230~ for the i7.

Hard drive : Western Digital WD RE4 WD1003FBYX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Enterprise Hard Drive -Bare Drive


So I need help picking a Motherboard to stuff all this in there, SSD? HALP! What else? Some type of cooling for the Processor? Moar HELP PLZ lol

SSD:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B009NHAF06


Motherboard:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B007G51UWY

OR:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B007RIFKTY

And I still say for your video card you should go with a 660Ti, this one is on the higher end of the spectrum available there are some cheaper ones out there from differnet makers:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008UG2W20

Heatsink depends on what space you'll have in your case TBH

Here's a budget one:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005O65JXI

Here's an all out one (they're only $50 diff)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002VKVZ1A

Your power supply and hard drive are both the things I'd get myself too and since you're "budgeting" I'd stick with the i5 unless you can afford the i7 and still make budget after the fact, the only thing I'd splurge on would be the processor. There's really no need for the 670, the 660Ti is really close in perforamcne, and it's a lot cheaper to meet your budget and give you wiggle room for the i7, because if it came down to it, the i7 vs the 670, you should get the i7.

Also, make sure you have good thermal paste. Arctic Silver or IC Diamond are the good ones.

 

[Do Work Son]

Picking up an 850w Thermaltake PSU on my way to the gym tonight for my PC. It's still possible that's my problem.

 

[mycrors7]

oh and before you build it.. discharge everything

 

[fr4c]

Mikey,

- Stick with the i5, no point in shelling out the extra for the i7 based on your usage. The stock cooler will be fine unless you plan on OC'ing so I'd stick with stock for now. For memory go with something thats on sale (OCZ, Corsair, Patriot), but if you can find some low-profile Samsung 8GB sets they're usually on sale on Amazon and are very good on OC.

- Go full modular on the PSU, you'll thank yourself later when doing cable management. I'm a fan of ASUS MB's so anything Z77 should be fine, really depends on your budget here.

- You don't need the WD RE4 you have listed, thats for RAID/Enterprise use. A regular WD Black will work just fine for gaming. Intel 520 or Samsung 840 gets my vote for SSD's, as I use them in all my computers and never had any issues. Corsair Force GT's are very good as well.


Heres my build for single monitor (24" Dell U2410) gaming. Runs everything I throw at it perfectly fine (GW2, BF3, Planetside 2).

Fractal Defini Mini Case
i5 3570K with Zalman CPU cooler
ASUS Maximus Gene V
16GB Corsair Dominator Ven.
Gigabyte GTX670 OC 2GB
Samsung 840 256SSD
WD Black 1TB
Corsair AX760

 

[Do Work Son]

Nice cable management there.

 

[Buferd]

I agree. Impressive cable management. My friends HAF X case had awesome cable management spots like that picture

 

[Do Work Son]

New power supply is in and the PC started. Looks like I need to reinstall Win8 though because it won't load. Doing that now before I reconnect my other SSDs and try doing anything useful.

 

[socal87]

That's something I definitely won't do...I'm holding off on Windows 8 as long as possible. If I could still get away with running XP Pro with contemporary games I would.

 

[Buferd]

New power supply is in and the PC started. Looks like I need to reinstall Win8 though because it won't load. Doing that now before I reconnect my other SSDs and try doing anything useful.

Good to know. It happens. I see it all the time where it just decides to (poof) stop working. I also see it more often where a user shuts a PC down and the power supply caps get time to drain and then when they go to get re-energized they just can't take it and pop

 

[Buferd]

That's something I definitely won't do...I'm holding off on Windows 8 as long as possible. If I could still get away with running XP Pro with contemporary games I would.

I love Win 7 TBH. I had a time for about 5-6 years where I went down the path of Macs and really liked them and still do but when we bought a PC laptop for my wife and I for school, when 7 had been out for a short time, I got to mess with it and was very impressed with the changes; so much that I went back to building my own PCs again (which I really love)

 

[mycrors7]

I can't wire for poop... That or I'm really lazy.
Just threw this in to show liquid cooling won't take up a lot of space.

Sent via a microwave.

 

[Do Work Son]

I tend to build quickly just make sure everything works, after it's up and running I'll go back and redo the wiring. It's important to get tangles of wires out if the way of your fans to keep air flowing - you'd never run a wiring harness all over your car's intake after all.

Win8 will definitely take some getting used to. I don't fully understand the idea behind slapping a tablet interface over a Windows GUI - either nix it or redo the rest of the GUI to match. It's just jarring having to switch back and forth. Also if you're more a Google services guy than a Microsoft services fan then the integration will just be cluttering. If you're an avid Bing, Xbox Live, Hotmail, and Windows phone fan then tablet view is going to be a lot of fun for you.

 

[nouse4aname]

Windows 8 isn't so bad with multiple monitors where the desktop always shows on one and metro on the other. To get the windows 7 look back get 'classic shell' to get it back for free rather than the paid apps out there.

 

[nouse4aname]

SSD, get one in your price range. preferably around 120gb
id stay away from OCZ. me and other family members have had issues with their SSD's

Stay away from any ssd with a sandforce controller which was the cause of early ocz and many other brands' ssd headaches. In the vertex 4 line they've fixed that by acquiring Indilinx which had been used by intel.

Also look for MLC NAND if you want high performance and life span. The ocz vertex 4 and Samsung 840 pro use that. The non-pro Samsung 840 uses cheaper tlc NAND that has a much shorter lifespan. But that's a budget decision.

The Samsung 830 is actually a better drive than the non-pro 840.