Attention Mid-Range System Builders - Updated 08/01/2015

mfenn · Jun 7, 2012

007ELmO said:
LehTV, can you rank the different brand/models of 7850s?

riversend · Jun 11, 2012

PNY RAM on recommendation from 05 June is out of stock at Newegg. Crucial M4 256GB on Newegg or Amazon is sitting at $215 as I am sure you are aware. Great resource, thanks.

Riversend

mfenn · Jun 11, 2012

riversend said:
PNY RAM on recommendation from 05 June is out of stock at Newegg. Crucial M4 256GB on Newegg or Amazon is sitting at $215 as I am sure you are aware. Great resource, thanks.

Riversend

The RAM looks to be back in stock now, items I recommend do have the tendency to go out of stock though.

007ELmO · Jun 13, 2012

Thanks for the updates.

mfenn · Jun 16, 2012

New update, taking advantage of some price drops. I swapped the case back to the Three Hundred Two and the SSD to the better-performing Samsung 830.

On a side note, this build is getting a little too inexpensive. What should I throw in for ~$50 that will make a substantial improvement. I'm thinking aftermarket HSF, but does anybody else have suggestions?

mnewsham · Jun 16, 2012

I would look at fitting a 7870 in if you could, I cant see much else adding much tangible performance.

fierydemise · Jun 17, 2012

Since you recommending a K CPU and an OCing MB an aftermarket cooler would be a good bet. Its also a very easy thing to drop.

Actually it might make sense to have two builds listed, an OCing build that looks like what you have now and a stock build which goes for a cheaper MB and non-K CPU and bumps up the GPU to hit price.

lehtv · Jun 17, 2012

Overclockability doesn't cost more than $50 or so. There's not really any GPU to bump up to until a $400 GTX 670. A no-OC GTX 670 system would be $100 more expensive.

Ken g6 · Jun 17, 2012

fierydemise said:
Actually it might make sense to have two builds listed, an OCing build that looks like what you have now and a stock build which goes for a cheaper MB and non-K CPU and bumps up the GPU to hit price.

An interesting idea in theory. Sometimes it might work. Right now, though, there are several sales on the overclockable parts, and not so many on the non-OC parts. It would take $160 to make the jump to a GTX 670. But let's try it:

i5 3550 $210
BIOSTAR B75MU3+ $70
PNY DDR3 1333 8GB $39
3-fan Gigabyte GTX 670 $400
Samsung 830 64GB $85
Samsung F3 1TB $80
Lite-ON DVD Burner $18
Silencer Mk III 600W $57 AR AP
Fractal Design Core 1000 $40 (OOS at Newegg)
Total: $999 AR

That seems to work.

Although I had to cut the SSD size to do it.

lehtv · Jun 17, 2012

You could even go for the MK III 500W for $10 less, it's easily sufficient. In exchange, an NZXT ATX case (for future compatibility). But nice build ken

. i5 + 670 + SSD for under $1K is pretty awesome.

mfenn · Jun 18, 2012

lehtv said:
You could even go for the MK III 500W for $10 less, it's easily sufficient. In exchange, an NZXT ATX case (for future compatibility). But nice build ken . i5 + 670 + SSD for under $1K is pretty awesome.

:thumbsup: I agree, that is badass.

007ELmO · Jun 25, 2012

mfenn · Jun 26, 2012

New update, very minor changes in HDD and SSD.

mfenn · Jul 5, 2012

New update. Big price cuts on several parts allowed me to get the 7870 into the build and still keep the whole thing around $1000.

The NZXT Hale82 in particular is a steal. Seasonic-built and modular for $50? Sign me up!

krnmastersgt · Jul 7, 2012

Didn't really notice the B75 chipset until recently, and for the price I was surprised to have not come across it before. Any reason you don't consider it for your builds mfenn? I understand it's missing a few things here and there but for a gaming rig I don't think those features especially matter (SRT, an HDMI port for the iGPU, SPDIF I think).

T_Yamamoto · Jul 7, 2012

krnmastersgt said:
Didn't really notice the B75 chipset until recently, and for the price I was surprised to have not come across it before. Any reason you don't consider it for your builds mfenn? I understand it's missing a few things here and there but for a gaming rig I don't think those features especially matter (SRT, an HDMI port for the iGPU, SPDIF I think).

No ram over clocking

mfenn · Jul 7, 2012

krnmastersgt said:
Didn't really notice the B75 chipset until recently, and for the price I was surprised to have not come across it before. Any reason you don't consider it for your builds mfenn? I understand it's missing a few things here and there but for a gaming rig I don't think those features especially matter (SRT, an HDMI port for the iGPU, SPDIF I think).

The B75 doesn't support overclocking. I want my midrange builds to be overclockable with minor changes (usually just adding an HSF), so that's why I specify the K series CPU and Z series mobo.

Seattle51 · Jul 8, 2012

krnmastersgt · Jul 8, 2012

For an update, the Crucial M4 128 GB is now $110 on Newegg.

mfenn · Jul 9, 2012

krnmastersgt said:
For an update, the Crucial M4 128 GB is now $110 on Newegg.

Thanks, updated the price.

krnmastersgt · Jul 10, 2012

Unfortunately for that price change, Newegg's server started automatically upping the price due to the increase traffic at $110, it actually rose twice and now sits on $125. Oh well.

Dominato3r · Jul 11, 2012

The Asrock mobo will work fine with a sandy bridge CPU right? (i5 2400 in particular)

krnmastersgt · Jul 11, 2012

Dominato3r said:
The Asrock mobo will work fine with a sandy bridge CPU right? (i5 2400 in particular)

Yes it'll be just fine, could buy a cheaper board if you're getting a non-K series CPU though.

mfenn · Jul 11, 2012

Dominato3r said:
The Asrock mobo will work fine with a sandy bridge CPU right? (i5 2400 in particular)

Yep, but like krn says, check out the H61 and B75 options for a non overclocking build.

Nitelite · Jul 11, 2012

Greetings!

This weekend I plan to purchase the parts for a new build. My budget is $1400-1700. I have a mouse, keyboard and monitor already. I plan to use a lot of the recommended parts mfenn has listed under his latest build but wasn't sure where the extra money should go. I plan to use the system mainly for gaming (RPGs and MMOs, though maybe some FPS). I also need a headset and would like a HAF case. I would like the ability to OC a little but nothing absurd. Where and what would you change on mfenn's latest $1000 system that would fit my budget?

Thanks for any advice and information. This is a wonderful resource and I am glad someone took the time to make it.

Ryan

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