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First Gaming Rig

F

forDafeet

Junior Member
Thanks for looking at my gaming rig! This is my first one and I would greatly appreciate any input. This build will be (hopefully) under $1700. Some things to know are that I don't really care for an SSD, I plan on OC, I'm using Windows 7, and I also plan on doing CrossFireX at a later date. Thanks for the help! Link to parts list is: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/forDafeet/saved/1U0Y

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($199.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X60 98.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($107.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($214.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card ($389.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Azza Genesis 9000 (Black) ATX Full Tower Case ($149.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Rosewill Lightning 1000W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" Monitor ($243.00 @ Newegg)
Total: $1653.91
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-07-05 21:58 EDT-0400)
 
A lot of wasted money here. In your price range you should almost certainly be going Intel.

- You don't need such an expensive motherboard or PSU. You could cut the spending on both almost in half. 1000W isn't necessary for Crossfire.

- If you plan on crazy overclocking that's fine, but if you just want to do a little hobbyist tweaking you could scale back the heatsink as well. $100 is almost at the point where you may as well just do a custom water loop, although that may not be something to do on your first rig.

- You can bring the RAM down to DDR3-1600 and save yourself some money. 8GB is all you really need for gaming anyway.

- Do you have a particular reason you don't want an SSD? The difference is definitely noticeable, and when you tighten up your other part choices you'll have more than enough money leftover to fit one.
 
Okay, I understand what your saying so what do you recommend? I had been looking at the i5-3570k but maybe I could get something better? I like the Rosewill Lightning but I'm willing to get a PSU that costs less.
 
Do you have a Microcenter nearby?

CPU Forget about FX8350, it's inferior to Intel in terms of gaming. Also forget about 3570K - it's last gen. Should be looking at 4670K (4C/4T) or 4770K (4C/8T). On this budget I'd get the latter.

Cooling How much are you planning to OC? Do you want just an easy mild OC that will improve performance a bit, or do you want to push the CPU closer to its air cooled limits? Since this is your first gaming rig, I recommend a mild OC because you don't need a big OC for gaming.

Motherboard, PSU and RAM Agree with DSF

Storage Good hard drive, but the missing SSD is just too obvious. One does not simply build a $1700 gaming rig without an SSD. Even a $1000 build should include one. If you've never used an SSD, you don't know what makes them so good, but once you get one ,you'll thank yourself for it.

GPU Definitely get NVIDIA for that monitor (I'd get MSI 770 gaming). You can do the NVIDIA LightBoost2 trick where you get zero motion blur even with the monitor in 2D mode. Plenty of info on this on the net, e.g. https://forums.geforce.com/default/...for-2d-strobe-backlight-crt-style-motion-on-/.

It could even be worthwhile to entertain going SLI right off the bat in order to benefit from that monitor as much as possible. A single high end card is all you need to max out a 1080p@60hz monitor, but 120hz benefits from up to double the frames which equals double the GPU processing power.

Case Doesn't need to be so expensive, although I understand paying a bit of extra for a case you think is better looking than any other. But I think we can find you a case that costs less and still looks good enough
 
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Okay, so here is what I'm thinking...

CPU - 4770k
Cooling - NZXT Kraken X60
MoBo - ASRock Z87 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157371
PSU - 750W 80+ Gold http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817182073
RAM - Idk, I wanna keep what I can oc to and I'd prefer 16GB over 8GB
HDD - Seagate 1TB
SDD - ???
GPU - EVGA Superclocked GTX 770 (The 7970 comes with 4 free games thoooooough) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130921
ASUS GTX 770 OC http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

EDIT: Yes, I do happen to have a Microcenter nearby.
 
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So how far are you planning to OC?

SSD - Samsung 840 250GB

You don't need 16GB of RAM. Having excess RAM doesn't make your PC faster, it's only useful if it's actually in use, and for a pure gaming PC, 8GB is enough.

Asus 770 > EVGA 770. Asus is on par with MSI.
 
Here's what I would build

CPU & Mobo 4770K + Asus Z87-A $390 @MC
Cooler Arctic Cooling i30 $40 @newegg (good for about 4.2-4.3GHz, very quiet)
RAM Team Vulcan 8GB $53 @newegg (cheapest and it fits the mobo color scheme 😉)
GPU MSI GTX 770 2GB $400 @amazon
HDD WD Caviar Blue 1TB $67 @amazon
SSD Samsung 840 250GB $165 @ncix
DVD Asus DVDRW $17 AP @newegg
PSU Rosewill Capstone 750-M $70 AR AP @newegg (ridiculous deal, must have!! this is worth >$100)
Case Corsair 500R White $75 AR @newegg
Monitor VG248QE $243 AP @newegg

= $1523 AR AP

A bit under the budget which is fine, this is just a 1080p gaming rig so no need to spend more. It's already a little overkill given the big SSD and the 4770K instead of 4670K, and the SLI support you may not use... but I think SLI is nice to have for a 120hz monitor. I would look into adding another 770 sooner rather than later in order to sustain 100fps+ even in demanding games, although some CPU bottlenecking may occur in CPU heavy or poorly optimized games.
 
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forDafeet said:
RAM - Idk, I wanna keep what I can oc to and I'd prefer 16GB over 8GB
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you mean here. RAM speed is not linked to CPU speed anymore, so you don't need fancy RAM to overclock the CPU.

:thumbsup::thumbsup: to lehtv's build by the way.
 
CPU 4770k @ $280
CPU Cooler NH-14 @ $78 or NZXT Kraken X60 @ $107
Mobo and GPU MSI Z87-G45 & MSI 770 OC @ $535
RAM I was hoping for 1866 but I've heard the Artic Cooling and NH-14 block RAM with large heat spreaders so idk.
HDD Do I need it with the 256GB SSD?
SDD Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB @ $165
DVD Asus DVDRW @ $17
PSU Rosewill Capstone 750M @ $70
Case Azza Genesis 9000B @ $150 (I like this case and I want a full tower and this is borderline super tower)
Monitor VG248QE @ $243

Total (without RAM and DH-14) = $1539
Total (without RAM and X60) = $1568

EDIT: Would the Patriot 3 Viper work at 1600 2x4GB, also for CPU Cooler how would this Phanteks fare? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...D=3938566&SID=
 
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Get the motherboard from Microcenter as well. That same Z87A-G45 is $100 at MC when combined with the CPU as it's $40 off of any Z87 motherboard (though I'd prefer Asus over it). It seems as though you deliberately picked the same brand mobo and GPU, but they don't have to be the same brand, it just doesn't matter

You should get Samsung 840 instead of Sandisk Ultra Plus. It's simply better (more reliable and faster)

You still haven't answered the question - how far are you planning to overclock? This is the third time I'm asking
 
lehtv said:
Get the motherboard from Microcenter as well. That same Z87A-G45 is $100 at MC when combined with the CPU as it's $40 off of any Z87 motherboard (though I'd prefer Asus over it). It seems as though you deliberately picked the same brand mobo and GPU, but they don't have to be the same brand, it just doesn't matter

You should get Samsung 840 instead of Sandisk Ultra Plus. It's simply better (more reliable and faster)

You still haven't answered the question - how far are you planning to overclock? This is the third time I'm asking
Click to expand...

Okay, the reason I want a MSI Mobo and GPU is that the MSI Mobo I picked has MSI VGA Boost which increases the power of MSI GPUs when they are connected with the MSI Mobo.

Sorry about the OC, I had written an answer to that question but I forgot I had erased it. I want to OC it to 4.6(ish)GHz
 
mfenn said:
I don't know what this means. Motherboards don't have speeds.

Also, why do you want a full tower?
Click to expand...

Idk that much but when you look at Mobos, it says like 2400(OC) 2133(OC) 1866(OC) 1600

Full tower has more room and I like that case.
 
forDafeet said:
Okay, the reason I want a MSI Mobo and GPU is that the MSI Mobo I picked has MSI VGA Boost which increases the power of MSI GPUs when they are connected with the MSI Mobo.
Click to expand...
That's an automatic overclocking gimmick. Don't bother. You can OC your GPU easily enough with Afterburner.

forDafeet said:
Idk that much but when you look at Mobos, it says like 2400(OC) 2133(OC) 1866(OC) 1600
Click to expand...
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3/6

Faster RAM nets extremely little speed gains, unless you have a specific program that specifically is bad for CPU prefetchers (AI, physics simulations), or blows out the cache (almost nothing on the desktop, but I would like to see Dwarf Fortress tested on a L4-equipped Haswell, to see), that you want to run faster.
 
forDafeet said:
Okay, the reason I want a MSI Mobo and GPU is that the MSI Mobo I picked has MSI VGA Boost which increases the power of MSI GPUs when they are connected with the MSI Mobo.
Click to expand...

From MSI website:
"VGA Boost increases the power limitations for MSI GAMING graphics cards when inserted in an MSI GAMING motherboard. It simply upgrades your Power Tuning and current limits allowing your graphics to boost to higher clock speeds when your gaming graphics get more intense and sustain maximum performance for a longer time."

Seems like it basically auto-overclocks the GPU. You can easily do the same manually

It also doesn't state the magnitude of this auto-overclock, it could be something like 10MHz for all we know, which is literally useless.

Sorry about the OC, I had written an answer to that question but I forgot I had erased it. I want to OC it to 4.6(ish)GHz
Click to expand...
Have you overclocked before? 4.6GHz requires a bit more work than 4.2 because you have to tinker with more settings to get it stable. 4.2 on the other hand is just increasing the multiplier, and that's about it
 
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Okay, I'll probably get the first Mobo you recommended then. For the OC, is there a major difference between 4.2 or 4.6GHz? If not, then I don't really need any heavy cooling and I could just get a cheap Hyper 212 EVO.
 
4.6 is 4.6/4.2 = 1.095 = about 10% faster

It won't make any difference for gaming as you're not going to be CPU bottlenecked using a single GTX 770 anyway.

212 EVO is fine though I'd prefer the cooler I originally recommended as it's quieter (but $5-10 more expensive)
 
No, but it could help. You will still get massive gains from the second GTX 770 even if you don't have that extra 10% CPU performance.

I would look at it like this - if you're sure you're going to go SLI, and you're sure you're going to spend the time and effort needed to get to 4.6GHz, then yes buy a high end cooler now. If you're not sure of one or the other, go with the i30 or 212 Evo. If you still end up going SLI and wanting to overclock more, you can always upgrade the cooler
 
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