First mid range gaming built

[qmrneo]

I am building my first mid range gaming rig and need expert advice for it. I have gone though the sticky post and started some research.

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
Gaming and photoediting on 24" 1080p monitor and Benq w1070 projector.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
$1000-$1200

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
Canada

4. IF you're buying parts OUTSIDE the US, please post a link to the vendor you'll be buying from.
We can't be expected to scour the internet on your behalf, chasing down deals in your specific country... Again, help us, help YOU.

I am mostly buying the items from below links:-
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/
http://www.newegg.ca/
http://www.canadacomputers.com/
http://www.ncix.com/

5. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
nvidia, intel, WD

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
mouse, headphones

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Planning to overclock

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?
1920x1080

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Note that it is usually not cost or time effective to choose your build more than a month before you actually plan to be using it.
Within a week

X. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?
OS - win 7 premium or pro


I have started with below components:-


Processor (CPU) - i5 4670K @ $239 on tigerdirect.ca. Planning to order.
Motherboard
Video/Graphics Card (GPU) - Currently looking for GTX 770 ( also want to know which brand to go for).
Power Supply (PSU)
Case Fan(s)
Case

Memory (RAM) - 8GB
Hard Drive (HDD) - 1 TB WD $65 ordered
SDD - 120 GB - Crucial $82.99 ordered

monitor - 24" 1080p (gaming/photo editing)
Keyboard - basic
OS - win 7 pro - $75 ordered

Please let me know if anyone find a deal on the items.

Thanks

 

[lehtv]

Are you referring to the Attention Mid-Range Builders sticky, or the NOTICE - PC Builders sticky? Both of them are relevant here, but the you haven't answered all the questions in the latter so updating your OP in with the missing info would be great.

It seems you need a new monitor, keyboard (and possibly speakers/headphones?), but haven't included those in the budget of $1000-1200. Is there a particular reason you have a separate budget for the peripherals and the tower? Could you clarify what your total combined budget is for the PC, peripherals and, if needed, the OS licence?

Finally, could you rank those tasks in order of importance.

 

[mfenn]

So you have $977 out of $1200 left to spend, correct? You've gotten some pretty good deals on the parts that you bought already, nothing objectionable there.

I couldn't find any way to get a 1080p monitor and GTX 770 and overclocking into your budget. Overclocking capability has the least impact on experience, so I dropped that.

i5 4430 $195
MSI B85-P33 $65 AR
ADATA DDR3 1600 8GB $75
Gigabyte GTX 770 $360
SSD $0 - already bought
HDD $0 - already bought
ASUS DVD Burner $17 AP
Antec Neo ECO 620C $40 AR
NZXT Source 220 $60
Windows 7 $0 - already bought
Acer S235HL $148
Logitech K120 $17
Total: $977

 

[qmrneo]

Thanks mfenn for the details and suggestions for my first gaming built.
I thought a bit and planned to bring overclocking and future scope of SLI, increase the budget.

Yesterday, I ordered the components as below:-

ASUS DVD Writer
1*x*NZXT Source 220
Gigabyte GTX 770
Kingston HyperX Blu Black 8GB (as adata was not available)
Windows 7 Pro

ASUS VG248QE
WD Blue 1TB 3.5"
1 x Crucial M500
Logitech K120


Processor (CPU) - i5 4670K @ $239 on tigerdirect.ca. Planning to order.

Overcooking is a new territory for me. Could you please suggest below items keeping scope for SLI upgrade if needed. I can use $200-$250 max.

Mobo
PSU
Cooling

Also, do i need to change the case?

 

[DSF]

SLI is rarely worth it as an upgrade path. By the time you get around to buying a second card the performance bump is a fraction of what you'd get from buying a newer-generation card and it comes at the cost of higher power and heat, not to mention a more expensive motherboard.

I would strongly discourage it unless you intend to purchase the second card within three months or so, and even then only if you are playing at such a high resolution (1080P doesn't qualify in my opinion) that's it's a necessity.

 

[lehtv]

Okay, so it looks like your budget is higher than you stated. According to my counting, you've already spent about $1050 including the monitor, so if you can spend another $239 on the CPU and $250 on the motherboard, PSU and cooling, your max. budget is actually $1550.

If that's true, and you're set on the 4670K, then I'd get:

Asrock Z87 Pro4 $95 AR AP (ends today) (massive $45 rebate)
Hyper 212 Evo $30
Antec 620C $50 shipped recommended by mfenn

I don't think SLI compatibility is really worth it. With that mobo and cooler, you can get to 4.2 or so, beyond that it's diminishing returns.

 

[lehtv]

I would strongly discourage it unless you intend to purchase the second card within three months or so, and even then only if you are playing at such a high resolution (1080P doesn't qualify in my opinion) that's it's a necessity.

The monitor he bought is 120hz (well, 144hz), so technically it does qualify for SLI if you have massively nitpicky requirements, but even then you'd have to actually plan to buy a second card soon, otherwise you're just not likely to do it. A single GTX 770 will run most games in 120hz extremely well, not full 120 fps but it'll look much better than on 60hz

 

[qmrneo]

Thanks lehtv and DSF for suggestions. I am not planning to buy a new card soon, so seems SLI wont me much good right now for me, so dropping the idea of SLI and cancelled my order for Asus VG248QE.

So currently 1 components is remaining.

Windows 7 Pro 85.63
ASUS DVD Writer 21.18
Kingston HyperX Blu Black 8GB 98.3
WD Blue 1TB 3.5" 74.29
1 x Crucial M500 93.78
NZXT Source & GIGABYTE GV-N770 474.58
ASRock Z87 158.19 (mail-in rebate $45 have to apply, missed promo code)
Antec NeoECO 79.09 ( $25 prepaid card for newegg )
Cooler Master Hyper 212 36.15

CPU - will order i5-4670K soon

Monitor - ?

Total : 1,121.19 (with taxes)

Really appreciate forum expert contributions.

 

[NewYorksFinest]

Let me do this myself...I am trusting mfenn's math, ~$987.

Intel Core i7-4770K + MSI Z87-G41 PC Mate Combo: $320 (At Microcenter, not at Newegg.)
Cooler Master Hyper 212EVO: $30
8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600RAM: $80
EVGA GeForce GTX 770: $390
Antec 550W PSU: $70
NZXT Source 220: $50
Asus Optical Drive: $20

Total: $960

-The Microcenter combo is only available IN STORE (I think.)
-It does not include the monitor or peripherals.
-If you have a Microcenter nearby, they have the same combo with an Intel Core i5-4670K and a different motherboard for ~$100 less.

 

[lehtv]

Given that you're doing photoediting, you might want to grab an IPS panel monitor. For a bit less than VG248QE, you can find the Dell U2312HM which is 1080p, and for a bit more, the Dell U2412M which is 1920x1200 for some extra vertical space, and also performs a bit better than the little brother.

 

[lehtv]

-The Microcenter combo is only available IN STORE (I think.)

So you're suggesting he goes all the way from Canada into a Microcenter in the US, walks in and grabs the combo. Meanwhile, he orders the rest of the components from newegg.com instead of newegg.ca, ships them to some U.S. address a convenient distance from the Microcenter, and picks them up while he's visiting. Then he drives back home to the land of the polar bears, considers the amount of gas paid for and time spent, and goes "wow, that was definitely worth it!"? Right?

 

[NewYorksFinest]

So you're suggesting he goes ALL the way from Canada into a Microcenter in the US, walks in, grabs a the combo, walks out, drives back home to Canada. Meanwhile, he orders the rest of the components from newegg.com instead of newegg.ca, ships them to some U.S. address a convenient distance from the Microcenter, and picks them up while he's visiting. Then he drives back home to the land of the polar bears, considers the amount of gas paid for and time spent, and goes "wow, that was definitely worth it!"? Right?

Oh, OP is in Canada? I should really start reading the actual original post :smack:.

 

[mfenn]

Oh, OP is in Canada? I should really start reading the actual original post :smack:.

Yeah, alarm bells should have been going off in your head when you were beating my parts by a significant margin.

 

[mfenn]

Monitor - ?

Total : 1,121.19 (with taxes)

Really appreciate forum expert contributions.

What's your actual budget? I'm pretty sure you know you're not going to get a decent monitor on the $80 you have left in your stated budget.

 

[qmrneo]

i am looking something within $200. 1080p , 23-24", less ghosting and suitable for photo editing. height adjustable.

 

[mfenn]

i am looking something within $200. 1080p , 23-24", less ghosting and suitable for photo editing. height adjustable.

The number of monitors in the intersection of all 5 of those requirements is zero. This Dell P2314H is the closest at $210, but it doesn't have the quickest response time (not horrible though).

 

[qmrneo]

mfenn, I ordered i5 and Acer H236HL Bid.
Finally I have assembled my built today.

Though, I am facing issue in installing windows 7 on the SSD.

I have installed corsair m500 on SATA3_0, 1TB WD Blue on SATA3_1 and DVD writer on SATA3_2.

I have also configured AHCI in bios on Asrock UEFI. But when i insert the win 7 disc it loads the file and hangs and win 7 logo and nothing else is happening.

Please suggest is something wrong with configuration.

 

[mfenn]

What happens if you unplug both the SSD and HDD? It should go through the installation until it asks you to pick an HDD (which of course there wouldn't be any).

 

[qmrneo]

It asks for the boot drive to be selected and go to DVD writer. It then load the windows file and then stuck.

I did one another thing and it seems solved the issue. I did the ASRock settings reset in bios and then restarted the system. It asked for the boot the chose SSD and it worked. Though i was trying couple of other combination from morning but they dint worked.

Now i have installed all the driver and graphics and windows updates.

Its time for doing some benchmarks and components testing. What should be the good place to start?

 

[mfenn]

Glad you got it working! You can run Prime95, OCCT, and Furmark for stability testing.

You can also run 3DMark to get an idea of what your gaming performance looks like. Their Online Results Browser lets you compared your score to comparable systems. Some variation is normal, but you'll know there's a problem if your score is way off the average.