Gaming rig: ~$1K budget, 6-year upgrade cycle

[rdp6]

1. PC will be used for gaming, especially Bioshock Infinite. Don't know what other games will be played (this is for my wife's brother - he is also a fan of Half Life 2 series and Doom 3 and command & conquer). His current rig has lasted him nearly 6 years and would probably expect the same of a $1K replacement. Reason for upgrade is that his rig is pretty much at the minimum requirements for Bioshock Infinite, except he is running XP. It doesn't make sense to install Win7 on the same hardware when it is pretty much time to upgrade.

2. Budget is $1K, give or take.

3. Ordering from the USA.

4. Amazon (I have Prime), Newegg, whatever. I am within driving distance of a Microcenter, but not a Fry's.

5. No brand preference. Reliability / stability is preferred; a tech support visit is a 100 mile trip each way. AMD's video games packins are nice to have if an AMD card is the best choice for the application listed in (1) and are reliable & stable. I am personally unaware of AMD or NVidia's driver issues having been using a mac at home and IT dept. - managed PCs at work for nearly 7 years now.

6. I would like to re-use whatever makes sense. It has been six years since I specced out and built a computer, so I am not certain if the existing power supply even has the correct connectors for current video cards and motherboards. With that said, here's the current rig:

Video card: EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR 8800GTS
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 P965 775
Case: COOLERMASTER CAC-T05-UW
PSU: SILVERSTONE|SST-ST65ZF 650W
CPU: INTEL|C2D E6600 2.4G 775 4M
Memory: 1Gx2|G.SK F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ
HDD : 320G|ST 7K 16M SATA2 ST3320620AS (I don't want to re-use this, 6 years is probably too long as it is!)
DVD : BURN LITE-ON|LH-20A1S SATA (are PC games on BD-roms now / soon?)
Speakers: CREATIVE|INSPIRE P7800 7.1
plus USB wired keyboard and mouse (nothing special)

7. I delivered the existing machine at stock speed and overclocked it when my B-i-L mentioned concerns of the system seeming slow (this was a few years after delivery). E6600 was an easy OC from 2.4GHz to 3+GHz on the stock HSF; I'd like to be able to do the same again if feasible.

8. What resolution? Currently less than 1600x1200 on a 19" CRT; if the budget allows I would like to get a nice IPS or better LCD (open to suggestions)

9. WHEN do you plan to build it? By the middle of June; I have time to consider Haswell.

X. Already have a license for Win7 Home Premium. I don't know what is good for antivirus / anti-malware on Windows these days.

Not certain if I overlooked anything.

Thank you in advance =)
Bob

 

[lehtv]

I would strongly recommend lowering your budget and tightening the upgrade cycle. That's because you can get decent enough performance for less money, and upgrading sooner could allow you to have playable framerates in new games until it's time to upgrading again.

What I'd do is just set aside $150-200 for the PC every year, and upgrade whenever needed. Here's a good example: First spend about $700-800 on a build, and make sure to get a good case and PSU to last you a long time (5+ years). Upgrade the GPU for $150 every 2 years. Upgrade the CPU+mobo+RAM for $250 every four years (coinciding with the second GPU upgrade). These are the most expensive and most relevant upgrades, costing about $140 per year. The rest of the yearly budget should be enough for upgrades on peripherals, drives and other components.

If this doesn't sound good, consider a $700 build every four years.

9. WHEN do you plan to build it? By the middle of June; I have time to consider Haswell.

It's not worthwhile to recommend any specific components just yet. Bump this thread about 1-2 weeks prior to buying.

 

[Termie]

OP, I think we can give you answers to some of your questions now. Whether you buy Haswell will have to be decided later.

- The budget of a $1000 will buy a nice midrange rig once you consider the cost of an IPS monitor. Because this is meant to last for many years, I'd prioritize the CPU/motherboard over the video card, which is MUCH easier to upgrade later.

- For the monitor, I'd recommend the Dell U2312HM, which is a high-quality 23" 1920x1080 IPS monitor that often goes on sale for under $200.

- I don't think you should re-use anything in the old build, other than the mouse/keyboard, speakers, and DVD burner. Games have never shipped on blu-rays, and likely never will. In fact, most people buy games through digital downloads now (and that is how the AMD pack-ins will be provided). If your family member does not have a fast internet connection however, he may want to buy game DVD-ROMs instead.

- The PSU installed in that old system is curiously strong, although typically it's not recommended to reuse a PSU that old, so I'd pass on reusing it. You'll get a much more efficient PSU anyway.

So, assuming you have $800 left to work with after buying the monitor and using your existing Win7 license, here's what you should get:

(1) i5-3570K - $200 on sale
(2) z77 motherboard - $100 on sale
(3) 8GB of RAM - $60
(4) 120GB SSD - $100, or if your relative is not technically-inclined, perhaps just a 60GB or smaller SSD for Intel SSD caching provided on the z77
(5) 1TB hard drive - $60 on sale
(6) Case - $50
(7) 500W Power supply - $50

That leaves $180 or so for the graphics card, and if you're lucky, you can get an HD7870 for very close to that (there's currently at least one for $190 - need to shop for hot deals). The HD7870 is much faster than the HD7850 at stock, and with the 7850 2GB going for $170 or more, there's just no reason to buy it. A GTX660 is nice too for about $200, but doesn't include four free games like the 7870 does (including Bioshock Infinite).

So there you go - a nice gaming build for $1000, including the monitor.

 

[DSF]

How computer-savvy is your brother in law? If he can handle small issues himself, great. If not, you might be setting both of you up for frustration by doing a custom build for someone out of town.

Any parts by major manufacturers should be fairly reliable, but there's always the occasional bad apple, it's just part of the hobby.

 

[rdp6]

What I'd do is just set aside $150-200 for the PC every year...

If this doesn't sound good, consider a $700 build every four years.

This is the smart move, but my brother-in-law won't go for it. I shake my head, too, but that doesn't change things.

- For the monitor, I'd recommend the Dell U2312HM, which is a high-quality 23" 1920x1080 IPS monitor that often goes on sale for under $200.
...
(4) 120GB SSD - $100, or if your relative is not technically-inclined, perhaps just a 60GB or smaller SSD for Intel SSD caching provided on the z77

Is the monitor on sale at Dell or somewhere else? The SSD caching, is that pretty much automagic, e.g. total of one visible partition? Brother-in-law isn't tech savvy.

That leaves $180 or so for the graphics card, and if you're lucky, you can get an HD7870 for very close to that (there's currently at least one for $190 - need to shop for hot deals). The HD7870 is much faster than the HD7850 at stock, and with the 7850 2GB going for $170 or more, there's just no reason to buy it. A GTX660 is nice too for about $200, but doesn't include four free games like the 7870 does (including Bioshock Infinite).

Is the 7970 overkill at 1920x1080? Just wondering in case I find room in the budget.

How computer-savvy is your brother in law? If he can handle small issues himself, great. If not, you might be setting both of you up for frustration by doing a custom build for someone out of town.

Any parts by major manufacturers should be fairly reliable, but there's always the occasional bad apple, it's just part of the hobby.

I appreciate your insight. B-I-L is not tech savvy. Long distance tech support is an acknowledged issue, but we work through it - he is generally very patient (to a fault). Fortunately there was little to worry about with the last build. I think there were a total of 3 minor "tech support" visits with the last build, excluding delivery.

Thank you all =)

p.s. Does anyone have a recommendation for a brain-dead simple backup strategy for Windows 7? I am a big fan of Time Machine on OS X (not that I am haphazard with my data, it is just super easy to use). Something analogous to that for Windows would be nice, e.g. local, external-hard drive-based.

 

[mfenn]

Is the 7970 overkill at 1920x1080? Just wondering in case I find room in the budget.

I don't really see how you're going to fit a 7970 into $1k with monitor, but no it is not overkill.

p.s. Does anyone have a recommendation for a brain-dead simple backup strategy for Windows 7? I am a big fan of Time Machine on OS X (not that I am haphazard with my data, it is just super easy to use). Something analogous to that for Windows would be nice, e.g. local, external-hard drive-based.

Crashplan is pretty cool because it can back up to a local drive (internal or external), to a friends/family member's PC over the internet, or to Crashplan's data center ("cloud").

 

[Termie]

This is the smart move, but my brother-in-law won't go for it. I shake my head, too, but that doesn't change things.



Is the monitor on sale at Dell or somewhere else? The SSD caching, is that pretty much automagic, e.g. total of one visible partition? Brother-in-law isn't tech savvy.



Is the 7970 overkill at 1920x1080? Just wondering in case I find room in the budget.



I appreciate your insight. B-I-L is not tech savvy. Long distance tech support is an acknowledged issue, but we work through it - he is generally very patient (to a fault). Fortunately there was little to worry about with the last build. I think there were a total of 3 minor "tech support" visits with the last build, excluding delivery.

Thank you all =)

p.s. Does anyone have a recommendation for a brain-dead simple backup strategy for Windows 7? I am a big fan of Time Machine on OS X (not that I am haphazard with my data, it is just super easy to use). Something analogous to that for Windows would be nice, e.g. local, external-hard drive-based.

The monitor is on sale at Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824260055

The SSD caching, once you set it up, is transparent to the user. No need to manage two drives.

I would not get a 7970 for this build. That's an enthusiast-class card and would burn through half of your non-monitor budget. Not a good match for the user/build.