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Gaming Rig Advice ~ $1000-$1200

G

gorion

Member
Hi guys,
I need to build a gaming system for my girlfriend's brother.
I took a look at the excellent mfenn tips, but it comes a bit high if I swap the gpu with a 770 (read below).

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. Mainly gaming. The boy is a big fan of the Assassin's Creed serie, but he likes similar games, FPS, third person RPGs.

2. What YOUR budget is. Around 1000 euros. You can translate it into $1000 as the prices are often 1:1. $1200 with monitor.

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

4. IF you're buying parts OUTSIDE the US, please post a link to the vendor you'll be buying from.
mainly: http://www.amazon.it/
http://www.e-key.it/
http://www.drako.it/drako_catalog/index.php
http://www.monclick.it/


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. I favor AMD-ATI, my gf's Intel-Nvidia. I'd go with Nvidia for better compatibility with ACIV and girlfriend 🙂
Also the Gtx 770 bundle tempts him.

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

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds. Default.

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using? I was thinking of a 1080p monitor (24"). If you have tips on it as well they'll be well accepted.

9. WHEN do you plan to build it? Right now.
 
You left off number 10, "do you need a Windows license?" That's about 10% of the build, so it's significant.
 
Sorry, i missed it. Yes, we need an OEM license. Home premium or whatever it is called now would be fine. Thank you
 
Here's what I came up with, you could switch out the GTX 770 for a R9 280X if you can convince the GF to go along with it although since you do want ACIV anyways that's something to consider. The build is slightly over the $1000 but hopefully still do-able with a monitor:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4570S 2.9GHz Quad-Core Processor (€174.14 @ Amazon Italia)
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS7000C-AlCu Ball Bearing CPU Cooler (€30.64 @ Amazon Italia)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85-HD3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (€91.02 @ Amazon Italia)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (€65.51 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (€138.59 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€51.47 @ Amazon Italia)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card (€296.99 @ Amazon Italia)
Case: Cooler Master Force 500 ATX Mid Tower Case (€47.76 @ Amazon Italia)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (€56.50 @ Amazon Italia)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (€23.81 @ Amazon Italia)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) (€101.93 @ Amazon Italia)
Total: €1078.36
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-28 10:16 CET+0100)
 
That was a result of me not selecting the correct part on PCPartpicker although at second glance for some reason they don't have it listed for Italy, go figure. I would go ahead with the 4670 instead of the 4570S. Is the CPU cooler necessary? No, if you're not overclocking it isn't required I put it in there because while the OEM bundled heatsink will keep it cool the non OEM ones do a better job and are typically a bit quieter.
 
nsafreak said:
That was a result of me not selecting the correct part on PCPartpicker although at second glance for some reason they don't have it listed for Italy, go figure. I would go ahead with the 4670 instead of the 4570S. Is the CPU cooler necessary? No, if you're not overclocking it isn't required I put it in there because while the OEM bundled heatsink will keep it cool the non OEM ones do a better job and are typically a bit quieter.
Click to expand...

Actually given pricing at Amazon.it, the 4570S makes sense.

4570S 174 EUR
4570 192 EUR
4670 211 EUR
4670K 205 EUR

I would normally say to go for the 4570 in a B85 board, but its not worth the extra money IMHO.
 
Hi again guys, I came up with a new configuration following your advices.

Total is around 1025 (after some bargain-hunting) which would be acceptable.

Any comment?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...OEFrTlVxdmEzeXc&single=true&gid=1&output=html

Which is better of these 2?

I can find both at a good price...

MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX770 OC Gaming TF IV 2GB 256bit Dvi/Hdmi/DP PCi-E 3.0
http://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-Nvidia-Gaming-TF-Graphics/dp/B00D3XW8MO

PALIT - GeForce GTX 770 2 GB GDDR5 Pci-E DVI-I Dual Link / DVI-D Dual Link / HDMI / Display Port JetStream
http://www.palit.biz/palit/vgapro.php?id=2141
 
Between those two video cards I would go with the MSI, it has a far better cooling solution and overall a better build quality. Further commenting on the build though I would spend a bit more on the SSD and get a Samsung over the Kingston for a better controller and better overall speed.
 
Thanks, but i already purchased everything.

The gold PSU is ok, imho. After some calculation with the very high and ever rising italian energy cost (0,25) the payback is 3,2 years assuming average hourly load of 200w which seems optimistic
 
gorion said:
Thanks, but i already purchased everything.

The gold PSU is ok, imho. After some calculation with the very high and ever rising italian energy cost (0,25) the payback is 3,2 years assuming average hourly load of 200w which seems optimistic
Click to expand...

Optimistic? I think you mean pessimistic. 200W is way way more than the average power draw of that machine. It'll draw ~75W unless your friend is heavily gaming.
 
What do you mean by heavily?

He'll probably game 5 hours a day on average.. More on weekends.

I can always return the PSU (and the SSD) if 75w is the typical power draw
 
gorion said:
What do you mean by heavily?

He'll probably game 5 hours a day on average.. More on weekends.

I can always return the PSU (and the SSD) if 75w is the typical power draw
Click to expand...

Why would you tie the PSU to the SSD? The SSD is a keeper no matter what. "Heavily gaming" means an extremely intensive game like Crysis 3 that pushes everything to the max.
 
Last edited:
That was bad worded, indeed.

I mean that if I can return the PSU, I would return the Kingston SSD for the Samsung one.

AC IV is pretty resource intensive I think, but he'll play at fHD.
 
Ah OK, understood on the SSD. I don't think that AC4 is very resource intensive, even maxed out. My system, which is roughly equivalent to the one you're building (faster in some areas, slower in others) peaked at 150W while playing.

Note: I meant a daily average of 75W, in other words it will use less while idle more while gaming, weighted towards the idle.
 
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