Girl gamer building a gaming pc. HELP ME!

[val4281]

Hi guys, valerie here, I know a girl gamer is a rare sight but they do exist! My xbox live just ran out and I thought its about time I join the PC master race. I have a $650 budget and my parents are willing to give me enough money as to increase my budget by 15% I don't game much being at university but since school ended I wanted to build something hardcore

I've searched the forums long and hard and decided its about time I make a post as I don't really understand any of this.

I've read the stickies and here are my answers:

1. My PC will be used for gaming and gaming only

2. My budget is $650-$750 and if you have to push it to the $750 mark, by all means do it, I want a total beast for my money

3. I'll be purchasing my parts from amazon and newegg, those are the only websites I actually trust, so if there are other places please let me know, i don't want to shop retail as its overpriced, like very overpriced...

5. yes I skipped 4 but im pretty sure 3 answers that. For brand preferences, I dont really prefer anything over anything but I am a long time to razethew0rld on youtube and this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIVGwj1_Qno has convinced me that I should get the FX 8350, it'll be hard to convince me otherwise, but if there are better things for equal or lower price please tell me. Also there is this other website I found where i have been comparing stuff, http://community.futuremark.com/ , and I'm also pretty set on either the nVidia GTX 650 Ti or 660, and again, if there is anything better please advise me.

6. I dont have any current parts except for maybe a windows 7 cd and an external dvd drive i was gifted a while a back, so i probably won't be buying a dvd drive

7. I don't know if i plan on overclocking it, but i probably will end up doing so.

8. resolution i probably will be playing on is 1920x1080

9. I'll probably build this beast in about 2 weeks depending on when I order the parts and when they arrive.

so there you have it. PLEASE PLEASE PLZ HELP ME, it would mean the world, I don't get to game very often and ive been really wanting to get on this PC shizz. i will be playing anything and everything i can get my hands on, bioshock infinite first and maybe some battlefield 3 later on

that is all :awe:

 

[mfenn]

Do you actually have a valid Windows 7 license? Just the disc doesn't do much for you. $100 matters quite a deal when you're in the $650-750 range.

Also, regarding the FX-8350 versus i5 3570K, the i5 wins in most games.

 

[val4281]

Do you actually have a valid Windows 7 license? Just the disc doesn't do much for you. $100 matters quite a deal when you're in the $650-750 range.

Also, regarding the FX-8350 versus i5 3570K, the i5 wins in most games.

Yes i do have a valid windows 7 license and i will look into the 3570K

 

[mnewsham]

first of all, welcome to the PC master race





Here is my first attempt at a build that will get you decent bang for buck.

Total: $687.92

Case
DVD/CD
HDD
PSU
GPU

Combo link (note the link is NOT currently working, however the combo is still valid and can be found by searching the combos page on any of the items individually)

CPU
Motherboard
RAM



A note on the CPU, Intel makes the best CPU's at this point, you can afford it, go with it.

Note on the GPU, Nvidia is nice, offers good software and drivers. HOWEVER, at your budget in order to maximise the performance/$ figure it really does make fiscal sense to get an AMD graphics card, while they offer less in terms of software, they do deliver on price. They are cheap in comparison to a comparable level Nvidia card.

Here is a comparison of the AMD HD 7850 vs. the Nvidia GTX 660

As you can see the 7850 and the 660 are a close match, the 660 edges out in some areas, the 7850 in others, i might give a slight lead on the 660 GTX. However the cheapest 660 is $180 (after rebate) vs. the 7850 being only $155 (after rebate)

If you are going to be using WiFi and not an Ethernet connection, you need to remember to throw either an external or internal adapter in.


If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to reply here or PM.



EDIT: If you want to max out your budget you could also add a small SSD as your primary OS drive, it will increase performance in all around desktop usage, and increase performance for any games stored on the drive.

With the SSD the build (in my cart) comes out to $757.91

 

[Sleepingforest]

The FX-8350... well, it's by no means bad, but you don't need that many cores or that much power for games. An i5-3470 or FX-6300 is "enough" for gaming and cost less than the 8350 (the i5 is better, but costs more).

As for the video card: you should probably be able to fit a 660 in the computer without too much trouble. A 660 is a good choice if you play primarily Battlefield 3. However, many other games, like Dirt Showdown, greatly prefer AMD cards, and AMD cards come with many games for free (including Bioshock Infinite!)

In other words, if you KNOW you are getting Bioshock Infinite, get it bundled now with a Radeon 7950 (which wrecks the 660). This build is pretty much at the limits of your budget, but since you were buying Bioshock Infinite anyway, think of that as $50 off (plus Crysis 3 and Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon):

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz($129.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 ATX AM3+ ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix sport 2x4GB ($46.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: WD Caviar Blue 1TB ($66.72 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($309.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 300R ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $748.66
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-25 23:15 EDT-0400)

 

[val4281]

Thanks for the help guys, I'm really looking into the 7850, ill probably downgrade to the fx 6300 and get the 7950 bundled with bioshock infinite. I've come up with a build in the past few hours but I do not know if it is anything special yet

Here's the build so far:

Eight core amd FX-8350 processor: $189.15

GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard : $139.99

Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (CMX6GX3M3A1600C9): $53.99

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 650 Ti OC 1GB GDDR5 2x DVI / HDMI / D-SUB PCI-Express 3.0 Graphics Card Graphics Cards GV-N65TOC-1GI: $129.99

WD Blue 1 TB Desktop Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64 MB Cache - WD10EZEX: $72.37

I'm pretty sure 6 fb of ram isn't good enough and people have been telling me I should get the WD black instead of the blue, what's the difference?

 

[mnewsham]

Thanks for the help guys, I'm really looking into the 7850, ill probably downgrade to the fx 6300 and get the 7950 bundled with bioshock infinite. I've come up with a build in the past few hours but I do not know if it is anything special yet

Here's the build so far:

Eight core amd FX-8350 processor: $189.15

GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard : $139.99

Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (CMX6GX3M3A1600C9): $53.99

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 650 Ti OC 1GB GDDR5 2x DVI / HDMI / D-SUB PCI-Express 3.0 Graphics Card Graphics Cards GV-N65TOC-1GI: $129.99

WD Blue 1 TB Desktop Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64 MB Cache - WD10EZEX: $72.37

I'm pretty sure 6 fb of ram isn't good enough and people have been telling me I should get the WD black instead of the blue, what's the difference?

well your motherboard is going to be dual channel so might as well get 2x4GB instead of 3x2GB.

I again would recommend going with the Intel i5, there is no reason to buy an AMD quad core for gaming, most games (read almost all of them) will perform better on the i5, and if you get the "K" version you can overclock it pretty far.


As for the harddrive, the blacks are a bit faster than the Blue drives, however if you get a solid state drive you wont have to worry about that as much.

 

[Torn Mind]

You want a pair of RAM sticks with the same size and speed so they run in dual-channel mode. I do not believe that 3 sticks of RAM will do that.

Also, 990FX chipset offers minimal benefit over the 970 chipset.

 

[Sleepingforest]

Rather than a WD Black, look for the single-platter Seagate Barracudas. Since it has less platters, it's faster and less likely to fail.

 

[RU482]

OMG

 

[Torn Mind]

As for the video, I believe it was testing the FX-8350 with xsplit, which streams the game video to somewhere. Naturally, the FX-8350 would do better in such a task since video encoding gobbles up everything the CPU gives to them.

 

[vailr]

This site:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/344-building-customac-buyer-s-guide-april-2013.html#custo_pro
would be a good reference point for building a quality system (in your price range) that could also function quite well running OSX Mountain Lion (as a dual-boot machine), if that might be of any interest.

 

[jaqie]

yes, we do exist. it's awesome that you are building your own! I started way back before ibm pcs existed.

I have that exact mobo. while it's nice, and I love amd, the best really is intel right now. for that kind of money look directly at the i5 and don't look anywhere else, that's the best for now. different story when I built mine, so I have a thuban amd. too much good advice for me to add much more than: You go, girl! the more of us building our own machines the better!

 

[FearfulSPARTAN]

Looking through the builds above, sleepingforests build looks the best, however you could probably fit in an i5 if you drop down to 7870 or a 7850.

 

[lakedude]

Thanks for the help guys, I'm really looking into the 7850, ill probably downgrade to the fx 6300 and get the 7950 bundled with bioshock infinite. I've come up with a build in the past few hours but I do not know if it is anything special yet

Here's the build so far:

Eight core amd FX-8350 processor: $189.15

GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard : $139.99

Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (CMX6GX3M3A1600C9): $53.99

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 650 Ti OC 1GB GDDR5 2x DVI / HDMI / D-SUB PCI-Express 3.0 Graphics Card Graphics Cards GV-N65TOC-1GI: $129.99

WD Blue 1 TB Desktop Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64 MB Cache - WD10EZEX: $72.37

I'm pretty sure 6 fb of ram isn't good enough and people have been telling me I should get the WD black instead of the blue, what's the difference?

MB is too expensive.
RAM is intended for a triple channel MB, as the others have said you need a dual channel kit.
Too light on GPU IMO.

 

[lakedude]

The FX-8350... well, it's by no means bad, but you don't need that many cores or that much power for games. An i5-3470 or FX-6300 is "enough" for gaming and cost less than the 8350 (the i5 is better, but costs more).

As for the video card: you should probably be able to fit a 660 in the computer without too much trouble. A 660 is a good choice if you play primarily Battlefield 3. However, many other games, like Dirt Showdown, greatly prefer AMD cards, and AMD cards come with many games for free (including Bioshock Infinite!)

In other words, if you KNOW you are getting Bioshock Infinite, get it bundled now with a Radeon 7950 (which wrecks the 660). This build is pretty much at the limits of your budget, but since you were buying Bioshock Infinite anyway, think of that as $50 off (plus Crysis 3 and Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon):

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz($129.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 ATX AM3+ ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix sport 2x4GB ($46.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: WD Caviar Blue 1TB ($66.72 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($309.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 300R ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $748.66
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-25 23:15 EDT-0400)

Nice, but a bit GPU heavy @ the stated budget level. I'm trying to talk myself out of buying that card to replace a 7850. Those games make the purchase so tempting.

Does the OP live by a Micro Center? Already have a monitor etc?

 

[xXdragonbatXX]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/T8nW

The 6300 and the 7950 are great for gaming. I've been running plenty of heavy games with absolutely no problems and phenomenal fps.

 

[val4281]

Nice, but a bit GPU heavy @ the stated budget level. I'm trying to talk myself out of buying that card to replace a 7850. Those games make the purchase so tempting.

Does the OP live by a Micro Center? Already have a monitor etc?

I live in Canada so I don't know if there is a micro center around here somewhere, and yea I have an acer monitor that I got very recently, I don't remember the specs on it and I don't know if I have the box still

Also that build is pretty awesome, thanks for bringing it to my attention :biggrin:

 

[bononos]

I live in Canada so I don't know if there is a micro center around here somewhere, and yea I have an acer monitor that I got very recently, I don't remember the specs on it and I don't know if I have the box still

Also that build is pretty awesome, thanks for bringing it to my attention :biggrin:

Microcenter is a US b&m store. Have you compared prices from Canadian sites like the ones here?

 

[kalrith]

Hi guys, valerie here, I know a girl gamer is a rare sight but they do exist!

Must be proven with pics

I'll go with what others are saying. IMO you should get an i5 and a 7850. If you want to upgrade the gpu in a year, that's much easier than the mobo & cpu. If you want something in between, then you could look for the 7870 LE, which is more like a gimped 7950 than a 7870.

I just looked at your resolution. Unless you have a 120Hz monitor, then an overclocked 7850 is probably a good match for that. Then, when the next round of video cards come out, you can upgrade if you want. A 7850 is pretty much guaranteed to hit 1050 MHz on the core, which should put it on par with 7870 performance.

Edit: If I say "7870" I mean the 7870 GHz edition (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125418), which is like an overclocked 7850. If I say "7870 LE", I mean the 7870 Tahiti LE, which also goes by 7870 XT (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202024)

 

[xXdragonbatXX]

Girl gamers aren't rare anymore. I've been once since I was 5(14 years)

Watch which seagate barracuda. I have one with a 500gb 16mb cache and my computer is slow slow slow because my hdd boots really slow.

 

[Sleepingforest]

The only reason I'm suggesting such a GPU heavy build is that the AMD CPU line should be easier to upgrade (due to staying on AM3+) and the fact that she wants Bioshock Infinite anyway, so getting a 7950 which basically saves her $50--it's not a $310 card but a $260 card.

In nearly every other situation, I would totally go i5. Unless you (other forum posters) think an i3 is a better choice than the FX (ironically, I've been arguing that over in the CPU forum, but this situation is a little different).

 

[xXdragonbatXX]

The powercooler 7950 is $250 on newegg and comes with bioshock and 3 other games. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...D=3938566&SID=

AMD saves money and i'm glad I picked it over intel because I was able to get a 7950 for my 1st build.

 

[ThePolarSky]

...

 

[mnewsham]

Watch which seagate barracuda. I have one with a 500gb 16mb cache and my computer is slow slow slow because my hdd boots really slow.

Looks like someone needs a SSD boot drive



As for the 7950 + AMD vs 7850 + Intel. I personally would prefer intel, but I do things besides gaming where intel's single core IPC is going to be most beneficial to me.

Think of it this way, intel is the really really fast at applications that use single thread (many programs are NOT made to support multiple CPU threads, but it is becoming more common within the past 3-4 years)

AMD because it has 8 cores, is going to be faster in applications that use many threads, however that is somewhat negated by the fact that the i5 is quad core (4 vs 8) so any program that can use all 8 of the AMD cores could theoretically give better performance than the intel, however each intel core is more powerful than each AMD core.

For PURE gaming, get the AMD and the 7950. Many games cant use all 8 cores, but the extra GPU power will benefit more for gaming. It's just not going to be a well rounded computer, it will be a pure GPU machine as a good 2/5ths of your budget is there.