Mid Range Build (~$1200)

[ddbag]

Hi All

I'm in the market for a complete new system and made an account here to get some insight. Been about 3 or 4 years since I've bought anything computer related, so I'm out of the loop for the most part.

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

System will be used for moderate gaming (nothing crazy, Leagues, Counterstrike, TF2, and I'm going to check out some newer releases that I'll be getting like FC3, BF3, Bioshock, etc). Will also be used for downloading and viewing movies and music.

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

Looking around $1200 but I'm flexible.

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

USA, newegg.

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.

n/a

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'll be going with Intel. There are definitely some companies I prefer for certain components as they've never served me wrong in the past:

Memory: G.Skill
Hard Drive: WD
GPU: On the fence about this, always go with whatever has better performance (usually ATI)
PSU: Corsair

I definitely lean towards these brands, and don't mind paying a premium or whatever since they're trusted by me and I've been using their products for years, but I wouldn't mind hearing other thoughts on some of my picks if there's better alternatives.

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

n/a. everything will be brand new.

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

Running everything at default for the time being. My needs don't require overclocking.

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

Gaming at 1920x1200.

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.

As soon as I possibly can.

X. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?

Will definitely be purchasing a few costly peripherals, but that is not included in my budget.

Here is a list of everything I've gathered so far. click

Any insight is appreciated, hope I didn't break any rules.

Thanks

 

[Essence_of_War]

$83 for 8 GB of RAM is incredibly overpriced...do you 100% have to have G.Skill?

Generally speaking, I'm seeing a bunch of small/subtle overpayments.

I might try this:
RAM - 2x4GB RAM - Team Vulcan - $53
SSD - 120 GB Samsung Evo - $99
CPU+MoBo i5-4670K + Gigabye GA-Z87M-D3H - $335
Sapphire 7970 - $280 AR, shipped
Corsair TX650 - $60 AR, shipped, promo. OR (possibly even better, a re-branded SeaSonic for $10 more) XFX Pro 650W - $70 AR
HDD looks fine.
Samsung Optical Drive - only $14!
Obsidian 350D - $75 on amazon warehouse deal

If you're not OC'ing, that should be good, but if you might want to OC later, I'd toss in something like the 212 Evo for $34

That comes to $950 w/ the cooler, which is fine as it is, or you could make some upgrades to push higher into your budget. Things that jump out to me are larger SSD (maybe 250 GB so that you could comfortably add a few games), or a crazier GPU but even that's kind of hard. The GTX 770 is more expensive, but it isn't $120 better than a 7970, and the GTX 780 is outside of your budget.

 

[ddbag]

$83 for 8 GB of RAM is incredibly overpriced...do you 100% have to have G.Skill?

Generally speaking, I'm seeing a bunch of small/subtle overpayments.

I might try this:
RAM - 2x4GB RAM - Team Vulcan - $53
SSD - 120 GB Samsung Evo - $99
CPU+MoBo i5-4670K + Gigabye GA-Z87M-D3H - $335
Sapphire 7970 - $280 AR, shipped
Corsair TX650 - $60 AR, shipped, promo. OR (possibly even better, a re-branded SeaSonic for $10 more) XFX Pro 650W - $70 AR
HDD looks fine.
Samsung Optical Drive - only $14!
Obsidian 350D - $75 on amazon warehouse deal

If you're not OC'ing, that should be good, but if you might want to OC later, I'd toss in something like the 212 Evo for $34

That comes to $950 w/ the cooler, which is fine as it is, or you could make some upgrades to push higher into your budget. Things that jump out to me are larger SSD (maybe 250 GB so that you could comfortably add a few games), or a crazier GPU but even that's kind of hard. The GTX 770 is more expensive, but it isn't $120 better than a 7970, and the GTX 780 is outside of your budget.

Thanks for replying! Replaced some components with the cheaper ones you linked. Few things I'm curious about. Any differences between the mobo that's bundled and the one in my link? Other than price of course.

For the RAM I just went with this. Came up to $55 after the discount, purely for superficial reasons (prefer blue o _ o). Should be fine though, right?

The Corsair PSU you recommended would be a much better deal, but if I personally preferred a modular one, would the extra cash be justified? I'm a little neurotic about my gear and would simply prefer to have less wires in my system (molex adapters totally ruin my day). To be honest I do not mind paying more in order to satiate my ridiculous aesthetic preferences.

I do already have a case on the way, got the Fractal R4, so I suppose all the extra wiring could simply be managed with the room behind it. idk

As far as the GPU goes, while I do I think it is a good idea to get top of the line, looking at the GTX 780 I feel like it's a little too crazy for me. 7970 should be just fine for my needs I'm thinking, while also being able to last a few years?

Thanks again for helping me out, also if anyone's interested I'm also getting some audio equipment to go along with my system. Getting a Fiio E10 amp to go with my M50s and looking into some Audioengine A5+s. Feel free to shoot other ideas out!

Edited for language.

mfenn
General Hardware Mod

 

[Termie]

The suggestions Essence of War gave are great. I agree that the HD7970 is the right choice right now. No reason to consider anything else given your budget.

I am a big fan of modular cables, so I'd personally say it's worth paying more for, but you have a huge case, so it's not like you won't be able to hide the extra cables. If you do want to go modular, Newegg has an awesome deal on the Corsair HX750 Gold right now ($90AR).

By the way, if you're not overclocking, I'd consider getting a 4570 and an H87 board. That will save you about $40.

Oh, and while I've always gone with Corsair/G.Skill/Samsung for memory, my most recent build had some Team memory, because it was cheap. And it works just fine.

 

[Essence_of_War]

Your RAM choice looks good to me.

As far as MoBo goes, it's a question of features. The biggest difference between the original one you picked out and the one I suggested is that the original supports 2-way Crossfire and SLI. Unless you plan on using one of these multi-gpu solutions, it's a wasted feature. At your gaming resolution, and your budget range, I'd say it's a solution/feature in search of a problem Other than that, the nicer one has eSata ports (of very little value IMHO unless you have specific peripherals to re-use, since both also have USB 3.0) and DP out for the igpu (also of fairly low value since you're using a dgpu anyway). They both have the important stuff: at least 1 sata 6Gb/s port for your SSD, USB 3.0 support, at least 1x16 PCI 3.0 slot for your dgpu.

For PSU modularity, it's sort of a toss up. If you have a high-end discrete GPU (like the 7970), and HDD, an SSD, and an optical drive, you're going to use a bunch of connectors anyway, so I'd wager that the tidiness of your case will have more to do with your ability to cable-manage than with the ability to physically remove PSU cables. YMMV though. If you wanted a modular PSU, the XFX I linked to is semi-modular (remember, you're probably using all the pci connectors anyway) and as I mentioned, a re-branded SeaSonic, so of very high quality.

Fractal R4 is an excellent case. Good choice!

I am in complete agreement with you on the GPU. I felt I should mention the 770 and 780 as potential upgrade options just so that you knew that I'd thought about it, but as I said, the 770 def isn't $120 better, and the $780 assuredly isn't $350 better than the 7970. Especially not if you're gaming at 1920x1200.

If you do want to spend a bit more, I really do think it's worth it to spring for the 250 GB SSD. Any of the SanDisk Ultra Plus, Samsung 840, Samsung 840 Evo, or crucial m500 would be great choices. The extra capacity gives you enough room for OS, a ton of applications, whatever games you're currently playing most, etc. You could also consider a somewhat larger storage drive if you have a huge movie/video/game library. Seagate Barracuda's have good prices on 2 TB models . Or you could add a 2nd 1 TB drive and separate your games from your music/movies.

I know absolutely nothing about high-end audio, so I'll leave that to my betters, just don't get too many gold-plated cables

 

[Essence_of_War]

Here's an example of what termie suggested for CPU+MoBo:

AsRock H87 Pro4 - $88 shipped, after promo
i5-4570 for $190 shipped, after promo
= $280, ~$55 less than the unlocked chip w/ OC board.

You miss none of the important motherboard features. And if you're not OC'ing, the CPU is likely to be indistinguishable from the i5-4670k.

 

[mfenn]

Excellent recommendations and reasoning by Essence and Termie. :thumbsup:

 

[ddbag]

Okay awesome, thanks everybody!

Here's my slightly updated build. Ended up staying with the i4670k since I'd like to keep my options for overclocking open in the future. Went with the modular Corsair 750w since it was on sale and I personally prefer it. Upgraded the SSD size since you made a very good point. Will be running OS, games, etc on the SSD and have a 1tb WD Blue for the system and 2tb WD Green for storage.

I'm curious though, I currently have a 7770. I hear ATI are soon to release their 9000 line around October. I'm debating on using the 7770 until then, as it would be a bummer to shell out the cash for the 7970 only to have a better card come out. What do you guys think?

 

[Termie]

Okay awesome, thanks everybody!

Here's my slightly updated build. Ended up staying with the i4670k since I'd like to keep my options for overclocking open in the future. Went with the modular Corsair 750w since it was on sale and I personally prefer it. Upgraded the SSD size since you made a very good point. Will be running OS, games, etc on the SSD and have a 1tb WD Blue for the system and 2tb WD Green for storage.

I'm curious though, I currently have a 7770. I hear ATI are soon to release their 9000 line around October. I'm debating on using the 7770 until then, as it would be a bummer to shell out the cash for the 7970 only to have a better card come out. What do you guys think?

There will be a better card than the 7970, but it won't cost $280. So you can either roll the dice and hope that 7970s are still around for $280, which I'm betting they won't be, or pick one up now. AMD, unlike Nvidia, clears out its older cards at bargain prices prior to the launch of new ones.