New Builder Seeks Gaming PC <$2000

[boricua132]

Hello,

I'm a completely new builder so I don't have any previous parts to add in. I would like to build a complete Gaming PC for less than $2000, and while I can spend more, I would prefer not to.

I live in the United States and will likely be using Newegg.com to buy all of my parts. My only real preference is for Intel over AMD for CPUs because Intel is just generally better.

While the computer I will build will initially run default speeds, I will likely be looking to overclock it sometime in the future. I suppose now would be a good time to mention I intend to build this computer sometime in June.

I am looking to use at least a 24" monitor with a 1900x1080 resolution, but I'd like to see if I can't find anything at 26" and 2048x1566 or greater within budget constrains.

So, without further adieu, here is my current parts list.

CPU - Intel Core i5-3570K - $240
GPU - Nvidia GeForce 670 - $400
MB - ASRock Z77 Extreme6 Intel ATX - $170
RAM - Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-1600 - $45
HDD (normal stuff) - Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6.0GB/s - $100
SSD (game stuff) - Crucial M4 256GB SATA 6.0GB/s - $240
Optical Drive - ASUS DVD/CD Burner 24x - $23
PSU - XFX Core Edition PRO650W 80 Plus Bronze - $97
Keyboard - Corsair Vengeance K90 Gaming Mechanical Keyboard- $130
Mouse - Logitech G400 - $40
Case - Rosewill Blackhawk Gaming ATX Mid-Tower - $90
Monitor - ASUS VG236H 23" 1920x1080 Native 3D Capable 120Hz Refresh - $360
Speakers - Gigaware 16W 2.1 Speakers - $30
CPU Fan/Heatsink - Cooler Master Hyper 212+ - $30
OS - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit (because yes... >.>) - $190
Wireless Adapter - TP-Link 802.11b/g/n PCIe - $20

Build comes out to $2205 at the time of purchase before S/H. Not bad, the major reason I went over 2k was because I decided I might as well buy a new OS license instead of switch my old one over. *shrugs*

 

[Ken g6]

OK, let's save you some money here.

CPU: Hyper-threading doesn't benefit current games; sometimes it harms their performance. Get a 3570k for over $100 less. Are you near a Micro Center where they're really cheap?

MB: Looks expensive. Do you really need all those features? Or would this nice ASRock suffice? If you're getting a full ATX mobo, and only using one video card, you might as well use the extra space for a wireless card.

RAM: No, you need 1.5V or less RAM. Stick with DDR3-1600; higher speeds don't help much on this architecture.

HDDs: The normal one is fine. For your OS and games, just get an SSD. Here's one in your price range; or get two of these and RAID them!

PSU: Way overkill. Look for 650W bronze PSUs like this Corsair.

If you want to overclock, then you will need an aftermarket CPU cooler. A Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo is nice.

 

[lehtv]

CPU Agree with Ken. $240. You don't need a CPU fan right away if you're OK with the stock fan noise levels. But you will need one when overclocking.

GPU Looks good! Wait for Asus 670 to be released or grab a Gigabyte 670 when it's in stock. $400

MB Since you want wireless, I recommend Asus P8Z77-V ($185) with integrated wireless. A cheaper board coupled with a wireless card might end up cheaper but on your budget you can afford the convenience here.

RAM Overkill, it simply won't benefit you to buy 1866 memory. You'll never notice the difference to 1600MHz outside of benchmarking and even then you often don't notice it. Mushkin Blackline $45
HDD1 - system+games Don't bother with Velociraptors. This is the year 2012, high performance SSD's can be had for less than $1/GB: Crucial M4 256GB $240

HDD2 - storage I'd rather buy Hitachi 7K1000 ($100) with 3 year warranty. The amount of DOA reviews may be a bit scary but remember that people with failing drives are much more likely to write a review about it.

PSU Way overkill. This would easily do for single 670 + OC: PCP&C 600W $57 AR AP. And this for SLI: NZXT Hale82 750-M $90 AR

Keyboard I'd recommend considering a mechanical keyboard on your budget. Check out Das Keyboard Model S ($150).

Mouse Abyssus is good but lacks side buttons. I think Logitech G400 is overall a better mouse. It's very subjective though which mouse is nicer to hold and use.

Case Decent

Monitor A bit meh for this budget. You can afford a 120hz or 27" TN panel. Asus VG236H, 120hz 1080p 24", height adjustable stand, comes with NVIDIA 3d vision kit

 

[Venom20]

I agree with most of the comments above.

* Most people are not and will not take advantage of an i7's abilities. I agree, save yourself some cash and go with an i5-3570k. And again, for overclocking, perhaps in the future, do get an aftermarket cooler.

* agree with above. Card looks nice, but I'd wait for Asus's

*I do not know much about voltages, so you'll need to ask an axpert around here. But I agree with above. Mushkin's are nice rams. The blacklin mentioned above is a 1.65V variant. But for a decent 1.5V varient, I'd go with the Radioactive series.

* agree with above on mobo

* SSD's are going to be a better bet than a raptor these days. Go for it.

*PS is overkill, agree with above.

 

[lehtv]

*I do not know much about voltages, so you'll need to ask an axpert around here. But I agree with above. Mushkin's are nice rams. The blacklin mentioned above is a 1.65V variant. But for a decent 1.5V varient, I'd go with the Radioactive series.

Blackline is sold in 1.65V and 1.5V, the above is 1.5V as mentioned on the newegg page

 

[ElFenix]

>$2000 means greater than $2000

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Get asrock extreme6 or 4. Or Asus z77 v for wifi Get Samsung 30nm ram. Get h100

 

[lehtv]

Get asrock extreme6 or 4. Or Asus z77 v for wifi Get Samsung 30nm ram. Get h100

Why H100? It costs $115. A cooler worth $50 can achieve 4.5Ghz. The OP isn't even aiming for a high overclock right away

 

[boricua132]

>$2000 means greater than $2000

Silly noobs. What are they thinking? That is why they come here. Lol

*facepalms and flips the sign*

CPU: changed to an i5-3570k
GPU: ASUS or Gigabyte, preferably ASUS then. I'm surprised nobody mentioned EVGA. *shrugs*

MB: I actually prefer the Gigabyte UD5H over the ASUS P8Z77-V. It may not come with integrated graphics but I preferred the look of the UEFI set up, had an extra SATA 6 connection as well as an extra PCIe 3 connection (which I admit I probably won't use). So I think I have a good compromise solution between an ASUS P8Z77-V and the ASRock Z77 Pro3.

An ASRock Z77 Extreme6. It has extra SATA connectors compared to the Gigabyte UD3H I was thinking about and the lower end ASRock, is cheaper than the ASUS even when I buy a wifi card to make up for the lack of integration. And if I EVER need it... it has a floppy drive... I don't know why they put that there... *pokes it*

RAM: The Mushkin's look nice. I'll take the Blackline over the Radioactive because I think it looks better and can't find any other difference. I'll take your word for it about the speed differences.

HDD: if it's all the same to you I'll just stick with the Seagate. As for the Velociraptor vs SSD my only concern was the storage because games are starting to become massive. But I suppose the added longevity of an SSD over a high spin HDD and the simple fact that I can just move/delete game files makes it worth it I suppose. I will admit I did not think about putting the OS on the SSD instead of the HDD. I will do that now. I'll go with the Crucial 256GB SSD

PSU: I'll change it to something lower, but for right now I don't feel like doing the extra research into them. Thanks for the tips though.

Keyboard: How about the Razor Blackwidow instead of the Das? Cheaper and seems to do the same things except for be as quiet as the Das claims to be.

Mouse: I was going to say I probably won't need the extra buttons, but then I noticed the difference was just $9 so I thought, wth, we'll go with the Logitech G400 and see how I like it.

Monitor: Ok... you've tempted me. I'll do it because I'm excited to see what the 3D is capable of and I have a 670 which should allow me to play some of the lower spec'd games at a good resolution and framerate in 3D. Correct me if I'm wrong.

So I've changed the front post. Looking better now?

 

[mfenn]

Get asrock extreme6 or 4. Or Asus z77 v for wifi Get Samsung 30nm ram. Get h100

Jesus man. At least take 3 words on each choice to explain your reasoning. Throwing out random parts helps no one.

By the way, all your choices are wrong.

Spoiler

See how that feels?

 

[mfenn]

New build looks a hell of a lot better.

An ASRock Z77 Extreme6. It has extra SATA connectors compared to the Gigabyte UD3H I was thinking about and the lower end ASRock, is cheaper than the ASUS even when I buy a wifi card to make up for the lack of integration. And if I EVER need it... it has a floppy drive... I don't know why they put that there... *pokes it*

I'm curious as to how you see using more than 6 SATA connections? You could add a whopping 12 TB of storage on top of what you already have on the $110 mobo.

PSU: I'll change it to something lower, but for right now I don't feel like doing the extra research into them. Thanks for the tips though.

The GTX 670 sips power for a GPU of it's caliber. The $82 AR XFX 650W will handle two in SLI.

Keyboard: How about the Razor Blackwidow instead of the Das? Cheaper and seems to do the same things except for be as quiet as the Das claims to be.

Quiet is a relative term in the world of mechanical keyboard keyboards. I am typiing of a Das "silent" right now and it is much louder than your standard rubber-dome keyboard. The Cherry MX Blue's that the BlackWidow uses are downright cacophonous.

Monitor: Ok... you've tempted me. I'll do it because I'm excited to see what the 3D is capable of and I have a 670 which should allow me to play some of the lower spec'd games at a good resolution and framerate in 3D. Correct me if I'm wrong.

IMHO, you don't get a 120Hz monitor to do 3D, that's just a gimmick. You get a 120Hz monitor to be able to set the normal (2D) refresh rate to 120 and enjoy the ridiculous smoothness of motion. Oh, and you get to turn off vsync in most games without worrying about tearing.

One thing that I don't see mentioned is the OS license. That's another $100 on the top if you don't already have one.

 

[boricua132]

It's not so much that there are more SATA connections on it than that there are more SATA 6.0GB/s connections on it. The other's had 4 SATA 2.0 and 2 SATA 3.0, this is 4 and 4.

Out of the suggested power supplies I like yours best. It has the most PCIe and peripheral connection options and I like the flexibility. Plus I have the option to upgrade to SLI in the future.

Damn, I didn't think mechanical keyboards would be that loud. Would you happen to know if there are any cheaper options available? The ones I had up earlier I picked purposefully because I didn't want to be spending a bunch of money on a keyboard or mice.

Yeah, but if it has it I'm going to try it. I'd have a computer capable of doing it, why not enjoy it every once in a while?

I'm not worried about the OS license. And no I'm not doing anything illegal.

 

[boricua132]

How about the Corsair Vengeance K90? It uses Cherry MX Red switches.

 

[CoDLolcopter]

Hope this guide helps.

 

[boricua132]

I'll go with the Corsair Vengeance then. Thanks for all your help everyone. I'll post here when I have the computer built to let you guys know how it goes. =D

 

[lehtv]

Yeah, but if it has it I'm going to try it. I'd have a computer capable of doing it, why not enjoy it every once in a while?

Let us know how you like 3D gaming. I haven't had the chance to try it myself, and I've heard conflicting opinions - some say it's awesome, others say it's a gimmick.

If you don't like it you still have a nice 120hz monitor that is just as good and costs about the same as other 120hz monitors that don't come bundled with the 3D Vision kit.

 

[mfenn]

It's not so much that there are more SATA connections on it than that there are more SATA 6.0GB/s connections on it. The other's had 4 SATA 2.0 and 2 SATA 3.0, this is 4 and 4.

SATA 6Gb/s only matters for SSDs, so as long as you aren't going to be putting more than two SSDs into the machine, you will be OK. Mechanical HDDs are just now exceeding the capabilities of the original SATA 1.5Gb/s spec, they are a long way from touching the bandwidth available in SATA 3Gb/s.

 

[boricua132]

Hey guys. Got most of my parts in recently and I was wondering if you had any tips on building. I'm still waiting on my GPU to come in this Friday (hopefully) along with my aftermarket cooler (Hyper 212+) so I haven't worked with anything involving direct plugs onto the motherboard (so anything that doesn't use a cable).

Do you guys have any preferred hard drive mounting locations to maintain good airflow? There are two 120mm fans on the front of my case in front of the HDD bay. Currently I have them as the HDD on the very bottom, the middle part of the bay taken out (it's divided into three sections, top, middle, and bottom with each holding 2 3.5"/2.5" hard drives), and the SDD at the very top of the case.

I figure this way the drives get the minimum amount of cooling needed and don't interrupt the airflow to the motherboard from the front of the case, and by removing the middle part I'll hopefully gain space to maneuver with the GPU along with better airflow.

Also, currently I have my PSU fan pointing towards the bottom of the case, but I don't have a reliable way of elevating the case to give the bottom some breathing room. Currently my thinking is to put the front part of the case on a sturdy box and the very back of the case on a sturdy box so that the area underneath the PSU fan is clear while still maintaining stability for the case. I did just think about cutting some holes in a box though. Unfortunately I don't really have a way of getting a dedicated solution anytime soon (like a desk with a properly holed and elevated case stand).

But yeah, comments from me so far:

I love the monitor. 24" is bigger than I thought it was. Plus it came with a DVI cable so now I can use HDMI for my Xbox and the DBI for my computer. I completely did not notice it did not have any internal speakers, so I went out and bought a 2.1 system from Gigaware that is performing admirably for a $30 set. The subwoofer is pretty sweet despite only being 16W.

The keyboard is pretty nice too. I'll have to wait until I actually use it, but the keys don't seem to be too loud and have a good tactile feedback for me. It uses Cherry MX Red caps for reference.

I am so excited. I'll make sure to take pictures of the inside and out for you guys.

 

[mfenn]

Hey guys. Got most of my parts in recently and I was wondering if you had any tips on building. I'm still waiting on my GPU to come in this Friday (hopefully) along with my aftermarket cooler (Hyper 212+) so I haven't worked with anything involving direct plugs onto the motherboard (so anything that doesn't use a cable).

Just read the manual for the mobo and take your time. If something seems wrong, take a hard look at it and ask before forcing anything. I will say that the Hyper 212+ is a little tricky to mount evenly, so take special care to apply the same amount of torque to each bolt.

Do you guys have any preferred hard drive mounting locations to maintain good airflow? There are two 120mm fans on the front of my case in front of the HDD bay. Currently I have them as the HDD on the very bottom, the middle part of the bay taken out (it's divided into three sections, top, middle, and bottom with each holding 2 3.5"/2.5" hard drives), and the SDD at the very top of the case.

It doesn't matter too much, just go with whatever makes routing the cables the easiest while still providing some sort of airflow over the HDDs.

Also, currently I have my PSU fan pointing towards the bottom of the case, but I don't have a reliable way of elevating the case to give the bottom some breathing room. Currently my thinking is to put the front part of the case on a sturdy box and the very back of the case on a sturdy box so that the area underneath the PSU fan is clear while still maintaining stability for the case. I did just think about cutting some holes in a box though. Unfortunately I don't really have a way of getting a dedicated solution anytime soon (like a desk with a properly holed and elevated case stand).

If you're going to be placing the case on a carpeted surface, I highly recommend turning the PSU around so that the fan sucks in air from inside the case (there are mounting holes to accommodate this). It isn't ideal, as it will be drawing in slightly warmer air, but it is a hell of a lot better than suffocating the PSU.

I am so excited. I'll make sure to take pictures of the inside and out for you guys.

Glad you like it so far!

 

[boricua132]

It's done! YAY!!!!!!!!!

I did run into some issues. One of the RAM sticks doesn't work so I'll need to order a new one (too impatient to do an RMA of it. Faster to just order a replacement stick.)

The USB keyboard didn't work with the BIOS. Had to upgrade it to 1.5 and borrow a PS/2 keyboard while I was at it.

Pretty sure my wiring is lame, but the temps of any one part have yet to go over 45C so guess I'm good. Mind you I haven't really stress tested it yet.

Anyways, enough talk. Picture time

Oh, and for those of you wondering. The 3D looks very good, but I have yet to play a 3D game. That should change this afternoon though. Playing Civ5

 

[mfenn]

Oh, and for those of you wondering. The 3D looks very good, but I have yet to play a 3D game. That should change this afternoon though. Playing Civ5

If you haven't done anything 3D, how would you know that the 3D effect looked good?

 

[boricua132]

They have 3D photos. They looked pretty sweet.

 

[lehtv]

Nice job. How are you liking the case? Was it easy to build in? And how loud is it?

 

[boricua132]

Well all the plugs for the fans are way too big for the motherboard, except for the one in the back which uses a smaller 3 pin. The 4 pins use a peripheral jack/plug thing and only connect straight to the PSU. So they run high all the time. But that being said, it's not nearly as loud as the keyboard, which for me, the sound is bearable and I'm already used to it.

The case, not too bad. I had to put the MB in by grabbing it from the heatsink on the northbridge, and it was difficult for me to put the screws in. But I also wasn't standing and using a nice, big solid table to build on. There was plenty of space to put in the GPU though.

The one thing that did actually bug me was that the manual didn't include a description of EVERY cable that comes with the case. I had to figure it out, which wasn't difficult once I saw that the cables had "Power LED" and "Power +" and what not on them. So once I saw the connections on the motherboard it clicked.

Another thing was that the cables made it difficult to put the DVD drive into the slot. It was a tight fit, but still doable and it doesn't bother me that they are squeezed in like that.

Oh. This is probably because my cabling is very poor, but I had to press against the backside panel to get it to lock in properly. Just, at the point where I realized that was going to be a problem I didn't feel like rerouting everything so that it would run more clearly on the backside so I didn't have to push.

 

[boricua132]

Update

So I ran a stress test (Prime95) to get a feel for it and how my system responds. The average idle temp for the CPU is around 30C and once the test started it got to around 50C quickly. But around 10-15 minutes later it was at 60C and stayed there for another 10 minutes without going any higher.

Once I get my replacement RAM in I'm going to delve into the BIOS settings and OC everything. I'm shooting for anywhere between 4.2-4.4Ghz OC, getting my RAM to post the 1600 value instead of the 700 value that its currently doing for some reason, and overclock my GPU too. But I need to find more information for that.

So, does anybody know of any guides to overclocking GPUs in general or the GTX 670 specifically? Or should I change forums now? (haha)

PS: Finally got Civ5 to play in 3D mode automatically. It does look really good and actually 3D while playing. So props to Nvidia for doing it right. That being said, you don't need 3D and I'm relatively certain it reduces frame rates... should probably get a frame rate analyzer tool.

EDIT: GPU idle temp = 33C
GPU load temp = 70C

I haven't tried running CPU + GPU stress test, but I figure it should be ok if they both run like that.