New gaming rig build - any input?

[respawn]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for - encoding videos, gaming
2. What YOUR budget is - $1500 is the most I want to spend
3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from - USA
5. IF YOU have a brand preference - no real brand preference
6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts - No
7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds - default, no OCing
8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using - 1680x1050 on a 27"
9. WHEN do you plan to build it - this next week

Hello all, I usually come to this forum when I am piecing together a new system and get the opinion of the people that are up to speed on the current tech. I have been coming here for probably 10 years. My last system was 4 years ago, and it is hard to keep up with the times, so I have been doing a little research and pieced the below together. Please feel free to give me your input. Thanks!

LG 24X DVD Burner - Bare Drive Black SATA Model GH24NS95 - OEM $18
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Case with Upgraded USB 3.0 $110
ViewSonic VA2703-LED Black 27" 3.4ms Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Monitor $250
Rosewill Stallion Series RD500-2DB 500W ATX12V Power Supply $50
EVGA SSC 01G-P4-3652-KR GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 $155
Vantec Hi-Speed USB 2.0 19-in-1 External Card Reader Model UFT-CR925-BK $11
G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) RAM Model F3-14900CL8Q-16GBZM $155
GIGABYTE GA-Z77-DS3H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Mobo $105
Intel Core i7-3770 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Processor BX80637I73770 $290
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM $100
Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD3 mSATA 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $120
Seagate SV35 Series ST1000VX000 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $90

All these prices and descriptions are from NewEgg.com
Did I forget a component? Do you know of a cheaper source? If you see any incompatibilities or anything that you would suggest different, please feel free to comment. For instance, I read the PCI Express 3.0 needs the Ivy Bridge processor in the GA-Z77-DS3H board otherwise it would run at 2.0. Stuff like that...

Thanks in advance!

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Well first off, I'd wait till Has well.

 

[respawn]

Well first off, I'd wait till Has well.

I don't understand what you mean? Can you explain?

 

[Zap]

I don't understand what you mean? Can you explain?

What he means is that Intel's next CPU is expected to be released soon, maybe by next month. Thus, if you buy now, you will already be a generation behind in a month.

 

[respawn]

What he means is that Intel's next CPU is expected to be released soon, maybe by next month. Thus, if you buy now, you will already be a generation behind in a month.

"Haswell" all one word... ok. I googled it. But released June 4th... and then when stable and available? I dont think I can wait that long... not to mention, if you waited for the "next best thing" in the computer industry, you will never buy anything lol. Soon as you buy, its out dated.

 

[Zap]

If it were six months away, would be a different story as if it were merely a week away. The former you probably wouldn't wait, but the latter you would. One month? Up to you. Now let's look at your list. Note that pricing can change quickly based on sales. If you have a rough idea what you want, you can easily save 10% or more by watching for sales or coupon codes and buying piecemeal over 2-3 weeks.

LG 24X DVD Burner - Bare Drive Black SATA Model GH24NS95 - OEM $18
Okay. Any will do. Unless you feel that one does better than another at something, just buy the cheapest at the time you purchase.

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Case with Upgraded USB 3.0 $110
Kind of an older design (at least 5 years?). I would personally choose something more modern. In fact, I'd go for micro ATX since there will only be three drives and one GPU.

ViewSonic VA2703-LED Black 27" 3.4ms Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Monitor $250
Lower DPI but bigger picture. Okay.

Rosewill Stallion Series RD500-2DB 500W ATX12V Power Supply $50
Meh. Not the worst, but not the best.

EVGA SSC 01G-P4-3652-KR GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 $155
What games will you be playing? Reason I ask is that this card is rather mid-range. If you play more demanding games, more money put into the graphics card directly increases performance.

Vantec Hi-Speed USB 2.0 19-in-1 External Card Reader Model UFT-CR925-BK $11
Okay.

G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) RAM Model F3-14900CL8Q-16GBZM $155
Why this choice? It is a quad channel kit, but socket 1155 runs dual channel. It will still work fine, but you are wasting money. Take a look at this hot deal (very limited time) for 16GB RAM as two sticks (leaving room for upgrading) for $76.49 shipped. This is an example of hot deals saving you money. Feel free to purchase deals like this piecemeal because it is free shipping (price won't change if purchased with other parts) and the same RAM can be used either with the parts you are looking at, or even Haswell if you choose to wait. There is no downside. If you miss out on that deal, get this $95 stuff and use this EMCXRXL22 10% off coupon.

GIGABYTE GA-Z77-DS3H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Mobo $105
Not overclocking = not as important a choice. As long as it has SATA 6Gbps for your SSD and USB 3.0 (which any 7-series chipset will have) then you are good - unless you need something in particular which not all motherboards have (Firewire?). This is one place where you can look into H77 chipset boards as well as mATX.

Intel Core i7-3770 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Processor BX80637I73770 $290
Xeon CPUs can be had cheaper. It is "missing" the integrated graphics. There are also cheaper ones at lower MHz. For instance $235 for 100Mhz less.

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM $100
$10/15/20 off coupons appear every couple weeks.

Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD3 mSATA 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $120
mSATA? Also, Crucial M4 is an older model. There are newer, sexier SSDs that all the cool kids use these days. Pretty common for deals on 240/250/256GB SSDs around $160. Yes, more cost. However, twice capacity.

Seagate SV35 Series ST1000VX000 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $90
Why an "enterprise" drive? Performance (and I suspect reliability) will be pretty much the same. Biggest difference would be if you want to run in RAID, and for a longer warranty (sometimes). Also, this is something else where a few bucks more gets you a LOT more. You can get twice the capacity of the same SV35 series drive for $20 more.

 

[mnewsham]

"Haswell" all one word... ok. I googled it. But released June 4th... and then when stable and available? I dont think I can wait that long... not to mention, if you waited for the "next best thing" in the computer industry, you will never buy anything lol. Soon as you buy, its out dated.

Intel has no problems with supply, once it is released you should not have many problems getting your hands on one.

 

[respawn]

This is exactly the feedback I was looking for! Thanks so much!

If it were six months away, would be a different story as if it were merely a week away. The former you probably wouldn't wait, but the latter you would. One month? Up to you. Now let's look at your list. Note that pricing can change quickly based on sales. If you have a rough idea what you want, you can easily save 10% or more by watching for sales or coupon codes and buying piecemeal over 2-3 weeks.

I see your point. I will see if I can hold out. My current machine is having issues and I just want a new rig, but I might be able to wait two or three weeks to order...

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Case with Upgraded USB 3.0 $110
Kind of an older design (at least 5 years?). I would personally choose something more modern. In fact, I'd go for micro ATX since there will only be three drives and one GPU.

This is the case I currently have that I bought 4 years ago. I really like the two USB on the front panel and the tray at the top. It perfectly fits my external hd that I use to back up my system. I am not opposed to something newer/better. Any suggestion in specific?

EVGA SSC 01G-P4-3652-KR GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 $155
What games will you be playing? Reason I ask is that this card is rather mid-range. If you play more demanding games, more money put into the graphics card directly increases performance.

I play Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, and League of Legends. I currently am using: EVGA 896-P3-1265-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0. Not over clocked or anything and the graphics are more than fine to me. I dont think I am lacking, so just got something a little bit better/newer and figured it would be better or as good as what I am currently running. No?

G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) RAM Model F3-14900CL8Q-16GBZM $155
Why this choice? It is a quad channel kit, but socket 1155 runs dual channel. It will still work fine, but you are wasting money. Take a look at this hot deal (very limited time) for 16GB RAM as two sticks (leaving room for upgrading) for $76.49 shipped. This is an example of hot deals saving you money. Feel free to purchase deals like this piecemeal because it is free shipping (price won't change if purchased with other parts) and the same RAM can be used either with the parts you are looking at, or even Haswell if you choose to wait. There is no downside. If you miss out on that deal, get this $95 stuff and use this EMCXRXL22 10% off coupon.

Ok! I just picked 16gb with the best newegg rating and around $150 budget. I had no preference. I will follow your advice, thanks!

GIGABYTE GA-Z77-DS3H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Mobo $105
Not overclocking = not as important a choice. As long as it has SATA 6Gbps for your SSD and USB 3.0 (which any 7-series chipset will have) then you are good - unless you need something in particular which not all motherboards have (Firewire?). This is one place where you can look into H77 chipset boards as well as mATX.

Dont want to overclock and no firewire or special needs...

Intel Core i7-3770 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Processor BX80637I73770 $290
Xeon CPUs can be had cheaper. It is "missing" the integrated graphics. There are also cheaper ones at lower MHz. For instance $235 for 100Mhz less.

Ok, I will look into this.

Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD3 mSATA 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $120
mSATA? Also, Crucial M4 is an older model. There are newer, sexier SSDs that all the cool kids use these days. Pretty common for deals on 240/250/256GB SSDs around $160. Yes, more cost. However, twice capacity.

Just using this for the OS/boot drive from the research I did. Which 128GB is more than enough for win7. The Seagate is the data drive...

Seagate SV35 Series ST1000VX000 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $90
Why an "enterprise" drive? Performance (and I suspect reliability) will be pretty much the same. Biggest difference would be if you want to run in RAID, and for a longer warranty (sometimes). Also, this is something else where a few bucks more gets you a LOT more. You can get twice the capacity of the same SV35 series drive for $20 more.

I just wanted 1TB sata 6.0 gb/s... I did a search on newegg and then sorted by rating and price. This seemed to be the best option. What does enterprise mean? Is that something I dont want? Can you link me to what you are suggesting for $20 more?

Thanks again for all your input. MUCH appreciated!!

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Decide and buy all other parts except for the CPU, Motherboard, & Ram. Then in a few weeks you'll have your Haswell option.

If you have a Micro Center nearby you can save on your CPU purchase.

 

[Sleepingforest]

I just wanted 1TB sata 6.0 gb/s... I did a search on newegg and then sorted by rating and price. This seemed to be the best option. What does enterprise mean? Is that something I dont want? Can you link me to what you are suggesting for $20 more?

There are drives with much more capacity for that price, or much cheaper for the same storage. An "enterprise" drive is one that has been tested for extra stability since they usually go into huge arrays on a server (one failing is very likely when there are thousands). For home use, the lower error isn't worthwhile.

Two tips on hard drives: mechanical drives don't even saturate SATA 3Gb/s, let alone 6Gb/s, so the actual type of SATA connection doesn't matter much. Secondly (and this goes for everything), Newegg ratings are an awful way to determine how good something is. Many people rate it down because it's DOA (not the products fault) or because they didn't get what they expected (that's just being a dumb consumer).

 

[Zap]

I play Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, and League of Legends.

Okay, your requirements are not that much, but you still don't want to short change yourself.

Starcraft II 1920x1200 Ultra quality
GTX 650 Ti gets 57.7FPS
Next step up (for Nvidia) is GTX 660, which gets 96.5FPS

compare GTX 650 Ti to GTX 660

GTX 660 starts at $175 after rebate, or $200 without rebate.

Note that the GTX 650 Ti you choose has a rebate as well, but it is still on the expensive side, as there are cheaper ones from other brands.

It also depends on your resolution and what you can tolerate for FPS. Many people are fine playing RTS games at lower FPS (30FPS or so?) and some are fine with less eye candy.

Dont want to overclock and no firewire or special needs...

No overclocking? H77 chipset would be fine. More expensive boards just have more bells/whistles.

Just using this for the OS/boot drive from the research I did. Which 128GB is more than enough for win7. The Seagate is the data drive...

I just wanted 1TB sata 6.0 gb/s...

Seagate 1TB SATA 6Gbps $60 after coupon printed right on the page.

Oh yeah, this DVDRW drive is only $15 with coupon.

That's what I mean by shopping smart. If you know these are what you will get, then may as well buy the DVDRW and HDD now since they are on sale. Note that it isn't necessarily a good idea to purchase parts months ahead of time, but since you are going to build it within weeks, may as well save some money. BTW these current coupon codes expire on 5/16, so you still have a couple days if they don't sell out.

128GB should actually be enough for Windows as well as the three games you mentioned, but $120 is not a good value. I see the Plextor M5S for $110 at Newegg, and the Corsair Neutron for $120, and the Samsung 840 as well as the Seagate 600 for $110. I'd choose those over the Crucial M4 at current pricing. Note that outside of benchmarking, you probably won't notice any difference. Thus, I usually go for the cheaper one. Same price? Then may as well choose the drive that benchmarks faster.

I think the Plextor uses pretty much the same controller as the Crucial M4 so they are pretty much the same drive. Save $10. Corsair Neutron and Seagate 600 uses same controller as each other as well.

 

[mfenn]

Agree on the GPU. Given that this machine that will ostensibly be used for gaming and you're not exactly budget-limited, you should be looking to spend ~$200 on a GPU at the minimum. If you were into more intensive games, I would say to go for a $400 GPU, but $200 is the absolute minimum.

Think about it this way, the GPU is almost the sole determiner of framerates unless you are playing at very low resolutions, so why would you skimp on the one component that drives gaming performance?

 

[Torn Mind]

Might want to consider buying some parts from Amazon.

 

[respawn]

Thanks guys, I had actually ordered on Friday afternoon about an hour before Zap posted that the 660 is worth paying a little bit more than the 650 and I was kicking myself. Then I looked today and my credit card company had denied 1 of my 4 orders as a security precaution. That one order just happened to be the GPU @ $140. So, I ordered the MSI N660 TF 2GD5/OC GeForce GTX 660 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 card at $175 after rebate. Woot!

Thanks again. I just have the RAM and CPU left to order... I was going to use those newegg BOOST codes (could have gotten $50 off $500) but I waited too long. =(

 

[agentbad]

Agree on the GPU. Given that this machine that will ostensibly be used for gaming and you're not exactly budget-limited, you should be looking to spend ~$200 on a GPU at the minimum. If you were into more intensive games, I would say to go for a $400 GPU, but $200 is the absolute minimum.

Think about it this way, the GPU is almost the sole determiner of framerates unless you are playing at very low resolutions, so why would you skimp on the one component that drives gaming performance?

Spend like 250 on a used card and it would be top of the line.