System Build for Gaming

[rcoops72]

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

Gaming (Skyrim, Diablo III, Dragon Age Origins, WOW, Bioshocks, The Witcher games, Fallout 3, CoD, etc...)

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

$450-$600

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

USA

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.

INTEL/ATI

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

Parts/Software I plan on Keeping, but if a major upgrade is within the budget, please reccomend

GPU - ASUS HD Raedon 6870 1 GIG
Monitor - LG L227W
Hard Drive - WDC WD1001FALS-00J7B0 [Hard drive] (1000.20 GB)
DVD/CD - NEC DVD_RW ND-3550A SCSI CdRom Device [CD-ROM drive]
Case - Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with Upgraded USB 3.0
OS - Win 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
PSU - Antec NeoPower 550 550W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply
Sound Card - ASUS Xonar DS


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

no

8. What resolution will you be using?

1920x1080 resolution monitor

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?

Within 2-3 months

Other thoughts:

Basically I am looking for a new Motherboard, CPU and RAM which is in line with my brand new video card I picked up after my old 8800 GTS Fried.

I also need a new mouse and keyboard, nothing fancy and I perfer wired mice...current old one is Logitech MX510..Left button is getting soft. Current keyboard is a Saitek which now never stops lighting up...so it is time to replace both.

I am either going to get a new HD and do a fresh Win 7 install or just remove my parts and install on top of new MOBO if you guys think that is possible without issues.

 

[lehtv]

Hello and welcome. You didn't mention what CPU you're upgrading from?

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?

Within 2-3 months

Come back about a week before you're ready to buy. At this point I can only give you a rough outline of what I'd recommend:

CPU: i5-3450 or i5-3550 ~$220
Mobo: H77 chipset ~$90
RAM: 2x4GB DDR3 1600MHz 1.5V ~$45
Mouse: Logitech G400 ~$40
Keyboard: depends on what you want from a keyboard... anything from a basic $10 keyboard to a $150 one with mechanical switches

Optionally add a 128GB SSD ~$120

 

[rcoops72]

Sorry about that. Below is my current system and it still runs stuff really well, but I can see a CPU bottleneck coming sooner than later, meaning the GPU is more powerful then the CPU...

INTEL Core 2 Duo e8500
ASUS P5QL-E P43 Intel
4GB Corsair TWIN2x4096-8500 C5DF
VISTA 64 <

Would going to a i5-3570K also be ok, I found it at Mwave for 229.99?
I would also like a recommendation for the motherboard to be an ASUS, I have had great luck with them over the past years. Unless you pursue me

Other Thought: I want to be able to pop they next best graphics card in the system in 2 years and not worry about upgrading the MOBO again.

Just curious on your 128GB SSD optional item, I am unfamiliar with the uses for this item, just storage or do folks run the OS off them?

Also GREAT news, I will be ready to buy these upgrades in prior to June 30th! and please use a budget of $600. I just realized my spread was more than 20%

 

[lehtv]

Would going to a i5-3570K also be ok, I found it at Mwave for 229.99?

Only if you plan to overclock and buy a Z77 board (H77 can't OC). Of course, overclocking also needs an aftermarket cooler so overall it's not just the CPU you're paying more for.

I would also like a recommendation for the motherboard to be an ASUS, I have had great luck with them over the past years. Unless you pursue me

I normally don't recommend Asus because it's more expensive than the competition. Asrock and Gigabyte offer better features for the price, and they're decent quality. I can understand wanting to stick to the same brand as before though. Still, I'm not going to recommend a specific model this early on. Let's take another look at this mid-June.

Other Thought: I want to be able to pop they next best graphics card in the system in 2 years and not worry about upgrading the MOBO again.

Won't have to worry about that, especially with a PCIe 3.0 compatible mobo and CPU. But even PCIe 2.0 would probably be fine for a high end GPU in two years, by extrapolation from the fact that a high end PCIe 2.0 card like GTX 580 only suffers by a few percent when used at x8 bandwidth (equal to PCIe 1.0). Also, boards that are only capable of PCIe 1.0 are limited to supporting processors that bottleneck cards like GTX 580 - thus, you're more likely to see the CPU become a bottleneck sooner than the PCIe bandwidth. That's how I see it anyway...

Just curious on your 128GB SSD optional item, I am unfamiliar with the uses for this item, just storage or do folks run the OS off them?

SSD's are a much faster, more responsive form of storage than HDD's, but they are much more expensive per gigabyte. Therefore an SSD should contain data that is accessed frequently. In practice that means you install the OS, program files and some games on it. It's by no means necessary though, it just improves the feel of using the PC but (usually) has zero effect on FPS. If you'd rather save the money for a GPU upgrade, that's fine too.

 

[rcoops72]

Thank you for the additional information and help. I do appreciate it!

I will not be overclocking anything.

OK I will bump this post when I know I will be buying within 2 weeks

I have decided, I will be shopping from New Egg.com for when I am ready. Never have an issue and their warehouses are close to me (fast shipping). Do you know if they offer a service to build and test the mobo you order? (CPU,CPU Heatsinkfan/Motherboard/RAM)? I am sure I can handle thermal paste etc.. I have always built my PCs over the last 15 years, but just checking if I wanted to be lazy

 

[lehtv]

Newegg doesn't offer that service, sorry to say.

 

[mfenn]

Newegg doesn't offer that service, sorry to say.

Yeah. If you really want such a thing, NCIX will do it for you and their prices are comparable to Newegg's most of the time.