Would appreciate some feedback on a new $1000 build

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
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You're paying basically new prices for an old CPU/mobo, then spending an insane amount on the PSU.

The video card is only going to be useful if you're going to play games with very large textures, and plan to have texture quality maxed.

The SSD is pretty good.

Are you going to overclock? If not, you could save a bit on mobo and CPU, and/or upgrade the CPU.

Based on the costs, your budget looks to be around $1200. Is that about right?
 

merk

Senior member
May 29, 2003
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Under the specs for the GPU it says 600w minimum, and i wanted to get something a little over that to have room to spare, so i thought 850w

600 watt or greater power supply with a minimum of 42 amps on the +12 volt rail.

Although a couple of PSU calculators all said under 400w, including the one in pcpartsbuilder http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2Z512

Since this is going to be a 90% gaming pc, to me it makes more sense to spend more on the video card. I figured the 770 was pretty good bang for the buck and would last a couple of years before it might need to be upgraded.

No plans to overclock anything.

If you have an alternate suggestion for cpu/mobo please let me know. And if you think an 850w psu is overkill for this, also please let me know. Is 400w really all this would really need? if so I'd drop the psu down to a 600-650w
 

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
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I'm not saying saying anything against the 770, just paying more for the 4GB version, unless you have specific intents to use a great deal of VRAM.

The PSU rating is to cover total crap PSUs, like some of the low-end Thermaltakes, that can't pull their rated power fore more than a couple minutes, if that. A good PSU around that rating will be plenty.

An XFX Core 550W, Seasonic S12II 620W, or Corsair CX600(M?) will all have plenty of power to handle it, are good supplies in general, and won't be nearly as costly. The XFX has 44A on 12V, the Seasonic 48A, and I think the Corsair has 46A (there's been a few versions of it, and they don't put those specs on their site).

I'm fond of the ASRock H87 Pro4 and H87M Pro4, for a stock mobo, and the Core i5-4670 ($210-220), or Xeon E3-1230V3 ($245-250 right now, and this one has no IGP) would both be good CPUs.
 

merk

Senior member
May 29, 2003
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Ok i'll go with a 650w psu then - want to get something a little bigger then what's needed just in case he ads more peripherals and the price difference for the extra watts isn't that much.

So you think the 700 is a decent card, it's just not worth the extra money to go from 2gb to 4gb? Are there any games that would make use of the extra memory? Any chance games a year or two down the road would make use of it?

And I'll check out the mobo/cpu you suggested.

Thanks
 

merk

Senior member
May 29, 2003
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http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2Z6PF

Updated part list - went with a slightly fancier cpu, but a slightly lower end cpu (4570) since microcenter had it for much cheaper then the 4670. Going to stick with the 4gb version of the card. He prefers that and I don't think it's completely unreasonable to think in a year or so we might have some games that could take advantage of +2gb of memory.
 

Charlie98

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2011
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The Corsair TX650v2 is made by SeaSonic and is a good unit.

If you are indeed going to MicroCenter to fetch the board and memory, you might as well spring for the i5-4670K mobo bundle price, otherwise that ASRock mobo will cost you $140.

Do you have an OS to go with that?
 

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
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The i5 bundles aren't so good, mobo wise, unless they'll be overclocked. IE, if you save $30 on a $130 board, when a $80 board would do all you needed, you might as well just buy the CPU and skip the bundling.

With that in mind, why the Z87 Extreme3? Seems kind of pointless, if not overclocking, compared to the $30+ cheaper H87 Pro4.
 

merk

Senior member
May 29, 2003
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He said it might overclock it - he wasn't sure yet. So spent the extra bucks to give him the option to OC.
 

mfenn

Elite Member
Jan 17, 2010
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www.mfenn.com
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2Z6PF

Updated part list - went with a slightly fancier cpu, but a slightly lower end cpu (4570) since microcenter had it for much cheaper then the 4670. Going to stick with the 4gb version of the card. He prefers that and I don't think it's completely unreasonable to think in a year or so we might have some games that could take advantage of +2gb of memory.

$430 is way too much to be paying for 2GB of RAM. If you really want a card that has more than 2GB of total VRAM, you should be looking at getting something faster like the GTX 780.

You've also got a non-overclockable CPU in there with that overclocking motherboard. Stick with the H87 Pro4 that Cerb recommended.

Also, does your friend really like the look of that case? There are less ridiculous-looking, higher-quality options out there.
 

Charlie98

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2011
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With that in mind, why the Z87 Extreme3? Seems kind of pointless, if not overclocking, compared to the $30+ cheaper H87 Pro4.

He said it might overclock it - he wasn't sure yet. So spent the extra bucks to give him the option to OC.

...which takes us back to the MC mobo bundle. (...with the understanding that 'might' usually means 'won't get to it.' :biggrin: ) At least with the K-chip and Z87 mobo he can if he wants to, without having to update any hardware.
 

mfenn

Elite Member
Jan 17, 2010
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www.mfenn.com
...which takes us back to the MC mobo bundle. (...with the understanding that 'might' usually means 'won't get to it.' :biggrin: ) At least with the K-chip and Z87 mobo he can if he wants to, without having to update any hardware.

:thumbsup: You said what I was dancing around.
 

merk

Senior member
May 29, 2003
471
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ugh - i fucked up. I meant to get an unlocked cpu, i messed up :( Guess I'll owe him a few bucks if he decides he wants to overclock.

Oh and $430 was for the 4gb video card.
 

DreadBelch

Member
Mar 31, 2010
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merk, I don't know if you're still deciding between the 2gb and 4gb versions of the 770 GTX, but at least one review has demonstrated that there's almost no performance difference in the two versions unless you're using multiple displays or gaming at crazy 5760×1080 resolutions. In layman's terms, the 4gb version is a bit of a ripoff for most of us.

http://alienbabeltech.com/main/gtx-770-4gb-vs-2gb-tested/4/
 
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merk

Senior member
May 29, 2003
471
9
91
He wanted the 4gb board - i had read one or two articles which said that in a year or two there might be games out that could make use of +2gb of video memory and he wanted something that would be good for a few years without needing an upgrade. It wasn't a horribly huge price difference between the 2gb and 4gb so i don't think it was too much of a gamble to spend the extra on the 4gb