The Ultimate 'Build-A-PC' Thread. Complete With Pricings & Recommendations (06/06/10)

[quote name='Roll']What places should I be on the look out for the hard drive deals this Black Friday? Also, typically, is trying to physically fit the hard drive inside the laptop going to be much of a problem and should I keep that as a main priority when looking for more hard drives?[/QUOTE]
Just go to Slickdeals.net and hit their forums for the Black Friday section; they have a master list of all the stores BF ad's to look/gawk at. Honestly, I'd probably stick to the usual places like amazon, newegg, ncix, fry's, microcenter, compusa/tiger direct and such. I wouldn't even bother going to a B&M store on friday and just wait for sales on the following cyber monday. Fighting the crowd is soooo 2007.

And as for your hard drive replacement in your Dell... holy balls... I haven't worked on the later dell models, but apparently they mounted the hard drive to the freaking logic board, which is surrounded by the entire chassis so like the old Apple macbook pro's, you literally have to take the entire laptop apart to gain access to something simple like the hard drive.

Every Dell laptop I've own for the past 15+ years have been in a drive cage that requires one or two screws to remove the drive, then 4 screws to take the drive out of the cage... like a normal fucking laptop...
 
LOL, I wish I had those hours! :)
I am leaning toward the ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 mobo you mentioned. I like the additional SATA ports, among other things. Thanks for the suggestion!
I also notice that the RAM you linked actually has a combo deal with the processor- $11 savings..
I will wait till black Friday/Monday before pulling the trigger on this build.
I am bouncing back and forth between the 650ti and the 660 now, but I will figure it out.
Hopefully there are some good deals to be had to help with the decisions...

Oh! I am wondering if you saw my question about Win8? The main thing I would miss in 8, i think, is the start button - luckily I am an object desktop subscriber so I have access to Start8 immediately. So, I guess that isn't a real issue. Would you recommend Win 8 over Win 7 at this point? Or is it to early to tell? I am reading reviews and can't really tell if they are 'bandwagon' reviews or not.
 
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Well, I count my actual work as a day's worth of shooting without post processing; so I'm not being entirely honestly in how much I actually do work since the customer thinks that I shoot something and it magically gets cut by some north pole elves... Some projects could be as few as 20 hours of editing, but it could easily bloat to 150 hours because I got 120GB of HD material to sit through. But its kinda of nice to tell people that I only work 1 day a month and get paid 8 grand to do it in a very flexible and leisurely way. lol

My next pc project is to create a massive storage array server with at least 20-30TB, maybe more; depends on how much I can allocate to fund it. My current 8TB array is almost full so I need to plan the build very soon. The damn floods in Thailand pushed my build off by a year.


As for Win8, I actually don't care for it too much personally. I have it running on my HTPC using the pre-build cause I'm a cheap bastard and didn't want to spend $100 for a win7 licence for what is effectively a $120 PC with a $300 gpu... lol. Win8 is only attractive to me because of the licence costs only $80, but its hard to steer me away from my Win7 gaming rig. I'll end up put some sort of linux distro on the HTPC while I replace the gpu with a cheapo $10 6450 I got a while back once win8 comes out and they shut down the free license.

I guess I can suffer again with triple SLI... Its nice and useful as a space heater during the winter months.


Honestly, you can't go wrong with just trying out the pre-build win8. It's free and if you buy your parts during BF/CM sales, you'll have a month or so till win8 is actually launched I believe. Also to note, I'm sure MS will offer some sort of student incentive for their OS. They were running win7 pro for $35 like two years ago that I picked up for a spare computer.
 
The more I read about Win8 the more I am steering away from it again. I am not liking the move towards the "walled garden" system(as everyone seems fond of calling it). I just watched a vlogger I like talking about it and she pretty much turned me off to the whole thing. For one, I really don't want Win8 constantly asking me to link all of my accounts to my MS account.
Maybe I will give the pre-build a shot, but at this point I guess I am willing to shell out the $100 for Win7 license instead.
Thanks again.
 
Curious of everyones thoughts. AMD or Intel I-series for CPU in a budget gaming rig (600$) I ask because i was going to get a mobo for intel, but amazons got a great deal on an AMD MOBO thatlooks tempting. Should I stick with an intel MOBO, or is it worth switching to AMD for this deal?
 
honestly, I'd still keep with an intel i3 entry level ivy bridge cpu; while the amd 970g chipset mobo is a decent deal, it still wouldn't be enough for me to switch over if I was doing a budget gaming rig as yourself.

I mean the AMD chips are still value oriented, but are much more suited for a better overall PC with its more stout cheap x4 or the entry level FX cpu's; but for gaming, even the cheapo Pentium cpu's still beat the FX chips for half the price. Honestly, I would only go with an AMD cheap build if you got a $50 or less motherboard like an 800 or 700 series chipset, which is easy to find. If you are going to save money on the cpu, might as well cheap out on the mobo and spend more money on a better gpu; considering you could easily save about 40-80 over a similar i3 build. That right there could easily upgrade to the next gpu tier.
 
Hey guys, so I'm looking into building a pc and want some opinions and feedback. I think this is the best thread for this, if not everybody throw rocks at me.;)

I'm looking to get a decent PC that can handle most games with ease but won't break the bank (aren't we all lol?). Want to keep it under four digits without large sacrifices. I've replaced plenty of PC parts before but never built one up myself, so looking for parts is new territory for me. After browsing newegg, amazon, etc. here's a rough shopping list I've come up with:

ASUS P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
ASUS ENGTX560 DCII OC/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 560 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video
Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570K
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B
Western Digital WD Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM
Antec VP-450 450W ATX 12V v2.3 Power Supply

I think that's it. Already have nice monitor and mouse, will look at keyboards and cases later I guess. But if anyone has some opinions on these parts or better ones or anything I'm missing I'd love to hear it. Thanks!
 
Can't say much without the prices you're paying on those. Try to get a PSU with at least an 80+ bronze rating. If you're getting a processor with a "k" on the end, you should throw in the little extra for a heatsink (or you could save a couple bucks and get a CPU that's not meant for overclocking). You're covered on the OS front, I assume?
[quote name='Prota']Hey all, microcenter has the an i5 3570k on sale for $169.99.

http://www.microcenter.com/product/388577/Core_i5_3570K_34GHz_LGA_1155_Processor

Would that be a bit much in terms of power for the motherboard I purchased a couple of days ago?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188098[/QUOTE]
That motherboard claims Sandy Bridge compatability only. That processor is Ivy Bridge. You'd want the Sandy Bridge equivalent of the 3570k, the 2500k.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']Can't say much without the prices you're paying on those. Try to get a PSU with at least an 80+ bronze rating. If you're getting a processor with a "k" on the end, you should throw in the little extra for a heatsink (or you could save a couple bucks and get a CPU that's not meant for overclocking). You're covered on the OS front, I assume?

That motherboard claims Sandy Bridge compatability only. That processor is Ivy Bridge. You'd want the Sandy Bridge equivalent of the 3570k, the 2500k.[/QUOTE]

Well, the absolute most on the prices would just be whatever newegg or amazon is wanting. I haven't begun price-hunting but right now but it looks like the most would be Motherboard 140, CPU 220, Ram 36, Drive 20, HDD 85, Power Supply 40-60?, GPU 180.

I'm sure there are better prices, I haven't dug that deep though yet. I see that Microcenter price above for the i5, but no stores around here and says in store only.:cry:

Any PSU or heatsink recommendations?

And yes OS is covered. Thanks!
 
Okay, im debating between the i5 2500k for 159.99 and the i7 2700k for 199.99, both at microcenter. What do you guys think? Or have other good cpu sales popped up?
 
So far, I'd have to say I am a little disappointed with the Black Friday computer hardware sales. I was really hoping to save a bit more than $10/component. :(
I guess I will wait for cyber-monday.
(Unfortunately, I do not have a Microcenter anywhere remotely close to me)
 
[quote name='glennfrank']So far, I'd have to say I am a little disappointed with the Black Friday computer hardware sales. I was really hoping to save a bit more than $10/component. :(
I guess I will wait for cyber-monday.
(Unfortunately, I do not have a Microcenter anywhere remotely close to me)[/QUOTE]

I agree, I thought my mind would be blown. Aside from the CPUs, i havent seen much to bite on. Then again, i havent really been able to check since I've been working since 6 and I still have a long way to go. My friend is going to drive me to microcenter after work, so if anyone sees any other good deals there, let me know. I still cant decide on the CPU...I really hope Cyber Monday delivers...
 
[quote name='Prota']Okay, im debating between the i5 2500k for 159.99 and the i7 2700k for 199.99, both at microcenter. What do you guys think? Or have other good cpu sales popped up?[/QUOTE]
Get the 2500k.
 
If anyone cares, I priced out the cheapest budget gaming box with the sales going on right now. Pick and choose if you wish, but this list is hard to beat WITH OS!!!

PCPartPicker part list

CPU: AMD FX-4100 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($79.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Graphics: MSI GeForce GTX 650 1GB ($69.99 AR @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Antec Three Hundred ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $427.90

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-23 12:17 EST-0500)
Click to expand...

[quote name='Trace17']Hey guys, so I'm looking into building a pc and want some opinions and feedback. I think this is the best thread for this, if not everybody throw rocks at me.;)

I'm looking to get a decent PC that can handle most games with ease but won't break the bank (aren't we all lol?). Want to keep it under four digits without large sacrifices. I've replaced plenty of PC parts before but never built one up myself, so looking for parts is new territory for me. After browsing newegg, amazon, etc. here's a rough shopping list I've come up with:

ASUS P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
ASUS ENGTX560 DCII OC/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 560 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video
Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570K
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B
Western Digital WD Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM
Antec VP-450 450W ATX 12V v2.3 Power Supply

I think that's it. Already have nice monitor and mouse, will look at keyboards and cases later I guess. But if anyone has some opinions on these parts or better ones or anything I'm missing I'd love to hear it. Thanks![/QUOTE]
Honestly, if you just want a great $1000 gaming budget box, I'd probably base the parts somewhat around this list:

PCPartPicker part list

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti 3GB Video Card ($269.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Phantom (White) ATX Full Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Pro 750W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($79.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $940.90
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-23 13:13 EST-0500)

Stick with the cheaper i5 quad core over the i7 you picked, while the i7 is a better cpu with HT, you really don't need to spend an extra $100 for 4 extra HT threads that you would barely see worked when playing games. Good for content creation or number crunching, hardly does much for BF3. Pair the cpu with the cheap $15 CM 212+ cpu cooler so you can easily OC the snot out of it without needing to spend $$$ on something to keep it cool. Don't be fooled, the 212+ is the best value money can buy for a cpu cooler; specially for 15 bucks.

The Asrock z77 Extreme 3 is a comparable motherboard to the bigger sister of the Asus that you picked for good reason... Asus owns Asrock. The Extreme 3 has everything you'd want from the more expensive Asus budget board without compromising quality of the components. The nice thing about Asrock is that they upped all of their newer mobo warranty's from 2 years to 3 years recently.

I added a pair of inexpensive Patriot 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600, 1.5v, cas9 modules; don't really need to spend uber bucks here. Something dependable, decent and simple will work. Spending double, triple or more for 1866 or faster OC ram modules is a complete waste of money for 1-5% extra boost in overall system performance for very select programs that are RAM intensive like spreadsheet computations... We aren't playing a spreadsheet game so faster clocked ram almost does nothing for most games here.

For storage, I just picked a simple and cheap Seagate Barracude 2TB 7200rpm mechanical hard drive. Its fast for being mechanical and has a lot of storage; hard to beat for $70 right now except for the now OOS Seagate 3TB that was for $90 yesterday. You could easily add in a cheap modern 120GB SSD drive from any of the big names like Corsair, Samsung, Intel, Patriot, OCZ and so on; its honestly up to you if you want to invest in an SSD for a faster boot time and speeder load times. For games, its nice to have maps load way faster, but if you are humble and patient, a few seconds extra to wait won't kill you and once you are loaded, SSD does nothing to help you game better or any faster.

Without the SSD, I put more money towards a better graphics card. I just selected the EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti 3GB for this. Its a great card and it replaces the older GTX 570 region in terms of price and performance while actually being faster by a good margin (10-30%, depends on games). However j-cart's recommendation of the EVGA GTX 560 ti 448 (cheapo version of a GTX 570) for $150 is defunt within minutes as its out of stock. A great buy, but since we can't get it one, the GTX 660 or 660ti is the next best thing, but honestly, I'd shop around for a better GPU deal. Not many good sales on high end cards for some reason.

I picked the NZXT phantom white ATX case because I think it looks like one of the best cases to come out in the last year, plus its a great value with the features you get; now its on sale for $80 shipped! I've built a few machines with these cases and its a superb case. The only down side I have is that its limited space inside if you plan on building a large water cooling system, but for air, its great! Also, don't limit yourself to just the NZXT case, there's tons of other offerings in the $50-130 range that will work within your budget for your needs without needing to spend $200+.

As for power, j-cart's suggestion of the SeaSonic X650 gold PSU is a great buy, but I picked the Antec HCP 750 gold instead; that's the cheapest the 750 has gotten and its a fantastic quality product that I would not hesitate to use. The thing is built like a bomb and would still be 80 plus gold certified at 40-50C room temps (actual 80 plus certs are done at 23C room temps)... if that's not impressive, then I don't know what is. 750 would be overkill for this rig, even if you overclocked both the CPU and GPU, but you can never have too much power; actually have head room if you decided to throw in a 2nd GPU down the line. Modular and Gold rated for $90, whats not to like?

Throw in a cheap dvd drive and a copy of windows 8 and you got yourself a full box.

Use PC partpicker to mix and match other finds, but do note that their website lags a bit in finding the most current sales prices, so make sure you check out other deal websites like slickdeals.net or fatwallet.com. If you aren't satisfied with some prices of some parts, then buy the sale parts today and wait for Cyber Monday for other parts; namely the GPU.
 
So.. I may be more out of touch with PC hardware than I thought. I just actually saw a picture of the 650 ti and thought, "that's tiny compared to my GTX 275". The little bit oE googling I did comparing the two leads me to think that the 650 ti would actually be a downgrade... sigh.
 
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A 650ti is considered a low grade card.

A better understanding of how Nvidia list their cards:

GTX "AB0"

A= The generation series of the card (6 being the current version)

B= The power of the card (6 being the entry gaming version, 7 being the mid-tier and 8 being top tier. Some times there is a 9 in the mix)

0= Just a random zero (Sometimes they add a 5 in there to show case a newer OC version or something)

So this means that if you have a GTX 470, a GTX 660 may not be that much of an upgrade.
 
Thanks, I am understanding this now.. I just assumed a card 4 generations over the one I am currently using had to be better. I actually did read reviews of the 650ti - just the ones I was reading didn't have any data on my current card so I wasn't really comparing them..
I am starting to think I should wait a few more months after all on this build. :(
 
^^can't go by nvidia's marketing number scheme to figure out what is on par with what. That's what independent benchmarking from review sites are for.

Specially when they recycle some processors from the previous generation to fill in production gaps of a new line like the low level/entry level gpu's in the 600 series are actually still Fermi from the 500 series; just rebadged...


Also, the GTX 660 is miles ahead of the GTX 470... The 400 series is almost 3 years old at this point and they are insanely power hungry and mini heaters. The 200 series is over 4. A $70 GTX 650 is about 10% slower than the GTX 285 (roughly a 275), but the 650ti is about 10% faster in most games than the 285.
 
It was just a general way of looking at Nvidia cards.

I know the 660ti is freaking awesome, but when it comes to price vs performance the 560ti 448core is the best bang for your buck.
 
[quote name='glennfrank']Wait... so you're saying a 650ti is a bit better than my gtx 275? Now I'm even more confused. :/[/QUOTE]
Yes, even the vanilla GTX 650 is about the same power as your old GTX 275. The 650ti beats the faster 285 by a margin of roughly 10%; The 285 is roughly 10% faster than the 275.

Would it be an upgrade? Yes.

Would I upgrade from a 275 to a 650/650ti? No. Performance different wouldn't warrant me to spend 70-140 on a card that's roughly 10-21% faster, even though its smaller, uses less power and doesn't pump a lot of heat into the case.

If anything, the $120 XFX 6870 1GB @ newegg would be a vast improvement. Its roughly 60-80% faster than the 275. If you wanted to stay with nvidia, then I'd probably shop around for the 560 ti 448 (570 lite); EVGA had theirs on sale for $150 yesterday and MSI had one for $120 a few days prior!

The only thing that's worthy to mention for "sale" right now is the EVGA GTX 560 ti for $140 @ newegg; its about 15-30% faster than the 6870 in most modern dx11 games that's heavy with tessellation, but there are a few games that will barely break even. Still, if I was looking to buy right now and didn't know that the 448's were roughly the same price, it would be a great buy. Otherwise, wait till Monday.

If you want something more powerful, then you are SOL. Almost no sales for anything really beyond the $150 price points, which is sad. Was hoping for a 660ti to hit the $200 price point.
 
@j-cart - Gotcha, it was helpful. I used your examples when explaining it to my GF - she may end up buying all the same parts as me when I do pull the trigger on this (just like last time).

@JBaz - Yeah, I'd like to stick with NVIDIA. I know AMD has come a long way, but I had some issues with them in the past and even though I will probably end up disabling the Physix stuff in most games I would like to have the option.

I am now looking at that EVGA you linked and trying to find comparative benchmarks online between the two.
Maybe we'll both get lucky and the 660ti will b $200 on Monday!

Unnecessary back-story:
I've recently moved in with my GF and the days "free electric" in my last apartment necessitate me not leaving the computer on for 15-48 hours like I used to. I built this back in '07 with a video card upgrade in '09(GTX 275 Superclocked Edition 896MB) and I feel like it's getting to be time. The frequent long boot-up times are getting really annoying and I am experiencing slowdowns in more modern games. I've overclocked the intel core 2 6420 to 2.8ghz but have vista 32 bit, so am limited to 4 (3) gigs of Ram.

I will wait until Monday before making my final decision on the build - and whether or not I should hold out. I have enough "older" games in my backlog (no to mention console games) that theoretically I could wait a while on this - I just have a real desire to get a new comp and figured Black Friday would be a good time to buy.
 
I know what you mean. I've had both ATI/AMD and Nvidia stuff; old and new for so long. I keep going back and forth. Before my 570's I had the 5870's; smashing good cards compared to the then 480's that soaked up power, same performance for 100 bucks more.

Granted, I loved the 5870's that I had, but god damn! AMD sucks at drivers. The only stable drivers I had was from August 2010 on win7 64 pro... Reason why I paid a hefty price last year to get the 570's for 250 a pop; plus the idea of triple SLI with 96x CSAA was godly.

I sported a 6870, which is slower than the 5870, in a budget box for a while before I sold it to a friend; mainly bought it because it was on sale last year for 140 with shogun2, dirt 3 and deus ex for steam. All of which are fantastic games and would have bought separately otherwise.

I won't personally upgrade from my 570's anytime soon, but I'll probably snatch a 660ti for another build if it goes on sale. Gotta build up inventory I suppose, friends always hit me up for parts. Sorta like the PC parts bank for my clan, plus I seem to be the only mid 20 year old with a perfect credit score with no debt...
 
Hey guys, I was wondering if the GPU Amazon has on sale was any good. it is basically 30$ after a 25MIR. here is the link. For referance i am trying to build a sub 500$ rig that plays Skyrim well. Thanks for your input.
 
[quote name='chibilaharl']Hey guys, I was wondering if the GPU Amazon has on sale was any good. it is basically 30$ after a 25MIR. here is the link. For referance i am trying to build a sub 500$ rig that plays Skyrim well. Thanks for your input.[/QUOTE]
It will barely play Skyrim, but you will have to suffer in resolution and image quality to run even at playable 30fps... Its a 2007 card.

Here is what you want:
PCPartPicker part list

CPU: AMD FX-4100 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($79.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 6870 1GB Video Card ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Antec Three Hundred ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($79.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $482.90
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-24 23:59 EST-0500)

You could shave off $15 and not opt for the CM 212+ cpu cooler since its not necessary, but its nice to throw in and have the ability to overclock; if not, it will still be miles better than the stock AMD cooler. Its actually way quieter even though its a huge tower with a 120mm fan.

You missed the GTX 650 for $70 deal earlier as its OOS on newegg, but for a little less than double the price (and still coming under budget), you get almost double the performance. A 6870 should net you about 75fps on high with FXAA (4x AA), 8x AF at 1080p resolutions. You should read the Tom's Hardware Skyrim benchmark review.

Paired with the system is a cheap FX quad core, 8GB of RAM, 2TB 7200rpm storage, a decent cheap case, a very nice power supply and windows included in the price! This setup will have no problems playing skyrim at 1080p through the HDMI with audio while you eat some fattening food (or healthy... could eat some banana's while you run around like a fraking badass viking punching people in the face).

Now, the CPU does impact performance on Skyrim as it will scale on how fast and how many cores you have, so don't expect the top end ability with running a 6870 on a cheap/entry level FX 4000 series CPU. In terms of how much the FX 4100 will hinder is something I wouldn't worry about in a cheap build anyhow; we are only talking maybe 5-10% performance hit... in any means, it will still be very playable with eye candy enabled.
 
[quote name='chibilaharl']Also this could be a dumb question, but can the HDMI on a GPU be used to send audio to my TV?[/QUOTE]

Yep. Assuming the video card supports it. Dunno if there are ones that don't.
 
Okay everyone, I've purchased a few parts and I need a little more advice.

From what JBaz just listed, these are the items I bought.

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 6870 1GB Video Card ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer

I also bought this for $60 AR: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188098 and this for $173.40 after tax: http://www.microcenter.com/product/354589/Core_i5_2500K_33GHz_LGA_1155_Boxed_Processor

So far it seems like I may go over my budget, so I'm trying to see where I can skim a little off the top. Should I consider downgrading the cpu to an i3-2120 or something along those lines? Also, I like the price of JBaz's recommended Power Supply, but will that be enough to power my pc?http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cmpsu430cxv2 Selling some of the free game codes from the video card could be an option as well...
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cmpsu430cxv2
 
I tested the corsair 430w power supply on my i7 930 with one gtx 570 with no issues last year because my first 430 arrived DOA when I tried to build a box for a client (which I have never seen from a corsair PSU before, but newegg hooked me up and got a replacement within days), and that's with my more thirsty 130w cpu and 220w gpu with 7 drives. I was glad I had some spare 500w psu's laying around to use in the mean time till the replacement came.

You should have no troubles powering your i5 95w cpu with the 6870 150w gpu. I'd probably just limit your overclocking abilities; maybe a slight/mild bump to 4.0-4.3Ghz, but the i5 2500k itself can bloat by another 100 watts under heavy OC load depending on how much you push it. That could stress the PSU out a bit too much, but you could always try. Run some tests and see how well the system can cope.

If you never done OC before, then you don't really have to considering the i5 2500k is still a very fast cpu at stock speeds.
 
[quote name='chibilaharl']Thanks for the reccomendation but here is what i have bought already

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 AM3 3.4Ghz 512KB 45NM 125W 4000MHZ 94$
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard 70$
Memory: Corsair Vengence 8gb 40$
Storage: Samsung 830 128gig 60$
Case: HAF 912 30$

So i am looking for a graphics card that will go well with my cpu. would you still reccomend those other items you listed to fill the remaining gaps?[/QUOTE]


*GASP*

That looks like my build!

Though I have the AMD 975BE for CPU and a kingston SSD, but same case :D

For something like this, you are going to want a GPU in the GTX 560 range. I currently run a GTX 470 to give you idea of my rig.
 
I would suggest at least a GTX 560. I'm running 2 1GB GTX 560 Ti FPBs in SLI and haven't had any issues. I'm waiting for my Black Friday copy of Battlefield 3 Premium to arrive so I can see just how much I can make my system scream in pain. Crysis 1 kinda did
 
[quote name='j-cart']*GASP*

That looks like my build!

Though I have the AMD 975BE for CPU and a kingston SSD, but same case :D

For something like this, you are going to want a GPU in the GTX 560 range. I currently run a GTX 470 to give you idea of my rig.[/QUOTE]



LOL! Well I must be on the right track then if someone else built a similar build!
 
[quote name='chibilaharl']Thanks for the reccomendation but here is what i have bought already

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 AM3 3.4Ghz 512KB 45NM 125W 4000MHZ 94$
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard 70$
Memory: Corsair Vengence 8gb 40$
Storage: Samsung 830 128gig 60$
Case: HAF 912 30$

So i am looking for a graphics card that will go well with my cpu. would you still reccomend those other items you listed to fill the remaining gaps?[/QUOTE]
You could have shopped around a bit more. The same motherboard was on sale on newegg for $60 and you could have found any similar type 8gb (2x4gb) 1600 sticks for half that. Although, you did pick up the SSD 830 for a really good price. Don't forget to pick up the CM 212+ for $15; amd stock coolers suck ass and are noisy.

As far of graphics, how much left is in your budget? I would recommend the 6870 over the 560 ti if you are strictly looking at the price/performance value on the list above. Personally, I would gear towards the 560 ti since nvidia's drivers are much more stable and their SLI multicard solution is way more robust (your board doesn't support SLI).

Honestly, I'd wait till Monday to make a decision since new sales will come out then; right now, you missed all the really good deals like the 560 ti 448 and the 7850.

[quote name='HumanSnatcher']I would suggest at least a GTX 560. I'm running 2 1GB GTX 560 Ti FPBs in SLI and haven't had any issues. I'm waiting for my Black Friday copy of Battlefield 3 Premium to arrive so I can see just how much I can make my system scream in pain. Crysis 1 kinda did[/QUOTE]
Just to warn you, don't be too disappointed when you find out that you run into vram dump issues with all the eye candy on. BF3 was one of the first and few games to actually excel at filling up the memory buffer. The down side is that it really didn't add anything extra in terms of better image quality when using ultra HD textures instead of just high (unless you run at 1440p or 1600p resolutions).

[quote name='chibilaharl']I dont think my chipset allows for running 2 Graphics cards does it?[/QUOTE]
The motherboard you bought only supports AMD Crossfire. It will NOT do SLI.
 
[quote name='JBaz']

The motherboard you bought only supports AMD Crossfire. It will NOT do SLI.[/QUOTE]

I figured that. IS Crossfire similar to SLI? just proprietary?

Hell, im not even sure what SLI is so maybe its not for me.
 
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[quote name='JBaz']You could have shopped around a bit more. The same motherboard was on sale on newegg for $60 and you could have found any similar type 8gb (2x4gb) 1600 sticks for half that. Although, you did pick up the SSD 830 for a really good price. Don't forget to pick up the CM 212+ for $15; amd stock coolers suck ass and are noisy.

[/QUOTE]


I have heard that quite a bit. I know about Newegg, but I happen to have stockpiles of Amazon credit, which beats out newegg every time. I was looking at maybe spending 200$ max on a GPU, Though the coffers are now empty and i'll need to replenish them before i buy anymore parts. That is unless i find a killer deal on a GPU that is too good to pass up.

Also how difficult is installing a new cooler? I have never done it before and doesnt it involve glueing the new fan on, and breaking the glue off the old seal?
 
[quote name='chibilaharl']Also how difficult is installing a new cooler? I have never done it before and doesnt it involve glueing the new fan on, and breaking the glue off the old seal?[/QUOTE]
Its a very simple process that's no more difficult than installing a stock cpu cooler. The down side is that the 212+ is a very large cooler with a 120mm fan; you will need to make sure your case is large enough to house if.

You don't need to glue anything and I believe you were thinking of thermal paste to help with heat transfer between the cpu and the cooler. The 212+ does come with some paste, but most people us aftermarket thermal paste for a few bucks like the Arctic silver 5, MX4 or IC7 with better thermal capacity. The 120mm fan clips on and you do that as the last step.

And why would you need to take the old thermal paste off? I was under the impression that you just bought the parts, not installed.


As for your motherboard, Crossfire (xFire) is AMD's multicard solution for video cards; its the direct competition to nvidia's SLI.
 
[quote name='JBaz']And why would you need to take the old thermal paste off? I was under the impression that you just bought the parts, not installed.
[/QUOTE]

I think chibilaharl is under the impression that CPUs come pre-attached to the stock coolers.
They don't.. so you're either going to be thermal pasting the stock cooler, or the upgraded cooler. If you're ever thinking about overclocking, installing an aftermarket cooler right away won't set you back much, and will make things easier later.
 
OK thanks, perhaps I will snag that tonight then, it should fit in my HAF912 right? CM's specs page says it supports large cpu coolers, and the case is 7'' wide.
 
[quote name='chibilaharl']OK thanks, perhaps I will snag that tonight then, it should fit in my HAF912 right? CM's specs page says it supports large cpu coolers, and the case is 7'' wide.[/QUOTE]
I've built an X6 box in the HAF 912 case using the 212+ with no issues. Its a super case for being uber cheap.

[quote name='chibilaharl']Also is this AMD 6870 a good one? I notice it has crossfire support. Is that simply putting 2 gpus in a system and having them work together?[/QUOTE]
Yes, crossfire support is putting two graphic cards in the same computer and having them work in parallel. The 6870 is a great budget gaming card.
 
[quote name='chibilaharl']so i could in theory buy the amd 6870, for now, and if i ever need a boost, simply buy a second one?[/QUOTE]
provided that you have a proper power supply, then yes.
 
Processor: i7-3770K - $250
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...NLUofAv__qJL_Q

MOBO: ASUS P8Z77-V LX LGA 1155 - $119
http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-P8Z77-V-L...rds=asrock+z77

RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231489
or this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231560
Still undecided on which one

Power Supply: Corsair Professional Series HX 650 Watt -$111
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

VG Card: XFX HD-687A-ZHFC - $149
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150561
Any suggestions on the VGA card? I want a XFX for sure but just not sure which one with my gaming rig.

SSD: http://us.ncix.com/products/?usaffil...1500&sku=71145

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820167127

Cases: Any suggestions?
 
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