Building a PC

[NeoSpartan117]

Sooo, I don't know much about building a PC and I'm looking for some tips/suggestions so I can get one at the end of the year or so. Most important question, is there any new tech that would be coming out within the first 3 months of next year that I should wait for? What's the average price of a PC that can run Crysis 3 at max settings, resolution, 2560 X 1440 (or maybe 1080 p could be enough)

[Saxito Pau]

What budget you looking at?

I will not go into specifics (I'll leave that to the guys here with the top end machines) but I'm sure you looking at least:

Intel Core i5-3570K
Nvidia GeForce GTX 760

[Arcmanov]

For Crysis 3?  Trust me, you DON'T wanna know. 

Don't start by asking 'what price...'

Decide from in front what you're willing to spend in total.  Also factor in shipping costs and Customs duty/VAT.
For a gaming rig, I would start with a budget of about 1200 - 1500 US...and that's for everything...peripherals included.

1500 US can buy a lot of PC these days.  Once you drop below 1000 US, then you have to start making compromises.

[shivadee]

I can 100 percent vouch for Arcman for helping me build my rig in early 2012. VERY good resource and cuts through alot of BS some people like to bring up. Less about what you can't and more about what you can.

[AR!Ø]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srmmt0-vrD8

[NeoSpartan117]

Ok have a budget of about 1500-2000 US

[TriniXaeno]

That is a phenomenal budget.

You can put together a BEAST of a gaming rig for that.

Battlefield 4 will be in nirvana on a us$1500 - $2000 machine.

As a starting point, have a lot at this build from Toms Hardware.

Motherboard:   Gigabyte Z87X-OC, LGA 1150, Intel Z87 Express $200
Processor:   Intel Core i5-4670K: 3.4 GHz Base Clock Rate, 3.8 GHz Maximum Turbo Boost $240
Heat Sink:   Corsair H50 Liquid Cooling System $55
Memory:      Corsair Vengeance 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1866 Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9R   $70
Graphics:      Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 2 GB 256-bit GDDR5 $400
System Drive:   Samsung 840 MZ-7TD120BW 2.5" 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s (SSD) $100
Storage Drive:   WD Blue WD10EZEX 1 TB, 7200 RPM, 64 MB Cache, SATA 6Gb/s $70
Optical:      Samsung SH-224DB/RSBS DVD Burner $22
Case:      Antec GX 700 ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $55
Power:      Corsair 650TX 650 W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Bronze Modular PSU $90
Total Cost $1302

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-your-own-haswell-overclocking,3608.html

After shipping, duty @ vat. This will land squarely within your budget. Around US$1600.00

A few recommendations would be to inch up to the i7 if you want to wtfpwn more men in our very popular 3Dmark leaderboard.

Also, bump that SSD up to a 256GB. They can be had for sub US$200 right now. So it won't break the bank. The additional room will be most welcome for a heavy gamer, especially with Steam sales incoming for the yuletide season.

Likewise, the storage drive could take a bump to 2TB if you're heavy into media or photography.

Lastly, double the ram to 16GB for a warm fuzzy feeling of overkill. Future proofed. You should be in the game (pun intended) for years to come.

Those changes will take you into the realm of US$1600.00 - $1700

After shipping and customs charges, you'll land around US$1999.95

[NeoSpartan117]

Wow thanks, lots of detail there. Was wondering if to wait for the 800 gtx series though, but budget would behigher if i wait that time. Would most likely go i7 and upgraded SSD.

[shivadee]

do a little research on the SSD drives. The one i have needed a firmware update if you're moving to Win8. Not a big deal, but just be aware.

[Arcmanov]

At your budget... 2-way SLI/CrossfireX should be a given.

One question: if/when you buy all these parts...who building the PC?

[TriniXaeno]

Which cards in SLI/Crossfire?

I suspect it would go over budget if you're thinking of two $400 cards.

Or planning to chinks on some of the other components?

[Arcmanov]

Two 760s or two 770s of course.

Even though the AMD R9 280X is still a bit cheaper, right now, Nvidia is tops when comes to driver stability and features.

[NeoSpartan117]

My friend would be building the pc (well i'll learn how as well). I don't mind going slightly over budget for the gpu

[TriniXaeno]

Excellent, well that takes you into US$2400 landed territory if you go with the suggested upgrades.

A machine that should sit you pretty high on the current 3dmark leaderboard and play pretty much any game on the planet at maximum fidelity.

Boom bang!

[D2ultima]

That is a phenomenal budget.

You can put together a BEAST of a gaming rig for that.

Battlefield 4 will be in nirvana on a us$1500 - $2000 machine.

As a starting point, have a lot at this build from Toms Hardware.

Motherboard:   Gigabyte Z87X-OC, LGA 1150, Intel Z87 Express $200
Processor:   Intel Core i5-4670K: 3.4 GHz Base Clock Rate, 3.8 GHz Maximum Turbo Boost $240
Heat Sink:   Corsair H50 Liquid Cooling System $55
Memory:      Corsair Vengeance 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1866 Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9R   $70
Graphics:      Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 2 GB 256-bit GDDR5 $400
System Drive:   Samsung 840 MZ-7TD120BW 2.5" 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s (SSD) $100
Storage Drive:   WD Blue WD10EZEX 1 TB, 7200 RPM, 64 MB Cache, SATA 6Gb/s $70
Optical:      Samsung SH-224DB/RSBS DVD Burner $22
Case:      Antec GX 700 ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $55
Power:      Corsair 650TX 650 W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Bronze Modular PSU $90
Total Cost $1302

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-your-own-haswell-overclocking,3608.html

After shipping, duty @ vat. This will land squarely within your budget. Around US$1600.00

A few recommendations would be to inch up to the i7 if you want to wtfpwn more men in our very popular 3Dmark leaderboard.

Also, bump that SSD up to a 256GB. They can be had for sub US$200 right now. So it won't break the bank. The additional room will be most welcome for a heavy gamer, especially with Steam sales incoming for the yuletide season.

Likewise, the storage drive could take a bump to 2TB if you're heavy into media or photography.

Lastly, double the ram to 16GB for a warm fuzzy feeling of overkill. Future proofed. You should be in the game (pun intended) for years to come.

Those changes will take you into the realm of US$1600.00 - $1700

After shipping and customs charges, you'll land around US$1999.95

1 - Don't buy an 840 or 840 Pro unless it's 256GB or larger. It has problems with smaller file sizes. If you want a better smaller SSD, a Plextor M5P is a better choice for it.
2 - If getting a 770, go for the 4GB version. If possible, grab a 780 or a 780Ti for best single card performance without going SLI. SLI isn't really a bad thing and can boost the hell out of a slightly struggling system, but it has tradeoffs that I would not recommend it be the FIRST thing you aim for, so best single card = win. IF you still want to get SLI, then I would quicker suggest two 780s over one 780Ti, but if you can get SLI 780Tis you can easily play your Crysis 3 at 1440p maxed out.
3 - I suggest going for 1080p 120Hz/144Hz screens instead of getting a single 1440p screen. If you have the super budget for it, expand to 4 screens with SLI and you can run a lot of games super widescreen 1080p with your SLI (the reason I say 4 screens is if you use SLI with 3 monitors it MUST be one large desktop, and the 4th screen acts as a "second monitor" basically). It's fine to get one or two screens now and expand upon it when you have a chance. The 120Hz is for extra smoothness with the sexy video cards you're gonna get, and later on I'll get you into some 3D gaming with it. Especially 3D surround. Yes. (And contrary to popular belief, nVidia 3D vision 2 glasses kit is VERY nice in the games that like it. It's like being in iMax for your game, especially with 3 monitors running it).
4 - I hear MANY bad things about corsair Hxx watercooling products; unless I think it's the H250? I really can't say. but I suggest an entirely different water cooling product for it.
5 - Again, if you can manage it, one of the Ivy Bridge E (i7-48xx, i7-49xx) CPUs would benefit you a lot in certain CPU-bound games (Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, possibly the upcoming Watch Dogs) but a 4670K is perfect for ALL OTHER KINDS OF GAMES OTHERWISE.

-------------------------------------------------------------

^ not trying to break he bank or anything, but when somebody say he have a $2000 budget or a little more, it feels like the best thing is to build a really GOOD default build (at least a 4GB 770 or a 780 or a 780Ti, and the 1080p 120Hz screen and maybe the mobo/6-core CPU if you want) and you could add screens and extra video cards etc later.

[TriniXaeno]

Nice, I think that would completely blow his budget though.

Could you put figures together and see what total you come up with?

[D2ultima]

Nice, I think that would completely blow his budget though.

Could you put figures together and see what total you come up with?

If he gets everything together in one, sure, but that's why at the end I said he could piece it. CPU + 1 video card + 1-2 screens and his case/RAM/etc. Then later on when he gets more money, get more screens/video card/3D kit/etc. But the foundation is key, he'd need to get a good strong basic video card/mobo/etc first, you understand.

[Arcmanov]

A 120 Hz monitor with 2 x 780 Ti is more than half of that 2000.

Why waste all that money if the PC isn't helping you MAKE money?

A 1440p  monitor with 2 x 770s will do just fine.   The 770 price/performance ratio right now is the best it can get.

I'd like to hear about some of these 'SLI tradeoffs', because as far as I'm concerned the only issue is increased power consumption.




Samsung Galaxy Note 2 | Omega v18 | SwiftKey | Tapatalk 4

[Spazosaurus]

Man, 1080p is good enough oui. A single gtx 780 or 770 giving you absolutely smooth gameplay in BF4 and just about everything else out there. *Disclaimer* This is MY opinion, but the increased visual fidelity that a higher res brings doesnt justify the financial and power consumption cost of bolstering your graphic processing back end to feed it.

A mainboard like this one for a lowly $140 giving you a good helping of bells and whistles, most importantly the option to add another card in SLI down the road should you decide you want to up your frame pumping ability in the future (unnecessary for right now).

Something like the CM Hyper 212 cooler, yuh good to go! I have the plain 212 and it works like a charm. 30 degrees idle, 55 degrees full gaming load @ 4ghz.

The other parts wyatt suggested are fine but this board and cooler can save you a cool $100us. If all you doing with the machine is gaming, dont even bother with more than 8gb ram.

[TriniXaeno]

That is a nice board Spaz, for considerably less +1

Minus 1 for MSI though so yuh back to zero.

Find that in gigabyte or asus and we golden.

TBH, if it were my machine, I won't be overclocking the processor at all, in which case you can skip the after market cooler altogether and run with the stock fan from intel. Saving US$50

But wait....there's more.

Since the original post, price has dropped on the Nvidia 770 GTX

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D3ES1Q0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00D3ES1Q0&linkCode=as2&tag=g12n7-20

It can now be had for $335.00, saving you $65 right there. Not to mention you get epic free games like Assassins Creed IV and Splinter Cell: Black List.

All those savings can be put into a larger SSD as originally recommended and still keep within budget.

Boom bang