Need Advice in Building my Gaming Rig

Commander98 · Feb 2, 2013

Hey guys, I've been thinking about building a gaming computer for a while, and have decided to get serious. :mischief:

Thanks,

--Commander98

Zack · Feb 2, 2013

Budget, use, priorities, (etc.)? Look at your current computer, and make a list of specific things you wish it did better, what you need it to do better, and how much you are willing to pay.

I'm not quite sure why you're getting 32 GB of memory (cue Zelig stating that he needs this much memory so he can leave his mammoth operating system and all of his programs open

)

I'm also not sure why you're only getting an i3 processor.

Why buy a monitor at all if you're hooking it up to your TV?

For any gaming rig, the video card is far and away the most important piece of equipment.

Those aren't very good deals for SSDs. Look at Crucial M4 and Samsung 840. Also, you might want to get a regular HDD for additional storage.

Do you really need a Blu-Ray player? If you're hooking it up to your TV anyways, just get a Blu-Ray player instead, it'll be cheaper that way (and you don't have to buy software to play the Blu-Rays).

Most importantly, look at this site.

Commander98 · Feb 2, 2013

Budget: Trying to keep it under $1100

Use: Gaming, High Quality Photo/Video editing, and browsing the web.

Priorities: Not sure what you mean, but high FPS and speed are highest on the list.

I'm getting an i3 because if I get say, an i7, it will, as far as I know, blow my budget out of the water.

I'd like to get a monitor because the TV I would hook it up to is just an old 32" HDTV.

In regards to the Blu-ray player and 32GB's of RAM, I like lots of RAM and would like this to last as long as possible without having to get new parts.

Suggestions on the video card?

Zack · Feb 3, 2013

Optical drives are going the way of the dodo, so investing a lot of money in one isn't future-proofing it. RAM is cheap and easy to replace, so if you find you need more it's easy to get, but 32 GB is an ungodly amount and doesn't improve performance at all unless you're running an insane amount of programs. Shift some of the $185 you're spending on RAM to get the cheapest quad-core i5 (only get one with a K at the end if you plan on overclocking).

I really recommend reading the guide I linked to.

Commander98 · Feb 3, 2013

Yeah, that site is pretty epic. What's the future future/replacement of the optical drive? How much RAM do you think is enough? Thanks for the advice. If you have any more keep it coming.

Zack · Feb 3, 2013

What's gonna replace the optical drive then?

I'm not sure whether you meant specifically or in a broader sense, so I'll answer both ways. Zelig can give a better answer than I can.

Most people building a gaming rig just stick in the cheapest DVD drive they can find.

Optical drives are being replaced by digital downloads (Steam, Windows, Office, Origin, etc.) and external storage (flash drives, hard drives). However, if you want to watch Blu-Ray movies, I'd recommend just getting a separate Blu-Ray player. They're not very expensive, and getting one on a computer means you'll also need to purchase software to play the movie in addition to the Blu-Ray drive.

Commander98 · Feb 3, 2013

Ok, that makes sense. I just have never used Steam and don't know if there are any benefits to using it.

And if it helps any, here are my current desktop specs:

CPU: Single-core Intel Pentium 4 3.00 GHz

MoBo: I have no idea but my PC is a HP Compaq

Video Card: Nothing.

Monitor: Compaq monitor with a resolution of 1024 x 768.

RAM: .99 GB

Optical Drive: CD reader/burner

Hard Drive: Samsung SP0411C 40GB

OS: Windows XP 32-bit SP3 Professional Edition

All in all, my PC can barely run anything I want it to.

Thanks,

--Commander98

Commander98 · Feb 3, 2013

Alrighty, I found two different video cards that take my fancy but I don't know which is better. Input is appreciated.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130833&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121703&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

Edit: Found a couple more things that I'm not sure which is better:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148530&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148526&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

Quintillus · Feb 3, 2013

Commander98 said:
Alrighty, I found two different video cards that take my fancy but I don't know which is better. Input is appreciated.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130833&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121703&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

Edit: Found a couple more things that I'm not sure which is better:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148530&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148526&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

For the GPUs... one of my friends has a 660 For The Win edition. He finds it to be a fair amount better than the regular in performance, approaching a 670, but with considerably less of a price premium than a 670. YMMV. It is also in stock; the other isn't. I'd be inclined to go with the FTW of those two not only because it's in stock, but also based on the lower price. I doubt the Asus is going to be enough better to justify the price given that I already know the EVGA is fairly good.

Whether it's worth the jump from a 650 or 640 is kind of up to you and your budget. A GPU is usually the most important consideration in a gaming rig, but there are some games such as the Civilization games where I'd rather have a beefier CPU than GPU. Turning up graphics in IV and V is nice, but not really necessary, where as too weak of a CPU leads to longer wait times between turns, which can get kinda old after a certain point. I spent $150 or a GPU (base price was $170 IIRC) and found it more than adequate for my needs, with a 1920x1200 monitor. It handles Civ5 well, so I doubt you'd need any more than a 650 for Civ5 at high settings. Less sure about the other games.

For the SSDs, the only difference I could find was that the one that's $10 more includes a 3.5-inch adaptor bracket. This lets you put it in a case that doesn't have any 2.5" slots. So, whether it's worth it, depends on the case you get. The one I bought had two 2.5" slots in anticipation of SSDs. But I'm sure you can still get ones that don't have any. As far as I could tell, that was the only difference, but I'm not an expert on Crucial SSDs.

Some Blu-Ray drives do come with playback software - generally, these aren't the cheapest. The $110 one you linked to appears to have Cyberlink software that allows playback. The $80 Asus one you linked to, however, does not. Read some of the reviews as well, and they should indicate this. Generally it's cheaper to get playback software when it's bundled, but it may or may not be the best playback software. As to whether to get Blu-Ray, depends on how many movies you watch. If you watch a fair amount, it might be worth it. Otherwise, probably not. Another question is whether to get a Blu-Ray burner (as you've linked to), or just a player. You can burn more to a Blu-Ray than a DVD (and way more than to a CD), but I'd recommend using external hard drives instead of optical disks for backup, since it's more convenient (especially since it's easy to update the backup). As to whether to get standalone or not... depends on your setup. Standalone might be cheaper, but internal takes up less space. I went with just a DVD burner (indeed, the cheapest one on Newegg at the time) and haven't missed Blu-Ray much, but I'm not a film buff.

The keyboard and mouse are kinda pricey. That depends on if you care about their higher-end features. I game, but I use a $10 keyboard and $20-$30 mice. You'll find people who say you have to have great mice and keyboard, but unless you're quite competitive in speed-responsive games (first person shooter, real time strategy, etc.) you don't really need that.

Monitors are largely personal preference and based on your priorities. I wouldn't personally buy that one because of the glossy screen, but if you don't mind the glossiness (and a lot of people don't), that isn't a problem. It's also pretty cheap for the size, and with pretty good reviews for the price. I have read that dedicated monitors tend to be better for some tasks such as reading text than TVs, but I've also had people recommend I get a bigger TV instead of a monitor... so again, personal preference.

Normally I might suggest going for a hard drive as well as the SSD, for space, but coming from 40 GB, 256 GB will seem spacious. Just do make sure you have a proper backup scheme, whether it's an external hard drive (not SSD - the speed boost won't be worth the $$$ as a backup), optical disks, or something like SkyDrive. SSDs aren't mechanical, but that doesn't mean they're immune to failure.

I second Zack that you're way overshooting on RAM. You have 1 GB now, which isn't really enough these days. But 32 GB is way more than 99% of people need. I'd start with 8 GB. Even 6 would probably be fine. The other great thing is that RAM prices fall over time. So instead of spending $185 on 32 GB now, you'll spend $35 on 8 GB (preferably one 8 GB stick, not two 4 GBs, but both work), and then buy the other 24 GB in a few years for $50 or so, and save a Benjamin. And in the unlikely event 8 GB isn't enough now, you can always buy more. The brand doesn't matter much in RAM, and both G. Skill and Corsair are good (I've been quite happy with my 8 GB of G. Skill).

For CPUs, it depends. The i3's are actually pretty good chips, and most people don't actually need an i5. It's good marketing on Intel's part that people get the i5 because they don't want the "low-end" i3. Either the i3-2130 or the i3-3240 are decent dual-core i3's. Quad cores are preferable, all else equal, but most games don't use more than one core, so you could probably get away with a dual-core to save some money. On the other hand, more programs are using multiple cores, and a quad-core is a much better investment than the extra RAM in terms of not having to upgrade real soon. The i5-3350P is a good entry-level quad-core i5. The other option to consider is the i5-3570K. This allows overclocking, which is quite easy with these chips and not hazardous if you are cautious. I've overclocked my 3.3 GHz Core i5 to 3.9 GHz without really doing anything other than changing the setting. But those retail for about $230 when not on sale (sales go as low as $180, but that low of a sale is rare). I would not spend any more than $230 on the CPU, as above that you're definitely losing value.

The power supply is something you should not cheap out on, because poorly made ones can (and occasionally do) explode, in addition to not being good for the other parts. Brands that are generally good include Corsair, SeaSonic, and Antec, to name a few. Read the reviews, and if it's markedly cheaper than others of a similar power rating, be cautious. How powerful of one you need depends on the parts. I'm guessing a 500 Watt one will be about right, but it depends on what other parts you end up choosing.

Motherboard depends on the other parts, particularly the CPU. Case depends in part on the motherboard, since it has to be big enough to fit everything else. How big do you want this computer to be? A full-sized tower can be kinda sizeable, but you can fit all sorts of things inside it. A mid-sized tower is considerably more modest, but still would likely be fine for your purposes.

------

tl;dr: I'd cut some costs with the RAM, possibly the Blu-Ray depending on your movie-watching habits, and if you aren't attached to the keyboard and mouse you linked, by getting a general-purpose mouse and keyboard. I'd consider going up a bit with the CPU, would make sure there's a good backup solution in the works, and would use some of the savings on making sure you get a quality power supply.

tokala · Feb 4, 2013

Commander98 said:
Budget: Trying to keep it under $1100

Use: Gaming, High Quality Photo/Video editing, and browsing the web.

Priorities: Not sure what you mean, but high FPS and speed are highest on the list.

I'm getting an i3 because if I get say, an i7, it will, as far as I know, blow my budget out of the water.

If you have problems with your budget, and plan to built a system for the next years, it might be a good idea to start with a modest amount of RAM (i.e. 2x4GB) and a entry level gaming card (7750/7770/650).
Those are the parts that can be upgraded with the least amount of effort.

And the video card is the component where the performance progress is fastest at the moment, i.e. spending $220 instead of $120 for the GPU will give you much less "future proofing" than for the CPU.

For the CPU, I would recommend a i5 or the Xeon E3-1230 V2, which is a i7 in all but the name, and cheaper. The ASRock B75 PRO3 will support the XEON and is a good choice in general; for other boards you will have to check for BIOS support.
While those CPUs would be overkill for your current needs (a fast i3 is the most cost effective for current games), in a few years I would expect a 8-thread CPU to become useful in games, and a full quadcore to be required for some; as it looks like the next console generation will have 4/8 threads CPUs, and mainstream PC games will follow that.

You can also keep your old mouse and keyboard for the moment.

For the games you mentioned 8GB and the video cards listed should be plenty good enough.

If and when you feel that those parts are getting inadequate, you will likely have some more money to spend on it.

Blue-ray burner is mostly pointless, it's much more cost effective and convenient to use HDDs for backups.

PSU: something in the 380-450W range will be adequate with enough reserves for a future GPU upgrade. Spend about $15 per 100W.

Case: Whatever you like, should have USB 3.0 front ports.
Cases that come with a PSU usually have a crappy PSU (of the "tend-to-explode-under-full-load" sort)

SSD: was already mentioned, Crucial m4, Samsung 830 if you can still find one, or a 840. ~120GB should be sufficient for starters, plus any cheap HDD for non-performance critical stuff.

Dreadnought · Feb 4, 2013

I see you've done your research, but I will leave an important piece of information for you:

If you're making a gaming computer, the greatest trap you can fall into is assuming that more RAM = better computer. Since games of this era still need to be coded in 32-bit format, you can get away with as little as 8gb of RAM for a great gaming PC. The PC I'm building for gaming has 16gb of RAM.

Instead, put all available funds into getting the best graphics card you possibly can. That'll make a HUGE difference overall.

Now, if you're building a computer for, say, video editing, then obviously the requirements are different (photo/video editing PCs require much more RAM than gaming PCs). But still, go with the best graphics card you can find, and still with average hardware for the other fields...you won't be disappointed.

Commander98 · Feb 4, 2013

Opinions on which case is better? After I find that out, I'll be able to post the setup for your helpful criticism.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811517006&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129178&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

Edit: Found pretty cheap prices for CPU's, wondering which I should go for.

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

http://www.microcenter.com/product/388575/Core_i7_3770K_35GHz_LGA_1155_Processor

Thanks for all of the suggestions guys, you've helped out a lot.

Zack · Feb 4, 2013

I think the cheaper one looks a lot better, but that's as much as I'm qualified to say.

Commander98 · Feb 4, 2013

Zack said:
I think the cheaper one looks a lot better, but that's as much as I'm qualified to say.

Hmm. I don't know, the cheaper one looks sleeker to me, but the the pricier one has those cool LED's :lol:

But on the amount of ports and stuff, how much is enough?

Zack · Feb 4, 2013

@ processors - I'd go for the i5. If you don't care about overclocking, you can go cheaper.

Commander98 · Feb 4, 2013

Zack said:
@ processors - I'd go for the i5. If you don't care about overclocking, you can go cheaper.

Is there that big of a difference between the i5 and i7 other than .1 GHz?

illram · Feb 4, 2013

Buy an i5 and something at the 7850 range which right now is not expensive and will get you pretty good to outstanding results with all of the newest games. The rest is details that you can mostly figure out with a combination of scouring Newegg and other computer forums such as Toms Hardware, Anandtech, or [H]. I agree that 32GB of RAM (?!) is waaay overkill.

tokala · Feb 5, 2013

Commander98 said:
Is there that big of a difference between the i5 and i7 other than .1 GHz?

The i7 has some additional computational units in addition to the 4 physical cores of the i5. Software that is designed to make good use of more than 4 cores will run faster on the i7, though slower than it would run on 8 physical cores with the same architecture.

Current software does only rarely make good use of the i7, especially games.
This is likely to change in the next years.

The longer you plan to keep the computer you are building now, the more a i7 makes sense over a i5.

On the other hand, with the prices of that shop, you should probably choose either the i7-3770k, or the i5-3470.

The 3470 is only minimally slower than the 3570k, but under the right circumstances the 3770k could be much faster than the 3570k.

Antec has a solid reputation, and that 1100 has two USB 3.0 front-ports and more drive bays than you will ever need, for a reasonable price. eSATA is going the way of the Dodo.

Everything else will be provided by the motherboard rear panel.

Maniacal · Feb 5, 2013

Its also worth price-checking each part with other websites. I see you live in the Pacific North West, NCIX.com has expanded into the USA with a warehouse in California and I have had excellent and fast (unless its shipped from bloody Toronto >.>) service from them and they have always honoured my price checks.

As others have said, 8 GBs of RAM is plenty and shouldn't cost more than $80 at most. I don't know how much video editing you do and how demanding that is, but 32GBs still seems excessive. You could always buy more RAM again if you need to anyway.

I wouldn't buy a monitor named "FAMOUS BRAND", that doesn't sound very legit. As for the mouse and keyboard, if you already have them then just keep them unless you really want to replace them. With the keyboard, pretty much anything will do, even a $15 Logitech or Microsoft one will work fine. As for the mouse, I'd recommend something like the Logitech G400 as it is the new version of the one I have, the MX518, which has done amazingly well and lasted me several years (and is still going...).

With a case, just look for one that (obviously) fits your motherboard and has the room and order of parts you like (ie PSU on top or bottom), room for drive bays, additional storage you may need, USB ports and whatever. I wouldn't worry too much about spending a lot of money on it although it is something that you can keep re-using for your future computers!

With NVIDIA #50 and under are low end cards. You want the #60, #70, or #80 cards.

tokala · Feb 5, 2013

Maniacal said:
With NVIDIA #50 and under are low end cards. You want the #60, #70, or #80 cards.

Naahh, the 650 especially the Ti aren't low end.
It will do for high to max settings in most games, unless you go crazy with the AA.
The 640 should be avoided, though.

Need Advice in Building my Gaming Rig

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