Could use some help with new computer

[Vladix]

Hi guys, i got a question about some stuff i am probaly going to buy.

I am looking for a pc that will last me 4-5 years and i don't have to run the latest games on the best settings out there.
Games i plan on playing the next years are :

Civilization 5 - Brave new world
Dragon Age 3
Total War Rome II
SC II Legacy of the void

And i like to run these games on pretty high / almost max settings.

I am planning on buying :


Club 3D Radeon HD 7850 royalQueen
Intel® Core™ i7-3770- 3400mhz ivy bridge
Sharkoon WPM600
ADATA ASX900S3-128GM-C, 128GB SSD
GIGABYTE GA-B75M-D3P (rev. 1.0)
Kingston HyperX 8 GB DDR3-1600 Kit

First i was thinking of the AMD FX 8350, but i read it uses ALOT more power then the i7-3770 and performes less, but if anyone says it is a good option i can still consider it.
I don't plan on overclocking anything, so i guess a low end motherboard will be fine.

Other thing i also would like to know is if it would be wise to skip the SSD and take a GTX660 GPU instead or will the 7850 be fine ?
I am kinda on my budget limit here so i can't afford to throw in another 100 euro's unless i take out the SSD.
I don't really mind waiting a minute when my pc boots up and i got other hard disks in my current pc to use, but am just wondering what will help me the most, the SSD or a different GPU.

Thanks for your help,

Vladix

 

[illram]

With FPS performance the GPU performance is most important. But for all-round performance of everything, and in some cases some load times in games (e.g., Civ games) SSD performance makes a big difference. The 7850 should be fine for a while, if I remember correctly it is basically a more power efficient 6870, which is still to this day a great card even though it is around 3 years old now. You might want a backup data drive though as 128GB will run out unless you plan on being skimpy with what you put on your PC.

You can probably get away with an i5 instead of the i7 and save some money that way. In another thread Zelig recommended an i5-3350P, which at $180 (US) offers pretty good value if you're on a budget. It should be fine if paired with a decent GPU for years to come. Alternatively a few dollars more gets you a slightly faster Haswell equivalent (although you would need to change your mobo). But with four cores, even if it is not the "fastest" intel model you should be fine for the next few years at least. Above $200 or so and you see diminishing returns for processors. For example, I bought a i5-2400 in 2011 for around $150 (on sale at Microcenter, retail it was around $180), and today paired with a 6850 it is still playing new games at high settings. Not all eye candy turned up but 1680 or 1920 resolutions with high detail are usually very playable for me.

 

[Vladix]

I am going for the i5 4670k with an ASRock B85M Pro4 motherboard i think.
Got some other people that also adviced the i5 over the AMD.

About the ssd, also changing that for a Samsung MZ-7TD120BW, 120GB SSD wich is cheaper and seems to be a good one.
And i have 2 extra disks for my storage, so i will be fine with 120gb as i only will be having 1 or max 2 games on it + windows.


Edit :

Intel® Core™ i5-4670K
FC-LGA4, "Haswell", boxed

ASRock B85M Pro4
Gb-LAN, Sound, µATX, Retail

Corsair 430CX
black, 1x PCIe, Retail

Samsung MZ-7TD120BW, 120GB SSD
black, SATA 600, 840 Serie, TLC-Chips, Trim, Lite Retail

Kingston HyperX 8 GB DDR3-1333 Kit
KHX1333C9D3B1K2/8G, blu, Lite Retail

Club 3D Radeon HD 7850 royalQueen
DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, CrossFireX, Retail


My adjusted shoppinglist, saving me 100 euro's so i have some room left to play with.
Won't be overclocking right away, so not adding a cpu cooler untill then.

 

[Zelig]

Your parts:
i7-3770 - $290
HD 7850 - $155
Total - $445

For gaming, I'd go with far more GPU power relative to CPU power:
i5-4670 - $215
HD 7870 - $215
Total - $430

or

i5-4570 - $195
GTX 760 - $250
Total - $445

Don't drop the SSD, nobody should be using a HDD as their OS drive at any budget.

 

[illram]

No reason for a K model with a B85 since the B85 does not allow overclocking. Either buy a Z- mobo or downgrade to a non-K model.

I know there was some scuttlebut about ASRock updating their BIOS to allow OC'ing on B- chipsets, but if it is anything like the last "OC" ability on non Z chipsets it will still be very limited.

 

[Vladix]

@Zelig, the GTX 760 is 140$ then a 7850 more here and they don't have 1 in stock and i like to get everything at once.
But i will take a loon into the 7870 tomorrow.

@Illram, someone else said to get a B85.
But would an ASRock Z87 Extreme3 do ?
Since the other ones from the Z series are twice as expensive as a B85.

 

[illram]

Yes that will do. But do you want to overclock? It entails additional expense and is more of a hobbyist/enthusiast thing to do. You will probably want a better CPU cooler if you plan on overclocking.

My recommendation would be get an i5, non-K chip with a B- or H- motherboard.

 

[Vladix]

Will a non overclocked one still be "powerfull" enough in like 3-4 years time or do you want that extra power by then and is it wise to spend some extra money now ?