Building a mid range gaming PC (update)

[Allbot]

Thanks for all the help guys, took me a little over 2 hours, but its finally put together. set went without a hitch.

 

 

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

Well most of the parts came in today

 

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

The CPU, memory and the dvd drive wont be here till wednesday

 

 

 

So ive decided to build a new computer mainly for gaming, my 3 year old HP computer is having trouble playing some of the newer games and has given me quite a few headaches with BSOD. I wanted to build a mid range gaming PC so it can handle Skyrim, ME3 and Guild wars 2 on max setting so nothing over the top. Now Ive never built a computer and I probably have just above average understanding about computers. My budget is $2000 but of course I want to spend as little as possible. After watching a bunch of youtube videos and looking through a bunch of reviews I finally managed to pick the following parts. So I wanted to get your opinion who probably know alot more about computers than I do about this before I order the parts. Thanks!

 

**Thanks guys for all the help, this is what im going to go with, will update with picture when they get here next week.

 

Corsair Obsidian 650D Aluminum Mid Tower ATX Computer Case

Asrock Extreme4 Gen3 P67 LGA 1155 motherboard

Intel Core i5-2500K Processor LGA 1155

EVGA GeForce GTX 570HD superclocked

Corsair HX Professional Series 750-Watt 80 Plus Certified Power Supply Compatible with Core i7 and Core i5 - CMPSU-750HX

Crucial 64GB SSD for boot

Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Internal Desktop Hard Drive Bulk/OEM - WD1002FAEX

G.Skills 2x4GB memory

Liteon DVD drive

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler, RR-B10-212P-G1

 

it all comes out to around $1400, not bad

[Guy]

- You don't need a 2600k for gaming, get the 2500k - it's cheaper

- With that high of a budget I'd get a 570 or a 6970, whichever suits.

- Check if the Samsung Spinpoint F3 is cheaper than the caviar black - traditionally the latter is more expensive but they are equal in terms of performance.

- Get either 4GB (2x2GB) or 8GB(2x4GB) RAM. 16GB is unnecessary.

- Do you really need the bluray drive? You can ditch blu-ray capabilities for a nice price saving.

- Don't get a mATX board, go ATX.

[Allbot]

- You don't need a 2600k for gaming, get the 2500k - it's cheaper

- With that high of a budget I'd get a 570 or a 6970, whichever suits.

- Check if the Samsung Spinpoint F3 is cheaper than the caviar black - traditionally the latter is more expensive but they are equal in terms of performance.

- Get either 4GB (2x2GB) or 8GB(2x4GB) RAM. 16GB is unnecessary.

- Do you really need the bluray drive? You can ditch blu-ray capabilities for a nice price saving.

- Don't get a mATX board, go ATX.

 

I think Ill stick with the 2600k its not too much more expensive and itll cover me for the foreseeable future

its the 570 worth the upgrade from 560? if it worth the $90 price difference I will get the 570 instead.

I guess I dont really need a bluray, seeing as i watch everything on the ps3 anyway.

 

and is there an ATX motherboard you would recommend? I was also looking at the Asus maximus IV extreme, but it is $100 more expensive

[Askthedude]

- You don't need a 2600k for gaming, get the 2500k - it's cheaper

- With that high of a budget I'd get a 570 or a 6970, whichever suits.

- Check if the Samsung Spinpoint F3 is cheaper than the caviar black - traditionally the latter is more expensive but they are equal in terms of performance.

- Get either 4GB (2x2GB) or 8GB(2x4GB) RAM. 16GB is unnecessary.

- Do you really need the bluray drive? You can ditch blu-ray capabilities for a nice price saving.

- Don't get a mATX board, go ATX.

 

I think Ill stick with the 2600k its not too much more expensive and itll cover me for the foreseeable future

its the 570 worth the upgrade from 560? if it worth the $90 price difference I will get the 570 instead.

I guess I dont really need a bluray, seeing as i watch everything on the ps3 anyway.

 

and is there an ATX motherboard you would recommend? I was also looking at the Asus maximus IV extreme, but it is $100 more expensive

 

Motherboard

• 
   
  
• ATX
  
• USB 3.0 & SATA 3
  
• PCI 3.0
  
• SLI/Crossfire at x8
  

 

560Ti Vs 570

Up to you really. You could even go 7970 with that budget, but it's probably overkill for a "mid range" gaming PC.

• 
   
  
• What resolution are you playing at? I'd go for a 2GB card even if you're at a low resolution for future monitor/game requirement upgrades.
  
• Get an SSD for OS. Crucial M4 is the most reliable.
  
• Make sure you get low profile RAM with that cooler.
  

[Powerfrog]

When you buy a computer you shouldn't think about what you need now. You should think about what you might need a few years from now. Games, and everything else, keep getting more and more system demanding.

 

Buy a $500 computer and have mediocre gameplay on average settings for a few years and then replace it.

Or buy a $1000 computer and be in gaming heaven for a few years, and then have a mediocre computer for new games in the future, that you can still upgrade relativley cheaply to keep up.

 

To be honest unless you're paying for a brand, or you want the latest supercomputer, you shouldn't spend much over $1000.

[Guy]

 

I think Ill stick with the 2600k its not too much more expensive and itll cover me for the foreseeable future

its the 570 worth the upgrade from 560? if it worth the $90 price difference I will get the 570 instead.

I guess I dont really need a bluray, seeing as i watch everything on the ps3 anyway.

 

and is there an ATX motherboard you would recommend? I was also looking at the Asus maximus IV extreme, but it is $100 more expensive

Not many games use more cores than 2, let alone threads, but if you want then go ahead I gues.

Yes it's worth the upgrade, the 570 is very nice.

 

The Asus 1155 high-end boards are very expensive if I recall correctly. The ASRock Z68 Extreme4/Extreme3 Gen3 are both good motherboards, one is slightly more expensive than the other.

[Sbrideau]

If you do not intend of using an SSD at all with this computer, and want to lower the price a bit, you could go with a P67 motherboard instead of a z68. There's not a lot of difference between them except for the SSD and onboard video stuff.

[Allbot]

Ive never built a computer before so Im trying to stick with brand name components like Asus or intel motherboard, I havent heard of asrock so Im not sure.

 

As for the SSD drive for the OS, is there a big difference when running programs and games? if its just faster boot time I think I can do without a SSD

[Estonian dude]

It is quite a big difference. Specially when loading big stuff, like maps in SC 2. SSD's are about twice faster, if not even more.

[Allbot]

It is quite a big difference. Specially when loading big stuff, like maps in SC 2. SSD's are about twice faster, if not even more.

Even if the game is installed on the normal HDD?

[Guy]

Ive never built a computer before so Im trying to stick with brand name components like Asus or intel motherboard, I havent heard of asrock so Im not sure.

Intel's motherboards are not good competition for other brands, including ASRock. ASRock are a good brand, even if you haven't heard of them. If it makes you feel any better they are owned by Asus.

[JPMC Mate]

So ive decided to build a new computer mainly for gaming, my 3 year old HP computer is having trouble playing some of the newer games and has given me quite a few headaches with BSOD. I wanted to build a mid range gaming PC so it can handle Skyrim, ME3 and Guild wars 2 on max setting so nothing over the top. Now Ive never built a computer and I probably have just above average understanding about computers. My budget is $2000 but of course I want to spend as little as possible. After watching a bunch of youtube videos and looking through a bunch of reviews I finally managed to pick the following parts. So I wanted to get your opinion who probably know alot more about computers than I do about this before I order the parts. Thanks!

 

Corsair Obsidian 650D Aluminum Mid Tower ATX Enthusiast Computer Case

ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z - LGA 1155 - Z68 - Republic of Gamer Series - mATX Intel Z68 Micro ATX DDR3 2200 Motherboards

Intel Core i7-2600K Processor LGA 1155

EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti Superclocked 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card - Lifetime Warranty 01G-P3-1563-AR

*Ill probably start with just 1 graphics card and maybe add another down the line if I have to

Corsair HX Professional Series 750-Watt 80 Plus Certified Power Supply Compatible with Core i7 and Core i5 - CMPSU-750HX

Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Internal Desktop Hard Drive Bulk/OEM - WD1002FAEX

Samsung Blu-Ray Combo Internal 12XReadable and DVD-Writable Drive with Lightscribe SH-B123L/BSBP

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler, RR-B10-212P-G1

 

I wasnt sure about the memory I needed, I read in a few places that anything over 6GB isnt really necessary so I wanted to get some opinions about this

 

Everything right now is around $1350 not including shipping.

 

Get the ASRock Extreme3 Gen3. It is compatible with the Ivy Bridge CPUs, which will run more efficiently and consume less power.

 

Ditch the i7-2600k. Nowhere in the near future will hyperthreading be of use in gaming. Get the i5-2500k.

 

Get the Antec Earthwatts 750W PSU. It is $20 cheaper and performs the same.

 

The HDD is good.

 

Drop it for the ASUS 24X DVD Burner, and use the $ saved to get the GTX 570.

 

Get the EVO version of the Cooler as it is only $6 more.

[Estonian dude]

The faster loading times won't work when it is saved on a regular HDD... Needs to be on the SSD. But the capacity of SSDs is large enough to store most games and the OS there, for multimedia and stuff is the regular HDD.

 

Fire_R_A_G_E knows what he is talking about, listen to him. And yeah, Intel's motherboards suck, quite frankly.

[Sbrideau]

Agreed on the Intel motherboards. The real competition is between Asus and Gigabyte, but Asrock is also a very good brand to go for.

[Allbot]

Thanks guys, I went with the i5-2500k after doing some research and got the gtx570 superclocked, which was actually cheaper than the standard 570 with rebate.

 

The motherboard I went with the asrock extreme4g3 p67 chipset, i wanted the extreme4 cause my case has usb3.0 on the front and i wanted usb3.0 internal headers.

 

and i ditched the bluray for a dvd drive, was gonna get the cool master evo but amazon had prime shipping so the plus ended up being like $15 cheaper so I just went with the plus.

[JPMC Mate]

Your build is fantastic! You should be happy with it for years to come! :)

[Allbot]

on another note do you have any tips for LAN connections? my current desktop has a built in wireless card, but this one doesnt. I dont really want to run cables across the room. I was looking at powerline to extend a LAN connector across but those are pretty expensive, do you guys have any tips?

[JPMC Mate]

What type of router do you have?

[Allbot]

What type of router do you have?

I have a apple airport extreme hooked up to a Motorola SB6120 modem

[Sbrideau]

Wireless cards aren't expensive if you want to add one to the computer. Same with the USB ones, they're not expensive either.

[Guy]

on another note do you have any tips for LAN connections? my current desktop has a built in wireless card, but this one doesnt. I dont really want to run cables across the room. I was looking at powerline to extend a LAN connector across but those are pretty expensive, do you guys have any tips?

Powerline adapters are amazing, there is basically no speed drop for most houses. In my house though some sockets do not work with others, but that's due to the design of the house and the electrical wiring. It should work in yours (99.99% of the time they will), but be wary that it may not. Wireless of course has the issue of less speed and also packet dropping, but you can get internal PCI adapters which are cheap.

 

Edit: Be wary that, while it's lovely when rebates work, I've not heard the best stories regarding success rates.

[Allbot]

Thanks guys for all the help, I decided to just go with a usb wireless adapter for now, got it for under $20 which was nice. Everything is ordered through amazon and newegg. I got prime shipping so everything should be here early next week. Will update with picture!

[jasignhagj]

Thanks guys for all the help, I decided to just go with a usb wireless adapter for now, got it for under $20 which was nice. Everything is ordered through amazon and newegg. I got prime shipping so everything should be here early next week. Will update with picture!

Nice build and good luck. Going with the wifi adapter is a good decision imo, I've had bad experiences with powerline adapters. They won't work in some houses, and although the speeds are relatively fast, I found I had awful ping a lot in games while playing with one, and the connection would cut out from time to time.

[indy500fan]

If it is the same room I would prefer just laying a cable around the outside of the room than doing it wireless, or better yet run the cable properly under the floor or through the ceiling. Sometimes that isn't possible, and you can't run a cable at all, but most of the time there is a way. As the crow flies my router is about 15 feet from my computer, but after back tracking and wrapping my house (I went outside with it) I ended up using about 95 ft of cat5 :smile: .

[Allbot]

If it is the same room I would prefer just laying a cable around the outside of the room than doing it wireless, or better yet run the cable properly under the floor or through the ceiling. Sometimes that isn't possible, and you can't run a cable at all, but most of the time there is a way. As the crow flies my router is about 15 feet from my computer, but after back tracking and wrapping my house (I went outside with it) I ended up using about 95 ft of cat5 :smile: .

I was thinking about that when I was setting up the router, but i got too lazy lol