Opinion on article/new rig.

[Rockycore]

So I'm not as up to date with what passes as an acceptable rig now a days. (yes I've become a console noob) So I was reading

http://www.gamersnexus.net/pc-builds/46-pcbuildupg/999-mid-range-budget-gaming-pc-2013

and I was curious as to anyone's opinions. I've been mulling maybe saving for a new rig sometime this year. Do you guys think it's possible to build a new mid range rig for under....$750. That I guess would be passable for several years into the future. I'm not looking to run *insert latest graphically awesome game here* on ultra settings at 60fps. But on Med-high at 30 would be nice.

Thanks for the opinions. Don't hate the Noob!

 

[Kitlope]

As I have said before, you would be surprised what you get these days on a budget. I'm more of an Intel guy than AMD but I also know AMD is excellent value. As long as you get a decent quad core which is not a issue these days (duo cores are pretty much non existent now except for the very basic system), 8 GB of ram min, Windows 7 and a decent video card you're laughing. I put together a budget gaming system for the den and other than a driver issue (which was strictly nvidia problem) it's been a great pc that gives excellent frames in BF3.

The link you provided looks good but I would personally bump up the 7850 to a 7870. Also, were you planning on perhaps building it yourself?

 

[JohnnyK]

http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/ is a good place to get ideas and suggestions on a build, and something like this would be a good starting point:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($149.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($87.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($67.99 @ Microcenter)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB Video Card ($249.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Rosewill Green 630W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($68.93 @ Amazon)
Total: $707.43
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-23 05:06 EST-0500)

Of course it depends on what else you need (Monitor, mouse/kb, OS...) or want (SSD?).

One tip - if you have a Microcenter near you, they often do CPU+mobo bundles that are really cheap.

 

[Kenadian]

I actually like what Johnny came up with better, the main reason being the Socket 1155 because I own one and not only is it very upgradable for the CPU, it's beast on a budget.

I also don't think you need to go with Water Cooling unless you're one of those huge overclock retards who does it "because they can" but don't really need it. I have a friend whose like this and he goes through a mobo every 3 years because of it.

You do want an aftermarket CPU Cooler though because what comes with the CPU always sux. There's a lot of really good options out there that will satisfy any budget.

I also would not recommend the Caviar Blue as I've heard there can be issues with them. As a gamer, you really want to use the Caviar Blacks; I have 4 of them and there the best Mechanical HD's I've ever had.

Lastly, I think I'd also shop a better PSU. Even though 600 watt's will do it, who knows for how long? 600 watt's now may not be 600 watt's in a year or two and I'm sure you'll be looking at a new video card in that time.

 

[JohnnyK]

You do want an aftermarket CPU Cooler though because what comes with the CPU always sux. There's a lot of really good options out there that will satisfy any budget.

Only if you overclock, really.

I also would not recommend the Caviar Blue as I've heard there can be issues with them. As a gamer, you really want to use the Caviar Blacks; I have 4 of them and there the best Mechanical HD's I've ever had.

That was a budget addition. Personally I prefer Samsung but am also happy with the Seagate I am using atm.

Lastly, I think I'd also shop a better PSU. Even though 600 watt's will do it, who knows for how long?

Na. The system draws about 300W under load, there is a ton of headroom there.

 

[Rockycore]

I have a monitor, KB/mouse. I would need an OS. Not sure I want a SSD yet. Silly question, no physical disc drive? All pc games can be downloaded now a days? I like this build too. I'd have my cousin build it if I ever bought the stuff. I'm not overclocking anything. That build looks capable to be able to run some games on high for the foreseeable future(not crysis 3)

 

[tmtm]

Spend the little extra for an SSD. You won't regret it- even just a smaller one for windows and a couple games you're playing right now.

 

[Rockycore]

Whats the benefits of just putting windows and a few games on it while everyone else is on a normal HD?

 

[JohnnyK]

I love my SSDs - I have 2 Samsung 830s (128GB for OS and some apps, 256GB for games) and boot and load times are great. While they have become much cheaper, it is still a budget decision as IMHO anything below 128GB won't allow you to put much stuff on there, making the gains smaller. A very small SSD can be used as a caching drive for your magnetic drive to speed things up, but gains will be smaller than using the SSD directly (I have no personal experience with this though).

Regarding optical drives - I rarely use mine now (certainly not for games), but a standard DVD burner will cost you 15-20 bucks, so this can definitely be added.

The CPU iws not an unlocked model, so overclocking possibilities are limited anyway, but you can apparently get it up to 4GHz very easily (Link).

As for OS - go Windows 8. It's basically Win7 without a start button, but with much better boot times and more optimization. OTOH, if making a budget decision you should be able to get Win7 much cheaper now, I saw Win7 64bit Pro being sold for about 50 USD on ebay (new).

 

[mondo]

SSD=Things happen quicker, but is it really worth it? Meh. If you have the money then get one, but if you don't then its not going to really affect your gaming. I still have a 1TB HDD for steam.

 

[FearTheMuffin]

I've probably used my disc drive a dozen times since I built my computer almost a year ago.

I'm still glad I got it because it was only like $20 bucks and it allowed me to install some of my older games that I wouldn't have been able to otherwise. I guess I did also use it to burn some pictures to a DVD for family as well.

It's one of those things that, if you don't want to spend the little extra now, you can always install later.

 

[tmtm]

Pulled the trigger today and ordered:

Qty.	Image	Product Description	Unit Price	Savings	Total Price
1		Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570KModel #:BX80637I53570KItem #:N82E16819116504Return Policy:CPU Replacement Only Return PolicyIn Stock	$229.99		$229.99
1		ASUS GTX660 TI-DC2O-2GD5 GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video CardModel #:GTX660 TI-DC2O-2GD5Item #:N82E16814121656Return Policy:VGA Standard Return PolicyIn StockMail in Rebate Card	$309.99		$309.99
1		Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-750 750W Continuous @40°C, 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified, Modular Design, Single +12V Rail, ATX12V v2.31/EPS12V ...Model #:Hive-750Item #:N82E16817182133Return Policy:Standard Return PolicyIn Stock	$119.99	-$30.00 Instant	$89.99
1		Corsair Carbide Series 200R Black Steel structure with molded ABS plastic accent pieces ATX Mid Tower Computer CaseModel #:CC-9011023-WWItem #:N82E16811139018Return Policy:Standard Return PolicyIn Stock	$59.99		$59.99
1		ASRock Z77 Pro3 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel MotherboardModel #:Z77 Pro3Item #:N82E16813157297Return Policy:Standard Return PolicyIn Stock	$94.99	-$5.00 Instant	$89.99
1		SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC128B/WW 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)Model #:MZ-7PC128B/WWItem #:N82E16820147163Return Policy:Limited Replacement Only Return PolicyIn Stock	$114.99		$114.99
1		CORSAIR Vengeance LP 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 Desktop Memory Model CML8GX3M1A1600C10Model #:CML8GX3M1A1600C10Item #:N82E16820233309Return Policy:Memory Standard Return PolicyIn Stock	$48.99		$48.99
1		Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit (Full Version) - OEMModel #:WN7-00404Item #:N82E16832416550Return Policy:Software Standard Return PolicyIn Stock	$99.99		$99.99
Subtotal:	$1,043.92

Newegg promos got me $50 off of that, so not bad. Thanks for the mobo suggestion JK!

And shut up with the video card. I know it's not the most powerful, but 300 bucks is enough to spend on one.

 

[tmtm]

All that just so my kid can hog the computer playing Minecraft.

 

[Engnr]

Make sure the shipping address is Texas not Ohio. I can't believe you still get that wrong!

 

[tmtm]

For Jez, right? Since you make her play in that tiny laptop?

 

[Engnr]

Damn straight. Heck Harrison already has $400.00 towards his new computer. This one is so old I don't remember when I built it. My Samsung 22" LCD is starting to flake out, has issues powering on. Argh........

 

[JohnnyK]

Nice one tm, congrats.
EDIT: The only thing I would change is the SSD - the 256GB model is 160$ (although out of stock at Newegg), and while 128 for the OS, your major apps and some games, extra space is not a bad thing. One other potential upgrade is getting 16GB of RAM and using a RAM drive for browser cache files etc. if you do not want to put those on the SSD. With a 1GB RAM drive you could probably do this with your 8GB, though.

Oh, and read the guides - here's one I used: http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/the-ssd-optimization-guide-2/
===================================================================
Paul, you got a 226BW? Get a soldering iron, this can be fixed in a few minutes. leonardo fixed my old one that had the same issue and is now using it in his office:
[video=youtube;TEkckeT8Pz4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEkckeT8Pz4[/video]

 

[tmtm]

I'll probably add RAM later on. While I wanted to get something decent I still didn't want to spend a fortune. Especially after the kids broke the door off of my old case and I couldn't reuse it. I have 2 500gb drives to drop in with the SSD, so that's more than I'll ever use.

 

[Engnr]

Very cool, thanks JK!

 

[Rockycore]

http://www.gamersnexus.net/pc-builds/46-pcbuildupg/1035-high-end-crysis-3-gaming-pc-build

Swap and I5 for and I7 and this is the rig (or around it) I think I'm saving for. Goal: by the end of the year.