New PC rig help.

[RhombusHatesYou]

Thanks also if the OP isn't overclocking he can cut the z77 motherboard for a h77 and cut the h80 for stock cooling and save another $200.

Even if they are OCing, with an Ivy Bridge CPU they should be able to push to at least 4.5Ghz with a good aftermarket HSF unit... and depending on ambient temp and humidity, could push to 5Ghz.

 

[Doom972]

Recommended specs:

A quad-core CPU - The higher the clock rate, the longer your PC would be able to run the newest games.

RAM - 8 GB is more than enough for the moment, and you can replace it or add to it (depends on how many RAM slots the motherboard has).

Graphics card - I recommend the best card of the previous series. For example, if you go for nVidia, you'll want one the Geforce 500 series (the newest is 600). Of that series, you should pick one of the three best (not less than that), depending on what you can afford. In this example that would be GeForce GTX 590, 580, and 570.

Another important decision is the motherboard: make sure that it supports your CPU type and clock rate, as well as your RAM type and clock frequency.

I hope that this helps.

Looking at New Egg, and I can see the Radeon 7950 at 330$, is that a good card cause I think I can get something at that price, if the rest of the rig goes well, if not the 660 TI seems kinda cheap, and I heard that I can double it later, however I'm currently thinking of the 7950.

If you can afford it, go for it. It's a great card.

As for the CPUs,I see I7's and I5's, I'm hearing some where to go for I5 but I hear something about bottle necks.

You can't really avoid bottlenecks, Either the CPU will set a limit, or the graphics card will. i7 is better than i5, but as long as it's quad core you'll have what you need.

As for mother boards, can you recommend me anything?

It's hard to know until I know exactly what parts you picked.

Also, power source, 600W-500W is good? if not what is?

Same answer. Once you pick out the rest of the parts (including the motherboard), you'll be able to determine which PSU you'll need.

I like a fast computer and I remember something about changing Ram in some computer course I took not too long ago, can you tell me more about it cause I can't remember what was said.

You can change RAM. The only problem I can think of is that if your PC is 8+ years old you might not be able to find RAM with a low enough clock frequency that your motherboard can support. That's not really something to be concerned about.

I'll look for a case and I'm assuming I need a minimum of a Terabyte of a hard drive, if not more.

That's what I would suggest.

Did I miss anything?

Do you need a new monitor? DVD drive? Blu Ray drive?

 

[Lucky Godzilla]

If you want to skip all the uncertainty of building your own PC, I would recommend you just buy a rig wholesale. ibuypower is actually running a fairly amazing deal for their Revolt 2, a i7 3770k, 8 gigs of ddr3-1600 and a 670 which is one beast of a card. All for the very reasonable price of $1,400 when one considers the specs of the rig.
http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Deal_of_the_Day_Revolt_2

 

[Doom972]

i7 is better than i5,[...]

No, the i7 CPUs are not better then the i5 CPUs (for gaming). I will give further elaboration in the "CPU"-Part of my post.

What you often see is people who recommend the Intel Core i7 CPUs for gaming rigs. This is nothing but a HUGE waste of money.
For consumers (not developers) an i7 CPU is an i5 with "Hyperthreading". This is a technology that basically turns your quad-core into an octa-core (4 physical cores, 4 virtual ones). Sounds nice in theory, but for it to actually have effect, you'd need a game that uses more than 4 cores. There are none and there will be none any time soon.
Despite QuadCores being around for so many years now, barely any game (I actually know none) uses all 4 cores efficiently. This is due to the fact that games are poor applications for parallelization (multicore optimization) and you end up in development-hell.

Actually, I use an i7, and when running more intensive programs all logical cores get used. It also affects what you can run in the background while playing. Besides, I'm guessing he wants that PC to last 5-6 years.

I agree that he should get an i5 if he can't afford an i7, and I agree that the graphics card should be of a higher priority, but an i7 is definitely not a waste of money.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

CPU: Get an i5 3570k processor, it's PERFECT for gaming, allows overclocking, and it's incredibly powerful in its own right. Unless you plan on doing heavy video editing and graphics programs, an i7 would be wasted money.

Ram: 8GB should be fine

GPU: I'd recommend the Nvidia 660, as it's a fantastic graphics card for its price range (I plan on getting the 660ti soon). the 7950 has been said to be good too, so if you can afford it, go for it~

600W power supply should be plenty, unless you plan on using SLI (dual graphics cards basically)

I have been told to get the Asus P8Z77-V motherboard cause it has great build quality, lots of options, and is a very capable motherboard. Asus is a fantastic brand to go with.

That's about all I can recommend. If you plan the rest of the stuff around these parts, you can expect a $1000 rig or so :3 Good luck!

 

[jebara]

Sorry I was gone for a while.

Hey there,

xTc212 has meanwhile updated his post (#8) and I absolutely agree to everything said there.

Nothing wrong with the $1800 build off Youtube either, but bear in mind that you absolutely need to get

1. Keyboard you're happy with
2. GOOD mouse you're happy with (your taste matters, as has been mentioned earlier)
3. display

You might not need a display/monitor if your gaming TV is nice, fast and big enough to make you happy for gaming. HDMI is absolutely recommended, DVI is good as well. HDMI is generally best and stupid good, depending on your setup. Do you intend to run the (surround) sound from gaming directly to the TV, or do you want it to go to/through your AV receiver, or do you intend/need to get surround speakers?

Damn, I didn't completely forget the monitor,mouse and keyboard but it occasionally slips my mind, thanks for reminding me.
I guess I have to keep that in mind now.
I was hoping to go with a monitor but I remember something about Steam's big picture and how you can play on TV's, however I kinda want that PC experience for now, but I guess somewhere down the line I could get a controller and occasionally plug it into my TV and play it like a console every once in a while...its easy to do that right?

My recommendation:
Wait.
Soon Intel will release the new Haswell CPUs. Buying a Ivy Bridge (current) CPU with a Mainboard will be a waste of money, since they will cost the same once they're released.

I kinda want one really soon, so I don't think I wanna wait, however I want to ask,CPU's and mother board don't seem that changeable, but you can move all the other parts to them right?


I thik I'm getting the hang of this, thanks guys!

 

[thenoblitt]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/UYiM

7970 is miles ahead of the gtx 660 ti also all you need is a 212 cooler, water coolers are insane, heres a perfect build thats cheaper and will run faster

 

[Doom972]

Actually, I use an i7, and when running more intensive programs all logical cores get used. It also affects what you can run in the background while playing. Besides, I'm guessing he wants that PC to last 5-6 years.

I agree that he should get an i5 if he can't afford an i7, and I agree that the graphics card should be of a higher priority, but an i7 is definitely not a waste of money.

Why would you want to do that unless you're playing really old games?
You don't build yourself a high-end gaming rig for those games in the first place anyway.

Since the OS has those "Cores" it uses them.
Your game will use two (most likely) either way. There wouldn't be any difference if you had an i5, unless you're really pushing the CPU to its limits in the background while playing.
Again, why would you do that?

And don't say "Because I can", since the price difference between i5s and i7s is quite high, for no performance difference in applications that don't utilize the extra potential of the i7s. Don't forget that this is a thread for a gaming-rig; exactly this kind of applications.

And no, to make this perfectly clear, the i7s are not bad. They just aren't worth the money when it comes to gaming, since you don't utilize the extra potential at all, while there are components that you could have spend the money on that would make a difference.

If he can afford an i7, it means that he can afford to spend the money on parts that would improve his experience.

I like to be able to run stuff in the background while playing (And I often do). If that falls under "because I can", I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. I will admit that my CPU usage never gets near 100%, but that's how I like it. I still think that an i7 would be a better investment (if affordable) because in the next 5 years games will gradually become more demanding. It's not absolutely necessary, but definitely not a waste.

 

[already in use]

On the matter of graphics cards:

Do you know how much money you want to spend
for how much performance?
AAA Games are designed right now that they look good
/ as invisioned on mid range cards from two generations ago at 1080p,
but have additional features that use a lot of power for a small
reward (Übersampling/Tesselation/very high Antialiasing...),
e.g. a gtx 460 will play crysis 3 in high/medium settings smoothly,
but even high end cards will struggle at maxed settings.
GPU horsepower doubles every 1-2 years, so id recommend
upgrading frequently to cards with enough power for your setup
right now and not something with unused headroom.
For Gaming at 1080p with 60 fps non 3d (most monitors today)
anything above a 7870 is pretty much wasted and gives you no benefit
at all except for the odd few futuristicly demanding games on maxed setting.

 

[Doom972]

I like to be able to run stuff in the background while playing (And I often do). If that falls under "because I can", I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. I will admit that my CPU usage never gets near 100%, but that's how I like it. I still think that an i7 would be a better investment (if affordable) because in the next 5 years games will gradually become more demanding. It's not absolutely necessary, but definitely not a waste.

Since those aren't the demands a "typical" gamer has to his PC, I think the OP should just say if he wants to do that.
He wants a gaming rig, so I assumed he wants a PC for gaming.
If he says "I need to let computation heavy applications run in the background while playing", that's something different. But unless he says that he has this need, he shouldn't buy an i7. For the typical gamer (run a game, and only a game) there will be no difference between an i5 and i7.
The price difference is just way too big to "just buy one", since this extra money, put into a stronger graphics or better monitor card would make a huge difference.

I didn't say that this is the reason the OP should get an i7, I said that this is the reason behind my choice to get an i7.
I keep saying that it's only recommended if it's affordable, and that it will eventually be useful because games will become more demanding over the next few years, but I guess you'll just keep ignoring that.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

Damn, I didn't completely forget the monitor,mouse and keyboard but it occasionally slips my mind, thanks for reminding me.
I guess I have to keep that in mind now.
I was hoping to go with a monitor but I remember something about Steam's big picture and how you can play on TV's, however I kinda want that PC experience for now, but I guess somewhere down the line I could get a controller and occasionally plug it into my TV and play it like a console every once in a while...its easy to do that right?

Aye, if you buy a dedicated monitor, look for one with a low latency... what works for average office work won't necessarily make you happy when gaming. I myself am partial to 1920x1200 (or higher) resolutions, but that is mainly due to work... for gaming, 1920x1080 is fine (and screens cost significantly less). Your preference counts. Give it a thought and a google search.

Mouse and keyboard: I like the no frills, no latency, no issues of a wired setup, but I use my main gaming PC rig with both wired and wireless keyboard/mouse. So I can work at the PC workstation/home cubicle, but just as well sit down on the sofa and play games on the big(ger) TV set, on the very same PC. Yes, plugging in/out is easy (especially now with HDMI), but you will eventually want to settle for an EITHER/OR or BOTH setup. If you have/get a wireless controller (PS3/360/Logitech/...), you can also keep your wired keyboard/mouse with the PC and just fire up the game on the TV and move about with your trusty wireless game pad controller in hand... whatever suits your fancy, really.

I kinda want one really soon, so I don't think I wanna wait, however I want to ask,CPU's and mother board don't seem that changeable, but you can move all the other parts to them right?


I thik I'm getting the hang of this, thanks guys!

The core components are MB-CPU-RAM, and they should be chosen to offer you the best performance for the task at hand. In your case, it's gaming. So I would say if money is limited (it usually is), go with what is available the very moment you absolutely need/want to get a rig. The next generation coming up is not really that big of an issue, except maybe for lowering the prices of the current gear. It's, once again, your educated choice that matters, really. The only completely wrong thing to do would be to randomly buy some parts now and some parts later and then trying to make them match somehow. Yes, you can use most of the other parts for any MB-CPU-RAM combo, such as case, power supply, optical drives or gfx card. But I would suggest to view and buy everything as a unity, the one system you build when it's time for building it. You can upgrade that system at a later point in time with, say, a more powerful gfx card... a dedicated sfx card... more RAM... maybe a faster CPU if you feel the need. Only for the latter does the switch to Haswell actually matter, as 'last gen' CPUs might be phased out, becoming rare, hard to obtain or only available used. However, should you feel the need to build a new system years from now, and you have no family members that can make use of your old rig, you can sell your system whole or in parts, whichever way you fancy.

Someone said the Radeon HD 7970 was 'miles faster' than the GTX 660 (Ti) - that may very well be true, but the cards still cost at least twice as much as the GTX 660 (Ti) ($400-700 opposed to <$200).

 

[Crises^]

Thanks also if the OP isn't overclocking he can cut the z77 motherboard for a h77 and cut the h80 for stock cooling and save another $200.

Even if they are OCing, with an Ivy Bridge CPU they should be able to push to at least 4.5Ghz with a good aftermarket HSF unit... and depending on ambient temp and humidity, could push to 5Ghz.

Id be heavily impressed at getting 4.5 on stock, I know you could on sandy but because of the changes with heat on the Voltage on Ivy it heats up a lot more each increase on the voltage. Also depends on what you call a decent max temp for instance with my h80 on i5 3570k I'm running at 4.4ghz as my max 100% load temp is 68c(as in the max I wan't it to go)

I believe the max safe temp is 75c on ivy but I don't like pushing it that high. Were you able to push yours that high on stock and if so whats the max temp load you got because if its around 68 pleases share you OC settings so I can try them.

 

[jebara]

After a while , I thought it over and decided to wait for the next Intel CPU and the 700 series of the GTX, wanted to tell you guys that and thank you.