PC build help

[zamir9396]

Hey guys, I've been really interested in pc gaming and was wondering if you guys could help me in making a good build. Im not really that knowledgable about the subject but i do know my way around some of it. I own a Playstation 3 for games like FPS's and driving etc. I was more interested in a computer for the strategy games and ones too come like Civilization V, Company of Heroes 2, Starcraft 2 etc. I'd Presume that these types of games wouldn't need a $1500 to $2000 build and wouldn't need to be too expensive. It would be good if you guys could talk about some of the latest hardware and not outdated stuff even though i dont want my build to be to expensive. I currently own a computer but its completely hopeless, I'll leave the specs down below and I've got all these details from my computer and dont know what all those weird numbers and stuff mean so ill just add them their and im sure you guys would know. Thanks a lot


Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6300 @ 1.86Ghz (2CPUs), ~1.9GHz

Memory: 1024MB RAM

Direct X version: Direct X 11

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS

HarDrive: 500GB Western Digital

Other things like my power supply etc im not aware of so anything ive left out let me know and ill try get back to you's. Once again thanks

 

[Palfreyfish]

First off, what's your budget? That's quite important.

Second, your GPU is around six years old now and was a low to mid end GPU at the time, so it will have to be replaced, you've got 1GiB of RAM, which is nowhere near enough, 8GiB is the current norm in "gaming" systems, but most games will run absolutely fine on 4GiB. The CPU is also far too slow for most if not all of the games you want to play, so that'll need an upgrade. Because of the CPU upgrade, you'll need a new motherboard too.

You're pretty much looking at building an entire new PC from scratch, with the only thing worth keeping being the Hard Drive and even then you may as well upgrade that too[footnote]To upgrade the Hard Drive what I'd do is buy a new one that's 1000GB (a Terabyte), and copy everything you want to save from the old Hard Drive to it, then wipe the old one completely to get rid of all the shovelware you've probably accumulated over the years, then use both of them as 1.5TB of space, or turn your old PC into a home theatre PC or something[/footnote]. You are okay with building your own PC? It's basically a big, obvious jigsaw puzzle, and I and a certain few other people will be able to help you with choosing parts and so on, where to buy them from etcetera.

*Snip*

 

[zamir9396]

id say my budget would be $500 to $1000 and maybe a bit over a $1000, i bought my pc say 6 years ago so hat probably sums up all the outdated stuff. I had it custom built for $1200 back then such a waste. It would be great if you could help me out with hardware and stuff for a build would be great man

 

[Palfreyfish]

id say my budget would be $500 to $1000 and maybe a bit over a $1000, i bought my pc say 6 years ago so hat probably sums up all the outdated stuff. I had it custom built for $1200 back then such a waste. It would be great if you could help me out with hardware and stuff for a build would be great man

I assume you're in the USA? $1000 will get you a pretty good PC these days, capable of playing all modern games at good framerates.

So anyway the list begins:

: $109.99

[url= Skill Value RAM[/url][footnote]Most RAM is similar, so it doesn't need heatsinks or anything unless you're overclocking, which I assume you won't be for a while[/footnote] $39.99

[url= Series One Case[/url] $49.99

[url= S12II 620W Power Supply[/url] $86.99

[url= GTX 670 2GB GPU[/url] $399.99

[url= CPU[/url] $219.99

[url= P8Z77-V Socket 1155 Motherboard[/url] $124.99

Oh, and a disk Drive will be around $20 if you need one, doesn't really matter much in this day and age.

Total Price: $1031.93 without shipping and possible rebates.

Bear in mind that this is a very good PC for the money, and as a result will last you a long time if you keep it clean etc. If you want I can come up with a $500 or $750 PC as well, but it won't be able to run the games on as high settings as the one I came up with above.

If you're worried about building it, ask your local computer store if they'll build it if you bring them the parts, and they'll charge around $50 to do it, but it's worth it if you're worried you'll break something.

 

[zamir9396]

Nah mate im in Australia not USA, but yeah for the CPU u didn't mention if i should get the i5 or an i7 and also will i be needing an SSD as ive heard that for a high end gaming pc theyre recommended. This is a build someone on another forum website recommended me what do you think ?

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500k

Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212+ CPU Cooler

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3 Motherboard

GPU: Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7950 Graphics Card

RAM: 2 x 8GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz DDR3 RAM

SSD: 128GB Samsung 830 SSD

Hardrives: 2TB Western Digital Caviar Green HDD

PSU: Corsair TX750M Modular PSU

CASE: Antec Three Hundred Two Case

DVD: Asus DVD Burner

 

[Palfreyfish]

Oh, fair enough, That's a very good build and it's probably within your budget, so I'd say go for that. An SSD isn't necessary for good gaming PCs, as the only thing stored on there will be the Operating System and potentially programs which you use a lot, but for gaming it doesn't really do much. And I apologise about the i5/i7 thing, I thought I'd linked it...

Yeah, I'd say go with the above build, it's as good as the one I suggested, if not better, because you get more hard drive space and an SSD (if you want one that is)

 

[number2301]

If you can afford it, swap out the CPU and motherboard in your build for Palfreyfish's (I presume the CPU is a 3570k), it's the current gen unlike your build which is previous gen.

If you wanted to save some money on that build you could save $100s of dollars on the GPU by dropping down to a 7850 or a GTX560Ti, either of which will handle any game at high res right now and probably for quite a while yet. You could also easily save money by swapping out the Samsung SSD for a Crucial or OCZ. Samsung are up there with Intel for prices on SSDs. Finally, your HDD is MASSIVE and probably a bit pointless. I've not looked at HDD prices for a while but they were recently massively expensive compared to what they used to be. Cut it to a 1Gb model.