Recommend a PC setup to an up-and-coming computer geek

[Jailbird408]

I'm a term into learning how to C++, and I have to prepare myself for the sort of lifestyle I have only dreamed about up until now.
The first step is getting an awesome gaming PC setup. I need a crispy monitor, a powerful tower, a mouse with many buttons and a keyboard that can register more than 3 buttons at a time.
I'm looking for the best PC setup I can afford. My budget may be one or two thousand Australian dollars. I'll save you the hassle of powering up a currency converter: that's 1048 and 2096 USD respectively. (Wait, the AUD is worth MORE now? Man, I've gotta keep up with current affairs.)
So what do you recommend?

 

[JCD2k4]

Corsair's M90 is a mouse with many buttons. If you still need more, have a look at the Razer Naga.

 

[Palfreyfish]

Parts I recommend (assuming you want to build it yourself):
i5 2500k - Best current generation gaming CPU

GTX 560ti - Excellent value Graphics card, also quite powerful

8GB of whatever RAM takes your fancy - RAM is RAM, heatsinks etc don't make much difference, and in some cases take up space required for the CPU cooler

ASUS P8P67 EVO motherboard - Good mobo, supports overclocking etc

750W or higher Corsair Power Supply - Corsair make good PSUs, can't remember who else does good PSUs

Aftermarket CPU cooler not required, but you might as well get one

Case can be whatever you want really, as long as it supports ATX motherboards

Mouse depends on what you're playing most really. A Razer mouse is good. I currently have a RAT 9* which is great, if overpriced.

Keyboard, again, Razer do good mechanical KBs, apparently thermaltake do a good mechanical keyboard...

Screen. I don't know about screens, never really been bothered by them, just go for one with a 60Hz or higher refresh rate.

*which I won by the way, I wouldn't recommend wasting your money on one.

 

[Tanakh]

I'm a term into learning how to C++, and I have to prepare myself for the sort of lifestyle I have only dreamed about up until now.
The first step is getting an awesome gaming PC setup. I need a crispy monitor, a powerful tower, a mouse with many buttons and a keyboard that can register more than 3 buttons at a time.
I'm looking for the best PC setup I can afford. My budget may be one or two thousand Australian dollars. I'll save you the hassle of powering up a currency converter: that's 1048 and 2096 USD respectively. (Wait, the AUD is worth MORE now? Man, I've gotta keep up with current affairs.)
So what do you recommend?

Ahh... lolz? To compile anything you can learn and write by yourself in C++ a toaster will do; you don't need a powerful computer at all... as a rule of thumb if it can open facebook without lag it can compile and run your C++ code, so if it's REALLY for that, don't waste the money.

If you want a gaming machine and it's your first? I will just follow http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-gaming-pc-overclock,3159.html the advice from tom's hardware, you are in luck, they are doing their building marathon this days and tomorrow will be the one that suits your budget best. Not to diss the PC builders here, it's just that the System Builder Marathon there it's probably more reliable and experienced and less biased, being a fanboy of a brand will lead may people to reccomend supbar choices.

As for me? I go part by part doing price/performance charts for each component. Which means more often than not I end up with Intel chips, ASUS mobos and ATI GPUs as they are usually the best bang for your buck.

 

[Palfreyfish]

Parts I recommend (assuming you want to build it yourself):
i5 2500k - Best current generation gaming CPU

GTX 560ti - Excellent value Graphics card, also quite powerful

8GB of whatever RAM takes your fancy - RAM is RAM, heatsinks etc don't make much difference, and in some cases take up space required for the CPU cooler

ASUS P8P67 EVO motherboard - Good mobo, supports overclocking etc

750W or higher Corsair Power Supply - Corsair make good PSUs, can't remember who else does good PSUs

Aftermarket CPU cooler not required, but you might as well get one

Case can be whatever you want really, as long as it supports ATX motherboards

Mouse depends on what you're playing most really. A Razer mouse is good. I currently have a RAT 9* which is great, if overpriced.

Keyboard, again, Razer do good mechanical KBs, apparently thermaltake do a good mechanical keyboard...

Screen. I don't know about screens, never really been bothered by them, just go for one with a 60Hz or higher refresh rate.

*which I won by the way, I wouldn't recommend wasting your money on one.

I'll add to this and add some criticism too.

I tihnk 750W is a bit overkill, the Corsair TX500 will be enough. People always say "get a big PSU so you can upgrade in the future" and to that I say that you will probably not crossfire/sli and components are becoming more efficient all the time so power usage won't go up.

For the case I would reccomend either an Antec 100 or a Cooler Master Elite 430

Screen. I would go with one of the Dell e-IPS monitors, probably the 24" U2412M. IPS monitors have great image quality, great viewing angles and this one is 16:10 so you get a good amount of vertical space.

Another thing is you may not want to buy the i5 2500K because Ivy Bridge (the new intel CPUs) are coming out in June, I would wait until then to buy a CPU. If you don't want to wait then go ahead and get the 2500K.

For the keyboard the steelseries 7G or 6GV2 would be good as they use PS/2 connectors so you can register any combination of keys.

snip

Meh, I'm not good with PSUs, so consequently I default to ~750W whenever asked. And I'd probably wait until June and then buy a 2500k when the price drops, basically because the 2500k is a great CPU and the extra oomph Ivybridge is bringing to the table isn't currently necessary for gaming. Are the steelseries KBs good? I've never looked them up.

 

[Palfreyfish]

Meh, I'm not good with PSUs, so consequently I default to ~750W whenever asked. And I'd probably wait until June and then buy a 2500k when the price drops, basically because the 2500k is a great CPU and the extra oomph Ivybridge is bringing to the table isn't currently necessary for gaming. Are the steelseries KBs good? I've never looked them up.

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/input_devices/steelseries_7g/4

It gets 10 for features and 10 for presentation.

They gave it a 6 for price when it was £105, it's now £93 on amazon.

All in all it looks pretty good. It has cherry MX black switches which are said to be better for gaming but the OP may want to get a keyboard with blue switches as they are meant to better for typing and the OP will no doubt be doing lots of that while coding.

Hmm, I might get one. I've been looking at Razer/ThermalTake/various others and they all seem tacky, with macro buttons or horrible design or overpriced, but that's not too bad a price, considering everything else it has going for it. Only point I'd make is that the PS/2 connection isn't on all motherboards is on the Motherboard I recommended.

Reading more about it, it seems like a very good keyboard. And it has media controls, which is basically the one accessory I care about. So yeah, thanks

 

[BeerTent]

Parts I recommend (assuming you want to build it yourself):
i5 2500k - Best current generation gaming CPU
GTX 560ti - Excellent value Graphics card, also quite powerful
8GB of whatever RAM takes your fancy - RAM is RAM, heatsinks etc don't make much difference, and in some cases take up space required for the CPU cooler
ASUS P8P67 EVO motherboard - Good mobo, supports overclocking etc
750W or higher Corsair Power Supply - Corsair make good PSUs, can't remember who else does good PSUs
Aftermarket CPU cooler not required, but you might as well get one
Case can be whatever you want really, as long as it supports ATX motherboards
Mouse depends on what you're playing most really. A Razer mouse is good. I currently have a RAT 9* which is great, if overpriced.
Keyboard, again, Razer do good mechanical KBs, apparently thermaltake do a good mechanical keyboard...
Screen. I don't know about screens, never really been bothered by them, just go for one with a 60Hz or higher refresh rate.
*which I won by the way, I wouldn't recommend wasting your money on one.

You've prettymuch described most of my roommates new computer... Though, I'll put in a few recommendations. I'm not so much of a hardware lunatic, but now that I have disposable income, My preferred builds still have some power, but still don't kill the wallet. Tech guys here in Halifax aren't your local mechanic.

I recommend this Mobo, but I can see why it might be unappealing due to the fact it's mATX. It's still an amazing Mainboard tho.
http://mysterybyte.com/part/16824/

As for the powersupply. 750 is only needed if your going to have a 2nd Videocard. With that Videocard, you have no reason to do just that. Go for a 500 watt setup that has all of the ports you need. It will save on your power bill, and still run efficiently.

Don't bother with an aftermarket CPU cooler either. Not needed unless you actually do overclock, or suffer summers warmer than 30 degrees.

I bought the Razer Lycosa. Yeah, your paying for a brand, sure, but I have yet to find a keyboard that's comparable. Find something that's low-profile, and feels like this, and you might actually enjoy programming... Unlike me. But I like to write with it!
http://store.razerzone.com/store/razerusa/en_CA/pd/productID.169417800/categoryId.35156900

Again, if your like me, and can't live with less than 7 buttons on your mouse, I recommend the Naos 3200
http://www.mionix.net/page.php?al=naos3200
It's prettymuch got everything a Razer mouse does, except for the brand pricing and it feels great. Now that I use this thing, I hate my old razer.

And finally, if you like Gaming like I do, Get a case with handles. There is nothing like a LAN Party.

 

[floobie]

Random things I've learned over the years:

- Your budget is enormous and you don't need a mega machine for programming. An old Thinkpad would do you just fine for that. Just be honest: You want to play really pretty looking games
- Multiple GPUs seem to be more hassle than they're worth. Might as well just buy a better single card, usually.
- No need to go overkill with the power supply. 500-600 watts should be fine. More important than raw power: Make sure it's modular. This means you can only connect as many cables as you need, leaving the case far less cluttered by unused cables.
- Factor in the cost of the operating system, unless you're going to be awesome and use Linux.
- Go nuts with RAM. It's dirt cheap right now. Might as well buy it now when it's cheap. Price wise, 8GB does seem to be the sweet spot, though.
- Don't go nuts with HDD storage. The prices are rather inflated right now.
- With your budget, definitely pick up a SSD on top of the HDD for your OS and applications. Put your music, videos, and whatever else on the HDD.
- If you want to make your life much easier down the road, pick up a decent case. Full towers are certainly rather big, but they're generally much easier to work on. Make sure it can be opened easily, and make sure it's as tool-less as possible. Much of the annoyance associated with working on a computer's hardware is directly related to how accessible the components are. Spending a bit more money on this will make every time you open the thing up to dust it, upgrade a component, or inevitably fix something much less irritating. And, if you buy a good case now, you can basically keep using it for like 10 years.
- Buy your monitor from Dell. For whatever reason, their prices are amazing, and their IPS displays are excellent. If you want to feel like a hardcore computer geek, buy two! Look for 16:10 displays. Vertical resolution is helpful.
- All the real geeks use old IBM Model M mechanical keyboards. Hang around the dumpster at your local post secondary institution's computer sciences department. You'll probably be able to find one.

 

[Palfreyfish]

Parts I recommend (assuming you want to build it yourself):
i5 2500k - Best current generation gaming CPU
GTX 560ti - Excellent value Graphics card, also quite powerful
8GB of whatever RAM takes your fancy - RAM is RAM, heatsinks etc don't make much difference, and in some cases take up space required for the CPU cooler
ASUS P8P67 EVO motherboard - Good mobo, supports overclocking etc
750W or higher Corsair Power Supply - Corsair make good PSUs, can't remember who else does good PSUs
Aftermarket CPU cooler not required, but you might as well get one
Case can be whatever you want really, as long as it supports ATX motherboards
Mouse depends on what you're playing most really. A Razer mouse is good. I currently have a RAT 9* which is great, if overpriced.
Keyboard, again, Razer do good mechanical KBs, apparently thermaltake do a good mechanical keyboard...
Screen. I don't know about screens, never really been bothered by them, just go for one with a 60Hz or higher refresh rate.
*which I won by the way, I wouldn't recommend wasting your money on one.

You've prettymuch described most of my roommates new computer... Though, I'll put in a few recommendations. I'm not so much of a hardware lunatic, but now that I have disposable income, My preferred builds still have some power, but still don't kill the wallet. Tech guys here in Halifax aren't your local mechanic.

I recommend this Mobo, but I can see why it might be unappealing due to the fact it's mATX. It's still an amazing Mainboard tho.
http://mysterybyte.com/part/16824/

As for the powersupply. 750 is only needed if your going to have a 2nd Videocard. With that Videocard, you have no reason to do just that. Go for a 500 watt setup that has all of the ports you need. It will save on your power bill, and still run efficiently.

Don't bother with an aftermarket CPU cooler either. Not needed unless you actually do overclock, or suffer summers warmer than 30 degrees.

I bought the Razer Lycosa. Yeah, your paying for a brand, sure, but I have yet to find a keyboard that's comparable. Find something that's low-profile, and feels like this, and you might actually enjoy programming... Unlike me. But I like to write with it!
http://store.razerzone.com/store/razerusa/en_CA/pd/productID.169417800/categoryId.35156900

Again, if your like me, and can't live with less than 7 buttons on your mouse, I recommend the Naos 3200
http://www.mionix.net/page.php?al=naos3200
It's prettymuch got everything a Razer mouse does, except for the brand pricing and it feels great. Now that I use this thing, I hate my old razer.

And finally, if you like Gaming like I do, Get a case with handles. There is nothing like a LAN Party.

I was looking at mATX mobos earlier, and literally the only downside is the occasional lack of dual graphics card slots... That one you recommended has two, and it supports 4 sticks of RAM, so yeah, I might have to change my build.

Are there any downsides to building with an mATX motherboard?

 

[BeerTent]

[...]
I was looking at mATX mobos earlier, and literally the only downside is the occasional lack of dual graphics card slots... That one you recommended has two, and it supports 4 sticks of RAM, so yeah, I might have to change my build.

Are there any downsides to building with an mATX motherboard?

Like everyone else has stated... Fuck Dual VC's. If you really really need to compensate for something Don't use this mobo, as it only has 1 16x PCIe slot. (The other is an 8, still nice, but still something to avoid, IMO.)

The only other downside of an mATX board is big components. In order to service my machine, I need to remove the videocard first. It has to move, otherwise I can't get to my SATA ports, I can't get to my RAM, and I can't get to the SATA ports. But on the topic of compensating for something, my videocard is pretty ungodly massive. The card you mentioned fits quite nicely, and won't have these problems.

 

[Palfreyfish]

[...]
I was looking at mATX mobos earlier, and literally the only downside is the occasional lack of dual graphics card slots... That one you recommended has two, and it supports 4 sticks of RAM, so yeah, I might have to change my build.

Are there any downsides to building with an mATX motherboard?

Like everyone else has stated... Fuck Dual VC's. If you really really need to compensate for something Don't use this mobo, as it only has 1 16x PCIe slot. (The other is an 8, still nice, but still something to avoid, IMO.)

The only other downside of an mATX board is big components. In order to service my machine, I need to remove the videocard first. It has to move, otherwise I can't get to my SATA ports, I can't get to my RAM, and I can't get to the SATA ports. But on the topic of compensating for something, my videocard is pretty ungodly massive. The card you mentioned fits quite nicely, and won't have these problems.

I'm just thinking of loooooooooooooooong down the line, when buying two slightly older GPUs is better value for money than one new one. Anyway, what case do you have, and what's the airflow like. I realised I don't need a HUGE PC at all, and smaller is better for me.

 

[BeerTent]

[...]
I'm just thinking of loooooooooooooooong down the line, when buying two slightly older GPUs is better value for money than one new one. Anyway, what case do you have, and what's the airflow like. I realised I don't need a HUGE PC at all, and smaller is better for me.

Even then though that far down the line, I just don't see it. My brother has two videocards hooked up to farm bitcoins, and if I wanted to, I bet I could run the latest installment of Battlefield just as well as he can. And those cards were pretty new at the time. (What, 3 years ago?)

As for the case, I honestly can't find it. I like it, but it's massive and sounds like a fuckin' Jet engine. Airflow didn't really matter so much to me, it was the disk drive bays that did. I had originally planned to install 6 HDD's and 2 DVD's in it, and only really got up to 4. I could install 4 more in the case, but I've hit my obvious limit of 6 devices. I had planned to use 2 CD drives, but I can't fit the damn things in there. So for the past, what... 6 years? I've gone without a DVD Drive. Who the fuck needs them?

If you go to LAN parties, Smaller case, Lighter case, and Handles. Love handles. Nothing else matters. Again tho, this is my opinion, and you should get a case that meets your needs in terms of disk bays, airflow, and form-factor. Though, I primarily prefer to go for ATX cases. For future-proofing.

 

[Palfreyfish]

[...]
I'm just thinking of loooooooooooooooong down the line, when buying two slightly older GPUs is better value for money than one new one. Anyway, what case do you have, and what's the airflow like. I realised I don't need a HUGE PC at all, and smaller is better for me.

Even then though that far down the line, I just don't see it. My brother has two videocards hooked up to farm bitcoins, and if I wanted to, I bet I could run the latest installment of Battlefield just as well as he can. And those cards were pretty new at the time. (What, 3 years ago?)

As for the case, I honestly can't find it. I like it, but it's massive and sounds like a fuckin' Jet engine. Airflow didn't really matter so much to me, it was the disk drive bays that did. I had originally planned to install 6 HDD's and 2 DVD's in it, and only really got up to 4. I could install 4 more in the case, but I've hit my obvious limit of 6 devices. I had planned to use 2 CD drives, but I can't fit the damn things in there. So for the past, what... 6 years? I've gone without a DVD Drive. Who the fuck needs them?

If you go to LAN parties, Smaller case, Lighter case, and Handles. Love handles. Nothing else matters. Again tho, this is my opinion, and you should get a case that meets your needs in terms of disk bays, airflow, and form-factor. Though, I primarily prefer to go for ATX cases. For future-proofing.

I don't really go to LANs, as not enough of my friends play PC games, which sucks. I'll probably only need a single HDD so yeah, maybe an mATX case would be fine for me. Thanks for the help, and sorry to the OP for hijacking his/her thread...

 

[floobie]

I used to own a Micro-ATX case (the specific model escapes me... I bought it in 2006). I honestly wouldn't do it again. While nice and compact, it was such a pain in the ass to work on. Doing basically anything on the inside required pulling it completely apart. After that computer, I bought a nice Antec P180, and working it was just exponentially easier. I've since sold that system, but should I ever feel the need to build another computer, I'll definitely be going with something similar.

Unless you're seriously lacking for space, I'd just go with a mid-tower.

 

[DoPo]

Random things I've learned over the years:

They are nice but I just want to comment/add to some.

- Your budget is enormous and you don't need a mega machine for programming. An old Thinkpad would do you just fine for that. Just be honest: You want to play really pretty looking games

Yeah, it's true. Unless you're doing something really computationally expensive, you can get away with pretty much any second hand PC. Anything that came from this millennium should do. Well, getting the stuff to run faster is better but, of course, but you might not even notice a difference.

- Multiple GPUs seem to be more hassle than they're worth. Might as well just buy a better single card, usually.

Programming-wise, you could use video cards for software development, because they offer resources for massively parallel computation. But chances are, you wouldn't need to bother with this soon, nor would you need two necessarily.

- Factor in the cost of the operating system, unless you're going to be awesome and use Linux.

Or, you get Windows for free like me. I'm not proud of it, but it saved my money on my home PC which my parents use. Some universities allow you to get free stuff from Microsoft (Windows XP, Windows 7, XNA Game Developer and some others) if you're on a CS degree. Not bad, really. I like having a free copy of Windows. Some of the others I gave away to people that were interested...which was a single person who said "Meh, I might get X", if I have to be honest.

But chances are, OP is getting windows for all the games he'll play. OP, dual boot with Linux, it's awesome, trust me. Helps a lot in uni. And, hey, coding C/C++ under Windows feels like a heresy...also, it's a bit of a hassle to set up the environment.

If you decide against dual booting, at the very least install VMware player or VirtualBox (among others, but these are the more well known commercial ones) and run Linux in a virtual machine. It's dead simple to set up and the best thing is that if you break something, it's easy to recover.

- Go nuts with RAM. It's dirt cheap right now. Might as well buy it now when it's cheap. Price wise, 8GB does seem to be the sweet spot, though.

Just go with more RAM if you want to rum VMs. It's worth it. 8 GB are good. 16 gigs should be OK, to future proof slightly, you may want to get 24 if you think you'll run lots of VMs.

- Buy your monitor from Dell. For whatever reason, their prices are amazing, and their IPS displays are excellent. If you want to feel like a hardcore computer geek, buy two! Look for 16:10 displays. Vertical resolution is helpful.

Dual monitor coding - like a BOSS! It's seriously awesome! The best part - you can watch a movie or something on one of the monitors. Too bad I can't afford it

 

[Rude as HECK]

I think generally, PalfreyFish has given sound advice, but take into account what the others have said. I have a similar if not identical rig to what he suggests: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVWOc8iErJk

What I would say is that if your budget can stretch to it, consider the new GTX 680.