Maximum PC

Hi all,

Well as the subject suggest I am a new builder and I have picked out my components. I was hoping that maybe some of you more experienced builders could add any input or suggestions to my build. The intent of the build is to be able to rock any game with top settings and for schoolwork with the possibility of photo and video editing. My price range is $0-$1300.

Here is my parts list so far http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ySC1

I decided to build my own as just out right buying one was way over priced. I bought a tricked out laptop about two years ago and it broke in just over a year and couldn't find any replacement parts. This is what lead me to building my own. I can get the PC I want within a reasonable price range and if anything goes south I can get new parts and fix it myself.

Thanks for any suggestions and tweaks that you may offer.

Hello! Fair warning: We're all about price/performance, and tuning the parts for the right job. So let's just go down the list...

• Get a Core i5-3570K instead. It performs basically the same as the Core i7 in games, and you shave off $100
• I'd look for a cheaper motherboard, you really have to ask yourself if you're going to use all the features on the more expensive ones. High-end hardware features like PCI-Express 3.0, SATA 6Gbps ports, and USB 3.0 start showing up at the $100 mark. Premium features are nice to have, but never really worth the money (for most people, anyway)
• Drop the RAM down to 8GB. No game uses any more than 4GB. Also don't buy flashy RAM, they don't need heat spreaders no matter what manufacturers want you to think.
• Hard drive looks good, but no SSD? Get yourself a Samsung 840
• Drop the power supply down to 650W, unless you plan on doing SLI. And get something from Seasonic, Antec, or Corsair
• Blu-Ray burner's aren't worthwhile to be honest. There's the fact that Blu-Ray for data isn't wide spread except for the PS3 and that it's more economical just to get an external hard drive.

And see if you can squeeze in a better GPU. The performance cap for games is usually the GPU.

EDIT: http://images.wikia.com/4changboard/ima ... ec2012.png Go with that, it's a good blue print. Note they exclude the OS.

Hmmmm, it has been awhile and my post hasn't shown.... weird.

Well that one showed.

OK we will try this again. Thank you both for the responses, they are very much appreciated.

I have made a revised list of components found here http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zxdA

Made a bunch of changes. If you don't mind a second critic I would much appreciate it. And as for the case it is just there for price as I have not nailed that down yet. Any suggestions on a good full tower case with side window would be great. Thank you for the help!

I'd avoid full towers, unless you're filling every port and slot on the motherboard (and even then, there are quite a few Mid's that have plenty of breathing room), unless you have a burning desire to get one.

And get a Radeon HD 7970. If you prefer NVIDIA, GeForce GTX 670. The 680 isn't bad, but there are much better options.

Thank you again for the replies as they are opening my eyes to things. Now if you don't mind me asking where are you pulling these prices??? The CPU at Micro Center is in store only so is out of my reach. Also I can't find any bundle deal with that motherboard. I am very interested in this build so if there is any way you could point me in the right direction to purchase these components at these prices it would really make a world of difference for me. Also is that power supply going to be OK for future SLI or crossfire???

As a caveat though: stick to as few vendors as possible. Remember we don't include the price of shipping, and the more vendors you buy from, the likelihood you'll be paying more for shipping goes up.

Wow, thank you so much for all the pointers! You both have really opened my eyes and I am sure when I hit buy you have saved me a ton of money, again thank you!

Well it has come time to start ordering parts! I have made a revised list so if there is any last minute critics I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks.

Lol forgot the link http://pcpartpicker.com/p/CMHr

I have no previous build for migrating HDD's and I figured that you made the SSD sound absolutely necessary I should get that instead. I can always add a hdd at a later date. Alright here is a new link http://pcpartpicker.com/p/DcUj

FINALLY! After waiting forever for the damn funds and packages, I have one more out for delivery right now. If all goes well I will be building my first PC tonight! This is my final build (until I can add a HDD in about two weeks) Thanks for all the help!

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/KVnm

You said you plan to add an HDD later so why get a 256GB SSD? You could save around $100 by going with a 180gb ssd. From what I hear, ssd doesn't really speed up load times for most games.

If this is from me, allow me to explain OP.

I'm going under the assumption that a lot of people think loading times mean exclusively the amount of time it takes to transfer data from secondary storage to main memory for execution. If this were the case, Windows should boot up in 15 seconds at worst on a given hard drive (100MB/s average, and I usually end up with 1.5GB of RAM used up on boot). That loading screen is also masking initialization and setup. Which explains a few scenarios such as:

• Windows 8's fast start up. Windows 8 on shutdown saves the driver state so it doesn't have to initialize drivers on the next boot
• Call of Duty loads laughingly fast on faster memory... because there's nothing really to initialize
• The Elder Scrolls takes forever (comparatively) when loading a save for the first time on game execution because it hasn't started the actual game yet. Usually every subsequent load is either instantaneous or much faster.

This is also why I've been telling people to stop and think before rushing out and buying $100 worth of RAM to use as a RAM drive thinking they'll have instantaneous load times.

I do plan on getting an HDD as soon as possible but until than I have 256GB to work with which is an amazing SSD. Windows loads in about 10 seconds. Skyrim load times are waaaaaay down. I love my PC and can't wait to make it better.