Maximum PC

Approximate Purchase Date: withen the next few weeks

Budget Range: $1500 give or take


System Usage Home pc, gaming ( Fallout 3, Borderlands, maybe an mmo.

Parts to be reused:
keyboard,
mouse? (currently useing a microsoft intellipoint trackball. any suggestionsto replace it?) monitor- resolution is 1680X1050,
speakers- Logitech Z-5500
CASE- coolermaster cosmos full tower.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com (but open to others)

Country: USA - VB Va

Parts Preferences: Intel CPU, Full ATX motherboard, Have had an nvidia card for the past few computers but I'm open for everything else

Overclocking: don't plan on it
SLI or Crossfire: Crossfire or SLI depending on card- future

Monitor Resolution: Max Res: 1920 X 1080 (going to be using a HP - 23" Flat-Panel LED HD Monitor)

Additional Comments: I will have to get a copy of windows 7, A SSD for the os would be prefered but I'm not set on it. I'm a casual gamer but I want it to look good when I play.

Thanks

Jim

Welcome to the forum!

If you can wait a month, come back and revisit this topic. So many new products are being released in the next 4 weeks that this build list would change drastically and it would be rendered moot to even build a list right now. The PC market is very volatile right now with Intel's next gen Ivy Bridge, nvidia's next gen Kepler 600's and even AMD's new 7800 mid range cards hitting the market right now (was suppose to be this week, but looks like early next week for it to hit the vendors), it just shakes it up.

I'd look at the i5 3750k ivy bridge, but no word on how much it will actually be on release date; suppose to have a $225 price point, but as we saw with the i5 2500k on launch, it was easily $20+ extra from most vendors. And since Ivy Bridge has been much anticipated, I'd bet it will bring a decent markup on release date. Still be worth it though. Not only are the chips new, but Intel is releasing their whole new line of chipsets and tons of mobo manufacturers have released info on what they are expecting to build; but no word on pricing for most of them.

Not only that, but hard drive and SSD prices are continuously dropping as the HDD market continues to stabilize after the floods in Thailand. It's also a great time to find some deals on SSD, but even in your budget, its still considered a luxury item that you don't need. Get atleast a 120GB SSD if you do look for one and stick with SATA3 drives from good brands. You should also do a bit of research and reading before you do trigger for one; most noticeably is the difference between the cheaper asycn NAND's and expensive sync NAND's used in various SSD's. Either one will still be miles faster than normal HDD's though.

If your looking for a build idea, here's a system with a monitor for $1500ish to start a build list, but again, this will change in 4 weeks.

Part list permalink / Part price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($179.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.33 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($137.86 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($42.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($137.09 @ CompUSA)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($458.17 @ CompUSA)
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: OCZ 850W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($107.85 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: LG GH22NS90B DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VS247H-P 23.6" Monitor ($181.99 @ Mac Connection)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) ($99.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $1481.24
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated 2012-03-17 00:07 EDT-0400)

Take out the monitor and case if you plan to reuse what you have already. Easy to throw in an SSD to the mix like the 120GB OCZ Agility 3, Vertex 3; Corsair Series 3, GT; Crucial M4; Samsung 830; Mushkin Enhanced Chronos, Deluxe; and a few others.

You can also look at grabbing two 7800 cards like the 7850 2gb that should be hitting the shelves in the $250 price point; pit two of those in crossfire and they should eat the higher end cards alive. But again, we haven't seen what nvidia's cards will pull.

Thanks for the info. I've played the wait and see for some time now. My current 8800GT superclocked gpu is almost dead. It has no pixel shader capabilities anymore.
With what you recommended, do you think that setup would last a few years?

If you need a new graphics card you can buy a 7xxx series card now if you want and then use it in your new build after Ivy Bridge comes out. nVidia's cards most likely won't be light years ahead of the 7xxx series although you may end up paying more.

Isn't a 7950 a bit overkill? The things he's asking are more 6950 range stuff, the money could go to SSD's.

except you can't get 6950's anymore... they all went OOS quietly last month. 7800's replaced their price points and finally shipped this week, but they are still hard to find and since they are new, they are above the MSRP on launch (like most new products are). The 7850 is no where to be found and the 7870 is $100 more that's a little bit better choice than the 7950 I original suggested. But at the time of my reply, there were no 7800's. That's how new they are.


Read my post again... right below the listing... I said this...




@Bailey Bo: What system do you have now? I'd say just grab a powerful video card now to add to your current system to hold out a bit longer as you wait for Ivy Bridge. 3 weeks to go!

GO BIG OR GO HOME!

my current system is :

evga nforce 680i LT sli with an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor

It has 2 partially bad video cards that are EVGA 512-P3-N802-AR GeForce 8800GT Superclocked 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
and a 650W sli ready power supply

While I could wait and go for the top line I really don't need it. I'm considering this setup

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/5Q43

You should really wait on Ivy bridge it's a 15%+ performance increase for most likely the same price. And nVidia is supposed to have a "soft launch" of their new parts tomorrow from what the rumors say so that may drive down prices of some other cards. Also with Ivy Bridge comes a new chipset with PCIe 3.0 specs which means you will be a hell of a lot more future proof and it also has more PCIe lanes so crossfire and sli won't be running on reduced bandwidth (right now sli/xfire is max 8x/8x when you use two cards). So just give it until at least tomorrow to see what happens.


http://www.newegg.com/GTX680/?nm_mc=EMC ... 82dfwg4bso

Damn I'm getting excited.

Bailey Bo: you do realize that the 6970's WERE the top of the line AMD cards when those were released... but its kinda old now and honestly why spend $350 for a card when the replacement 7800's in that price point bests them by quite a bit of a margin... Even ONE 7870 will play any modern game in ultra settings at 2560x1600 with 40+ fps...

If I were you, just grab a single 7870 to add your system right now and wait it out for the new ivy bridges. This is what I did for my trade up from CD2 to i7's; I just threw in a 5870 and waited it out, then put the 5870 into the new system two months later. The Q6600 isn't exactly a slow ass cpu, but it will hinder the gpu a bit, even then, a 7870 will still perform very fast even if it hits the 50% performance loss.


Also, I'm at a loss of why you paired 1333 speed ram with your setup? 1600 sets aren't that expensive and you can pick those up around $35-40. Plus what you picked is 1.65v modules, not 1.5v standard; not much difference really, but 1.5v are going to run cooler and use less energy.

You also don't exactly need to spend close to a $100 for just a decent 750w psu; for that price range, you could get 850's... Look at OCZ 700w modx psu, its modular unlike the expensive Antec and actually performs more efficient between 20-70% loads with a high of 87% efficiency; although it does drop off significantly there after at at 100% load, it hits barely hits above 80% to get the 80+ cert rating. Think of it as a 600w 80+ bronze psu... hehe

It's an older power distro design, but its very solid and I have it in my old gaming rig, running for years with no issues. I bagged it on sale for $40 back then when it was considered new and since then, I've liked OCZ's value positioned psu's over the bigger name stuff for a cheaper price point. I have the 500, 600 and 700 modx in various machines; currently using their new z series unit in my current triple sli rig.

Quit recommending that shitty series of PSU there are so many better power supplies I can't believe you have been recommending those... OCZ is officially worse than Rosewill in my book right now.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817182073

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?na ... 5&reid=266


And the best PSU ever: http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/71158/n ... wer-supply sale ends today though, but it goes on sale often. There should be a new batch of sales either tomorrow or friday most seem to be ending today though...


Z series LOL http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/12/ ... y_review/9

Sir... that is the ZT series... Not Z... There's Z and ZX that are da shit; 80+ gold rated with good components. How about you do some googling again instead of failing. The only OCZ's I'd highly recommend, the other new stuff isn't really good for the price and the older modx are a better value.

And read my other reply to the other thread that you trolled on. Like I said countless of times. OCZ modx are decent value and good performers. If you don't plan on maxing out the loads above 80%, then it works perfectly. But yeah, I agree that one could spend double the cost and go with a better brand like Antec, Corsair, Silverstone or seasonic; but then we are talking about a different price point and market.

If it doesn't work at the rated wattage that means it is bad. Spend $10 more dollars for a better PSU. Frankly OCZ is a garbage brand. I had this same discussion 2 years ago with some other people and we stopped recommending OCZ.

Well the gtx 680 is in the process of launching and based on what I saw on EVGAs site they are only $500 and they destroy the 7970 so buy one/two of those because they are cheaper and better.

http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.a ... Family&sw=

So let me get this straight... you and a few friends said two years ago that all OCZ's are crap... even though I've been listing it as a "decent value" product... I didn't say its "THE FUCKING BEST THING EVER, OMG GET OCZ!!!!?!?!?!? IF YOU DON'T KITTENS WILL RIP YOUR HEAD OFF AND EAT YOUR GUTS FOR BREAKFAST ARRRRRRRRGGGG!!!"

No, I'm not an OCZ fanboy, I see their value and their limitations. I did not say, one should just get it over a better quality unit, but used the wording of saying one could look at this product instead of spending double the cost.



And have you even personally used a fucking OCZ branded psu unit? I have... they work pretty good for budget minded builds like this. They aren't the best, but they aren't the worst.

No not me and a few friends, most of the people active on this forum when there was still life here. OCZ makes mostly shit products, why get the modx series when the Antec is better for less money up front. Sure it's cheaper after rebate but OCZ has always been shady with their rebates. People come on here to get recommendations for quality components that are a deal not random shit of newegg that kind of works if you don't actually put a load on it. While you might be fine recommending a unit that has gotten inferior reviews for a minor savings I can't fucking do that knowing that there is better equipment for around the same price, I don't think you give out bad advice but you cut corners on the wrong things.

ZS isn't exactly shit; its just an updated modx value brand for main stream units:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/ZS_750W/9.html
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/ ... ew/1361/10
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?na ... 4&reid=248


And the Z and ZX series are HardOCP approved...
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/10/ ... y_review/9

ok. so I might play the waiting game until the ivy bridge hits. Until then I'm stuck using a pc I built in '02-'03

If I'm waiting on Ivy I might wait a bit for the GTX680. Until then what video card should I get to keep me going till then. I'm not saying I want to go cheap but if I'm upgrading soon I don't want to go all out either. My current and now dead card is an 8800gt sc.

My motherboard is an EVGA nForce 680i lt

http://www.nvidia.com/object/designed_b ... t_sli.html

Well, considering that the GTX 680's released, I'd go for that over the HD 7950 at this point...only because I see better performance for the money with that.
Now yes, I know that GPU will be hard to come by for a while, most likely, but if you luck out, you'll have a card for the ages. Your best chance is during the week, since Newegg will consistently get new shipments in every two or three days from various vendors, especially EVGA. Although I'm not sure when EVGA themselves will be selling them. Although I hope that AMD will redraw their pricing strategy on the HD 7900 series in light of the GTX 680's price to performance.

That aside, let's calculate a good build in that $1.5K budget of yours:

Now I'm a big fan of modular PSUs, so that you know, so we'll recommend at least this:

PSU: CORSAIR Professional Series HX750 (CMPSU-750HX) 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
CPU: Intel Core i5-2550K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Without IGP BX80623i52550K
Mobo: ASUS P8Z68-V LX LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9
GPU: EVGA 02G-P4-2680-KR GeForce GTX 680 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card (When it comes back in stock, grab it)
SSD: Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
DVD: Sony Optiarc 24X DVD Burner, Bulk Package 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model AD-7280S-0B - OEM
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit - OEM

All in all, this might be the best build for your budget, hopefully. Let's hope this will indeed last you for the long term. Good luck and enjoy.

Just get a 680 now the one EVGA sells is eligible for the step up program so you can upgrade to a better version later (by paying the difference) if you want (EVGA makes a "classified" version that is a complete redesign of the PCB and it uses the best chips to allow for more OC headroom and usually ships with a lot faster clock speeds. http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.a ... Family&sw=


http://www.evga.com/support/stepup/