Maximum PC

Hey all I have been gaming for about 16 years and only have 1 build under my belt. I’m looking to make a new PC because my old one is 8 years old! I have been using a gaming laptop MSi GX740, and it works pretty well but I can’t stand using it for FPS and I feel I’m missing out on a nice big screen.

I have some questions in regards to components and such. Keep in mind that my spending limit is around 2000$ max.
I rarely upgrade components, except video cards. That being said would I be better off getting a really nice CPU if I don’t plan on replacing it for a few years?

My Laptop has an i7 CPU Q 720@ 1.60 GHz and an ATI HD 5800 graphics card and it can handle games decently but it does get bogged down when a lot of things are going on at once.

I’m a really big sucker for going overkill on everything I buy, especially beer. I have read that the GTX 680 is just overkill if you only plan on using 1 monitor, would this still be true if I plan on not upgrading the card till the price drops and purchasing a second one?

I guess my main question is how do I determine what’s overkill and what’s not? I’m speaking on a strictly gaming machine, not doing any major 3D editing, but it will be used for multimedia like movies and such.

Research. If a hardware review place is worth it's salt, it'll do something on the side rather than review hardware or post news on the latest and greatest. Hence for me, my go to websites are Anandtech and Tom's Hardware, but more on Tom's because they actually like to experiment once in a while in order to solve a gamer's greater mysteries on computer hardware and getting bang for the buck (and I'm inclined to believe their website is geared toward those who want to get the most out of their money). Otherwise, there's no real method. We can't derive raw throughput anymore and what we usually get from the hardware vendors is just best-case benchmarks used for marketing purposes. Every environment is different and there's really no strictly apples to apples comparison.

That aside, when it comes to gaming, the #1 bottleneck is the GPU. This one you can't really go "overkill" unless you have a processor that's the bottleneck. And even then, you can go as low as Sandy Bridge based Core i3 tier processors before a bottleneck is found, at least for a single video card setup. If you're not going to upgrade the GPU in say a year or so, you could get away with a Core i3. However, just to ensure consistent performance, a Core i5 would be a better choice. As for going with a GTX 680, I wouldn't consider it overkill at all. The problem is that most games made for the PC are made with consoles in mind and only a few actually use DX11 as its meant to be used (otherwise they just use it so they can offload some things to the compute shader). Hell, if you're not going to touch the latest stress testers, a $150 video card will play every game at 1080p on max settings while keeping up at least "smooth" frame rates just fine.

I'm probably rambling now, and didn't even answer the question as intended.

Many people in the United States purchase from Newegg, however, do not forget other companies like Micro Center, although for some of their deals you have to go to their brick and mortar store to make the purchase. Micro Center under-sells Newegg by a wide margin for CPUs and currently have motherboards on sale if you purchase a specific CPU, which is mentioned in their flyer.

If you have the desk space a 32 inch HDTV works fine, just make sure you have the proper cable, D-Sub or whatever the screen uses. Your local Wal-Mart even has some nice HDTVs that work as a monitor, I have been using one for years. Keep the response time to 8ms or lower for gaming. Wal-Mart will have no idea what you are talking about and you will have to look up the screen on the manufacturer's web site.

Also, no need to go beyond a vertical refresh rate of 60 for gaming, in fact 60 is perfect for higher end gaming, a video card has to do less work to refresh at 60 than higher and you will not be able to see individual frames beyond 60 per second. 120 verticle refresh is just a gimic. Stick to finding out the response time and you will be OK.

Pick a monitor first because you will be looking at it for a very long time.

Purchase a 650 watt Corsair power supply.
Z77 motherboard [ASRock is making good ones now]. NOTE: you must use an Ivy Bridge CPU to access PCIe 3.0. The Radeon HD 7970 is the first video card that can actually use the bandwidth of PCIe 3.0 and is actually hampered in benchmarks if used with PCIe 2.0 speed, so, Ivy Bridge is not a waste to have.

Intel i5 Ivy Bridge CPU. And, purchase retail [boxed] not OEM [or unboxed]. OEM has no warranty from Intel. And, retail comes with a cooler and fan that often cools enough if the CPU is not overclocked.

Unfortunately hard drives have gone up. I suggest using two, 1TB hard drives and use a 120GB partition on each drive. Put the OS on one drive [the 120GB partition] and your games on the second hard drive [the 120GB partition]. This will allow access to 2 hard drives at the same time, and using the outer portion of a hard drive = faster access.

Cooler Master HAF 922 is a good case, but I purchase one large fan for it [it comes with 2, but can use 3, use 2 of the fans for input air and the top fan as exhaust. Very good cooling.

The AMD HD 6950 is still a good video card and can utilize a fast CPU and motherboard.

RAM - use the fastest the motherboard supports if you overclock. If you do not overclock, DDR3 1333 will be fine. G.Skill brand is a good starting point as it is compatable with almost every motherboard.

Download and use CPUID HWmonitor, to keep an eye on temperatures. If needed, get a better CPU cooler if the stock cooler pushes temps above 60 degrees C [should stay below 60 to last several years].

Thanks for the feedback, just trying to figure out a case.

Are sound cards worth using still?

There are a lot of cases out there that are nice. If you get a medium tower make sure it has good cooling. I am sure others here can suggest another brand, however, it is very late here and I do not have much time.

I have chosen the Cooler Master HAF 922 case for my personal use. It is not a perfect case, but, does a very good job overall. If you have a lot of cables, just be careful about packing them behind the motherboard base plate. I used black electrical tape to cover sharp edges to keep from chaffing cables, however, I am very picky about doing a quality build.

If the motherboard you purchase provides sound that is good enough for you then there is no need purchasing a Sound Blaster or something else. Listen to the on-board sound before making a decision about a dedicated sound card.