Building a new gaming rig. Need suggestions.

[Clayton]

What's up guys, it's been some time since I've posted around here, but I'm sure some of you remember me. Anyways, the time has come to finally replace my aging pile of crap with something with a bit more oomph. I've got a rough idea of what I'm looking for:

• No more than ~$1300
  
• 60GB SSD boot drive with a 1TB Storage HDD
  
• i7 processor, or overclocked i5
  
• nVidia GeForce GTX 680
  
• 16GB RAM
  
• Wireless network card
  

I'm looking for suggestions on build options that fit this criteria, while maybe hitting a couple of other points, such as perhaps a second video card, half decent sound card, etc. I have no idea what to look for as far as a motherboard goes, or what brand to look at for RAM or storage drives. Suggestions?

[[Gandalf]]

Heya Clayton! What have you been up to as of late?

Anyway, here's a basic rig that I've put together which should start you off in the right direction:

Intel Core i5-3570K Quad-Core Socket LGA1155, 3.4Ghz, 6MB L3 Cache, 22nm
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=4_65&item_id=045425
$240

Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz CL9 DIMMs
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=24_311_312_612&item_id=035074
$80

WD Green (WD30EZRX) 3TB SATA3 6Gb/s 64MB
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=15_1086_210_212&item_id=039030
$140

OCZ (VTX4-25SAT3-128G) Vertex 4 2.5" 128GB SATA3 6GB/s Solid State Drive, Read: 560MB/s, Write: 430MB/s
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=179_1088&item_id=047457
$100

Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H Socket 1155 Intel Z77 Chipset Dual Channel DDR3 1600/1333/1066 MHz 3x PCI-Express x16 GigaLAN 7.1-CH HD Audio 2x SATA 6Gb/s 4 x SATA 3Gb/s 6x USB 2.0 8x USB 3.0 VGA/DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort ATX
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_722&item_id=047292
$145

So you get a nice, overclockable (K-series), Ivy Bridge i5 CPU with some DDR3 1600 CL9 RAM of your brand of choice (Corsair, Mushkin, etc are all fine). Your HDD is 3TB (why not) SATA3 6Gbps at I believe 5400RPM which also often means it'll last longer than faster mechanical drives. But you shouldn't really care about the speed of your HDD, as long as it lasts, because you'll have plenty of space on your 128GB SSD for OS and common programs. 120/128GB SSDs are significantly better than their 60/64GB counterparts because there is more space for over provisioning (already done, you don't have to worry about this once you get it) and so your drive will last longer. You should definitely get the Vertex 4, it's an amazing drive. There are a few good motherboards you could potentially get, but I recommend this one because it's solid and I've read up the most on it. It's the Z77 chipset which means it supports Ivy Bridge CPUs and overclocking, and has all the connector slots you could hope for. Really the way you choose a motherboard is first look at what you need - overclocking, ports, chipset, etc. - and then read the manual to figure out the quirks. Really, RTFM!

Btw, does that $1300 include the monitor?

[wtd]

Gandalf, you forgot the GPU.

[rdrake]

Clayton @ Fri Sep 14, 2012 8:55 pm wrote:

• ...
  
• nVidia GeForce GTX 680
  
• ...

wtd @ Fri Sep 14, 2012 11:10 pm wrote:

Gandalf, you forgot the GPU.

He what?

Seconding the OCZ Vertex suggestion. I have a 120 GB in my desktop and Skyrim/BF3 load quite quickly.

[[Gandalf]]

Exactly, there's not much room to maneuver there! Plus, I find it hard to discuss the crazy notion of spending over $500 on a graphics card. I did that once with the GeForce 6800 (heh just one zero off) when it was released, and while it was awesome for a brief while, it really wasn't worth it. The highest I would possibly go on the price vs performance curve now would be something like the HD 7950, which is still crazy expensive.

[mirhagk]

Look into a program called the steam tool, it's a must have with your SSD as your boot and your secondary as your data drive. Basically it manages dynamic links for you, so that you can transfer games back and forth. Then do a couple dynamic links for videos and music and you won't have to worry about space.

Just remember that if you have caching on, and hibernation on, both take up as much space as you have ram on your harddrive (so 32GB total) so with a 64 GB SSD and 16GB of ram, you can't have anything but the OS and system files on it.

Also I can't believe that 16GB of ram now only costs $80.... like gandalf's suggested computer is quite amazing, it's something that's even drool worthy, and it only costs $700... I made have to actually get it lol.

[Clayton]

Heya Gandalf, wtd, and rdrake! Currently I'm working up to save some money so that I can make it back to school, various setbacks have put me a long ways into (non-student) debt that I need to pay off before I can get back to school, so I'm working as a baker during the day, while I do a bunch of maintenance from home on large cluster of servers for a friend's startup for a modest amount of money on the side. It's a lot of work, and leaves me with little time to myself, but it'll be nice when I'm done getting out of debt

As far as the GPU goes, I have a friend who picked up one for his new rig, but due to various issues is potentially willing to let it go to me for $350 or so, but if you guys can convince me of a cheaper option that can stand up well to current and future games, let me hear about it. I'm willing to invest in this now because I plan to be using this computer for quite some time without having to replace parts, and still be able to have an enjoyable time playing whatever gets thrown at it.

Also, if anyone has an experience or suggestions on a good wireless network card, please let me know, the apartment I'm in doesn't exactly lend itself to cabling a connection down to my room, with the router being upstairs.

Edit: Any other build paths or suggestions would be great too, looking for lots of feedback!

[Raknarg]

It seems to me that nVidia is like the Macs of computers: They're priced more than they're worth, and perform worse than cheaper models. I've had an ATI and an nVidia with the same stats, and the ATI seems to perform better.

Might just be luck.

[Clayton]

It's odd because I've had the exact opposite. I've had 2 ATI cards, and both times they... well they sucked. Both of them had fan issues, and both of them just didn't seem to really perform as well as I'd hoped they would. Never had a problem with an nVidia card. /shrug

[mirhagk]

Don't really want to turn this into a flame war or anything, but I've had no real problem with nVidia cards, and yes graphics cards are ALL ridiculously priced, but there is a reason (they are all the bleeding edge technology).

Make sure you DON'T go all out on a graphics card. anything you get this year will be crap compared to next year's models, and last year's models will be like 1/10th of the price of this year's models. Shoot for medium end, where you can play at normal settings for the games you will want to play, so that in a year you can play low settings, and the year after you can afford a new card.

[[Gandalf]]

They're both fine, however ATI is currently better for most cards with respect to price vs performance. Clayton, if you can get the 680 for $350, that's a great deal. The more common approach would be to get a <$200 card now, and upgrade it later. That would maximize lifetime even better than getting a very top end card now. However if you end up with the GTX680, and it doesn't burn out, it'll still be good for years to come.

[QuantumPhysics]

DO NOT buy from Canadian Computers, they might be reliable, but they are overpriced. Go to tiger direct. Cheaper, although its not widely base on computers

[[Gandalf]]

Canada* Computers is definitely not overpriced. They are usually cheaper than Tiger Direct and price match when not. Give some proof when you make claims like that. Canada Computers is just about the best solution you can get in Canada.

(No, I definitely wasn't paid to say this. )

[QuantumPhysics]

Sorry. The thing was when I bought parts to build a laptop for schooling. I compared prices from best buy, canadian computers, and tiger direct.I found tiger direct was more price efficient for what you are buying. In all - it's more of a personal choice

[DemonWasp]

I typically prefer NCIX.com (Canadian, despite the .com), because I've had nothing but good experiences, and 100% of the hardware they've shipped me has been in working order. Canada Computers, on the other hand, somehow had a defective HDMI cable lying in wait for me. They're also usually slightly cheaper, especially if you capitalize on their weekly sales.