New Gaming Rig

First of all I'd like to just say Hello. I've been browsing the forums for the past couple of weeks but decided to register and start posting today.

So onto the topic:

I've been gaming on Xbox 360 since it was released, before this I had been much more of a PC gamer. I've not had the money until now to really be able to make the decision of building my own PC dedicated to 'higher end' gaming.

As I have no experience buying all of the parts and building them myself, I am wondering if anyone has useful resources I could read? Trustworthy places to buy from? I have found places like newegg and tigerdirect, but I can't vouch for the quality of their products. (Although Newegg seems to carry a ton of great things).

I've also set a budget for myself of $1800, is this a good red line? I have done some basic part searching and find this limit to be adequate for most any games on the market these days. I personally think buying for the future is a bad idea considering how much PC parts come down in price over time.

Ah, anyway... To cut this short I'd appreciate any feedback to help ease the transition back to PC gaming. Thanks for reading, =).

Edit: I said adequate, but I'm fairy sure an Intel Core i7 2600k and a GTX 570 card can more than 'adequately' handle todays games.

Welcome to the forums! Glad you've finally decided to start jumping in.

As for the rest of your post. I can't say a lot as it's been years since i've been into rig building but newegg is always a safe bet to get all of your parts from. It's comparable to Amazon. And if you can't get a good rig for 1800 I'm SCREWED since i've been looking at investing also.

With all the searching around I've done so far $1800 really is quite a lot for a good rig. I suppose I'm just getting some sort of buyer's anxiety, haha. I don't want to cheap out on anything if it will be worth it in the end. I'm sorry if I've made you doubt your current budget! =P

Yea in reality there is no reason you shouldn't be able to get a good one for 6-800 if not less, starting from nothing. Computers are ridiculously cheap lately.

$1800 is waaaaay too much especially if you plan on buying the parts separately and then assembling them yourself (or having them assembled). About three months ago I spent $800 on a new PC and so far I have been able to play all new releases (including Skyrim) with everything on Ultra (or High where that was the highest setting).
Or do you also plan on buying a new monitor, new HDDs (with an OS) and a new sound system?

As for recommendable websites, I probably can’t help you with this because I obviously didn’t use any U.S. based ones but a German website. Though I didn’t hear good things about Newegg. Several people I know complained that they got broken parts delivered and their customer service is total shit.

I didn't realize that was something I had to specify, sorry. Yes, I will be starting from nothing so I'll be purchasing a case, monitor, OS, harddrive etc. I've also recently found out that harddrive prices have skyrocketed due to flooding in major factories, which is very lame.

I'll just have to keep searching around for another month or so before I decide on making any purchases. Thanks for the advice, and assurance about your PC playing so well. If you have time could you let me know what kind of processor and video card you have? I'd just like a frame of reference to what kind of hardware can perform very well on todays games.

You should be able to do it with $1200. If you don't want to deal with putting it together then you could use cyberpowerdpcs or ibuypower.com to buy a custom one but it will be pricier. Amazon, newegg, and tigerdirect are all good places to buy parts.

That price is really reassuring, but it seems like I'm just choosing too many brand new products so the price ends up jumping up several hundred without much performance difference.

Sorry for the double post but I've just spent a couple hours reading and making lists of parts and built what I think is a great machine for $1100. I've taken some of the newer parts down to older models, i7 to i5 processor etc. I appreciate you all for talking sense into me, I feel much better about doing my first build now. Thanks for taking the time to mention that you can do this for much cheaper.

No problemo.

Metallipath said:

If you have time could you let me know what kind of processor and video card you have?

Click to expand...

I’ll just copy and past the entire rig :>

Processor:
AMD Phenom II X4 965
Mainboard:
ASRock 870G Extreme3
Memory:
4GB Kingston DDR3 CL7
Graphics card:
Gigabyte HD6870 OC
Power supply:
BeQuiet! Straight Power 500W
Case:
CoolerMaster 690II Lite

Demut said:

No problemo.


I’ll just copy and past the entire rig :>

-snip-

Click to expand...

Do you think $1200 is a reasonable price for me then? I only ask because I need to buy a nice monitor, gaming keyboard and mouse, etc on top of the actual 'working' parts of the computer. I don't want to bog down the thread by posting a ton of links, but I've decided on a GTX 560 Ti, an i5 2500k, and an Intel P67 series motherboard. As far as memory goes, I've found an okay deal on a 1TB Seagate HDD, and RAM is crazy cheap. for the case and power supply I've mostly settled on the Antec Three Hundred Illusion, and a 650W 80Plus Bronze power supply.

Edit: Windows 7 is another $100 as well. I'm seriously starting from nothing. I've been using a MacBook Pro for about 3 years now because of school. I love the thing but it's the complete opposite of a gaming computer, lol.

How much is the graphics card, the processor, the motherboard, the memory, HDD, OS, the case and power supply together? Or in other words: How much of the $1200 do you have left for the mouse, keyboard and monitor?

Demut said:

How much is the graphics card, the processor, the motherboard, the memory, HDD, OS, the case and power supply together? Or in other words: How much of the $1200 do you have left for the mouse, keyboard and monitor?

Click to expand...

$1075 before tax if I'm going by these exact parts I've put into a wishlist on newegg.ca

Start with your Motherboard, Asus is a good bet (socket 1155/1156 or 1366). Processor you want an i7 as you stated, 2600 would be fine (I'm still running a Q6600 quad core @ 2.4 ghz and it handles everything I can throw at it)

I'd personally go for an ATI graphics card, but then again it's preference. The new 7xxx series is out soon.

Ram you want at least 4GB DDR3, especially if you're going to be running Win7 x64. Corsair or Gskill ripjaw are reputable.

I'd also advise a non standard cooler for your CPU, maybe an akasa, but there are some decent water cooling solutions that are very cheap and all contained within a unit around the size of an average heatsink/fan combo.

If you can afford a bit extra get an SSD hard drive, if not e-sata around 500GB plus (depending on if you're also going to be doing a lot of media related stuff)

Monitor I'd suggest a 22-24" Hanspree.

Finally Windows 7 Ultimate, a 600 watt+ PSU, and a good case to put it in (anything from Gigabyte, Thermaltake or Corsair (if you can afford it!))

Oh, and for mouse and keyboard I'd go for a Razer Lachesis (ambidextrous) refresh 5600 DPI, or even the original (if you can find one) which is still 4000 DPI. Had mine for about 3 years and it's as smooth as when I first got it.

Keyboard, Razer mechanical, if not a Tarantula or Lycosa/Arctosa if you're coming to the end of your budget

Danielluck88 said:

Oh, and for mouse and keyboard I'd go for a Razer Lachesis (ambidextrous) refresh 5600 DPI, or even the original (if you can find one) which is still 4000 DPI. Had mine for about 3 years and it's as smooth as when I first got it.

Keyboard, Razer mechanical, if not a Tarantula or Lycosa/Arctosa if you're coming to the end of your budget

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I've lowered some of my 'goals' as far as graphics cards and cpu. Currently I'm going for a GTX 560ti, and an i5 2500k. I may utilize the SLI capabilities of the GPU, but it is still benchmarking very well on recent games. I've found a good deal on some 650W power supplies that are 80 plus bronze certified, and I'm getting a good cpu fan as well. The case I found has 3 fans stock and enough room for 7 I believe. I'm probably going to be getting 8GB of GSkill RAM. Found an okay price on some 750GB HDD, but the prices are still through the roof due to factory floods in Thailand. I did also recently check out some Hanspree monitors, I'm just trying to make sure that the native resolution is 1920x1080. Is that a good, or pointless idea?

Aside from gaming on this computer, I am a Graphic Designer, but if the computer can handle high end gaming, it can handle Adobe Creative Suite.

I appreciate the reply, and if you think what I've picked out here is good feel free to let me know. =)

A 21.5-inch monitor has a native resolution of 1920x1080. What you've picked sounds good to me, I've got an old ATI HD 3870 and it's good enough for me currently (can run Skyrim on high seemlessly) I'd go for an ATI HD 5870/6870, you could get one for about $140.

An i5 also adequate for your requirements, I wouldn't say there's a need to get an i7.

I got a 1TB HD for around £80 ($123) , and that was about 2 years ago, so I wouldn't have thought you'd struggle there.

One other thing I'd put a bit of extra money into would be the motherboard, make sure it's got USB 3.0 and preferably on a Z68 based chipset.

So it begins, just picked up a Logitech G110, Razer Abyssus (wanted no macro buttons on my mouse), a decent pair of AKG headphones, and what seems to be a good monitor, Samsung SA350 23". As soon as my credit limit increase is approved I can go ahead and order the computer parts and slap the rig together, I'm really excited lol

Edit: Wow the headphones sound great but they almost crushed my head, gonna have to return them =P

How comes you want no macro buttons on your mouse? Good for realoading/secondary weapon functions in FPS games, and good for Skyrim too! I would recommend the Creative Fatal1ty gaming headset, you can remove the mic and also use them to listen to your music when out and about, and they're only £30 ($47)