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On September 09 2011 12:02 Myrmidon wrote:Show nested quote +On September 09 2011 11:52 galtdunn wrote:On September 09 2011 11:24 skyR wrote:On September 09 2011 11:09 galtdunn wrote:+ Show Spoiler +This is going to be kind of brief but here it goes... are these good parts for a reliable gaming computer? I was looking at some of the reviews (and there are always bad ones) so i want to see if anyone has ever had trouble with any of the parts in it. I want to know whether to get extended warranties, etc. Thank you! Why pay for extended Best Buy I mean Newegg when the manufacturer's warranty is longer ... ? Unless you want to deal with Newegg instead of the manufacturer for whatever reason than I guess that's fine if you want to waste money. Why pay a premium for memory for a negligible gain when you can pay a premium for a better GPU that will offer a more noticeable gain? http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/sandy-bridge-ddr3.htmlhttp://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3http://techreport.com/articles.x/20377Why pay for a Phenom II X6 when its performance is five years old and Bulldozer is almost here? If you're an AMD fanboy, why not just wait patiently for Bulldozer? If you're not than Intel is the obvious choice for a gaming configuration. Ok well I'm going to try and not sound offended.... I am on this tech forum because I don't know what is best to buy. Please don't treat me like I'm trying to flush money down a toilet. also, linking me to articles I also don't understand isn't helping me at all. I don't think its possible to be a fanboy of something you only learned about yesterday either. So I shouldn't buy anything AMD based because Intel is much better. Anything else I should avoid? I think this is a reasonable response. Anyway, there's just a history of people coming by for advice with a lot of incorrect preconceived notions that they don't want to drop (even though they're asking for advice? yeah it's kinda weird). We're just looking to knock any of those out so you don't waste money. I like CuraOh's configuration. It's a lot better, and you should just go with that. If you want to know the reasons why, then you've got some reading to do, and questions can be answered, but if you just want a build, there's a good one.
My advantage (?) is that I have no preconceived notions that need to be let go of 
About CuraOh's, he put the GTX 560, which is extremely good is it not? I'm just wondering if I need something THAT good. I will be playing DotA 2 and of course SC2. I like high end, but I'm looking to save money if at all possible.
Why do I want the DVD burner?
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The build is no more expensive than what you were looking at, and considerably better all around... you can shave money if you want, but that build is in a really good point for price/performance.
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On September 09 2011 12:13 galtdunn wrote:+ Show Spoiler +On September 09 2011 12:02 Myrmidon wrote:Show nested quote +On September 09 2011 11:52 galtdunn wrote:On September 09 2011 11:24 skyR wrote:On September 09 2011 11:09 galtdunn wrote:+ Show Spoiler +This is going to be kind of brief but here it goes... are these good parts for a reliable gaming computer? I was looking at some of the reviews (and there are always bad ones) so i want to see if anyone has ever had trouble with any of the parts in it. I want to know whether to get extended warranties, etc. Thank you! Why pay for extended Best Buy I mean Newegg when the manufacturer's warranty is longer ... ? Unless you want to deal with Newegg instead of the manufacturer for whatever reason than I guess that's fine if you want to waste money. Why pay a premium for memory for a negligible gain when you can pay a premium for a better GPU that will offer a more noticeable gain? http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/sandy-bridge-ddr3.htmlhttp://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3http://techreport.com/articles.x/20377Why pay for a Phenom II X6 when its performance is five years old and Bulldozer is almost here? If you're an AMD fanboy, why not just wait patiently for Bulldozer? If you're not than Intel is the obvious choice for a gaming configuration. Ok well I'm going to try and not sound offended.... I am on this tech forum because I don't know what is best to buy. Please don't treat me like I'm trying to flush money down a toilet. also, linking me to articles I also don't understand isn't helping me at all. I don't think its possible to be a fanboy of something you only learned about yesterday either. So I shouldn't buy anything AMD based because Intel is much better. Anything else I should avoid? I think this is a reasonable response. Anyway, there's just a history of people coming by for advice with a lot of incorrect preconceived notions that they don't want to drop (even though they're asking for advice? yeah it's kinda weird). We're just looking to knock any of those out so you don't waste money. I like CuraOh's configuration. It's a lot better, and you should just go with that. If you want to know the reasons why, then you've got some reading to do, and questions can be answered, but if you just want a build, there's a good one. Haha thank you! My advantage (?) is that I have no preconceived notions that need to be let go of About CuraOh's, he put the GTX 560, which is extremely good is it not? I'm just wondering if I need something THAT good. I will be playing DotA 2 and of course SC2. I mean, I like high end, but I'm looking to save money if at all possible. Why do I want the DVD burner?
That's a GTX 560 Ti fyi. The GTX 560 is a less expensive and slower card than the GTX 560 Ti. Ya... Nvidia naming scheme is pretty stupid. You're welcome to get a less expensive card if all you're going to be playing is Starcraft II and DotA 2. A Radeon HD6850 for around $150 would be capable of playing both games on ultra at 1080p.
And a DVD burner is sort of the norm these days? Do you not burn stuff to DVD? Memtest? Windows installation? games? media backup?
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Also, to clarify, getting a DVD burner is basically no longer more expensive than getting a DVD or CD reader that can't burn.
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On September 09 2011 12:32 skyR wrote:Show nested quote +On September 09 2011 12:13 galtdunn wrote:+ Show Spoiler +On September 09 2011 12:02 Myrmidon wrote:Show nested quote +On September 09 2011 11:52 galtdunn wrote:On September 09 2011 11:24 skyR wrote:On September 09 2011 11:09 galtdunn wrote:+ Show Spoiler +This is going to be kind of brief but here it goes... are these good parts for a reliable gaming computer? I was looking at some of the reviews (and there are always bad ones) so i want to see if anyone has ever had trouble with any of the parts in it. I want to know whether to get extended warranties, etc. Thank you! Why pay for extended Best Buy I mean Newegg when the manufacturer's warranty is longer ... ? Unless you want to deal with Newegg instead of the manufacturer for whatever reason than I guess that's fine if you want to waste money. Why pay a premium for memory for a negligible gain when you can pay a premium for a better GPU that will offer a more noticeable gain? http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/sandy-bridge-ddr3.htmlhttp://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3http://techreport.com/articles.x/20377Why pay for a Phenom II X6 when its performance is five years old and Bulldozer is almost here? If you're an AMD fanboy, why not just wait patiently for Bulldozer? If you're not than Intel is the obvious choice for a gaming configuration. Ok well I'm going to try and not sound offended.... I am on this tech forum because I don't know what is best to buy. Please don't treat me like I'm trying to flush money down a toilet. also, linking me to articles I also don't understand isn't helping me at all. I don't think its possible to be a fanboy of something you only learned about yesterday either. So I shouldn't buy anything AMD based because Intel is much better. Anything else I should avoid? I think this is a reasonable response. Anyway, there's just a history of people coming by for advice with a lot of incorrect preconceived notions that they don't want to drop (even though they're asking for advice? yeah it's kinda weird). We're just looking to knock any of those out so you don't waste money. I like CuraOh's configuration. It's a lot better, and you should just go with that. If you want to know the reasons why, then you've got some reading to do, and questions can be answered, but if you just want a build, there's a good one. Haha thank you! My advantage (?) is that I have no preconceived notions that need to be let go of About CuraOh's, he put the GTX 560, which is extremely good is it not? I'm just wondering if I need something THAT good. I will be playing DotA 2 and of course SC2. I mean, I like high end, but I'm looking to save money if at all possible. Why do I want the DVD burner? That's a GTX 560 Ti fyi. The GTX 560 is a less expensive and slower card than the GTX 560 Ti. Ya... Nvidia naming scheme is pretty stupid. You're welcome to get a less expensive card if all you're going to be playing is Starcraft II and DotA 2. A Radeon HD6850 for around $150 would be capable of playing both games on ultra at 1080p. And a DVD burner is sort of the norm these days? Do you not burn stuff to DVD? Memtest? Windows installation? games? media backup?
Could you point me in the direction of one of these Radeon HD6850s please? I looked on Newegg and they're all made by different manufacturers and I can't tell spic from spam.
And I guess I would need a DVD burner to install stuff.... haha my bad.
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Okay makes sense. So a Radeon HD6850 will do what I want and for less money than the GTX 560.
I'll probably shoot for that then and take $75 off the price.
skyR do you think the build CuraOh posted is good? Or are there any changes you would make?
Edit: What is the viability of a Dual core instead of a quad core?
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On September 09 2011 13:24 galtdunn wrote:
Okay makes sense. So a Radeon HD6850 will do what I want and for less money than the GTX 560.
I'll probably shoot for that then and take $75 off the price.
skyR do you think the build CuraOh posted is good? Or are there any changes you would make?
Edit: What is the viability of a Dual core instead of a quad core?
The build is solid, good price/performance.
An i3-2100 would still be good for gaming, but if you're looking to stream, you'll need a quad core.
You could shave $20+ by getting a cheaper case, anything will work if you find something cheaper that you like.
If you don't need/want USB3 or SATA3 (for newer SSDs) you could save $15 and get this mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157241
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On September 09 2011 13:24 galtdunn wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Okay makes sense. So a Radeon HD6850 will do what I want and for less money than the GTX 560.
I'll probably shoot for that then and take $75 off the price.
skyR do you think the build CuraOh posted is good? Or are there any changes you would make?
Edit: What is the viability of a Dual core instead of a quad core?
It's an okay configuration.
The ASUS DVD Burner is actually $21 since you should be rounding up $20.99. There's also no point in spending extra for an ASUS drive unless you can justify the specs of it which I doubt you can or you just favor ASUS over the other manufacturers. There's LG for $18: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136238 and there's Sony for $19: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118039
The memory is also not $40, it's actually $50 which is too high of a price for a 8gb 1333MHz cas9 kit. Mushkins are $43: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226249 There's also a core i5 2400 & 8gb PNY memory bundle for $221 which would mean that the memory comes at $31: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.723828
If you're buying before the 12th than the Corsair CX500 V2 for $50 is an okay deal. If you're not, there are better choices. If you're going with a Radeon HD6850 and you're not purchasing before the 12th or you just want to lower the checkout total further than you can just get the CX430 V2 instead or an Antec Earthwatts 380D or an Antec Neo Eco 400w. All of which are still more than powerful enough to run such a configuration since both the 6850 and core i5 combined won't exceed 200w under a gaming load.
Dual cores are still okay if you're only concerned with Starcraft II, DotA 2, and the older games which all mostly use two cores. If you're looking at lowering the total further than you can get a Pentium G850 which is a dual core: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116397
The core i3 2100 isn't really worth the extra over a Pentium G850 since they're both basically identical with the only major difference being that the core i3 2100 having hyperthreading. Hyperthreading would only be beneficial for games that utilize more than two cores. Okay... the Source engine is multi-core to some extent and so is Starcraft II but having a Pentium G850 instead of a Core i5 2400 won't suddenly make the games unplayable.
You could get a less expensive case and motherboard as mentioned. You could also get a 500GB HDD instead.
I'm pretty sure you also never mentioned what resolution you're going to be playing the games at. If it's not 1080p than you could get away with a weaker card such as a Radeon HD5770.
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Wow you guys are great! I'll look over this stuff after work tomorrow T.T and see if I have any more questions then. Thx much!
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Ok, redone request.
Budget: 1500-1600 including monitor. Wouldn't mind spending less though
Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Uses: Gaming, streaming, some photoshop, software development, and watching high def video/movies
Upgrade Cycle: ~2 years
When I'm building it: Within a month
Overclocking: Not now
Second GPU: No, unless it's absolutely necessary to play newer games at high resolutions (in which case I am amenable to overclocking and will learn what I have to)
Location for buying parts: newegg preferably, can work with Fry's in SF if necessary, but no car makes it a bit of a hassle
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I decided to take a while and do some research as well as figure out what it is I wanted to do. I was getting really indecisive and couldn't even answer the questions from the OP appropriately. I'm a lot more confident in my answers now.
+ Show Spoiler [Questions from the OP] +What is your budget?
~$1000-1250
What is your resolution?
1920x1080
What are you using it for?
Gaming
What is your upgrade cycle?
2+ years
When do you plan on building it?
Within a week
Do you plan on overclocking?
Yes
Do you need an Operating System?
Yes
Do you plan to add a second GPU for SLI or Crossfire?
No
Where are you buying your parts from?
NewEgg
Basically, I want a gaming computer that will run games like SC2 and Battlefield 3 on high settings.
This is what I came up with on my own based on all the research and feedback I got. I feel pretty comfortable with this, but I bet it's not ideal.
+ Show Spoiler [List I came up with] +
I think the motherboard and PSU are slightly overkill. I chose those components mostly because I've seen each of them repeatedly recommended regardless of what website, forum, or chart I looked at. Knowing they're so popular makes me more comfortable in choosing them, even if it is slightly more than what the bare minimum of what I need would cost me. If neither is truly worth it I will probably go down to the ASRock P67 Pro3 and a decent 500W PSU.
Also, I know cases are much less important than the actual internal components, but does anyone have any input on a case? I like cases that have a window and LED fans, and I've been looking at the CM Storm Scout, CM HAF 922, and Antec 902 V3. I put the 902 V3 in that list because it's the most expensive, but I might go with another case. Suggestions are welcome.
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Two chassis in the higher price range that have windows, led and decent quality is the Corsair 600t white edition and the thermaltake level 10 gt. The leds can't be turned off on the 600t though. Or you can buy a cheaper chassi with window and add fan/leds yourself.
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i personally think that cases are the most fun component of a computer system so paying a premium for a case you like the look/feel of is justified
if you dont care about looks, just pick any old case with the fan mounts you want and blam. me personally, i like the coolermaster 690ii for a cheaper case and something like an rv02/ft02 for the more expensive ones
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Your ram is the more expensive G.Skill Ripjaws memory. You could drop it to lower priced RAM without heatspreaders and save $10, unless you're going to be peering into your case often and value flashy looking red heatspreaders.
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Just a heads ups for all those that might be building in the next couple of days. Purolator's tracking system has been having problems ever since Tuesday or so making it impossible to track your shipment whether it be via their site or calling them.
Apparently even the drivers are receiving shipping instructions through phone calls. I would use UPS or whatever other options you have for the time being.
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I've been visiting this thread everyday and i'm amazed by the information shared here. I asked for help 2 weeks ago and have just finished my computer build.
Info from this thread gave me the confidence to try building my own system and saved me a lot of $$$ for price/performance that i got.
Thanks !
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EPT
