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A good long lasting gaming and multipurpose rig?

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:05 pm
by dlf
This seem like a decent rig to play most current and forthcoming PC games? I have gotten plenty of suggestions for parts in previous threads . .

Purpose of System: Gaming, browsing internet, watching videos. But mostly for gaming. I also do want to use Folding@home as well.
Budget: Within about 1500 American dollars
Country: USA
Reuseable parts: Can't, see below (current specs) as to why
Overclocking: Doubtful. Though if I can get enough airflow I may try
Monitor: Currently 1680 x 1050 (22 Inches) - I eventually want HD (Between 23 - 27 inches)
Features of Motherboard: Firewire, USB 3.0, SATA 6 Gb/s, eSATA, UEFI
OS: Windows 7 64 bit (I have the discs for 32 & 64 bit)

Part list permalink / Part price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($279.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Scythe SCMG-3000 74.2 CFM CPU Cooler ($44.99 @ NCIX US) [probably won't buy this, though good aftermarket fans is helpful]
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($144.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Patriot G2 Series Division 4 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Hard Drive: Corsair Force Series 3 90GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($92.98 @ NCIX US)
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($164.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Video Card ($507.55 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 500R White ATX Mid Tower Case ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG GH22NS90B DVD/CD Writer ($19.98 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Samsung P2770FH 27.0" Monitor ($294.98 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (64-bit) ($188.88 @ Mac Mall)
Keyboard: Microsoft SIDEWINDER X4 Wired Gaming Keyboard ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Mouse: Logitech M510 Wireless Laser Mouse ($28.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $2163.28
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated 2012-04-21 16:40 EDT-0400)

Current specs:

Case: No idea (although it is a HP slimline, gray) - that should give some idea of the sort of case.
Motherboard: Asus A8N-BR (Pyrite) (1 PCI, 2 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Video, LAN, IEEE-1394)
Motherboard Chipset - nVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE, AMD Hammer
Power Supply: No idea (but it's less than 100 watts, I think)
Processor: DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2000 MHz (10 x 200) 3800+
CPU Cooler: A fan
Memory:
- DIMM1: Kingston 1 GB DDR2-533 DDR2 SDRAM (5-4-4-12 (at) 266 MHz) (4-4-4-12 (at) 266 MHz) (3-3-3-9 (at) 200 MHz)
- DIMM2: Kingston 2G-UDIMM 2 GB DDR2-667 DDR2 SDRAM (5-5-5-15 (at) 333 MHz) (4-4-4-12 (at) 266 MHz) (3-3-3-9 (at) 200 MHz)
Hard Drive: 250 GB ATA drive
Optical Drive HL-DT-ST DVDRRW GSA-H20L ATA Device (DVD+R9:8x, DVD-R9:4x, DVD+RW:16x/8x, DVD-RW:16x/6x, DVD-RAM:5x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:48x/32x/48x DVD+RW/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM)
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit

And what I wanted in a new system:

Hardware

USB 2.0 speeds that are minimum of 30 MB a second (although faster is good)
USB 3.0 speeds that are at lest 300+ MB/s [I will get / use an SSD]
Firewire (and or eSata port) --- because I have a external hardrive that has both along with USB
Several (e)SATA ports
At lest a solid terabyte (1.5 TB)
Supports VGA, DVI (@ first). Eventually HDMI
Multi card reader (although I mainly need SD and Memory Pro Stick Duo)
Able to use a PS3 controller AND A XBOX 360 controller (yes I know 360 is native support . . .)
I would like a quad core.

Software

Windows 7 Ultimate (64 bit) (Main OS) -- Mostly for languages
May first run Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit - as I have both 32/64 bit discs now)
Windows XP (May run through a virtual machine)
Folding@home

Gaming Software:

- Will use steam:

Elder Scrolls (Morrowind -> Skyrim)
Portal 1 & 2
Batman Arkham (Asylum/City)
Sonic Generations
Quake (all)
Doom (all)
Wolfenstein (3D) & 2009 - and the others
Commander keen (all)
Bioshock (1/2) (perhaps infinite)
L.A. Noire
Bejeweled 2/3
Peggle
Various COD's
anything else that interests me

- CD/DVD'S I have:

Warcraft 2 - Tides of Darkness & Beyond the Dark Portal
Warcraft 3 - Reign of Chaos & Frozen Throne
Diablo 1 - 3 (when it comes out)
The Sims 1 - And all expansions
The Sims 2 (probably)
Simcity 4000 & Rushhour
May use emulation (to run up to the PS2/Wii)

Other Thoughts

Eventually a dual monitor setup (and one be HD resolution)
I will wait for some parts (hard drives, GPU, etc) to drop in price.
Will wait for IvyBridge. . . . (as if I have a choice) [yes I know it's out on 4/23/12]
I WANT UEFI, NOT regular old BIOS (that this slimline has)
Yes I know 32 GB of RAM is 'overkill' but c'est la vie

Power Supply Thoughts:

ABSOLUTE MAX Watts: 750w
Efficiency: AT LEST 80+ Silver
Modular - semi or fully

Monitor Thoughts:

Screen: Full HD & Widescreen
Supports: HDMI, DVI, Displayport (if the motherboard of the computer does)
Within 1 - 2 MS response time (current monitor is 5 MS response time) [if I'd notice a real difference and price]
Screen size - 25 to about 27 inches

Re: A good long lasting gaming and multipurpose rig?

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 6:08 pm
by Major_A
Really no such thing as a long lasting gaming PC. Even if you don't upgrade that often you'll at least need to buy a new video card every few generations (or that's been my case anyway). Another thing to take into consideration is Newegg sells OEM versions of Windows 7 at much cheaper prices. The only thing is you can't call MS if you have a problem. I've only had to call Microsoft 1 time in my life after my XP install flaked on me 3 times in 3 days. I had to call the automated line to activate it. If you get Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate then you can download XP Mode and you don't even need a XP disc. They basically give you a copy of XP to run in a virtual machine. I also don't ever see you using or needing 32GB of RAM. I have 16GB right now and I've never seen it approach anything near 5GB. If you plan on overclocking anything you might want to look at a larger power supply too. Better to have too much in that area than not enough.