Legit Reviews

I'm back. I almost have enough to get the rig I want, but I want to be absolutely sure I'm getting good bang for what I want and not getting bad parts.

Purpose of System: Gaming, browsing internet, watching videos. But mostly for gaming. I may want to do folding@home
GPU Setting: Quite high, if not ultra
Budget: @ Around $1000 - $1300 (or so)
Country: USA
Reuseable parts: Can't, see below (current specs) as to why
Overclocking: No.
Monitor: Currently 1680 x 1050 (22 Inches) - I eventually want HD (Between 23 - 27 inches)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($184.01 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($202.82 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($97.41 @ Amazon)
Storage: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($129.88 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card ($198.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced ATX Full Tower Case ($132.36 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional 750W 80 PLUS Silver Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($140.71 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($18.39 @ Newegg)
Total: $1159.76
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-07 20:18 EST-0500)

Notes: I will probably eventually change the 7770 to a 7970, but I really just want to build the bloody system.

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

What I wanted from the System

- Hardware

USB 2.0 & 3.0 ports
Firewire & or eSata port (motherboard only comes with SATA ?)
Support for DVI/HDMI (display port?) - either from the motherboard or from the GPU
Quad Core

- Software

Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Folding @ Home

-- Gaming Software

(Heroes of) Might & Magic
Diablo 1 - 2 LOD
SimCity 3000/Unlimited/4000/Rushour
The Sims 1 - And all expansions
The Sims 2
Warcraft 2 - Tides of Darkness & Beyond the Dark Portal
Warcraft 3 - Reign of Chaos & Frozen Throne

-- Steam

ID software
- Commander Keen
- Doom (will run Classic Doom 3 as well)
- Hexen/Heretic
- Quake
- Rage
- Wolfenstein
PopCap Games
- Bejeweled
- Peggle
Bethesda
- The Elder Scrolls:
-- Morrowind (may try MorrOblivion & Skywind)
-- Oblivion
-- Skyrim (plenty of graphical mods)
- Fallout
-- 1-3/New Vegas
Valve
- Portal 1/2 (plenty of custom maps)
- Half Life (if it will run)
-- Along with the fan remake
Misc Title
-- Batman: Arkham Asylum/City
-- Deus Ex: Human Revolution
-- Dragon Age: Origins
-- L.A Noire
-- Legends of Grimmrock
-- Torchlight 1/2
-- Metro 2033 (& Last Light)
-- Sniper Elite (2?)
-- Space Quest & King's Quest (if I can run them)
-- Bioshock 1/2(/Infinite?)
-- Sonic Generation

- I may try to run (some?) PS2/Wii/GCN games

Power Supply

- @At most 750 watts
- At lest 80+ Silver
- Semi or fully Modular

MISC thoughts
- Eventual dual monitor setup & one be HD
- 23+ Inch Widescreen
-- I presume one these three monitors is a good choice:
--- http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-ve258q (probably leaning towards this)
--- http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-vg23ah
--- http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-vs239hp
- I will not overclock. The CPU chosen was cheaper than the NON "K" edition. By like $30 or more.
- I really don't care between AMD & Nvidia, which ever has fewer problems running what I want.

Thank you, merci, gracias, domou arigato . . . .

If you want to play on Ultra eventually at 1080 then the HD 7850 isn't going to do it most of the time. If I were you I'd grab a cheaper motherboard and add that money to a better GPU. Just my $.02.

Like Major_A said...reduce other parts to add in the better GPU right off the bat if you wont be happy with the 7850. No use to spend $200 on a video card that you will be removing shortly after building. You said "Budget: @ Around $1000 - $1300 (or so)" so with your pricing now, you could add in the 7970 like this - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814202008 for around $1351 total then you get a $20 rebate. If you go with a lower priced MB you should be able to get right around $1300 AND be happy with your GPU choice rather than spending $200 and then another $400 when you change video cards.

This is all assuming you are only talking a month or so before replacing that video card. If you are talking about a year down the road till you would have the money then by all means, build it

I thought months later as well as with the 25" Monitor. I'd probably get a few more frames with the 7970 than the 7770 .

Depends. If it's a few more frames you are definitely hitting a bottleneck but seriously? Few more frames? The performance delta between the 7970 and 7770 IS HUGE.

INeedAFnSuffix wrote:Depends. If it's a few more frames you are definitely hitting a bottleneck but seriously? Few more frames? The performance delta between the 7970 and 7770 IS HUGE.

I think I can probably wait for the 7970, I really do want to just build this bloody system already. By the time I'd like a 7970 (or one of the 8k series) they should be cheaper I'd think.