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Building custom gaming pc
Hi, I am a new gamer and I want to build a new gaming PC for around $1500 including the mouse, keyboard, and monitor. I know newegg is a good place to buy parts for a computer but I am unsure about what parts to get to build an optimal system. If anyone has any ideas on what to get feel free to discuss below.
I was thinking of having two monitors, but I don't want that second monitor to lower the performance of the internals. So the second monitor could probably wait. (possibly a T.V. instead of two monitors?)
-GPU needs a dual hdmi or vga output
Questions:
-Main difference between AMD and Intel (which is better for gaming?)
-Difference between i5 and i7? (i7 is a tiny boost or a huge boost?)
-Main difference between Nvidia and AMD? (Which is better, worst?)
Thanks for the help!
Comments
Toms hardware does a sort of best bang for buck system guide
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fx-overclock-crossfire-ssd,3098.html
Im not that up to date anymore however il try to help out:P
-Main difference between AMD and Intel (which is better for gaming?)
Intel CPU's are way better, if you want to multitask like a boss amd with 20 core's, AMD cpu's are probably better.
-Difference between i5 and i7? (i7 is a tiny boost or a huge boost?)
Not a huge difference between the i5 2500 or i7 2600. I7 has somethin special in it for video editing or rendering or something not better for gaming. so your good with an I5 2500.
-Main difference between Nvidia and AMD? (Which is better, worst?)
If you mean the GPU's the graphic cards. AMD just released its 7000 series i think there the best now,
however with the nvidia 500 series and the amd 6000 series you will still be good for a few years.
hope this helps.
All war is deception - Sun Tzu
newegg & Tomshardhardware are your friend's!
Ive built 2 amd gaming systems this year for around $800.00 each.
I recomened ATI 6770/5770 graphics card awesome graphics for $100- 125$
If you do decide to go with AMD Processor I recomened this Phenom 2 x6 Thuban over the new FX line.
Happy Building!
ALso this case rocks for 60$: HAF
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.822650
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129180
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148767
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226152
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161452
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136240
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182071
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236052
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126096
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826623004
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161382
That comes to $1468, including shipping and before rebates.
How do you feel about overclocking the processor? The motherboard should be able to give you a modest overclock, but if you want to go for a huge overclock, you'd need a more expensive motherboard.
How much storage capacity do you need? If the 120 GB SSD is adequate for your needs, you could skip the hard drive and go with an SSD only. If you find out that you eneded more capacity later, then it's easy to add a hard drive then.
Do you need any other peripherals? Usually people who have need a keyboard, mouse, and monitor also need a surge protector and speakers.
DO NOT buy an xbox and kinect.... Consoles are for the younger audience, you can do so much more with a PC. Let alone play all of the PC only games out there...
For your GPU do not go AMD. Most new games out today have issues with AMD cards. Quality is almost non-existent with AMD, at this point in time AMD (ATI) cards are a joke. If you are on a budget, try going with a Nvidia GTX 560 Ti or a GTX 570. Both are amazing cards that will run any game out today very smoothly, like butta. Also both have dual video out.
Today's Intel i5's and i7's run circles around the 6 core AMD processors. In fact, the Phenom's aren't even comparable to the Intel i5's and i7's, they are not in the same class. If you are on a budget, just go with the i5 2500k (Sandy Bridge) processor. If you have the extra cash definitely go with the i7 2600k. My air cooled i7 2600k (currently stock clocks) makes my friend's liquid cooled Phenom X6 (overclocked) seem like an old Intel Celeron.
If you save up the extra cash, you will not regret going Intel and Nvidia. Specially 5 years down the road when the computer still works perfectly. The only thing you will probably need to upgrade after that much time is the GPU, to keep up with the newest games. If you were to go AMD you will be replacing parts within a couple of years (as well as having nasty artifacts and glitches in most new games). I've had this happen to many friends before they all started buying quality over "bang for the buck" components.
Essentially all modern video cards have multiple video outputs. Nvidia cards let you use two monitor outputs at a time, and AMD cards let you use at least two--and often three or sometimes more. In some cases, you'll need an adapter, but those are cheap.
For gaming, Intel is better at the high end, while AMD is better on a tight budget. On your budget, Intel.
For gaming, the difference between a Core i5 2500K and a Core i7 2600K or 2700K is the price tag. And that's about it. There are other differences, but they basically don't matter for gaming.
For the Radeon HD 6000 versus GeForce 500 series, AMD won fairly handily. The only Nvidia card there that is a good value for the money is the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, while AMD has many cards all up and down the lineup.
For the Radeon HD 7000 versus GeForce 600 series, that could change, and dramatically. But the GeForce 600 cards aren't out yet and won't be for at least two months and maybe a lot more. AMD's top end "Tahiti" GPU is already out, but doesn't really fit your budget. The lower midrange "Cape Verde" is rumored to launch later this month, and the upper midrange "Pitcairn" GPU next month. It's likely that Pitcairn would be the thing to get on your budget if it were out, but it isn't yet.
Above, I linked a Radeon HD 6970. Its natural competitor is the GeForce GTX 570. For a while, the GTX 570 was cheaper, so you could go either way. Now the 6970 is faster than a GTX 570, cheaper, uses less power, and has a better feature set, and has more video memory. That makes the choice easy unless you're an Nvidia fanboy.
Meh, Quiz's build is okay, cept for a few components. The Radeon GPU is a complete pos. We have some Radeon desktops at my shop and I always steer customers away from them.
Don't buy Wintec RAM, lol. Definitely go with Corsair. That Wintec deal isn't even that good. I recently picked up 3 4GB sticks of Corsair Vengeance for $60 on Newegg.
Also, the keyboard and mouse, don't screw around with crap peripherals. Go with a Saitek or Logitech keyboard, and definitely go with a Logitech mouse. No brand really comes close to the Logitech G500 or G9X when it comes to durability. Razer's look nice, but they are all plastic, and usually break within a few months.
So I see that the FUD has arrived.
Games that launch tend to have issues on launch day, period. AMD's drivers are about as good as Nvidia's--and both are pretty good, when you consider how hard it is to make video drivers. Intel's drivers are a disaster, which perhaps serves to make both AMD and Nvidia drivers look good by comparison.
You do realize that neither AMD nor Nvidia actually manufacture video cards, don't you? For that matter, they don't even manufacture GPU chips. They design GPU chips, then both have TSMC actually manufacture the chips (with the exception of Llano integrated graphics), and then they sell the GPU chips to a variety of board partners that actually assemble the video cards. Do you think Asus puts a lot more care into its video cards with an Nvidia GPU chip inside than those with an AMD GPU chip? How about MSI? Gigabyte?
Now, perhaps you should be a little wary of a PowerColor or Diamond video card with an AMD GPU inside. But you could say the same of Palit, ECS, and especially Sparkle video cards with an Nvidia GPU. (Actually, I'll go one further than that: don't buy Sparkle.)
The problem with the GeForce GTX 570 is that it is a poor value for the money, for reasons explained above. Take $50 off the price tag and it would be a lot more compelling value.
Theres a ton of these type of threads, if you search properly and search tech forums you will get all the answers you need, every answer you get here is going to have some biased opinion on what to get and not to get. You know what you want and know what you need, asking peoples opinion only starts a debate on what is better or not.
like I said previous post biased opinion, people will argue against my opinions.
I've covered the Radeon HD 6970 versus GeForce GTX 570 comparison above. If you're scared of HIS, it's one thing. But to steer customers toward a clearly inferior card that is also more expensive is just stupid.
If you see a better deal on memory, then give a link. Memory is mostly a commodity, as neither Wintec nor Corsair produces memory chips.
That keyboard is a Logitech keyboard. I don't think it's quite the one I have, but keyboards are pretty much a commodity unless you need some fancy features like backlighting or programmable buttons. Keyboards today for the most part aren't any better than keyboards 20 years ago. Once you can make keyboards that work exactly right, there just isn't much room for improvement on that, apart from fancy features that hardly anyone needs.
As for the mouse, if you want to be skeptical, fine. But it's the exact mouse that I have, so I've got personal experience with it, and didn't just link something at random. I've had it for more than 2 1/2 years, and it's easily the best mouse I've ever used. And I've used some Logitech mice (yes, plural!) that were more expensive, but didn't work as well. The does look and feel cheap, and quite a bit of the paint has now worn off. But it's comfortable, lightweight, and works exactly right.
Now, maybe if you want five or twelve or whatever mouse buttons, you need a more expensive mouse. But that adds a lot of cost, and only offers any benefit if you'll use the extra features. Regardless, if you want a fancy keyboard or mouse, you're going to have to cut back somewhere--and probably on the video card. A Radeon HD 6950 or GeForce GTX 560 Ti is still a pretty capable card, so I suppose it's a matter of priorities.
Sorry for not replying quicker, just went through bootcamp on my imac. Now you know why i want to switch to a pc
. But anyways thank you for all your answers and links!!
My views on the questions.
CPU AMD or Intel. Right now for gaming its entirely Intel in my opinion. How having said that I do happen to have an 8120-FX which is relatively the same price to build as a 2500k. In benchmarks the 2500k wins... runs cooler and uses less power. In personal use you won't notice a difference between the two. However, why use more power and run hotter? Heat is not your friend unless you want your computer to be a room heater.
I5 or I7... well the 2500K is an I5 and that's the Intel cpu I just mentioned. Do you work with video or audio applications designed specificly to take advantage of as many threads or cores as you can toss at them? If you have no idea what I'm talking about you want an I5... If you know what I'm talking about but don't use those types of programs... you want an I5. In this case I5 simply can be translated to 2500k. Well actually... if you do not want to overclock at all it translates to 2500. Tho the locked cpu's are probably not that much cheaper. With that Hyper 212+ which Quizz listed... you can definitely overclock if you want to try it. I have one.. for an air cooler and a cheap air cooler at that... they are awesome.
Nvidia or AMD... Honestly? Go to various benchmarking hardware sites and see if they benchmark the games YOU are actually playing. Right now almost all of my cards are AMD... Sapphire 6950 Toxic Editions.. two Sapphire 7970's. I do happen to own an evga 570GTX as well. There are games where a 570GTX performs better than a 6970... If you play those games and only those games that actually matters. If you don't play those games then... you wouldn't want a 570GTX. There are games where a 6970 can rival a 580.... it just depends on what games you actually play.
I saw your interest in possibly running a multi monitor setup. I honestly would tell you to do as much research on multi monitor solutions as you can. It may be right for you and you may decide you want to go another way entirely. If you are interested in it... its definitely a topic where YOU want to research. I was going to do an eyefinity setup but decided to stick with a single screen personally. Might change my mind eventually.
Quiz listed a nice build which is semi limited due to your budget.
I just happen to like Corsair power supplies and my ram of choice lately for some reason is Gskills Sniper series.
I don't honestly know anything about HIS (video card in his links) tho they have been around a long time ... its too bad Sapphire stopped making their 6950 Toxic edition cards... now those were a deal and a beast.
*edit*
I do want to make one more point.
The reason I like the build Quiz listed is because it does go with a 2500k. My opinion is you won't see a need to upgrade that cpu for a few years. The only real change coming soon to gaming desktop will be IvyBridge. Which will offere a small performance increase but nothing major.
So you could save money by using say a non FX AMD chip. I believe the 2500k is the best long term value for the money and when you have a strict budget that is the number 1 thing.
If money frees up later on and you want a newer video card you can add it... or buy a more expensive mouse/keyboard etc etc That CPU will provide a solid base to build on for quite some time.
thanks for input, and yes i do agree quiz's build is what i am probably going for. May switch out a few things here and there though
thank you for all these links and i do say this build is nice. Definitely what i am looking for, but will add on to it as more money comes my way haha
A build is hardly written in stone, so you can change stuff to better suit your needs, but do post what you're going to get before you buy it. You don't want to change a couple parts and end up seriously overpaying for something that isn't very good, or worse, end up with parts that aren't compatible at all.
I have a 7970, overclocked quite heavily and it can quite handily cope with Battlefield 3 on eyefinity.
Can a 580 do that? Maybe not, maybe a pair of 570's could but that would be slightly more expensive than the 7970 was and leaves zero room for expansion in future.
Can the Nvidia cards do any form of Texture Anti Aliasing without using the brute force SSAA method that brings just about any GPU to it's knees?
Can I run 3 monitors on one card from Nvidia? Hell, even the 580 chokes on some games when you bump up the settings at the 1.5GB of memory just isn't enough and that's Nvidia's best.