CPU: Intel Core i5 3570K$229.00
GFX: Gigabyte Radeon HD7950 3GB Overclocked$329.00
MOBO: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 Motherboard$135.00
RAM: Corsair Vengeance CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3$55.00
HDD: Western Digital WD Red 2TB WD20EFRX$139.00
SSD: SanDisk Extreme Solid State Drive 120GB$99.00
PSUPP: Seasonic G-650 80Plus Gold 650W$165.00
EXTRAS:
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit with SP1 OEM$95.00
OPTICAL: Lite-On IHES312 12X Blu-Ray DVD Combo Drive$55.00
Any advice or recommended changes? Can still revise my order as it hasn't been approved yet, it is still in the 'pending' stage. Swapped the HD 7970 for the HD 7950 seeing as I don't see myself as an extreme gamer, somewhat more than casual though.
if you are a casual gamer than the 7950 is overkill, list down games you play.
I want to play most new FPS's..
Blops, Bf3, Crysis, etc.
Some general MMO's GW2 etc.
If you play BF3, then how are you a casual gamer? If you see a casual gamer as a person who doesn't care about playing properly, then i can understand. If you see a person by the type of games they play, then you are a joe gamer. but anyhow, save a little bit of money and go for the 7950, it should suffice, and dont get a red drive, get a blue drive. Also are you overclocking?, if not get the i5 3470. 500w is more than enough for a 1 graphics card setup.
I am getting the HD 7950.
Is there any difference between the red and blue drives? I have seen red on a few reviews/recommendation videos.
I am planning on overclocking a little bit, definitely not pushing it to any risky extent - not experienced enough. For the time being, untill I get a better cooling system everything will be staying at stock settings.
I don't mind the 600W PSup, it'll last.
I was also calculating my 'gamer status' on how often I play games, not on how seriously or what type of games I play.
I have been console gaming the last two years. It's getting fairly annoying now because I know how much better I am on PC. I will always be a PC gamer over a console gamer. So i'm also thinking about selling my Xbox 360 + new games.
Main questions being:
Why blue and not red? Whats the difference?
What do you think of the chosen SSD? Is it okay?
Red drives are built for NAS units, or use with raid cards. They have a different way of operating that makes them suited for that application (Go google it). Basically they dont stall on an error they just continue as if nothing is there. Which in a desktop environment might cause continual crashes. You would be better off with the blue drive as it built to run as a standalone drive within a desktop environment.
Basically Reds are for NAS and RAID setups. Green, Blue and Blacks are for single drive storage solutions.
I do not have any personal experience with that SSD, though I use many of sandisks SD cards and they haven't steped a foot wrong yet.
Awesome answer, thanks Zang.
I'll make a swap to the Blue right now.
Is everything compatible in my order? Cpu/Mobo/GFX?
Can you make a 2TB 3.5" recommendation from PCCASEGEAR.COM because they don't have the Blue in 2TB.
The Seagate Barracuda drives are nice drives and perform about the same as blue drives.
If your looking for something a little snappier (and expensive) you could get a Black drive.