1st real build

Hardware Hub Build a PC
1

Hello All,

I am not new to the PC world but I have never dared more than adding a new hard drive or stick of RAM. I have been using my current PC for about 5 years and she has treated me well. It is just fine for 80% of my activity such as web browsing media viewing. She is letting me down in the games department however and playing games on low graphics settings won’t cut it anymore. I am hoping to retire her as a media center for my parents.

Before I send her out to pasture I want a replacement in hand. I am open to spending up to $2000.00 Canadian if it would really make the difference but 1500 is more the area i am looking to spend. I won't be doing anything really productive like video editing though I do want to be able to multitask as much as possible. If it can make a decent cup of coffee as well that would be great.

I would want to be able to handle games on decent settings for at least a couple of years and get as much longevity without major upgrades if possible. I currently have an AMD so I thought I would give Intel a try. 

I have started picking out some parts (mostly based on Logan’s rig to be honest) but I am very open to suggestions and would appreciate any assistance some of you experienced folks would be willing to provide.

 http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/user/Vagrant/saved/3Vkk

 

 

 

2

Well since you won't be doing any video editing might as well stick with an i5-4670K if you are not going to overclock you can go with something cheaper like a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO or stick with the stock intel cooler.  You should also go with a Western Digital Black as it has a 5 year warranty.  Sweet Jesus that RAM looks expensive, There is a Kit with the same specs on CA Newegg for $160 Canadian dollars Link

Other than that the build look really solid!

3

To be honest, I'm surprised you haven't gone for a GTX 780. There seem to be a few in the ~$600 range. That bumps your build up to ~$1900, which is closer to $2000, which you were against. That said, there's a few things you could cut down on to fit in the 780:

i5 4670k instead of i7 4770k and hyper 212 evo (as stated above)

cheaper but still quality motherboard

8 GB of RAM instead of 16 GB, 8 GB is plenty for gaming, at least for the moment. Also there is very little difference between 1866 and 1600 RAM, unless you're using an APU.

And with all of those changes, it actually ends up to be under $1500.

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/user/Morgoth780/saved/3Vmf

Here's benchmarks comparing the GTX 770 and 780:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1037?vs=1036

There isn't a huge difference, so you might consider the price jump to be too much to justify. That said, with my changes there's still room in your budget to bump up to a 780 Ti.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1037?vs=1072

Which is where there's a very large improvement over the 770. If you want my honest opinion, I'd go with my changes but stick with the 770 unless you really want to spend all of your budget. I have an HD 7950 which is quite comparable to the 770, and at 1080p it runs just about everything at max. Crysis 3 does only get 30 fps, and metro is choppy at times, but that's due to poor optimization. It's up to you though, I really can't tell you how to spend your money.

4

Thanks man, appreciate the help I will take your advice.

I may overclock in the future but probably not for now. I am hoping to keep things nice and quiet would the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO be ok in that regard?

5

I was thinking that 770 was a bit on the lower end of things. I will go with the 780 Ti and 8 gigs. Thanks for the help much appreciated.

6

I'm stunned that noone's bothered to put a SSD in any of the builds, especially at this budget.

As requested, I'll try to do an Intel build.  I'm not sure if you want to overclock or not, so I'll do two builds.

Overclockable CPU:

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/337fT

To be honest, you could go with a cheaper motherboard and an i5-4670k as most games right now will run pretty well with just an i5.  An i7 is good for video rendering and things like that.

I also went with lower profile memory.  Memory clock does not matter when it comes to games.

I got a 780, a nice cooler(you really don't need AS5)

Also, if you load the OS onto the SSD, your boot times will be very, very fast.

I got another 80+ Gold PSU.  Fully modular, and 100% japanese capacitors.  It's a Seasonic design as well.

To wrap it off, I got a windowed case of the Define R4.  Show off your parts :)

Non-overclockable CPU:

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/337o8

This CPU is essentially a i7-4770k, but not overclockable.  It has 4 cores, hyperthreaded.

Cheaper cooler and motherboard.  Feel free to replace the fan that comes with the Hyper 212 with some noctua P12 pwm fans if you want quieter operation.  You could probably use a cheaper cooler if you wanted.

Larger SSD.  Install more games and stuff and have things launch almost instantly!

You could also try and get a 780ti into this build if you want to work things around.

 

7

I should have mentioned I plan to carry over my SSD from my current system. But good suggestion, appreciate the help.