re: PC Discussion - Gaming, Performance and Enthusiasts

Here we go.
Note: Some suggestions appear to have already been said, but I'm offering a longer explanation and some deviations. Let me know if you want even more detailed technical explanations.

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Intel Core i5-3570K
ASRock Z77 Extreme4

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Personally, I’m not a fan of spending over a grand on a PC and using end of life/out of production components.

Go with Z87/1150. Just released, a bump in performance, and the opportunity for upgrades in the next tick iteration. If you’re worried about heat, you shouldn’t be. That cooler you picked wouldn’t allow for a decent OC on IB either. I remember the Tom’s hardware test between a dozen or so air coolers, and that SilenX was the only one that couldn’t get an accurate load temp reading because it hit 89 and the CPU began throttling. So, don’t do it. Get the hyper 212 evo. Seems to always win the price/performance battle.

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G.Skill Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333
G.Skill Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333

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You probably only need 8GB. I personally use 16GB, but I have a proven use for it, as I regularly max out 8gb for work. I’ll have meter programs open, along with a browser and about 30 tabs, while working in photoshop, running 5 or 6 apps via Citrix, and dealing with massive word, excel, or ai files full of images, text, videos, etc. And then with all of that still running, I’ll occasionally take a break by launching a game and keeping all that other stuff open.

The extra 8GB will not benefit you in gaming or multi-monitor setups. You should buy 8GB now, and add the other 8 if you actually notice a need for it in real-world use. RAM is probably the easiest thing to add to a computer. You can buy the same 8GB again. I know some people are afraid of compatibility problems when using two 8GB kits vs one 16GB, but these aren’t the motherboards and RAM of 10 years ago.

You can get better RAM, as you’ll see in my PCpartpicker link. I put some 1866 G-skill sniper series in there for the same price as that 1333 value ram you selected. Also CL9 and 1.5v. Or I have some corsair vengeance 1600 for sale. :)

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Crucial M4 64GB 2.5" Solid State Disk

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64GB SSDs made sense 2-3 years ago when they were expensive. They were useful as a Windows 7 boot drive, with a few core programs (office, browsers, maybe some adobe software if there’s room). And then you had to pay close attention to how full the drive could get. Like Puff said, even 120GB or 240GB can be limiting, depending on what you do. I’m kind of a software packrat. One random evening I might need to convert some wacky video format to be compatible with my iPad, so I’ll find a program that does that specifically. Then I’ll just keep it just in case I need it again. It won’t be long before I’m looking at 500gb drives.

A 120 will at least allow you to install the OS, a few heavy hitter core programs like office and the full adobe suite, all your other basics (browsers, AV, mobo utilities etc) as well as a few games that will benefit from the fast load times (skyrim and other large-scale SP games). You’re doubling your capacity for an extra $20 or less. I put a Samsung on PCpartpicker because I trust the brand and continue to be paranoid about the sandforce controllers (maybe unrightfully so, but I has to protect my datas). Other folks here might recommend other SSDs, and I won’t argue. They’ll all be better than that Crucial.

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CRUCIAL M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB
Performance
Sustained Sequential Read: Up to 500 MB/s (SATA 6Gb/s)
Sustained Sequential Write: Up to 95 MB/s (SATA 6Gb/s)
4KB Random Read: Up to 45,000 IOPS
4KB Random Write: Up to 20,000 IOPS
MTBF: 1,200,000 hours

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Western Digital Scorpio Black 250GB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

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A little confused by this choice. This a 2.5” notebook drive. Sure, you can use it (the SSD is the same form factor, after all), but why pay $50 for a 250GB notebook drive?

Normally, I’d recommend WD caviar black, but in the past year the prices have not been worth the performance boost over a Seagate barracuda/WD caviar blue. What I have in the configuration is a Barracuda 2TB. For about the same price, you can get a WD caviar black 1TB. It will be slightly faster, but half the capacity. You choose which one matters for your media files and such. I prefer the faster drives because I install a lot of games on it, do a lot of backups, file transfers, and adobe projects are stored and rendered/encoded on them. But honestly, I’ve never sat down and done my own side-by-side comparison of the barracuda’s performance compared to the Black.

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Asus GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB Video Card

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Sorry, but if you really want 3-monitor gaming, you need to do better than this. 3GB VRAM is important for an increasing number of game engines at higher resolutions these days. Unless you want to drop all this cash to game on three monitors at only medium settings, I strongly suggest you spend the money on a good AMD card, which handles the multi-monitor gaming better (besides the extra vram, AMD’s been making cards with this capability for a lot longer). Not even a 7950, really. Just pointless to cripple GPU performance on a $1000+ rig. A 7970 would be my recommendation.

Have you ever gamed with a surround setup? Do you know if you’ll like it? It’s a love it or hate it kind of thing. I hated it. Coyote hated it. Not sure how Blue feels, but I know he and puff are members of the 1440p club along with Coyote and me. Have you ever gamed on a 1440p monitor? You may be wasting your money on those three monitors, when you can get a 1440p Korean IPS/PLS for $300. Think about it. I’ll never go back to a lower res. But I understand your preference for the extra desktop space when doing normal work. Personally, I have a 27” 1440p for gaming, and a secondary 27” 1080p for the extra workspace.

You’ll need an active DVI--> DP adapter for one of those monitors if you stick with eyefinity: LINK

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Rosewill RNX-N150HG 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter

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Meh, I guess. I never understood using wifi on a desktop machine as your primary network interface. Hope it’s just a backup or something. Stay wired if at all possible. What router are you using?

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NZXT Switch 810 (White) ATX Full Tower Case

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If you think you need a full tower to fit your components, you don’t. Not even close. You could shave $75-$90 off your price by going with a decent midtower. That Switch 810 is not even really the best full-tower for watercooling, if that was something you had been considering. I’m going to add one of the cases that jcole suggested, but you could go even cheaper if it doesn't have to be white.

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SeaSonic 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified PSU
LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer

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That’s fine. You could always spend more on a Gold certified PSU, but it’s not necessary. You probably won’t be upping the voltage on practically everything attached to the motherboard like some of us here like to do.

I’m leaving the rest of configuration intact, but you should consider 1440p. Also, I don’t know about you, but I am very picky about my keyboards because I type a LOT for work. I generally need to go to best buy or office depot and see how they feel before I buy them. A $9 keyboard by Lite-On is probably something I’d break across my knee the first day I used it. But that’s up to you. What made you decide on that mouse? I know nothing about it, just curious. I don’t know anything about those speakers either, but they may be overpriced for 2.1ch. But I use headphones 95% of the time.

Here’s the new configuration: LINK

It’s an extra $60 for a much more capable configuration.

I'm starting to realize when I do go 1440p I will probably hold on to my 1080 monitor.

Good lord

I need to go visit your doctor

That "Bunny Suicides" thing cracks me up for some reason.

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That "Bunny Suicides" thing cracks me up for some reason.

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I know, right?

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Awesome parts list and then that junkie 12 dollar keyboard at the bottom

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yeah its not a smart idea. i like to think of computer builds as a chain, its only as good as its weakest link.

real keyboard

That's the one I have and you can find it for around 80. I love it and may be my favorite price of hardware. That or my deathadder 2013.

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Well the keyboard won't be a "bottleneck" like core components can be

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it will be if the ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff button sticks after 3 days

Yeah the k95 looks awesome but I don't need all of those macros and media keys.

Not mechanical? Really nice though. I think that's the one stout has but I may be wrong. I love peripherals.

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With the cheap keyboard, ghosting will probably be an issue. And yeah, shitty keys that stick.

But like I said, I would've snapped the keyboard over my knee out of frustration before that happens.

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I have in fact broken a keyboard over my knee for that exact reason.