My Computer Specifications

[WhiteKnight]

Hello I made a list of what I am buying to build my computer and was hoping you guys could rate it and tell me if I can get anything better for the same price. The prices I include will be lowest possible, everything new.

I have a hardrive and optical drive I can reuse so I won't be including them.

NZXT Phantom 820: 195.99

NZXT Hale-90 850w: 139.99

ASROCK Z77 extreme4 129.99

INTEL i7 3770k: 229.99

CM Hyper 212 EVO: 29.99

EVGA Geforce GTX 660ti: 299.99

CORSAIR Vengeance 8gb: 46.99

ASUS Xonar DSX Sound: 49.99

[Money]

Maybe upgrade higher than a Hyper 212. Something like a Noctua NH-D14 or an H100i.

[Money]

Is the hard drive you have an SSD?

[killerx525]

850W is an overkill, go with a 650W which should more then enough. With that, you could spend on a better CPU cooler like what Money said.

[Vanderburg]

In all honesty, you could with a PSU with half that wattage and be fine.

[Larrivee013]

With that kind of build I'd seriously invest in a SSD. Currently I have a 120GB Mushkin Chronos for my favorite games, programs and OS. I plan on eventually buying 500GB-1TB just for my media files and I only have a 3570k, and Radeon HD 7770. If you have that much money to put on a PC, you should check for an SSD option.

[mnm0710]

WhiteKnight...what are you going to be using this computer for primarily? That will help us pinpoint areas where you might want to drop down or go up.

[allthatremains94]

Why the Phantom? You could get something for cheaper and get an SSD.

You really don't need THAT much power, so you could save on that.

Please get a better cooler than the 212, as it will make a big difference in the long run. Maybe the 612?

[Dragon_Cannon]

The one thing that I have to say is upgrade the cooler to either a NH-D14, Havik 140, H100i or a Kraken X60 if you have the room.

[allthatremains94]

The one thing that I have to say is upgrade the cooler to either a NH-D14' date=' Havik 140, H100i or a Kraken X60 if you have the room.[/quote']

The X60 won't be cheap though at the projected $130 to $140 price range.

[Whaler_99]

Drop the i7 - unless your are doing serious video editing, your wasting cash. Get a i5 3570k which will perform almost as well for most anything, including gaming. Then spend some money on a SSD drive for a boot disk, and save soem cash on a slightly lower wattage PSU. Also, get the better cooler. :)

[allthatremains94]

Drop the i7 - unless your are doing serious video editing' date=' your wasting cash. Get a i5 3570k which will perform almost as well for most anything, including gaming. Then spend some money on a SSD drive for a boot disk, and save soem cash on a slightly lower wattage PSU. Also, get the better cooler. :)[/quote']

But that's a great price for an i7 though, amirite?

[killerx525]

Drop the i7 - unless your are doing serious video editing' date=' your wasting cash. Get a i5 3570k which will perform almost as well for most anything, including gaming. Then spend some money on a SSD drive for a boot disk, and save soem cash on a slightly lower wattage PSU. Also, get the better cooler. :)[/quote']

But that's a great price for an i7 though, amirite?

I just realized what the price was and holy crap!

[allthatremains94]

Drop the i7 - unless your are doing serious video editing' date=' your wasting cash. Get a i5 3570k which will perform almost as well for most anything, including gaming. Then spend some money on a SSD drive for a boot disk, and save soem cash on a slightly lower wattage PSU. Also, get the better cooler. :)[/quote']

But that's a great price for an i7 though, amirite?

That's the magic of Microcenter!

Now if only they had the A10-5800K for $100~$110....

[Greg]

Case is not nessicary (Could get a NZXT Switch 810 for $50 less)

No SSD (64GB you could find for ~$50)

600Ti is a terrible choice in my opinion (Radeon 7950 is about the same price and outperforms the 660Ti by far http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/550?vs=647)

PSU is overkill (unless you plan to SLI or crossfire)

Sound card is not needed (unless you have high-end headphones/hedset or speaker system)

Just my thoughts.

[TechFan@ic]

Get an HD 7950 instead of the 660 ti .

You get 3 games for free "Far Cry 3, Sleeping Dogs and Hitman Absolution" + 20% off Medal of Honor Warfighter

You get better stock performance than the 660 ti , more RAM (3GB vs 2GB) and a wider memory bus (384bit vs 192bit) (which means you can crank the resolution , the Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic filtering settings without suffering memory bottlenecks)

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-geforce-gtx-650-benchmark,3297-17.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-geforce-gtx-650-benchmark,3297-18.html

You also get phenomenal overclock-ability ( HD 7950 OC = GTX 670 OC performance)

[Money]

Maybe upgrade higher than a Hyper 212. Something like a Noctua NH-D14 or an H100i.

He could downgrade the PSU then upgrade the heatsink

[allthatremains94]

The one thing that I have to say is upgrade the cooler to either a NH-D14' date=' Havik 140, H100i or a Kraken X60 if you have the room.[/quote']

The X60 won't be cheap though at the projected $130 to $140 price range.

True, but he seems to have a smaller budget is all.

[WhiteKnight]

Case is not nessicary (Could get a NZXT Switch 810 for $50 less)

No SSD (64GB you could find for ~$50)

600Ti is a terrible choice in my opinion (Radeon 7950 is about the same price and outperforms the 660Ti by far http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/550?vs=647)

PSU is overkill (unless you plan to SLI or crossfire)

Sound card is not needed (unless you have high-end headphones/hedset or speaker system)

Just my thoughts.

Well I got a Bose, I don't think thats good, but I do plan on getting a 7.1 audio speakers and subwoofer. I do plan to sli around december, I don't know about the radeon, I might buy a 670, I like the look of the phantom, and its 50 dollars off, so around the same price. I will most likely get an ssd for boot time

[WhiteKnight]

Drop the i7 - unless your are doing serious video editing, your wasting cash. Get a i5 3570k which will perform almost as well for most anything, including gaming. Then spend some money on a SSD drive for a boot disk, and save soem cash on a slightly lower wattage PSU. Also, get the better cooler. :)

I would but for the deal I got on the i7, it's only 10 dollars more than the i5.

[Greg]

Case is not nessicary (Could get a NZXT Switch 810 for $50 less)

No SSD (64GB you could find for ~$50)

600Ti is a terrible choice in my opinion (Radeon 7950 is about the same price and outperforms the 660Ti by far http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/550?vs=647)

PSU is overkill (unless you plan to SLI or crossfire)

Sound card is not needed (unless you have high-end headphones/hedset or speaker system)

Just my thoughts.

Well I got a Bose' date=' I don't think thats good, but I do plan on getting a 7.1 audio speakers and subwoofer. I do plan to sli around december, I don't know about the radeon, I might buy a 670, I like the look of the phantom, and its 50 dollars off, so around the same price. I will most likely get an ssd for boot time[/quote']

Don't think going for a 670 is a good idea, for about $100 less the 7950 preforms just about equal, or get a 7970 for the same price, and just blow away the 670. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/508?vs=598

[Dragon_Cannon]

The 7950 is a great deal for money and with the games that come included with the "Never Settle" bundle are good games which is just more of a reason to buy the card.

Linus often talks about price to performance ratio of graphics cards and the 660ti, 670, 7950 and 7970 are probably the best price to performance cards of this generation.

Choose the graphics card that is gonna make you happy at the end of the day. You have got to use it so if you get the wrong card then you have to live with the decision until you can afford to replace it.

One things that I have been doing when shopping for a graphics card is go to a place like the NCIX website and pick out say a half dozen cards from both sides of the fence that are in your price range. Find all those cards on one review site so that you are getting standardised testing across all of the cards. Then choose say a half dozen games of that list and record the number on an excel spread sheet along with all the other info about the card eg how much it cost, the amount of memory that it has and other things like that so that you can then clearly see which is the best card and if they are close like the cards I was deciding between pick by which is the cheapest or which will fit in with the colours in the rest of your system.

[douchecanoe]

Assuming this rig is meant for gaming I'm wondering why no one has pointed out that he has an i7 listed when really he only needs an i5

For the money you're saving there you could bump the 660Ti up to a 670, or perhaps go AMD with the 7950 or 7970

Heatsink is fine, as long as he's not overclocking. But if he's getting a K series i5 then he might be fine with a Noctua U12P-SE2, no need for a DH-14 on that thing

I agree with the consensus that the power supply is a bit overkill though, step it down to 750W or even further, unless you know that you might add two really beastly graphics cards at some point

EDIT: Just read further and realized someone did, and that he's actually getting a kickass deal on the i7. Nevermind then, although if that was me I'd get the i7, not open it, then sell it later on Craigslist, and use the profits to buy the i5 and keep the change. Shame the deal is in store only, I'd love to get one. Anyone willing to buy it for me if I pay for shipping? Lol