A good strong multipurpose system?

[dlf]

• Purpose of System: Gaming, browsing internet, watching videos. But mostly for gaming. I may want to do folding@home
  
• GPU Setting: Quite high, if not ultra (eventually, for when I get a new monitor)
  
• Budget: @ Around $1200 - $1400 (or so)
  
• Country: USA
  
• Reuseable parts: Can't, see below (current specs) as to why
  
• Overclocking: No.
  
• Monitor: Currently 1680 x 1050 (22 Inches) - I eventually want HD (Between 23 - 27 inches)
  

PCPartPicker part list: [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BfEG]http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BfEG[/url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BfEG]

Price breakdown by merchant: [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BfEG/by_merchant/]http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BfEG/by_merchant/[/url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BfEG/by_merchant/]

Benchmarks: [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BfEG/benchmarks/]http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BfEG/benchmarks/[/url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BfEG/benchmarks/]

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($248.96 @ Microcenter)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H-WB ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($240.67 @ Newegg)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($68.18 @ Newegg)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($107.14 @ Outlet PC)

Storage: Intel 520 Series Cherryville 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($146.12 @ Amazon)

Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card ($401.59 @ SuperBiiz)

Case: Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced ATX Full Tower Case ($162.36 @ Amazon)

Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($97.41 @ Newegg)

Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($21.62 @ Amazon)

Total: $1494.05

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-09 16:04 EST-0500)

Current specs:

• Case: No idea (although it is a HP slimline, gray) - that should give some idea of the sort of case.
  
• Motherboard: Asus A8N-BR (Pyrite) (1 PCI, 2 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Video, LAN, IEEE-1394)
  
• Motherboard Chipset - nVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE, AMD Hammer
  
• Power Supply: No idea (but it's less than 100 watts, I think)
  
• Processor: DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2000 MHz (10 x 200) 3800+
  
• CPU Cooler: A fan
  
• Memory:
  
• - DIMM1: Kingston 1 GB DDR2-533 DDR2 SDRAM (5-4-4-12 (at) 266 MHz) (4-4-4-12 (at) 266 MHz) (3-3-3-9 (at) 200 MHz)
  
• - DIMM2: Kingston 2G-UDIMM 2 GB DDR2-667 DDR2 SDRAM (5-5-5-15 (at) 333 MHz) (4-4-4-12 (at) 266 MHz) (3-3-3-9 (at) 200 MHz)
  
• Hard Drive: 250 GB ATA drive
  
• Optical Drive HL-DT-ST DVDRRW GSA-H20L ATA Device (DVD+R9:8x, DVD-R9:4x, DVD+RW:16x/8x, DVD-RW:16x/6x, DVD-RAM:5x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:48x/32x/48x DVD+RW/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM)
  
• OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit
  

What I wanted from the System

- Hardware

• USB 2.0 & 3.0 ports
  
• Firewire & or eSata port
  
• Support for DVI/HDMI (display port?) - either from the motherboard or from the GPU
  
• Quad Core
  
• Bluetooth - so I can hook up PS3/WII controllers
  

- Software

• Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
  
• Folding @ Home
  

-- Gaming Software

• (Heroes of) Might & Magic
  
• Diablo 1-2 (LOD)
  
• SimCity 2/3/Unlimited/4/Rushour
  
• The Sims 1/Expansions
  
• The Sims 2
  
• The Sims 3
  
• Warcraft 1 (If possible) /2/3
  

-- Steam

• ID software
  
• - Commander Keen
  
• - Doom (will run Classic Doom 3 as well)
  
• - Hexen/Heretic
  
• - Quake (Ult Quake) (all)
  
• - Rage
  
• - Wolfenstein
  
• PopCap Games
  
• - Bejeweled (all)
  
• - Peggle (all)
  
• Bethesda
  
• - The Elder Scrolls
  
• -- Morrowind (may try MorrOblivion & Skywind)
  
• -- Oblivion (will try using the skyrim engine)
  
• -- Skyrim (plenty of graphical mods and other mods)
  
• - Fallout
  
• -- 1-3/New Vegas
  
• Valve
  
• - Portal 1/2 (plenty of custom maps)
  
• - Half Life (if it will run)
  
• -- Along with the fan remake
  
• Misc Title
  
• -- Batman: Arkham Asylum/City
  
• -- Deus Ex: Human Revolution
  
• -- Dragon Age: Origins
  
• -- L.A Noire
  
• -- Legends of Grimmrock
  
• -- Torchlight 1/2
  
• -- Metro 2033 (& Last Light)
  
• -- Sniper Elite (2?)
  
• -- Space Quest & King's Quest (if I can run them)
  
• -- Bioshock 1/2(/Infinite?)
  
• -- Sonic Generation
  
• What ever else I can run
  

- I may try to emulate games up to the PS2/Wii era.

Power Supply

- @At most 750 watts

- At lest 80+ Silver

- Semi or fully Modular (preferably fully)

MISC thoughts

- Eventual dual monitor setup & one be Full HD

- 23+ Inch Widescreen (absolute max 27)

-- Thinking of eventually getting a Asus PB278Q 27.0" Monitor

- I will not overclock. The CPU chosen was cheaper than the NON "K" edition. By like $30 or more.

--- Also I DO live in TEXAS, specifically Dallas, it can (in the summer) get upwards of at lest 35 degrees Celsius here. I don't think the exportent heat outside and the overclocking of the CPU would be very good.

- Is Microcenter still doing the buy the CPU & motherboard get $50 off the price of the board?

Thank you, merci, gracias, domou arigato . . . .

[Wats]

You say you aren't overclocking, so why spend 240 bucks on a motherboard that will never be abused :O? ohh, bluetooth.. You could just get a blue teeth dongle thingy to use the PS3 controller (which you shouldn't be using in the first place)

Might just want a 3570K. They are very fast and it will be many years before they start to 'bottleneck' a video card.

If you are bound on the 3770K, you might want to get some more RAM. What good is all of those threads if you only have enough RAM to run like 2 apps.

Just get a modular 500-650W PSU. 750W is useless really. You only need 650W to run Xfire 7970s.

The 7970 will run everything you listed.

Win7 Ultimate? Might as well get 32GB of RAM at 1600 then :P

I know you're not living outside and if you can buy a rig like this for "Purpose of System: Gaming, browsing internet, watching videos..." I know you have AC. So overclock, and have some fun!

Remember it's better to ask stupid questions now than to make stupid mistakes later. Welcome to LTT.

[ijKs Snow]

If you live near a Microcenter and can get the 3770K for that cheap, then you are a lucky man :D

You can cut some price on motherboard since you aren't doing any crazy 3-4 way Crossfire or any overclocking.

You can find better deals on 8Gb 1600 RAM with RAM prices so low these days. Look for deals on Kingston, Corsair, GSkill, Patriot RAM.

I would probably get a different case since I don't like the HAF series. But, there are a lot of people who DO like it, so it's all up to you.

Anyways, that spec will easily do everything you just listed AND more. 3770K + 7970 is a powerful PC.

Since you want a PSU that is around 750W Silver or better and fully modular, I just looked on Newegg and there's a EVGA Gold 720W fully modular PSU that is going for $115 with the promo code.

[christoi]

Wow, that's a lot of detail you've provided. Really appreciate it, makes it a lot easier to recommend stuff. :)

First off, why aren't you going to be overclocking? I know it's a time consuming task, but it's relatively simple and you can push a lot of performance out of 3770k. A high ambient temperature can limit how far you can push the chip, but as long as you stay within safe temperatures (under 80C) you won't really affect lifespan (plus with a case like that, cooling performance would be excellent anyways). Especially with a budget like that, it really may be worth considering. If you are, I'd recommend getting this $20 cooler[/url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xigmatek-cpu-cooler-gaiasd1283], which should suffice for a gaming-oriented rig.

Secondly, an i7 won't actually yield any noticeable performance difference over an i5 in games, so you'll only see a difference with F@H. Given the price difference and how microcenter also offers the 3570k for a low price too, I'd recommend that instead. If you aren't overclocking, you might find the 3330 or 3470 for even lower prices too, which performs around the same as the non-k version.

Even with a $50 off discount with that motherboard, I don't think it'll be worth $200. I'd recommend getting a dedicated wifi card anyways so you can reuse it in future builds, plus it gives more options in terms of different units. Same with bluetooth, it's probably be cheaper anyways to go that route, plus most boards have plenty of expansion slots to spare. If you are overclocking I'd recommend the Z77X-UD3H[/url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gaz77xud3h], it's a tier lower than the UD5H feature-wise and the vrm is slightly worse, but it really should suffice given it does support all the features you've specified. Since power delivery isn't much of an issue if you aren't overclocking, I'd recommend going through various boards and choosing based on the feature you do and don't need. The ASRock Z75 looks to be a good choice, though you'll have to buy an adapter of some sort for eSATA connectivity.;

This is a rather minor, but you can get memory for $20 cheaper[/url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/kingston-memory-khx13c9b1rk28]. With games the performance difference from faster memory is next to nothing, so it's really not worth going for a higher end unit unless you prefer the heatsinks of it. 520-series SSD's really aren't worth it anymore since there are newer, better units, so I'd recommend either a Sandisk Extreme[/url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sandisk-internal-hard-drive-sdssdx120gg25] or a Samsung 840 Pro[/url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz7pd128bw] depending on the performance you want. As a general boot time you won't see much of a performance difference between the two units, though it'll become noticeable if you are doing some extensive file transfers and such.

Power supply looks good, though the 650w variant may be worth considering for headroom, especially with overclocking in mind. Unless you are planning on sleeving the cables, I don't think there is much of a benefit from a fully modular unit though (which is why I'd recommend sticking with the G-series). Lastly, optical drives are pretty much all the same so you can save $5 with this unit[/url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/lg-optical-drive-gh24ns95].

Everything else looks fine, with the suggested changes that'll make a pretty sweet gaming system. Good luck with your build!

[dlf]

I had months ago (last year) thought of getting --- http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cmpsu750hx, or http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cmpsu750ax or http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seasonic-power-supply-ss750km ------ all 750 watts which should be enough for at lest a few optical drives or more hardrives/SSD. This if far far far far far from the first topic (like this) that'd i've made. I've gotten probably upwards of 5 - 9 DOZEN thoughts. As for the detailed, I've used prebuilt most of my life and I'm somewhat sick of the limitation. My slimline (mentioned in the first post) CAN'T play Portal, or Oblivion. It can probably decently play Doom 3, perhaps torchlight.

Anyway. they probably are all the same but PowerColor GPU? DIamond? .ATI? ASUS? EVGA? HIS? MSI? Sapphire? Other? For potential customer support, RMA and performance. Performance all the 7970's should be similar (if not identical(?))