New gaming PC

[blackllotus]

Hi all. I'm looking to build a new gaming PC. I primarily play MMOs and my main criteria for my new PC is that I want to be able to play with maximum view distance. I'm fine if the detail isn't "ultra" or w/e but I find that extra view distance greatly enhances my gaming experience so I'd like to maximize that. With that said, I currently have a 23" monitor and would like to upgrade to a 27" monitor.

1. What YOUR PC will be used for: In addition to the above, I also do photo editing on my computer (2011 mpb hooked up to a 23" monitor). I haven't encountered any major issues on my current setup wrt photo editing so I'd focus more on my gaming requirements.

2. My budget is flexible but a ballpark estimate is around $1500 /not/ including a new monitor. I'm going to buy a 27" monitor along with this system but I'd like to keep that cost separate.

3. United States.

4. I'll buy parts from anywhere.

5. No brand preferences.

6. No current parts.

7. I'm perfectly willing to overclock but I am pretty conservative. I want my system to be stable.

8. In an ideal world I'd be using a 1440p 27" monitor. I'm looking to spend around $1500 on the new computer (minus the monitor) but I'm willing to go up to 2k if I can achieve my requirements.

9. WHEN do you plan to build it? ASAP.

X. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software? No.

My primary goal is to be able to play MMOs at max view distance on a 27" monitor with 1440p resolution. I play Guild Wars 2 now with a focus on WvW (world vs world, tl;dr battles with up to 100+ players vs 100+ players that tax the hard drive + cpu in addition to the GPU).

I'd also like for my new PC to be as quiet as possible. I'm willing to budget up to $200 for a case that keeps my set-up quiet.

Thanks for any help!
__________________

 

[bhale7]

Here you go:

• CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K ($349.99)
• Motherboard: ASUS Z87 PRO ($204.99)
• Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 770 ($407.99)
• Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB ($66.99)
• Hard Drive: Western Digital 1TB Hard Drive ($65.59)
• SSD : Crucial m4 128GB ($129.99)
• Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ($59.99)
• Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III ($89.99)
• Optical Drive: Samsung 24x SATA DVD RW ($21.29)

Total: $1396.81

Nothing this build can't handle. You could always go up to 16GB of RAM as well. And, as for the case, that's usually a personal preference kind of thing. But you definitely have the budget to go up to a full tower case if you want.

Also, I took all of these prices from Amazon. If you shopped around you could get the price down even more.

Hope this helps!

 

[Essence_of_War]

Core of this build is similar to another one I threw together today, but it's very sexy. You have enough budget for the 27in monitor, the Haswell i7, and a very nice full-featured MoBo for 2k.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($349.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-PRO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($171.72 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card ($363.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 500R Black ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($37.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On IHAS324-07 DVD/CD Writer ($27.98 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Dell U2713HM 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($585.00 @ Amazon)
Total: $1988.60
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-07 17:02 EDT-0400)

If you're playing MMOs, the GPU here should get you to great frame rates at high settings.

If you're playing Crysis 3...well...you just won't max out crysis 3.

 

[Essence_of_War]

Also, I'm fairly sure that lite-on DVD burner is about $10 over priced...feel free to find a better one

 

[mfenn]

Core of this build is similar to another one I threw together today, but it's very sexy. You have enough budget for the 27in monitor, the Haswell i7, and a very nice full-featured MoBo for 2k.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($349.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-PRO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($171.72 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card ($363.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 500R Black ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($37.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On IHAS324-07 DVD/CD Writer ($27.98 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Dell U2713HM 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($585.00 @ Amazon)
Total: $1988.60
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-07 17:02 EDT-0400)

If you're playing MMOs, the GPU here should get you to great frame rates at high settings.

If you're playing Crysis 3...well...you just won't max out crysis 3.

The main two issues I have with that build are:

1. The mobo is pretty overkill for the OP. An ASRock Z87 Pro4 will take care of his needs.

2. Overpriced DVD Burner. This Lite-ON is good for $18.

As a side note, I don't know if the 4770K is really warranted over the 4670K. Usually it isn't for gaming, but big scenes in MMOs tend to be the exception.

 

[Essence_of_War]

I knew there must have been a cheaper one, but my shoddy eyes were unable to find a '1' in the tens place on the partpicker

 

[cbk]

Duncan just released a $1500 build, not including the mouse and keyboard, but there are things in the build that you could change, like a Blu-ray player.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-XINXaLdrE

 

[riversend]

OP, do you live near a Microcenter? Great deals on new Haswells and Z87 mobos if you do.

 

[Termie]

I second the ASRock Z87 Extreme 4 over the Asus Pro, just because the OP isn't a big overclocker. The Pro is excellent, but costs nearly $50 more. Also, buy the CPU/MB combo to save money: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...=Combo.1326096

I strongly recommend you avoid the XFX HD7970. It's cheaper for a reason - the reviews are terrible, and basically every XFX card this generation has been inferior to other brands, including the XFX HD7870 I owned.

Get the Sapphire (for less) instead: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202008

 

[blackllotus]

Thanks for the advice everyone! This is really useful. I have a few questions about what's been posted.

- The build posted by Essence_of_War includes a CPU cooler - is this necessary if I'm not going to overclock? On that note, mfenn mentioned the i5 4670k. The difference between the 4770k and the 4670k doesn't seem too significant; the 4670k is 0.1 GHz slower, has 2 MB less L3 cache, and has no hyper threading (as far as I understand, hyper threading is not super important for gaming). If I'm willing to overclock, could I buy a 4670k + a cooler and OC to a range where it will perform better than a stock 4770k? Even if I do decide to OC I'll probably go with the 4770k, but I'd like to keep my options open.

- I'm a bit unclear as to how to choose a PSU. The 7970 says it requires at least a 500W PSU, the 4770k has an 84W TDP, and I know RAM takes a few watts. It seems like 600W barely covers that. Do I need extra headroom for my PSU or do the listed wattages for parts already include the proper headroom? Also, does anyone have experience with "silent" PSUs? Are they actually significantly quieter? For example, there is the Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 720W that I can get for $65 after rebate (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...Tpk=17-171-067)

Once again, thanks for the suggested builds! There are so many different possible combinations that it felt overwhelming trying to start from scratch.

 

[Essence_of_War]

You don't need an additional HSF, but intel's stock one isn't that great. The CM EVO will be quieter, and cooler than the stock. If you're considering overclocking it's def worth the money, if you're not it MIGHT be worth the money depending on how you value quieter/cooler performance.

As far as i5 vs. i7, I think that some of those MMOs can benefit from HT in large multiplayer maps, and I'm pretty sure that photo editing software can take advantage of the extra threads also. Performance comparisons between OC i5 and i7 will depend on the workload. In single threaded applications, they should be ALMOST identical at identical clockspeeds. In applications that can benefit from 5+ threads, the i7 will probably outperform the i5 depending on how much you OC the i5.

As far as PSU goes, if you're only using a single gpu, the 600 W PSU should be fine. GPU manufacturers always put super conservative (read: they assume that you're an idiot who's buying the LEAST reputable PSU possible ) wattage ratings. If you've got a CPU with a fan, good case fans, and a GPU with its own fans, I think any benefit from a silent PSU is going to be washed out by the rest of your fans noise. I wouldn't worry about it unless you're also trying to build a silent PC. In which case, you probably need to consider specific cases like the Deep Silence 1/2, and other noise minimization techniques.

 

[mfenn]

I knew there must have been a cheaper one, but my shoddy eyes were unable to find a '1' in the tens place on the partpicker

Venture forth from PCPP and into the land of retailer websites! Many deals await.

 

[mfenn]

- The build posted by Essence_of_War includes a CPU cooler - is this necessary if I'm not going to overclock? On that note, mfenn mentioned the i5 4670k. The difference between the 4770k and the 4670k doesn't seem too significant; the 4670k is 0.1 GHz slower, has 2 MB less L3 cache, and has no hyper threading (as far as I understand, hyper threading is not super important for gaming). If I'm willing to overclock, could I buy a 4670k + a cooler and OC to a range where it will perform better than a stock 4770k? Even if I do decide to OC I'll probably go with the 4770k, but I'd like to keep my options open.

No, you do not need a cooler, the one in the box is sufficient for stock speeds. However, it does get loud when you start taxing the CPU.

As for the i5, I think it is a good choice for you. If you're OK with photo editing on a laptop CPU, any desktop CPU is going do be a big jump.

- I'm a bit unclear as to how to choose a PSU. The 7970 says it requires at least a 500W PSU, the 4770k has an 84W TDP, and I know RAM takes a few watts. It seems like 600W barely covers that. Do I need extra headroom for my PSU or do the listed wattages for parts already include the proper headroom? Also, does anyone have experience with "silent" PSUs? Are they actually significantly quieter? For example, there is the Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 720W that I can get for $65 after rebate (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...Tpk=17-171-067)

There are quiet PSUs out there, but Cooler Master doesn't make them. Actually, you would do well to stay away from any Cooler Master PSUs. Usually your best bet is to stick with Seasonic or something Seasonic-built (most XFX, some higher-end Corsairs, Antec HCG, that sort of thing).

As for choosing wattage, the "minimum power supply" on the GPU box is what the manufacturer recommends as a total PSU size, not how much power the card draws. A 7970 maxes out at 250W. Usually manufacturers are pretty conservative, but 500W is actually not an unreasonable PSU size for the 7970.

 

[blackllotus]

Alright, I've decided to go with the i5 and I'll post a final parts list here soon. I do have another question though, I've decided that I'd like to buy two additional 23" monitors to go with my current one rather than buying one 27" monitor. I'd be running the 23" monitors at 1080p so this setup will have about 70% more pixels than my initial configuration with the 1440p monitor. Does this mean I need to revisit the choice of graphics card?

 

[Cerb]

Also, just like the PSU, if you want a quiet cooler, Cooler Master doesn't make those, either. The Xigmatek Gaia is a hard to beat deal for quiet cooling under load at stock speeds, but the Dark Knight II is much better for overclocking.

 

[frozentundra123456]

OP, do you live near a Microcenter? Great deals on new Haswells and Z87 mobos if you do.

Perhaps, but the deals on 3570k are 25.00 or more cheaper. Is it worth the difference?

To me haswell alone is not worth the extra 25.00, but maybe the new mb are better??
I dont really know enough to say for sure about the mb.

 

[mfenn]

Alright, I've decided to go with the i5 and I'll post a final parts list here soon. I do have another question though, I've decided that I'd like to buy two additional 23" monitors to go with my current one rather than buying one 27" monitor. I'd be running the 23" monitors at 1080p so this setup will have about 70% more pixels than my initial configuration with the 1440p monitor. Does this mean I need to revisit the choice of graphics card?

You should be fine running Eyefinity on a single 7970 in MMO-style games. You'll need 7970 CFX to play an intensive shooter like BF3 on high details though.

 

[blackllotus]

Thanks mfenn and everyone else! Here is my current partlist: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/blackllotus/saved/1LDq. I've only ordered the memory and the case for now because I got good discounts on them. I'm waiting on the other parts until I have my build completely finalized.

I'm below my budget, which is great and I'd like it to stay that way so I have more to splurge on nicer monitors. However, I'm not actually money limited for this build - I just want to limit myself to something that is very good but doesn't hit the exponential price scaling you see with high end parts (I'd rather just update more often). That said, I have a couple questions.

As a side note, I don't know if the 4770K is really warranted over the 4670K. Usually it isn't for gaming, but big scenes in MMOs tend to be the exception.

I'm a bit worried on this point, which is why I kept my build at the 4770K for now. Guild Wars 2 has some pvp action where you can have 100 players fighting on screen and I'd like for this experience to be as smooth as possible. My current system (2011 mbp, 2.2 core i7, 4 GB RAM, AMD 6750M 1GB) slows to under 10 FPS in these scenes (sometimes under 5) - this is due to a number of factors (mac os gameplay is worse, I don't have an ssd, old processor) but I'd like to get rid of this problem. If I could play these scenes smoothly then I'd be at a huge advantage.

You should be fine running Eyefinity on a single 7970 in MMO-style games. You'll need 7970 CFX to play an intensive shooter like BF3 on high details though.

Hmm, I don't think I'm ready to commit to crossfire from the start. The motherboard I chose supports crossfire though so I imagine that if this proves to be an actual problem then I can just order another 7970 and everything will be good to go?

Once again, thanks for all of the help! Everyone's advice has been great so far.

 

[mfenn]

My thoughts:

- CPU: Laptop CPUs are generally much weaker than desktop CPUs because of TDP limitations. So a laptop i7 is really in no way comparable to a desktop i7. I feel like you would probably be totally fine with the i5 4670K, but I can't say that for sure.
- HSF: Good
- Mobo: The Z87-G43 technically supports CFX, but that's about the extent of it. It's x16/x4, which means that actual CFX performance will be bad. So don't plan to upgrade to CFX. Not that upgrading to CFX is really a good idea anyway. If you need it, you should design your build around it from the start.
- RAM: $140 seems kinda high for 16GB of DDR3 1600. This 1.5V Team kit is $100.
- SSD/HDD : Good
- GPU: Good
- Case: Good
- PSU: Good
- ODD : Good

 

[Torn Mind]

Mobile GPUs and CPUs are weak sauce relative to their similarly named desktop counterparts performance-wise. Based on Apple's official documentation, the early 2011 Macbook Pro's i7 CPU is dual core and has a base clock 2.7 Ghz. That means its worse than a desktop i3-2xxx due to its lower clockspeed; # of cores and Hyperthreading are the same for desktop i3s and most mobile i-series chips. I'm not sure about its Turbo Boosting capabilities, but regardless, mobile i5s or i7s are worse than a desktop i3, although the degree of how worse depends on clockspeed. The GPU is on par with or worse than a desktop 6670.

 

[blackllotus]

Just wanted to thank everyone again for their help! I'm running off of my new build now (I went with the i5 4670K in the end) and it is working great so far! Stress tests have performed fine and it seems to peak at 72 C under load. Loving it.

 

[mfenn]

Awesome, glad you like it!