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Buying a gaming rig

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GRIZZLY

Grizzled Veteran
Jun 18, 2011
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New Jersey
#1
Hey guys. Disclaimer : I don't know what I'm doing - you probably all know a lot more than I do about hardware.... So, I'm biting the bullet and dropping some cash on a new computer. I'm too dumb/scared to put together my own parts without a warranty or any help from experts. I'm looking at some cites like IBuyPower.com, which seem to have favorable reviews and a warranty (might be a bad idea??).

I'm looking to spend under $1.5k. I'm going to be running anything and everything on as high of settings as possible for the foreseeable future. Gaming is my only concern (besides Google Chrome and iTunes).

I've been looking at an Erebus GT-FX1 (AMD processor) on IBuyPower. With a few minor upgrades (Processor, RAM, GPU, & power suppley) I have a pretty beastly system as far as I can tell....

I could get an AMD FX-8120 CPU (8x 3.10GHz/8MB L2 Cache), 16 GB [4 GB X4] DDR3-1600 Memory Module (GSkill Ripjaws X), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti - 3GB - EVGA Superclocked - Core: 980MHz and a 750 Watt - Corsair CX750 for about $1,300.

This seems like a good machine - but I'm sure I could do better if I were privy to some hardware insight. For instance - I'm not sure how SLI graphics cards work (I know they're very useful in some contexts and fairly useless in others)... There are a lot of comparions online where an HD 7850 just narrowly loses to a 660 Ti - So if I got two HD 7850s in SLI for a bit more than the price of one 660 Ti would it definitely be better economically..... or just different/possibly some of the time? Also - no idea about the difference between 16GB RAM with DDR3-1600 vs the negligibly more expensive 16GB RAM with DDR3-1866 or DDR3-2133.... CPUs and power supplies seem more straight forward so long as I don't get bad ones (the site gives a warning message if you have too weak a power supply).... Any other upgrades pose significance?

Anyway..... help please :eek:
 
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#2
GRIZZLY said:
Hey guys. Disclaimer : I don't know what I'm doing - you probably all know a lot more than I do about hardware.... So, I'm biting the bullet and dropping some cash on a new computer. I'm too dumb/scared to put together my own parts without a warranty or any help from experts. I'm looking at some cites like IBuyPower.com, which seem to have favorable reviews and a warranty (might be a bad idea??).

I'm looking to spend under $1.5k. I'm going to be running anything and everything on as high of settings as possible for the foreseeable future. Gaming is my only concern (besides Google Chrome and iTunes).

I've been looking at an Erebus GT-FX1 (AMD processor) on IBuyPower. With a few minor upgrades (Processor, RAM, GPU, & power suppley) I have a pretty beastly system as far as I can tell....

I could get an AMD FX-8120 CPU (8x 3.10GHz/8MB L2 Cache), 16 GB [4 GB X4] DDR3-1600 Memory Module (GSkill Ripjaws X), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti - 3GB - EVGA Superclocked - Core: 980MHz and a 750 Watt - Corsair CX750 for about $1,300.

This seems like a good machine - but I'm sure I could do better if I were privy to some hardware insight. For instance - I'm not sure how SLI graphics cards work (I know they're very useful in some contexts and fairly useless in others)... There are a lot of comparions online where an HD 7850 just narrowly loses to a 660 Ti - So if I got two HD 7850s in SLI for a bit more than the price of one 660 Ti would it definitely be better economically..... or just different/possibly some of the time? Also - no idea about the difference between 16GB RAM with DDR3-1600 vs the negligibly more expensive 16GB RAM with DDR3-1866 or DDR3-2133.... CPUs and power supplies seem more straight forward so long as I don't get bad ones (the site gives a warning message if you have too weak a power supply).... Any other upgrades pose significance?

Anyway..... help please :eek:
Click to expand...

I personally am a bit too taxed to really care about typing out a list of parts, but build your own. You'll save considerable amounts of dosh. And most parts have 3+ year warranties so you'll be covered by those.
 
Upvote 0
#3
I'd also recommend building your own PC. I built my first a bit over a year ago and I was finished the same day. Assembling the PC itself was straightforward, it's the cable routing that was the most annoying part in my experience, but some computer cases are easier than others when it comes to routing cables. It's really not as daunting as people often think it is. Just take your time and read the manuals carefully. There are also many guides and videos online that cover every aspect of it.

If you decide you still want to buy a pre-built model I'd say look around for a better deal because the model you mention has an underperforming CPU (have a look at the benchmarks, it is beaten by i5's in everything except heavily multithreaded applications, and I don't think many games use many cores intensively)

Just as an example I went on to Newegg.com and assembled a PC for just over 1 000$ with an i5-3570K and a GTX 670. If you wanted to spend more you could go for an i7-3770K and an SSD drive.

An SSD drive is basically a giant flash memory and allows your PC to boot up in 30 seconds or less, and if you install a game on it it will drastically reduce load times (Although I don't use mine for games because it only has 64GB of storage space)

If I was building again now I would look at something along these lines:

Case: I'd look for a basic case with decent build quality. A Corsair Carbide series or maybe Cooler Master

Motherboard: A Z77 board by a known brand like ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI or ASrock. I'd personally get a basic model because I don't need any extreme features. Just make sure it has the ports YOU willl need. I made the mistake of buying a motherboard without checking the back panel ports, and as a result I have no PS/2 ports for my keyboard. I assumed they were featured on any old MB.

CPU: An i5-3570K is great for gaming. If you want to spend more you could get the i7-3770K but I don't think the extra cost is worth it for gaming. Don't forget a cooler because the stock cooler isn't great especially if you are going to overclock it.

RAM: 8GB is enough. Most games won't come close to using all of that.

HDD: A 7200rpm drive with as much capacity as you need. If you want to spend more add an SSD to speed up your boot times.

PSU: Always buy a decent PSU by quality brands like Seasonic or Corsair (in fact I think Corsair use Seasonic parts in their PSU's) or Antec. A good quality PSU is very important.

[url]http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp[/URL]

This calculator will help you determine how much Watts you need depending on wether you will have an OCed CPU, or say an SLI setup and whatnot.

Remember that if you buy a 750W PSU and end up only needing 500W, the PSU will still draw only what you need.

Drive: Any CD/DVD writer, or a Blu-ray if you need it.
 
Upvote 0
#10
If you are interested in a small challenge and the possibility of a few headaches, I recommed building the pc yourself.

Order the parts from something like www.newegg.com.

If not, let us know the specs and price, I am certain a few of us will be more than happy to advise.

The pc you listed in the first post will certainly get the job done, but I find it a little expensive.


I recommend something along those lines:

if and AMD FX, make sure it's the latest generation as the one posted is old. That CPU is capable but was a dissapointment.

The 83XX generation is much better.


I recommend an:

Intel I5 CPU
2x4 Gigs ram DDR 1600
Motherboard isn't a big deal unless you plan on upgrading yourself in the long run
Nvidia GTX660Ti
A 256Gig SSD Drive for Windows
a 1Terra Western Digital Black drive for storage
minimum 600W PSU of a good brand.
 
Upvote 0
#11
AMD FX 8350 vs Intel 3570K vs 3770K vs 3820 - Gaming and XSplit Streaming Benchmarks - YouTube

It's a worthy watch. I was actually surprised, I mean guaranteed I have a soft spot for the underdog here but I did not know that the 8350 had it in itself to perform that good.

One thing that the video goes a way towards pointing out is that different architectures perform differently against different tasks. If you have a list of 5-10 games you know you will be playing on your new computer, google around for reviews of the CPU's on your buy list and see which ones do better in those games. Might as well buy what works best right?

Second, Faster ram vs loads more ram is VERY architecture dependent. As you are doing the above step of checking out the CPU's on your buy list also check out ( likely in those same reviews ) how those cpu's performance are affected by changing the ram speed. Some cpu's only gain 5-10% going from 1600 - 2133 where as others can jump up as much as 20-30%.

As for volume of ram, here is the key. More ram = a bit of future proofing. Also, where as most people are correct that games do not often use more than about four gigs of ram you need to realize your computer is NOT a console, it is doing many more things than you realize at once. The OS wants to eat up precious ram, browsers are notorious ram hogs ( Just a quick check here reveals all my chrome tabs are eating up ~750 mb of ram ). You will often be doing lots of things on your machine, and you don't necessarily want to have to close down EVERYTHING to run your games. Windows by default has what it calls a 'page file' this is a chunk of your hard drive that it will use as extra ram space if it happens to need some more room. Hitting that cap and having data being stored on the hard disk is VERY BAD. Just to give you an idea here, a while ago most of my ram sticks died so I was down to 1 GB of ram, meaning windows was fiddle ****ing with the page file space a lot. Doing anything on my computer took AGES. If you can spare the cash to go with 12-16 gigs that is honestly what I would recommend.


SSD's: These are one of the worst wastes of money on a budget build I have ever seen. Give me half a second to explain, yes they are faster than hard drives, MUCH FASTER. However this speed only comes into play in some cases. If the OS is installed on the SSD you will boot into windows faster, if your favourite games are installed on the SSD they will launch a bit quicker, and the next map will load a little quicker but you will not see one extra Frame Per Second ( FPS ) from having an SSD. I still talk to lots of people who are under this misconception that a 250$ SSD is going to increase their gaming performance; fact is, that money can net you a much larger performance upgrade if spent in the ram/video card/cpu department.


Oh and last but not least, do not skimp on your PSU. Drop the extra coinage for a nice one and make sure you don't buy one that can just barely handle your system. Ideally you want it running at a maximum of 70% of its capacity as it will last a lot longer this way.
 
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#14
Yes, nice post Colt .45 Killer.
The video kind of coincides with what was happeining with some players here in RO. Like Moe, I'd like to see them do a comparsion with a comparable nVidia card (a 560ti or 660Ti perhaps).

Beware of information over-kill, Grizzly. Its easy to get overwhelmed with the options. No matter which way you go, there will always have been a 'better' choice, and your choice today will alway be cheaper tomorrow... Just the facts of high tech....

The same site of Colt's video has (what appear to be) some excellent videos for first time builders. If you have any mecanical aptitude what-so-ever, you can build a computer.

Good luck on whichever way you go. Keep asking questions.

Floyd
 
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#17
I dunno guys.... You sound very convincing and everything about building my own rig.... but every single review I look at on newegg has nightmareish stories about faulty resistors and poor customer service... It's all so intimidating....

Does anyone have any experience with Digital Storm PCs? They seem to have some solid builds that are not marked up too high from the cost of parts... and supposedly they have good customer service...

I'm just so intimidated at the moment. I feel like I'm picking between the lesser of evils. Literally every PC company has tons of negative reviews and every PC component on NewEgg has tons of negative reviews....

Or maybe you can still convince me to build my own .... heh.... Is it really THAT easy? I mean, I'm a reasonably smart guy and I've got experience with guitar and car parts. I just don't want to put together $1,000 of stuff, hit the power button, and have it not turn on.... Or even worse, have it work for 3 weeks then crap out of me and I have no idea what the problem is and there is no one to call for help....
 
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Upvote 0
#19
GRIZZLY said:
...and every PC component on NewEgg has tons of negative reviews....
Click to expand...

You must be looking at the wrong stuff :p

I won't try to convince you to build, but if you bought from NewEgg they do have great customer service. Heck, half or more of what you order will probably come right out of Edison (NJ) and you'll have it in a day.

Worse thing that happened was when I built my current computer (4 or 5 years ago?) The PSU was bad (build wouldn't start) and of course I had to return it. I promptly received a replacement within two days I believe and was up and running. Granted, for a first build to not have it turn on kinda sucked, but all turned out well. Also built my son's PC from scratch, went smooth.
 
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