Looking for New Gaming Computer Advice!

[Eternie]

I've been playing on an under performing computer for a while and want to replace my mutt

My budget ranges between $1500 and $2000 which I figure should be able to get me a fairly Good gaming computer. But again I'd stretch that if I found by adding X the performance or stablility was improved! I'm interested to get as Good as I can.


If my current is equivalent I'd keep the current and try to use something better else where!?

CPU: INTEL I7 4770 3.4G
Mobo: DZ87KLT-75K inbuilt Heatsinks up to 5 fans, inbuilt Graphics controller HD4600
Ram: 16GB
Fans: of the 5 available slots how many fans?
GPU: GTX760 GIGABYTE N7600C-4GB
HDD: ? What sizes would you recommend?
SSD: ?
ODD: ?
PSU: ANTEC 750W 0761345-23870-0
CASE: XIGMATEK ASGARD
MON: ? (currently using LG Flatronic E2241VX)
K/B: (Currently using Microsoft wired keyboard 600
Mouse: ? (Currently Microsoft Optical Basic V2)
Spkrs: ? (currently using Logitech X-230)
Sound Card: ? (currently Realtek high definition Audio)
OS: Win 8.1

With Storage the different types is a combination best or Stay with HDD for System Operation and Solid State for Game play or the other way around? What Sizes or speeds are best?
I've been reading what I can online and I still feel muddled up by what is better?

Any suggestions

Thanks in advance for your guidance guys!

[senseidongen]

^ What UberFiend said. With regards to HDD and SSD, something like a Samsung 840 EVO offers decent value for money - generally, it is best to get a smaller SSD for OS and programs (plus a few games maybe, though don't fill it up more than about 85% as performance will suffer) and a large 1TB (or more) HDD for your games library, music, films etc.

Western Digital and Seagate both make perfectly decent consumer HDD - if you want probably the most durable consumer HDD with a 5 year warranty and don't mind paying a little extra, go for something like a WD Caviar Black.

The GTX 760 is a pretty powerful GPU but if you saved on RAM, sound card and a few other things, you might be able to upgrade to a GTX 770, which would be about as powerful as you could possibly need for 1080p resolution (for the foreseeable future anyway)

[Zombie Cat]

generally spend the most on the GPU if your gaming, since thats where the framerate comes from mainly, then get a mid range cpu, then some hdd's. if you change the 760 to a 780TI and the i7 to a cheaper i5, you would have a pc that would be very powerful!

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2ZQhQ

This is all quality parts and pretty much future proof, when you need more graphics power later then just drop another GTX 780 in.
Graphics card is most important part in gaming PC so just GTX 760 will not cut it for high-end gaming PC.
New games start to take more advantage from hyperthreading so i7 is not that unreasonable and so is 16 Gb RAM when thinking about future. If you have the money might as well go for it but when money is more tight then i5-4670K and 8 Gb RAM is fine too.

This is cheaper version with i5-4670K and 8 Gb RAM. Still capable of running two GTX 780:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2ZQYZ

[Rove]

Here is my builds on PC Part Picker, most of them are under your budget.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Rove/saved/

$1500-$2000 is more than you need to spend on tower for a gaming computer unless you really want lots of bells and whistles and tons of overkill. $1500 all inclusive from tower to monitor to Windows OS and all the peripherals like keyboard, mouse and speakers also could get you a very nice system.

Here is something like I would recommend for you for the tower of a $1500 complete system:

AMD FX 8350 CPU + AMD Radeon R9 280X GPU build :
AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor
Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard
G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
A-Data Premier Pro SP900 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Asus Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card
Antec GX500 ATX Mid Tower Case
XFX ProSeries 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2ZRuO
Base Total: $1250.90
Promo Discounts: -$20.00
Combo Discounts: -$20.00
Mail-in Rebates: -$40.00
Shipping: $6.98
Total: $1177.88

OR

Intel i5-4670K CPU + Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 GPU build:
Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
Biostar Hi-Fi Z87W ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Crucial Ballistix 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
A-Data Premier Pro SP900 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
PNY GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card
Antec GX500 ATX Mid Tower Case
EVGA SuperNOVA 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2ZRdo
Base Total: $1180.38
Promo Discounts: -$5.00
Mail-in Rebates: -$25.00
Shipping: $12.93
Total: $1163.31


PLUS

All the rest of what you'd need to make it a complete system:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2ZRqS
Base Total: $317.37
Promo Discounts: -$20.00
Mail-in Rebates: -$20.00
Total: $277.37

Personally I'd like the AMD version since I use AMD myself. If you want to swap GPUs between builds you can do that to mix it up to AMD + Nvidia or Intel + AMD.

As I've mentioned you can also make a very reasonable gaming computer for a lot cheaper, could get the total to come in under $1000 for a complete system and maybe even under $750 if you wanted something pretty budget but still comparable to the new consoles.

[Eternie]

Wow thanks for all these Suggestions!
It is going to take me a while to work through all these and then try to get Reviews or comparisons to help me formulate the best possible Gaming computer, that's possible at the moment!
Are there any great independant places to get product reviews, or comparisons? I've looked at some, but find I can get overwhelmed by all the part names and numbers.

I don't understand how you'd get Promo discount or Mail-in Rebates?

Something That would be very Handy here at Hardware would be a pinned Thread with Links to components or system comparisons! Isn't that what most posts here are about Products comparisons!

I do really appreciate the efforts of you guys to post so much detail Some seems clear others I will need to do some investigations on!

I did see a Water cooled Computer where I got a lot of starting Ideas! I was horrified that the Radiator of the water cooling system was placed straight above the Power supply such that even a slight leak could wipeout the whole computer!
In Cars radiators are placed at the front and away from electricals. I've had 2 occasions where a radiater hose blew whilst driving as such all water is gone in 1 second and that quickly that temperature gauges do not have time to react and with no water will not go up Totally frying the engine in no time!
In a computer they should be in a totally separate section if possible IMO

... So water cooled is Good idea but I would recommend anyone thinking about it contemplate what you could lose if the Water leaks ...some drips ...onto power supply ..short circuit mobo?

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

Water coolers dont contain actual water, instead they contain non-conductive liquid that wont short-circuit electrical components even when there is leak.
Closed systems like Corsair H100i are really not prone to leaking easily and should last at least 3 years without much problems.

[senseidongen]

Publicado originalmente por Rumpelcrutchskin:

Closed systems like Corsair H100i are really not prone to leaking easily and should last at least 3 years without much problems.

I have a corsair H60 and it has a five year warranty, so expect corsair closed loop coolers to last at least that long. I would avoid a custom loop unless you're dead-set on a project - it's expensive, time consuming and you have basically no warranty if things were to go wrong!

[senseidongen]

Publicado originalmente por UberFiend:

Publicado originalmente por UberFiend:

also consider Hyper 212 cooler, excellent results, low cost.

Near water-cooling results, no muss, no fuss, and cheaper to boot.

As the case you've selected is a full ATX case, there should be plenty of airflow so this is probably a better option - I only bought an H60 because airflow in my case is not great, plus my case is quite slim so no room for a very tall air cooler.

[Rove]

Publicado originalmente por Eternie:

...
I don't understand how you'd get Promo discount or Mail-in Rebates?
...

You just need to change your settings in PC Part Picker to show these things as part of the price. Settings are changed in any of the panes for actually selecting parts, IE storage or memory or CPU panes.

To actually get them when you buy a part from one of the linked websites you need to:

1) enter the promo code
OR
2) buy the combo, two or more things bundled together for cheaper than buying both alone.
OR
3) go through the instructions for sending in a mail-in rebate. Usually you need to register the rebate online, print a form, sign and date it, wait till you get the product, cut off the UPC code and attach it to the form and then mail it all in.

[(MRK)]

Publicado originalmente por UberFiend:

Publicado originalmente por UberFiend:

also consider Hyper 212 cooler, excellent results, low cost.

Near water-cooling results, no muss, no fuss, and cheaper to boot.

:terraria:

Again, depends on the case airflow. If there's no air moving, this will not be as efective as a simple water cooler.

[76561198001357399]

Graphics card is the most important part- cut back on the RAM and processor.

[Eternie]

With some of the advice given earlier about graphic cards and staying with nvidia for the moment The advice seemed to be that GTX760 was a Good card GTX 770 was better and if money wasn't an issue then go for GTX780Ti . So I went online did a comparison and most bits seemed the same except for:-
CUDA Cores 0 , 1536 , 2880 respectively What are they?
Standard memory 2048, 2048, 3072
unit length 9.5", 10.5", 10.5"
Minimum Power Requirement 500, 600, 600
Prices ~$250 ~$330 ~$ 700
All other comparisons were identical ...is this information useful ?
I gather SLI is a good thing whereas 3D is more situational ?

So what are the actual differences between these cards?
Should I have done bench mark test comparisons? How do you compare cards?

For fans that Link earlier for a Fan controller seems like a great idea ! Would allow you to cool it more or less as required Or would a thermostat that regulates the internal Temperature be better? Or do they already and I missed that somewhere?

thanks guys

[Rove]

Compare them vs each other by GFLOPS as well as the other stats like total memory, memory bandwidth and fillrates. Here is where you can find a chart:

Nvidia GeForce GTX 700 series:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units#GeForce_700_Series

AMD Radeon Rx 200 series:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_graphics_processing_units#Volcanic_Islands_.28Rx_200.29_Series

[senseidongen]

The other thing you can do is google reviews of the cards - a review of the GTX 770 may well include performance numbers for GTX 760 and 780 for context, as well as similarly powered AMD cards. Don't forget to look at the noise and thermal tests included in reviews too as this is another factor to consider (also, Decibels are logarithmic, so a change of 10 DBA roughly double the perceived noise level). Other than that, you already have the data you need to compare other aspects such as power requirements, GPU length (which is worth checking against the case you intend to use, though it'll probably be fine) and price.

[DarkStarSword]

Publicado originalmente por senseidongen:

Western Digital and Seagate both make perfectly decent consumer HDD - if you want probably the most durable consumer HDD with a 5 year warranty and don't mind paying a little extra, go for something like a WD Caviar Black.

I've gone through so many hard drive crashes that I've lost count - but it would easily be in the double digits by now. Everyone's experience seems to vary, but my personal experience is almost every single Seagate hard drive I've ever owned has crashed. Western digital isn't doing much better (but IS doing better). I would HIGHLY recommend paying a few extra $$ for either a Hitachi or Samsung drive, as so far I have not had a single one of them crash - ever. If you shop around you should be able to find them for only slightly more than a Seagate/WD of the same capacity & cache size.

On the other hand I've known other people who have had much the opposite experience and swear by Seagate, so YMMV.

Here's a recent blog on the subject by people who go through far more drives than I do - their results more or less match my experiences:
http://blog.backblaze.com/2014/01/21/what-hard-drive-should-i-buy/

Publicado originalmente por Rumpelcrutchskin:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2ZQhQ
New games start to take more advantage from hyperthreading so i7 is not that unreasonable.

The whole point of hyperthreading is that games/applications don't have to do anything at all to take advantage of it. It just means that the OS thinks there are twice as many CPU cores as there really are, which allows for a performance increase when running more programs than you have CPU cores, provided that the programs are not all constantly trying to use the same CPU resources (FPU, ALU, etc.) as each other.

Whether you would actually notice any difference depends largely on your workload, but for gaming I wouldn't worry too much one way or the other. The game is (hopefully) going to be the only CPU intensive workload you are running and the OS will generally try to schedule other tasks on idle CPU cores. You may notice a slight improvement in the future if we ever see games running CPU intensive workloads on as many threads as your CPU has cores (because anything else that needs to run won't necessarily have to interrupt the game since they can run on the other CPU threads), but generally games use the GPU for most of their parallelism, not the CPU.

If you can afford an i7 go for it, otherwise don't worry too much.

Publicado originalmente por Eternie:

I gather SLI is a good thing whereas 3D is more situational ?

I have no personal experience with SLI, but from what I've heard it can cause issues with a number of games, so just be aware of that.

You are right that 3D is very situational - many games just don't work well with it - many have graphical artefacts, others become difficult to aim because the crosshair / rifle scope is rendered in 2D way too close to your eyes, the cartography triangulation breaks in Miasmata... Helix mod can fix many of these issues, but certainly not all. Even some games that work pretty well in 3D (like Borderlands 2 with Helix mod) I turn it off just to be able to aim more precisely.

On the other hand, playing a game that works well in 3D (like The Witcher 2, Sleeping Dogs, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines and so on) is really an amazing experience and I would highly recommend it. Going back to a 2D game after playing with the 3D turned up to max just feels... well, flat.

There is some argument for waiting for the Oculus Rift, but to me they are completely different products - the Rift will really only ever work *well* for games that are specifically designed to work with it, and in doing so it will automatically exclude many of the features that games use today (3rd person perspective, HUDs, crosshairs, cinematics, etc.).

There will be a class of games that will just be pure awesome on the Rift, and I'm going to get one when the consumer version comes out (whenever that will be), but if you want 3D in any other kind of game you are probably better off with 3D vision.