Advice on 2500 Budget GAMING PC

[AwesomeBrads]

Greetings,

I currently have a gaming laptop that does decently well playing most current games, however, it does not run everything at full settings.

With that being said, I would like advice on building an ultimate PC that can run current games like FC3, Planetside 2, etc with full ultra settings with 60 fps.

With 2500 dollars to spend, this may not even be considered a budget to most of you.

Here are some specifications I know I'll have:

CPU: Intel
HD: SSD (no more than 180GB)
Lightweight build: this isn't a requirement, but I'd like your opinions on something lighter instead of heavier. I'm used to laptops so you see where I am coming from.

[mleunm]

aluminum cases are great....i like and have a LIAN LI case ....many sizes mid tower, full tower etc. there are other companies.....intel 3570k is $217, intel 3770k is $319 an nvidia gtx680 is more than enough or get two.... dont forget the psu 1000w is plenty even with 2 gpus as for motherboards read lots of reviews same for memory.....

happy building, happy shopping, have fun!

[Black_Ice-Dragon]

Intel Core i7-3770K, MSI GeForce GTX 670, Corsair Obsidian Series 800D - System Build - PCPartPicker Canada


I am also replacing my Sager gaming laptop this week, so I know what its like. That is what close to what I ended up getting minus one 240gb drive and a gtx 670. Just get a 120gb of the ssd and a storage 2tb black or similar drive. All you would need then is a decent monitor keyboard mouse and speakers. Hope that gets you started

[clg]

Seeing as you're going to be mostly gaming, I'd advise a 3570k over the 3770 and 8gb memory vs 32. That extra $200 spent on your video card would see a much bigger improvement in performance than CPU or memory. You could grab two 660ti's and have some killer performance.

[da)2kside]

id also advise to go 3570k over the 3770

[TheWildRose]

Originally Posted by AwesomeBrads

Greetings,

I currently have a gaming laptop that does decently well playing most current games, however, it does not run everything at full settings.

With that being said, I would like advice on building an ultimate PC that can run current games like FC3, Planetside 2, etc with full ultra settings with 60 fps.

With 2500 dollars to spend, this may not even be considered a budget to most of you.

Here are some specifications I know I'll have:

CPU: Intel
HD: SSD (no more than 180GB)
Lightweight build: this isn't a requirement, but I'd like your opinions on something lighter instead of heavier. I'm used to laptops so you see where I am coming from.

Okay here's my advice (And it should come in nicely under budget, and still be nicely futureproof)

Motherboard: I'd recommend an ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI or ASRock (Just go to newegg or Amazon and read reviews of them, don't be scared of DOA reviews, DOA parts are sadly just something that happens to everyone sometimes.)

CPU: Intel i5-3570k (Or the i5-3570 non-k if you don't think you'll be overclocking)
As for cooling the CPU the stock heatsink would be okay but I'd recommend looking into an aftermarket CPU cooler (Liquid cooling such as a Corsair H60, or H80 would be a good choice)
GPU: nVidia GeForce GTX 670/680 (MSI, EVGA or Galaxy are great brand choices)

RAM: You won't need more than 8GB, but if you really want to be futureproofed 16GB can still be bought at a good price. I'd recommend Corsair, G.Skill, ADATA or Kingston for RAM. 16GB (4x4GB, or 2x8GB) of 1600Mhz C9 RAM, C10 would be okay too.

Storage: I'd recommend a WD Caviar Black 1TB for storage. And an OCZ Vertex 4 128GB for games.
But as I've been advised on my thread (And I know from owning a Vertex 4 128GB already) they do fill up fast. So a Corsair Neutron (Not Neutron GTX) 240GB would be a good choice.

As for a Power Supply a 750w would probably do you, But an 850w would leave you room to upgrade later.
STAY AWAY FROM CHEAP PSUs! The PSU is one of the worst (If not the worst) part you can go cheap on.
I'd recommend: Corsair (Highest recommended PSU I know of), Seasonic, or XFX.

If you have any questions, or want advice on anything feel free to ask it in a reply or PM me!

~Ryan

[AwesomeBrads]

Thanks for all of the helpful responses.

I have a few questions about the choices you've presented me.

The reason to get the Intel 5 instead of Intel 7 is I'll save more money for a better GPU? I will be primarily gaming, but I also do not want to bottleneck my system.

I am interested in liquid cooling, because I do want to OC, but I am a complete noob when it comes to this. How easy is it to install the liquid cooling as suggested in the previous post?

My last question is are there any GPU's coming out in the next 3 months that would completely obliterate anything running today? I'm willing to wait a few months to get something that will increase performance more than 15-20%.

[Dzzope]

3570k will have plenty of kick, don't worry about that..

if your only planning on a 1080 monitor a single 670 will max out any game on it, no point in getting anything more powerful for the moment,
though AMD are about due to start announcing stuff for their new series. Worth waiting and seeing what they bring. I wouldn't expect and Nvidia news till the summer probably

Gskill do some damn good ram and good price. go for a voltage thats middle of the road, not low but not too high too.. makes for better overclocking if you ever go that route.

On the SSD, get a 256GB drive, with the price they are now and the budget you have you will miss the extra room.
Whats the point in having a really fast drive if you can't fit everything you want on it (like me :()

On the cooler, the closed loop one like mentioned above as no more difficult than installing an after market air cooler.
They just did a refresh of the range (or some of it) look for the h100i if you want the "best" but a h 60 or 80 will be very sufficient.

On the "lightweight" side, you could go Matx, get a prodigy case that will fit regular sized everything bar the mobo.

[TheWildRose]

Originally Posted by AwesomeBrads

Thanks for all of the helpful responses.

I have a few questions about the choices you've presented me.

The reason to get the Intel 5 instead of Intel 7 is I'll save more money for a better GPU? I will be primarily gaming, but I also do not want to bottleneck my system.

I am interested in liquid cooling, because I do want to OC, but I am a complete noob when it comes to this. How easy is it to install the liquid cooling as suggested in the previous post?

My last question is are there any GPU's coming out in the next 3 months that would completely obliterate anything running today? I'm willing to wait a few months to get something that will increase performance more than 15-20%.

No worries about the i5-3570k. It's nearly the same as the i7-3770k, just without the hyperthreading and a lower clock speed. in terms of gaming performance there will be no difference, Don't worry about bottlenecks. Even a 2500k doesn't bottleneck a 680, as far as I know.

Liquid cooling is very easy to install, especially easier options like the Corsair h100i, The h100i (As mentioned by dzzope) will be pretty much the best performance, an h80i or an h60 would also do.
The h-series (All of them, as far as I know) are closed-loop maintenance free. You never need to worry about flushing/refilling.

And I can confirm with dzzope that there may be some new AMD card info soon.

As for cases I would listen to anyone other than me, I don't have too much info on cases, I've just been doing a lot of research on big, full-tower cases for my workstation build. And a mid tower case for my mother's gaming build.

[AwesomeBrads]

Okay was looking around and I'm thinking of the following:

Intel Core i5 3570K 3.4GHz LGA 1155 Processor: 169.99

2x EVGA 02G-P4-2676-KR NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 FTW LE: 389.99 each

Corsair Vengeance Series 16GB DDR3-1600 PC3-12800) 80.00

Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H LGA 1155 Z77 ATX Motherboard: 140.00

Thermaltake SMART Series 850 Watt ATX Modular Power: 120.00

Corsair Hydro Series H100i Extreme Performance Liquid Cooling: 130.00

Computer case: Corsair Vengeance C70 Gaming Mid Tower Case Military: 150.00

Total: 1629.00

OR single EVGA GTX 680

Here are my following questions:

Will the list items work well with each other and provide enough space in the computer case?

Are there any specific recommendations for the build I've provided?

I'm debating between EVGA dual 670's or a single EVGA 680... what do you think?