Here are my current pc specs
Intel i7 - 860
Intel DH55TC
Evga Gtx 560 ti Maximum Graphics Edition
2x4GB G.Skill 1333 DDR3
Thermaltake Toughpower XT 775w
Aero Cool VS-4 Case
1TB WD Caviar Green
2TB WD Caviar Green
I need opinions on this build because I’m new at building PCs. I’m building this to game and stream.
MOBO :ASUS P8Z68-V LX
CPU: Intel i7 2700k
RAM: G-Skill Ripjaws series 4GB (2x2GB)
Video Card: EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti
Power supply: 730w modular
Hard Drive: WD caviar Blue 500GB 7200 rpm
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912
Video Capture device: Aver Media Live Gamer HD cap.
that can run most games pretty well although you won’t be able to run some games like bf3 on maximum settings, i would prefer if you got some more ram.
I would at least go with the 560Ti for that setup. A 550Ti in that rig sounds like a “temporary” video card to me… and if it is, go with a MUCH cheaper temporary card until you can put something bigger in it.
Also, more ram wouldn’t hurt; there are pretty inexpensive 8 & 16GB kits out there.
I’d recommend you up your RAM to 8GB as well. Video streaming/editing is always more comfortable with additional RAM and the bump from 4GB to 8GB in price is pretty small.
560 Ti is a solid card but the new hotness is the 670/680.
Of course, this all depends on your budget.
thanks for the input guys. i’m gonna wait a couple of weeks and give it some more thought. i was checking new egg and saw combos there like this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.956701
i wanna start there and maybe opt out some parts. i mainly wanna use it for gaming. would this be a good choice to start with? all i would need to do is get a video card right? and perhaps more ram?
I’m not a huge fan of MicroATX boards, but I do like Gigabyte. You just want to make sure that board supports whatever video card you eventually want to put in it. If all you’re doing is gaming then an i5 system is perfectly adequate. I’m too much of a control freak to go with a bundled system, because odds are you can move some stuff around brand-wise with some of the parts to get it even cheaper, but that takes a lot of patience and a good eye.
More ITX goodness. Fresh out of Computex is Fractal Design’s Node 304.
http://www.fractal-design.com/img_prod/Node304_front-angled-view_lores.jpg
http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&category=2&prod=94
And I was already willing to commit to the Bitfenix Prodigy!
God damn I love mini-ITX.
I’m loving Fractal Design and BitFenix. I have two Shinobi Whites and a Fractal Design Core 100 and R3. All of these cases are just so awesome. They’re relatively new players in the parts industry as well, which makes me just love them so much more.
So that is what Paul was talking about.
Looks nice. Could also be why its been so damn hard to get a hold of him… you’d think that they’d put me in contact with somebody other than the president of Fractal US, but noooo.
I’m going to call him back. See if he will send me one.
Also, guys, I’m updating the first post with a bunch of information. What do you think we should add? So far I put some places to buy hardware, custom machines, and some benchmark sites. Any other suggestions, and info?
Thank you everyone for your input I would like to get some guidance before I begin to order parts from newegg.com. After reading replies to my previous post I would like some great suggestions to a video capture card that would run something like BF3 on settings that will make console users’ cry over without breaking the bank within $100-$200 if possible.Will a PowerColor AX7770 do the job well?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131460
New build:
CASE: Rosewill BLACKHAWK gaming ATX mid
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H
CPU: Intel 2700K
RAM: G.Skill ripjaw 8GB (2x4GB)
POWER SUPPLY: RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-630SS 630W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Power Supply, New Version with Build-in …
HARD DRIVES:
- [FONT=verdana]HGST Deskstar 7K1000.C 0F10383 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive[/FONT]
-
[FONT=verdana]Kingston SSDNow S50 Series SS050S2/32G 2.5" 32GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)[/FONT]
CPU COOLER: COOLER MASTER V6 GT RR-V6GT-22PK-R1 120mm DynaLoop CPU Cooler
GPU/video card: PowerColor AX7770
Video Capture Device: Avermedia Live Gamer HD
Personally, I’m not a fan of Raidmax stuff. I recommend either Silverstone, Corsair, Thermaltake, XFX, or OCZ PSU’s. But that’s just me.
As for the solid state drive, you kind of picked a crappy one. You can get one with 4x the read and write speeds easily and twice the capacity at the same price. Anything with a Sandforce chip should do it.
This 60gb OCZ Agility 3 would be a much better choice.
For the video card, the 7770 is a pretty decent card, athough I can’t vouch for powercolor. I’d personally spend the few extra to get the Dual Fan XFX 7770 card. It should run quieter and cooler.
As for everything else, it looks excellent and should be able to handle just about everything.
+1 for XFX. Their lifetime warranties are awesome too! 
What’s your opinion on this mobo? It’s the Asus Sabertooth Z77. I might change my build’s mobo wtih this one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131821
Z77 is what you want if you’re interested in going to Ivy Bridge.
You can save money by getting something without that “armor” all over it. Unless you’re into that sort of thing. :tup:
This is true, although if you are doing a theme build it can be worth it.
I’m debating dropping the extra $90 to pick up the Gigabyte G1 Sniper 3 (EATX), even though I never SLI, just because I want to go with a full Black and Green theme on my build. I wanted more PCIe ports anyway… but I don’t think I need that many. I do overclock though, so a board like that could prove to be useful.
MOBO is a little overkill. You could save money by getting a standard ATX, and in all black so it doesn’t screw up your theme.
Green and black is one of those color schemes that only works if you have a very dominant presence of one or the other. Black, in this case, is going to look better in abundance with some green accents. Like cable sleeves, or SATA cables. Green on the board… not so much.
Save some money, and use green sparingly. :tup:
Let’s take a step down then. How do you feel about this board:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128545
I’m going to have to come up with a creative way to hide the heatsinks(maybe some fans), but I bet I this board will work.
Black and Green looks really easy to use in a build until you realize that people love using the colors red and blue in PC’s(just not together) and apparently green is obscure. I figured that Nvidia’s color scheme would get a bit more love.
This is my recommendation.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157295
And its not that green is obscure, its just that green and black, red and black, those are really… generic and uh… easy? I guess? I’m not sure what I’m trying to say. It just makes me think of Hot Topic. 
I was going to get an ASRock Z77 Extreme4 when I got my i5 3570k but they were sold out. Went with the Pro4 instead.
Solid mobo all around, even though I wanted the Extreme4. MicroCenter deal was still too good to pass up ($60 off for CPU, and $50 off any Z77 mobo)
Currently running @ 4.5GHz. Only 35 minutes into Prime35 but max temp hasn’t gone above 84*C on 1 core, rest are at 80 and under.
So that ASRock mobo gets my vote as well.