Okay, so if you had $2500-3000 to build a new gaming rig (entirely new, nothing brought over from anything else, keyboard mouse, monitor, os need be included)..
What would you build? (and yes, I'm looking for recommendations)
Its been long enough since I built a system, that I'm not entirely sure what to use these days.
And I'm looking to get a hotas/pedals setup for flight (can't fly keys only more than 15 minutes anymore... ) that must be inlcuded in the budget as well..
... and well.. I can't keep using my work laptop for gaming forever....
Intel i7-4770K CPU $310
Noctua NH-D14 CPU heatpipe tower cooler $80
Asus Z87 Motherboard (Z87 Pro would do, but there are higher end models if there is something more you want) $~180-220
2x8 = 16 GB 1866 MHz Crucial RAM kit $200
EVGA Geforce 780 Ti 3 GB $700
>=600W PSU, preferably an 80+ certified unit, $100-140 (>800W if you want SLI [not recommended] but the second GPU would most likely push you over budget)
Corsair Carbide 300R (same case I use, simple and unassuming but effective) $80
256 GB Samsung 840 pro SSD $215
3 TB Seagate HDD $110
Asus/Lite-on/Pioneer/whatever Bluray burner $75 (alternate: bluray reader/dvd burner combo drive $50)
Windows 7 Pro x64 or 8.1 Pro x64 $140
120-144 Hz gaming grade LCD, not many options here, Asus VG248QE seems to be the most popular @ $300
Logitech G500S mouse $60 (or any other mouse you prefer).
Keyboard is up to you, try demo models at a store or whatever $20-150
Would be the major components, not necessarily the fastest thing possible, but reasonably close to that goal while holding the budget. You could run any current video game you want on it at max details at the monitor native resolution and never go under 60 fps.
Places you could save money without giving up much relevant performance: 2x4 = 8 GB of RAM kit -$100, Geforce 780 (non Ti) -$100 or Geforce 770 Ti -$250, Samsung 840 EVO 250 GB SSD -$70, cooler master hyper212 EVO CPU cooler -$40, Downgrade to DVD burner -$20-40, cheap rosewill case -$30, 1 TB hard drive -$30
Any particular reason you're not recommending SLI? Not that I'm going to do it because it will push me overbudget, I figured on down the road I could do it if I ever needed to.
What do you think about the 770 4gb version vs the 780 3gb, is the 780 better enough to make the difference?
Because SLI/Crossfire are stupid marketing gimmicks. Even as a down the road upgrade it makes no financial sense, especially with cards as expensive as these (because they won't be much cheaper in a couple years). A couple years back the best you could get was the Geforce 580 in SLI. A pair of them would set you back roughly $1200 at the time, today a single 780 Ti is faster for slightly over half that price.
As for the 770 4 GB vs 780 3 GB, barring pretty big differences in overclocks the 780 will be faster, not a LOT faster but measurably faster. The only real reason to go for the 780 Ti over the 770 at 1920x1080 resolution is because the suggested monitor drives at up to 144 Hz, so while the resolution isn't that demanding the target framerate is. Going for a 4 GB card isn't really necessary for most games yet, the 2 GB cards have a good couple years of service life left in them before many games will want more (the 3 & 4 GB cards will stall on compute or bandwidth before they run out of memory).
Note, $2500-3000 even throwing in a monitor and peripherals is getting into "no expenses spared" territory and the suggested parts reflect that. There is plenty of room to knock the cost down if you want to aim for a tighter budget without giving up more than ~10-20% peak performance. Basically slack off the memory speeds a bit (but still get 8 GB minimum), trade the i7-4770k for a i5-4670k, swap the Z87 Pro motherboard for a Z87-A, get the Samsung 840 EVO SSD and a 1 TB hard drive, get the cooler master cooler, step down to a Geforce 760 and at that point it would only need a 450-500W PSU.
Dropping from the 120/144 Hz TN panel suggested to a plain 60 Hz TN panel could save $100. Personally I can tolerate a TN panel just fine, but if I was going to use one I'd want the 120/144 Hz out of it to make it really worthwhile. My primary monitor is a Dell U2412M IPS panel because they just look better even if it isn't as fast, but it still costs $300. At $300 for monitors it is a tradeoff between picture quality or latency, if you go cheaper you have to give up a bit on both (but a desktop screen will still look a lot better than the average laptop screen). My dad has a 22" 1680x1050 60 Hz TN monitor that puts out a decent picture and no perceivable lag without being expensive and the lower resolution is easier on his eyes and video chip, so a definite option there for saving even more.
Krom, I'm in the market for a new SSD and decided to just take your advice on the drive. Samsung 840 EVO SSD. What is your opinion on not being able to update the firmware on AMD chipsets or has that been overcome as of now?
The Crucial M500 is a decent alternative to the Samsung 840 EVO.
The Samsung 840 EVO will in fact work on AMD chipsets just fine, the major issue is actually a driver issue where if you use the official AMD driver you will get BSODs. If you use the msahci driver it would be fine, just whatever chipset driver AMD bundles (or perhaps windows update itself) installs the AMD SATA driver which naturally takes priority over the msahci one so you get this big compatibility issue.
Yea, the underlying goal for this system is to last me as long as possible... since I doubt the wife will let me have a budget at all for several more years (again... who knew when you get married and have kids, you can't just spend your money on whatever you like.. no no.. bills and responsibility BAH!) But the last system I built(for myself) was a AMD 2500+ on an NF7-S board.. if that tells you how long its been (about 9 years)... so I've got no parts that belong in a new gaming system left at this point, and all that stuff outside the case and the OS eats up a big portion of that fat budget. The flight stick and pedals setup chews up pretty good chunk too, thats something I've never budgeted for before either, seeing as I've always been a keyboarder... but time is catching up with my fingers these days.....
Heh, not getting the cat. Surprisingly, those deals are fairly common around here. I found a Cougar Hotas, the CH pedals and a flight simulator to go with it for 75 bucks not long ago.
