$1500 Gaming PC, tower only!

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enrod

New Member
Hey guys, I was recommended to this forum by a friend and I'm looking to build a completely new tower; I will be needing a case and probably microsoft windows as well. I'm hoping to get front or top ports for USB as well as ports for a headset(mic and speaker). I currently have 6MB of "DDR2 PC2-5300, DDR2 PC2-8500, DDR2 PC2-6400" type RAM, if it is at all salvageable with whats new out there today. Currently running two harddrives, totalling roughly 750gb. I am slightly flexible on price aslong as it is worth it. I do NOT need a new monitor, maybe a decent set of speakers, but my main focus is gaming performance. Please help!! Thank you for your time :)
 
claptonman

claptonman

New Member
With $1500, not worth it to salvage that RAM. It is old DDR2 RAM that won't work with today's motherboards/CPUs.

But the two hard drives can be, since they are really expensive today, and will work fine.

Now, $1500 is a lot of money building even with the hard drives, so you're looking at a really fast computer.

I recommend:
i5 2500k
Nvidia 680
8GB of 1600 RAM

I do not have time to make a list, but some other members will shortly.
 
dtiao7eb

dtiao7eb

Member
I'd recommend the 800D corsair case. it looks badass and plenty of airflow/space. I also used the corsair 500R... also great case. you'll want a 750 watt psu. and a good HSF. i quickly threw in some items on newegg and the total was around 1400$ add on windows you get 1500. i'm sure if you browsed around you can find some good rebates on there. if I have time tomorrow. i'll try to put one together for you. anyways GL!
 
Microtomer

Microtomer

New Member
Just thought I would say that for $1500 you are going to have a very high end system. Not saying $1500 is a crazy amount to spend, but you could make a very good system for $1000 or less, especially if you don't need a monitor.

Just something to consider if you'd like to save money. I know a lot of people don't really know how much their money will get them, especially the first time building their own computer.
 
spirit

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
For $1500 you're looking at something like this:

CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
Mobo: ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131790
RAM: 16GB RipJawsX 1600MHz (yeah I know 16GB is overkill but for this kind of money why not?) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231429

Graphics Card: EVGA SuperClocked GTX 580 (sadly Newegg don't have any 680s in stock right now but if you can get a 680 from somewhere else, that would be better than this 580 and my recomendation) http://www.newegg.com/Shopping/ShoppingItem.aspx?ItemList=N82E16814130590

SSD: Crucial M4 256GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148443
Hard Drives: your own
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium x64 (note Home only supports up to 16GB of RAM, so you wouldn't be able to add more RAM without upgrading the OS too) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

Case: Lian-Li PC-K62 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112239&Tpk=lian li pc-k62
Power Supply: Corsair HX750W Modular http://www.newegg.com/Shopping/ShoppingItem.aspx?ItemList=N82E16817139010

Total $1589.92 + Free Shipping http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/ShoppingCart.aspx?Submit=view

If you wanted to save money you could drop down to 8GB of RAM rather than 16GB (I'd still recommend the RipJawsX RAM), and you could drop down to a 128GB SSD from a 256GB one, that would save you some money.

Using 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD the price drops down to $1,395.92, but I'd probably recommend going for 16GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD.

128GB SSD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148448
8GB RAM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428
Wishlist http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/ShoppingCart.aspx?Submit=view

With the money that you save from halving the size of the SSD maybe you could put into getting a dedicated sound card? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132006

Any questions get back to me and I'll help you out. :)
 
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Gray

Gray

New Member
I did hours of research on my most recent build, which like you, I had a target of about $1500 dollars. Take a look at this, you may really enjoy it. I was tired of waiting for GTX 680's on Newegg, so I used Amazon, and got free shipping to Hawaii on the entire order. Newegg is great, I've spent thousands of dollars there. However, don't forget retailers like Amazon and Tiger Direct - they provide great deals and service.

Case - Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced Full Tower Case with SuperSpeed USB 3.0

RAM - Corsair Vengeance 8 GB ( 2 x 4 GB ) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) 240-Pin DDR3 Memory Kit for Intel Core i3, i5, i7 and AMD Platforms SDRAM

MOBO - ASUS LGA 1155 - Z68 - PCIe 3.0 and UEFI BIOS Intel Z68 ATX DDR3 2200 LGA 1155 Motherboards P8Z68-V/GEN3

OS - Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit (Full) System Builder DVD 1 Pack

CPU - Intel Core i5-2500K Processor

CDDVD - Lite-On Super AllWrite 24X SATA DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive - Bulk - IHAS124-04 (Black)

CPU Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler (RR-212E-20PK-R2)

PSU - CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W ATX 12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified

GPU - EVGA GeForce GTX 680 2048MB GDDR5, DVI, DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort

Subtotal: $1,445.78
(You'll most likely qualify for free shipping on the entire order, so that will be your total)

This build gets you the newest meanest single GPU on the market, a fast, unlocked CPU with IGP in case your GPU fails or needs to be serviced. It provides plenty of watts of power, more RAM than you'll need for just gaming, an OS, an aftermarket CPU cooler to overclock the 2500k (it's easily and safely overclocked over 4ghz).

If you wanted, you could scale back a model or two on the GPU since it costs $100 more on Amazon than Newegg and use the additional $100-200 for a sound system.
Logitech X-540 5.1 Speakers
is the one I last used, and it worked great. Although, these days I prefer headphones for better quality.

This build is great if you're using the HDD's you already have. However, using the SSD that vistakid recommended is an excellent idea as well and should suit your performance needs. So you'll have to nitpick what is more or less important in your build. I ended up going over my budget for an SSD because it is such a great investment for your OS and applications.
 
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spirit

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
If you have a budget of $1500 I'd say there's no excuse not to purchase a modular power supply, that's why I used the HX750 rather than the TX750, and I'd also say if you have a budget of $1500 then you definitely want to buy an SSD. After having used one myself, I'll never go back to a hard drive, the performance difference is so vast between a HDD and an SSD it's easily worth the extra money. Other than those things, that's a good build Gray has specced there, and I've now realised I've forgotten to add some sort of optical drive in my build above Gray's. Any old DVD-RW should do so long as it's SATA.
 
spirit

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
Hadn't realised Z77 had arrived. Yes, definitely go for a Z77 board over Z68 The ASRock board Wolfe posted a link to is probably one of the coolest boards I've seen in a long time. ;) and ASRock are a pretty good brand, so I'd probably go for that board. The P8Z77-V also looks like a nice board, but the ASRock is cheaper.
 
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Gray

Gray

New Member
Huh, so the Z77 is out and for nearly identical prices? Unfortunate, my parts arrive Wednesday, they've already shipped. -_-

Oh well.
 
spirit

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
Wouldn't worry about it, I only got my Z68 just over two weeks ago. The P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 is still a great choice of motherboard. New things come all the time, you'd hate it if I were to tell you that Ivy Bridge is coming out on April 29th wouldn't you? ;)
 
Gray

Gray

New Member
vistakid10 said:
Wouldn't worry about it, I only got my Z68 just over two weeks ago. The P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 is still a great choice of motherboard. New things come all the time, you'd hate it if I were to tell you that Ivy Bridge is coming out on April 29th wouldn't you? ;)
Click to expand...


I would! I thought it was coming out in June/July!? -___-

Looks like I'll be building again in the next few months.
 
spirit

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
Gray said:
I would! I thought it was coming out in June/July!? -___-

Looks like I'll be building again in the next few months.
Click to expand...
Nah don't worry the 2500K is going to be good for a long time, and remember the Ivy Bridge CPUs will use the same socket as the Sandy Bridge CPUs so if you did want to upgrade you could easily later on (just update your BIOS).

I remember when I bought my i5 760 setup back in late December 2010 and then not two weeks after I had built the machine, Sandy Bridge came along. I was so annoyed but this always happens eventually. It doesn't matter what you've got, something bigger and better will eventually replace it in the future.
 
E

enrod

New Member
You guys are fantastic and extremely helpful. I like all the options you have given as well as further recommendations I'm thoroughly impressed. This isn't my first PC build, but the way technology continues to keep changing and the fact that my work has nothing to do with computer hardware, I call upon the fine technical gentlemen here at Computer Forum :).

I am however surprised on the Intel i5 recommendation. I've always been under the assumption that AMD made better processors for PC gaming. Also, I love the SSD idea and it got my mind racing about putting my OS and main games of interest on it.

I'm curious about cooling with this mammoth. I see one person made a recommendation for a fan on the processor, but I currently have issues with over heating on my video card. It's old now, probably can't handle the newer games to begin with. I like the Lian for my case, does this box come with a very nice cooling system already or would you recommend getting more for cooling?
 
spirit

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
enrod said:
I am however surprised on the Intel i5 recommendation. I've always been under the assumption that AMD made better processors for PC gaming.
Click to expand...
The i5 2500K is just generally a beast. It's great for gaming and it overclocks like crazy. It pretty much blows any of the current generation AMD chips out of the water. I've got my 2500K at 4.3GHz and it's rock solid, I've been encoding 30 minute AVI widescreen videos all day long with no problem, and it encodes each video in less than 5 minutes. I encoded a 3 hour long AVI widescreen video in 30 minutes with it as well. Definitely recommended! :D

enrod said:
Also, I love the SSD idea and it got my mind racing about putting my OS and main games of interest on it.
Click to expand...
Yes you definitely want to get an SSD too, soooo much faster than a hard drive. :) Worth the extra. I would however suggest installing Windows and programs such as Office and anything else you use on the SSD, and installing your games onto the hard drive. There's not much difference between gaming on a hard drive vs gaming on an SSD, certainly no FPS gain.

enrod said:
I'm curious about cooling with this mammoth. I see one person made a recommendation for a fan on the processor, but I currently have issues with over heating on my video card. It's old now, probably can't handle the newer games to begin with. I like the Lian for my case, does this box come with a very nice cooling system already or would you recommend getting more for cooling?
Click to expand...
Yeah that was me who didn't include aftermarket cooling in their build for you. If you don't plan to overclock, then yeah the stock cooler will be OK, but even still I'd recommend getting something better for the CPU. I've got an Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 cooling my 2500K and even with all 4 RAM bays on my board populated wth full-height RipJawsX DIMMs, the cooler still fits fine and does not touch the RAM. If you're interested in temps, I'm getting around 30-35C on idle, and at 100% around 55-60C, it's never going over 60C for me though at 4.3GHz with this cooler. :) That Lian Li case is better than mine for airflow so your temps may well be less.
 
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claptonman

claptonman

New Member
enrod said:
You guys are fantastic and extremely helpful. I like all the options you have given as well as further recommendations I'm thoroughly impressed. This isn't my first PC build, but the way technology continues to keep changing and the fact that my work has nothing to do with computer hardware, I call upon the fine technical gentlemen here at Computer Forum :).

I am however surprised on the Intel i5 recommendation. I've always been under the assumption that AMD made better processors for PC gaming. Also, I love the SSD idea and it got my mind racing about putting my OS and main games of interest on it.

I'm curious about cooling with this mammoth. I see one person made a recommendation for a fan on the processor, but I currently have issues with over heating on my video card. It's old now, probably can't handle the newer games to begin with. I like the Lian for my case, does this box come with a very nice cooling system already or would you recommend getting more for cooling?
Click to expand...

Well, I don't know when you stopped keeping up with the new hardware, but yeah, Intel is faster. My AMD plays my games at high/ultra just fine, but hey, not gonna start another argument.

For the processor, yeah, you'll want an aftermarket cooler. You may be fine with the stock one, but a nicer one is always better, especially if you plan on overclocking.

As long as your case has good cooling, your GPU should be fine. The Lian Li case has plenty of fans and should cool it fine.
 
E

enrod

New Member
Yeah I started reading up on this 2500k and it definitely looks like a beast. I've never installed liquid cooling, I'm slightly afraid of it, but that's probably because I'm just not familiar with it. Is that the type of cooling you're running with your build? I'm definitely concerned with cooling, as I am an avid gamer looking for performance and I'm tired of hearing this build I've got now get fairly loud and give me video lags :mad:
 
claptonman

claptonman

New Member
enrod said:
Yeah I started reading up on this 2500k and it definitely looks like a beast. I've never installed liquid cooling, I'm slightly afraid of it, but that's probably because I'm just not familiar with it. Is that the type of cooling you're running with your build? I'm definitely concerned with cooling, as I am an avid gamer looking for performance and I'm tired of hearing this build I've got now get fairly loud and give me video lags :mad:
Click to expand...

Its just like installing a regular cooler, if the ones they're talking about is the all-in-one coolers. Something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181019&Tpk=corsair h70

Its all ready to go, no worrying about connecting pipes, filling the liquid, anything like that. I am using an air cooler, but thinking about getting one of these.
 
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