Please note: a few of these deals will expire at the end of the day. If no one suggests any significant changes or gives me any reason to wait, I'm pulling the trigger tonight.
Hey guys. I'm back, after a long hiatus, due to school. But I'm done, graduated, going to college, and I just got my graduation money, so I wanna finally build my PC.
First up, uses. These are ordered in terms of time spent on the use and what will be most affected by hardware:
1. Gaming.
Games I will be playing are TF2, DoD:S, Planetside2, Skyrim, Borderlands 1&2.
Games I may play are CS:S, BF3, Crysis 2, GW2 whatever else may come out that strikes my fancy.
I'd like to be able to run all of the games in the first list at at least 60fps, on mid to high end settings. The second list is less likely, so I'm not as worried about them.
2. Animation/rendering. I'm in the beta of Source Filmmaker now, but cannot run it well on my laptop. Once I get this, I will be doing a lot more. I will probably be rendering at 720p. I may also do so FRAPSing or capturing replays for MP games.
3. Programming: I plan on going for a Comp. Science major, so I'm going to be a lot of programming.
4. Graphic Design: Though I plan on majoring in Comp. Science, I also fancy myself as somewhat talented. So doing stuff with PS, Illustrator, stuff like that.
5. Word processing, web surfing, etc.: I plan on keeping my laptop, so I'll be using it for this mostly.
Note: If possible, I would like to not have to upgrade this rig until I graduate from college.
I wont say how much I got for graduation, or what my bank balance is. But my ceiling for this build is $1500.
I already have a spec picked out that I like, and fits well within my budget. I just wanted to run it by you guys first, to get any last minute suggestions.
The spec is as follows (all prices from Newegg):
Combo 1: Intel Core i5-3570K & MSI GTX 670 PE 2GB ($568.98)
Combo 2: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB & Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($94.98)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($33.99)
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-GD65 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($154.99)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($65.99)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($89.99)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Arctic White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($39.99)
Monitor: Asus VS238H-P 23.0" Monitor ($149.99)
Keyboard: Microsoft SIDEWINDER X4 Wired Gaming Keyboard ($59.99)
Total (including shipping): $1,394.87
I feel very happy with this rig, even though it isn't Haswell. The only things I want to know are:
1. Should I go with the GTX 760 over the 670? There is a Power Edition MSI 760 available for around $250.
2. Is it worth it going with the the Corsair 500R over the Fractal Design? They both cost the same, but the Fractal has better noise canceling, and is smaller, but the Corsair probably has better cooling ability.
Again, please try to respond as soon as possible, since I would really like to buy this stuff tonight. Please note: a few of these deals will expire at the end of the day. If no one suggests any significant changes or gives me any reason to wait, I'm pulling the trigger tonight.
Hey guys. I'm back, after a long hiatus, due to school. But I'm done, graduated, going to college, and I just got my graduation money, so I wanna finally build my PC.
First up, uses. These are ordered in terms of time spent on the use and what will be most affected by hardware:
1. Gaming.
Games I will be playing are TF2, DoD:S, Planetside2, Skyrim, Borderlands 1&2.
Games I may play are CS:S, BF3, Crysis 2, GW2 whatever else may come out that strikes my fancy.
I'd like to be able to run all of the games in the first list at at least 60fps, on mid to high end settings. The second list is less likely, so I'm not as worried about them.
2. Animation/rendering. I'm in the beta of Source Filmmaker now, but cannot run it well on my laptop. Once I get this, I will be doing a lot more. I will probably be rendering at 720p. I may also do so FRAPSing or capturing replays for MP games.
3. Programming: I plan on going for a Comp. Science major, so I'm going to be a lot of programming.
4. Graphic Design: Though I plan on majoring in Comp. Science, I also fancy myself as somewhat talented. So doing stuff with PS, Illustrator, stuff like that.
5. Word processing, web surfing, etc.: I plan on keeping my laptop, so I'll be using it for this mostly.
Note: If possible, I would like to not have to upgrade this rig until I graduate from college.
I wont say how much I got for graduation, or what my bank balance is. But my ceiling for this build is $1500.
I already have a spec picked out that I like, and fits well within my budget. I just wanted to run it by you guys first, to get any last minute suggestions.
The spec is as follows (all prices from Newegg):
Combo 1: Intel Core i5-3570K & MSI GTX 670 PE 2GB ($568.98)
Combo 2: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB & Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($94.98)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($33.99)
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-GD65 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($154.99)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($65.99)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($89.99)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Arctic White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($39.99)
Monitor: Asus VS238H-P 23.0" Monitor ($149.99)
Keyboard: Microsoft SIDEWINDER X4 Wired Gaming Keyboard ($59.99)
Total (including shipping): $1,394.87
I feel very happy with this rig, even though it isn't Haswell. The only things I want to know are:
1. Should I go with the GTX 760 over the 670? There is a Power Edition MSI 760 available for around $250.
2. Is it worth it going with the the Corsair 500R over the Fractal Design? They both cost the same, but the Fractal has better noise canceling, and is smaller, but the Corsair probably has better cooling ability.
Again, please try to respond as soon as possible, since I would really like to buy this stuff tonight.
Hey guys. I'm back, after a long hiatus, due to school. But I'm done, graduated, going to college, and I just got my graduation money, so I wanna finally build my PC.
First up, uses. These are ordered in terms of time spent on the use and what will be most affected by hardware:
1. Gaming.
Games I will be playing are TF2, DoD:S, Planetside2, Skyrim, Borderlands 1&2.
Games I may play are CS:S, BF3, Crysis 2, GW2 whatever else may come out that strikes my fancy.
I'd like to be able to run all of the games in the first list at at least 60fps, on mid to high end settings. The second list is less likely, so I'm not as worried about them.
2. Animation/rendering. I'm in the beta of Source Filmmaker now, but cannot run it well on my laptop. Once I get this, I will be doing a lot more. I will probably be rendering at 720p. I may also do so FRAPSing or capturing replays for MP games.
3. Programming: I plan on going for a Comp. Science major, so I'm going to be a lot of programming.
4. Graphic Design: Though I plan on majoring in Comp. Science, I also fancy myself as somewhat talented. So doing stuff with PS, Illustrator, stuff like that.
5. Word processing, web surfing, etc.: I plan on keeping my laptop, so I'll be using it for this mostly.
Note: If possible, I would like to not have to upgrade this rig until I graduate from college.
I wont say how much I got for graduation, or what my bank balance is. But my ceiling for this build is $1500.
I already have a spec picked out that I like, and fits well within my budget. I just wanted to run it by you guys first, to get any last minute suggestions.
The spec is as follows (all prices from Newegg):
Combo 1: Intel Core i5-3570K & MSI GTX 670 PE 2GB ($568.98)
Combo 2: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB & Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($94.98)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($33.99)
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-GD65 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($154.99)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($65.99)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($89.99)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Arctic White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($39.99)
Monitor: Asus VS238H-P 23.0" Monitor ($149.99)
Keyboard: Microsoft SIDEWINDER X4 Wired Gaming Keyboard ($59.99)
Total (including shipping): $1,394.87
I feel very happy with this rig, even though it isn't Haswell. The only things I want to know are:
1. Should I go with the GTX 760 over the 670? There is a Power Edition MSI 760 available for around $250.
2. Is it worth it going with the the Corsair 500R over the Fractal Design? They both cost the same, but the Fractal has better noise canceling, and is smaller, but the Corsair probably has better cooling ability.
Again, please try to respond as soon as possible, since I would really like to buy this stuff tonight. Please note: a few of these deals will expire at the end of the day. If no one suggests any significant changes or gives me any reason to wait, I'm pulling the trigger tonight.
Hey guys. I'm back, after a long hiatus, due to school. But I'm done, graduated, going to college, and I just got my graduation money, so I wanna finally build my PC.
First up, uses. These are ordered in terms of time spent on the use and what will be most affected by hardware:
1. Gaming.
Games I will be playing are TF2, DoD:S, Planetside2, Skyrim, Borderlands 1&2.
Games I may play are CS:S, BF3, Crysis 2, GW2 whatever else may come out that strikes my fancy.
I'd like to be able to run all of the games in the first list at at least 60fps, on mid to high end settings. The second list is less likely, so I'm not as worried about them.
2. Animation/rendering. I'm in the beta of Source Filmmaker now, but cannot run it well on my laptop. Once I get this, I will be doing a lot more. I will probably be rendering at 720p. I may also do so FRAPSing or capturing replays for MP games.
3. Programming: I plan on going for a Comp. Science major, so I'm going to be a lot of programming.
4. Graphic Design: Though I plan on majoring in Comp. Science, I also fancy myself as somewhat talented. So doing stuff with PS, Illustrator, stuff like that.
5. Word processing, web surfing, etc.: I plan on keeping my laptop, so I'll be using it for this mostly.
Note: If possible, I would like to not have to upgrade this rig until I graduate from college.
I wont say how much I got for graduation, or what my bank balance is. But my ceiling for this build is $1500.
I already have a spec picked out that I like, and fits well within my budget. I just wanted to run it by you guys first, to get any last minute suggestions.
The spec is as follows (all prices from Newegg):
Combo 1: Intel Core i5-3570K & MSI GTX 670 PE 2GB ($568.98)
Combo 2: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB & Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($94.98)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($33.99)
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-GD65 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($154.99)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($65.99)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($89.99)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Arctic White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($39.99)
Monitor: Asus VS238H-P 23.0" Monitor ($149.99)
Keyboard: Microsoft SIDEWINDER X4 Wired Gaming Keyboard ($59.99)
Total (including shipping): $1,394.87
I feel very happy with this rig, even though it isn't Haswell. The only things I want to know are:
1. Should I go with the GTX 760 over the 670? There is a Power Edition MSI 760 available for around $250.
2. Is it worth it going with the the Corsair 500R over the Fractal Design? They both cost the same, but the Fractal has better noise canceling, and is smaller, but the Corsair probably has better cooling ability.
Again, please try to respond as soon as possible, since I would really like to buy this stuff tonight.















