Latest high perf gaming build $1400

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Whats everyone think of this new high performance gaming computer build I have in mind? Not 100% sure on any of these parts ( especially the mobo, processor, and SSD ) I just got various recommendations. I plan to of course install games and OS on the SSD ( first time I ever got one ). I also don't plan to overclock so I think a stock cooler is good? I know some will recommend 3rd party heat sink fans but I've had tough experiences installing my tuniq tower 120 with the whole slabbing on thermal paste ( do the stock coolers use thermal stickers? ). Also is the 850W PSU overkill? I wanted to make it a bit higher to handle any future graphic card but don't plan to ever go SLI or anything.

heres my optimized list, keep in mind I already have a GTX 570 I plan to use for at least 2-3 years

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LX ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($117.85 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($217.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF X ATX Full Tower Case ($187.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($21.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1100.76
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-08-31 19:03 EDT-0400)
 
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Kind of overkill on the rig to keep using a 570 for the next few years. I would drop getting an expensive board since there is no point if you aren't overclocking. Drop 16GB of RAM for 8GB since a gaming rig doesn't require over 8 as it is. The PSU is fine, but if you don't plan to SLI you could easily get away with the 750w HX to shave more off. Then grab a 3570k instead since the only real advantage you would get from the 3770k is video editing, folding, and encoding.

As for SSD, I would grab an OCZ Vertex 4, or Samsung 830. I have seen a lot of HyperX SSDs go on sale for real cheap on Craigslist around my area and it only makes me wonder why they are selling so cheap. With the money you could save on simply dropping a few parts to get equally as fast you could get a 660ti which is faster than a 570 and even a 580 in most cases.

Also, what is the point of 2 DVD burners? I personally don't even use an optical drive anymore. No point really.
 
Kind of overkill on the rig to keep using a 570 for the next few years. I would drop getting an expensive board since there is no point if you aren't overclocking. Drop 16GB of RAM for 8GB since a gaming rig doesn't require over 8 as it is. The PSU is fine, but if you don't plan to SLI you could easily get away with the 750w HX to shave more off. Then grab a 3570k instead since the only real advantage you would get from the 3770k is video editing, folding, and encoding.

As for SSD, I would grab an OCZ Vertex 4, or Samsung 830. I have seen a lot of HyperX SSDs go on sale for real cheap on Craigslist around my area and it only makes me wonder why they are selling so cheap. With the money you could save on simply dropping a few parts to get equally as fast you could get a 660ti which is faster than a 570 and even a 580 in most cases.

Also, what is the point of 2 DVD burners? I personally don't even use an optical drive anymore. No point really.

You don't feel a 570 will stay as a decent card for at least a few years? Even though the 660 ti is faster I think it's a better option I keep the 570 for now since I have it for at least 2-3 years and upgrade to something better when it comes out.

Good suggestion on switching from the 850w to the 750w I was thinking about that.

In terms of the processor is the i7 never going to be a better option for games compared to the 2-6 years down the road?

I disagree with you on the 16gb to 8gb suggestion. I got burned real bad with my current system by only getting 4gb of ddr2 instead of 8gb when it was so cheap at the time and now ddr2 is crazy expensive that it's not worth the upgrade. Ram is so cheap I figured I might as well get 16 it's not much diff in price. Also since 12 gb is starting to be seen in a lot of high end systems I figured it's better to be safe then sorry.

Yeah ill drop one of the dvd burners. Still good to keep one in case.

PS: Why is the price of the new ivy bridge not much difference or the same in many cases as the older sandy bridge on newegg?
 
You don't feel a 570 will stay as a decent card for at least a few years? Even though the 660 ti is faster I think it's a better option I keep the 570 for now since I have it for at least 2-3 years and upgrade to something better when it comes out.

Good suggestion on switching from the 850w to the 750w I was thinking about that.

In terms of the processor is the i7 never going to be a better option for games compared to the 2-6 years down the road?

I disagree with you on the 16gb to 8gb suggestion. I got burned real bad with my current system by only getting 4gb of ddr2 instead of 8gb when it was so cheap at the time and now ddr2 is crazy expensive that it's not worth the upgrade. Ram is so cheap I figured I might as well get 16 it's not much diff in price. Also since 12 gb is starting to be seen in a lot of high end systems I figured it's better to be safe then sorry.

Yeah ill drop one of the dvd burners. Still good to keep one in case.

PS: Why is the price of the new ivy bridge not much difference or the same in many cases as the older sandy bridge on newegg?
A 570 or even a 560ti will be plenty for a while, but the extra horsepower can and will be used later on down the road. You could easily sell your 570 and then pocket the cash and benefit from having a faster card with more VRAM.

On the i7, no not really. It is still a native quad core and games don't benefit at all really from virtual threads. I have been using a quad since 2008 and I have not once seen a game fully utilize one. The closest I've seen is Supreme Commander, but that was from 2007 and had to have an extra program to utilize extra cores and RAM to make up for the crappy AI code. It's better to simply save the extra Benjamin and get the 3570k as it's just as fast gaming wise.

I have to disagree again. Before February of this year I was using 4GB of RAM. The only game I ever had cap that much RAM was GTA4 when I had the pagefile off. I have 8GB now, and I even proved that there is no game currently out (or in the near future) that will utilize more than 4GB of accessible RAM. Reason for this is most all games are still capped at seeing a max of 3GB of RAM in a 64bit system. If you have 8GB of RAM that leaves 5GB for the system and 3GB for any game you may be running at one time.
That being said, as I make mention in many threads my server runs an X2 6000+, 4GB of DDR2, and when paired with a decent GPU (say my 465) it still runs all games today in the medium to high range. The need for more VRAM is greater than total system RAM. The difference between the cheapest 8GB kit and 16GB kit on Newegg is still about 40 bucks. It all adds up.

The price difference isn't much because there isn't much demand. A 2500k (which most gobbled up last year) is more than plenty for any average user task. There isn't a reason to upgrade from SB to IB unless you have cash to blow.

I just did what I suggested while substituting the SSD for a 240GB OCZ Vertex 3 and the savings is almost exactly the cost of a 660ti. Something to think about really.
 
A 570 or even a 560ti will be plenty for a while, but the extra horsepower can and will be used later on down the road. You could easily sell your 570 and then pocket the cash and benefit from having a faster card with more VRAM.

On the i7, no not really. It is still a native quad core and games don't benefit at all really from virtual threads. I have been using a quad since 2008 and I have not once seen a game fully utilize one. The closest I've seen is Supreme Commander, but that was from 2007 and had to have an extra program to utilize extra cores and RAM to make up for the crappy AI code. It's better to simply save the extra Benjamin and get the 3570k as it's just as fast gaming wise.

I have to disagree again. Before February of this year I was using 4GB of RAM. The only game I ever had cap that much RAM was GTA4 when I had the pagefile off. I have 8GB now, and I even proved that there is no game currently out (or in the near future) that will utilize more than 4GB of accessible RAM. Reason for this is most all games are still capped at seeing a max of 3GB of RAM in a 64bit system. If you have 8GB of RAM that leaves 5GB for the system and 3GB for any game you may be running at one time.
That being said, as I make mention in many threads my server runs an X2 6000+, 4GB of DDR2, and when paired with a decent GPU (say my 465) it still runs all games today in the medium to high range. The need for more VRAM is greater than total system RAM. The difference between the cheapest 8GB kit and 16GB kit on Newegg is still about 40 bucks. It all adds up.

The price difference isn't much because there isn't much demand. A 2500k (which most gobbled up last year) is more than plenty for any average user task. There isn't a reason to upgrade from SB to IB unless you have cash to blow.

I just did what I suggested while substituting the SSD for a 240GB OCZ Vertex 3 and the savings is almost exactly the cost of a 660ti. Something to think about really.

Thanks PP Mguire you've been very helpful and informative so far. I still will play it safe and dish the extra 40 for 16 gb of ram but I incorporated a lot of your changes in my new build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3 EATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($280.01 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($98.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Sound Card: Creative Labs Audigy SE 24-bit 96 KHz Sound Card ($24.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Cooler Master HAF X ATX Full Tower Case ($159.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $1255.92
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-08-31 16:59 EDT-0400)

additional questions I have:

1. In terms of the SSD everyone seems to be recommending the mushkin or corsair 830, my question is why? Is there a significant performance or reliability difference? They all seem about the same speed.

2. A lot of people are telling me my mobo is too pricey and a Z77 is unnecessary especially since I am not overclocking. What does a Z75 or that X# model not have that a Z77 has? I know the least about mobos but a cheaper one is probably what I should be looking into.

3. Is a sound card even necessary? I always had one in the past because I always heard it was better then mobo sound, not sure if that still is the case in 2012.

4. Stock cooler should be good if i don't overclock right?
 
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Not sure if typo, but you have 2 sets of 16GB RAM on there.

Reliability for the SSD. The Samsung 830 and Crucial M4 are some of the most inexpensive reliable SSDs you can buy besides the Intel SSDs which lack speed for reliability. OCZ has much higher IOPS making it faster in random reads and writes. Sequential read/write speeds aren't what you want from an SSD because sustained speed will always differ.

I'm also saying there is no need for an expensive flashy board. The higher end boards have better components for overclocking and support multi-GPU. Nothing of which you need if you don't plan to do either. Something like this would be perfectly fine for you.

Newegg.com - ASUS P8Z77-V LX LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

No, there isn't a need for a sound card. Even I dropped using my X-Fi card and I'm an audiophile. The only time you will hear a difference between the two is if you have super quality speakers and amps. Or a pro set of cans.
On top of that, your Xtreme Gamer card is actually better than that POS Audigy SE. I've had both cards and the driver support for the Audigy is shoddy, despite it, the Live! 24bit, and the Xtreme Audio being the same chipset. The Xtreme Gamer is an X-Fi chip. If you want there is no harm in sticking that Xtreme Gamer in the new setup.

Stock cooler is fine.

One more thing to mention, is you wouldn't be able to use that Sniper 3 board anyways. It is an EATX board, and your case is a standard ATX. Absolutely no reason to waste a ton of money on a board when you wont be using an 8th of its capability.
 
Not sure if typo, but you have 2 sets of 16GB RAM on there.

Reliability for the SSD. The Samsung 830 and Crucial M4 are some of the most inexpensive reliable SSDs you can buy besides the Intel SSDs which lack speed for reliability. OCZ has much higher IOPS making it faster in random reads and writes. Sequential read/write speeds aren't what you want from an SSD because sustained speed will always differ.

I'm also saying there is no need for an expensive flashy board. The higher end boards have better components for overclocking and support multi-GPU. Nothing of which you need if you don't plan to do either. Something like this would be perfectly fine for you.

Newegg.com - ASUS P8Z77-V LX LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

No, there isn't a need for a sound card. Even I dropped using my X-Fi card and I'm an audiophile. The only time you will hear a difference between the two is if you have super quality speakers and amps. Or a pro set of cans.
On top of that, your Xtreme Gamer card is actually better than that POS Audigy SE. I've had both cards and the driver support for the Audigy is shoddy, despite it, the Live! 24bit, and the Xtreme Audio being the same chipset. The Xtreme Gamer is an X-Fi chip. If you want there is no harm in sticking that Xtreme Gamer in the new setup.

Stock cooler is fine.

One more thing to mention, is you wouldn't be able to use that Sniper 3 board anyways. It is an EATX board, and your case is a standard ATX. Absolutely no reason to waste a ton of money on a board when you wont be using an 8th of its capability.

Gotcha sounds like I want to go with the Samsung 830 SSDs. What about the Mushkin SSD?

I like your mobo recommendation but it doesn't seem to be very popular on newegg and has mediocre reviews. Do you have any alternate highly rated/popular mobos with just 1 PCI-E slot since I won't be SLIing or CFXing. Also theres so many varients of that ASUS mobo, whats the difference and whats UEFI Bios in a nut shell?

Good idea ill move the Xtreme Gamer to my new system. Seems like they don't really sell it anymore, I hate when the successors are inferior products.

PS: I optimized my list with the recent changes
 
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Gotcha sounds like I want to go with the Samsung 830 SSDs. What about the Mushkin SSD?

I like your mobo recommendation but it doesn't seem to be very popular on newegg and has mediocre reviews. Do you have any alternate highly rated/popular mobos with just 1 PCI-E slot since I won't be SLIing or CFXing. Also theres so many varients of that ASUS mobo, whats the difference and whats UEFI Bios in a nut shell?

Good idea ill move the Xtreme Gamer to my new system. Seems like they don't really sell it anymore, I hate when the successors are inferior products.

PS: I optimized my list with the recent changes
I don't know enough about them to know exactly what chips they use in their SSDs. Judging by the fact that I don't see many people with their SSDs I'm going to guess they aren't that great. The 830s aren't that old and they already have a very high popularity rating with people who demand reliability and speed. There have been quite a lot of SSD battles on these forums before regarding that subject.

The biggest piece of advice I can give you is don't put so much into Newegg reviews. Basically, 99% of them are serious noobs and have no idea what they are talking about. They think because they can put a PC together they know what's up. Like those idiots 1 eggs a product because the board was DOA. Eh, how can you REVIEW a product if you haven't even used it? See what I mean? THen you have troll reviews from people that got butt hurt on something and they will rate and bash a product for no reason at all. If you look, anytime somebody 1 eggs the board Asus is there to get in touch with them for a direct replacement.
The board is a good board.
If you absolutely have to go with something else, then this one is good as well.
Newegg.com - ASRock Z77 Pro3 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

UEFI bios is simply a fancy bios. Really makes no difference. The GUI looks different than the old standard blue ones.

Yea Creative sound cards have been pretty much defunct since XP went out of style. There is no more hardware audio acceleration so having a serious audio chip makes no difference. The only main difference between the cards and onboard is the component quality. The caps and amps have a higher quality, but as I was saying before you can't tell the difference unless you have a good audio setup. I was an early X-Fi adopter and spent about 250 bucks on my Xtreme Music. Now it sits in my closet collecting dust. This is why I go around here saying there is no point in wasting your money on certain things unless you just have the cash to blow.
 
everything pp said.

you are paying twice as much as you should for a mb.

there is NO need for more than 8 Gb unless you are a serious/professional photo/movie editor.

the only newegg or other retailer user reviews i even consider a little bit are for cases, to see if there is a consistent part like a door that never works or if people note that long gpus wont work for some reason, or if... and such. other than that, "I WILL NEVER BUY ASUS AGAIN MY PENTIUM 4 CHIP DIDNT EVEN FIT IN THIS 1155 MB ITS SUPPOSED TO BE BACKWARDS COMPATIBLE WWAAARRRGGGLLLLEEEE *rage* 1 EGG" ~0 out of 37 people found this review helpful,
is the bulk of the 'reviews'

no need for a soundcard

all of the money that you are saving will buy a brand new card a year from now to replace the 570 and will be much higher performing.
 
I don't know enough about them to know exactly what chips they use in their SSDs. Judging by the fact that I don't see many people with their SSDs I'm going to guess they aren't that great. The 830s aren't that old and they already have a very high popularity rating with people who demand reliability and speed. There have been quite a lot of SSD battles on these forums before regarding that subject.

The biggest piece of advice I can give you is don't put so much into Newegg reviews. Basically, 99% of them are serious noobs and have no idea what they are talking about. They think because they can put a PC together they know what's up. Like those idiots 1 eggs a product because the board was DOA. Eh, how can you REVIEW a product if you haven't even used it? See what I mean? THen you have troll reviews from people that got butt hurt on something and they will rate and bash a product for no reason at all. If you look, anytime somebody 1 eggs the board Asus is there to get in touch with them for a direct replacement.
The board is a good board.
If you absolutely have to go with something else, then this one is good as well.
Newegg.com - ASRock Z77 Pro3 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

UEFI bios is simply a fancy bios. Really makes no difference. The GUI looks different than the old standard blue ones.

Yea Creative sound cards have been pretty much defunct since XP went out of style. There is no more hardware audio acceleration so having a serious audio chip makes no difference. The only main difference between the cards and onboard is the component quality. The caps and amps have a higher quality, but as I was saying before you can't tell the difference unless you have a good audio setup. I was an early X-Fi adopter and spent about 250 bucks on my Xtreme Music. Now it sits in my closet collecting dust. This is why I go around here saying there is no point in wasting your money on certain things unless you just have the cash to blow.

I guess my issue is with picking a good mobo now, it's pretty hard to find clear concise information on the ASUS P8Z77 mobos and all the differences ( someone told me to get LK not LX etc ) how do they compare with the ASRock Z77 mobo since I see it getting recommended a lot? I'm having the most trouble choosing a mobo since I'm not sure what features I need besides just 1 PCI-E 3.0 slot , a few PCI-E slots for sound card etc and all the standard stuff.

PS: Seems like most people are recommending the Corsair Ram over the popular G.Skill ripjaws Ram for stability Whats the difference between CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B and CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 Ram? Is the B model ( blue ) just a newer model and the one I should go for?

Also I'm having trouble deciding on a power supply but I want it to be a Corsair one ( had good exp with them before ) Whats the diff in their enthusiast series? gold? HX? etc

My new build:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LX ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($129.98 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($47.98 @ Outlet PC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($209.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Cooler Master HAF X ATX Full Tower Case ($159.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $987.89
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-09-03 20:57 EDT-0400)
 
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