Joining the 21th century of PC gaming.

[Nandito]

The funds are secured. It is time to don the goggles and get to planning my first gaming PC ever.

Well, actually, I'm gonna wait until Black Friday to actually start buying the parts as to catch any good deals, but I figured I should have a general idea of what I want and make a template of sorts. So, who wants to help me? :>

This is what I had in mind: Intel Core i5-3570K, Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670, Corsair 500R White - System Build - PCPartPicker

Not sure if the PSU is overkill. It was either that or this SeaSonic. Dunno, the PSU options are pretty overwhelming and I'm constantly told it's pretty important not to skimp on it.

I plan to overclock, hence the cooler. Hyper 212 seems to be highly regarded. I also considered the Corsair Hydro series such as the H80 and H100, but I'm not sure I feel comfortable having any water near my new PC, no matter how secured it is. What's your take on those?

So overall, please let me know what you think of my choices, and feel free to add any alternatives and suggestions.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Joining the 21th century of PC gaming.

PSU is fine, better to have extra and not need it than the other way around. With a mid tower you might be a bit cramped for room with that cpu cooler, plus the cooler will probably block two of your RAM slots if you position it to shoot air straight up like I did. Speaking of RAM, if you've got the money I'd recommend going ahead and grabbing 16GB. RAM's dirt cheap right now, so you might as well future proof your rig now.

Cyber Monday is also a thing.

Overall it looks pretty solid. The only things I would change would be grabbing an i7 if you want to put off building the next rig for as long as possible(but honestly an i5 is pretty solid so it really comes down to budget), and possibly a larger case just so you have more room to work with and don't have to worry about stuff like the cpu cooler sticking out too far. I'd also grab another hdd so you could mirror the two.

Seriously though, your build looks perfectly fine.

[Firewind]

Re: Joining the 21th century of PC gaming.

At add a bit extra, to what cid said. You are basically futureproofing your tower if your PSU is a bit over what you want, since will you have more leeway with adding new hardware.

[Aeni]

Re: Joining the 21th century of PC gaming.

When picking up a PSU, check power ratings and make sure you're getting close to the actual rating (the numbers are given in %) Many silly PSUs are out there and people tend to just pick one up because it had "lots of watts lol" (e.g., 1,200W PSU) These cheap POSs don't rate anywhere near their claim, are fire hazards and can't handle simple surges or brownouts. They're also quite dangerous to your investment as they will mostly likely kill your PC rather than protect it from harm.

Try to always go for a compromise between quality and price, but always go for quality. I can't tell you how many times I've had someone tell me of a super steal deal and end up whining about their dead system or component just a few weeks later. With shipping costs and downtime, it's rarely worth trying to get the cheapest product on the market, unless you absolutely don't give a shit about losing that money.

[Malacite]

Re: Joining the 21th century of PC gaming.

Mine's a coolmaster, which is a pretty good brand that I'd recommend.

Can't go wrong with Corsair either though (I find they're a bit pricey for all their stuff but they're top notch)

[Aeni]

Re: Joining the 21th century of PC gaming.

Mine's a coolmaster, which is a pretty good brand that I'd recommend.

Can't go wrong with Corsair either though (I find they're a bit pricey for all their stuff but they're top notch)

I have a Corsair PSU and it's been nothing but a joy to have powering my system. Quiet, reliable and the other components don't complain either.

[Nandito]

Re: Joining the 21th century of PC gaming.

Guess I'll stick with the one I have then, or move down to the 650W version of the same series, unless BF finds me a better deal with a Corsair, SeaSonic or Antec.

With a mid tower you might be a bit cramped for room with that cpu cooler, plus the cooler will probably block two of your RAM slots if you position it to shoot air straight up like I did.

The only thing stopping me from a full tower case is the weight; I have no idea how much this desk can hold, and I refuse to have it on the floor. I tried to total up how much weight all components would add to say, a 24 Ib full tower, but surprisingly, stuff like a PSU or motherboard doesn't have Weight in their specs.

[Armando]

Re: Joining the 21th century of PC gaming.

Guess I'll stick with the one I have then, or move down to the 650W version of the same series, unless BF finds me a better deal with a Corsair, SeaSonic or Antec.

It took me about a minute to realize you're talking about Black Friday, not your boyfriend.

[Aeni]

Re: Joining the 21th century of PC gaming.

It took me about a minute to realize you're talking about Black Friday, not your boyfriend.

Damn, same thought crossed my mind Armando, LOLOLOLOLOL Did a double take and read your post.

[Nandito]

Re: Joining the 21th century of PC gaming.

Any of you use dual monitors? I'm planning on getting one with a 120hz refresh rate, but I figured I might as well use this one next to it for the lawls. However, this one is 60hz and I heard there's a problem when you use two monitors with two different refresh rates -- for example, your 120hz will always default to 60hz.

I typed it up on the Google and there is a lot of Yes and No's regarding to that.

EDIT: Then again, I'm thinking it all comes down to the graphics card... so that could explain the non-straight answers.

[Raydeus]

Re: Joining the 21th century of PC gaming.

If you hook them up to the same card you may encounter issues depending on many things, but if you install a separate card for each you'll be pretty safe unless you mess up the driver installation.

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PS > The only time I could actually justify a second display was back when I was dualboxing in EVE online. But other than that for normal use there are very rare instances where a second monitor would've made enough of a difference to justify the space and potential conflicts for me.

Eyefinity and other extended desktops are another thing though, but 1080p is more than enough for my screen real state needs at the moment.

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PPS >

Click

[Aeni]

Re: Joining the 21th century of PC gaming.

Two monitors only works if you're constantly multitasking and finding yourself abusing ALT+TAB a lot. Otherwise you're just wasting time.

[Armando]

Re: Joining the 21th century of PC gaming.

Two monitors only works if you're constantly multitasking and finding yourself abusing ALT+TAB a lot. Otherwise you're just wasting time.

Or you're a programmer/graphic artist/some other occupation that makes you check two windows constantly.

VirtuaWin also helps alleviate Alt-Tab woes.

[Aeni]

Re: Joining the 21th century of PC gaming.

Or you're a programmer/graphic artist/some other occupation that makes you check two windows constantly.

VirtuaWin also helps alleviate Alt-Tab woes.

Well, if that's his occupation, he would already be using multiple monitors. But that doesn't seem to be the case here as he's asking about gaming and the effectiveness of having multiple monitors. Until games actually make full use of all that extra real estate, it's a waste of time and money. Unfortunately, as I follow the PC gaming trend, this doesn't seem to be the case, as the industry is evolving to embrace the mobile gaming platform, and slowly distancing themselves from the "hard core PC" gaming platform.

Eventually, we'll be using virtual goggles/HUDs/holographic projectors, and multiple monitors will only be something that stock traders, Homeland security and utility companies use.

[Nandito]

Re: Joining the 21th century of PC gaming.

Well, I do like messing around on Photoshop, but really it was more for the whole "Having media player and Internet open on the other monitor while I game on the main one".

Eh, no biggie. With 8g of RAM, alt-tabbing will be no problem.



And it seems Newegg has that whole Black November thing going on now. Are their deals going to get better on the week of Black Friday, or has it already technically started for them?