Want advice  on a new pc.

Have $600CAD free right now will have another 300$ in a few days, I have another 150$ I could squeeze in but would rather not.

I don't need to buy a moniter, keyboard, mouse, speakers or webcam.

The pc will be used mainly for gaming and web browsing and watching movies.  So looking for good MB for i5 cpu and want a GOOD psu that wont crap out in the next couple years. This is for my wife and not to replace the pc I am using (see my siggy) I don't plan to xfire this machine either.

I want to use this case

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119240&Tpk=storm%20enforcer

Looking for best gaming pc I can build for 900$ max, Mine hasn't been upgraded since it was built about 3 years ago.

Pretty much need to use the case I have linked. Forgot to mention I don't really need to buy a video card right right now as the card she has works fine for what we play atm but I do plan to upgrade it at some point during the year probably when Neverwinter Online comes out or some such.

As for dvd drive  I could always use the ones she has in her older pc.  Oh and windows 7 please. I don't have plans to OC it either but would like to be able to easily upgrade it in 3 or 4 years though I know 4 years might be pushing it some lol.

A you are on a budget.

B. that is an expensive case. Do you want to stare at your pretty case for hours or get decent performance?

A Rosewill Challenger  50$ case would do perfectly fine and 40$ less

Phenom II X6 from ebay ~100$

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB 70$

970DE3/U3S3 AM3+ AMD 770 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 70$

Rosewill Green 630W 60$

HIS IceQ Turbo H785QT2G2M Radeon HD 7850 2GB 200$

Subtotal 550$

Or for an intel build use

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz 220$

BIOSTAR Hi-Fi Z77X 5.x LGA 1155 Intel Z77 150$

Subtotal 750$

Thoughts. The AMD Phenom X6 will last for many years since All next gen consoles will have like 8 core processors. This will let the 6 core processor really shine as long as 60/75 FPS is fine.

I would definately squeeze in the 7850 at a minimum, it is a very nice upgrade from anything lesser and will last.

Be carefull with the ASrock 970DE3/U3S3 it's a thin motherboard. But all the features are there and work. If you are gonna OC pick the ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 150$ 

But then you might as well spend another 120$ and get the Intel setup.

So I been thinking of getting this

CPU - i5-3570k           $232

MB - MSI Z&& Mpower   $218   Not sure about this might be overkill or might be something that will do the same job but cost less dunno.

PSU - SeaSonic SS-660XP 660W ATX12V   $175, can get a $20 rebate.

storage -  Crucial M4 128 gb ssd    $110

case -  CM Storm Enforcer   $110  can get it at Best Direct  for 66$ after mail in rebate, shipping is free

I have a 750gb HDD and 4g of ddr3 ram I can use, I want to get a 7870 later own or a 7970 card but will only need that in a few months. 

845$ in all

What do you all think?  

Originally posted by Asm0deus

So I been thinking of getting this

CPU - i5-3570k           $232

No faults here, nice processor

MB - MSI Z&& Mpower   $218   Not sure about this might be overkill or might be something that will do the same job but cost less dunno.

Overkill the ECS X77H2-A3 v1.2 80$ +7$ would be a much better buy for your purposes. And itl push the 3570k over 5ghz stable (With proper cooling)

PSU - SeaSonic SS-660XP 660W ATX12V   $175, can get a $20 rebate.

Too expensive for what you get when a zip tie is pennies The Rosewill Green 630 for 60$ would be a better buy. and is only 1 less amp on the 12v rail.

storage -  Crucial M4 128 gb ssd    $110

Look at the sustained write speed, Now look at this sustained write speed 

ADATA XPG 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) 115$  

case -  CM Storm Enforcer   $110  can get it at Best Direct  for 66$ after mail in rebate, shipping is free 

If you like rebates it's a nice buy 

I have a 750gb HDD and 4g of ddr3 ram I can use, I want to get a 7870 later own or a 7970 card but will only need that in a few months.  

845$ in all

What do you all think?  

 With my changes it boils down to 494$ and no performance or reliability lost.That would leave enough room for a Radeon 7970 and 8gb of fast DDR3. 

Originally posted by Asm0deus

So I been thinking of getting this

CPU - i5-3570k           $232

MB - MSI Z&& Mpower   $218   Not sure about this might be overkill or might be something that will do the same job but cost less dunno.

PSU - SeaSonic SS-660XP 660W ATX12V   $175, can get a $20 rebate.

storage -  Crucial M4 128 gb ssd    $110

case -  CM Storm Enforcer   $110  can get it at Best Direct  for 66$ after mail in rebate, shipping is free

 

I have a 750gb HDD and 4g of ddr3 ram I can use, I want to get a 7870 later own or a 7970 card but will only need that in a few months. 

 

845$ in all

What do you all think?  

 

What's the deal with all the ECS pushing lately? The $218 MSI motherboard may be a bit much on that budget, but this is like the 4th or so post I've read this morning pushing an ECS motherboard.

Secondly - the OP is in Canada, US links to Newegg don't do a lot. That same motherboard does happen to be available on the .ca site, but the shipping is significantly more.

Thirdly - that's an H77 chipset, not a Z77. So why do you try to pair that with a K-edition CPU?

Fourthly - I couldn't find any reviews of a low-end ECS board. I found plenty from their higher-end boards that said "Bleh - not worth the money". It's not my money, but I've done my share of buying "Value" motherboards from no-name manufacturers and paid the price - sure, you save some money, but more often than not there is a lack of driver support, stability issues, and build quality issues. Sure, you may win that gamble, and ECS may turn out to be a great manufacturer, but until I see some more evidence of that (from reputable reviewers, not just stars on a ecommerce site), I'm steering clear and sticking with what I know works well enough.

Fifthly - who cares about sustained write speed. The only use I can think for it would be recording FRAPS. Other than a few niche uses, nearly everyone READS a helluva lot more than they write. And sustained speeds (read or write) are pretty pointless, because most files that get seeked are only a few kilobytes in size anyway, meaning the drive performance depends more on the sekk time/random I/O and cache controller than any sustained I/O transfer speed.

Originally posted by grndzro

Originally posted by Asm0deus

So I been thinking of getting this

CPU - i5-3570k           $232

No faults here, nice processor

MB - MSI Z&& Mpower   $218   Not sure about this might be overkill or might be something that will do the same job but cost less dunno.

Overkill the ECS X77H2-A3 v1.2 80$ +7$ would be a much better buy for your purposes. And itl push the 3570k over 5ghz stable (With proper cooling)

PSU - SeaSonic SS-660XP 660W ATX12V   $175, can get a $20 rebate.

Too expensive for what you get when a zip tie is pennies The Rosewill Green 630 for 60$ would be a better buy. and is only 1 less amp on the 12v rail.

storage -  Crucial M4 128 gb ssd    $110

Look at the sustained write speed, Now look at this sustained write speed 

ADATA XPG 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) 115$  

case -  CM Storm Enforcer   $110  can get it at Best Direct  for 66$ after mail in rebate, shipping is free 

If you like rebates it's a nice buy 

I have a 750gb HDD and 4g of ddr3 ram I can use, I want to get a 7870 later own or a 7970 card but will only need that in a few months.  

845$ in all

What do you all think?  

 With my changes it boils down to 494$ and no performance or reliability lost.That would leave enough room for a Radeon 7970 and 8gb of fast DDR3. 

 

You're probably not going to get a stable 5 GHz overclock on a Core i5-3570K, no matter what motherboard you get, apart from sub-ambient cooling. The CPUs usually just don't overclock that far.

But you're definitely not going to get it on that motherboard. As I told you on another thread, that's an H77 motherboard. That means a locked multiplier, and therefore, no overclocking. Or rather, you could increase the base clock a bit, but you might not be able to hit 4 GHz that way, let alone 5 GHz.

A Seasonic Platinum is the best consumer power supply on the market. A Rosewill Green is, well, probably not an imminent danger to your system. That's a huge chasm in quality. I could understand going somewhat cheaper on the power supply and getting something nice around $100, but not dropping all the way down to a Rosewill Green.

And now you're going to advise paying a premium price for an off-brand version of a SandForce drive as compared to a Crucial M4 of the same capacity? Yes, the SandForce drive is better at sequential writes. But when will the sequential write speed of a Crucial M4 ever be a bottleneck? Synthetic benchmarks, perhaps, copying data from another SSD, and that's about it. The Crucial M4 is markedly better at random reads, which are the big bottleneck in storage performance, though to be fair, all SSDs except for Phison-based junk are good at random reads. The Crucial M4 is probably more reliable, too.

Originally posted by levin70
In my opinion, another option would be to only upgrade your RAM, HDD and GPU and depending on age the PSU.  You have a i5-750 o'c to 4 ghz which is mighty fine for most situations/games.  My current build is an i5-750 with a 6970 and I could only hit 3.6 ghz.   It will not be significantly slower than even an o'c i5 3570 that you would notice a huge improvement.  Will the 3570 be faster, yes but its not like your 750 is currently holding you back.  Go up to 8 gigs of ram, a nice 240 gig speedy SSD drive with a very nice GPU (you could go with a 7970 ghz edition) and for safety, upgrade your PSU if you current one is more than 2 years old or if you go very high end on the GPU.

The pc in my siggy is my pc but the build I am asking about is a second pc for my wife.

Originally posted by Quizzical

Originally posted by Asm0deus

So I been thinking of getting this

CPU - i5-3570k           $232

MB - MSI Z&& Mpower   $218   Not sure about this might be overkill or might be something that will do the same job but cost less dunno.

PSU - SeaSonic SS-660XP 660W ATX12V   $175, can get a $20 rebate.

storage -  Crucial M4 128 gb ssd    $110

case -  CM Storm Enforcer   $110  can get it at Best Direct  for 66$ after mail in rebate, shipping is free

 

I have a 750gb HDD and 4g of ddr3 ram I can use, I want to get a 7870 later own or a 7970 card but will only need that in a few months. 

 

845$ in all

What do you all think?  

 

 

That's nice hardware, but if you've got that kind of money, I'd sooner get a larger SSD and save some on the motherboard and/or power supply if you need to make room in the budget.

The idea was that a 3570k will be ok for now without an OC but I would have the option to OC to something like 4.5ghz later on. Reason being I will air cool like my pc using a similiar if not the same air cooler.

The MB looks like it's built solid and can take some heat seeing as it seems the 3570k apperently give off more heat, when OCing, than the 2500k and that OC genie2 seems very interesting.

I was going to get a 256g ssd but the wife doesn't really use that much, she's currently using 140g out of her 750g hdd so my thought was save money there and get the 128g ssd put windows on that and maybe one game and use her hdd for xtra storage. I admit im uncertain if this is worth doing as my intial idea is just to get a 256g one.

For the mb I like the military class III, superpipe and oc genie features on the other hand I don't really care about the bluetooth and wi-fi features as it's not something I will use.

For the psu I like it becuase of efficiency and quality

You say save money on the MB or PSU, which one would you suggest  that I go lower on and what would be good without losing too much quality?

Motherboards - the difference is basically in one of two areas:

(*) Overclockability, mainly with how well the board can regulate voltages and stay cool while attempting to overclock. Every Z77 board out there will let you try to overclock, but the difference between a $125 and a $250 board is in the power circuitry and heat dissipation - the $250 will let you go farther with more stability. Now, how much farther, that's the key question. If you aren't going to play with voltages at all, and just go for a safe overclock, the cheaper board is likely well enough. If you plan to go to the limit, with the best cooling you can, and tweak voltages, then you should look at the beefier motherboard.

(*) Periperhal options. The other area being all the extra junk that gets packed into the board as well (that you may or may not need). RAID controllers are popular, extra LAN/ethernet controllers, premium sound, Thunderbolt ports, extra PCI slots, bluetooth, built-in WiFi, etc. You are going to pay for all these things if they come on the motherboard. Generally, I find it's a lot less expensive (and more flexible) to only get what you absolutely need, and plan on adding on (via PCI cards, USB parts, etc) what you need to after the fact.

Power supplies:
These differ wildly, and there is very little distinction beyond "modular" or not, since all ATX power supplies look pretty similar. One common misconception is that you need more Watts - which isn't true. You need enough amps (and that does translate into Watts), but the Watt specification that is printed on the side of the box is largely a marketing number. Don't get fooled into paying more for Watts, but do enough investigation and research into making sure your unit is high quality, which includes voltage regulation and performance. I trust HardOCP reviews: if a unit passed their review process (even if it doesn't win an award), it's a good power supply. If HardOCP fails it, or if they haven't reviewed it yet, I'll just steer clear, because availability and prices on reviewed units isn't absurd. There are other review sites out there that are good too, I just lean on what I'm familiar with.

Also, if you're going to want to Overclock, you might want a case with excelent air flow.

I personally use this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811103010

Originally posted by Asm0deus

So I been thinking of getting this

CPU - i5-3570k           $232

MB - MSI Z&& Mpower   $218   Not sure about this might be overkill or might be something that will do the same job but cost less dunno.

PSU - SeaSonic SS-660XP 660W ATX12V   $175, can get a $20 rebate.

storage -  Crucial M4 128 gb ssd    $110

case -  CM Storm Enforcer   $110  can get it at Best Direct  for 66$ after mail in rebate, shipping is free

 

I have a 750gb HDD and 4g of ddr3 ram I can use, I want to get a 7870 later own or a 7970 card but will only need that in a few months. 

 

845$ in all

What do you all think?  

 

If you have a local Micro Center, you'll save yourself more money buying from there...

http://microcenter.com/product/388577/Core_i5_3570K_34GHz_LGA_1155_Processor

Originally posted by Asm0deus

Originally posted by levin70
In my opinion, another option would be to only upgrade your RAM, HDD and GPU and depending on age the PSU.  You have a i5-750 o'c to 4 ghz which is mighty fine for most situations/games.  My current build is an i5-750 with a 6970 and I could only hit 3.6 ghz.   It will not be significantly slower than even an o'c i5 3570 that you would notice a huge improvement.  Will the 3570 be faster, yes but its not like your 750 is currently holding you back.  Go up to 8 gigs of ram, a nice 240 gig speedy SSD drive with a very nice GPU (you could go with a 7970 ghz edition) and for safety, upgrade your PSU if you current one is more than 2 years old or if you go very high end on the GPU.

The pc in my siggy is my pc but the build I am asking about is a second pc for my wife.

 

Originally posted by Quizzical

Originally posted by Asm0deus

So I been thinking of getting this

CPU - i5-3570k           $232

MB - MSI Z&& Mpower   $218   Not sure about this might be overkill or might be something that will do the same job but cost less dunno.

PSU - SeaSonic SS-660XP 660W ATX12V   $175, can get a $20 rebate.

storage -  Crucial M4 128 gb ssd    $110

case -  CM Storm Enforcer   $110  can get it at Best Direct  for 66$ after mail in rebate, shipping is free

 

I have a 750gb HDD and 4g of ddr3 ram I can use, I want to get a 7870 later own or a 7970 card but will only need that in a few months. 

 

845$ in all

What do you all think?  

 

 

That's nice hardware, but if you've got that kind of money, I'd sooner get a larger SSD and save some on the motherboard and/or power supply if you need to make room in the budget.

 

The idea was that a 3570k will be ok for now without an OC but I would have the option to OC to something like 4.5ghz later on. Reason being I will air cool like my pc using a similiar if not the same air cooler.

The MB looks like it's built solid and can take some heat seeing as it seems the 3570k apperently give off more heat, when OCing, than the 2500k and that OC genie2 seems very interesting.

 

I was going to get a 256g ssd but the wife doesn't really use that much, she's currently using 140g out of her 750g hdd so my thought was save money there and get the 128g ssd put windows on that and maybe one game and use her hdd for xtra storage. I admit im uncertain if this is worth doing as my intial idea is just to get a 256g one.

For the mb I like the military class III, superpipe and oc genie features on the other hand I don't really care about the bluetooth and wi-fi features as it's not something I will use.

For the psu I like it becuase of efficiency and quality

 

You say save money on the MB or PSU, which one would you suggest  that a go lower on and what would be good without losing too much quality?

Certainly, the motherboard and power supply will be able to get you quite an overclock.  If you came in with a $2000 budget, I'd say to have at it.  But is it really worth spending an extra $50 on the motherboard to maybe be able to squeeze an extra 100 MHz out of an overclock if the time comes?  And is it really worth spending an extra $50 on a power supply to get the best on the market as opposed to merely rather high end?  On a large enough budget, answering "yes" to both is perfectly reasonable.  But I don't think that makes sense on your budget.

For a motherboard, they all seem rather spendy on New Egg Canada.  Maybe that's a problem with shipping a big box across the Canadian border.  For starters, you could get the same thing for cheaper from NCIX:

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=76119&vpn=Z77%20MPOWER&manufacture=MSI%2FMicroStar&promoid=1360

Or depending on how much you'd like to save on a motherboard:

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=69234&vpn=Z77A%2DGD65&manufacture=MSI%2FMicroStar&promoid=1360

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=70263&vpn=GA%2DZ77X%2DUD3H&manufacture=Gigabyte&promoid=1338

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=69232&vpn=Z77A%2DGD55&manufacture=MSI%2FMicroStar&promoid=1360

For a power supply, this is pretty nice:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182264

Or if you want a couple more options:

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=76943&vpn=SSR%2D650RM&manufacture=Seasonic%20Electronics

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=78946&vpn=P1750BBEFX&manufacture=XFX&promoid=1338

I think that last one is a rebranded Seasonic X-series, and if so, it's the best deal of the bunch.  But I'm not entirely certain of it.  Last I checked, all XFX power supplies were Seasonic something or other, and if that one is Seasonic and is gold certified, then the options only range from very good to excellent.  But I'm not entirely certain of it.

Originally posted by Asm0deus

So I been thinking of getting this

CPU - i5-3570k           $232

MB - MSI Z&& Mpower   $218   Not sure about this might be overkill or might be something that will do the same job but cost less dunno.

PSU - SeaSonic SS-660XP 660W ATX12V   $175, can get a $20 rebate.

storage -  Crucial M4 128 gb ssd    $110

case -  CM Storm Enforcer   $110  can get it at Best Direct  for 66$ after mail in rebate, shipping is free

 

I have a 750gb HDD and 4g of ddr3 ram I can use, I want to get a 7870 later own or a 7970 card but will only need that in a few months. 

 

845$ in all

What do you all think?  

 

You're kind of all over the place here. If it is solely for Gaming and Web browsing that CPU and MB are overkill. 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819106009

AMD FX-4170 Zambezi 4.2GHz 

its going to give you better stock speeds out of the box and it's all your going to need for your purposes. On top of that it's only $120 so close to half the price. 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157280

ASRock 970 EXTREME3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

$85

With just those 2 changes you've cut out about $230 in your build. 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151095

SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W 

$79

so you are up to about $330 saved now which equals a faster stock system + a GPU :P 

You don't need a lot for gaming. 

---

Originally posted by GrayGhost79
You're kind of all over the place here. If it is solely for Gaming and Web browsing that CPU and MB are overkill. 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819106009

  AMD FX-4170 Zambezi 4.2GHz its going to give you better stock speeds out of the box and it's all your going to need for your purposes. On top of that it's only $120 so close to half the price. 

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157280

  ASRock 970 EXTREME3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard$85

 

With just those 2 changes you've cut out about $230 in your build. 

 

 

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151095

  SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W $79

 

so you are up to about $330 saved now which equals a faster stock system + a GPU :P 

 

You don't need a lot for gaming. 

 

---

US Newegg site, CA site is a bit different.

You'd get a FX4170 over a FX6300, even though it's $10 difference? Over a FX-4300, even though it's the same price?

Keep in mind the difference between Vishera and Zambezi cores...

edit

Also... better stock speeds on any AMD over a 3570? Really? Clock speed =/= computational speed