Researching building 1st computer. Need help w/ specifics

So I was thinking about building a computer for gaming to retire my laptop from the more resource intensive games (Skyrim, Witcher 2) but have no real idea of what it will cost as this will be my first time building one. I would like for it to be able to run all current games on highest settings and upcoming games (ex: Witcher 3, Mirror's Edge 2, etc.) on high settings.

I kind of have an idea on some of the parts:

Either an i5 or i7 processor
AMD GPU
At least 2 TB of hard drive space + SSD for a boot drive
At least 8 GB of RAM
Windows 8, I have it on my laptop and I haven't had any trouble with it.

I would also like for it to be able to run fairly cool & quiet. I don't care about all the fancy "ooh... ahh... purdy" lights that a lot of cases have. The rest, I have no idea about. So I guess I'm kind of asking if someone with experience doing this kind of stuff could tell how much it would cost.

the cost will depend on where you live.
go with the i7 and you should think about crossfire

and make sure you get a good PSU

What is your budget exactly? If you're building on your first computer, you have to invest on the right stuff. Here are my advise for mainstream gaming based on the latest technology available so there will be not much price drop when you want to sell a component for upgrade in the future :

Processor : Go with the new Haswell Intel Core i5 and it should be enough to out perform most AMD CPUs out there

Motherboard : MSI Z87-GD45 or MSI Z87-GD65 will be a good choice for mainstream gaming with reasonable price and along with the flexibility to go SLI in the future.

Memory : Either the new cool looking Corsair Vengeance Pro which will match the color scheme of the MSI board or low profile and good latency Crucial Ballistix or G.Skill RipjawX should be fine too.

SSD : Either Samsung 840 Pro or SanDisk Extreme II. Price maybe to expensive but it is a very solid investment IMHO.

HDD : no comment lol

VGA : You should consider using NVIDIA instead. AMD is still falling behind in multi GPU technology though they planned to release new driver update regarding micro stutter(or frame pacing as they insisted) in the next few days/weeks but there is still no guarantee the issue will be fixed. AMD also not releasing any new card possibly until late 2013.

MSI GTX 760 will be great for your gaming needs in years to come, especially with how great the scaling performance is when you SLI the card. So flexibility for upgrade in the future is the key.

PSU : One of key major components investment in PC. Can't go wrong with Seasonic X650 gold with gold rated efficiency and fully modular.

Casing : Corsair C70 Vengeance is tooless, very well ventilated, have bottom and front dust filters, have a lot of room, big acrylic side panel window, and terrific cable management.

Other parts may come and go, but your casing and PSU are there to stay.

I'd say get a 3570k or the haswell 4670k

mobo: gigabyte ga g1 sniper m5 (LGA 1150)

gpu: the radeon HD 7950 is still good but the gtx 760 by evga with acx cooler for price works the same only a few fps behind in gaming if you get the right overclock speeds

and if you want quiet you should check out some fractal design cases

also make sure your graphics card can fit into the case before buying either one

The new ACX cooler design from EVGA is a step forward, but the performance(cooling+noise) still can't compete with other sub vendor/after market design. Cooling have become increasingly important ever since NVIDIA implement GPU BOOST.

The goal is to have the core clock(+ GPU BOOST) as high as possible before hitting 80 degree Celsius mark because when it hits the mark, it automatically reduce the clock = reduce performance.

I mean I rather take Inno3D's iChill Hercules(which have the best and most ludicrous cooling and noise performance), MSI's Twin Frozr, or Gigabyte's WindForce any day of the week and twice on Sunday. EVGA no longer sits on the throne of best GeForce sub vendor.

suggesting computer parts without knowing your budget is hard.
Roughly i say this:
if you spend 1500€ you can game top settings for 1 year maby, without changing parts.
2500€ 2 years.
3500€ 3 years.
5000€ 4 years. (4th year will be hard to keep up whit most uber games)
10000€+ will allow for some future updates, good looks, and other nice stuff.

So my suggestion without knowing your price range is this:

CPU: i7-3960x or something like this one.
GPU: go nVidia Titan in 2x SLI, or 4x if you got budget.
get 2400 speed ram
and use Asus Rampage IV Extreme motherboard.
HDD, SSD, PSU and so oon doesn't really matter much, just dont buy most cheapest.
Well PSU will need some strong W to keep up whit titan, in 2xSLI i think 1200W should be fine, but on 4x you will need 1600+
Go whit custom water cooling if you got money and skills to do it. CPU+GPU loop will make your pc temp at around 55c when working. (this will cost atleast 1000€ more)

hmm... thats about it i guess.

PS: decided to add interesting link for youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vCrblKzKaM
this is 4x titan SLI ;D
h

^ Don't listen to that guy. What he's suggesting is just overkill for gaming and isn't even necessary at all.

I'd go with what gizmo suggested, but I would bump up the processor to a 4670K because it's unlocked and you can overclock it to get even more power.

Interesting looks like I really do need to look these things up before buying them guess I'll be buying MSI in the future. Also I only recommended it because it's black, just like the other parts I was thinking of at the time. Well I didn't even list all the parts looking back at my parts list.

I think it better for you and us to give us a budget for your build. Otherwise I might as well recommend you to i7 with a 7990 GPU crossfire it! (those 2 GPU alone is $2k by itself xD)

Another thing i might ask is, are you also looking for a monitor and a keyboard/mouse with that? or going to use the one you already have?



1- He never give us what his budget are so what ever Kadushy said I second to that xD
2- from all the review I see going from 3rd gen to 4th gen is not much in performance boost.
3- I personally prefer gaming on win7 rather then win8 mainly due to compatibility .Plus win8 is more design to for touch screen interface. So with mouse and keyboard it only give me a horrible user experience.

1 tip dont spend 100$ for a case

spend around 30-50$ for a case that can handle up to 4 fans
then adding fans for better cooling and it is fixed the heat problem, without spending tons of cash

if you want to go with watercooling (Magicool EQ Liquid Cooling Case EOL!) that one is around 200$ and you have a watercooled pc

I aint no expert but here is my 2 cents:

• CPU
  
  For gaming, Intel I5 3570K. The haswell has small performance increase, BUT as well, bigger power consumption and its not worth extra bucks. Unless you build a laptop, then go for haswell, otherwise, not needed.

• MoBo/Motherboard
  
  MSI Z77A-G45. Lovely shade of blue, SLI and crossfire ready, PCI 3.0

• RAM/Memory
  
  Kingston DDR3 HyperX PC-12800 1600MHz 12GB CL9 (9-9-9-27)(Kit of 3 - 4GB) XMP. Should be good enough.

• SSD/Solid State Drive
  
  Samsung 840 for Windows install.

• HDD/Hard Disk Drive
  
  2tb for all your games and porn! Western Digital or Samsung. High rev count!

• VGA/GPU
  
  Now THIS is a little discussionable. Since next gen consoles are using AMD parts, the issue is that it can be a bit of a lucky draw IMO. Future games might be built for AMD GPU's in mind since the industry will mostly make games for consoles first and PC gamers will continue to get the shaft, so the game optimisation MIGHT throw a wrench on the Nvidia cards. But thats not certain and it is far away as of now to make any proper judgement on it.
  
  Another thing that my friend told me is that AMD cards are powerful, more powerful than Nvidia ones, but they mess up the drivers and FPS jumps a lot. AMD on crossfire is bit of a sad state of developement.
  
  He got Nvidia cards on SLI since he needs CUDA. Video rendering.
  
  But go for MSI HD 7970 3GB Twin Frozr OC BE or MSI N680GTX Twin Frozr 4GD5/OC
  
  Or if cheaper one, MSI R7870 Twin Frozr 2GD5/OC. I have it and i can only have good things to say about it.

• PSU
  
  Dont starve your system. Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 - 750 Watt or Cooler Master GX 750W should do the trick

• Casing
  
  Choose Corsair or Cooler Master and take one that has good airflow and can fit ATX motherboard. Preferrably a Mid tower or Full tower. Mini tower is just bad

I didnt set this thing up to be most expensive piece on here. Just good enough to run Crysis 3 on full power and without issues. Until Crysis 4 comes out and melts gaming PC again.

Gaze at this baby:

http://www.mountainmods.com/ascension-cyo-crystal-ship-custom-computer-case-p-531.html

Now thats what i call case, there is even bigger one, Extended Ascension ;D You can even fit 2x pc's in there ;D Tho price can easily climb to 600+

Its a server rack.

Nay, I strongly disagree. Unlike other parts, the turnaround/turnover for casing and PSU are much longer IMHO. Plus good casings and PSUs are easier to resell again when you wish to upgrade. It is a solid investment. Casings that are less than $50 often have none or terrible cable management. And if your PSU also not modular, it will only get worst. You wouldn't enjoy having chunks of cable clutters in your casing and it will also impede air flow within the case, which defeats the purpose of having a decent ventilation and fans in the first place.

Go big or go home. If you can't invest on casing, better you don't invest at all (open air bench test style) IMHO.

Not really.

I have my old PSU and its not modular.

proper cable managment will avoid clutters and allow air to flow freely.

my case is 40€ box from coolermaster, and its full of space.

Only bad thing is that its not enough of a badass of a case in looks.

Have to change it future.

Also, go big or go home = go big & go bust.

I'm guessing your casing is either one of Elite Series or K3XX series. Good for you, since most people have problems to properly managed their cable. But I still prefer the $60-$130 casing which have perfect balance of esthetic, flexibility, functionality, and performance, all the criteria needed for a solid investment.

Also true.

But when i build my PC, i looked Efficiency and price over looks since i had very minimal amount of money to spend on a case.

But then again, we dont know what budget the requester has.

Aye exactly, it is a game of money after all. Those who live in USA are lucky to have service like amazon, newegg, and tigerdirect. Much easier to hunt for deals.

A Corsair 200r is an excellent case for $50.

A tip on PSUs: Wattage is not everything. What you want is *enough* juice, and a *reliable* power-source. Also, most PSU reviews are bullshit: Read this if you wanna know more.

Here are some good PSU review sites:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/page/power
http://www.jonnyguru.com/
http://www.silentpcreview.com/section10.html