Merry Chistmas, Chief-ie Brown

[Chief]

For real this time. I don't have an actual usable computer, so hopefully this time I will get it done. One thing though, as I wish to have it pretty cheap but still within newer times, is to look for sales and deals in the upcoming weeks because of Christmas, and probably especially on Boxing Day. I don't truly what that means in terms of finding deals for myself, so if you guys want to help out in that capacity while looking at this slightly customized 'cookie-cutter' build, that would be fantastic.


Here's what I got so far. (PCPartPicker)

CPU - Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard - MSI Z77A-G41 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard
Memory - Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage - Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
SSD - Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Graphics - Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card
PSU - SeaSonic 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply
Optical Drives - Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer
Case - Cooler Master Storm Enforcer ATX Mid Tower Case
CPU Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler

Total (according to PCPartPicker + $150 for probable SSD price, without MIR): $1242.19 CA
Budget: $900-1200


Debate
There are questions that I have that go with most parts as I am slightly inexperienced in making computers, and obviously want to try to be cheap while getting the most bang for my buck.

CPU - I've seen a lot of recommendations go towards i5 for the less pricey builds, but heard some other things that if you're not going to upgrade for a real long time (which I probably won't) to go with a i7. What's the dealio here?
Motherboard - Is the one I've got fine? Is there a better one for around the same price or should I increase my price on here?
Memory - Is that fine for a default or should I look into dumping more money here?
Storage - I don't ever, ever think I need a full 1TB ever. I've been surviving on as low as 350 for the longest time, so I've been thinking 500 or 750, if there are any cheaper prices out there (or any deals that pop up).
SSD - Should I really actually consider one, and should I go for a 128 or 256? But do I actually really need it, considering I'll play games mostly on Steam.
Video Card - I am willing to go to a lower tier for this one, as this is something like the 2nd or 3rd best chipset out there. This would help balance out prices in getting better other stuff.
Power Supply - lolwut. I would probably SLI/Crossfire it very deep in the future, should I get a 750W or 850W?

[Eightball]

This will sound weird, but I might recommend G.Skill Ripjaws rather than the Corsair Vengeance. Why, you may ask? Why, when I have it in my build? Well, the reason I got the Vengeance (which arrived today) is because I have something of a brand loyalty to Corsair. Never ever ever had a bad chip from them. However, G.skill has about as good of a track record and is generally cheaper. If you can find a vengeance kit on the cheap, great! Otherwise you could save some cash going G.Skill. Same story with the Caviar Black; Seagate's Barracuda line will offer 7200rpm and 64MB cache (I think) for cheaper. I again went with WD because of brand loyalty.

To answer your questions,

The i5-3570k is the best performance per price for a gaming cpu. The i7 is nicer, yes, but you won't see performance increases in gaming, which doesn't make use of hyper-threading much. It's good if you do things like photoshop/after effects/premiere, or maybe video streaming idk. Don't know anything about MSI. They have history, which could be good. HeK perceived a higher failure rate for them, I think, and recommended a Gigabyte board (I ended up going ASRock). 8GB will probably be enough, but I was advised to get 16GB, and you'll see a lot of builds nowadays that use 16GB. I will probably upgrade immediately to 16GB if I know there's no clearance issue with my CPU fan/heatsink. Price per gigabyte gets better the larger the drive gets. I'd say just go 1TB; I thought 640GB would be enough for my current build and now I'm constantly floating around 85% full. You don't need an SSD. Once you see one in action, you'll regret not getting one though. If you can't afford 256GB, I think 128 is fine--you just won't be installing games on it. Don't plan to SLI/crossfire a card in the future: Do it off the bat or never.

[Mission Difficult]

650w PSU should be more than enough whether or not you crossfire/sli. I have a Seasonic (X650) and love it. Super quiet and so far rock solid.

[HeK]

HeK perceived a higher failure rate for them

Because I had a closet full of dead MSI boards. Every MSI board that I and my friends have owned have died.

Tailor your build to parts which Memory Express stock, which are most of which you picked. Use Pricenetwork, Shopbot and others to find the best prices. Walk in there with a shopping list and print outs of all the best prices.

If you plan to overclock, you may wish to look at higher speed memory. I am using G.Skill DDR3-2133 with my i5-3570K@4.3ghz and it's awesome.

Look at the new 14th gen Seagate drives, they are hitting near WD Raptor speeds and are about 50% faster then the WD Black.

[Chief]

Alright, here's what I got now.

I changed the motherboard, memory, and storage (including SSD). Any opinions on this now and maybe a way to cut down the price somewhere, or get the more bang for the same buck in some cases?

[Eightball]

Looks pretty good. My only remaining reservation is "oh god that video card is too expensive", but then I subscribe to the idea that you should buy a mid-tier card and upgrade every few years.

Also in before someone recommends an Antec or Corsair case over the CM Storm Enforcer. Not that I would disagree, though. I mainly chose the enforcer for aesthetics, and the fact that it's basically a HAF 912A.

[Chief]

Looks pretty good. My only remaining reservation is "oh god that video card is too expensive", but then I subscribe to the idea that you should buy a mid-tier card and upgrade every few years.

Also in before someone recommends an Antec or Corsair case over the CM Storm Enforcer. Not that I would disagree, though. I mainly chose the enforcer for aesthetics, and the fact that it's basically a HAF 912A.

The price of that video card is really throwing me off... I'm hoping that maybe there would be sales on other items or equal come Christmas/Boxing Day so that it would slim down to like $1100 so then I would be cool with spending that much money on a video card.

[Chief]

another tech friend recommended this for a power supply instead of the one i already have. i think he might be right about it. thoughts?

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.asp...6817438006

[Eightball]

I didn't know evga made PSUs. Scar and I both owned mobos from them; we weren't happy. Not sure if it's worth that much either. But, it's your PC!

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[HeK]

I've only bought Antec and Enlight power supplies in the past 13 years, no issues yet.

[Chief]

http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/p/rn7t

Alright, I decided to go to a GeForce GTX 660 on the recommendation of going with the benefit of nVidia drivers over ATI, since everyone I talked to seemed to recommend it. That cut my price down around $200 as well, so that was nice to have. As well, on Hek's numerous recommendations and throbbing hard on (jk love you hek) I'll probably go shopping to Memory Express on the 22/23 as they have the 'if the price drops in 7 days anywhere else we'll match it' deal, so I should be saving even more money. I'm expected something like saving $60 now with ME matching and beating by 25%, so if it drops even more that could be even more money saved. Here's hoping.

Then I'll have PCPartPicker email me if the prices drop for a one-day deal in case I have to buy something. Thanks gents, godspeed

[HeK]

You have to be careful with boxing day, lots of stores refuse to price update on those days.
Check with them before hand.

I know they do a boxing day/week special, so call first and make sure you have all your ducks in a row.

[Chief]

http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/p/sF2j

The only difference is now going have a i7-2600k from a friend for $200 (barely used, apparently) for hopeful overclocking purposes and therefore getting the GTX 670. Seems to be getting cheaper, but I still have to make sure that ME matches boxing day prices during Boxing Day/Week/Christmas-time.

[Chief]

"Boxing day is the one day of the year that we are unable to do any kind of price beats or matches due to the nature of the sales as well as the overall volume of customer traffic. To get the boxing day pricing on items, they do have to be purchased on Boxing Day." -memoryexpress dude

not only that, but i work on boxing day. either i bite the bullet and buy it december 23rd or try to look for all the best prices the day of and order from those stores respectively

[Chief]

http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/p/u9cE

absolute probable final build

[Eightball]

Some tips for when you build:





Nothing, the Storm Enforcer was pretty straightforward. I did have the issue of the labeled motherboard standoff points not matching what was actually on my motherboard, but that could be on ASRock. Headers were a breeze to take care of, and cable management is generally good. Only gripe is that my 5.25" drives are a little bit smooshed, and it shows when my disc drive sometimes struggles to open. And I guess the right side panel is hard to shut when you have all those cables crammed back there.

Damn it, I want to go back to my apartment!

[Chief]

cant wait till we're owning nubs together eightball

here's how i stand atm


saved $140 so far  8)

[Chief]

hmm questions about graphics card incoming:

so far i'm looking at GeForce GTX 670 SuperClocked 4GB PCI-E w/ Backplate, Dual DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort because of dem specs for a snazzy price of $369.99 after $20 rebate, but i've been considering using memoryexpress's price matching GIGABYTE GV-N670OC-2GD GeForce GTX 670 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card and getting that for around $323.74 after the $20 mail-in rebate. so far my gut is telling me to go to the first one for $369.99, but im unsure bout that superclocked business and pictures show only one fan which might end up causing problems so overheating, according to my gut

as well, im looking at getting a new monitor, debating between these two:
Asus VH236H 23.0" Monitor - $144.16 (free shipping and handling cheaper than with)
Asus VH236H 23.0" Monitor - $87.49 (memoryexpress match and buy locally) just noticed no HDMI, ill probably go with the ASUS unless someone knows of anything better?

for all of these i basically have until the 31st to decide as all boxing day sales or whatever will be done by then


also should i get a more snazzy optical drive rather than one that just reads/writes? and should i wait on the SSD as well or just not hesitate in getting that OCZ one?

[Eightball]

I bought that BenQ monitor for my girlfriend; it's pretty nice, but eye-scorchingly bright out of the box. You need to figure out if HDMI is important or not. For computing, all I need is DVI. I have my PS3 connected to my monitor via HDMI, but then I bought my monitor specifically for the number of connections it had (at one point, I had a Wii connected through composite, a 360 through component, the PS3 through HDMI, a PS2 running through VGA and 3.5mm audio using a converter box, my computer through DVI, and TV through plain old coax). Know what you're going to need!

Get an SSD, I bet you'll regret not. Blu-ray, eh, you can always get one later if prices drop. That's my plan.

[Didzo]

1) also should i get a more snazzy optical drive rather than one that just reads/writes?

2) and should i wait on the SSD as well or just not hesitate in getting that OCZ one?

1) No. How often do you even use the disk drive? I don't think you should care unless if you're burning dozens of CDs at a time.

2) Might as well get an SSD now that you're starting anew anyway. Things will be more frustrating if you upgrade to one at a later time.