A Friend's New PC

[Jay]

CPU
Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor $239.99 Newegg

Motherboard
MSI Z87-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard $149.99 Newegg

Memory
Kingston 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory $95.00 Mac Mall

Storage
Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk $164.95 Amazon
Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive $89.98 Outlet PC

Video Card
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card $249.99 Amazon

Case
NZXT Phantom (White) ATX Full Tower Case $95.99 Amazon

Power Supply
Corsair 760W 80 PLUS Platinum Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply $115.49 Newegg

Optical Drive
Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer $16.98 Outlet PC

Base Total: $1255.86
Promo Discounts: -$22.49
Combo Discounts: -$28.00
Mail-in Rebates: -$38.00
Shipping: $16.77
Total: $1184.14

Pat's do your magic.

Impressions?
Recommendations?
Are there better hardware you recommend?
Better sites at better prices? (for Canada)
Budget is $1200

Thanks as always.
X

 

[GasBandit]

Seems a solid rig to me. I applaud going Intel/Nvidia for the CPU/GPU.

 

[Frank]

I'm hesitant about quad cores going forward. The next gen games seem like they are going to be more geared toward I7s, I5s are going to struggle pretty quickly.

 

[GasBandit]

I disagree. I've seen very little to indicate that gaming will do much to alter from its current GPU-centric loading. Really, a great deal of my current, 7 year old Kentsfield Q6600 quad core still goes to waste on contemporary games. But my plucky Nvidia 8800GTX still goes strong for the most part, probably the best $500 I've ever spent on computer parts.

 

[Frank]

• Intel Core i7-3990K or AMD FX-9370 8-core
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 670 or AMD Radeon HD 7990
• 8GB RAM or more

That's the recommended specs for Watch Dogs, and it's going to be just the tip of the iceberg.[DOUBLEPOST=1382593950,1382593861][/DOUBLEPOST]

I disagree. I've seen very little to indicate that gaming will do much to alter from its current GPU-centric loading. Really, a great deal of my current, 7 year old Kentsfield Q6600 quad core still goes to waste on contemporary games. But my plucky Nvidia 8800GTX still goes strong for the most part, probably the best $500 I've ever spent on computer parts.

There's no way you're playing modern high-end graphics games with that setup without lowering most settings drastically.

 

[GasBandit]

• Intel Core i7-3990K or AMD FX-9370 8-core
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 670 or AMD Radeon HD 7990
• 8GB RAM or more

That's the recommended specs for Watch Dogs, and it's going to be just the tip of the iceberg.[DOUBLEPOST=1382593950,1382593861][/DOUBLEPOST]

There's no way you're playing modern high-end graphics games with that setup without lowering most settings drastically.

What can I say? I've been playing Bioshock Infinite, Borderlands 2, Planetside 2, and more on max settings with vsync on and rarely doing worse than 30 fps. Granted, the GTX 790 has ten times its benchmark scores, but I say a lot of these specs are pushed by the marketing departments of hardware manufacturers and software engineers trying to cover their asses for sloppy programming. Believe it or not, I'm still running Windows XP with 3 gigs of DDR2 ram (4 in the system, but XP is limited to 3), a Q6600 quad core and a slightly overclocked 8800GTX, and the only games I can't play on it are the ones that specifically require windows 7 (but I'm pretty sure that's not an issue of hardware). The only real issue I've ever run into is that some texture heavy games such as Planetside 2 take 4+ gigs of ram for granted and tend to crash with out of memory errors after 2 or 3 hours of play. I never lower settings, either, other than I turn off bloom because it gives me a headache, and as often as not I kill antialiasing as well just for my own asthetic reasons. It could be because I'm not running at some ridiculous resolution like the SLI enthusiasts love to - just plain old 1680x1050 for me is fine.

(Oh, but I did have an issue with Crysis 1 sometimes causing my 8800GTX to overheat if I let it off the leash for too long)

It'll be more of an issue for games designed to coexist on the next generation of consoles, no doubt.. but so long as game devs are still locked into the PS3/XB360 mindset, my rig handles the games just fine. And I think with an OS, Memory, and GPU upgrade, it will continue to handle next gen's.

The GPU is still the core of the gaming computer - the real bottleneck. I think it'll be another generation before quad cores aren't sufficient.

 

[Frank]

I guess that's the difference. You don't mind 30 fps. If I was satisfied with sub-60, I would just console game.

 

[GasBandit]

I guess that's the difference. You don't mind 30 fps. If I was satisfied with sub-60, I would just console game.

Psh, you kids these days and your 1080p 60 FPS. I remember playing doom with the viewing window squished down to 3 inches on my 386 just to make it playable. 10 FPS was a silk-swaddled wet dream. My shotgun consisted of 10 pixels.

 

[Frank]

Psh, you kids these days and your 1080p 60 FPS. I remember playing doom with the viewing window squished down to 3 inches on my 386 just to make it playable. 10 FPS was a silk-swaddled wet dream. My shotgun consisted of 10 pixels.

I doubt you're that much older than me. But I played Doom on a 486, so mine was buttery at full screen.

And 1080p is old grandpa's resolution.

1440p or bust!

 

[strawman]

Psh, you kids these days and your 1080p 60 FPS. I remember playing doom with the viewing window squished down to 3 inches on my 386 just to make it playable. 10 FPS was a silk-swaddled wet dream. My shotgun consisted of 10 pixels.

Doom on a 386? That's child abuse, right there.

 

[PatrThom]

Pat's do your magic.

Only quibble is that the PSU might be a little low if you're going to add a second graphics card later, otherwise you should be fine.
The case sure looks roomy inside.
I was going to recommend the 660 as a value choice, but it looks like the 760 cards have come down enough in price that they make more sense now.
The SSD has my favorite controller in it (Marvell).

I assume you're reusing keyboard/mouse/etc to come in under budget, but if you want to really class it up, you can visit these guys for a truly classy keyboard...if you can wait long enough for them to come back in stock.

--Patrick

 

[bhamv3]

Doom on a 386? That's child abuse, right there.

Then I was abused repeatedly through my childhood, and rather enjoyed it.

... god I hope this sentence isn't ever taken out of context.

 

[Bubble181]

I assume you're reusing keyboard/mouse/etc to come in under budget, but if you want to really class it up, you can visit these guys for a truly classy keyboard...if you can wait long enough for them to come back in stock.

--Patrick

...damnit, no AZERTY, no ISO, and no suppliers outside of the US. That's just plain mean.

 

[Jay]

Only quibble is that the PSU might be a little low if you're going to add a second graphics card later, otherwise you should be fine.
The case sure looks roomy inside.
I was going to recommend the 660 as a value choice, but it looks like the 760 cards have come down enough in price that they make more sense now.
The SSD has my favorite controller in it (Marvell).

I assume you're reusing keyboard/mouse/etc to come in under budget, but if you want to really class it up, you can visit these guys for a truly classy keyboard...if you can wait long enough for them to come back in stock.

--Patrick

How about the price tags. This the best you think we can find? Any nooks where we can get them cheaper?

 

[Bubble181]

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/ can help.

Most of your picks for prices seem fairly good, some of their options are "cheaper" because of rebates and such, and some may be from less reputable sources. I haven't put in every part you listed though.[DOUBLEPOST=1382707231,1382707055][/DOUBLEPOST]Either you're getting a damn good deal, that Mac Mall memory isn't compatible, or pcpartpicker just isn't as good for the US as it is in Europe - they don't have any 2x8GB Kingston listed under $117.[DOUBLEPOST=1382707548][/DOUBLEPOST]All in all, some items are $5-$10 cheaper on there, some are a bit more expensive - it doesn't seem to always have the very best prices. I know better sites focussed on Belgium/Netherlands/France, but I do'nt think that'd be a good idea