What Parts Should I Get For A Computer?

Question

I am thinking I am going to build my own computer. I have limited myself to spend 2500 dollars. I am huuuggeee into pc gaming and editing. So Im looking at 12+ gigs of RAM a i7 processor and dual video cards. And a motherboard that can support everything (it can take a beating) I am also planning on running dual monitors too. So I was just wondering what would you recommend for this budget? Thanks.

Answer 1

Wow. That's a HUGE budget you have. $1000 is usually enough to run most games. If I had that money to spend, I would get an i7-2600k, 2 GTX 580s, 120GB SSD, two 1TB drives, a 1000W PSU, and 16GB of DDR3-1600 CL7 RAM.



Newegg Prices

i7-2600k - $315

EVGA GTX 580 x 2 = $980

Corsair HX1050 = $220

ASRock Z68 Extreme7 = $290

Silverstone RV02 = $190

CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB = $105

Crucial M4 128GB SATA III SSD = $220

2x SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 = $160



Total: $2480



Edit:

I wasn't sure if that $2500 already includes the monitors. If it does, here is another build.

i7-2600k - $315

XFX HD 6970 x 2 = $700

SeaSonic X-850 = $210

ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z = $180

Silverstone RV02 = $190

CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB = $105

Crucial M4 128GB SATA III SSD = $220

SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 2TB= $80



Total: $2000 so you still have $500 to spend on monitors, optical drive, and peripherals.



The Phenom II x6 1100t does not even touch the i7-2600k. See for yourself:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/203?vs=288



Edit:



I recommended the 16GB and the i7-2600k given your budget and the fact that you've stated EDITING as a main use.



Note that the 2nd build doesn't have the Maximus IV Gene-Z and not the Maximus IV Extreme as one of the answerers think that I've put in the Extreme. It is much less cheaper than the extreme but it uses 8x 8x for SLI and CF configurations. Compared to 16x 16x, the 8x 8x performs around 1-5% less but this is pretty much negligible unless you're using an extremely fast dual-GPU card like the ASUS Mars II. You would have to spend twice the amount for a motherboard with the two 16x slots like the one I suggested on the first build.



The 2GB EcoGreen was meant to be a storage drive only as I presume that the programs you will be using regularly would be placed in the SSD since it has sufficient capacity anyway.

Answer 2

The dual monitor thing makes it expensive. Probably would be best to go for either two 6970's or two 2gb 6950 in X-Fire. I would just make sure the graphics card has 2gb of Video memory. 1gb for each 1080p monitor.



A cheaper alternative to the 1155 Maximus 4 is the Asus WS revolution. That board is designed to run 4 Nvidia Tesla cards in SLI, up to 3-way SLI for the gaming cards, and 4-way Crossfire. MSI and gigabyte have good high end boards too. I would look for a board that can run the cards in 16x, 16x mode.



For gaming, just stick to the Core i5-2500k, you will get no additional perfromance out of the 2600K. The Phenom X6 and 2600K processors have more threads for video editing. Games use a fixed amount of cores. PC games are just starting to get to the point that they're using 3 cores. The only real difference between the 2500k and 2600k is the Hyperthreading. Hyperthreading will give you a 30% performance boost in Encoding and Rendering programs... Not gaming!





A corsair power supply and Vengeance Ram look good too. For gaming, you do NOT need more than 8gb of RAm. Keep in mind that any Hard Drive that says Eco or Green is a storage drive. They are slow as hell and not meant for you OS.



Whatever power supply you pick, make sure it doesn't exceed 60% of it's capacity, I would and always have aimed for 50%. A power supply can fail if you let it get to 80%. The easy way is to use a power supply calculator and add 100w-200w to that number. A power supply is like an other "active" device. The more you run it at it's full capacity, the shorter it's lifespan will be. Also, power supplies lose their strength after some time.



If you're going to gun a couple GTX 580 cards in SLI you can get away with a 1050w Corsair power supply, but the 1200w Corsair would last longer and give you a little more overhead. Power supplies only use what they need.



I think I would pick the case and the 2 monitors, and the keyboard and mouse first, That will give you an idea as to how much money you have left. I like Samsung monitors, personally. I've heard good things about the Razer keyboards and mouse. I also own a Cooler Master HAF 932.

Answer 3

Smiley, the only reason you keep recommending the 2600k is because of the name. You're caught in a misconception that bigger is better and that a 2600k will always prevail over the 2500k in every single editing process.



The 2600k is an industrial use workstation processor. For general picture editing and programs like Sony Vegas the 2500k is fine. If you're using Adobe CS5 3D modeling and rendering, lots of compressed files then the 2600K is your processor. The 2600K also has an edge in Flash video Creation.



It just depends on what exact program you're going to use and if the 2600K will actually make use of it. Also, if you have no desire to overclock, then don't bother with the 2600K. Just get an i7-2600.



For Video Editing, the Nvidia cards are a little more user friendly. Since you want to run Dual monitors, you wight as well get the GTX 580 with 3gb of Video memory. However, the 1.5gb GTX 580 will be fine if you pick two 1680x1050 monitors.



A couple 24" 1920x1080 LED monitors, Speakers, Gaming mouse, and the keyboard are going to burn up $700. You might as well go with 16gb of RAM since it's so cheap. I would recommend DDR3-1600 CL8, DDR3-1866 CL9, or DDR3-1333 CL7. The Sandy Bridge processors can't make use of RAM that's faster than 1333ghz, but they can make use out of better timings. That's another $130-150. The DDR3-1600 CL9 is usually the best Value and it's always $100.



If you pick the 2600k, 3gb GTX 580, 2x 24" LED monitors, mouse, keyboard, Windows 7 Pro and speakers then you should have another $650 for the rest of the system.

Answer 4

Not to bash on the i7, but having used both, the i7's performance is barely better than the AMD x6 and the AMD is WAY cheaper. Do some more research, and don't waste $2500 on a computer you can build for $1000.



For example, I'm running the following

1 Asus Mobo 6gb/s USB 3.0(Can't remember model name off the top of my head)

8gb g-skill ram

1 AMD x6 Hexacore processor

1 (yes, 1!) NVidia 460 GTX using HDMI out (inb4 zomg nvidia on an ATi board, works fantastic and I got it for free ^^)

CD drive (duh)

1 Terabyte 7200 RPM hard drive

1 32" 1080p Toshiba screen (love it WAY more than my dual monitors - I use it as a TV, PC monitor, Wii TV, whatever. HD movies ftw, girlfriend loves it.. what is there to lose?)



Don't give in to product differentiation. It's great if your machine ends up costing you $2500 if it made a huge difference, but if I'm playing BFBC2 (and soon 3!) at 60 fps, and you're playing it at 60fps with your $2500 build, there is no sense in dropping an extra $1500 on it!



If you're really into editing too, I would look into the Asus mobo's like mine and drop the big money on the graphics cards with CrossfireX (ATI's "SLI" technology")



Remember - they all do the same thing, even if they have different names!



P.S. Check the price for two monitors - then check the price for HDTV's - see what you prefer, but my HDTV takes up my entire field of vision and makes battlefield a BLAST. Almost literally.

Answer 5

Gaming and editing have different recommendations when it comes to graphics cards. Some cards have CUDA acceleration, namely nVidia. Below is from an enthusiast site, at a reasonable budget. You could change the GPU to a single GTX 580. If you can wait a month or two, a whole new generation of CPU's and Graphics Cards are about to be released.



CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K

Mobo: Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3

RAM: G.Skill-NT 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-1333

SSD: Crucial M4 256GB

HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB

GPU1: 2GB AMD Radeon HD6970

GPU2: 2GB AMD Radeon HD6970

Case: Coolermaster HAF912 Advanced

PSU: Silverstone Strider Plus ST75F-P 750W

ODD: LiteOn DVD burner

CPU HSF: Coolermaster Universal Hyper 212+

Soundcard: Asus Xonar DG

Extras: Crossfire Bridge

Answer 6

I spent close to £1500 for a similar gaming machine. Probably a bit more which is approaching your limit if not over in dollars it converts to about $2400 but as I mentioned I spent a little more.



Although I would advise you to go for it but for god sake check compatibility of everything. And I mean everything. Believe it or not I bought a CPU that was way too fast for my motherboard. Ever heard of someone having to under clock their processor.



The machine I type this on now is the one I built with very close stats to what your planning. 12GB DDR3 RAM. Dual GPU's triple monitor. You'll love the satisfaction.



Good luck with your build sounds like its going to be a good one. But remember check everything compatibility wise. Don't just take the manufactures word for it. My problem I was assured my CPU's speed was not the problem. After underclocking no more blue screen's.



But yeah good luck and have fun. Feel free to ask any questions.

Answer 7

12 gigs of ram, you should never need more than 4 if you do than ram is not the issue,

I know the parts of computers and though they sound important all you really need is a high possessor gHz 3 can run most games with max players perfectly but they do go to 4gHz. And memory no less than 100Gb through a series of possesses you can turn extra memory into RAM and Video RAM.



The Vista method for ram changing (without BIOs) is opening your computer folder with the C and D drives right click an empty area click properties click advanced system settings on the side a window opens go to the advanced tab subsection performance click settings another window opens go to advanced tab subsection Virtual Memory click change the last window opens click custom size and change both to a number between 2500 and 4000 both reasonable amounts.

Answer 8

Ok, there's two things I'd do. I'd get this barebones kit which includes everything but the video cards including liquid cooling and an overclocked i7 processor right out of the box: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005455Q82/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thmiofsp-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B005455Q82



Then I'd get two of these SLI ready NVIDIA GTX 580 1.5 gig video cards and SLI them up on that MOBO: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004B8VL64/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thmiofsp-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B004B8VL64



Then after you put that all together I want you to email me a picture so I can be jealous forever of what you have and I want!