FINAL BUILD (6/13/2012)

As far as I can tell you did a pretty good job so far Roy. All in all you're basically building the exact machine I have right now, and it's extremely fast. I've never dabbled with any overclocking, but I can run D3 and SC2 at the same time and get 150 fps in each game.

With my machine I really wish I had a SSD. I do a good amount of video encoding and large file movements, and a SSD would be exremely awesome. I'd also really love a faster boot-time. I feel like my HDD is a bottleneck in anything that I can truly feel a difference in.

You can cut a little price down on the RAM to be honest. I never am near my limit and I multi-task a whole lot. I'll have VS 2008, 2010, a lot of chrome pages, and SC2 all open sometimes with Photoshop as well, and still wasn't really ever needing more RAM.

I don't know much at all about cases, but yours is pretty ugly haha

Quote from CecilSunkure

You can cut a little price down on the RAM to be honest. I never am near my limit and I multi-task a whole lot. I'll have VS 2008, 2010, a lot of chrome pages, and SC2 all open sometimes with Photoshop as well, and still wasn't really ever needing more RAM.

Yeah, I know I'm overshooting it there, but I figure it can't hurt to have some extra RAM laying around.

Quote from CecilSunkure

I don't know much at all about cases, but yours is pretty ugly haha

I agree, but aesthetics are kinda secondary to functionality. I'm not attached to it in any way, so if you have another suggestion, I'm figuratively all ears.

Oh, and I'm also planning to go for a multi-monitor setup. Probably just a dual since the desk I have wouldn't really fit more than that.

In my opinion, there are only two reasons for dual-card setups for gaming: 1) you want two of the fastest card there is for even better performance than just one of the fastest card or 2) you plan on later getting another to increase performance as your system gets older. #1 is reasonable for those who want to spend the money on that sort of thing, but I think #2 is kind of sketchy. Except when a faster card simply does not exist, it is probably better just to buy one card instead of starting out with two. This is also probably a better fit with wanting a computer that is not noisy.

What kind of monitors are you looking for? (size, resolution, etc.) If you were only planning on getting around 20" - 23", there are IPS LCD monitors that should fit within your budget (search ips in the monitors section on Newegg). If you are going to be looking at text a lot, I'd especially recommend an IPS-based LCD for that (especially considering that IPS doesn't cost a lot more for a few monitors in the size range I mentioned). With the better blacks, whites, and uniformity of contrast, for me it noticeably cut down eye strain from reading when I switched.

I didn't realize you were planning on getting two GPUs. I'm advising to get just one, as like I said I have about the same hardware and you know what sort of performance I get.

I recommend the Corsair 750w instead for the PSU, but the 600 will probably be fine if you don't want to spend the extra cash.

And as a note regarding multiple monitors, I run a two monitor setup (as seen in the "Post Your Desk" thread) and have both connected to one card - supposing you decide not to get more than one graphics card.

Quote from CecilSunkure

I didn't realize you were planning on getting two GPUs. I'm advising to get just one, as like I said I have about the same hardware and you know what sort of performance I get.

You didn't mention what GPU you have.

Quote from ShadowFlare

What kind of monitors are you looking for? (size, resolution, etc.) If you were only planning on getting around 20" - 23", there are IPS LCD monitors that should fit within your budget (search ips in the monitors section on Newegg). If you are going to be looking at text a lot, I'd especially recommend an IPS-based LCD for that (especially considering that IPS doesn't cost a lot more for a few monitors in the size range I mentioned). With the better blacks, whites, and uniformity of contrast, for me it noticeably cut down eye strain from reading when I switched.

Haven't put much thought into it yet, to be honest. This one seems like a pretty good deal, though: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824005240

Quote from ShadowFlare

In my opinion, there are only two reasons for dual-card setups for gaming: 1) you want two of the fastest card there is for even better performance than just one of the fastest card or 2) you plan on later getting another to increase performance as your system gets older. #1 is reasonable for those who want to spend the money on that sort of thing, but I think #2 is kind of sketchy. Except when a faster card simply does not exist, it is probably better just to buy one card instead of starting out with two. This is also probably a better fit with wanting a computer that is not noisy.

What card would you recommend at the $250-$400 price range?

Quote from DevliN

I recommend the Corsair 750w instead for the PSU, but the 600 will probably be fine if you don't want to spend the extra cash.

Alright, I can bump that up.

Does anyone have a recommendation for an SSD? Or a better case?

You can't go wrong with a Cooler Master case. I've had CM cases on both my desktops (my current one is a CM690 II) and I'm very satisfied with them both. CM690 II review.
I'm using a 60GB SSD from Corsair, but you can probably get s way bigger one for a reasonable price now. I've pretty much only got Windows installed on mine. Takes about 45 seconds from I press the power button, till everything is ready ;D
The single GTX 560Ti graphics card I have can run pretty much everything on max settings.

How weird, my post edit didn't get submitted. I was going to recommend a CM690 II case.

Quote from Roy

Also, Ivy Bridge sounds cool.

AHAHAHAA

PSU: Rosewill Hive/Capstone/Lightning, OCZ Z*, Kingwin Lazer, Most Corsair, Antec, Lepa, Anything Enermax, Seasonic. In particular the rosewill hive is a good deal with a rosewill case.
Case: The HAF 912 is enough for anybody, and I personally like anti-rice and no plastic on my cases. Fractal cases are good, and there's a lot that have sound dampening, but they're not cheap.
Motherboard: It's an afterthought. Anything Asrock, Asus, MSI (Ex will say no on MSI for personal reasons), Gigabyte (I say no because they don't have UEFI), and even biostar/zotac on the low end. Try for those first 3 though. Important thing is the chipset, the ports, and the power.
Storage: Get a $100 crucial m4 or samsung 128 GB SSD. That's the standard now. Then grab any other drive. It doesn't matter what, just note that samsung and seagate are likely the best buys. $80/TB is the going rate.
Graphics: Check the other thread for that link to tiger direct for $170 GTX 560 Tis. Otherwise, grab some 7000 series or kepler based graphics card. If you want a gaming machine, you should spend 1/3 to 1/2 of your budget on the graphics card. $340 on two cards is a good buy here.
RAM: ddr3-1600 is $4-5 per gigabyte.

I highly advise using pcpartpicker and slickdeals to find the best prices once you know what you're looking for. Always combo your cpu/motherboard/ram together (pick 2 and try to match something) at newegg. Always check the email special deals on newegg. An ideal newegg cart has 0 items that aren't in a combo or have a coupon associated with them. Don't buy entirely based on what people say is good quality. Buy for the deal.

Get the 256GB Crucial M4 (It's currently <$1 per GB and very high up there in both performance and reliability), and any 2TB drive with a decent warranty (can be 5400/5900 RPM, doesn't matter; if you have a SSD as the system drive, there is no need to get a fast HDD).

No need to grab two GPUs. A single GPU should be plenty for single-monitor gaming. I doubt you want to render games on a dual-monitor setup with the bezel in the middle, so you're likely going to be using one screen only.

Quote from Zycorax

You can't go wrong with a Cooler Master case. I've had CM cases on both my desktops (my current one is a CM690 II) and I'm very satisfied with them both.

Good to know. I guess I'll get the CM690 II, then.

Quote from rockz

AHAHAHAA

So... You're saying I should get a 2600k and overclock it?

Quote from rockz

Graphics: Check the other thread for that link to tiger direct for $170 GTX 560 Tis.

That sounds like a good idea. Though it looks like it isn't $170 anymore.

Quote from rockz

$340 on two cards is a good buy here.

So you think I should go with two cards?

Quote from rockz

I highly advise using pcpartpicker and slickdeals to find the best prices once you know what you're looking for. Always combo your cpu/motherboard/ram together (pick 2 and try to match something) at newegg. Always check the email special deals on newegg. An ideal newegg cart has 0 items that aren't in a combo or have a coupon associated with them. Don't buy entirely based on what people say is good quality. Buy for the deal.

Thanks for the heads up.

Quote from HCM™Aristocrat

Get the 256GB Crucial M4 (It's currently <$1 per GB and very high up there in both performance and reliability), and any 2TB drive with a decent warranty (can be 5400/5900 RPM, doesn't matter; if you have a SSD as the system drive, there is no need to get a fast HDD).

Sounds good. Do I really need 2TB? I'm currently only using 80GB on this laptop (which is the only thing I have right now).

Quote from HCM™Aristocrat

No need to grab two GPUs. A single GPU should be plenty for single-monitor gaming. I doubt you want to render games on a dual-monitor setup with the bezel in the middle, so you're likely going to be using one screen only.

So... I shouldn't get two cards?

OC'ing ivy bridge? No fair! D:

OC'ing used to be cool and edgy but really is only for hipsters and bored scientists now. Current chips have caught up with today's software demands, and most heavy-handed applications have GPU acceleration. I can't see why anyone would need to OC a 3770K. People really only do it just cause. As a point, I am running a sandy bridge pentium processor. That's right, pentium. And it's enough for most things I throw at it; it could even run sc2 with playable framerates on the lowest settings (Intel HD graphics only).

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I also suggest only getting one graphics card. If your budget is $300 for a graphics card, you can get a pretty top notch card. I'm using a 6870 right now (step up from 7750), and I can max sc2 on 1280x1024 resolution with good frame rates, although too many units can drop it down pretty fast (may be CPU related).

PSU is fine.

The SSD to HDD size ratio is a little strange though. I mean, if you got the cash it's fine, but usually you just put only the most important stuff on the SSD and not like 20% of everything.
However I'd go for a 96GB SSD and 1-2 TB HDD. Especially since HDDs are so cheap.

You need a dual or quad channel RAM kit, not triple channel. So 2 or 4 sticks, not 3.

Quote from Sacrieur

If your budget is $300 for a graphics card, you can get a pretty top notch card.

Let's assume (going off of rockz's numbers) that my budget is about $500 for a graphics card.

Quote from NudeRaider

However I'd go for a 966GB SSD and 1-2 TB HDD. Especially since HDDs are so cheap.

966GB?!?!? I know you meant 96.

I suppose. It's a little weird because I have an old external that's 300GB, and that's basically stored everything I've ever collected and wanted to keep. I can't imagine what I'll do with 2TB, but I guess it can't hurt to have it.

Quote from Excalibur

You need a dual or quad channel RAM kit, not triple channel. So 2 or 4 sticks, not 3.

Yes sir.

Changed RAM to G.Skill Ripjaws 16GB, SSD to Crucial 128GB and HDD to Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB.

Still on the fence with the processor. Should I stick with the 3770k, or get the older 2600k and overclock it?

Quote from Roy

Quote from CecilSunkure

I didn't realize you were planning on getting two GPUs. I'm advising to get just one, as like I said I have about the same hardware and you know what sort of performance I get.

You didn't mention what GPU you have.

I have a Radeon 6800 Saphire card. I had some issues with drivers, though it recently cleared up without me tinkering when there was an update from ATI. Why did you switch from a Radeon card?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908

Overclocking shortens the lifespan of the processor (although not considerably), and most things you do won't be CPU-limited nowadays. I'd just run it at stock speed and overclock as needed if current performance is insufficient. As for the thermal issues: it's still possible to overclock Ivy Bridge, you just would be seeing much more drastic temperature increases due to two factors:
- Intel used cheap thermal paste instead of fluxless solder in the packaging. Merely replacing that with OCZ Freeze Extreme brought temperatures down significantly, although this is not something you should be doing at home.
- A similar number of transistors compared to sandy bridge is crammed into a lower die area, leading to more heat per square millimeter.

To save money, get an i5 instead, and possibly a sandy bridge i5-2500k ($170 at microcenter). After overclocking the performance differences between this and the $350 i7-3770k will be nearly nonexistent since hyperthreading (the difference between i5 and i7 CPUs) does jack shit for gaming and you can get way more aggressive with the OC on a sandy bridge chip.

For the GPU, rockz's $170 GTX 560 Ti would be a very good buy. If you're getting a high wattage PSU to start with, you'll open an upgrade path to buy additional 560 Tis to SLI in the future instead of throwing out the old card for a faster single card. 650W is more than sufficient for down-the-road two-way SLI.

Quote from Roy

Sounds good. Do I really need 2TB? I'm currently only using 80GB on this laptop (which is the only thing I have right now).

Hmm, in that case you probably are better off just buying a 256GB SSD to start with and no mechanical hard drive; when you do end up needing the extra space (unlikely to happen soon judging by what your current data usage is like), you can just buy one and shove another HDD into the case. I expect there to be one last major drop in hard drive prices some time in the future as they approach pre-flood price levels, so you might save some money there.

There are also rumors that Seagate is about to massively increase their HDD capacities, so it can't hurt much to wait and see what the fuss is all about.

Quote from Roy

So... I shouldn't get two cards?

Microstuttering is inherent in all multi-GPU configurations, and I don't know if you are affected by it or not. In any case, a single card should be good enough even if it's a last-generation Fermi card, because it still delivers amazing performance.

EDIT> The RAM you picked is 1066 MHz and has gargantuan heat spreaders that do absolutely nothing except look cool and possibly block the CPU cooler. Buy four sticks of this or this.

Quote from HCM™Aristocrat

After overclocking the performance differences between this and the $350 i7-3770k will be nearly nonexistent since hyperthreading (the difference between i5 and i7 CPUs) does jack shit for gaming and you can get way more aggressive with the OC on a sandy bridge chip.

I'm not getting the processor specifically for gaming. What about for building/compiling/deploying 10GB solutions? VS does parallel project building, so if hyperthreading would save some time there, I'd want to stick with the i7.

Quote from HCM™Aristocrat

Hmm, in that case you probably are better off just buying a 256GB SSD to start with and no mechanical hard drive; when you do end up needing the extra space (unlikely to happen soon judging by what your current data usage is like), you can just buy one and shove another HDD into the case. I expect there to be one last major drop in hard drive prices some time in the future as they approach pre-flood price levels, so you might save some money there.

Yeah, I can always throw in a HDD if I'm running low on storage space. I switched to a 256GB SSD and no HDD for now.

Quote from HCM™Aristocrat

650W is more than sufficient for down-the-road two-way SLI.

I'm currently looking at a 750W; should I consider getting something cheaper?

Quote from HCM™Aristocrat

EDIT> The RAM you picked is 1066 MHz and has gargantuan heat spreaders that do absolutely nothing except look cool and possibly block the CPU cooler. Buy four sticks of this or this.

Alright, I'll make the switch.

Also, I threw on mouse/keyboard/speaker just because I'll probably want those things too, and you guys have given me great feedback thus far.

Quote from CecilSunkure

Why did you switch from a Radeon card?

I was never really set on AMD or nVidia; I was looking at both of them at first. I have a Radeon in this laptop and have had some (minor) compatibility issues with certain games. Also, after a quick Google search, it seems the GTX 560 Ti outperforms the Radeon 6850, and it's only about $30 more right now.

If you specifically want the features of the included stand for that monitor, I couldn't argue with that monitor choice, considering that included stands like that usually carry more of a premium on the price than that and buying those separate from the monitor can be pricey as well. Having height adjustment is nice to have, after all, especially considering that the cheap stands without that can often be quite low.