build my friend a rig for $2000!

johnny87au

Hey guys building a rig for my friend, dont have time to pick the parts etc as i have exams and assignments due this week! Anywhere from 2000-2300$ . The site i'll be using will be pccasegear.com & the rig will mainly be used for gaming ! Thanks johnny

killer_939 · 05-07-2012, 10:59 | posts: 2,595 | Location: Australia

http://img859.imageshack.us/img859/863/47696970.png

I quickly put that together, i myself haven't done research either tho.

johnny87au · 05-07-2012, 11:05 | posts: 1,817 | Location: Only the best AU

Thanks, more recommendations please

cole2109 · 05-07-2012, 13:25 | posts: 536 | Location: Slovenia

Azarobi · 05-07-2012, 14:01 | posts: 472 | Location: Karachi

Does your friend need a monitor as well? if not What res monitor does he currently own ?

PinguX · 05-07-2012, 14:31 | posts: 795

lehtv · 05-07-2012, 16:27 | posts: 3,094

What's the resolution of the monitor your friend owns? What about other peripherals, need upgrading?

Does he own a copy of Windows?

Does he want to OC the CPU or do you want to OC for him?

Does Blu-ray matter or is DVD fine?

Does he care if the PC makes noise or not?

johnny87au · 05-08-2012, 01:36 | posts: 1,817 | Location: Only the best AU

Hey guys friend only needs a gaming PC meaning tower and all the hardware, no keyboard monitor,mouse etc.. And no blu ray devices and yes i have windows for him

sykozis · 05-08-2012, 02:03 | posts: 13,630 | Location: US East Coast

Quote:

Originally Posted by killer_939

http://img859.imageshack.us/img859/863/47696970.png

I quickly put that together, i myself haven't done research either tho.

I'd go with this one....

johnny87au · 05-08-2012, 03:06 | posts: 1,817 | Location: Only the best AU

^ Yeah that looks the most promising rig so far..

sykozis · 05-08-2012, 03:19 | posts: 13,630 | Location: US East Coast

Might be better with a Kuhler 920 but I might be a bit biased due to bad experience with my Kuhler 620.

deltatux · 05-08-2012, 03:24 | posts: 18,944 | Location: Toronto, Canada

Quote:

Originally Posted by killer_939

http://img859.imageshack.us/img859/863/47696970.png

I quickly put that together, i myself haven't done research either tho.

I back this build as well.

deltatux

smashly · *Last edited by smashly; 05-08-2012 at 04:59.*

Hi,

Cheers
Edit: To be honest the price of the GTX 680 is f'n bs, basically just to have a GTX 680 means that the other parts in your 2K build has to be sacraficed.
Hope nvidia chokes on their profits!!!!
Better yet, I hope AMD punches Nvidia in the proverbial nuts sometime soon.

Azarobi · 05-08-2012, 06:38 | posts: 472 | Location: Karachi

Why recommend a $5xx card when you don't know the Res the guy is going to be playing on.

deltatux · 05-08-2012, 06:45 | posts: 18,944 | Location: Toronto, Canada

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azarobi

Why recommend a $5xx card when you don't know the Res the guy is going to be playing on.

Good question, but I guess it's the "you have the budget, why not?" syndrome here.

I think the GTX 670 or the Radeon HD 7970 would do the job just fine.

deltatux

lehtv · 05-08-2012, 08:41 | posts: 3,094

Quote:

Originally Posted by deltatux

Good question, but I guess it's the "you have the budget, why not?" syndrome here.

I think the GTX 670 or the Radeon HD 7970 would do the job just fine.

deltatux

The issue here is that if he's playing on 22" 1680x1050, it'd be a better idea to buy a good, big 1080p monitor, which obviously would lower the budget for the tower itself.

OP, can't really recommend anything before I know the monitor your friend is using.

Also, I'd like to know if he/you want to overclock the CPU or not.

deltatux · 05-08-2012, 08:45 | posts: 18,944 | Location: Toronto, Canada

Quote:

Originally Posted by lehtv

The issue here is that if he's playing on 22" 1680x1050, it'd be a better idea to buy a good, big 1080p monitor, which obviously would lower the budget for the tower itself.

OP, can't really recommend anything before I know the monitor your friend is using.

Also, I'd like to know if he/you want to overclock the CPU or not.

I noticed that even if you play at 1680x1050, a better GPU would make things like antialiasing performance a lot better. I know that I have to scale down on some special effects and antialiasing in Battlefield 3 in order to get an avg. of 55 - 60 fps (with vsync on, I can't stand tearing) on my Radeon HD 6870.

Resolution is only one of several factors to think about when quoting a GPU.

deltatux

lehtv · 05-08-2012, 08:47 | posts: 3,094

Quote:

Originally Posted by deltatux

I noticed that even if you play at 1680x1050, a better GPU would make things like antialiasing performance a lot better. I know that I have to scale down on some special effects and antialiasing in Battlefield 3 in order to get an avg. of 55 - 60 fps (with vsync on, I can't stand tearing) on my Radeon HD 6870.

Resolution is only one of several factors to think about when quoting a GPU.

deltatux

I didn't mean the GPU you recommended would be overkill for 1680, that's user-dependent. I meant that we still need to know what the monitor is because if it's to be upgraded, the builds recommended here will have to change to accommodate the cut in budget.

thatguy91 · *Last edited by thatguy91; 05-08-2012 at 09:35.*

Yeah that last list of specs is $800 worth of card by the time you include the cooler! :S

From personal experience, the ST2000DM001 2TB Seagate drive choice may be a bit questionable - although it seems to be the case if you do a complete write across the whole drive (using the diskpart clean all command), maybe even twice, they run a lot better!... this needs to be the very absolute first thing you do, as everything including the partition info and data area is written with 0's. This does not hide bad sectors on the drive - I recommend after you do that you do a long read test in Seatools. The clean all command appears to do nothing whilst it process (something like 5 hours?) and the Seatools test probably takes 5 hours as well - thats to verify the drive is okay to go.

It won't really cause extra wear on the drive mechanics, since the clean all command and long read test is sequential. The clean all command just seems to prepare the magnetic surface?...

This could be, and sounds, complete bull I know, but talking experience (both mine and two friends), it seems to work! The only drives I had to send back, and the two friends with the same problem, were drives that this preparation process had NOT been done on! One was local so could see its the same thing, the other was online with a friend I hadn't seen for ages - but he's competent with computers. My point is, I had 5 drives (2 I didn't do this process on, the 2 I sent back). The local friend bought 3, 1 sent back because he couldn't have been bothered after processing 2 drives, and likewise the online friend just got an exchange for 1 because after doing 1 he thought it was pointless, and the problematic drives were all the drives where the process hadn't been done on! coincidence? maybe.

I should point out failure wasn't usually straight away, it took about 3 weeks of use or more, 1 week for the local friend, and maybe 2? for the online friend. For all three computers, these are on 24/7, with no power saving spin-down - so factoring that in, it might have taken a few months otherwise?... who knows. The errors for me shows up because one of the bad sectors corrupted data I was trying to access, and in all other cases they only showed up in the long read Seatools tests.

Sorry for the thread hijack, just wanted to put that info out there to save people data loss and inconvenience.

Weecka · 05-08-2012, 12:25 | posts: 234 | Location: UK

Quote:

Originally Posted by killer_939

http://img859.imageshack.us/img859/863/47696970.png

I quickly put that together, i myself haven't done research either tho.

^^ this and i'd persoanally wait for GTX 670 release as from the previews i've seen it will be almost as quick as 680 with quite lower price.

lehtv · 05-08-2012, 12:34 | posts: 3,094

Quote:

Originally Posted by killer_939

http://img859.imageshack.us/img859/863/47696970.png

I quickly put that together, i myself haven't done research either tho.

EDIT: Most of the stuff seems a bit overpriced to me, I think I can build a better rig for $2000. And assuming it's a for a monitor resolution of 1080p, there's no need to spend more than $1500 or so to get great performance and quality. If it's for a lower resolution, the remaining $500 should be spent on a good 1080p+ monitor.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Weecka

^^ this + an ssd drive, increases annoying boot times, and i'd persoanally wait for GTX 670 release as from the previews i've seen it will be almost as quick as 680 with quite lower price.

The list already contained an SSD.

Azarobi · 05-08-2012, 15:19 | posts: 472 | Location: Karachi

Its all about balance. choosing a GTX680 and then going for a 650W PS doesn't cut it. Been a long time since i put up a rig together, but this is what i would go for.

There is still room left for a GTX680 should you choose to go for it. Cheers.

lehtv · 05-08-2012, 16:32 | posts: 3,094

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azarobi

Its all about balance. choosing a GTX680 and then going for a 650W PS doesn't cut it.

How so?

lehtv · 05-08-2012, 16:53 | posts: 3,094

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azarobi

Been a long time since i put up a rig together, but this is what i would go for.

*snip*

This rig would perform the same for over $300 less. Add another 7950 3GB if the resolution is >1080p. Add a 1080p monitor if the resolution is <1080p.

deltatux · 05-08-2012, 17:57 | posts: 18,944 | Location: Toronto, Canada

Quote:

Originally Posted by lehtv

EDIT: Most of the stuff seems a bit overpriced to me, I think I can build a better rig for $2000. And assuming it's a for a monitor resolution of 1080p, there's no need to spend more than $1500 or so to get great performance and quality. If it's for a lower resolution, the remaining $500 should be spent on a good 1080p+ monitor.

Looks overpriced because it's not in USD. It's in AUD.

deltatux