Project Reality Forums

hello all. i recently got myself a job and am making enough where i could most likely put about $100-$200 away per month (CAD).
i am at the point where i can barely play modern pc games without all low settings, and since my pc is factory from 2007 i feel its time for an upgrade.
so my questions are how much would a nice gaming computer cost me altogether. and based on the amount of money i can save up, would it be better off to wait until i have the money (would the stuff you guys suggest now be out dated by the time i can afford it).
and also if possible some specific suggestions on what to buy eg: amount of ram, processor etc,.
keep in mind ive never built my own pc, but do have a basic knowledge of computer components and their specs.

Around 1000 USD, maybe less. Its already hard to put system at 600 because you sacrifice so much, that you feel improvement and changes for short time period already buying low end stuff.

You might want to watch some videos by this guy.

He builds gaming PCs in various cost categories (500 bucks, 750 bucks, 1000 bucks). He first presents each component with reasoning why he chose it, and less importantly also gives you a tut on how to build the pc .


PS: You might want to check out the Windows 8 customer preview, and probably buy a spare copy of Win7 while you still can .

Meh, every second Windows is meh. Windows 2000 - awesome, Milenium - shit, XP - awesome, Vista - shit, Seven - awesome, so with Windows Eight how it will be then?

You'd probobly get away with $1000 CAD but you would have to buy lower end processor and video card. You need about $1500 - $2000 to build a good rig. Get on NCIX.ca and check out some of the prebuild systems on there.

Forget about windows 8 as was already mentioned.

thanks alot for the help so far guys, il check out those videos and that website, and im not going to sacrifice lower end components for price, il just wait until i have enough. i want a good pc that will last me a while

When I built my last one I bought it piece by piece when things went on sale. Took me about 6 months to get everything, but I saved 300$ or more.

So im deciding my budget will be around 1500. Im curious what cpu you guys would suggest for my price range. And what type of case should i get if i just want a basic one that will fit everything? Also is it possible to get a modern sound card with xfi 64mb? More questions to come probably haha thanks for the input

Id suggest getting an Intel i5-3570k processor. It does more than necessary .
Also about the soundcard... It is totally unneccessary (unless you need extra professional ports) to have external soundcards nowadays, it doesn't burden processors much at all (if any, and either way the extra effort in sending the data to the soundcard might remove any benefit..).

As for the case, its generally personal preference in the design. Most cases nowadays have enough fan ports and generally all in the right places. So find a case you want, but make sure its ATX size and can fit full size GPU's. I personally have the NZXT Phantom, fully loaded with fans and its great. The front and top may be made of plastic, but it was a lot cheaper than any overpriced thin metal counterparts. (The plastic is actually very high quality and quite thick, and doesn't look cheap). Also has a built in fan controller which is handy when I want the PC to be silent.

Well, if have very good headset or speakers and you want sound nice and hear every single thing, then soundcard is must, because decent audio is as far I know on ASUS ROG boards (not all of them) and Gigabyte G1 boards.

About CPU, yeah, i5-3570k does job just fine.

About cases, pick one which appeals you, but first, very important - does it have enough room, does it have cable management options (like routing behind them). That is why I like Corsair and Fractal Design. Very nice cases. Got few systems to build on them and just badass. Of course NZXT and Cooler Master is nice (Silverstone as well), but yeah, those two things are most important. About size ATX form factor case is fine to stuff everything.

Intel Core i5 3570K Unlocked Quad Core Processor LGA1155 3.4GHZ Ivy Bridge 6MB Retail - Intel - BX80637I53570K
to be clear that would be the right processor, with ivy bridge?

also i feel like i would want to go for the sound card possibly since i have beats headphones and a pretty good speaker system, although i usually only game with the beats since it sounds so nice

That would be it friend

I'm actually getting one on wednesday (supposed to come in then) quite excited about it...but you may want to look into a watercooler to pair off with it.

paul161616 wrote:beats headphones

Beats by Dre headphones? I bet...no wait. I KNOW my $30 Sennheisers sound way better than those. How much did you spend for those anyways? I've seen them for $300+.

Anyways, a good sound card would be a ASUS Xonar D1. I use it, great output and quality, low cost.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6829132007

okay yea, i just read over your thread, im definitely leaning towards the i5-3570k. one of the things i have very little knowledge about is cooling, any products you guys would suggest for that cpu if im overclocking it? and for buying video cards, is buying 2 generally just for if you have more than one monitor? would if be worth it to buy 2 using just one moniter or is that overkill? and my question on sound cards still stands

EDIT: ninja'd haha i got the beats solo as a gift so for the amount i payed its pretty good and also the main reason i ask about the soundcard is because of this:

paul161616 wrote:is anyone else getting some sorta sound glitch when firing multiple hydras, where all other sounds cut out except for the explosions? happens with me on the littlebird when firing the minigun

[R-CON]-=anders=- wrote: And the real workaround is to get an xfi card with 64MB to use ultra settings. Then the game Will support 128 sounds at the same time without any sounds to get muted. if you play bf2 you should have an xfi 64mb card plugged in.

Look for sound cards that has PCIx not PCI connection, because PCI very old and few manufacturer are not even putting them on their mobos. For example MSI.

paul161616 wrote:okay yea, i just read over your thread, im definitely leaning towards the i5-3570k. one of the things i have very little knowledge about is cooling, any products you guys would suggest for that cpu if im overclocking it? and for buying video cards, is buying 2 generally just for if you have more than one monitor? would if be worth it to buy 2 using just one moniter or is that overkill? and my question on sound cards still stands

EDIT: ninja'd haha i got the beats solo as a gift so for the amount i payed its pretty good and also the main reason i ask about the soundcard is because of this:

Cooling for processors is pretty simple, Noctua make silent running coolers than work as well if not better than corsairs watercooling solutions, but either will work with overclocking. If you want to go insane on the overclocking, then best bet is to do a home made watercooling job, as they're much more efficient than the corsair set in general, but even more costly.

GPU wise it depends on what you want FPS wise, look up benchmarks for your favourite games, and check out what the GPU's can score, this is the most relative scoring you will get to your actual performance. You can always add another GPU later on if you feel its lacking a bit, and it will be much much cheaper by that point.

Still with the sound-cards, I don't believe many motherboards don't support 128 voices, generally a processor capable thing. Also with MSI motherboards(only ones I know of, because I own one ), you get THX certified audio hardware which is a good standard and allows little tweaks to the sound quality, such as crystalliser(same as on Creative X-Fi sound-cards) and surround sound mixing. I used to believe that a sound-card was needed for better sound, but after testing my PC with and without a Titanium X-Fi Fatality (yes it has the coveted RAM), I noticed not much of a difference, but its hard to tell, as I had to turn off the PC between removing it kinda thing. Also the Creative without its crystalliser and such additions sounds very muddy compared to any normal speaker system or the onboard system.

But as Cossack says, get a PCI-Express card, as the PCI cards also had major problems with crackling and popping due to lagg on the bus... This was a big problem with old Creative cards, have a google of Creative sound card problems and you will find many many people having that problem.

thanks for the info. i will look into some more cooling products now that i have an idea, and if i wanted to run games like bf3 and other graphics demanding games on high settings and steady fps 30+ is that even reasonable with one gpu? i dont really know. and for the soundcard, i know that most mobos will support 128 sounds but will bf2 be able to utilize that?

paul161616 wrote:thanks for the info. i will look into some more cooling products now that i have an idea, and if i wanted to run games like bf3 and other graphics demanding games on high settings and steady fps 30+ is that even reasonable with one gpu? i dont really know. and for the soundcard, i know that most mobos will support 128 sounds but will bf2 be able to utilize that?

NVIDIA GTX 680 Review ? Page 6 - Testing: Battlefield 3 - Overclockers Club

Shows 96 fps at 1920x1080 resolution, so yes easily.

I am not 100% sure on that, I haven't noticed any problems with it in ultra setting before, but then again I can't really tell if there's 128 'voices' so can't fully answer that Q.

Yes... You don't need 670 to run everything high. Anyway, 660Ti will come out on upcoming days, so take a look

alright looking through the gpus i have a couple questions. should i be sticking to the gtx series? they seem the most popular. and would it be worth the $500-$600 for a gtx 680? my planned budget was to be around $200-$300 for gpu. keep in mind i may not have the money for this project for another 4-6 months. any other suggestions for a $200-$300 gpu with strong performance? i took a look at the 660 Ti which looks very interesting but depends on its price which i couldnt find. and thanks for the help on the soundcard, it looks like i wont need one to start with so if im having problems with my sound in bf2 il just get one afterwards.

EDIT: actually going through the pc builder i can get a $500 gpu and stay in budget