Please help with PC build

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meowX

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Hey guys. I am trying to do some research on what to get, but I'm reading conflicting opinions everywhere. And to be honest, I'm not very clued up on it all :(
As soon as I decide on what to get I read something else and I gotta change my entire rig.

What am going to use the PC for is mostly the usual stuff, photoshop and I also want to be able to play Elder Scrolls Online next year. That's the main reason I'm looking at getting a new PC. So, I won't be doing heavy gaming like Crysis 2 etc. But I would still like those sort of games to run OK in the rare event that I may.
To clarify, I'll be doing 50% work and 50% gaming :erm:

My budget is around R5000-R7000.

I've decided on an i5 cpu since I'm reading bad things about AMD all over.

I had the following components:
CPU: i5 3570k 3.40GHz Quad Core
MB: Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 (I looked at the HD7770, but there seems to be no love for that one)

I don't know if this overkill or not good enough for me. And I suspect it may not be a well balanced choice?

Please can you help me! I'm desperate and seriously confused by all the reviews and forums :confused:

Thanks for your time!
 
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Add R800 to your budget and have a look at THIS PC its very good IMO.

PS: It doesn't include Screen,OS,Mouse,Keyboard.
 
Anybody know when AMD Piledriver is coming out? Depending on price it may be a viable option.

Bulldozer has pretty good CS4 perfomance (better than Intel if I remember correctly) and with gaming the GPU also plays a pretty big role.
 
@Rickster Thanks for the reply :) That's very tempting! I did look at evetech originally, but when I started pricing the components I noticed they were overcharging a bit. But I must say this does look like a fair price. How will this run games and photoshop?
 
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@ponder - contact www.evetech.co.za - they provided an AMD Piledriver system to mygaming.co.za for a review.

@meouX - i've bought an i5-3570K / asrock mobo / 16gb ddr3 2133GHz ram / msi 660 2gb for my son, and he's very happy.
 
Stick with the 560, it's still a good value for money card, but the 560Ti is significantly better.
 
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meowX said:
@mika1000 the 660 2gb is considerably more, though :(
I'm deciding between HD7770 and GTX650.

@Rickster I'm not sure why the following one is R100 more. The only difference I see is the HD7770. And I've been reading that the GTX650 is better.
http://www.evetech.co.za/Computer-systems/intel-core-i5-quad-core-hd-7770-dx11-custom-built-gaming-pc-61.aspx
Click to expand...

I would recommend the Nvidia card opposed to the ATI card, because ATI drivers often give a lot of trouble and have stability issues.

Would the 650 be good enough for gaming and CS? Hell yes, My OC GTX 460 is still rocking most games on ultra...even BF3 at a good Framerate.

Totempole said:
Stick with the 560, it's still a good value for money card, but the 560Ti is significantly better.
Click to expand...

You mean the 650, not the 560
 
meowX said:
What am going to use the PC for is mostly the usual stuff, photoshop and I also want to be able to play Elder Scrolls Online next year. That's the main reason I'm looking at getting a new PC. So, I won't be doing heavy gaming like Crysis 2 etc. But I would still like those sort of games to run OK in the rare event that I may.
To clarify, I'll be doing 50% work and 50% gaming :erm:

My budget is around R5000-R7000.
Click to expand...

I would recommend:

Intel Core i5 3470 @ R1986
GIGABYTE GA-B75M-D3H @ R885
Corsair Value Select DDR3-1600 8GB @ R396
Sapphire Radeon HD7770 1GB DDR5 @ R1330
OCZ Agility 3 120GB SSD @ R964
LG GH24NS90 DVD-RW @ R169
Cooler Master GX 400W @ R507
Antec One S3 USB 3.0 @ R464
Total: R6701

With the SSD, most games and apps will load at speeds so fast you'll forget you're on a mid-range machine very quickly. Performance-wise Photoshop will be a cinch and if you're getting the latest version, it fully supports GPU acceleration for a number of cards. That said, I'd choose the HD7770 for gaming, especially considering that recent driver updates knocked performance up considerably. Settings-wise, 1080p with medium to high settings and 2x AA should work out just fine, but Ultra settings are a no-go.

If you want, you can stretch your budget a little to shove in a second hard drive for storing your media, photos and projects, although you can just use any SATA drives you currently have. If you already have a DVD drive you can switch over, I'd recommend maxing out your budget to R7000 and getting a larger SSD to the tune of 240GB. 128GB is sufficient for the Windows install, your drivers and applications and a game or four, but beyond that you'd need a second drive for everything else to not have to worry about running out of space.

ponder said:
Anybody know when AMD Piledriver is coming out? Depending on price it may be a viable option.
Click to expand...

End of next month, that's what I'm hearing. Took about the same length of time for Trinity from launch to reaching our shores.
 
@NAG - Wesley I like your set up. I'm just worried about the fact you can't OC on the 3470. What about the 2500k?
And like I said, I originally did look at the HD7770, but a lot of people are negative about that one and AMD GPU's in general.
So, it's either the 650 or I go out of my budget and get the 560.

The SSD is a nice option and I completely see your point about how it's faster. But damn, they are a lot more for less space :P
 
OK, so here is what I think:
i5-2500k 3.3Ghz OR i5-2550K 3.4GHz
GTX 650 MSI OC 1GB (maybe 650ti if I can budget for it)
I just don't know which motherboard is best for this...

How does this sound? Or am I being a total dumbass?
Is the 3570k a much better option?
 
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meowX said:
OK, so here is what I think:
i5-2500k 3.3Ghz OR i5-2550K 3.4GHz
GTX 650 MSI OC 1GB (maybe 650ti if I can budget for it)
I just don't know which motherboard is best for this...

How does this sound? Or am I being a total dumbass?
Is the 3570k a much better option?
Click to expand...

There is still a huge debate on whether the 3rd Generation Ivy Bridge is considerably better than the 2nd Gen Sandy Bridge.

Many people have the impression Newer = Better...wrong. The Ivy Bridge is claimed to be only a fraction better than Sandy Bridge, and that fraction is not worth the price. So rather get the Sandy Bridge IMO.

From Wiki:

Heat issue when overclocked: Ivy Bridge's temperatures are reportedly 10°C higher compared to Sandy Bridge when overclocked, even at default voltage setting.

Performance:

Compared to Sandy Bridge:
5% to 15% increase in CPU performance (Wow)
25% to 68% increase in integrated GPU performance


PS: Ivy bridge is back wards compatible with Sandy Bridge and Visa-Versa
 
meowX said:
@Totempole I think I like your idea of the 560 more than the 650. But I don't see a significant difference between the 560 and the 560Ti if I look at http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/543?vs=547
Click to expand...

You won't see much of a difference between them in those tests because the cards shared a 192-bit memory bus, and when applying lots of AA and AF would bring them pretty close to each other, but not on equal footing. The GTX650 is actually a worse-off choice to make in comparison with the GTX560, the GTX650 Ti is the more appropriate card to compare to.

meowX said:
@NAG - Wesley I like your set up. I'm just worried about the fact you can't OC on the 3470. What about the 2500k?
Click to expand...

If you can still find a 2500K in stock, that would be fine but you'd have to invest in a slightly more expensive Z77-based board to be able to overclock the chip. Are you really going to overclock, considering that you won't see any of the benefits besides a second or two shaved off your Photoshop work? Games won't run that much faster because you'll be mostly GPU-limited.

meowX said:
And like I said, I originally did look at the HD7770, but a lot of people are negative about that one and AMD GPU's in general.
So, it's either the 650 or I go out of my budget and get the 560.
Click to expand...

There's not a lot wrong with the HD7770, really, its as limited as any other GPU in that price point right now (IMO, also a better option for gamers than the GTX650).

Also, on the Ivy Bridge debate, it is worth the small price increase over their Sandy Bridge equivalents. Saving on average 20W in power usage under full load is great, there's around 10% of a performance improvement in most scenarios and, if you're not the overclocking type, it will be cooler than the equivalent Sandy Bridge chip as well. Its the better deal.
 
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@Rickster:
Just an additional note:
Ivy Bridge CPU's should work in Sandy Bridge motherboards, BUT those motherboards often require BIOS updates before the Ivy Bridge CPU's will work!

I'd go with the i5 3570k seeing that you're going for an Ivy Bridge motherboard too.
 
Pada said:
@Rickster:


I'd go with the i5 3570k seeing that you're going for an Ivy Bridge motherboard too.
Click to expand...

Im not going for the Ivy Bridge, I'm perfectly happy with the Sandy Bridge (Asus P8Z68-M Pro).
 
I think I'm going with the following:
CPU: i5-3570
GPU: Gigabyte AMD Radeon HD 7770
MB: Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H

I'm already going over budget since I still need to get the PSU, Case, HDD and Optical Drive.... :P
 
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