PC VS. PC -Which is better?

[Slimshadymazz]

Ok guys so these are the 2 I'm choosing between.
Which do you think would be better for gaming?
Also, do you see anything that would cause bottlenecking for me? Something that is to low tier compared to the rest?

Any comments are appreciated! Thank you very much.

First PC:

Intel Z77 Core i5 Configurator

Processor ( Intel® Core™ i5-3570K Processor (4x 3.40GHz/6MB L3 Cache) - Intel Core i5-3570K )

Processor Cooling ( Liquid CPU Cooling System [Intel] - ARC Dual Silent High Performance Fan Upgrade (Push-Pull Airflow) )

Memory ( 8 GB [4 GB X2] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - G.Skill Ripjaws X )

Video Card ( AMD Radeon HD 7970 - 3GB - Single Card )

Motherboard ( Gigabyte GA-Z77-HD3 -- 4x USB 3.0 )

Power Supply ( 650 Watt - Corsair CMPSU-650TXV2 - Free Upgrade to 750 Watt Corsair CMPSU-750TXV2 ($20 Savings) )

Primary Hard Drive ( 1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 32M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Dual 1TB Drives (2TB Capacity) - RAID 0 High Performance )

Optical Drive ( [12X Blu-Ray] LG BLU-RAY Reader, DVD±R/±RW Burner

Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )

Network Card ( Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) )

Operating System ( Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) - 64-Bit )



Second PC:

Cyberpower Z77
CD: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive

CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-3570K 3.40 GHz 6MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified)

FAN HDD: Vigor iSURF II Hard Disk Drive Cooling System [+21] (1 x System)

FAN: Asetek 510LC Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Enhanced Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA) (Dual Standard 120MM Fans

FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer [+10] (BLACK COLOR)

HDD: 256GB SanDisk SATA III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 490MB/s Read & 350MB/s Write [+88] (Single Drive)

HDD2: 1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+85] (Single Drive)

IUSB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports

MEMORY: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)

MOTHERBOARD: * [CrossFireX] GIGABYTE GA-Z77-HD3 Intel Z77 Chipset DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ IRST, Ultra Durable 4 Classic, 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, 2x Gen3 PCIe x16, 2x PCIe x1 & 2 PCI (Extreme OC Certified)

NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network

OS: Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium [+104] (64-bit Edition)

OVERCLOCK: Extreme OC (Extreme Overclock 20% or more)

POWERSUPPLY: 600 Watts - Standard 80 Plus Certified Power Supply - SLI/CrossFireX Ready [+20]

SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO

VIDEO: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB 16X PCIe 3.0 Video Card [+364]




If you see anything thats missing or doesn't match well with other parts, feel free to let me know.

I am leaning towards the second build as I get a Solid state drive and 1TB data drive (which Im thinking is just a storage drive correct? I will get the speed from SSD but the storage from HDD…(?))
Both have the Radeon HD 7970 which is making me drool, because I built these here instead of getting an alienware I'm getting the 7970 instead of Geforce GTX 660 for the same price.

Final note, I went with i5 processor because from what I've read it seems better than an i7 for gaming, or at least the difference between them is negligible. Any suggestions? (Please don't tell me to build it myself, I am not willing to do that, I want something that comes to my door that I can plug in and play. Thanks!

 

[Mjolnir]

Second build purely for the ssd.

Where are you buying these from and what's the price like? Out of curiosity.

 

[Slimshadymazz]

The first is 1,559 and second is 1,554. $5.00 difference heh.
Ibuypower.com is the first one and cybercomputers or whatever is the second pc.
Do you see anything that doesn't fit? Something that will work too hard that I could go up a notch or something that will be underutilized that I could go down a tier?

 

[Knufire]

Both of those are a bit overkill on the PSU and a little underutilized on the motherboard for overclocking.

I'd suspect they the liquid cooling units they use are rather low end...which means they'd the outperformed by better quality air heatsinks..

But as mentioned in your other thread...$1500+ should get you dual 7950 or dual 7970 systems...these are definitely a few hundred over what they're worth.

Also watch out for RAID 0, it is nearly twice as fast as a single HDD but if one HDD dies you lose all the info on both drives. And a SSD is still way faster than two HDDs in RAID0.

 

[Slimshadymazz]

hmm ok so I should upgrade the motherboard and switch to air heatsinks.. ok I don't know anything about motherboards I'm not sure what i'm looking for or what exactly i need to upgrade.. or what qualifies as an upgrade. I don't know how i could get dual 7970's i tried to build a pc just by buying individual parts and i didn't get much further than this for 1500.

 

[Knufire]

I'll just put a list together, one sec.

My estimates were slightly off, but I did a build based on the 2nd one you posted, upgraded the motherboard, added a slightly faster SSD, and managed to fit two 7950s (worth $600+) instead of one 7970 ($400). Plus several hundred dollars in games (2 copies of Bioshock Infinite, Crysis 3, Tomb Raider, and Farcry 3). And another $90 of mail-in-rebates. There's several hundred dollars of savings here.

Also, if you don't want to overclock, this build gets cheaper as well.






I'm sure with more research you could find better deals than these as well.

EDIT: I put the wrong PSU in there, so take off $50 worth of savings, but it's still way cheaper.

 

[sobe]

Do you live near a Microcenter?

 

[Leegit]

We have dual threads going on for this build:
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7482957#post7482957

Going through microcenter will save you another 100$. See my post.

 

[Slimshadymazz]

Hm I do not live near a micro center. Ok guys well thanks, I will keep searching for better prices if you think I can get more for my money still.

 

[EarthDog]

Weird, 2 threads on the same thing? Thought you ended up building your own? COnfused here, should be in one thread...

 

[Slimshadymazz]

Sorry, this thread is actually a little different. And I probably will end up building my own, I'm just trying to get an idea of how compatible my parts are.

 

[Theocnoob]

I'm just trying to get an idea of how compatible my parts are.

How do you mean? Knufire gave you a list of parts. Much better than the two computers you listed at the beginning of the thread. It's not hard to build it yourself. Overclocking is also not hard on these newer Intel CPUs.

If I were you I'd wait (what is it two weeks now?) for the new 4000 series CPUs to come out. It'll get you a couple extra percent of performance. You'll never notice it but everybody wants the 'new' part . I know I would.

 

[ASUS ROG]

Build your own pc is always cheaper then buy a pre build pc, because if those company that build pre build pc charge you lowest price possible, they will have nothing to eat for dinner, so they will have to make some money.

 

[Slimshadymazz]

I'll just put a list together, one sec.

My estimates were slightly off, but I did a build based on the 2nd one you posted, upgraded the motherboard, added a slightly faster SSD, and managed to fit two 7950s (worth $600+) instead of one 7970 ($400). Plus several hundred dollars in games (2 copies of Bioshock Infinite, Crysis 3, Tomb Raider, and Farcry 3). And another $90 of mail-in-rebates. There's several hundred dollars of savings here.

Also, if you don't want to overclock, this build gets cheaper as well.

View attachment 127988
View attachment 127989
View attachment 127990
View attachment 127991

I'm sure with more research you could find better deals than these as well.

EDIT: I put the wrong PSU in there, so take off $50 worth of savings, but it's still way cheaper.

Ok knu.. thanks bud, would you maybe throw together another one something like this with a link or something? If you would be willing, I would just let you pick everything out, and I'll just order it and take to a local shop and have them assemble. I'm also much more comfortable having you do it, as I know you won't forget parts or choose incompatible ones.

With my luck I would forget a vital part or get some parts that don't go together. It needs to be $1,550.00 total though, with shipping. :/ And I would prefer quicker shipped like 3 day or something.

I will only be using one screen so idk if Dual video cards is overkill, I would like the 7970 though, as it will last me longer before I have to replace.

The only things I really want is:

To be able to over clock (unless for the price you can build me something that will run crysis 3 at 60 FPS+ on max settings with the 1920X1280 res (or whatever the typical 19**x**** rez is) and with no lag at all.

I like to run games off HD with tons of mods and programs running on the side, so being able to play stuff like MMO's, and Skyrim (settings maxed) while running mods on the side is really all I want in a PC.

I play every type of game, and I just want to be able to always max out the graphics and run at 60FPS+ without any lag ever of any sort, not even a hint of a hint of lag. I know that some parts may be overkill for that but I'd rather have it be strong so I can continue to play the newest most demanding games on max settings for as long as possible. I know I can wait and get better parts, or upgrade in the near future, but for now I'd rather just get the best I can, i'm not worried about upgrading later, I will worry about that when its time.

So, I want for sure a SSD (size doesn't need to be huge, whatever you think would be sufficient for main drive.

at least 1TB storage drive (or data drive if thats what its called)

HDMI out

No risk of overheating

A case with USB/Mic slots in the front, preferably on top.

To be able to connect to internet with cord, and wirelessly

 

[wingman99]

You could build it your self it's not that hard.

 

[Slimshadymazz]

You could build it your self it's not that hard.

Idk why people keep repeating the same thing over and over.

Yes I am aware of that, I have actually done almost a whole PC myself before, but I really don't want to. I have to money to have someone else do it, so it doesn't bother me at all to have someone else build it.

I am aware its not hard but i'd rather just not worry about static and all that ****, I'm sure as your aware you can change the oil in your car yourself too, its really easy, and takes like 5 minutes, but I'd rather just pay some dude 20 bucks to do it.

 

[wingman99]

In that case I would purchase the i7 3770k and a D-Link DWA-566 Dual Band Wireless Adapter IEEE 802.11a/g/n PCI Express Up to 300Mbps Wireless Data Rates WPA2

 

[Mjolnir]

^I disagree. the 3570k is still plenty fast.. Don't need an i7...

You're GOING to get lag. PERIOD. No MATTER what your setup. You'll get it somewhere along the line. Some stutter. Some drop in fps for a poorly coded area or game. Something. There's no guarantee for that stuff.

I'd also just wait a few weeks regardless. Haswell is arriving soon. Might as well wait

 

[Leegit]

^I disagree. the 3570k is still plenty fast.. Don't need an i7...

You're GOING to get lag. PERIOD. No MATTER what your setup. You'll get it somewhere along the line. Some stutter. Some drop in fps for a poorly coded area or game. Something. There's no guarantee for that stuff.

I'd also just wait a few weeks regardless. Haswell is arriving soon. Might as well wait

+1

Unless you are picking up the Microcenter deal for the i5 3570K. I recommend waiting as well.

 

[Slimshadymazz]

Well i'm really not a patient person at all and I am foaming at the mouth to buy a PC. What would waiting for the new parts do? Also half my funding for this PC is only available for another few days, thats why I'm in such a hurry. Again, I just want something good for the next few months, by christmas I will be in a financial situation where I can upgrade anything I need, adding another GPU, or switching MOBO's or whatever is needed.

Ok guys so after hours and hours of tweaking, this is what I'm thinking on pressing the order button on. This will blow the alienware x51 out of the water I assume?
(when i say press the order button I just mean these parts, not actually from this website, I just use the site to select parts easily.)


1 x Processor ( Intel® Core™ i5-3570K Processor (4x 3.40GHz/6MB L3 Cache) - Intel Core i5-3570K )
1 x Processor Cooling ( Liquid CPU Cooling System [Intel] - Standard 120mm Fan )
1 x Memory ( 8 GB [4 GB X2] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - Corsair
1 x Video Card ( AMD Radeon HD 7970 - 3GB - Single Card )
1 x Motherboard ( ASRock Z77 Pro4 )
1 x Power Supply ( 650 Watt NZXT HALE82N-SI )
1 x Primary Hard Drive ( 180 GB Corsair Force GS SSD - Single Drive )
1 x Data Hard Drive ( 2 TB HARD DRIVE -- 64M Cache, 7200rpm, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive
1 x Optical Drive ( 24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black )
Windows 7 Home

20% overclocked

I understand I will get lag occasionally, I just want to be able to run smoothly with 50+ FPS the majority of the time. I don't even need every single setting cranked to max and run at 60 FPS, but knowing this PC -could- do that is a huge load off my mind. I would just hate to get it and start crysis 3, put settings on max and find out i'm getting 20 FPS. Or load up WoW on max settings and lag hard during a raid. (I understand a lot of that would be from pulling textures from HDD, which is why I want a SSD, Ideally I would just like OS and a select few games on SSD and use the 2TB drive for everything else/games Im not currently playing a lot)