I have a gaming PC but tag anyways. Might be something interesting in here.

Tagged. I've been wanting to build a gaming PC. (Probably in a couple of months)

I like this case, so classy looking!

TAG

Any advantage to starting with a tower over a mid? I have one hanging around wondering if thiers something better to start with...it's a 4 yr old tower new unused

This thread is gonna cost me money.

ETA:  And I'm OK with that...

Hey thanks for this write up.  Great thread, I built my own gaming computer back in the BF2 and CS:Source days.  Direct X10 took mine out of the gaming realm.  I would love to build a new one. I just dont have the time for gaming like I did when I didnt have a child.  Now its console gaming if anytime.

I do have a ton of media and use photoshop and Lightroom a lot.  I certainly need a good upgrade.  Tag for refrence.

Great write up op.
Running a I5k oc'd water cooled 16gb on an asus board.  Nvidia card, antecedent case and ps.

Any new setups, like my son's, will run the msi gaming boards.  His rocks.

Txl

That's a silent PC case. it damps the noise from fans.

ITX builds are the only thing that interest me anymore with PC builds.

depends on what kind of mounting stuff it has in it. theres nothing wrong with a full or a mid. you just can run 4 graphic cars in SLI in a mid tower. because the motherboard required to do that would only fit in a big frickin case.

motherboards that can run DUAL sli or even triple SLI can fit in a mid tower.

MOST people only run a single card because that has the less compatability issues.

1 GOOD card, vs 2 mid grade cards.

Nope.  Moving out and taking nothing with me.  I won't be using a computer for a while after that.  When I do have a computer I'll be building a nice gaming one.

i7 @ 3.07 w/12GB RAM. A Noctua heatsink. EVGA GTX 670 GPU & EVGA 750 PSU. Cooler Master HAF, same as pictured at beginning of thread (full tower).

The plan was started, money in hand for water and I left the store, never looked back.  BRD took its toll

ETA - system is about 4 or 5 years old.

Very nice writeup.

Save your money until then. tag this thread.

Great info. Thank you

OP's rig made PCMR



http://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/2tfpyo/pssst_hey_peasant_come_over_here/

Put all my coin into a new laptop, haven't had a desktop in years....
This is my gaming rig, should be here next week.

MSI GS70 Stealth QE

Bro, your GPU is stuck in the wall.

I went with the Corsair 550D. A bit higher end and more pricey, but when it gets hot you can remove the top/side fan cut outs. In the winter it is closed, in the summer I open the side went. I used to use a fan on the side, no longer do.

Tag for a n00b trying to learn.

Report back on this please, a gaming laptop may be what I'm stuck with for a few years.

Holy hell, this is the best thread of this place in many months.  Thank you much for taking the time to put this together, Roebuck!

I recommend a lenovo Y500 series. avoid Alien ware. OriginPC's are GTG

IF it's possible. try to get something that isnt dependant in Intel Integrated graphics

How would this or something similar handle Warthunder or Red Orchestra 2 on high-ish settings?

Watch the Dell Outlet store and follow Dell's Tweets.  For New Years they tweeted a 35% off coupon code, which they extended until 1/18, that code has now since expired.



BUT - Meanwhile I bought a (refurbed) XPS 8700 with I7-4790, 8GB RAM, Win8.1Pro, 1TB Hard Drive, NVidia GEForce GT720 (weak but usable for gaming - but gaming isn't my thing).  1 year full warranty.  Brand new condition.  I ordered it on the last day of the coupon - and during that period many systems came and went, but weren't to my specs.... until 3 suddenly became available.  You have to know what you want, and visit the Dell Outlet store a couple times a day.



My cost with shipping after coupon: $530.  Not bad, nice PC too.  Change out the video card for something better and you'd have a sweet system - heck, I've been told as is, it isn't a bad entry level gaming system as is.  Considering roughly $300 of that system cost is the I7-4790 processor, getting the case, mainboard, power supply, DVD/CD, Win8.1PRO, 1TB Drive, warranty and assembly?  I now have another useless keyboard and mouse too.  If they and universal power cords had value I'd be rich.



I use it for video surveillance, replacing an I5-3470 which I was nearing maxing it out.



However, the inventory at the Dell Outlet store can change by the hour, so check often if you find a good discount code - or build some box yourself... I prefer to open a finished machine with full warranty - but in my younger days I would build PCs just because.

i have a y500 series also and its a bitchen laptop. now the new series is a  y50 and it only has one gfx card but it still good especially for the price.

imo easily. only thing i would have to say bad about the series is the mouse pad kinda sucks but easy to get over that with a wireless mouse and you just get use to it.

What i mentioned? Without a single issue at 60FPS.

my Lenovo y510p runs it.

Friends never let friends do dell. Proprietary Motherboard.
Dell purchased Alien ware and turned it to garbage. For $530, i can built you a far superior system.

...GT720? what kind of gaming?

It's identicle to the Apple mouse track. even does expand and shirnk gestures with two fingers.

I just bought components for a new build last night.

I7 4790k
ASUS z97a mobo
16gb g.skill sniper series 1866 ram
XFX Radeon r9 280
Corsair mx100 ssd
Cooler master seidon 240m AIO cpu cooler
Seasonic 850w gold + power supply
Fractal designs define XL r2

I will be using this computer for after effects, dreamweaver/photoshop, and reaper/fl studio.

I am currently using an old gateway FX p7805u and it is too loud for audio recording and gets way too hot. Hoping for smooth sailing!

I got the stealth dark grey version of this last year. Has been awesome for work. Don't use it for any fun stuff though. Got the raid ssd version. Awesome rig for a laptop. Stays cool, very snappy. Super light weigh. Has 1tb storage drive dual 256gb raid striped system drive. Cold boot to desktop in under 6 seconds.

Edit: I guess mine is last years version.

I did this last year, the arf inspired me to do my first build.



Corsair 750 case
Asus motherboard
i5 4670K
2X Asus GTX 660 GPU
16G of corsair Ram
Corsair H110 cooler
A couple of SSD(Samsung and OCZ)
Asus Blu-ray optical drive
A bunch of Corsair fans

Basically a mix of new and recycled stuff.

I was intimidated to try rolling my own due to too many parts choices available. but I read here and in other places and found the pc parts compatibility checkers and decided to go for it. I spent a little extra on the case and PSU to plan for the future. I used a recycled optical drive, one recycled SSD and one recycled GPU.

It really is about like Legos, except if you step on something, then it will hurt your foot and your wallet.

I'm thinking I may upgrade the GPU this year. Then the Motherboard/CPU/RAM next year.

I recommend buying the biggest case you can fit in your workspace. Working inside this big bitch was way easier than inside a smaller case. Plus there are so many options for cable routing; there is not a single ziptie in this box, I didn't need them.

That $530 includes a fair amount of time to engineer and build a system that will likely work a long time - not a brown box full of other boxes.  In my business, time is money - I only wish days were longer so I could have my staff bill more time.
I live in a business world where Dell is accepted and "white box" PCs lost favor a decade ago - so the proprietary parts don't concern me - I am not an overclocking engineer.
There are videos of the system on the Youtubes showing various 3-D samples with the GT 720, but remember... that basic video card means nothing to me except that it supports up to 3 displays (I only need 2), and is faster than many internal GPUs, plus - at retail values of about $40 that card is expendable - but keep it around in case you need premium phone support speaking to Americans which is generally known as "enhanced" - which is included with my new machine.
Video surveillance PCs have a bit of overlap with gaming machines, in that they need speed - but 2D graphics is all that is necessary, and with a $8 cable I convert the unused DVI-D port to passive HDMI - which is all I need for display #2.  I'll have 2 HDMI ports off that card and stay within Dell's support limits, and avoid using the HDMI on the mainboard which isn't meant to be in this mix - Dell thoughtfully put a rubber plug over it so I don't accidentally try to use it unless I must.
I get it that the ultimate gamer PC must be colorful and water cooled, preferably with lots of blinky lights and extra fans.  Dell does not offer that - but to the casual first time gamer a system like I bought with a better video card is low hassle.  I usually buy Optiplex machines, this is my first XPS - and I have to say I'm impressed with the value.
I really don't mean to derail your excellent topic - but some guys need to know they can do this with a budget and a screwdriver with minimal research.  We get an occasional service call for a dude with boxes of parts that won't play nice together, even after his crazy Uncle Jim who knows everything about PCs tried to get it running.  Sometimes parts get zapped from mishandling or poor chassis builds - or even just with the screws to hold the main board down.  Some run until the CPU boils due to mismatched fans or heatsinks.  Some folks don't know that paste is often important, and how much to use.  Some folks don't know to not only unplug, but then hold the power button down to drain off the remaining voltage before inserting or removing a component.  Some folks have no idea about BIOS settings, or how to tweak the OS for maximum speed.   Heck, there's a lot I don't know about the new style PCs which I gain from threads like these - so I appreciate the thread.
Some folks don't belong under the hood of their car, or inside a PC.
I do appreciate your efforts to educate folks here, honestly I do - because they don't quite fit together like Legos yet, but that's just a matter of time - we're getting there though.
I just wanted folks to know they can buy an 80% lower and finish the rest themselves without starting from the ground up.
Hey, I used to hate Dell too - but they have a place in this world.  I
accept that place, and don't worship them as you may think.  I'm not a
fanboi, but I have spent millions with Dell for clients (I know this
because I ran a report last week because I was interested).  
I hope you take this with a grain of humor, as we IT guys root for you gamers to have great success, but designing and building your own kick ass machine might be more of a challenge than finding that detent pin on an AR build.
Good luck guys, just be careful and ask questions if necessary.  RMAing new parts can delay your build.  Learn, then enjoy they hell out of your creation!
 
 
 
 
 

This is why I didn't bother building, I know I don't know shit about building, and I wouldn't have known most of that.

Jesus Christ. Computer Fudds...

Dell is to building a gaming rig what blackthorne/hesse is to buying a Larue.

You're talking about a company that bought a powerhouse in the gaming rig industry like Alienware and fucked it up without even trying.

But enjoy your 720 GTX. It's just as good as a 970 right?

I'd love to see you build a Dell to the same specs and performance as my rig for anywhere near the price. And I say this as a long time Dell account holder with several Dells in the house (just not for gaming).

OST, thanks OP!

Poll added.

I built a basic one a couple of years ago.
Pics are from partway through the build while I was waiting on the rest of the parts.





The extra USB card turned out to not be compatible with W7 so I pulled it back out.

Not shown;
- SSD "C" drive
- DVD writer to go along with the Blue-Ray
- 3 case fans
- Case is just a basic Antec that I had picked up while ago

- Upgraded to 16GB RAM (replaced the 2x4GB with 2x8GB)
- Added 2GB video card

Tag

Looool.... Hedonist is talking about jumbo jet airliners when the thread is about F22's Oh and they really are pretty plug & play, if you can read the directions & build Ikea furniture. You can certainly watch a youtube video & build a computer,things are just a little bit smaller.

He took a massive shit in this thread, and he spouting nonsense that really shouldn't deserve to be spread anymore than gun-shop bullshit.

friends don't let friends buy dell, and they sure as hell don't let people spend money on a GPU that provides about as much performance as the onboard CPU-bound intel GPU.

usually i cringe when I click on a "roebuck" thread....




this is not one of those times.

+1



I usually avoid them.



 

Perfect timing on this thread, my computer was bought in '01(?). I really need a new one. I will admit that all of this talk is greek to me, but I know that I could build one. My problem is putting a list of components together.

I'd be using the PC for "home office work" but I do some FPS gaming and have an interest in other games but obviously my current set up is a 97lb weakling. With a newer rig I would probably also mess with making videos too. A mid tower designed rig would probably suffice. 800.00 would be my high limit, anything less than that would be a bonus.

I must admit, I feel jealous when I see the graphic capabilities of gaming PCs.

Not enough to take the plunge though. I'd have to learn to build a computer. I'd have to learn to use and troubleshoot a new OS. Heck, I'd have to learn to type.

Money isn't the issue, it just seems like a lot of work. Seeing as I view gaming as a fun leisure activity, I don't want to turn it into a hassle; that would defeat the purpose of it.

My hat's off to you guys with top-notch systems, though.

This thread is just in time.  My son and I have been talking about building new gaming computers.