[Build Request] Helping out a friend coming home from deployment

[SpartanG01]

Got a friend coming home from deployment in UAE soon and he wanted some help getting a gaming rig here and ready for him he's given me a budget and some outlines I'm doing the build I'm just looking for some help choosing parts because as I've previously admitted here I'm not super savy with that stuff.

Budget - ~1000 (he said 1200 but I'm sure it won't be that much)
Not Needed - Display, Speakers (2.1)

-=Needed=-

Case (Size not an issue but support for multiple and quiet fans needed)
Power Supply (Large enough to accommodate extra fans and preferably with no built in LED's)
Main Board (Same arch as the case will fit obviously, 2x PCI-E slots for SLI cards and 4-6 gb of ram capable)
Ram (4-6 gbs of whatever good quality ram will work)
CPU (I'm thinking I7 at least I haven't heard a lot of good about AMD lately)
HDD (Large preferably)
Gfx Cards (I'm assuming 2x SLI ready cards would be the way to go? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, whatever you recommend ATI or Nvidia)
Sound Card (If the board doesn't come with one, not a massive deal)
Fans (Something extremely quite but very good at cooling, as large as will fit in the case and the PSU can handle)
OS: (Windows 7 Home Premium unless you can find a deal on Ultimate)

And anything I'm forgetting lol. I tried to be as complete as I could.

End game plan? Play WoW, SWToR, Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, City of Heroes, and Skyrim on Ultimate so whatever will get this done.

Many thanks and my appreciation again to whoever decides to help with this

and again Budget is 1000 but 1200 wouldn't be out of the question. He wants this thing to be awesome lol and has way more money than I do to spend on it.

[Zulandia]

I'm going to be "that" guy who says the Narwhal build Chaud pieced out less than a week ago here:

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/...age=4#comments

Is basically exactly what you're looking for so while I could go piece one out he already did a fantastic job with it so I'd just come back with a nearly identical suggestion.

Additionally I've had good experiences with that case and it has room for very large fans (if you want quiet bigger is better).

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LK ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($132.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($46.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($109.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi Tower ATX Mid Tower Case ($109.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 620W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($87.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) ($98.99 @ B&H)
Total: $1026.47
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-06-13 21:14 EDT-0400)

For another 30 dollars you can add an aftermarket heatsink so that he can overclock his CPU. That PSU will be enough to power a second 7850 should he feel the need to (he won't). For another 120 dollars you can add an SSD, which would decrease boot times and game loading times by a lot.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant /

CPU Cooler: Xigmatek GAIA SD1283 56.3 CFM CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($114.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $144.98
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-06-13 21:18 EDT-0400)

[SpartanG01]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LK ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($132.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($46.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($109.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi Tower ATX Mid Tower Case ($109.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 620W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($87.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) ($98.99 @ B&H)
Total: $1026.47
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-06-13 21:14 EDT-0400)

For another 30 dollars you can add an aftermarket heatsink so that he can overclock his CPU. That PSU will be enough to power a second 7850 should he feel the need to (he won't). For another 120 dollars you can add an SSD, which would decrease boot times and game loading times by a lot.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant /

CPU Cooler: Xigmatek GAIA SD1283 56.3 CFM CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($114.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $144.98
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-06-13 21:18 EDT-0400)

Awesome thanks I'll send him this and the Narhwal build and see what he likes. Just a couple questions, first this kid is a grade-A allergic to computer knowledge gamer lol so no OC'ing.

1. Why recommend the I5 over an I7? Is there a big difference in price?
2. Ram?

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

The only difference between the i5 and the i7 is the Hyperthreading on the i7. What Hyperthreading does is it basically cheats the computer into thinking it has 8 cores instead of4, making it do certain stuff faster. Games do not use Hyperthreading. Thus you don't need to waste the extra 110 dollars on the i7

The RAM is the line that begins with "Memory". 8GB is more than enough; if I have WoW, D3, Firefox with internet radio and a dozen tabs, a VoIP client and some other stuff running I don't even break 4GB of RAM usage.

[SpartanG01]

The only difference between the i5 and the i7 is the Hyperthreading on the i7. What Hyperthreading does is it basically cheats the computer into thinking it has 8 cores instead of4, making it do certain stuff faster. Games do not use Hyperthreading. Thus you don't need to waste the extra 110 dollars on the i7

The RAM is the line that begins with "Memory". 8GB is more than enough; if I have WoW, D3, Firefox with internet radio and a dozen tabs, a VoIP client and some other stuff running I don't even break 4GB of RAM usage.

ROFL excuse my idiocy. I missed that line completely and the irony of it is I went back and looked for it TWICE. Blind as a motherf***er I am.

[inux94]

It's fine Spartan, we often see people go "Why not i7, why only i5", I even encountered a friend saying that IRL yesterday.

Take Butler's build, it's solid

[ebah]

Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 - $60
PSU: SeasSonic 520W bronze $70
CPU: Intel i5-3570K - $240
Heatsink: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 $30
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H - $120
Memory: 8GB G.Skill DDR3 12800 - $56
GPU: MSI 7850 Twin Frozr - $260
DVD: Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $22
HDD: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200rpm $110
OS: Windows7 $100
Fans: 3-5x Rosewill RFA-120-K 120mm Case Fan $5e / fan
=$1095

Optional
SSD:Corsair Force Series GT 120 GB - $130 (IMO not required if you dont constantly bootup your comp or want few seconds faster downloading screens in games you listed, which wont help much at all).

Also spartan, atleast my comp can use 6-6.5GB ram when mutlitasking, bf3 + wow open sametime... So its good to have 8GB ram, it doesnt cost anything anyways.