Need help with some new build ideas for a PC (coming back from a long absent)

[Rallaster]

greetings everyone!
After being gone for about 3 years I am looking into buying a new gaming rig. Before I left I had a top of the line PC that I spent $3K on and yes I built it my self. So here is what I'm looking for...

1) It needs to be able to play WoW and maybe some other PC games.
2) I'd like to keep the cost around $1K or less even. (PC only don't need to include a monitor. As I know what I want here. A little over might be ok.)
3) I'd like to raid with the graphic's turned all the way up! Looking for good FPS even during raids. (MY main focus will be raiding again.)
4) Form factor doesn't matter. AKA Doesn't not need to be model. Desktop's only! And Id like to buy it unless you can get a killer deal else where.

Thanks for your help guys! I hope I'm able to hear from you all soon.

Rallaster

[tetrisGOAT]

Do you need peripherals? Do you need an operating system? Do you want to build it yourself?

[Rallaster]

I will be building it my self. OS is something I already have. So just the rig is self.
Thanks!

[raps]

I just built a PC for my wife.

Antec Three Hundred Two Case
i7 3700
ASRock Z75 Pro3 motherboard
2 Samsung 840 120gb SSD drives in RAID-0
EVGA GTX660 video card
8Gb DDR3

Along with a 500 watt PSU, 23" monitor, generic DVD burner it came to just above $1000.

Since you don't need to include the monitor you should be well under $1000. Things to note when looking around:

Z77 is better than Z75 at a lot of things, but you might not use those things. I dont OC my stuff, so I didn't need that. You might not need more than 2 SATA 6gb ports, I didn't. You can find some deals on good Z77 boards, but it might not be worth the extra $20. Look at what the differences are to see if this is a spot you can save money.

8GB of RAM is a lot still. 16GB is always better. 32GB is overkill. Are you going to setup ram drives? No? 16GB is probably overkill for you then. Look into it, but its another spot you can shave off $25, and you can aways grab another 8GB later if you want.

WoW isn't the most graphically intense game. The GTX660 is more than enough to run it with the settings up. You might even consider going with something a little cheaper if you want to save money. I went with this one because it was at the price point I was willing to spend. Its unfortunate you can't go test drive these some places, but search for some benchmark sites. You get a good idea of where the performance is on different cards and can make a decision based on best bang for your buck.

The i7 might just be overkill. Honestly I can't tell you if its significantly better than the higher end i5 for gaming. I've never built a PC with the higher end processor before and I could afford it now, so I did. Might be another place you can save.

The 2 SSD drives are the best thing I did with this. When the PC goes from off to the windows desktop in under 8 seconds, it makes me happy. The windows 7 logo animation doesn't get 1/2 way done before the desktop appears. When you click on the chrome icon and the window instantly appears, I smile. Instant gratification. You can certainly save here though.

Use neweggs tool to determine what you need for a PSU. The newer processors and video cards are surprisingly low power consumption. Unless you are going to OC, or run dual video cards, you don't need anything crazy.

[tetrisGOAT]

I'm going to go ahead and assume you live in the US, since Americans forget there are other countries.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro4-M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Patriot Intel Extreme Master, Limited Ed 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($28.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($119.00 @ B&H)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($279.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Arc Mini MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($98.00 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($53.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $914.94
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-29 15:52 EST-0500)

A better motherboard and bigger storage still fits.

[shroudster]

I'm going to go ahead and assume you live in the US, since Americans forget there are other countries.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro4-M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Patriot Intel Extreme Master, Limited Ed 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($28.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($119.00 @ B&H)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($279.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Arc Mini MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($98.00 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($53.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $914.94
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-29 15:52 EST-0500)

A better motherboard and bigger storage still fits.

don't forget a cooler? ^^
also rather a WD drive over seagate. (imo)

[tetrisGOAT]

Rather Seagate.
A heatsink can fit into the build, but isn't a necessity until one knows whether he would consider overclocking or not.

[shroudster]

with wow truly maxing, one cannot go without OC'ing gpu for that last bit of performance needed to compensate for the non optimized engine.
combine that with a ivy chip ,which runs hotter ,an aftermarket cooler isn't a luxery.

[tetrisGOAT]

with wow truly maxing, one cannot go without OC'ing gpu for that last bit of performance needed to compensate for the non optimized engine.
combine that with a ivy chip ,which runs hotter ,an aftermarket cooler isn't a luxery.

What.

Either way, overclocking is optional and not something people should have to do. Ivy Bridge runs cooler than pretty much anything out at the moment, unless overclocked.

[shroudster]

What.

Either way, overclocking is optional and not something people should have to do. Ivy Bridge runs cooler than pretty much anything out at the moment, unless overclocked.

typo there should have said "cpu" ofc, also if not overclocking then no need for a K chip either.
in all fairness overclocking a SB/IB is a cakewalk till 4,0Ghz atleast, the performance gain is great with wow aswell.
basicly not something to be overlooked by the OP in regards to his expectations of said adviced rig. (it is always optional but in this specific case likely worthwhile, hence the suggestion in the first place)

[tetrisGOAT]

If people don't want to overclock, they shouldn't have to.
And HD4000 is faster than the HD2500, which means you can still use it for HD-video before the GPU kicks in.
-.-

[OmegaV]

There is no reason not to get a K chip in my opinion, it's there so that down the road you decide to OC all you need is to get a decent cooler and your on the way. Though I am a little confused why you recommended a micro atx case?

[Rallaster]

There is no reason not to get a K chip in my opinion, it's there so that down the road you decide to OC all you need is to get a decent cooler and your on the way. Though I am a little confused why you recommended a micro atx case?

I see your signature.... What made you buy your hardware setup? When was it built?

[OmegaV]

I see your signature.... What made you buy your hardware setup? When was it built?

Both the case and the PSU originally were for a budget build which I've upgraded my computer out of since
Well....CPU is because it's the best for what I need, I mainly game and I don't really do anything that would take advantage of HT so no reason to get a I7.
MoBo: A friend of mine bought it by accident for his build and needed another mobo so he sold it to me for half price, I don't plan on doing sli or crossfire so it fits my needs.
GPU: Current was what my price range was at the time, also literally got it the first month it was out...thus why it's a stock cooler and pcb. My next gpu was because once again it fit my price range but also was a rather good deal.
Ram: Well...it's ram? plus I can't use ram with large heat spreaders because of my heatsink. I do want to upgrade to a better speed but no need with my current build
SSD/HDD: I also have 2 1tb HDDs that aren't noted in my sig, but the SSD was once again a good deal and has worked rather well for me despite originally negative reviews, I'm pretty sure mine came shipped with the new firmware that fixed the issues.
PSU: Ok so this and the case are from my original budget build, I bought it for being 80plus (also before I knew all the ratings) and being modular, with current knowledge I still would go with antec or corsair for PSU but also with a higher budget.
Case: My other piece from my budget build, but proved decent. I got it for having tool-less design and cable management. Also a decent size, this was the best I think I could do for my rather low budget.

Most of the computer is now only about a year old, some less. The psu and case are about 2-3 years old at this point though and are on their way to being upgraded sometime in the next 6-7 months.
Oh and I do have a different heatsink, a Corsair A70. Has been a great investment, never see over 65c on full load ( I think? haven't looked in a while and can't right now since I need to redownload a couple programs since I switched to windows 8) Sadly discontinued as corsair switched fully over to watercooling in terms of heatsinks.

[Rallaster]

Both the case and the PSU originally were for a budget build which I've upgraded my computer out of since
Well....CPU is because it's the best for what I need, I mainly game and I don't really do anything that would take advantage of HT so no reason to get a I7.
MoBo: A friend of mine bought it by accident for his build and needed another mobo so he sold it to me for half price, I don't plan on doing sli or crossfire so it fits my needs.
GPU: Current was what my price range was at the time, also literally got it the first month it was out...thus why it's a stock cooler and pcb. My next gpu was because once again it fit my price range but also was a rather good deal.
Ram: Well...it's ram? plus I can't use ram with large heat spreaders because of my heatsink. I do want to upgrade to a better speed but no need with my current build
SSD/HDD: I also have 2 1tb HDDs that aren't noted in my sig, but the SSD was once again a good deal and has worked rather well for me despite originally negative reviews, I'm pretty sure mine came shipped with the new firmware that fixed the issues.
PSU: Ok so this and the case are from my original budget build, I bought it for being 80plus (also before I knew all the ratings) and being modular, with current knowledge I still would go with antec or corsair for PSU but also with a higher budget.
Case: My other piece from my budget build, but proved decent. I got it for having tool-less design and cable management. Also a decent size, this was the best I think I could do for my rather low budget.

Most of the computer is now only about a year old, some less. The psu and case are about 2-3 years old at this point though and are on their way to being upgraded sometime in the next 6-7 months.
Oh and I do have a different heatsink, a Corsair A70. Has been a great investment, never see over 65c on full load ( I think? haven't looked in a while and can't right now since I need to redownload a couple programs since I switched to windows 8) Sadly discontinued as corsair switched fully over to watercooling in terms of heatsinks.

Great reply! So if you where gonna upgrade today...What MOBO, CPU and RAM would you get?

[OmegaV]

Would stick with my current cpu and possibly upgrade to http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157293 for mobo just so I could upgrade with sli or crossfire in the future.
and ram I would probably get the same ram tetrisgoat recommended.

Overall the build tetrisgoat recommended is what I would go with, I just don't like going with m-atx cases and mobos just for future proofing.

[Rallaster]

Thanks again Omega! I will be posting a build here in a second on the forums to see what you all think.