Nasarog Nasarog

New rig, need input

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New rig, need input

from Elemental Forums

Greetings,  

 

I need a bit of help.  I am looking at two different options for my gaming in the near future.  One is laptops for portability, but that also means I need it to be good enough to last for a couple of years.  The other is an upgradable tower (preferably small form factor - space constraint).

 

Here is the best laptop setup I have found so far.

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Xplorer_X6-7450_Gaming_Notebook/

summery: 

Clevo W150ERQ Gaming Notebook 15.6" Full HD 1920x1080 Display w/ Built-in 2.0 MP Webcam, Fingerprint Sensor, HDMI Port, Li-Ion Battery, & Universal AC Adapter

Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM Mobile Processor 2.30 GHz 6M Smart Cache, Max Turbo Freq. 3.30 GHz

Mobile Intel HM77 Express Chipset Mainboard

NVIDIA GT 650M 1GB PCIe Video

orsair or Major Brand

500GB 5400RPM SATA300 Hard Drive

8X DVD±R/RW/4X + DL Super-Multi Drive (NB-373-DVDRW)

Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! Pro External Sound Card w/ THX TruStudio & EAX 5.0

Wireless 802.11 b/g/n WiFi Card

 

Priced at $1040 with before various rebates for sales and whatnot.  I might be able to save $50-$100 depending on when I buy this.

 

 

Anyone care to throw in their 0.02 cents and give me your opinion or put up something better for the price?

 

I am also working on the towers now, but I would take any and all suggestions.

 

Thanks.

 

125,925 views 32 replies
Reply #26 from Elemental Forums Top

@boshimi - thanks for the input. SSD looks fantastic so I'll figure out a way to put that in. :grin:

Reply #27 from Elemental Forums Top

I ended up using a cyberpowerpc.com build.  I am happy with it.

Star Control: Origins
Reply #28 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Heavenfall, reply 9

This is what I'd get

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/geCP
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/geCP/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/geCP/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($209.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM  CPU Cooler  ($75.98 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX  LGA1155 Motherboard  ($114.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Samsung 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($74.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card  ($300.79 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 620W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply  ($84.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS424-98 DVD/CD Writer  ($22.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $979.20
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-09-01 09:49 EDT-0400)

 I'm sure there are more experienced people on the forum so please tear it apart!

 

This is all good except for the Seagate Hard Drive.  They've had some horrendous product runs the past couple of years and I wouldn't put my faith in them at all.  Unfortunately, almost all of the drives in the market are now either produced by Seagate or Western Digital so options are really limited.

I'm thinking of buying Western Digital's new line of Red drives intended for NAS use.  What I've read about them is very promising.

If you have a little extra cash, installing an SSD as your boot drive is nice.  Just need to remember to install most of your apps/data onto the D: Drive (traditional disk drive).

Some people might quibble over video card manufacturers based on Warranty.  eVGA used to (and may still have) lifetime warranty on their video cards as long as you register it within 30 days of purchase.

Only issue I have about recommending a case (chassis) is that those will fall into line with the consumers personal tastes.  I prefer a case with at least a 120mm fan, USB 3.0 ports, Front Panel Audio/Mic, no Glossy Black finish (fingerprint magnet).  I prefer a small footprint, so smaller cases appeal to me.  The current Desktop is built into a Silverstone SST-PS07B.  It's a nice case but trying to install an SSD was much harder than it should have been.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163186

Reply #29 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Nasarog -

What are the specs of the rig you got from cyberpowerpc?  Laptop/desktop?  CPU, GPU, SSD, RAM?

Benchmarks?

I'm approaching the point of replacing my own PCs.  I'm thinking i5, SSD, GeForce-770 (desktop), maybe GeForce-750M laptop (unless I can get better), etc. 

Reply #30 from Elemental Forums Top

LTJ - sure, no problem.

 

This was spec'd out by another member on a different forum I post on.  

 

Case: The default one for the setup. It's a question of personal taste and weight. (black one Raidmax Viper Mid-Tower Gaming Case w/ 1x USB 3.0 Port & Side Window Panel)
CPU: Intel i5 4670K (The newest generation of Intel processors - I picked a "K" model which is slightly pricier, but allows for overclocking down the line. Also has better re-sale value)
GPU: I went with an ATI 7870, which has served me well these past six months with great performance. It is also in the mid range, pricewise)
Cooler: The default option is a closed circuit water cooler (Basically it runs like your typical air cooler - no maintenance required aside from a dusting off every so often)
RAM: 8GB "Brand Name" RAM (Basically means it comes from a known brand that works for gaming purposes)
HDD: 1TB Drive (No mention of which one, but frankly it doesn't matter - You can always buy a new one with moe space later on, or an SSD)
PSU: Standard Corsair brand Power Supply at 500W, which should be plenty for the system and for more harddrives. I wouldn't put another 7870 graphics card in it though, hehe. 
OS: I've chosen Windows 7 64Bit, but you can pick Windows 8, 64Bit for the same price should you want to (Again a question of personal taste - either will run equally fast with games)

 

The total cost with shipping came out to $85x.xx I think.

 

I got some okay looking wired keyboard and mouse that I do not plan to use, and a couple of free games/programs because of some deal they ran a week ago.

Reply #31 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Thanks!

Very similar to what 'm considering (though I generally go nVidia for GPUs).  I may try to hold out until Black Friday, though.  Not only is that normally the best deal day, but I hope to go SSD-only and maybe the prices for them will come down by then.

Have you run any benchmarks on your PC yet?

Reply #32 from Elemental Forums Top

Not really. I just opened it up two days ago to make sure it didn't look like it came off of a battlefield. I turned it on, and ran the OS to make sure it doesn't catch on fire. I ran several diagnostics and everything looked to be working well.  It does boot up very very quickly. I am going to start installing videogames this weekend. 

 

I typically don't run benchmarks because I seldom have anything to compare it to. Most of my other computers are MAC's that I use for video/music editing. As long as it runs the games I want quickly and using a good resolution, that's enough for me.