Building a New Computer

Comahawk

In the next month or so, I am planning to build a new gaming computer after three years of not having one. Because it has been a long time since I have attempted anything like this, I am looking for advice on my build. Primarily I want to know if the setup I am considering will work and if there are any parts I should reconsider due to new hardware coming out in the near future. I would like this computer to last for a year or two without needing major upgrades (such as changing to a new chipset), so please keep that in mind.

My build so far:
Case: Antec 1100
CPU: AMD FX-8350
MB: Asus Sabertooth 990FX
Ram: Corsair Vengeance 2x8GB DDR3-1866
HD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB SATA3
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 2 GB
Power: Corsair Enthusiast TX850M

StrifeRaZoR

That's a fairly decent medium priced system. I'm a heavy gamer and have been an AMD fan for ages. I recently acquired a new PC that had an Intel i7 975...and it was like night and day. Well worth the jump to a i5 or i7 if you're a heavy gamer.

Raern

You may have a specific plan, but why are you going for 16GB RAM? 8GB is sufficient for gaming. But maybe not if you run photoshop or something.

I wouldn't worry too much about upgrading the CPU. Your choice of CPU may mean you're already aware of this, but most games will bottleneck on the GPU anyway. It's actually quite difficult to find a game that doesn't either bottleneck on the GPU at 1080p, or run at over 100fps making comparisons of CPU pointless.

Your list is missing a SSD. If you want fast smooth performance from the system, at least a small SSD to run the OS would be ideal at this stage. Mechanical hard drives are the weakest link in any modern system.

BlindZenDriver

I agree with Raern in that an SSD is missing. An 80 GB or so is fine for OS and the most used applications and it really makes the world of difference. Even older computers feel much quicker with an SSD.

Also I think you should give some thoughts into cooling and noise prevention. For instance the stock CPU cooler is often only decent and lots can be gained by doing just a little. Look at the silentpcreview website for inspiration and info.

What sort of screen(s) are you planing on using? In other words how high a resolution will you be gaming in? If it's not too high then you can get by with a cheaper graphics card and maybe save money for a graphics upgrade down the line (it's the part that usually makes the most progress and where prices drop the fastest).

Donovan Puppyfucker

I'd take your question to the computer build thread in Moe's technology tavern, building awesome gaming systems on a budget is basically all we do in there.

From my own perspective, I'd do a few things differently.

For starters, ditch the AMD cpu if you're getting a discrete gpu. Intel are out in front and accelerating away from AMD in the cpu marketspace.
You definitely don't need 16 gigs of RAM for gaming, and there is absolutely no need to spend extra to get RAM faster than 1600Mhz. On current chipsets you might see a slight difference in benchmarking, but it will make zero difference to gaming.
A 7870 is a good card, if that's as far as your budget goes.
You don't need anywhere near that much PSU, even if you wanted to get two GPUs for Xfire you'd still have plenty more than you need with a 750 watt unit. Your build will hum along effortlessly with a 500 watt PSU.
Get the biggest reputable quality SSD you can afford. It makes a night and day difference to the responsiveness of your system. Levels load so much faster it's just not funny.
As far as cases go, each to his or her own, get what you like. I just wonder if you've managed to have a sneaky peek at a nice corsair tower like the 550D (I love mine, it's awesome) or the P280, or something from Bitfenix or Fractal Design?

bowen

Xeon or i5, hell even i3 would be fine for gaming so long as you don't have 2 monitors (webpages/vent/etc).

iRevert

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/172341/computer-build-thread-where-home-computing-and-needless-extravagance-combine#latest

You should post in the build thread.

Also an 850w psu powering a 7870? Under load that card pulls like 275 at most your system won't even be touching 500w total draw so unless you are planning on 3x 7870s or something you are going a bit overkill on that psu

Comahawk

Ok, I have followed the advice in this thread and moved the discussion to the build thread. I followed most of the advice here when coming up with a new design, however some things (like downgrading the PSU) remained relatively the same, due to prices of downgrading.

So, if the mods want, this thread can be locked.