A long lasting gaming and multipurpose rig?

dlf

New member
This seem like a decent rig to play most current and forthcoming PC games? . . . .

  • Budget - Within about $1500 (American)
  • Resolution - At first 1680 x 1050 - Eventually HD (and a dual monitor setup)
  • Games / Settings Desired: Everything from DOS era on, yes you read that correctly. Most should probably be high settings (if not ultra)
  • Any other intensive software or special things you do (Frequent video encoding, 3D modeling, etc) - Folding at home (may run in background) - no Video editing, no modeling
  • Country - USA
  • Parts that can be reused: Not that I can think of (see current specs as to why)
  • Buying Parts: Before the end of the year, hopefully before fall or end of summer
  • Will NOT prebuilt
Part list permalink: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/6zj0
Part price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/6zj0/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/6zj0/benchmarks/

  • CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($179.99 @ Microcenter)
  • CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($22.99 @ NCIX US)
  • Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-M Pro Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($122.99 @ NCIX US)
  • Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Z Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($89.99 @ Newegg)
  • Hard Drive: OCZ Agility 3 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($219.99 @ NCIX US)
  • Hard Drive: Corsair Force Series 3 90GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($92.98 @ NCIX US)
  • Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($119.99 @ NCIX US)
  • Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card ($367.55 @ Newegg)
  • Case: Corsair 500R White ATX Mid Tower Case ($139.98 @ Newegg)
  • Power Supply: SeaSonic 650W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($145.98 @ Newegg)
  • Optical Drive: LG GH24NS70 OEM DVD/CD Writer ($23.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1526.41
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated 2012-04-09 14:33 EDT-0400)

Current specs:

  • Case: No idea (although it is a HP slimline, gray) - that should give some idea of the sort of case.
  • Motherboard: Asus A8N-BR (Pyrite) (1 PCI, 2 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Video, LAN, IEEE-1394)
  • Motherboard Chipset - nVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE, AMD Hammer
  • Power Supply: No idea (but it's less than 100 watts, I think)
  • Processor: DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2000 MHz (10 x 200) 3800+
  • CPU Cooler: A fan
  • Memory:
  • - DIMM1: Kingston 1 GB DDR2-533 DDR2 SDRAM (5-4-4-12 (at) 266 MHz) (4-4-4-12 (at) 266 MHz) (3-3-3-9 (at) 200 MHz)
  • - DIMM2: Kingston 2G-UDIMM 2 GB DDR2-667 DDR2 SDRAM (5-5-5-15 (at) 333 MHz) (4-4-4-12 (at) 266 MHz) (3-3-3-9 (at) 200 MHz)
  • Hard Drive: 250 GB ATA drive
  • Optical Drive HL-DT-ST DVDRRW GSA-H20L ATA Device (DVD+R9:8x, DVD-R9:4x, DVD+RW:16x/8x, DVD-RW:16x/6x, DVD-RAM:5x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:48x/32x/48x DVD+RW/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM)
  • OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit
And what I wanted in a new system:

Hardware

  • USB 2.0 speeds that are minimum of 30 MB a second
  • USB 3.0 speeds that are at lest 300+ MB/s [I will get / use an SSD]
  • Firewire (and or eSata port) --- because I have a external hardrive that has both along with USB
  • At lest a solid terabyte (1.5 TB)
  • Has either a VGA or DVI port (current monitor I have has both)
  • Also has support for HDMI (for the future monitor)
  • Multi card reader (although I mainly need SD and Memory Pro Stick Duo)
  • Able to use a PS3 controller AND A XBOX 360 controller (yes I know 360 is native support . . .)
  • I would like a quad core.
  • Multiple internal DVD drives - Also to make installations faster
  • Plenty of 3.5/5.25 drive bays . . .
Software

  • Windows 7 Ultimate (64 bit) (Main OS) -- Mostly for languages
  • Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit (if needed)
  • May first run Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit - as I have both 32/64 bit discs now)
  • Windows XP (if 64 bit won't run some of the games I have) (if needed)
  • Folding@home - (although I use my PS3 for that when I'm not using it)

Gaming Software:

- Will use steam:
  • Elder Scrolls (Morrowind -> Skyrim)
  • Portal 1 & 2
  • Batman Arkham (Asylum/City)
  • Sonic Generations
  • Quake (all)
  • Doom (all)
  • Wolfenstein (3D) & 2009 - and the others
  • Commander keen (all)
  • Bioshock (1/2) (perhaps infinite)
  • L.A. Noire
  • Bejeweled 2/3
  • Peggle
  • Various COD's
  • anything else that interests me
  • - Will use CD/DVD's of the games I have:
  • Warcraft 2 - Tides of Darkness & Beyond the Dark Portal
  • Warcraft 3 - Reign of Chaos & Frozen Throne
  • Diablo 1 - 3 (when it comes out)
  • The Sims 1 - And all expansions
  • The Sims 2 (probably)
  • Simcity 4000 & Rushhour
  • May use emulation (to run up to the PS2/Wii)

Other Thoughts

  • Eventually a dual monitor setup (and one be HD resolution)
  • I will wait for some parts (hard drives, GPU, etc) to drop in price.
  • Will wait for IvyBridge. . . .
  • I WANT UEFI, NOT regular old BIOS (that this slimline has
  • May eventually like a dual GPU (crossfire?)
Monitor Thoughts:

  • First and foremost: Full HD
  • Widescreen
  • Supports: HDMI, DVI, Displayport (if the motherboard of the computer does)
  • Within 1 - 2 MS response time (current monitor is 5 MS response ti
  • Screen size - 25 to about 27 inches
 

VintageTorrie

Megadeth Fan
Damn, that's a good system...
 
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