So i am building a pc to play some games of course and was looking to my fellow GB crew to help me out. As of right now I have a video card. I will post a link of a bundle I found with tiger direct. let me know what you think. I will mainly be trying to play BF3 and some other pc games but I also stream HD movies on my pc.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2941608&CatId=6976

Video Card - Evga 560 ti Maximun graphics edition (cryssis 2 limited edition)

Monitor - 50' Sony Bravia

HDD1 - SSD 60gb patriot

I would save and get a i5 and then up your card to a 570. i7 won't help you much.

Are you planning on getting another hard drive like a 2tb other then just your 60gb? Once the operating system goes on there isn't a lot of room left. Other then that it's a good system to me.

well i have the video card an I can upgrade that in August to somethhing newer. Again not sure whats the best for BF3 so im still looking into things. But lets say that bundle plus a new video card and a SSD. I also would be set for anything in the future that might come out. Im just trying to keep ahead of the game an save some $$$.

@arwdassain said:

Are you planning on getting another hard drive like a 2tb other then just your 60gb? Once the operating system goes on there isn't a lot of room left. Other then that it's a good system to me.

i have 3 2TB drives from my old pc i will be moving over the SSD will mainly be for the OS an a few games like BF3 diablo3 an SWTOR. I could go up to a 120gb SSD though. and I will be putting windows 7 ultimate 64 bit on the system

For SSD's, there's really only three brands I will recommend buying: Intel, Samsung, Crucial. Unless of course, you already own that Patriot SSD.

I'm not a huge fan of Seagate drives. Before they merged with Maxtor, I was almost Seagate exclusive; since then, I've noticed a much higher failure rate on Seagate drives. But heck, large platter drives are still fairly cheap. Get two and have a backup.

Your bundle doesn't come with an operating system. I'm not sure if you're trying to build this on a budget, but you'll need to keep that in mind. If you're a student, you should be able to get a discounted Win7. Otherwise, you'll be shelling out another hundred for an OEM copy.

The stock Intel heatsink is, in my opinion, a raging piece of junk. The retention mechanism never feels secure; it feels like its ready to pop out any minute. Even if you're not going to overclock, save yourself the frustration and give yourself some piece of mind, get a heatsink that screws into a back plate.

hmmm, seems like an okay bundle, but I can't help but think it's a bit over priced.

You know a good Motherboard and a Chip could cost less then 300 bucks

Intel Core i3-2120 Processor 3.3 GHz 3MB Cache Socket LGA1155 - $125

and a

ASUS P8H61-M LE/CSM Intel H61 Chipset DDR3 1333 Micro ATX Motherboard

$70

@Zelyre said:

For SSD's, there's really only three brands I will recommend buying: Intel, Samsung, Crucial. Unless of course, you already own that Patriot SSD.

I'm not a huge fan of Seagate drives. Before they merged with Maxtor, I was almost Seagate exclusive; since then, I've noticed a much higher failure rate on Seagate drives. But heck, large platter drives are still fairly cheap. Get two and have a backup.

Your bundle doesn't come with an operating system. I'm not sure if you're trying to build this on a budget, but you'll need to keep that in mind. If you're a student, you should be able to get a discounted Win7. Otherwise, you'll be shelling out another hundred for an OEM copy.

The stock Intel heatsink is, in my opinion, a raging piece of junk. The retention mechanism never feels secure; it feels like its ready to pop out any minute. Even if you're not going to overclock, save yourself the frustration and give yourself some piece of mind, get a heatsink that screws into a back plate.

i have win7 so i am good on that. That SSD was recommended to me by a guy at frys he said it was a good deal an a good brand but i havnt got it yet. The 1tb i wont be using that will be going into my old pc which i am giving to my parents. Thats good to know about the fan that comes with it. I was curious if it even had one to begin with so I looked up a few an found some that I might get.

@crithon said:

hmmm, seems like an okay bundle, but I can't help but think it's a bit over priced.

You know a good Motherboard and a Chip could cost less then 300 bucks

Intel Core i3-2120 Processor 3.3 GHz 3MB Cache Socket LGA1155 - $125

and a

ASUS P8H61-M LE/CSM Intel H61 Chipset DDR3 1333 Micro ATX Motherboard

$70

but is this a powerful enough machine to play some high end gaming? I mean i want something nice that has the power to do a lot of things if I choose to do so. I was looking to spend about $800-900 as it is.

@crithon said:

Intel Core i3-2120 Processor 3.3 GHz 3MB Cache Socket LGA1155 - $125

Eh... it's a dual core CPU with hyper threading. You're really not building a future proof machine with an i3.

While the i5 doesn't have hyper threading, it does have 4 physical cores. The performance difference is huge.

H61 chipset is limited to 2x DIMM slots. Performance options are... bare bones at best. You'll just get a handful of SATA ports as well.

Your motherboard/cpu combo's not bad; it'd be great for a home theater build, but for PC gaming, it'll age very quickly.

@Zelyre said:

@crithon said:

Intel Core i3-2120 Processor 3.3 GHz 3MB Cache Socket LGA1155 - $125

Eh... it's a dual core CPU with hyper threading. You're really not building a future proof machine with an i3.

While the i5 doesn't have hyper threading, it does have 4 physical cores. The performance difference is huge.

H61 chipset is limited to 2x DIMM slots. Performance options are... bare bones at best. You'll just get a handful of SATA ports as well.

Your motherboard/cpu combo's not bad; it'd be great for a home theater build, but for PC gaming, it'll age very quickly.

doesn't all pc gaming stuff age quickly lol. well if you can find something around 800$ that will ast that would rock!! im on the fence about this pc gaming rig an need something to say this is a good buy do it!

Yeah I understand what your saying but I come from a school of thinking of "what's the latest and greatest and just go down the generation before for a nice price." The i5 is pretty nice price at around 180 to 220 bucks. The i7 is like $340

@crithon said:

Yeah I understand what your saying but I come from a school of thinking of "what's the latest and greatest and just go down the generation before for a nice price." The i5 is pretty nice price at around 180 to 220 bucks. The i7 is like $340

i found a i7 for about $300 at fry's

@EvilDeathsyth said:

i have win7 so i am good on that. That SSD was recommended to me by a guy at frys he said it was a good deal an a good brand but i havnt got it yet.

The guy at my local Fry's put together a "custom built" PC that was on display. He water cooled the X-Fi and optical drive, too. If that Patriot drive is a penny over $40 after taxes, it's not worth it. You'll be much happier with a 128 gig SSD.

Crucial M4 drives have been on sale quite frequently the past few months. I recently picked up a 256 gig m4 for $189. I've seen the 128 gig M4's for $100. Samsung SSDs have gone on sale for around the same price as well.

Just pop in to the Hardforum's Hotdeals section once in a while. http://hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=28

Not all PC stuff ages poorly. I'm still rockin' an ancient AMD 5870. My Sandybridge 2500k scoffs at the Guild Wars 2 beta's lack of 3d hardware support. Smooth as silk with the CPU doing all the work; of course, that CPU is running at almost 5ghz. ;)

@Zelyre said:

@EvilDeathsyth said:

i have win7 so i am good on that. That SSD was recommended to me by a guy at frys he said it was a good deal an a good brand but i havnt got it yet.

The guy at my local Fry's put together a "custom built" PC that was on display. He water cooled the X-Fi and optical drive, too. If that Patriot drive is a penny over $40 after taxes, it's not worth it. You'll be much happier with a 128 gig SSD.

Crucial M4 drives have been on sale quite frequently the past few months. I recently picked up a 256 gig m4 for $189. I've seen the 128 gig M4's for $100. Samsung SSDs have gone on sale for around the same price as well.

Just pop in to the Hardforum's Hotdeals section once in a while. http://hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=28

so you think that tigerdirect deal with a 128gb SSD will be the best deal? then in August pick up a new video card....GTX660 or something idk whats hot right now.

@EvilDeathsyth said:

so you think that tigerdirect deal with a 128gb SSD will be the best deal? then in August pick up a new video card....GTX660 or something idk whats hot right now.

To be blunt, I don't think the tiger bundle is the best; at least price wise. I'm sure you can do better if you bought it piece meal. Whether the couple of dollars is worth it to you or not is up to you. I'm also not a huge fan of Thermal Take power supplies. I also just... don't like that case. If you do, more power to you; but if you think, "Well... I can live with it..." remember, you have to look at it. Every day.

For gaming/movies, an i5 will do you fine. The performance difference between the i5 and i7 is not worth the hundred dollar difference. Use the hundred bucks you've saved towards a Crucial/PC Power and Cooling power supply (I am pretty sure Crucial just rebrands PC Power and Cooling PSU's) and get a quality Samsung/Crucial 128 gig SSD.

Its a good time not to buy a video card, anyways. Mid-range Kepler cards should be out and that will shake prices up in the mid-tier video card sector in the buyer's favor.

yeah man go with the best processor you can afford right now , it will last you longer and also be able to handle faster gfx cards without bottlenecking etc.

honestly 120gb ssd is MINIMUM for a system drive with enough room for a few other games. , you wont fit much at all on half that , could also just get another ssd down the line and game offa that (i have a ssd dedicated to my steam folder basicly )

otherwise it looks like you know what you want ..

Well I wanted to buy it all at fry's but the it 3770 an 3770k are sold out in the state of texas. I can look into an i5 just figured getting the better processor will help in the long run.

also doing some searching it looks like a few games support hyper threading like BF3 but I could easily go with the i7 2600k an overeclock it an have a good running machine or even the i5 2500k.