Building a gaming rig

Here's my part list so far. I want to keep the price down but build something that will max out Arma 2 and DayZ Standalone when it's out. How's this look, fellas? Any substitutions or suggestions?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($94.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: NZXT Respire T20 68.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.98 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($45.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ Vertex 3 Series – MAX IOPS Edition 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card ($239.99 @ Microcenter)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec Neo Eco 520W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($58.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $639.90
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-11 10:24 EST-0500)

seems like a decent gaming rig for a low price

I would try to find another motherboard if you want to upgrade your ram memory. now you will be stuck on DDR3-1333 memory.
you might some day want to upgrade to DDR3-1600 or higher.

I would take this one instead.

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-ga970ads3

No point in buying a cooler. The 965 black comes with one as standard and the AMD stock coolers have always been pretty good (even moreso on the quads using some pretty nice copper piping). Take the extra $25 you're saving and put it towards a better motherboard. Worth it more so than the cooling as you'll be able to get the most out of your SSD and bump up to slightly better RAM. That Gigabyte board only supports 3 Gb/s drives and SSDs utilize a 6 Gb/s SATA port to get the most speed out of them.

Grab this or this instead.

I presume you're going to use DVD/HD drives from your main computer aswell (I mean there's no way you can live off 120gigs worth of SSD space right?)

Arma 2 is pretty on your CPU (as far as I know). I would recommend getting an i5 (got a phenom II x6 myself).

Here's a new build after some comments from reddit.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: NZXT Respire T20 68.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.98 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Extreme3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($79.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: G.Skill Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($45.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ Vertex 3 Series – MAX IOPS Edition 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card ($239.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec Neo Eco 520W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($58.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $699.89
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-11 13:30 EST-0500)

I've got extra HDDs, 1 and 2 tb 7200 rpm'ers so that's sorted. I'll install w7 with USB.

is that sata HDDs or is it IDE connection?

new motherboards rarely have IDE connection anymore.

Oh sata of course. What decade is this? Haven't had an IDE since Macs were powerPC based.

With the new mobo, proc and gfx do I have an remaining bottlenecks?

I still see allot of old computers with IDE connectors. more common then you think

hmm it doesnt look like any bottlenecks. good CPU and GPU. fast hardrive. the only thing would be your ram but getting any higher wont be a big difference.

I think you should go for it
btw if you want to save money remove that cooler you added

Yeah I'd rather not hassle with OCing until I need to for Arma 3 or whatever. Will do.

you wont need to upgrade your computer after this one for arma 3

If you're doing it for mainly ArmA I'd have to advise an intel i5 quadcore if anything. ArmA2 and presumably ArmA3 are very much depending on the CPU due to all the physics calculations (like bullet drops, windage, AI, you name it), and the intel processors are just that much more powerful.

On a tight budget however, that's going to take some creative thinking.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($149.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock B75M-GL Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($66.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Patriot Intel Extreme Master, Limited Ed 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($41.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: OCZ Vertex 3 Series – MAX IOPS Edition 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card ($214.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $643.92
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-11 15:52 EST-0500)

This set-up will cost you about the same, but with a base Intel i5 CPU, that when measuring raw processing power on a quadcore level will rip the FX6300 to pieces. If software however is optimised to run with more than 4 cores, the FX can sometimes come out on top.

If ~$700 is your budget, this could be a proper contender. You can either choose to keep the change in your pocket, or get a better motherboard or the I5 3570.

I told you Nixy is your man didn't I Ca

i love reading these threads and knowing that i haven't got the foggiest what ur all on about

Damn Nixy, that's pretty sweet. Looks good to me. I'm going to order.

Two questions: say I get a better mobo... which one, and why is it better? Noob here.

Second is, how much better is that processor? Dramatically better, or will I probably not notice in DayZ?

difference between 3470 and 3570k is not big.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/702?vs=701


if you would choose a different mobo, http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-p8h77v

you get more sata3 ports and you can get allot faster rams if you want.

The 3570 isn't that much better than the 3470, no.

Motherboard wise, I suppose you could go for a full ATX one with 4 RAM slots. That leaves some room for expansion. Maybe this one. (to be honest, I don't know why I did not pick that one in the first place...)

that motherboard I linked cost 108euro on the webstore I use. and pcparttricker it cost 149 dollars.

huge price difference from dollar to euro

That's only 3 euro more.

Made the mobo change, but I get this note:

ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP ATX LGA1155 Motherboard has an onboard USB 3.0 header, but the Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case does not have front panel USB 3.0 ports.

Should I change cases? I'm not too bothered about front usb ports.

not really necessary to change motherboard just because you dont have USB 3.0 ports on your front panel.


now when you mentioned it about the money, I think I have to go back to school and fix my math skills .

Just bought the lot, guys. Thanks to Nixy for the optimized build. I'm scared as hell of putting it together but when it's all over I'll be a true jedi.

It gets better. I can use my 27" 2560x1440 iMac IPS display as the monitor for the PC, WHILE THE MAC IS STILL ON IN THE BACKGROUND. Amazing technology. With a USB switcher, I'll even use the same mouse and keyboard and just unplug the video cable when I want to switch back to the Mac. Might use the Mac as a capture computer for streaming.

Putting it together isn't so hard. There's enough information to be found on the web, or I can run you through it sometime on TS if you want.

Waiting for the motherboard, everything else is here. Of all the things I should've paid a bit more shipping for...

Oh the pain knowing it won't be delivered tomorrow either

haha when I built mine I had everything but the SSD, and couldn't boot into my old windows install so had to wait 3 days for it!!

Wednesday. Hrrrrk.