looking for gaming computer advice

[klu]

i will be building a computer myself

i have a budget cap of 1500$ including shipping and tax

i live in central arizona

this computer will be used primarily for gaming, primarily for ps2

i will be building this computer from scratch

my monitor is 21.6in 1680 x 1050

buying an os is included in the budget, i was planning on win7 pro, but open to suggestions

i need to have a card reader included in this budget with a board that supports usb3.0, open to suggestions for sli or a sli board for future upgrade

no plans to overclock but it is a possibility

i would prefer to start ordering parts immediately

any advice from vets that know of hardware that gets solid performance in ps2 would be appreciated, thanks

[Ailos]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1pWhM

Total before tax/shipping, incl. current promos: $1386

That's my recommended build. Your budget is quite generous and allows for a lot of luxuries that will make your PS2 experience pretty much flawless. Some reasons why I picked the parts that are in there:

PS2 adores strong single-threaded performance, and benefits from having four strong threads. The i5 4670K will also allow you to overclock it somewhat (probably to around the 4.2 GHz level) comfortably and get some additional value out of the chip. The Asus board is there mostly to support this overclocking effort (which is something I think you should definitely pursue).

It DOES support SLI, but by the time the GTX 770 starts feeling like you need to upgrade it, the price of buying another 770 will not justify the performance uptick over buying an 970 (or whatever NVidia has out at that point). You should only count on having two cards SLI'd on two conditions (both of which need to be satisfied):
1. You will be playing at a resolution above 1920x1080 (multi-monitor or a 4K TV or something).
2. You will be doing this upgrade within the next 9 months.

If for the next 12 months or longer you're sticking with the monitor you have now, the single 770 will drive any game you need and more. You might even save ~$30 by stepping away from the SLI capability.

PS2 also adores fast memory but only uses around 2 GB of it. This is why you see 8GB of -2133 instead of 16 GB of -1600 or -1866. Fast memory is doubly important if you overclock.

An SSD is a required feature for any machine costing over $1000 in my opinion. Depending on your storage needs, you might also simply ditch the 3TB platter and save another $100.

I recommend a 750 W PSU if you intend on sticking with SLI capability, or if you think you might swap to a Broadwell i7 come next year. Otherwise, you could step down to a 650-700 unit and save $20 or so. I do recommend sticking to the 80PLUS Bronze and above, though - these PSUs put out a considerably smaller amount of heat, and that makes them MUCH quieter, on top of being friendlier to your electricity bill.

The CPU cooler is somewhat arbitrary, but the 212 Evo is one of the most tried and trusted sinks out there, it will keep things both cool and quiet even when you overclock. The case is completely arbitrary and you can pick any one you like.

Last but not least, the OS:
Win 7 Pro is in there per your request, but unless you specifically have a need for its advanced networking and virtualization capabilities, that's $30 out the window. If you're a college student, check with your book store to see if they sell the OS with a student discount - when I was an undergrad, I bought my copy of Win 7 when it first came out for $50.

I'm sure Rbstr will find plenty of nitpicky stuff with my specific part choices, but the headline CPU, GPU and Mobo is what we will probably all recommend.

[SternLX]

One suggestion; don't listen to the Anti-AMD nay-sayers. I'm talking CPU here. Intel, sure, gets best performance but price is prohibitive for some.

Here's a list of my main hardware for about $1000 before shipping and it handles PS2 Very well on High settings(40 to 60FPS @ 1080p or 60 to 100FPS @ 1600x900).
Newegg Wish List(You may need to login there to see it. List does not contain Optical Drive, Case, or Power Supply):
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=12702751
Speaking of Power supply: I've run a 560W on this build with no problems but now have a 650W. Both 80+ Bronze Certified. Don't cheese out on the PSU, it's the real heart of a PC system.
You may also note I use a Water cooling solution. The FX-8350 can run fairly hot so I erred on the safe side.

OS: I run Win7 Home Premium 64bit Edition. More than enough for PC Gaming. Also since Win7 likes to Park CPU cores by default I ran the Registry Hack to stop that from happening. All cores Un-Parked at all times. :)

P.S. I shop almost exclusively from Newegg.com : Shipping is pretty fast to me here in Prescott, AZ. If I find myself down in Glendale I may stop into Frys Electronics for smaller items.

Any questions; hit me up on Twitter @ARDallas68 as I rarely stop by here.

[klu]

thanks for the replies. i was just looking at that motherboard and processor, new egg has it bundled for about 40$ less than what you have listed. also 1tb is plenty for me, so that is money i could put into a bigger video card or i would gladly pocket it if you really believe 2gb is enough to run it flawlessly as you put it (flawless is what im aiming for).

im not opposed to amd, but im definitely looking for hardware that will be as bug free as possible

[klu]

wow, a tfs member right here in prescott? tfs was my ps1 outfit. i live in pv

[Goku]

Ailos' build looks extremely solid to me. Only change I would do if you wanted to save some money is to get a GTX 760 instead of the 770. Should be plenty for 1680x1050.

StrenLX's build I can't recommend going with the mobo and CPU he chose. Those two alone is fetching $380, while the Intel/mobo combo Ailos has is going for $310 with discount. The AMD combo will not provide as good performance compared to the Intel one, so you're only wasting money going with AMD.

[SternLX]

wow, a tfs member right here in prescott? tfs was my ps1 outfit. i live in pv
Actually, I live in PV also. I just post Prescott as most people are like "where's PV?"
Ailos' build looks extremely solid to me. Only change I would do if you wanted to save some money is to get a GTX 760 instead of the 770. Should be plenty for 1680x1050.

StrenLX's build I can't recommend going with the mobo and CPU he chose. Those two alone is fetching $380, while the Intel/mobo combo Ailos has is going for $310 with discount. The AMD combo will not provide as good performance compared to the Intel one, so you're only wasting money going with AMD.
Actually Goku my Mobo+CPU combo I got for $310, before the 4670K was in the Market. I never buy parts at full price. Newegg Promo codes ftw! :) Just have to keep my eye's peeled for the deals. But ya. Most definitely, if you find a i5+ASUS Mobo bundle on sale snatch that bad boy up.

As for your "not provide as good performance" comment. I disagree, plenty of Core i5-4670K vs FX-8350 shootouts out there show they run pretty much neck and neck stock clocking for stock clocking. The FX-8350 also has a more efficient Memory Bus controller and can handle faster RAM modules than the 4670. The only place the 4670 always wins is Single Threaded performance. Well guess what, the future is Multi-Threaded, and the future is here.

Not trying to start a Intel vs AMD war here but I do like the correct facts to be given. And honestly you can't go wrong with either CPU for a decent PC Gaming rig build. In the end it comes down to personal Preference and Price between the 2 being discussed here.

[klu]

thanks for all the input guys. i think i have something in mind pretty close to Ailos' build with a couple of minor changes. the only question i have now is if i put surplus money into a 3gb video card would that be wasted money or over kill or might i see significant increase in fps?

[Goku]

thanks for all the input guys. i think i have something in mind pretty close to Ailos' build with a couple of minor changes. the only question i have now is if i put surplus money into a 3gb video card would that be wasted money or over kill or might i see significant increase in fps?

What specific card are you looking at with 3GB? In terms of the need for 3GB at 1680x1050 there really isn't any. By the time a card needs that much vram at that res it will not have enough processing power to keep up anyway.

Actually, I live in PV also. I just post Prescott as most people are like "where's PV?"

Actually Goku my Mobo+CPU combo I got for $310, before the 4670K was in the Market. I never buy parts at full price. Newegg Promo codes ftw! :) Just have to keep my eye's peeled for the deals. But ya. Most definitely, if you find a i5+ASUS Mobo bundle on sale snatch that bad boy up.

As for your "not provide as good performance" comment. I disagree, plenty of Core i5-4670K vs FX-8350 shootouts out there show they run pretty much neck and neck stock clocking for stock clocking. The FX-8350 also has a more efficient Memory Bus controller and can handle faster RAM modules than the 4670. The only place the 4670 always wins is Single Threaded performance. Well guess what, the future is Multi-Threaded, and the future is here.

Not trying to start a Intel vs AMD war here but I do like the correct facts to be given. And honestly you can't go wrong with either CPU for a decent PC Gaming rig build. In the end it comes down to personal Preference and Price between the 2 being discussed here.

I don't see any promos on either the Sabertooth 990FX or the 8350 currently to bring it to that price point you mentioned. Whatever you bought it at has no relevance for the OP currently.

PS2 is a cpu bound game, so single thread performance counts. That is why I said Intel will have a performance advantage over anything AMD currently. I'm in no way saying AMD processor won't be playable, but it will be at a disadvantage. Yes AMD does have similar performance to Intel cpus in many games, but nine out of ten times Intel will have more FPS. Maybe AMD will get a boost from the upcoming console releases, but that remains to be seen.

AMD has been on the losing side of the memory bandwith game ever since Intel started using the on die memory controller. Not sure what you mean by AMD having access to higher clocked ram either. The Intel XMP profiles let people with the right ram reach very high clocks.

The future is not here yet quite obviously for AMD's design with the module. If it was we would all be recommending AMD processors for everything, but we're not. AMD is in the hole even further now (financially and market wise) due to the CMT design they took up. Their bet didn't pay off with their new design in both multithreaded software and not reaching the proper clocks to make up for the low IPC.

There is still a place for AMD of course, but that is when someone is on a limited budget. OP is not. Hopefully we'll see some decent improvements with SR, but I'm not holding my breath after what happened with BD launch. I was quite the AMD fanboy back in the day with my 4200 X2 and 955 BE. I even bought a 990FX mobo waiting for BD at one point, oh the hype train.

[klu]

i didnt really have a specific card in mind and i think you answered my question. i have no plans to get a bigger monitor anytime soon so i think ill just keep the money and get a new headset. thanks again

[Goku]

You're welcome. A new headset never hurts :D.

[SternLX]

I don't see any promos on either the Sabertooth 990FX or the 8350 currently to bring it to that price point you mentioned. Whatever you bought it at has no relevance for the OP currently.
I didn't say there were promos at that price point currently. I was simply pointing out it can be had at that price point that you originally mentioned(hence my addressing you specifically when I mentioned it so the relevance of the statement wouldn't be confused) if you're patient enough to wait for the sales to appear that is.

[strRblade]

DO NOT GO AMD.

My specs:
FX-8350 4.8ghz Hyper 212 push-pull
Gigabyte 990fxa-UD3
Crossfired 6870's
Intel SSD

Framerate 15-70 fps. Quite the range I know. It has gone lower.
I've seen as high as 90+ (GPU bound) on one of the many updates released.
Tried numerous AMD beta drivers, but one thing holds true, when I enter a large battle the frame rate drops to 15 and I have seen under 10. Its pathetic. PS2 reports the framerate as CPU bound. Go intel. My buddy with an i3 and 6850 gets better framerates than I do. Its embarrasing.

[Ailos]

Actually, I live in PV also. I just post Prescott as most people are like "where's PV?"

Actually Goku my Mobo+CPU combo I got for $310, before the 4670K was in the Market. I never buy parts at full price. Newegg Promo codes ftw! :) Just have to keep my eye's peeled for the deals. But ya. Most definitely, if you find a i5+ASUS Mobo bundle on sale snatch that bad boy up.

As for your "not provide as good performance" comment. I disagree, plenty of Core i5-4670K vs FX-8350 shootouts out there show they run pretty much neck and neck stock clocking for stock clocking. The FX-8350 also has a more efficient Memory Bus controller and can handle faster RAM modules than the 4670. The only place the 4670 always wins is Single Threaded performance. Well guess what, the future is Multi-Threaded, and the future is here.

Not trying to start a Intel vs AMD war here but I do like the correct facts to be given. And honestly you can't go wrong with either CPU for a decent PC Gaming rig build. In the end it comes down to personal Preference and Price between the 2 being discussed here.

There's not a single thing about modern AMD silicon that's efficient. It takes more cores to do a kinda "eh" match of a job, faster memory clocks because each tick doesn't push through as much, and the thermal requirements on FX chips is anywhere from 2-3 times as high to do the same job.

I don't recommend Intel because I'm a fanboy of one side or the other, I recommend it from experience. There ARE situations where AMD will come out on top (mostly benchmarks), but no artificial test will ever capture your day-to-day experience quite like actually owning an AMD and an Intel rig will. If you want a more reliable, manageable system that won't feel like it needs upgrading for 3+ years, go Intel. AMD's GPUs are good, but for PS2, NVidia will simply have more eye candy to enjoy (and it's really good eye candy, mind you).

Bottom line is this: in my experience (4 years of AMD ownership) the overclock and driver instability combined with higher thermal requirements and the fact that you'll upgrade the rig sooner, owning an AMD PC is actually more expensive than buying the slighly pricier Intel stuff in the first place. That is why I recommend Intel.