Guild Wars 2

Hi guys, I’m going to move to Boston in few days, there is a Microcenter store there,
I’m planning to build a new PC, budget doesnt matter since I already have a job there.

I got in mind a i7 3770k which I will Overclock to say…4,50ghz.

for the MOBO an Asus P8Z77-V which I dont know precisely which one to buy.

the Graphic Card, I heard that Intel was better for GeForge and AMD for ATI, is that true?

RAM I was thinking around 16GB DDR 1600 CL9, I dont know the difference between CL9 and CL10, good idea?

the Cooler, i thought of a Air one, cause’ I heard water cooling isnt a big deal.

let me know what you think and suggest me better choices
Thank you guys!

I have a delidded 3770K which I can easily OC to 4.8GHz and I have to say that it is a great chip. Definitely recommend it.

That motherboard looks OK. I would try to get one that is slightly cheaper but still has great overclocking features. Some research would have to go into this and I am not going to do it for you.

Pick the graphics card you want. Intel doesn’t necessarily mesh better with nVidia and vice-versa. I have a AMD Radeon 7970 and I love it. However if you want to fulfill that Intel/nVidia stereotype, go with a GTX 670 or 680.

You don’t need to go any higher than 1600MHz on the RAM because anything past that doesn’t really matter when it comes to gaming (you’ll just be paying out of your butt for it). Go with the CL9 if you can cause it is slightly faster. CL stands for CAS Latency. CAS is the Column Address Strobe. The CAS takes part in almost every read transaction and is therefore considered to be the most important timing when it comes to memory read performance. However if you want to save a bit of dough, go with CL10. You won’t notice much of a difference.

Unless you are in an extremely dusty and unventilated environment, air cooling will suffice. For case fans I highly suggest Corsair’s lineup of Airflow and Static Pressure fans. Do some research on those.

If u have a steady hand and want to take a gamble, Delid the 3770k and u can easily hit 4.5ghz on air, possibly further. If u leave it be though, i think 4.5ghz will be a realistic target on air cooling.

The cooler itself, well since ur ok on budget u mightaswell go big and get the best. Nocuta NH-D14, it comes with good thermal paste aswell so u dont need to buy more of that. make sure ur case is wide enough, becouse its a monster. Oh and its super quiet. Noctua are known for making very good quiet fans.

RAM wise, get G.Skill, they r low profile which is what u need if u get the above CPU cooler. 2×6gb or 2×8gb 1600mhz or higher at CL9.
Bassicaly CL9 has a faster response than CL10. If u have a choice of CL11 2000mhz, CL 10 1866mhz, and CL9 1600mhz. Get the CL9 1600mhz. Thankfully today u can get high Mhz and low CL together. Like for example the ones i use are 1866mhz CL9.

Intel, AMD/ATI, Nvidia ..u can mix and match nowerdays without issue, so no worries there.

Motherboard. the P8Z77 V is great for the 3770k, which u want depends on what ur future plans r for ur rig, do u need more PCIe x16 slots, more Sata connections, etc. Just look up the specs and choose.

Price/Performance, the AMD Sapphire 7870XT is the best.
Pure performance though, well if u want to get silly then ur looking at the Nvidia GTX Titan (~$1000/£800) for a single GPU card, or if u can find one, the Ares II which is a dual GPU card (the best dual GPU card). Then again if u go that insane on price u might aswell get a 3930k CPU instead of a 3770k :P
If u want somthing inbetween the 2, well ur best bet would probably be the AMD 7970ghz, though im more partial to the Nvidia 680 even though its slightly slower, as it has ‘proper’ PhysX, and a visualy smoother framerate.

Other than that u might want to look into getting a good SSD, maybe a 128gb Samsung 840 Pro.

Also make sure ur PSU is up to scratch. You should probably look for somthing around 650w mark, possibly higher if ur thinking of SLI in the future, and deffinatly higher (750w+) if u get a Sandybridge CPU (2700k/3820/3930k).
Some top end makes are the Corsair TX – HX – AX -AXi series, The Seasonic PSU’s, and the NZXT Hale90 series.

Wooo mate, awesome reply! very helpful!!.

I dont want a super high-end PC, something around 1000 bucks, cause’ imo after they release PS4 / XBox 720, they are gonna upgrade PC pieces too, so it’s something for a year or so.

last year I bought an i5 3570k
Asus MOBO which I forgot the name right now, P8Z77-V LE if i remember right
8 GB ddr3 – CL9 1600, which was kinda cheap, like 50 bucks
Sapphire Radeon 7870 1gb
Cooler was a Corsair one, plus 2 fans.

I was thinking about getting a 120hz monitor, cause 60hz is not enough atleast I can see the difference between 75 and 60hz

I have never brought Nvdia cards, but I heard once you try them, you never go back ATI again, I was thinkin about a Nvdia perfomance/price of Radeon HD 7970, which one would be?

Lemme know where I can still improve on my new PC still researching

I wouldn’t expect the PS4/XBox 720 release to cause any new hardware to come out. I suppose it might shift prices some, but the hardware they’re rumored to have is already behind, so it’s not like PC hardware will have to jump to keep up.

I definitely second the vote on the 7870XT, it’s a great deal. If you want more, a 7970 is probably your best bet without going sky high on price. The Nvidia competitor is a gtx680, but it costs more and has similar performance. I’m not sure where you heard the “once you go to Nvidia, you never go back,” but I’ve swapped back and forth over the years, currently have a rig with each, and would upgrade my main Nvidia rig with AMD if I had the cash (unless somebody threw me boatloads of money to SLI some Titans). Bottom line, unless you have a specific need (e.g. low power/heat for SFF) go with the best price/performance available when you’re buying.