Norcal's $1000 PC Build. Please Do Enter

So I am building a PC for my kid. He is almost 12 and will be using this primarily for gaming and the usual media consumption. As it stands I have none of the parts, not even a monitor, keyboard or good mouse. To date all my experience has been with Macs.

And yes, I know there have been other threads on this subject but they are out of date and it seems easier to just start again.

I've been looking at Tiger Direct and Newegg as well as Amazon. Also Tom's Hardware.

The combos below all look good but seem to be less than perfect in one way or another. I think I'll want to just buy each part and say ******* to the combo discount. Any thoughts?

I think I will go i5 2600k or i7 2600k if I can afford it.

8GB Ramm, 1600 or 1866? thinking of this:http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Venge...M2A1600C9/dp/B004CRSM4I/ref=pd_ecc_rvi_cart_1

A z68 mobo, are the cheaper ones good enough?
Somthing like the this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005M2AQQY/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
is a bit cheaper then this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005UDITPK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=A2R0FX412W1BDT
Is the higher price really worth it? Is there a sweet spot?

Looking at this monitor:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00443WABQ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_6?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

This keyboard and mouse:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003VAM32E/ref=ox_sc_act_image_5?ie=UTF8&m=A1CHDTJ9IVXV2B
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003VAK16O/ref=ox_sc_act_image_4?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Ideally I'll get this GPU:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004ULZ7YY/ref=ox_sc_act_title_7?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
or this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004KZHRAM/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Thinking of this case (remember, it is for a 12 year old, all th eLED is a selling point):http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004WK3KKQ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_10?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

For drives I'd like an SSD, does anyone know about using the dual ssd drive caching ability? I might settle for an 500 gb normal drive for now to keep costs down.

And of course cables and a power supply, maybe an additional cpu cooler.

Anyway that is a **** load of options, I'm just kind of throwing it out there for opinions.


Some preselected combos as well:


This combo from NE looks pretty good but I don't really like the drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.770956

As does this one although I would need to add a graphics card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.755265

This is probably the best but it still needs a graphics card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.789290

This one looks good but I don't really want to pay for the software it comes with:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.793894

And this one is about right but ****** ram:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.755250

Will review if I get a few minutes tomorrow. Passing the eff out from a long day.



whiteslashasian said:

Will review if I get a few minutes tomorrow. Passing the eff out from a long day.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I actually PM'd you but I think it got eaten by my computer.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/22104/4

For monitors I'd say check out hardforum.com for recommendations on a 23" or 24" 1920 x 1080



ribkin said:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/22104/4
For monitors I'd say check out hardforum.com for recommendations on a 23" or 24" 1920 x 1080

Click to expand...

I bought this:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...=3757979&prodTypeId=382087&objectID=c02704366

It might be out of production now, but it's an excellent 25' full 1080p monitor for around $225 retail (I paid $200... you sohuld be able to find it for that price). It's 100 x 100 VESA mountable and has a great 3ms response time, making it great for games (I have read, I don't play video games) and movies. It's a super glossy screen though, so YMMV.

Harddrive expenditures are going to be higher than you might imagine, due to flooding in southeast Asia (flooding factories), which have seen HD prices increase astronomically.

Yeah... not so long ago I was waiting for a WD Caviar Green 2TB to go from $69 to $59...

I have one Dell 30", and two 20" in portrait mode ... 5760 x 1600



ribkin said:

Yeah... not so long ago I was waiting for a WD Caviar Green @TB to got from $69 to $59...
I have one Dell 30", and two 20" in portrait mode ... 5760 x 1200

Click to expand...

I was going to get another 2TB external WD... it went from $99 to $199... WTF.

I would spring for a larger monitor. You can find decent 22-24" for not much more. Doesn't have to be an IPS panel or anything like that.



skitlets said:

I would spring for a larger monitor. You can find decent 22-24" for not much more. Doesn't have to be an IPS panel or anything like that.

Click to expand...

This. There are good, many some great non-IPS panels out there. IPS is great IF you do graphics or other graphic-related work and need to get as close to perfect on-=screen representation as possible.



skitlets said:

I would spring for a larger monitor. You can find decent 22-24" for not much more. Doesn't have to be an IPS panel or anything like that.

Click to expand...

I'm looking at these three. The first is ISP but with a 5/ms response time. The other two have 2/ms. How much of a difference is that in real terms? (please don't say about 3/ms). I have no real idea what the difference will be like for gaming and movies. Beside these three, any other suggestions for a value/performance sweet spot?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236122#top

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-VS247H-P-23-6-Inch-LCD-Monitor/dp/tech-data/B005BZNDS0/ref=de_a_smtd

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-VE248H-24-Inch-LED-Monitor/dp/tech-data/B0043T7FHK/ref=de_a_smtd

...

You should be able to find a ghost-less modern panel. Once it's not ghosting, the actual response time doesn't matter too much. What DOES matter is input lag. For example, some HDTVs run a fair amount of image processing, so they have something like 20-30ms of input lag. With that much lag, it doesn't matter if you have 2ms or 5ms response, it's going to suck.

Anandtech is a pretty good source for displays, as is hardforum. Anandtech seems to have a hard-on for color gamut range though. As a regular user, I would avoid high color gamuts. Everything looks way too saturated if you don't color calibrate and some programs even ignore color profiles completely.

I wish I could offer you some actual suggestions but its been a few years since I bought my display (HP 2475 IPS), which is overkill for your kid. A decent samsung or something should suffice.
Avoid buying monitors from Newegg. Their stuck pixel policy is truly awful. Amazon is pretty good if they carry what you want.

Random tidbit, I'd pony up for a modular PSU. They're starting to come with so many wires that management is a total ***** without modular cables. I wish I did.

Thanks for the info. The learning curve? I am on it.

+1 on Modular PSU. I didn't end up doing it and I kind of wish that I had.

The one thing that I'll add is that I wouldn't stress too much about ghosting and response time on the monitor and instead think about getting 2x 1080p monitors instead of one. Will it make it a better gaming machine? Probably not--multi-monitor gaming is difficult to set up properly and also probably a little bit overrated. But for almost all other uses, having another monitor is awesome. For schoolwork, you can put reference material (websites, probably) on one monitor and your written reports on the other so you don't need to alt-tab between them. If you're surfing the internet with one monitor, you can stream videos from hulu or netflix on the other. I'd say that the second best thing about having a desktop (aside from being able to put some sweet gpu in it) is the ability to add more monitors.

Have you thought about going with something pre-fabbed like a Dell?

There is a thread on SlickDeals/hot deals about building your own computer. Check that out.

I'll second the cheap 24" monitor. So long as it gets good reviews it'll be good enough. Modular PSU's are nice, but if you have several items that need power, it'll end up just about the same in the long run. Get a blu-ray reader.