# Building the best gaming pc possible for 1400$



## luciano35769 (Feb 3, 2012)

Hi everyone 

I'm planning to build a new gaming pc for a maximum of 1400$. I would like to have a few advice from others on what would be your choice of hardware etc...

z68 or p67 ?
Asus motherborad or Gigabyte ?
2 cards on a SLI config or a good one instead ?
SSD ?
Ram is 8 GB enough with windows 7 home premium 64 bits ?

For you, what is the best deal in that budget range ?


Thanks


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Feb 3, 2012)

I'd skip Asus and Gigabyte and get an ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3. You have to pay more with those brands to get the same UEFI functionality. I wouldn't bother with an SSD unless you get at least a 256 GB. Smaller and you end up installing stuff to a conventional drive anyways. Not worth the budget hit just for faster boot times. Maybe wait till Windows 8 and grab an SSD then as prices should be cheaper and you'd be reinstalling anyways. 8GBs of ram is plenty but 16 is dirt cheap so you might as well go all the way. I highly recommend sticking to a fast single gpu card. Don't bother with sli/xfire.


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## luciano35769 (Feb 3, 2012)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> I'd skip Asus and Gigabyte and get an ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3. You have to pay more with those brands to get the same UEFI.



Thanks for the answer, and for the cpu, you have an idea ?


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## jaredpace (Feb 3, 2012)

2600K, aftermarket HSF, 3770k if you want to wait
HAF
high quality high speed ram 8gb-16gb
SSD
750watt+ name brand HQ PSU (corsair or better)
7970 reference design
mobo of yoru choice


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Feb 4, 2012)

While I personally like high speed ram, I also like efficiency. It can cost nearly twice as much to go to 2133 from 1600. Not really worth it. I second the 2600k. Kingwin just came out with a 650 platinum that's cheaper than their old 550 that I have. That should cover even a dual gpu card. If you think you need more it comes in 750/850/1000 too, just remember going higher than you need means you're less efficient at idle.


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## TissueBox (Feb 4, 2012)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> While I personally like high speed ram, I also like efficiency. *It can cost nearly twice as much to go to 2133 from 1600.*



Not this week in Canada 

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=63757&vpn=996997&manufacture=Mushkin%20Enhanced&promoid=1012

And some other good deals:

XFX 750W Core Edition Pro $69.99 AR
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=59617&manufacture=XFX&promoid=1012 

Galaxy GTX 560 Ti $159.99 AR
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=67651&vpn=56NGH6HS4IXZ&manufacture=Galaxy%20Technology&promoid=1012


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## luciano35769 (Feb 4, 2012)

TissueBox said:


> Not this week in Canada



Mouahahahaha what a chance there is a NCIX a few minutes from my house 


your posts are precious for me I'm gonna look at everything guys thanks


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## luciano35769 (Feb 5, 2012)

Finaly I've made my choice and buy this for 1452,69 Can $ :

Asus P8Z68-V Pro Gen 3 B3

Intel Core I 2500K

Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB

Mushkin Enhanced Redline Ridgeback 8GB 2X4GB PC3-17000 DDR3-2133

Antec Earthwatts 750w Modular Power Supply

Antec Nine Hundred Two V3 Mid Tower Gaming Case

Asus GeForce 570 GTX Direct CU II Fermi 72 MHZ 1280 MB 3.8 GHz

Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64 BIT SP1 DVD

Samsung SH-222BB 22X DVD Writer 

Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink


It's enough to begin with and I'm gonna make some minors changes later.
I wasn't able to afford more for now and anyway he is functional


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## puma99dk| (Feb 5, 2012)

i hope u will be happy with ur things, i got a GTX 570 myself only thing that can be a bit annoying sometimes is that it only got 1280mb of memory, i am planing to see if i can get a upgrade to a Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3gb this year ^^


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## luciano35769 (Feb 5, 2012)

puma99dk| said:


> i hope u will be happy with ur things



Thanks and I hope so ^^

You're right it's just 1280 mb but I can start to play new games my other pc was not powerfull enough :shadedshu


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## n-ster (Feb 5, 2012)

shopbot.ca may help you, as ncix price matches


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## FreedomEclipse (Feb 5, 2012)

I totally shudder at the thought of anyone purchasing a Seagate hard drive.

They have such high failure rates that I just simply refuse to touch them. Of course WD have bad hard drives too but seagate are on a totally different level. Not to mention the fact that they lost the hard drive i sent in for RMA.


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## St.Alia-Of-The-Knife (Feb 5, 2012)

CHeck out DirectCanada, they have pretty good prices and free shipping if your order is above 50$


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## BarbaricSoul (Feb 5, 2012)

FreedomEclipse said:


> I totally shudder at the thought of anyone purchasing a Seagate hard drive.
> 
> They have such high failure rates that I just simply refuse to touch them. Of course WD have bad hard drives too but seagate are on a totally different level. Not to mention the fact that they lost the hard drive i sent in for RMA.



Been using a 7200.12 for acouple years now, with absolutely NO problems. Sure, the 7200.11 had firmware issues, but they are no longer made.


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## DonInKansas (Feb 5, 2012)

I like the 7200.12s as well.  Then again, some people swear by MSI stuff and I've never had an MSI product in my house that hasn't failed on me; some with smoke!


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## TissueBox (Feb 5, 2012)

luciano35769 said:


> ...



Note that the deals (most notably for the Mushkin Redline memory) ends this Wednesday for NCIX, and Thursday for everywhere else. 

Here's a website to find the lowest prices in Canada to shave a few digits off:
http://www.shopbot.ca/

Just type in the product code or name (e.g. ENGTX570 DCII/2DIS/1280MD5 for the GTX 570) and it'll find the lowest prices. Assuming you're purchasing from NCIX - price matching at NCIX has always been a breeze for me provided they have stock so I hope the same for you too.

EDIT: Oh.. n-ster already mentioned it - Ah well, here it is again.


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## luciano35769 (Feb 5, 2012)

FreedomEclipse said:


> I totally shudder at the thought of anyone purchasing a Seagate hard drive



Primo : Like I said at the begining of the post, I have a limited budget so I choose Seagate for this reason.

Secundo : I tested both Seagate and other supposed better quality brands and they miserably failed more times than Seagate. I don't mean 2-3 but over maybe 15-20 on a bunch of pc in the past 8 years. Western Digital Caviar have been the worst. Badluck ? Maybe Murphy's Law stick to me. 

I'll Check Shopbot.ca for the next purchase and thanks for the hint. I choosed NCIX Because it's a few minutes from home, good customer service and a 1 year System Waranty. A little bit more expensive I know, but easier to have quick and good service if I got a problem with it. 

By the way, I'm french and learning english if sometimes I write strange things you'll know why


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## n-ster (Feb 5, 2012)

luciano35769 said:


> Primo : Like I said at the begining of the post, I have a limited budget so I choose Seagate for this reason.
> 
> Secundo : I tested both Seagate and other supposed better quality brands and they miserably failed more times than Seagate. I don't mean 2-3 but over maybe 15-20 on a bunch of pc in the past 8 years. Western Digital Caviar have been the worst. Badluck ? Maybe Murphy's Law stick to me.
> 
> ...



But you can Pricematch the items @ NCIX from the results you find at shopbot.ca

I'll try french:

NCIX égalise les prix des compétiteurs que tu trouve sur shopbot.ca, donc si tu vois un prix plus bas sur un autre site qui est sur shopbot.ca, NCIX va te le faire à ce prix la. Un peu comme Best Buy / Futureshop mais il y a pas de rabais supplémentaire


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## luciano35769 (Feb 5, 2012)

n-ster said:


> But you can Pricematch the items @ NCIX from the results you find at shopbot.ca
> 
> I'll try french:
> 
> NCIX égalise les prix des compétiteurs que tu trouve sur shopbot.ca, donc si tu vois un prix plus bas sur un autre site qui est sur shopbot.ca, NCIX va te le faire à ce prix la. Un peu comme Best Buy / Futureshop mais il y a pas de rabais supplémentaire



Awesome your french is not bad or google is ? ^^  ! Good idea I'll try for it


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## crazyeyesreaper (Feb 5, 2012)

should also be noted you picked Tall heatsink ram to use with a regular Tower heatsink

this is a big N O in terms of compatibility dont know why others missed it

if you plan to get Mushkin Ram get kits with the frostbyte heatsink aka
the heatsinks used on these models.
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=65761&vpn=993996&manufacture=Mushkin Enhanced


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## n-ster (Feb 5, 2012)

luciano35769 said:


> Awesome your french is not bad or google is ? ^^  ! Good idea I'll try for it



I`m actually pretty fluent in french but I have to concentrate to writeéexpress myself properly and I didn't feel like doing that effort 



crazyeyesreaper said:


> should also be noted you picked Tall heatsink ram to use with a regular Tower heatsink
> 
> this is a big N O in terms of compatibility dont know why others missed it
> 
> ...



He only has 2 sticks, he shouldn't have a problem if you uses the further RAM DIMMs right?


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## crazyeyesreaper (Feb 5, 2012)

with my Frio fan blocks 2 slots and and on my P67 board
brackets are ram sticks
dual channel is of course I [] I []
Frio a 25mm thick fan will hang over the second slot blocking the stick considering the Hyper 212+ is essentially the same type of heatsink it could be a problem,

besides why get the tall heatspreaders

when the redlines use the same ICs on the on both tall and low profile heatsinks

he might have to shop around but hes still better off with low profile ram, the tall heatsinks are worthless especially if he upgrades to more ram later,

some boards it clears other it dosent depends on socket i dont have a Hyper 212+ sitting here to check with to make sure.


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## n-ster (Feb 5, 2012)

awww :/ But the price is just soooooo good, especially for Canada! lol

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=15380AC2833&vpn=F3-17000CL11D-8GBXL&manufacture=G.SKILL

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=61213&vpn=F3-17000CL11D-8GBXL&manufacture=G.Skill

Pricematch these I guess. Not as good, but isn't too far


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## xenocide (Feb 6, 2012)

560Ti 448 Core cost $30US less than a GTX570 and performs almost exactly the same with a slight overclock (Afterburner or something similar).  I'd reccomend that over a 570.


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## radrok (Feb 6, 2012)

Yes but unless he runs Aida64 memory tests all the day he's not going to see much of a difference between 2133 MHz and 1600 MHz with tighter timings.


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## 20mmrain (Feb 6, 2012)

I would honestly suggest a setup something like this....

ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 204.99
Intel Core i5-2500K  229.99
G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB 1866MHZ 59.99
HD 7970 449.99
Corsair Graphite 600T 169.99
XFX PRO750W XXX 129.99
Western Digital Caviar Black 159.99
SAMSUNG Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-/+R 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Combo 57.99

*Grand Total $1462.92* (W/O Tax Title and license )(New Egg prices)

Granted what is killing you above is the hard drive cost. Also you could shave off a few bucks buy shopping around and maybe finding a case that is cheaper. 
Also the system stated above will support Ivybridge if you so wish in the near future plus it will support PCIe 3.0 if you get a* Ivy Bridge CPU.*
It would have the HD7950 which is the worlds second most powerful single GPU right behind the HD7970 but we all know it can overclock past the speed of a HD7970.

 A pretty good gaming rig look it over piece what you want together but the parts listed above will probably be some of your best bets.


***Edit****
You could also go the AMD route and save some cash. In which you could just save or use to get yourself another HD7950 or Xfire some HD6970's up.


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## xenocide (Feb 6, 2012)

If you're building a $1400 PC, it's silly not to get an SSD these days.  I suggest the following:

CPU:  Intel i5-2500k
Motherboard:  ASrock Extreme3 Gen3 Z68
Memory:  8GB (2x4GB) Samsung DDR3-1600 (Overclocks to DDR3-2133 easily)
SSD:  A-DATA S510 120GB SSD
HDD:  Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB
GPU:  MSI Radeon HD7950
Case:  Cooler Master HAF 912
PSU:  SeaSonic M12II 750w Modular PSU
Total Price:  $1400.66 w/Shipping Before MIR

Notes:
I hate that case and actually reccomend the Rosewill Challenger Mid-Tower as I have personal experience with it and can atest to it's quality and performance.  That PSU is more for reliability and efficiency, you could easily drop down to a standard 750w Corsair TX750 if you wanted to cut some cost, or could even go further to a Corsair TX650 or Seasonic S12II 620w (Currently a steal with the 15% off coupon).  All things to consider.


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## TissueBox (Feb 6, 2012)

luciano35769 said:


> *Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64 BIT SP1 DVD*



That'll run $100 at NCIX, +$50 for assembly as he said. Kindly factor those two in as well - or persuade him to do what must not be named.. and assemble it himself, of course.

And to *xenocide* - he's from Canada so the prices would have to be from newegg.ca, and not newegg.com.


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## xenocide (Feb 6, 2012)

TissueBox said:


> That'll run $100 at NCIX, +$50 for assembly as he said. Kindly factor those two in as well - or persuade him to do what must not be named.. and assemble it himself, of course.
> 
> And to *xenocide* - he's from Canada so the prices would have to be from newegg.ca, and not newegg.com.



Good thing I paid attention to THAT.

Try This:
CPU - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
RAM - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147096
Mobo - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157279
GPU - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102962
HDD - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136794
Case - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153
PSU - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151096
Total:  $1159

The prices aren't really that much different.  Not sure how shipping would be though.  You could always cut some corners here or there and get a cheaper P67 mobo or something like that, 4GB of the same RAM (2x2GB kits of the same stuff are available).


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## LDNL (Feb 6, 2012)

xenocide said:


> CPU - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
> RAM - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147096
> Mobo - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157279
> GPU - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102962
> ...



+100 for OS + 50 for assembly so that leaves a 100 to spare so get a better graphics card

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102961

You could try sweet talking them into getting free shipping since youre spending that much.


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## luciano35769 (Feb 6, 2012)

wow    I think my post is starting to be popular ^^

Who's right ? Who's wrong ??

So... monday morning I'm gonna call NCIX and ask to change my order. It would be nice if I could find a clear answer because now I'm a bit confuse there is too much choices and nobody have the same config 

If they can't do a better price than all your websites I'll go elsewhere that's it.

I'll check your answers when I'll wake up

P.S. The ram (Mushkin Enhanced Redline Ridgeback 8GB 2X4GB PC3-17000 DDR3-2133) I paid it 69.99. You really think that I need to change it for the 1866 MHz  to save 10 $ ?


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## H82LUZ73 (Feb 6, 2012)

Sorry but i have to say this ,You guys that are ANTI Seagate buy WD-Samsung hard drives make me laugh.He should buy what he wants It is his money.Also I only seen Crazy give good advice on his hardware,OP you could try this website also for prices http://www.canadacomputers.com/ Also try getting that low profile Corsair memory,but that is up to you and your budget.

You guys that hate Seagate so much what are you going to do in the coming months when they start selling re branded Samsung's?Yes Samsung gave up its HD side to Seagate.......Oh noes Lets buy WD who also makes 90% of the HD parts for Seagate......Go figure.


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## speedpc (Feb 9, 2012)

FreedomEclipse said:


> I totally shudder at the thought of anyone purchasing a Seagate hard drive.
> 
> They have such high failure rates that I just simply refuse to touch them. Of course WD have bad hard drives too but seagate are on a totally different level. Not to mention the fact that they lost the hard drive i sent in for RMA.



So far i've had good luck with seagates, the few issues i've had with WD there RMA process was great, My worst drives have been Hitachi i currently have 4 of them sitting on my desk and cannot even get a RMA for them  anyways back on topic let me know how the new rig runs I'm in the market to get rid of my Gigabyte ud6-C and i875K. Time for a change


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## radrok (Feb 9, 2012)

H82LUZ73 said:


> Sorry but i have to say this ,You guys that are ANTI Seagate buy WD-Samsung hard drives make me laugh.He should buy what he wants It is his money.Also I only seen Crazy give good advice on his hardware,OP you could try this website also for prices http://www.canadacomputers.com/ Also try getting that low profile Corsair memory,but that is up to you and your budget.
> 
> You guys that hate Seagate so much what are you going to do in the coming months when they start selling re branded Samsung's?Yes Samsung gave up its HD side to Seagate.......Oh noes Lets buy WD who also makes 90% of the HD parts for Seagate......Go figure.



I have no sympathy for companies who offer 1 year warranty on some HDDs because they know their products are CHEAP in every aspect, atleast WD has the decency to have 2 year minimum.
Buy Western Digital RE4 (5 Years warranty) if you want reliability, atleast that's what I do. Otherwise you'll have to raid1-5 (you should do that anyway if you want to keep your data safe).


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## FreedomEclipse (Feb 9, 2012)

H82LUZ73 said:


> You guys that hate Seagate so much what are you going to do in the coming months when they start selling re branded Samsung's?Yes Samsung gave up its HD side to Seagate.......Oh noes Lets buy WD who also makes 90% of the HD parts for Seagate......Go figure.



I have an epic plan to go full retard SSD by the end of the year trust me - by the time 2013 hits and people are playing MW4's or BLops 2's on their Xbox's and PS3s, I will be there with 5x512GB+ SSDs

and with the plan I have in my mind, no kidneys will need to be sold in the process!!


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## radrok (Feb 9, 2012)

FreedomEclipse said:


> I have an epic plan to go full retard SSD by the end of the year trust me - by the time 2013 hits and people are playing MW4's or BLops 2's on their Xbox's and PS3s, I will be there with 5x512GB+ SSDs
> 
> and with the plan I have in my mind, no kidneys will need to be sold in the process!!



Pick Sata II SSDs, or first generation Sata III when second gen Sata III is out


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## luciano35769 (Feb 16, 2012)

Back from vacation and I have MY pc  

I'm done with installing windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bits and the latest drivers.

Primo : Sure that machine is BEAUTIFULL 

Secundo : I'm suprise he is more quiet than I expected.

Tertio : I have done a quick report on Aida64 to see what it's look like with the basics setting, nothing have been change. Here's the link for the report :


https://rapidshare.com/files/3271496720/1st_Report_Untouched_Config__english_.htm

And a few pics from it : 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			



























I'll try some changes, read a few topics on the forum.
If anybody got a link for a good post, that would be nice


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