diy gaming computer help - Page 2

Perplexed, if you spend a week with 150$ mech keyboard, you wouldnt be posting that stuff above, I have seen it MANY times, just saying :)

Like if my friend says that there is nothing better in 2k€ headphones that Koss PortaPros and he keeps saying that until he truly gets some experience with both.

I have used a mechanical keyboard, for two weeks in fact! Before I returned it. To be frank, it was a waste, although I did get the money back.

What model was it exactly?

Case: Silverstone FT02B-W (if you can't afford the Silverstone, which is the best all-round case on the market, Raven RV02B-W is close (budget/gaming line from Silverstone))

PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro M850

CPU: Intel i7-2600 (if you can get a good price on one.  don't get the 2600K unless you must OC. the Intel i5-2400 is almost as good as the i7-2600 and will save you ~$100)

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4-B3 (or any P67A variant of the socket 1155)

Memory: 8GB or 16GB of Mushkin Redline DDR3 PC3 16000 (try to get 1.5V memory, or underclock your 1.65V memory to be safe).  OCZ if you can't afford Mushkin.

  - Keep in mind current 1155 mobos only have 4 DIMMs.  You cannot put 6 DIMMs into the mobo, so you will probably look for 4x2GB or 4x4GB.

HDD: WD Caviar Black HDD (WD7502AAEX).  Don't get a really high capacity HDD for your primary partition.  Just get more HDDs.  Avoid storing your media on your primary partition.

Video Card (Two options):

  x2 EVGA GeForce GTX 560

  x2 Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD6950

  - I prefer the GeForces.  Some games perform better on the 560, others will perform better on the 6950.  The ATIs will be more expensive.

Sound Card: No. Get an external DAC (unless you need 5.1), and use your USB or mobo SPDIF-out.  If you can't afford an external DAC, just use mobo sound for now.  Realtek 889 is fine.

CD/DVD: ASUS DRW-24B1ST.  Anything from ASUS, Lite-on, or Samsung is good.  Just go to Newegg and look at whatever is sub-$30 and has the most customer choice awards.

Have fun!  Should be within your budget, or will be once Black Friday rolls around.  I do not recommend running OCed parts with this system.  This will play everything well, including BF3 and Skyrim, and due to the high performance parts, I don't think it's worth eroding the lifespan for an extra 5-15% of speed.

Btw, almost all of the above will have free shipping (and no tax for most) from Amazon.  Hunt as many rebates down as you can.  If you work at you, you can easily shave off $100-200 in rebates.  Try comparing Amazon, Newegg, and Tiger Direct prices.  Some local stores in large city areas like Frys and Micro Center sometimes have great deals, and will price match if you prefer buying from brick and mortar.

I'm definitely for mechanical keyboards although more for general typing and computer use.  Can't say its money well spent specifically for gaming.  Aside from that, I wouldn't bother spending more then 15 or so on a keyboard if you are not considering mechanical.  Mice are a different story but can be quite subjective.  I think gaming-wise, my personal favorite is the G5/G500 as its relatively cheap, a great fit, and overall has the features I need.  For keyboards, Leopold tenkeyless with cherry browns.

For the case, I would personally save the money and get something like the Fractal Design Define R3 which is a bit over a 100 but still a really nice case.

For graphics card, if you go ATI, get the 6870 if you don't want to spend alot. Otherwise the 6950/6970.  The latter is probably the better choice given price differences currently.  6870s crossfired still beat out the higher cards but I personally don't see it as a good option due to crap like microstuttering and other issues.  For nvidia, I haven't been keeping up too well on those so I'm sure someone else can give better options for those.

As others have said, i5-2500k for the CPU. If you're on a budget I'd skip the SSD personally.  For gaming purposes, you only really need 4gb but I personally would just get 8 since the price difference is small.  For drives (if you need them) get whatever is on sale.  For gaming, I can't imagine you would ever need them unless you plan to buy retail boxes of the games.  Most I imagine like myself, buy digitally through Steam.

For gaming at at least 1080, you'll want something 21.5 or higher.  If you have a DAC already, you don't need a soundcard.

Also, TomsHardware does regular build guides which are more or less pretty good.
http://www.tomshardware.com/system-configuration-recommendation-54.html
 

I used to think it was silly to spend more than $20 on keyboard or mouse, but then when you consider that an average user will spend thousands of hours on a keyboard/mouse before tossing it, I think it actually makes sense to get a higher-quality model.  Nowadays, I spend a lot more time typing than I spend playing computer games.

I know a lot of gamers who swear by Razr, but I've never really liked any of their gear, no matter how much I've wanted to like it.  They always feel ergonomically strange to me.

The Das Keyboard is probably my favorite mechanical keyboard of all time, but don't use it around anyone else or they'll kill you due to how loud it is.  There's a silent version now, but no idea how good it is.  I stick to the Microsoft Natural Keyboard Elite since normal keyboards give me a lot of discomfort over time.

The Toms recommendation is good, too, but I think they tend to cut corners a bit.  HardOCP seems better for gaming (forum suggestions are pretty knowledgeable), though they've been sliding a bit too.

Let's put it this way: You'll be using peripherals for at least a decade or two. You'll replace the hardware in your computer within a few years. You might as well pay up for the peripherals that make your experience more pleasant and not worry about upgrading them later like you do with CPUs and graphics cards. (I don't just mean input devices, but your monitor and headphones, too.)

I have a few mechanical keyboards, ranging from an IBM Model M to a DSI Modular Mac with Cherry MX Blue switches. I wouldn't want to do without them; they're very nice to type on. Older boards like Model Ms in particular tend to show up in thrift stores and such for dirt cheap, or not quite so cheap ($30-40) if you head to eBay. The cheaper ones may lack frills like NKRO, but at least you get the feel.

As for sound cards, that depends on how much you want EAX support (mostly older games) and binaural surround filters like CMSS-3D Headphone or Dolby Headphone. I still play my fair share of older games, and CMSS-3D Headphone is the one thing that made me forget about loudspeakers altogether to pursue the path of better headphones, so I stick it out with some Auzentech-built X-Fi cards...though I may consider an external S/PDIF DAC down the line if $300 or more can be justified for those things. (They don't fall under $300 very often, at least not those with S/PDIF input.)

Monitor-wise, I'd get something with 1920x1200 and no less, though part of that is that, again, I play a lot of older games, many of which top out at 1600x1200 with 1280x1024 below that. It makes no sense that a lot of new computer monitors aren't tall enough to fit a 1600x1200 image. (On top of that, I'm one of those "the more resolution, the better" sorts, while cursing my wallet for not being fat enough to accommodate a 30" 2560x1600 IPS panel.)

Okay some posts on here are a bit mis-leading..I would reccomend like others have said, buy much cheaper accessories and peripherals, thats a lot of waste imo, but to each his own. Id say do this, 

CPU: i5-2500k or i7-2600k, either or, 2500k would suffice.

GPU: Dont do crossfire, that generally is a big pain, and can cause issues. Id say either a 6970, or 580GTX. Both with max any game at 1080p ASUS, HIS, Saphire, EVGA are all good brands. 

Motherboard: Asus are really reccomended these days for quality, i would stray from them. 

Memory: Corsair, kingston, A-Data are all good brands, 4GB is a minimum, id reccomend 8. 

PSU: a 750W will suffice for even a 580GTX anything more is overkill. 

Hard drives: Western Digital Caviar Black are the best on the market overall for speed, quietness, and reliability.

If you get a Z68 motherboard, id reccomend a small SSD around 30-60gb, would overall really boost your performance. If Possible at all, id buy a 6970, 2500k, and a 120GB SSD, as even the worst ones are around 83% faster than standard HDs.