Mid Range System Leaderboard; try to keep it under a grand
So you are serious about gaming on a PC but like most of us you have more sense than money and want to get a good bang for your buck? At under $1000 the Mid Range is within target if you behave yourself and hold onto those dollars instead of spending them with Bender. Skip the locked i3's and go straight to the lowest priced unlocked Haswell processor, the Intel Core i5-4670K. The HD 4600 is going to need some help with graphics but you can spend some time tweaking this CPU to ensure you get good value for your investment.
The MSI Z87-G43 may not have quite as many features as the the comparable 85X board from the Low End system but it has a comparable price and can still handle more than the Mid Range System recommendations if you use this as a base system to upgrade from.
Graphics on the other hand get a huge upgrade in the Mid Range system, in fact the MSI Gaming N760 TF OC GeForce GTX 760 costs more than the CPU and motherboard combined but also allow you to game at higher resolutions than a console and with far more tweaking possible … did I mention it is designed to be overclocked?
8GB of RAM, assuming you pick the 64 bit install, really does pay off nowadays for both general usage and for gaming but nowhere near as much as an SSD does. It won't increase your frame rates but loading and boot times will both benefit greatly from the 250GB Samsung 840 EVO. For large file storage keep an eye out for sales or look to online solutions.
If you want to offload some CPU cycles and pick up a discrete sound card the ASUS Xonar DSX 7.1 is a good mix of features and price but for most the onboard sound your motherboard offers will be more than enough. This system is powered by the 80 PLUS Bronze rated CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 and its single 12V rail will ensure your GTX 760 gets the power it needs.
| Mid-Range System Leaderboard | |
|---|---|
| Processor | Intel Core i5-4670K – $222 |
| Motherboard | MSI Z87-G43 ATX – $128 |
| Memory | G.Skill 8GB DDR3-1600 – $83 |
| Graphics Card | MSI GeForce GTX 760 OC 4GB – $316 |
| Sound Card | ASUS Xonar DSX PCIe 7.1 – $56 |
| Storage | Samsung 840 EVO Series 250GB SSD – $169 |
| Case | Corsair Carbide 200R – $59 |
| Power Supply | Corsair Builder Series CX500 – $59 |
| Optical Drive | ASUS 24x DVD-RW – $21 |
| OS | Windows 8 OEM – $99 |
| Total Price | $1212 |
What is the case in the
What is the case in the picture for this article that you dont even use in the article?
Stole it from Ryan’s Hadron
Stole it from Ryan's Hadron review … we didn't have a good half built system picture handy
That is an EVGA Hadron Case.
That is an EVGA Hadron Case. Here is the link: http://www.evga.com/articles/00777/
I like that case .
I think it would be better if
I think it would be better if you replace the APU with the Athlon x4 750k and then add an HD 7770 or 7790 maybe? Also that RAM is so expensive! ._.
Really great choices, you
Really great choices, you can’t go wrong with them. I personally would pony up for the i3-4340 and a decent motherboard for the mid-range and then go for the i5 4670k on the high end. Gaming isn’t really effected by the CPU beyond that 😀
So how good is the A8-6600K +
So how good is the A8-6600K + Radeon HD 6670 in hybrid Xfire?
Is 1080p gaming possible with that combo or is hybrid Xfire a joke?
Yay I’ve been waiting for
Yay I’ve been waiting for this 🙂
Nice but can you give some
Nice but can you give some though to doing SFF builds as well? That’s a growing market 🙂
Yay for all Nvidia garbage
Yay for all Nvidia garbage for all these builds…. Guess the writer of this article loves the money he is getting from the Green trolls!! I come out cheaper with my custom water cooled R9-290X that is OC to 1275 MHZ that &*^% all over the so called “Dream Machine” build with its pathetic 780Ti. Guess I’ll be racking up the kills in BF4 on you Nvidia users. lol! Enjoy the low FPS.
Just wait till mantle. LOL. Then you Greenies will be crying as the red lava of AMD/ATI takes you down. The burn is already there with the cheap R9-290X slapping around the 780’s like little candies, but it will be complete vaporization when mantle comes rolling around town.
…. Guess the writer of this
↑↑↑ You sir, are an idiot ↑↑↑
For future guides, I still
For future guides, I still think it would be helpful for you to include a liquid cooling recommendation since they are almost mandatory these days. With so many choices, it is hard to know which coolers to choose from.
Cases and coolers may be
Cases and coolers may be subject to personal preference, but they are also potential sources of parts incompatibilities. For example, there are motherboard / RAM / cooler combinations that just won’t physically fit for say lack of physical clearance above the RAM heat spreaders. For that reason its hard to put much faith in system recommendations you haven’t built and can’t guarantee even are buildable.
In addition to flat out incompabilities, there are also more subtle synergies or conflicts that can make one set of gear achieve much better or worse cooling & acoustic performance than another. These factors can be hard to predict ahead of time especially working just from spec sheets; it seems one of the critical things a build guide should do is check that a proposed set worked out in an unusually good way vs an unusually bad way.
A checklist for those kinds
A checklist for those kinds of specs might be a good idea, I'll think about that
Just listened to the last
Just listened to the last podcast…
How do you cat proof your computer?
And I mean that as a serious question, pulling cat hair out of everything is never fun.
I’m currently running an old case Thermaltake VA3003BWS and it’s an excellent vacuum for cat hair.
Any suggestions would be welcomed from everyone!
I’m using an NZXT Hush, so
I'm using an NZXT Hush, so the entire outside is coated in high density foam, including all the intakes for fans and on thr floor. It works great at slowing the penetration of cat hair and the hair seems to prefer sticking to it, not the PCBs.
You could always try shaving the cat too.