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New gaming laptop
JC:
That graphics Card still isn't great really, if it struggles with MW2 which is pretty much 3 years old now (and never had a reputation for 'cutting edge' graphics).
The problem I see with that setup is that it's really unbalanced, you've got a pretty shit-hot CPU, heaps of RAM and a pretty chunky PSU tied to a Video Card that really is more suited to being on an occasional/basic gaming PC. I also don't see the point of the liquid cooling on a non-overclockable CPU, and those are all areas where money could be saved to upgrade the video card to a higher spec (and stay within the $1k budget).
Could you link me to the site you're looking at so I can see if there's a bit better way to set it up?
Mister Kyle:
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/
Had Matt (Multikill) working with me on Facebook, he said all that looked alright. You're probably a better person to go to for this kind of thing. See if there's some way to optimize it and stay in that price range.
JC:
Hmmm, they really are quite a rip off for Graphics Cards and some of the config options mean I can't get exactly what I'd want....
A couple of options
Less CPU, better graphics
Key Specs of that one are:
CPU: AMD FX-6100 3.30 GHz Six-Core AM3+ CPU
HDD: 120 GB Intel 330 Series SATA-III 6.0Gb/s - 500 MB/s Read & 450 MB/s Write
MEMORY: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Vengeance)
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0 AMD 970
VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB
So it's got a weaker CPU than the one suggested above, but a much stronger graphics card (Compared to the GT 640, it almost triples those 'benchmarks' provided). I've also opted for an SSD rather than a hard drive as they have a good deal on at the moment, but you may need a second internal or similar (depends on how much porn you need to store really).
Price is $983 before Tax & Shipping.
More CPU, weaker graphics
CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-3470 3.20 GHz
HDD: 120 GB Intel 330 Series SATA-III 6.0Gb/s - 500 MB/s Read & 450 MB/s Write
HDD2: 1TB 7200RPM HARD DRIVE
MEMORY: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Corsair Vengeance)
MOTHERBOARD: GIGABYTE GA-Z77-D3H
VIDEO: AMD Radeon HD 7770 1GB
The graphics in this one are a fair bit weaker than the one above (probably about 50-75% of the power of a GTX 560Ti, depending on the game. Reference: Anandtech). On the flip side the CPU is more powerful and I could also fit a second Hard Drive in, so it could be as cheap as $825 if you opted to remove it.
Price is $924 before tax & Shipping, or $825 without the second Hard Drive.
Whichever option you choose really depends on what resolution you want to play games at and what games you want to play. If you're after BF3 at high res, then I'd go for the 560Ti whereas if you're looking for less graphically intense games the 7770 might be good enough...
On a general note, I wouldn't go for a Thermaltake case. I found my Element S had endless issues due to poor build quality, it looked and felt like it was cheap and shitty when it definitely wan't cheap.
Mister Kyle:
Shipping/handling/taxes increase the price of anything by like, $200 on there though. Sucks ass.
Also I may have been a little misleading as far as what I want to get. I don't want to be able to run BF3 on super ultra hardcore megagamer mode at a steady 35-40 FPS. I just want to make it so I don't have to deal with RS, D3, WoW, at 15-20 FPS.
SO I found this bundle.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1050001
Problem is the 128GB SSD. 128GB isn't much room to play with.
Oh, and shitty mobo. Can easily switch out though.
So, I finally decided to order piece by piece.
http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/1483/120901203135.png
Cost me $750 total, after taxes/S&H.
Nick:
It might be worth it to go ahead and get an i5 processor while you are building. You'd hate to want to upgrade later on.