UPDATE - Here's what I ended up building (Sep 2012):
Intel Core i5 3570K $234.00
For gaming i7 doesn't make a big enough difference to justify cost difference.
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H-WB $189.00
Has most features I was interested in. Bonus - you can run
Hackintosh on it.
ASUS GTX 660 Ti $309
Currently sweet spot for price/performance IMO.
G Skill 16G(4x4G) DDR3 1600Mhz $95.00
Don't need more than 8GB but it didn't cost much so I got it. Will probably never use it (plan on upgrading in two years)
SanDisk Extreme SSD 120 GB SATA 6.0 $80
Got a good deal on Amazon. SSDs will reduce your game load times significantly.
Western Digital 1TB SATA3 HDD 64M Caviar Blue WD10EZEX $88.00
LGE CH12LS28 Black Blue Ray $55.00
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU cooler $36.00
Thermaltake V3 Black Edition Mid Tower Case With 500W PSU $69.00
ORIGINAL MESSAGE:
Now that CoD appears to be running well for most people, I'd like to build a new rig to play this game that I bought on release.
I switched to Macs six years ago and haven't built a PC since then so a bit out of touch with the current state of PC hardware. I don't have a specific budget but would like to build a decent rig without going overboard ie. not interested in spending an extra 50% to get a 10% boost in performance. Bonus if I can run Hackintosh on it
I'm not married to any particular vendor so don't care about Intel, AMD, NVidia, ATI etc. as long as it doesn't have compatibility issues with CoD.
Of course I've started my research on Google but hoping to get your advice from a CoD perspective. For the first cut, I've simply looked at prices of the major components. I'll be refining this as I learn more about them.
CPU
i7 2700K @ $335 vs AMD FX 8150 @ $220
Is the performance difference enough to justify an extra $100 for the Intel? Is it more reliable? runs cooler? Will going the AMD route limit Mobo options?
Motherboard
Main features I'm looking for:
- reliability
- gigabit ethernet. Seems pretty standard.
- WiFi? Is this even available on mobos or do I need another card/dongle? Hoping to avoid adding any additional cards.
- USB3 (standard?)
- bluetooth
- on-board audio (seems standard)
Graphics Card
I used to own ATI cards in the past but NVidia seems to have fewer issues in CoD. Looking for whatever will cause fewer headaches/has better drivers (compatible with Hackintosh?)
Are the GTX670/7970 the minimum required for smooth gameplay in CoD? Am I going to regret going with anything less than them?
Other parts
RAM, SSD etc. will focus on these once I've decided on the above.
Thanks for any input.
cheers!