1st ever homebuilt PC

[pcnewbsauce]

Hey guys, Im just about ready to order the parts for my first ever homebuilt PC and was wondering if you had any input.

few things before I list the specs,
#1 Id like to not exceed $1500 if possible, I have a bit of wiggle room here so as long as the first digits are 15xx, we're cool. Right now Im at 16something but after the MiRs and promo codes we should be okay.
#2 I plan on eventually adding a SSD once the prices go down a bit, which my friend assured me they would. Really all I wanna do here is run my OS off the SSD and maybe 1 or 2 games that Im currently really into
#3 flexibility, especially with the motherboard. Im really new to all this stuff and probably couldnt make a confident decision even after a full days research so maybe you guys can offer input, I have no problem splurging a bit on a mobo that I know will be able to accommodate any new technologies on the verizon (ivy bridge, DDR4, etc.). Everything else, the CPU, video card, etc I'd like to be high performing but something I realistically expect to become "obsolete" after 6-8 months, at which point Id have no problem replacing them provided my mobo accommodates the new technology.

if these expectations seem ridiculous, I apologize. Like I said, Im very new to this and look foward to learning more, preferably through the monitor of the below built

Anyways, after that lengthy introduction and without any further adieu, here is what I have so far:


Link Depot 6 ft. Mini HDMI Cable Model HDMI-6-MINI $7.99

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $99.99

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $59.99

SAMSUNG S24A350H ToC Rose Black 24" Full HD HDMI LED BackLight LCD Monitor $249.99

EVGA SuperClocked 012-P3-1572-AR GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $339.99

CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply $119.99

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM $79.99

ASRock Z68 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $189.99

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7 $29.49

(COMBO) Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600K and LITE-ON Blu-ray Burner with 3D Playback SATA iHBS212-08 LightScribe Support $429.98

Rosewill 4.7GB 16X DVD+R 100 Packs Disc Model RCDM-10002 Free w/ above purchase

comes to $1623 with shipping.

Another question I just thought of is while the consensus on the actual performance of the BD burner is pretty good, the included software/drivers are garbage, does anyone have any recommendations on what to use instead of the included software?

Thanks alot for any help guys.

 

[rvilkman]

If your main use case is gaming, go for the i5 2500k it will perform just as good in games as the i7 2600k. Only if you do something heavily threaded does the hyper threading bring advantage to the table. Even with the combo you will probably save around $80, and who knows there might be a combo with the 2500k as well.

Other than that looks pretty good.

Although you might want to go with a modular or semi modular PSU with the money you save with the CPU switch. And maybe even bump it up to 850W if you intend to SLI the 570 down the road.
XFX Pro850W XXX 850W 80+ Silver $154.99 ( before $15 rebate )

And for bluray playback powerdvd 11 (or 10) ultra is probably the way to go. Don't know about burning SW.

 

[wintermint]

Core i5-2500k is really the best for what you pay for at the moment. The Z68 is the most recent board for sandy bridge. H67 offers no overclocking but onboard graphic which is good for Core i4 2400 which is inferior to the i5-2500k in terms of overclocking capability and also a slight decrease in clock speed. The P67 has overclocking but no onboard graphic wihch is good because discrete graphic is the way to go. Z68 is the combination of both onboard graphic and overclocking. I hope this helps you with your final decision. I'm also sure there's some Ripjaws 2x4GB 1600MHZ for low $60. If you're serious about overclocking take a look at H70 and Noctua. It's really hard to be obselete in six months but make sure the mobo has at least 1 16x, 1 8x pci 2.0 slots in case you want to set up crossfire/SLI.
Blu-ray drives (read not write) can be found for around 60$ but unless you're really using your desktop as a multimedia player a normal CD/DVD drive combo would suffice. Save money now and invest in a second graphic card, or buy a bigger screen. As a matter of fact, go crazy and set up 2 monitors or so!

 

[pcnewbsauce]

Thanks alot guys, yeah maybe I will bump it down to an i5-2500k that way when the ivy bridge based CPUs are released I wont kick myself in the ass for spending so much $$ previously.

The CD/DVD burner and bluray player combo seems like a good idea also, didnt think of that. I dont plan on burning any blurays so this seems more practical and cheaper.

And as far as the RAM goes, like I said Im really new at this, but after researching a bit I found that as core speed of the RAM increases, so does CAS latency, creati8ng a tradeoff between the 2 parameters. Also it seems like not all mobos can accept certain speed RAM without overclocking, I believe the AsRock only goes up to 1600 w/o an OC. And the difference between CAS latency 9 and 8 was only like $5 I believe but if you think the difference is negligible maybe Ill just stick with 9.

btw will the selected mobo support ivy bridge? Im thinking of going with the Asrock Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3 mobo since it has PCIe 3 ports which ivy bridge will support. Like I said, flexibility and expandability are important factors to me so I dont mind splurging a bit on the mobo

Thanks alot for the input

 

[wintermint]

I hope mod closes this thread. it seems to be solved

 

[ha2fb]

Like it has been mentioned before - drop to a 2500K, H70 (best for decent OCing, and w/o a heatsink + fan), upgrade to 850 modular PSU, and definitely purchase the Fatal1ty Z68 Gen3 board. You should be around the same price again.