Building my first PC, any suggestions/advice would be awesome!

[ronaldmcdonald]

Approximate Purchase Date: 1 week


Budget Range: $1600 CDN (give or take 100)


System Usage from Most to Least Important: I'm planning for this PC to be mainly used for gaming, hoping to be able to most of the current games at max setting and still be able to meet minimum requirements for future games 2/3 years down the road.


Parts Not Required: I'll purchase windows 7 separately via my uni


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg?

Country of Origin: Canada


Parts Preferences: Intel over AMD


Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: Future...


Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080 or 1920x1200 not sure...



CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth P67 (REV 3.0) ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($231.86 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 570 1.25GB Video Card ($322.86 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 650D ATX Mid Tower Case ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair 850W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($160.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1465.64
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)

Also Coolermaster hyper 212+

This is going to be my first build ever, feeling kind of intimidated... I tried my best to make sure all parts are compatible for each other, any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[rvilkman]

Other than considering other newer SSD's I see no issues whatsoever.

It seems really good and whenever you need more kick to graphics just add a 2nd GTX570.

 

[ronaldmcdonald]

Other than considering other newer SSD's I see no issues whatsoever.

It seems really good and whenever you need more kick to graphics just add a 2nd GTX570.

Thanks for the advice! Would something like the newer 128 GB crucial M4 be a better fit?

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148448

 

[mjmjpfaff]

i think the sabertooth is a joke. the tuf thermal armor is stupid because you need another fan to blow onto the motherboard. if you dont it will heat up more than it would w/out the armor.
here is a better motherboard for the money- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128498
the newer crucial m4 is faster and cheaper go figure- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442
dont get the superclocked card when you can oc it yourself. you should get one with a good aftermarket cooler- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261096
case- the 650d is a great case but it doesnt offer great cooling. corsair is coming out with a new line of case the carbide series which are made for high airflow. the carbide 500r looks great and will have great cooling- http://www.corsair.com/carbide-series-500r-mid-tower-case.html
that psu is overpriced compared to this- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341044&Tpk=zx%20850w

 

[Why_Me]

FREE SHIPPING ftw.

These two sites down below are affiliated...they both use the same shipping addy in Richmond, BC, and they are both free shipping. These two sites are probably the most used on here by far for Canadian builds.

http://www.bestdirect.ca/
http://www.bestdirect.ca/contact/

http://www.directcanada.com
http://www.directcanada.com/contact/

Here's some examples...and that XFX psu down below is manufactured by Seasonic as is that Corsair psu you have in your build.

http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/235792/P1850BNLG9/XFX/ $129.79
XFX 850W PRO850W XXX Edition Single Rail ATX 12V 70A 24PIN ATX Modular Power Supply 80PLUS Silver

http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/232639/BX80623I52500K/Intel/ $208.79
Intel Core i5 2500K Quad Core Unlocked Processor LGA1155 3.3GHZ Sandy Bridge 6MB

http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/218427/RR-B10-212P-G1/COOLERMASTER/ $24.20
Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink AM2 AM3 LGA1366 LGA1155 LGA1156 120MM

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=15380BD5211&vpn=F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL&manufacture=G.SKILL $57.18
G.SKILL Ripjaws X F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24 Memory

http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/233111/ST31000524AS/Seagate/ $53.74
Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 7200.12 1TB SATA 32MB Cache 3.5IN Internal Hard Drive OEM

http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/225965/DRW-24B1ST%20Bulk/ASUS/ $16.79
ASUS DRW-24B1ST 24X SATA DVD Writer OEM Black

http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/234805/CT128M4SSD2/CRUCIAL%20TECHNOLOGY/ $223.65
Crucial M4 SSD Micron C400 128GB 2.5IN Solid State Disk Flash Drive SATA3 6Gbps

http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/236198/GA-Z68XP-UD3/Gigabyte/ $155.51
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 ATX LGA1155 Z68 DDR3 2PCI-E16 3PCI-E1 2PCI HDMI SLI SATA3 USB3.0 Motherboard

http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/222137/GFC-00599/MICROSOFT/ $93.79
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64BIT DVD OEM

http://www.bestdirect.ca/category/?minorcatid=108&vendorid=2077&p=3 <----- EVGA 570's

 

[rvilkman]

Possibly yes, but i didn't mean that the C300 would be bad, just that others might be at least faster.
So from a reliability standpoint you might be well off with the C300 but the newer models do have much higher performance.

Although all the Sandforce 22xx drives seem to be haunted with bugs as they are new.

There were some in the M4 as well, but most of those have probably been fixed.

Intel is the one with the best reliability, but they are also expensive and they obviously have had their fair share of issues as well.

 

[ronaldmcdonald]

i think the sabertooth is a joke. the tuf thermal armor is stupid because you need another fan to blow onto the motherboard. if you dont it will heat up more than it would w/out the armor.
here is a better motherboard for the money- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128498
the newer crucial m4 is faster and cheaper go figure- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442
dont get the superclocked card when you can oc it yourself. you should get one with a good aftermarket cooler- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261096
case- the 650d is a great case but it doesnt offer great cooling. corsair is coming out with a new line of case the carbide series which are made for high airflow. the carbide 500r looks great and will have great cooling- http://www.corsair.com/carbide-series-500r-mid-tower-case.html
that psu is overpriced compared to this- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341044&Tpk=zx%20850w

Just wondering... do I need the Z68 over the P67 when I'm already running the OS from a SSD?

Is there any other case you would suggest in the meantime, since I don't want to wait till september for the new model?

 

[mjmjpfaff]

what?? the z68 doesnt automatically use your ssd for ssd caching if that is what you mean. you can run the os on the ssd.
here is a case that gives you a lot of bang for your buck- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147107&Tpk=rosewill%20blackhawk

 

[ronaldmcdonald]

Best answer selected by ronaldmcdonald.