Compatibility check on new gaming machine - First PC build

[draynoe]

Hey everyone,

I'm building a new gaming desktop and want to make sure everything is compatible! ... I've never built a pc before so if you could take a look at this list and see if anything stands out to you as being wrong!

Also, if you have any alternate recommendations please let me know ... I'm new to this!

A couple of main things I want to be sure of are: Will the water cooler work with the case? and Which PCI wireless card will I need? PCIe x2 or PCIe x1?

Thanks! Here's the list:

Case: Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

$100 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021

CPU: Intel Core i7-980 Gulftown 3.33GHz 6 x 256KB L2 Cache 12MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Six-Core Desktop Processor

$600 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116402

Motherboard: ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

$200 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131641

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 24GB (6 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 Desktop Memory Model

$115 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104169
$179 (24GB) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104170
$180 (24GB Corsair Vengeance) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145350&Tpk=corsair%20vengeance%2024GB

Hard Drives: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

2x 64MB Black Drives: $200 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533

2 Video Cards (gtx 570): 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

$680 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130595

Power Supply: KINGWIN Mach 1 ABT-1000MA1S 1000W ATX / BTX SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active

PFC Power Supply

$154 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121037

DVD Burner: ASUS 24X DVD Burner

$21 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204


Extras:

Water Cooling: CORSAIR CWCH50-1 High Performance CPU Cooler

$72 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181010

Keyboard/Mouse: Logitech Wireless Combo

$30 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126197

PCI Wireless Card: Rosewill RNX-G300LX Wireless Adapter Card IEEE 802.11b/g PCI

$17 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166021

or: Asus Wireless Network Adapter (PCE-N13)

$27.50 PCIe x1: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0039GVOAM/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-

1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B001GV2320&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1V7QNXQRK9ZH2XM60EQ1

 

[draynoe]

Sorry - for the memory I want to use the: $180 (24GB Corsair Vengeance)

Thanks

 

[AdrianPerry]

If this build is for gaming id recommend looking into a Sandybridge i5-2500k CPU with a Socket 1155 Motherboard (z68 or p67). In terms of gaming it gives better performance than i7-980 and at one hell of a saving.

24 GB RAM - Again, major OVERKILL and wont make a difference. 8GB is plenty, 16GB if you really really must.

With your budget if you tweaked that build about you could probably afford to be running an i5-2500k with SLI GTX 580s

i5-2500k vs i7-980x comparison here (scroll near bottom to see game benchmarks)
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/142?vs=288

 

[monkeysweat]

drop back to the 2500K with a z68 Motherboard,, same thing on RAM,, 8 to 16 is way more than you'll ever need for a very long time.
take the money you saved there and buy a 90 GB or bigger Vertex 3 or similar SSD, other than that, you got a killer system.

 

[tomatthe]

For this high end of a machine, you probably should look into an ssd for an OS drive (not a corsair force 3 120g). I probably wouldn't start out building a machine with sli, but that's just my opinion.

Not sure on the case/cooler fit.

Looks like that mb has 1 x PCIe x1, 2 x PCI so something that would fit either of those would be fine for a wlan card. I take it running cable to it isn't an option?

 

[draynoe]

Thank's for the replies ... very helpful information! It's hard to find all of the facts when you're new to gaming builds hah

 

[draynoe]

Why is the i5 2500k so much better for gaming?

Also, is the SSD boot drive really that much faster than a caviar black drive?

Oh and tomatthe you're correct ... running a cable to it isn't an option for the room I'll have it in. I wish it was!

Thanks again

 

[AdrianPerry]

I probably wouldn't start out building a machine with sli, but that's just my opinion.

Agreed. Best option really, if you went with an i5-2500k and Z68 motherboard, buy a single GTX 580, a good 1000w PSU, and keep the intention of adding a second card in 6months-1year, if it would even be necessary. A single GTX 580 can currently max every game released with a very solid fps rate.

The i5-2500k is a newer series processor, comparison bench marks here:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/142?vs=288
If you really want to sink some more money, you could go with the i7-2600k, but in terms of gaming performance the difference between it and the i5-2500k is literally just a few FPS and so the extra price just isn't worth it and you would be better off spending the saved money on a better GPU.

And yes, SSD's are much much faster than magnetic HDDs. They use flash-type memory with chips rather than moving parts allowing much quicker read and write times.

 

[draynoe]

Awesome ... thanks everyone for the excellent answers. I didn't realize the i5 2500k was the newest series processor

Great forum!

 

[AdrianPerry]

If your after some build advice id recommend filling out the template in the link below / create a new thread. People on TOM's are great at build tweaking and saving you money

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/261222-13-build-advice

 

[draynoe]

Awesome! Thanks for the link

My new favorite site hah