Critique My Propsosed Gaming Rig Plz

[ARr]

Hey so i am thinking of going with this.My main Q is should i wait for Bulldozder? And what do you think of the MOBO ? ive heard mixed things.Should i just go full ATX ?


CASE:CoolerMaster HAF 912 Mid-Tower Gaming Case

CPU:Intel® Core™ i5-2500K 3.30 GHz 6M Intel Smart Cache LGA1155

MEMORY:8GB (2GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Module (Kingston HyperX )

MOTHERBOARD:[CrossFireX] MSI Z68MA-ED55 (B3) Intel Z68 Chipset DDR3 mATX Mainboard w/ Lucid Virtu + Intel Smart Response Technology, OC Genie II, Winki 3 & 7.1 Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, SATA-III RAID, 2 Gen2 PCIe & 2 PCIe X1

GPU:NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB 16X PCIe Video Card (EVGA Superclocked )

POWERSUPPLY:800 Watts - CoolerMaster Silent Pro Gold 80 Plus Power Supply ( may eventually add another GPU )


HDD:1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD

NETWORK:Onboard Gigabit LAN Network

Cooling Fan:Thermaltake Frio OCK CPU Cooler ( i plan on OC so i chose this based on reviews )


SOUND:Creative Labs SB X-FI Titanium PCI Express Sound Card


FLASHMEDIA:INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer

USB:Internal USB 3.0 4-Port Hub ( heard my mobo only has 4 usb ports so i went with this )

USBX:NZXT Internal USB 6-PORT Expansion Module

( note i am not sure what the difference between the above two USB things are, kind of confused, can anyone clear it up ? Is it one set of normal usb 2.0 and a second of 3.0? thats what i was thinking. )


Fan Control :NZXT Sentry-2 Fan Touch Screen Fan Control & Temperature Display


Thank you for your time.Your critiques will be heard.

Regards ,

AR

 

[monkeysweat]

probably don't need the soundcard, but if you want it, it won't hurty
don't worry about the port expanders,, I haven't checked actual number of USB ports, but if you say only 4-- that's probably only at the back, there will be headers that connect to the front panel USB ports

 

[ARr]

yeah I know the board has 7.1 I may opt out of it.if I ditch the extra USB,s aswell that's about 150$ may be enough to go full ATX on the mobo if thats worth it? Or should I upgrade the gpu? I don't think il have enuf just from savings from those cuts tho

 

[JamesSneed]

If in no hurry since Bulldozer is so close you might as well wait at the very least it may make the 2500k cheaper. Also in the next few weeks the next gen AMD/ATI HD7000 GPUS are coming out which could be great GPU's but if your stuck on Nvidia they may bring the price of the GTX 580 down as well. I normally don't wait but your so close to major releases if you can I would wait.

If you don't wait...

I would look at the MSI Z68A-GD65 motherboard or the ASRock Z68 EXTREME4 GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 . These both have proper PCIe 3.0 support(with an Ivy bridge CPU) which should future proof your build for new graphics cards, SSD's and also Intel Ivy bridge CPU's.

Im with not using a sound card as I just built a very similar rig using the ASRock Z68 EXTREME4 GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 and the on board sound is really good. So maybe add the sound card later if you find the on board sound lacking.

A personal preference for PSU would be the SeaSonic X760. Since they build the PSU's in house I have always preferred Seasonic.

 

[ARr]

Yeah this is not a ASAP build.and your prolly right on the waiting to see where the CPU gods land.I wouldn't be able to get the monitor till Dec anyways.as for the mobo's that was the part I was most concerned about and will heed your advice and look into those.I mainly wanted the MSI for it's ease of OC'n as I am not to techy and know it's easier with the oc genie.Is the 580 still a high mid end card? I don't want to have to replace it for prolly two years and would still expect it to go hard.Is the heat sink appropriate for some high OC'n?

 

[spentshells]

Well if you are willing to spend right now don't let anyone tell you anything but ditch the soundcard

 

[Zenthar]

I would recommend you get 2x4GB modules, not 4x2GB modules

 

[JamesSneed]

Yeah this is not a ASAP build.and your prolly right on the waiting to see where the CPU gods land.I wouldn't be able to get the monitor till Dec anyways.as for the mobo's that was the part I was most concerned about and will heed your advice and look into those.I mainly wanted the MSI for it's ease of OC'n as I am not to techy and know it's easier with the oc genie.Is the 580 still a high mid end card? I don't want to have to replace it for prolly two years and would still expect it to go hard.Is the heat sink appropriate for some high OC'n?

Sandy Bridge is so easy to overclcok as long as you get the "K" series. You wont need anything like oc genie as it is so simple to do via the BIOS/UEFI. I got my 2500k to 4Ghz by simply increasing the multiplier. The Asrock board I mentioned prior has built in OC profiles into the BIOS/UEFI so you simply click a button to OC however mileage may very but the point is that a mild to medium OC is pretty easy.

The Thermaltake Frio OCK CPU Cooler should be fine as it looks like they copied the Prolimatech Megahalems on the fin design and added some bling. The small amount of tests I see show it to be OK. I do tend to buy components that are more mainstream so I would personally look at the Prolimatech Megahalems, Thermalright Venomous X - RT , or a cheaper solution that comes close in cooling for a lower price which is the COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus .