First time build, gaming PC + OC. Suggestions and opinions?

Guest · Sep 10, 2011

Hello everyone,

I have been planning on a build, but I've learned research can only get you so far as opposed to speaking to others who have gone through this all before. I come to you as this will be my first ever build and I'm quite new to the hardware side of everything. I plan on using it for file conversion, HD movies, burning cds, gaming (high-end), and to manage my backup data. I would like to be able have a system that will last me at least 4 or 5 years with the ability to upgrade in the future without needing to purchase anything other than the upgrades, as I'm a college student and not able to grow money on trees anymore.

Approximate Purchase Date: Expected to be between December and the beginning of next year.

Budget Range: Hoping to be under $2000

Preferred Websites for Parts: Newegg, Amazon, open to suggestions

Parts -

CPU:
• i7-2600k
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070

MOBO: I'm currently deciding between these two:
• ASUS P8Z68-V PRO
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131730&Tpk=ASUS%20P8Z68-V%20PRO
Or
• Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128498&Tpk=GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3

Overclocking: Yes, I plan on overclocking to 4.5 Ghz

SLI or Crossfire: Not immediately but I plan on implementing it in the future

COOLER: I want a quiet fan but still something that will enable me to overclock further.
• Noctua NH-D14
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018

CPU Heatsink: Is there point in getting one if I already have a cooler?

RAM:I plan on getting only 8GBs of DDR3 RAM, but the other aspects such as brand and speed, I'm lost.
• CORSAIR DOMINATOR 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
• Crucial Ballistix sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
• G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

Overclocking?

HDD: 1 TB and a small SSD for the OS would be ideal
• Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148697

Would I be able to add more later?

CASE: Would like a full tower - as I figure it'll provide me with space for future upgrades. Although good air flow, cable management and sound suppression would be nice

• COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Advanced Blue Edition RC-932-KKN3-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case with USB 3.0, Black Interior and Four Blue LED Fans
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119213

PSU: No idea, figured I could just calculate how much power I'd need after finalizing all the other components first

Video Card: I want to stick with Nvidia cards and have been looking at the GTX series, but have no idea what will give me HD quality and 60 fps

Monitor: At the moment it's not as important as the tower components but would like 1920x1080 resolution.

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit), although considering this most likely be built til the beginning of next year would it be wise to hold out for Windows 8?

CDROM: Would like to be able to burn CDs and DVDs, but other than that I have no preference.

• ASUS DRW-24B1ST
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Afterthoughts: As it'll still be months before this build becomes a reality, I plan on trying to keep up to date on newer components being released and price drops on current ones. If anyone can set me in the right direction of what to wait for or deals to take advantage of, it would be much appreciated. I would like to thank you all in advance for all your help.

jmsellars1 · Sep 10, 2011

CPU - I dont think you will need the i7, the i5-2500k would give 99% of the gaming performance for $100 less.

MOBO - Either of those are fine for overclocking/SLI

RAM - I would get 8GB of low profile Corsair Vengeance.

GPU - I would get the GTX 570, it will breeze through games at 1920x1080

PSU - 2 x GTX 570 and the rest of that build would probably require around 750W, I would get 850W to be safe though. I would also stick to Seasonic, XFX, Corsair and Antec.

CASE - This is up to you but most mid towers should have enough space for a 2 card setup. The Coolermaster Storm Scout is pretty good value.

Basically i would go:

i5-2500k - $219.99
8GB Corsair Vengeance Low Profile - $52.99
ASRock Z68 Extreme3 - $124.99
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB - $59.99
MSI Twin Frozr II GTX 570 (Fermi) - $349.99
ASUS VS248H-P Black 24" Monitor - $199.99
Coolermaster Storm Scout - $79.99
Noctua NH-D14 - $75.87
Windows 7 Home Premium - $99.99
Samsung DVD Burner - $19.99
Crucial M4 128GB - $227.99
Seasonic SS-850HT 850W - $119.99

Total - $1631.76 before shipping and $30 rebates.

You even have enough left over there to go SLI straight away if you want.

phenom90 · Sep 10, 2011

by the time december when you want to build your pc intel will release sandy bridge-e socket 2011 platform while amd already have bulldozer in the market... you will be facing more options by that time....

Guest · Sep 11, 2011

jmsellars1 :

Thanks for the suggestions, however if I were to eventually want to progress towards Tri-SLI what type of changes would have to be made to the power supply?

by the time december when you want to build your pc intel will release sandy bridge-e socket 2011 platform while amd already have bulldozer in the market... you will be facing more options by that time....

Besides the sandy bridge-e socket, what else can be expected to change in the coming months that I should take into consideration?

jmsellars1 · Sep 11, 2011

I suppose you would need around 1050W.

mildgamer001 · Sep 11, 2011

i would also have suggested an i5 2500k, but new stuffs coming out, but you should get the coolermaster haf 922, it looks almost the same, saves some vertical space, a bit cheaper, works good looks good. and i suggest going to crucial ballistiz sport ram, it works just as well but much cheaper, and have heat spreaders as well. 4gb for 30$, thats is cheaper than my old compaq's upgrade of .5gb ram for 40$, it makes me want to punch babies that i was stupid enough to spend my money on that, coulda got my laptop a week earlier, then i couldnt return cuz they considered testing it for a couple days "used" >:/

Guest · Sep 11, 2011

Thanks for the tip on the case, good savings on such little variation.

What benefits does the heat spreaders give? I don't really understand how they dissipate the heat produced by the RAM.

mildgamer001 · Sep 11, 2011

well, ram is really soirta like a fast SSd, and they get used constantly by the computer, so, since they are basicly just chips, they heat up just like a cpu does. when gaming/ intencive programs, they get used a lot more for a lot longer, this makes them heat up, heat spreaders helps that out a little. but honestly, i am not ENTIRELY sure how exactly they do dissapate heat, probably sorta like a radiator in a car does, but im not totaly sure.

there is also another case you might want to check out, its the "budget HAF" the coolermaster haf 912 is like a stripped down version of the 922 and it dosnt look as good, but it has great cooling and its really cheap. doesnt look that bad either, i also kinda like the non-painted interior case. easier to see components because they dont blend in as much.

Guest · Sep 11, 2011

Alright looks like I should be getting heat spreaders then, appreciated the explanation.

sgtopmobile · Sep 11, 2011

if you buy date is in between december and january of next year you should wait to see the price/performance ratio of socket LGA2011 the diference MIGHT BE just like the diference there is between socket 1155 and socket 1366 altough i am not sure, if you are not in very reduced budget intel is the way to go BUT amd MIGHT be able to math the performance of socket LGA1156 (i5 2500k) for far less with their new line of CPUs coming in a while, if i were you i will wait because we are very close to refreshing-hardware season.... i will suggest you to take my advise and wait. DO NOT rush in making decisions you might regret later for not waiting.

Guest · Sep 11, 2011

Waiting was my original plan, since my planned buy window is close to the time of year when new hardware is being unveiled. I have no plan to finalize any decisions until then, but currently I just wanted to familiarize myself with the current hardware on the market since I am new to this.

Do you recommend having the buy date after January or during January in order to take advantage of the new hardware?

jmsellars1 · Sep 11, 2011

A big part of the reason for heat spreaders on DDR3 RAM is that they look cool to be honest. Yes they will dissipate heat but DDR3 doesn't get very hot. I usually just get them on rigs i know will be heavily overclocked.

mildgamer001 · Sep 11, 2011

jmsellars1 :

your right , they do look cool, especially gskill ripjaws, too bad they are more expencive than crucial for the same reliability/performance but under heavy load they do tend to hget hot and its kinda a just-in-case thing as well. (i hate the color of crucial balliustix cuz the orange is kinda ugly lol. but it works so lol)

phenom90 · Sep 11, 2011

Besides the sandy bridge-e socket, what else can be expected to change in the coming months that I should take into consideration?[/quotemsg]

amd will release bulldozer to the market in this october....

Mapel · Sep 11, 2011

I heard that bulldozer won't be that much better because most programmers don't like to program multithreading, and when theres '16' cores.....

mjmjpfaff · Sep 11, 2011

Guest · Sep 15, 2011

What are the odds that any programs in the next year will start to take advantage of hyperthreading? What's the reason most haven't done it as of now?

mildgamer001 · Sep 16, 2011

ive heard multiple times bulldozer is mainly just to try to compete against the sandy bridge chips, not the ivy bridge/sandy bridge E,

Guest · Sep 16, 2011

So there's the sandy bridge-e, ivy bridge and the newly announced haswell...I'm so confused.

Between the SB-e and Ivy, what are the improvements they offer over those in the current sandy bridge series? Are either of them worth waiting for? Is there a possibility they could offer better performance and price point than the 2500k?

mildgamer001 · Sep 16, 2011

no, sandybridge-e IS ivy bridge, same thing different codenames, and they are from what i have heard only really better when overclocked because they can be OC'd to extreme levels if cooled properly, not sure abotu everything, but at gaming, thye really wont make much difference, tey anyhow.

Guest · Sep 16, 2011

But I've read things about the two using different sockets and release dates. Plus the Intel roadmap charts littered online show them as different processors

mjmjpfaff · Sep 16, 2011

mildgamer001 :

no it is not sandy bridge e is still on the 32 nm die size. ivy bridge will be on the 22 nm die size. much more efficient so it will run cooler and you will be able to clock it higher

Guest · Sep 16, 2011

That's what I thought

Sky03 · Sep 16, 2011

From what i underatand, sandy bridge-e are the server chips of the current line up and ivy btidge is the new tech.

mjmjpfaff · Sep 16, 2011

Sky03 :

just about. not worth it if you are a gamer.

First time build, gaming PC + OC. Suggestions and opinions?

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