Gaming rig Core upgrade

[balanovich]

Hi

I'm going to upgrade the core of my gaming system.
I will SLI in the futur.
I probably won't overclock.
I'm in Canada, so Canadian Prices.
I buy at Newegg.ca, Tigerdirect.ca , DirectCanada and NCIX.

I'm keeping:
My case
750W OCZ PSU
1 Sata DVD reader
My screen
9800GT Factory overclocked
I know the most important part of a gaming is the GPU, but I don't have the money. And I need to upgrade now.

What I'm buying:
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" 60$

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz 220$

Patriot G Series ‘Sector 5’ Edition 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) 53 $ - 20 Mail-in rebate

MSI Z68A-GD65 (G3) LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX 190$

ASUS Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 8MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner 90 $ -20 Mail in rebate

I know I should look for better prices somewhere else than Newegg, but optimizing shipping prices is a long task. I want to be sure about my components first.

A few questions:

1- Is MSI "military grade" worth it?
2- I care a lot about quality, I want my build to last a long time. But if I pay more, I only get more feature I don't need. Is there a way to now the quality of a Mobo ?



Thanks for your input.

 

[ncc74656]

i have used that exact MB on 7 system builds with no issue. i have used MSI for my systems since 2000 and will continue to do so for my next build. My current MB is a BigBang series that has been through hell and back with me. its almost 2 years old now with a i7 in it. over its life it has had distilled water sprayed on it 3 times, had syurp and milk cause the system to shut down as it flowed inside my case. it has had its ram 4V over stock voltage among other things and its still going strong and rock solid.

you can buy a cheap 9800 for like 60 bucks and SLI it if you need to gain some speed for cheap, they were strong cards. also keep in mind that if you buy a GTX 560 you can use that 9800 as a physics processor to boost performance as well. or as a second cuda GPU.

 

[rvilkman]

Select memory which has the specs of 1.5V CAS9 1600Mhz instead, the 1.5V being the important part.

Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB might be better for HDD.

 

[ncc74656]

i have only had issues using other than 1.5v ram on AMD systems. im running my intel MSI at 1.76V to the ram atm with no issue, that MB you selected can handle 1.65V by default with XMP.

 

[Why_Me]

FREE SHIPPING

These two retailers (Direct Canada & Best Direct) are affiliated, both use the same shipping addy out of Richmond, BC, and both offer free ground shipping.

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

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

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11830BD4863&vpn=GA-Z68A-D3H-B3&manufacture=GIGABYTE $122.70
Gigabyte Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX LGA1155 Z68 DDR3 3PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 HDMI DVI SLI SATA3 USB3.0 Motherboard

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.directcanada.com/products/?sku=15380BD5211&vpn=F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL&manufacture=G.SKILL $48.05
G.SKILL Ripjaws X F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24 Memory

http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/233111/ST31000524AS/Seagate/ $49.79
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.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11830BD9294&vpn=GV-N560OC-1GI&manufacture=GIGABYTE $233.10 MIR $203.10
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti Fermi 900MHZ 1GB 4.0GHZ GDDR5 2XDVI Mini HDMI DIRECTX11 PCI-E Video Card

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

 

[ncc74656]

cant argue with anything posted, solid build above.

 

[Why_Me]

Hi

I'm going to upgrade the core of my gaming system.
I will SLI in the futur.
I probably won't overclock.
I'm in Canada, so Canadian Prices.
I buy at Newegg.ca, Tigerdirect.ca , DirectCanada and NCIX.

I'm keeping:
My case
750W OCZ PSU
1 Sata DVD reader
My screen
9800GT Factory overclocked
I know the most important part of a gaming is the GPU, but I don't have the money. And I need to upgrade now.

What I'm buying:
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" 60$

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz 220$

Patriot G Series ‘Sector 5’ Edition 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) 53 $ - 20 Mail-in rebate

MSI Z68A-GD65 (G3) LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX 190$

ASUS Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 8MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner 90 $ -20 Mail in rebate

I know I should look for better prices somewhere else than Newegg, but optimizing shipping prices is a long task. I want to be sure about my components first.

A few questions:

1- Is MSI "military grade" worth it?
2- I care a lot about quality, I want my build to last a long time. But if I pay more, I only get more feature I don't need. Is there a way to now the quality of a Mobo ?



Thanks for your input.

That RAM you have needs to be changed to low voltage 1.5v RAM as what is recommended by the manufacturers for these 1155 boards. That old school 1.65v RAM like that Patriot you have up there has been known to mess up the controllers on these 1155 boards.

 

[balanovich]

OK thanks

Updates:
Since I won't overclock my CPU
Intel Core i5 2500 200$

I'll take Why_me's HDD

Also his RAM... Is Gskill really good ? It always seem like cheap stuff wich boast good specs but breaks in no time....

I want a Blue-Ray reader but I don't need to burn them so :
LG CH12LS28 12X Blu-Ray Reader 60$

I already have Windows 7 and I don't have the money to buy a Graphic card. (not now)


About the motherboard...
Is PCI-Express 3.0 a good idea ? I'm obviously building thinking of the long term.
But when is the technology coming out ?
.... in 6 months Ivy bridge is comming out.
when will there be PCI-E 3.0 graphic cards ?

 

[Why_Me]

OK thanks

Updates:
Since I won't overclock my CPU
Intel Core i5 2500 200$

I'll take Why_me's HDD

Also his RAM... Is Gskill really good ? It always seem like cheap stuff wich boast good specs but breaks in no time....

I want a Blue-Ray reader but I don't need to burn them so :
LG CH12LS28 12X Blu-Ray Reader 60$

I already have Windows 7 and I don't have the money to buy a Graphic card. (not now)


About the motherboard...
Is PCI-Express 3.0 a good idea ? I'm obviously building thinking of the long term.
But when is the technology coming out ?
.... in 6 months Ivy bridge is comming out.
when will there be PCI-E 3.0 graphic cards ?

The 2500K is only $8 more than the 2500 and if you ever get the bug to o/c it only takes a few clicks of the mouse...it's that easy these days.

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_722&item_id=041471 $149.99 MIR $129.99
ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 Socket 1155 Intel Z68 Chipset Dual-Channel DDR3 DDR3 2133(OC)/1866(OC)/1600/1333/1066Mhz 2x SATAIII 6.0 Gb/s 2x USB 3.0 ATX

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=Z68%20Extreme3%20Gen3 <----- a better look at that board

http://www.asrock.com/microsite/PCIe3/ <----- PCI-E 3.0

AMD new generation cards are rumored to be due out sometime in November/December and Nvidia's sometime in late December / January. The Ivy Bridge cpu's that will support those cards in regards to PCI-E 3.0 are due out in April/May.