I5 2500k build, advice on last components needed

[wg1234]

Approximate Purchase Date: Within the next 2-4 weeks

Budget Range: £500 excluding the parts I’ve got already. I'd be willing to go over a bit if the part is really that necessary - any and all comments/suggestions/critiques welcomed, please.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming at 1080p & good frame rate (I’ll be new to pc gaming, but have a 360 and ps3)(games like crysis 1&2, bf3 & other FPS), media (music & movies, movies to my tv, surround sound to amp), using & learning photoshop, dreamweaver & using and learning video editing (adobe premier) Quietness

Parts Not Required: Monitor, dvd drives, harddrives, cooler, gpu, keyboard, mouse. Maybe case & PSU

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: scan.co.uk, ebuyer, overclocker.co.uk or any other recommened uk sites

Country of Origin: United Kingdom

Parts Preferences: Intel, other than that no preference.

Overclocking: Possibly in the future, after I look into it further.

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe in the future, if the cards become cheaper or I feel I need more power.

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: I would love a quiet system, as my last desktop was a sff dell pc that made a racket whilst on, I would also like to be able to upgrade my system and maybe add a second 570 if they ever drop to a good price or if I feel that I really need one.

What I've bought:

Case: I’ve bought a 2nd hand Antec 900 case from ebay last year, which came as was, so without all the screws mounts etc that probably originally came with the case. I only got four of the long screws that screw drives into the removable fan cages (maybe I could use 2 screws for each hard drive that I have instead of four? There are 9 motherboard standoffs in the case but I don’t have the standoff screws – are they easy to get.
Or maybe I should sell it and buy a new one, but I think if could be used for now?

Power Supply: coolmaster rs-700 power supply, Unsure if I should use, it came with the Antec 900 case I bought from ebay Is there any way to test if the power supply is good?
If it can’t damage my system I would like to try it, but if there is a possibility that it can I would rather not use it... I would appreciate advice on this.

Cooler: Arctic Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2

Graphics Card: Nvidia GTX570 Inno3D GDDR5 Dual DVI+HDMI £179.72

Ram: G.Skill 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz RipjawsX Memory Kit CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V - £55.82

Optical drives: Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±R, 12x DVD±R, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, SATA, Black, OEM
Samsung SH-D163C Black, 48x CD-ROM 16x DVD-ROM, SATA, OEM

Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 Hard Drive x2

I need to buy:

Processor: i5 2500k

Motherboard: ? I am thinking of this motherboard as I’ve seen it has good reviews - MSI P67A-GD53 (B3) – around £105 – I’m not sure if I should go for a z68 board or not as they don’t seem to be getting that great of reviews around or at just above this sort of price range anyway. The feature that I think I could possibly use from a z68 is where it uses the processor gpu for encoding videos instead of the dedicated gpu.

PSU:Maybe I also need to buy a new PSU?

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium or above. I’m a student so I may be able to get the cheaper Windows 7 deals, but I have got those deals before so I’m not sure if I could get again. Plus, if I remember correctly its upgrade versions of windows 7 that they give you isn’t it? If it is an upgrade version it wouldn’t be any good for a new build would it?

I'm not sure if there is anything else that I'm forgetting, if so please feel free to suggest or remind me. thanks for any help.

 

[rsl1989]

well im a new pc gamer myself but you seem to have all the parts knowledge, i5 2500k is great enough. thats what i got myself, OC at 4.0, handles all tasks perfectly,

mobo i would suggest mine -MSI P67A-G45 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard, but 104 after mir at newegg. there is a special on asus brand mobos too . asus mobo seem to have what my mobo has just a lil more $,


psu u should just keep yours . mine is a Rosewill RV2-700 700W ATX12V SLI ready i got with my case - Rosewill FUTURE Gaming ATX Mid Case for $70.00, so 700watts is a great start,

and as far as OS , W7 is what you need. your on track , just shop around and wait for good deals, subscribe to newegg newsletter for 1st to know deals , either way to each is own, my build is b3 & mw3 ready, great with crysis 2 and bc2,

its pretty much perfference of brand types , just look at new egg and choose what you feel is best bang for your buck.




RSL1989 build:
-MSI P67A-G45 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
-Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz @4.0 OC Quad-Core Processor
-ASUS ENGTX550 TI DC TOP/DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5
-Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s / -LITE-ON DVD Burner 24X
-G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
-Rosewill RV2-700 700W ATX12V SLI ready / -Rosewill FUTURE Gaming ATX Mid Case
-Sunbeam RHK-BA Rheobus 4 Channel 20W Fan Controller Panel / -6 Rosewill 120mm Blue LED Fans

 

[cuecuemore]

The SilentPro series is Coolermaster's high quality line, so you can use that no problem. I wouldn't run 2x GTX 570 on it, simply because my rule is that the PSU has to come with the requisite 6/8 pin connectors, though it could handle it in theory.

As far as your OS goes, you could put an old copy of Vista on if you have one and then upgrade, but of course, the upgrade copy won't install to a blank disk.

 

[wg1234]

okay, thanks your replys.

I guess it's really the motherboard that I need to decide on. Can you guys let me know what is the best board to get for say... upto £120. Do you think I should consider some z68 boards up to this price as well or do you think the p67 platform could be better for me?

MSI P67A-GD53 (B3) – around £105 - Considering this as I've seen many recommendations from magazines for this board.

MSI P67A-G45 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - Seen for £103.67 - Can this board run 2 graphics cards? SLI?

Asus P8P67 Pro Rev3 Intel P67 Express Socket 1155 Motherboard
Asus P8P67 PRO <Rev.3.0>, Intel P67, S 1155, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, RAID SATA, PCIe 2.0 (x16), ATX - On offer untill tomorrow for £120

MSI P67A-GD65 (B3) Intel P67 Socket 1155 Motherboard
MSI P67A-GD65 (B3), Intel P67, S 1155, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, RAID SATA, PCIe 2.0 (x16), ATX - On offer untill tomorrow for £118

 

[wg1234]

okay, I got one of those hp touchpads in the fire sale and it looks like I might have to re-encode videos to mp4 to play on it. Would there be a big difference in doing the re-encoding with a z68 board compared to with a p67 board? I mean how long would say a 700mb xvid file take to re-encode on both boards?

I cant find many reviews for the MSI P67A-G45 (B3) motherboard, is it better than the MSI P67A-GD53 (B3) board, if so why? these are the two I'm considering the most at the moment.

Where is a good place to find up to date motherboard reviews aswell? (I know google, but I would like a trusted website that does many)

 

[chesteracorgi]

wg1234, if you are transcoding video then you definitely want to go to the Z68 chipset. The P67 may be superior for gaming, but video transcoding is a real strength of the Z68 chipset. I suggest that you look at ASRock as well as MSI, because their boards have the most features for the price.

 

[wg1234]

Thanks, the only problem I have is that I dont seem to see many reviews of them or see one that is highly rated for my sort of price range.

I see that this one is recommened in a review round up on the main site

Gigabyte’s Z68XP-UD3

any more recommended or better than this one?

 

[wg1234]

okay, I got my i5 2500k today and I ordered a Asrock z68 extreme 4 motherboard. Hopefully I will have it by the end of the week.

The one thing I have not ordered yet is the operating system. I was hoping that I could get a student discounted version but it looks like they only do the discount on upgrade versions.

What would be better to buy oem or retail version. I dont expect to upgrade my motherboard for a good few years so I'm thinking of getting oem because its cheaper but then I'm wondering if just owing windows 7 outright is better e.g. more freedom, transferable etc.

 

[wg1234]

Hi,

I'm doing my build now but probably will not finish it today. I got a quick question to ask. I was putting on my Cooler: Arctic Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2. I was fitting it over the fitting plate you get with it to line the cooler up with the screws for the bracket.

When I put it over the cpu I noticed that it stuck to it straight away. I know its got thermal paste pre spread on the cooler, I just wanted to check, by asking you guys if there is usually and protective plastic on the cooler or not? because I didnt think to look before I was lining it up.

I feel resistance on trying to gently pull it up and guess that, that is the thermal paste from the cooler onto the CPU so dont want to ruin the bond by pulling it up if it is the themal paste holding it down. As this is my 1st build I just wondering if it is some sort of magnectic pull that is making it feel hard to pull up.

I'm asking this as I could imagine that they would put protective plastic over the thermal paste on the cooler. I didnt even think about the thermal paste onit and had the cooler lying on my bed so Im not ever sure if it coulf have picked up a little dust etc.

I would apprecitae a quick reply if possible, thanks

 

[AdrianPerry]

wg1234, if you are transcoding video then you definitely want to go to the Z68 chipset. The P67 may be superior for gaming, but video transcoding is a real strength of the Z68 chipset. I suggest that you look at ASRock as well as MSI, because their boards have the most features for the price.

P67 isn't superior for gaming. Z68 and P67 are on the same level.

The only reason people often go for P67 is because they dont need the onboard video that Z68 offers, and since Z68 is slightly more expensive, its often not deemed worth paying extra for somthing you wont use. However Z68 also offers SSD Caching and a couple of other features. So it really depends what you require from your motherboard as to what chipset you choose.

 

[wg1234]

thats good as I ended up getting a z68. Any tips about the cooler problem? I tightened the screws abit hoping for the best.

Im guessing that I should maybe not use it as it is? I see a tiny bit of white stuff on my finger, im guessing that it could be some of the thermal paste from the cooler. I guess Im worried about messing up my first build pc mainly just because I never even thought to look at the coolers thermal paste when I was lining it up.

I looked at an unboxing video on youtube about 10 minutes ago and saw that it had a peice of hard plastic holder on the bottom of the cooler where the thermal paste goes. I looked in my packaging and it looks like when I unboxed mine that bit came of in the box. I saw a little peice of 1 hair in the plastic bit where the paste was. If there was a hair or dust in the thermal paste on the cooler could that cause a big problem for my components?

 

[wg1234]

sorry guys, If I should remove it I would like to remove it asap as Im guessing its drying / get more secure to my cpu or am I worrying about nothing??

Please give me a quick reply I got to leave my house in about 10-15 mins and dont know if I should take it off now or not.