My First home build, $1400 gaming PC

[ddemon]

This is my first time building a new computer from scratch. I've spent a couple of months researching all my parts and am now only a days away from ordering them. I’m looking for any final advise, comment or criticisms please.

Approximate Purchase Date: Monday
Budget Range: $1300AU
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Multi media, Internet, some photo and video editing. This will be my living room all in one entertainment center hooked up to a 42’ LCD TV and 5.1 surround sound amplifier.

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS

Preferred Website for Parts: pccasegear.com

Country of Origin: Australia

Parts Preferences: none

Overclocking: Yes, but maybe not yet.

SLI or Crossfire: Yes, but not yet.

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080 42’ LCD TV and in the future a smaller secondary monitor.

CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K

GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD6950 2GB Dirt3 Edition

Motherboard: ASUS P8Z68-V Pro Motherboard B3

PSU: Silverstone Strider Plus 850W

RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM (2x4GB) DDR3

Case: CoolerMaster HAF 922 with Window

Optical: ASUS DRW-24B3LT 24X DVDRW LightScribe

HDD: Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB HD103SJ (The SSD boot drive will come later when my budget allows)

Cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ CPU Cooler with a CoolerMaster 120mm Silent Red LED Fan in a push/pull setup for added air flow and a nice internal glow.

Parts Link: https://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=wish_lists&wlcId=3581&action=wish_lists

 

[chillin15]

Looks great to me I like your choice of 6950. Since this will be in your living room and serving as part of a home entertainment system, have you considered going with a quiet case?

Maybe the fractal r3 define?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352002

Or the xl:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352005

 

[ddemon]

I'm giving my girl some imput on the case so she lets me spend so much, lol, and she thinks those ones are ugly, lol.
I also live in quite a hot climate and want the good airflow the HAF gives, if it's too loud i'll turn the sound up. Works in theory, thanks for the suggestion anyway.

 

[Mark Heath]

Parts look good If you're not too concerned with noise then don't worry about it. Not much point spending more money to achieve something you won't appreciate.

Great to see you buying your gear from PCCG too

 

[Formata]

All nice choices. Any reason your needing the G.Skill Ripjaw X CL8 memory over the CL9? It's $25 more ATM and won't really noticeably improve gaming performance. It's out of stock too.

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=186_912&products_id=16510

Enjoy.

 

[ddemon]

Parts look good If you're not too concerned with noise then don't worry about it. Not much point spending more money to achieve something you won't appreciate.

Great to see you buying your gear from PCCG too

I'm 3 hours from the nearest descent parts store so i've looked for recommendations for a good online stores here in Australia, PCCG was originally recommended to me on an overclockers forum, i was thinking that there the sorta guys burning things out and needing to replace them regularly...lol

 

[ddemon]

All nice choices. Any reason your needing the G.Skill Ripjaw X CL8 memory over the CL9? It's $25 more ATM and won't really noticeably improve gaming performance. It's out of stock too.

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=186_912&products_id=16510

Enjoy.

I was hoping the lower latency would help in day to day zippiness and with photo editing and video encoding? I've read it makes no difference in gaming.

Oh and it was blue and matched my motherboard, the girl liked that ..lol
The motherboard is the thing thats out of stock and gonna hold my build up, thats the annoying part but i kinda have myself set on that board and will just have to shut up and wait..lol

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

Overall the build looks good. With the Intel® Core™ i5-2500K and the Cooler Master hyper 212+ when you start to overclock the processor you want to add a second fan (I have and it has helped).

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[Formata]

PCCaseGear will do you right. By far the best website for a company based in Aus. That CL8 RAM will be great. I love how you've included your partner in this process as like a visual aesthetics consultant. A couple that builds together... stays together

 

[ddemon]

she'll be really happy if i can build her something that plays mincraft without the lagging that our old dinosaur has and Fallout 3 so she can play with mods and so forth lol

 

[chillin15]

lol, ask her what is so exciting about minecraft

 

[ddemon]

catchy little game, i can't say what the attraction is exactly but i've got into it too ..lol... like a classic B grade movie so bad it's good or the challenge of making the most amazing things you can out of the handfull of different blocks. I'm working on tables and chairs for the dining hall of my castle ..lol.... sad hey ..lol

 

[ddemon]

Thanks to everyone on this thread and here at Tom's for all the help so far.
Cheque cleared early so the all my parts are ordered. Just gotta wait now.
Hopefully it all goes smoothly and i don't have to post for any help so i will maybe post some pics when it's done.
Thanks again.

 

[Formata]

Just incase you hadn't seen these:

Toms building guide:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/274745-31-step-step-guide-building

Your CPU Cooler:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/258023-29-installing-cooler-master-hyper

Hopefully you don't have to look at this
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/261145-13-read-posting-boot-problems

If you wanted to be fully organised, you can even download the manuals while you're waiting for the parts to arrive so you can start getting your head around it. If you encounter anything unusual just start a new thread. Good luck and have fun.

 

[ddemon]

thanks again