[New Build] Is this The best for my money?

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J

jonnymo

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Aug 17, 2011
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Hey forum this's my first build ever and I've almost got all the parts planned out!, if anyone bothers to quickly go over the ### that i've got outlined below that'd be most greatfull

feel free to respond with ANY feedback/criticism comments! I need to get the best bang for my buck

Approximate Purchase Date: within 2 weeks

Budget Range: $1500

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, case

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: www.pccasegear.com

Country of Origin: Australia

Parts Preferences: Intel, GEFORCE

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Yes SLI

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: don't care about aesthetics mate just want to get BF3 real smooth on high resolution settings!

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CPU: Intel i5 2500K
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=187_346_1184&products_id=16531
$219

GPU: 2 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 570 1280MB Overclocked V2 in SLI
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1177&products_id=17554
$738

MOB: Gigabyte GA Z68XP UD4 Will this MB handle SLI? - I mean it's only got one x16 slot
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=138_711_1183&products_id=18071
$219

RAM: Corsair Vengeance CMZ8GX3M2A 1600C9B 8GB DDR3
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=186_218_1125&products_id=16848
$79

PSU: Antec TruePower Quattro 850W TPQ-850
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_226&products_id=5434
$185

HDD: Western Digital Green 1TB
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=210_344&products_id=17711
$59

DVD: Asus DRW 24B3ST 24X
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=658_667&products_id=17957
$25

LCD: Samsung BX2440 24Inch Widescreen LCD
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=558_1212&products_id=14736
$199
 
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sadams04

sadams04

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Nov 23, 2010
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You are in good shape!

MB - That motherboard will be fine. When in SLI you will be running at 8x / 8x (8x for both GPUs).

HD - Ditch the WD Green and add the Samsung F3 1TB.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=12711

PSU - Save a little and go with the Antec CP-850.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=10906

CPU Cooler - If you are going to overclock...
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=12544
 
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J

jonnymo

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cheers mate!

Thats good about the MB, are there any MB that have TWO 16x slots? and would'nt that be better performance for my gtx 570's?

Thx for the PSU reccomend, that saves me some $, Do you reckon 850W is enough for my SLI set up, apparently 570's chew through the power

I'll consider a cooler though at this stage I don't know how to overclock so I'm not going try to untill I know wtf im doin

cheers man
 
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sadams04

sadams04

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Nov 23, 2010
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There are boards that will get you 16x / 16x, but they are more expensive for little gain 16x / 16x only shows single digit percentage gains over 8x / 8x. The Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7-B3, ASROCK Z68 Extreme7, ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z would be good boards to choose from if you wanted to opt up.

Dual GTX 570 GPUs with an i5-2500k, HD, SSD and Optical come in around 650w. The 850w could be considered overkill, however I usually go a little larger than needed for some upgrading overhead down the road.

Overclocking the 2500k is very easy. Just a simple BIOS change and you are in business. Plenty of guides and examples out there on how to safely get 4.5GHz and stress test...
 
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dalmvern

dalmvern

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sadams04 literally took the words out of my mouth with everything he said.

The 2500k is designed for OCing and with all the boards/BIOS these day, it is really simple to overclock and even with a modest OC you will see a nice performance increase with games like BF3. Plus its fun!
 
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J

jonnymo

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Ahh nice tip, so it looks like samsung are good at screen and drives.

"more expensive for little gain 16x / 16x only shows single digit percentage gains over 8x / 8x"

Yeah I don't think I'll be spending $319 just to get a single digit better (Asrock extreme7 holy cr though it has 5 x16 slots!)

Isn't the Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7-B3 older than the Z68 boards?
 
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sadams04

sadams04

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Older, yes. It is a P67 chipset so it lacks Vitru, SSD caching, and four SATA 6.0GB/s ports that Z68 has. It does, however, do four PCIe slots running in either x16/x16/0/0 or x8/x8/x8/x8. Still a good board...
 
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J

jonnymo

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why do they use such rubbish terminology for motherboards, i.e. the GA-z68X-UD3R-B3, the GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 I'm assuming these things like UDH and stuff mean something and they're not just trying to hypnotize you into purchase
 
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x Heavy

x Heavy

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Don't worry about all that "Rubbish."

I encourage you to consider the i7 2600k instead. It will give you a nice boost.

More video cards = more power. You can never have too much power on tap. (Computer will pull what it needs...) too little is not good.
 
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Why_Me

Why_Me

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Look at making these changes to your build. Quicker h/d, a board with the new PCI-E 3.0 slots for the new generation vid cards, solid psu to push two of those cards, and same RAM specs, yet cheaper.

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=138_711_1183&products_id=18137 $149.00
ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 Motherboard

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=186_912&products_id=16510 $65.00
G.Skill Ripjaws X F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL (2x4GB) DDR3

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_226&products_id=16143 $157.00
Antec High Current Gamer 900W Power Supply HCG-900

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=210_344&products_id=12711 $69.00
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB HD103SJ

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=207_23_845&products_id=12544 $33.00
CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ CPU Cooler

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

jonnymo

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ey mate thanks for the input - I've heard the i7 2600K isn't that much better than the i52500k for gaming? and that multi-threading the only added feature for the i7 doesn't have an impact in gaming at all and to save money and spend it on GPU would be better performance/dollar ratio.

I dunno considering the hundred bucks more in price, do you guys think this would be money well spent considering I'm trying to keep the build relatively cheap..

opinions I've seen on ~"for gaming don't buy the i7 buy the i5" i.e.: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2155656

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/6
 
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jonnymo

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Click to expand...
 
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Why_Me

Why_Me

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It's called "upgrade path". Say these new 3.0 cards are the best thing since sliced bread and you decide to get one...well if you have a board that runs them then fine. Same thing with the Ivy Bridge cpu's. Why get a board that won't upgrade later on in the future? Buying tomorrows technology.
 
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J

jonnymo

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The "sata III 6gb" connection has no use for HDD since HDD don't even use the full potential of a sata II 3gb connection.

The only drives you should worry about being sata III are SSD solid state drives which really put to use the 6GB connection you are referring to.

For hard drives it makes no difference wether its sata II or sata III, what matters is IOPS, RPM, Cache, Capacity, and Price.

Spinpoint F3 1TB is a quality HDD and doesn't have any bad reviews, I just installed one on my brothers pc to replace his outdated Hitatchi Deskstar and WD Raptor and a Seagate Barracuda 1TB which were all causing problems for awhile now.

Easy as plug/play. No firmware updates needed or anything. No hassle.

What it comes down to is this, the reason why the seagate is $10 cheaper is because 1. its a sata III which is useless for HDD since any sata II hdd can be connected to a sata III port since they are backwards compatible.

Looking at the specs there is nothing different in terms of speed for the two HDD, only difference is one you can hook to older and newer systems and the other requires a modern mobo and doesn't have the greatest of reputations anymore.

$10 extra for me is worth the hassle free long lasting quality you will get from the samsung product. ^_^

Which is why I bought one a few days ago :D
Click to expand...


cheers man you helped me alot there I think I'll go with the samsung and then maybe get a SSD for installing windows 7 on, I've heard that's a good idea..
 
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J

jonnymo

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PCI3 is so you don't have to go and buy a new mobo later when the new graphics cards come out that run in pci3.

Also it is backwards compatible so any pci2 card will plug right into it so you can still use current cards and when 600 series nvidia release you can pick one up and plug it right in.

For the Ivy Bridge, well its there as a future ready option.

You don't know when or if you will ever be upgrading your i5 2500k, but you could always think about building a 2nd pc and finding a 1155 mobo for cheap then put the i5 in that then pick up a ivy bridge and throw that in your main build :p
Click to expand...


yeah this makes sense, although it's a scary thought :O


What do you reckon about the Asrock Extreme4 over the extreme3 http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=138_711_1183&products_id=18041
 
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J

jonnymo

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Yeah I suggest aiming for 80 - 120GB as a first SSD especially if you want some games and apps to go lightning fast along with your OS.

I had to purchase a sata II intel 320 series 120GB SSD (same price as a crucial m4 128gb sad lol) its still a great SSD since I can't support Sata III yet so no complaints, first into every game I play is nice lol.

Win7 64bit along with 5-6 10GB games and a few programs is what I have on my SSD and still 40+ GB left lol.

I filled it up a good bit but no performance degregation so constant winning lol. :p

If you cant wait just pick up a 64GB throw the OS + 1-2 games on it and call it a wonderful day, those two games and that os are going to be blazing fast and everything else on the samsung is going to be just as fast since no OS will be on the HDD ^_^
Click to expand...

So basically with SSD's you try and instal the OS and the games on it and put all your other crap on HDD, is that the best way to go?

Say I had a game installed on SSD would it get better framrates than if it was on a hard disk sry for all the questions man :p
 
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