Hey all,
I have spent a decent amount of time on these forums reviewing advice and whatnot over the last few years. I've been planning to build a gaming rig/workstation for a while now, and I finally have the money, and I had a few questions about my build.
This is not the first computer I've built, but it is the first one I'm building for me.
Uses are primarily gaming and engineering work (Aerospace Student).
Battlefield 3 is the big game I'm planning for, but want some future proofing, I probably wont be updating for several years.
Price for build shipped is ~2.3k, which is a bit higher than hoped, but manageable.
Advice I'm looking for is a basic review for anything I might be missing, places where I could save some money without losing performance, and any comments on the build in general, whether it should serve my purposes, quality of components etc.
Note: Already have a laptop for basic word processing, etc.
3
Nippon Labs 19.7" SATA III Flat Cable with Left Angle Model SATA3L-0.5M
$6.99 -$0.50Save $19.47
1
LG DVD±RW SuperMulti Drive Black SATA Model GH22NS50 Bulk - OEM
$18.99 $18.99
1
NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Steel / Plastic Enthusiast ATX Full Tower Computer Case
$139.99 $139.99
1
Western Digital VelociRaptor WDBACN3000ENC-NRSN 300GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
$149.99 -$10.00 Instant $139.99
1
Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
$64.99 -$5.00 Instant $59.99
1
SAMSUNG P2770HD Rose Black 27" 5ms HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor Built-in HDTV Tuner & Speakers
$369.99 -$70.00 Instant $299.99
2
EVGA 012-P3-1571-AR GeForce GTX 570 HD w/Display-Port (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support ...
$329.99 -$10.00 Instant $639.98
1
PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk II 950W High Performance 80PLUS Silver SLI CrossFire ready Power Supply
$169.99 -$20.00 Instant $149.99
1
Microsoft SideWinder X6 Black Keyboard Win USB English
Model #:AGB-00001
$69.99 $69.99
1
Mionix NAOS 5000 7 Buttons USB Laser Mouse
$89.99 -$20.00 Instant $69.99
1
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL
$59.99 $59.99
1
Mionix Propus 380 Mouse Pad
$19.99 $19.99
1
BIOSTAR TP67XE (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Model #:TP67XE (B3)
$139.99 -$15.00 Instant $124.99
1
Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600K
$314.99 $314.99
1
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM
$99.99 $99.99
1
NZXT FN-140RB 140mm Case Fan
$9.99 $9.99
2
NZXT FS-200RB-BLED 200mm SILENT Blue LED Fan with ON/OFF Switch
$22.58 $45.16
Subtotal: $2,283.47
I've already dropped a blue ray drive, went with 8gb of ram instead of 16gb, staying with stock cooler for the moment, as I don't plan on OC'ing much if at all at first.
I know the blue led fans are unnecessary, but I want the additional cooling, and they are only slightly more expensive than the standard NZXT fans. (I'll pay $10 or so for bling
lol)
Mouse and keyboard are flexible, but I want good performance, and I have big hands (palm a basketball easily) and usually palm the mouse, and this mouse seems good for that--recommendations would be appreciated though.
I would really like SLI unless someone can offer a good reason not to, would be helpful for all applications I'm considering. (Plus, good future proofing... and sexiness 😍 lol)
The monitor is big, I know 24" would be cheaper, but this seemed like a really good deal, and I could get rid of my 720p tv, saving myself precious room in my room (umm...
wording lol).
I know i5 is good enough for gaming, but other applications (3d modeling, code compiling, rendering, etc.) the i7 is advantageous.
I've read good reviews of the biostar online (including on Toms), but haven't used anything by them before, not sure how good the board really is--price is right though.
Thanks all!
I have spent a decent amount of time on these forums reviewing advice and whatnot over the last few years. I've been planning to build a gaming rig/workstation for a while now, and I finally have the money, and I had a few questions about my build.
This is not the first computer I've built, but it is the first one I'm building for me.

Uses are primarily gaming and engineering work (Aerospace Student).
Battlefield 3 is the big game I'm planning for, but want some future proofing, I probably wont be updating for several years.
Price for build shipped is ~2.3k, which is a bit higher than hoped, but manageable.
Advice I'm looking for is a basic review for anything I might be missing, places where I could save some money without losing performance, and any comments on the build in general, whether it should serve my purposes, quality of components etc.
Note: Already have a laptop for basic word processing, etc.
3
Nippon Labs 19.7" SATA III Flat Cable with Left Angle Model SATA3L-0.5M
$6.99 -$0.50Save $19.47
1
LG DVD±RW SuperMulti Drive Black SATA Model GH22NS50 Bulk - OEM
$18.99 $18.99
1
NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Steel / Plastic Enthusiast ATX Full Tower Computer Case
$139.99 $139.99
1
Western Digital VelociRaptor WDBACN3000ENC-NRSN 300GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
$149.99 -$10.00 Instant $139.99
1
Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
$64.99 -$5.00 Instant $59.99
1
SAMSUNG P2770HD Rose Black 27" 5ms HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor Built-in HDTV Tuner & Speakers
$369.99 -$70.00 Instant $299.99
2
EVGA 012-P3-1571-AR GeForce GTX 570 HD w/Display-Port (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support ...
$329.99 -$10.00 Instant $639.98
1
PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk II 950W High Performance 80PLUS Silver SLI CrossFire ready Power Supply
$169.99 -$20.00 Instant $149.99
1
Microsoft SideWinder X6 Black Keyboard Win USB English
Model #:AGB-00001
$69.99 $69.99
1
Mionix NAOS 5000 7 Buttons USB Laser Mouse
$89.99 -$20.00 Instant $69.99
1
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL
$59.99 $59.99
1
Mionix Propus 380 Mouse Pad
$19.99 $19.99
1
BIOSTAR TP67XE (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Model #:TP67XE (B3)
$139.99 -$15.00 Instant $124.99
1
Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600K
$314.99 $314.99
1
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM
$99.99 $99.99
1
NZXT FN-140RB 140mm Case Fan
$9.99 $9.99
2
NZXT FS-200RB-BLED 200mm SILENT Blue LED Fan with ON/OFF Switch
$22.58 $45.16
Subtotal: $2,283.47
I've already dropped a blue ray drive, went with 8gb of ram instead of 16gb, staying with stock cooler for the moment, as I don't plan on OC'ing much if at all at first.
I know the blue led fans are unnecessary, but I want the additional cooling, and they are only slightly more expensive than the standard NZXT fans. (I'll pay $10 or so for bling

Mouse and keyboard are flexible, but I want good performance, and I have big hands (palm a basketball easily) and usually palm the mouse, and this mouse seems good for that--recommendations would be appreciated though.
I would really like SLI unless someone can offer a good reason not to, would be helpful for all applications I'm considering. (Plus, good future proofing... and sexiness 😍 lol)
The monitor is big, I know 24" would be cheaper, but this seemed like a really good deal, and I could get rid of my 720p tv, saving myself precious room in my room (umm...

I know i5 is good enough for gaming, but other applications (3d modeling, code compiling, rendering, etc.) the i7 is advantageous.
I've read good reviews of the biostar online (including on Toms), but haven't used anything by them before, not sure how good the board really is--price is right though.
Thanks all!
