1st DIY : i5 750 based rig, need feedback

[linhlinh]

Hi guys,

I never did this before but and I would like to have your feedback on my selection:

cpu: i5 750 (194.99)
mobo: MSI P55-GD65 (179.99)
gpu : MSI Radeaon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) R5850 Twin Frozr II w/ Eyefinity (299.99)
ram : G.SKILL Ripjaws 4GB (2x2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) (98.99)
HD : Western Digital RE3 1TB 3.5" SATA 3.0GB/s (139.99)
Case : Antec Twelve Hundred 750 (229.95)
Cooler : Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 120mm (49.99)

1193.89 before mail-in rebate of 70$

Should I be worried about the compatibility of my ram? Does my system look balanced? Would oyu have any suggestion in terms of swapping components, or completely reorienting the build?

Thanks

 

[linhlinh]

I will add that my budget was originally 1000$ I would like to be within 250$ of that budget at most.

I'm using it mostly for games & photoshop

 

[coldsleep]

A couple of changes:

Mobo - ASUS P7P55D-E Pro - $180 - includes USB 3.0 & SATA 6 Gb/s
HDD - Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB or Seagate 7200.12 1 TB - $75 - the drive you originally selected is a "raid edition" - there's no need to pay over $75 for a 1 TB drive.

Since you don't have a link to the RAM, I can only guess, but I suspect that you have 1600 MHz CL 9 Ripjaws. You could get the slightly faster CL7 Ripjaws for $105 or the CL7 ECO series (lower voltage can come in handy during overclocking) for the same price.

$230 is a lot to spend on a case with your budget. Under $100 is much more reasonable, and would allow you to upgrade your graphics card to a 5870. If you like the Twelve Hundred, the Antec Nine Hundred is very similar. Other people will recommend the HAF 922, but I personally think it's pretty ugly.

EDIT: Didn't realize that the Twelve Hundred you linked came with a power supply. There's no indication what the PSU is, though, it could be a very low quality unit. Good 750W PSUs include: Corsair 750TX ($110), Antec TruePower TP750 ($110), XFX 750W ($120), Seasonic X750 ($160). Doesn't save as much as I initially thought. Still, saving $10 or $20 here, plus the hard drive, plus the cooler is about $100. That gets you closer to $1000, or you could stay about the same and get a 5870.

The Hyper 212+ can be had at amazon for $30.

 

[linhlinh]

Which PSU would you use with the Antec Nine Hundred ?

I liked the fact that the twelve came with a 750W one.. I dont know how good it is though..

 

[WR2]

A NewEgg combo deal: Antec 900 and Antec TruePower New 750 $190 $20 combo discount applied and $20 rebate available.
750W is sized for 2x 5850, with overclocking and room for expansion.
Antec TruePower New 750 W (TP-750) Power Supply Review

 

[linhlinh]

I've been looking around on newegg and such and I found a specialized shop not far from my home that has very competitive prices and actually assembles the PC for you with a guarantee.. Even though I'd pay something like 50-100$ more I think that it is worth it for me...

I will update this build since I'm kind of lazy I won't be installing it myself ! (haha.. )
They have some cookie cutter setups that I may post here to see if you have any idea on how to work around it.

 

[linhlinh]

Here is the direct link to the shop where you can build your PC online, if you can take a look at how to optimize my performance, considering I will overclock the CPU.

https://www.pcczone.com/pc-builder?subid=2

Here is the starting build, I saw a few things I thought would be the bottleneck... The 500W PSU and the GPU card, let me know what you guys think.. This build comes with a monitor to 1270 CAD

1 x Intel Core I5 750 2.66GHz QUAD CORE PROCESSOR (BX80605I5750) 214.97$
1 x Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3 LGA1156 DDR3 Motherboard ATX 132.31$
1 x Kingston 4GB KIT DDR3 KVR1333D3N9K2/4G 139.99$
1 x WD Caviar™ Black™ WD1001FALS, 1 TB SATA 89.99$
1 x XFX Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB DDR5 (HD-577A-ZNFC) Video Card 186.97$
1 x LG GH22NS50 SATA Black 23.13$
1 x CORSAIR CWCH50 Hydro Water Cooler LGA775, LGA1366, LGA1156, AM2/AM3 High-Performance CPU Cooler 88.50$
1 x Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 500w (RS-500-PCAR-A3) 48.50$
1 x ANTEC NINE HUNDRED TWO (0761345-15920-1) Gaming Case 125.25$
1 x Complete assembly and testing of the system includes 6 months warranty 55.00$
1 x LG W2243T-PF 21.5' Wide LCD Monitor Photo Effect 164.07$

Total Price : 1268.68

 

[linhlinh]

Best answer selected by linhlinh.

 

[coldsleep]

I'd agree that the PSU is questionable. Look to get something that's 80+ Certified, and potentially SLI/Crossfire-capable.

The GPU is going to struggle with some games at that resolution. I'd see if you can reasonable upgrade to a 5850.

Finally, you could spend a few dollars more and get slightly faster RAM if you want (1600 MHz CL7 - the CL7 is slightly more important), but it's not a big deal either way.

Other than that, the build looks good. You might see iyou can get a Samsung Spinpoint F3 or Seagate 7200.12 1 TB drive instead of the WD Caviar Black, but again, that's more of a price/value issue than any really noticeable performance boost. (The non-WD drives might be slightly faster at some tasks, while the WD is probably slightly faster at initial file access.)

 

[linhlinh]

I'd agree that the PSU is questionable. Look to get something that's 80+ Certified, and potentially SLI/Crossfire-capable.

The GPU is going to struggle with some games at that resolution. I'd see if you can reasonable upgrade to a 5850.

Finally, you could spend a few dollars more and get slightly faster RAM if you want (1600 MHz CL7 - the CL7 is slightly more important), but it's not a big deal either way.

Other than that, the build looks good. You might see iyou can get a Samsung Spinpoint F3 or Seagate 7200.12 1 TB drive instead of the WD Caviar Black, but again, that's more of a price/value issue than any really noticeable performance boost. (The non-WD drives might be slightly faster at some tasks, while the WD is probably slightly faster at initial file access.)

Thanks for the pointers, as far as RAM goes, there isnt much choice on the website..
This is what it comes with:
Kingston 4GB KIT DDR3 KVR1333D3N9K2/4G [CA$139.99]

These are the options:
Kingston 4GB DDR3 1600MHZ KHX1600c9d3K2/4G -CA$8.27
OCZ DDR3 4GB PC3-10666 Gold Low Voltage Dual Channel OCZ3G1333LV4GK +CA$0.00
OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 Gold Low Voltage Dual Channel OCZ3G1600LV4GK -CA$21.01
OCZ DDR3 4GB PC3-12800 Platinum Low Voltage Dual Channel OCZ3P1600LV4GK +CA$4.03

I dont know which one would be CL7, but I assume they are not..

What do you think of the Motherboard they propose ? Should I go with a more expensive Asus over the Gigabyte?

 

[coldsleep]

If you want to Crossfire as a future upgrade, that motherboard isn't a good choice (the PCI-E lanes run at 16x/4x in Crossfire). If that's not a concern, then the Gigabyte motherboard should be fine.

The OCZ Platinum is CAS 7. For only $4 more, that's pretty decent.