$1300 budgeted gamer - need advice.

[zakel2]

Hey I'm looking to build a machine that will last a minimum of 3 years. Mostly playing wow, sc2 and I WANT it to be ready to go for D3 whenever that comes out (Blizz fanboi Ino).

Purchase Date: within the next 2 months
Budget range: $1000-$1500
Parts I don't need: Monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers
would prefer Newegg.com
Overclocking: possible
SLI/Crossfire: Possibly in the futre
Resolution: 1920x1080

With that taken care of, here are the specs:

AZZA Solano 1000 Black/Black ATX Full Tower Computer Case - $120 + $20 MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811517004

Rosewill Green Series RG630-S12 630W - $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182200

ASUS P8P67 PRO - $185
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131682

Intel Core i7-2600K - $330
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070

XFX HD-695A-CNFC Radeon HD 6950 - $300
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150518

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) - $65
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231303

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB - $65
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148433

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 - $35
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102003

ASUS DVD/CD Burner - $17
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Windows 7 - $100

The total comes to roughly $1300. Some questions I have since I have never built a computer and am not very "techie" and I haven't had a chance to talk with the person who will be building it.

1. I chose to get a full case due to that specific one have 4 fans, and the fact that I might be interested in overclocking and SLI - would it be worth to drop $30-$50 and go with a mid tower?
2. Does my psu seem to line up ok? I don't think I'll have any issues running this rig even while OC'd - is 630W overkill at all or a good amount?
3. Any need for the additional soundcard? I heard even one of the cheap ones make quite a difference between the onboard sound.
4. Do I have enough RAM? I'm hoping to upgrade to another 4GB once the price drops a bit - seeing 8 GB should be plenty for the future.
5. What other cooling features might I need? CPU heatsinks/fans/thermale paste(I don't even know wtf that is)
6. What is an SSD in laymen's terms please.

All in all - the cheaper the better I guess - but I don't want to gauge my budget for lower quality components. So any feedback would be very great.

 

[Why_Me]

I didn't put the sound card in this build for the fact you might want to save some money and listen to the on board sound before you make a decision on whether to buy a sound card or not.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197 $99.99 FREE SHIPPING $10 off w/ promo code EMCKJJG33, ends 1/19
COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP Black Steel + Plastic and Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256049 $109.99
SILVERSTONE ELEMENT ST75EF 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.576624 Combo Price: $369.98
MSI P67A-GD55 LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065 $29.99
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835154003 $6.99 FREE SHIPPING
Tuniq TX-2 Cooling Thermal Compound

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231425 $44.99
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-4GBXL

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185 $69.99 FREE SHIPPING $15 off with promo code HARDOCP112C, ends 1/19
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204 $16.99 FREE SHIPPING
ASUS Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150518 $299.99 FREE SHIPPING
XFX HD-695A-CNFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

Total: $1,048.90 *not including shipping, rebates, promo codes, etc...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754 $99.99 FREE SHIPPING
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM

 

[aznshinobi]

http://www.squidoo.com/electronicandmore

Well my suggestion is on the site.

I'm pretty similar to Why_Me's build, a little different. It's at the bottom or you could look at the table of contents, the build includes more of the big parts rather than drives sorry if the drive suggestions are important to you.

As for your questions, no you don't need a sound card.

I do think that you should get the Hyper 212+, I have it as an amazon product on my site, it'd be better to buy it off their as you get free shipping and it comes with an extra fan and 5$ cheaper usually than the 'Egg.

As for SSD it means Solid State Drive.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/storage/2010/07/08/ssd-buyers-guide/3
Rather old guide, but the info is still relative.

 

[zakel2]

Just curious as to what the reasoning is to go with the i5 over the i7?

 

[mdd1963]

the 2500k offers 95% of the performance of the 2600k for 66% of it's price....

Dump the $100 saved into a better video card; better yet, save another $100 by initially using old drives, save $35 by not getting a sound card, and get a GTX580.

 

[zakel2]

Well I'm pretty much sold on the 2500k then - what's an additional 5%? Although, I don't know if I could justify spending an extra $200 for an extra 10 fps - I heard you could run the HD 6950 as a 6970 - and from there I could just OC it?

 

[aznshinobi]

well I think that you should get the 6950, but some people have preferences other than AMD, I'm an AMD fan personally.

 

[zakel2]

Well now that I'm looking at a gtx 570 more.... It seems to operate a lot smoother in 1920x1080 resolution than the 6950. Is the difference very noticeable for the average person?

 

[aznshinobi]

Umm, depends. Lets say you see a gpu put out 40 FPS on Black Ops and the other puts out 50-55 FPS. It is pretty noticeable, but if it puts out 50 and the other puts out 60, it isn't really that noticeable.

By the this might change your decision.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Radeon-HD-6950-1-GB-CrossfireX-Eyefinity,12029.html

 

[zakel2]

Best answer selected by Zakel2.