Review my build please!

[Al Capwn069]

Hey there. This is my first time building my own computer so I'm looking for a little help for a build around $1500 or $1600, give or take. This is what I've come up with so far. Please let me know how I did...if there's anything I'm going overboard on that could be used to improve other areas or just anything I could improve on in general I'd love the feedback. Thanks!

Motherboard: ASUS P6T WS PRO LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Core i7 / Xeon Intel Motherboard - $280

Processor: Intel Core i7 950 Processor BX80601950 - 3.06GHz - $300

Ram: Corsair Core i7 Dominator 6GB PC12800 DDR3 RAM - $140

Video Card: Sapphire 100282-3SR Radeon HD 5850 Video Card - $275

Sound Card: Creative Labs SoundBlaster X-FI Titanium - $140

Hard Drive: Western Digital WD1001FALS Caviar Black Hard Drive - $95

Optical Drives: Asus DRW-24B1ST DVD Burner - $20
Lite-On IHES208-08 Blu-Ray Combo - BD-ROM 8X, DVD-ROM 16X, CD-ROM 48X - $60

Power Supply: Corsair TX750W 750-Watt Power Supply - $110

Video Card Fan: Zalman Z-Machine GV1000 VGA Cooler - $54

Case Fan: Zalman CNPS 9700 LED CPU COOLER - $47

With all that my total cost would be about $1525. That leaves me around $100ish for a case and/or any wiggle room I need. I'd love any recommendations on cases. Something with good air flow and space as well as a sleek look. I also am unsure as to how many fans will actually be needed, as I only have one 120mm fan in this build with the exception of the video card fan. So if I need more that info would be appreciated as well. Or if liquid cooling is a better option a decent liquid cooling system around my price range would be great to know about. I'm trying to make my pc as quiet as possible without sacrificing power or costing myself too much money. Also...I'm pretty sure they are but I want to make sure all these parts are compatible with each other and I have enough slots for everything I need, and that I have all the required parts to make it run correctly. I also want this computer to be upgradeable in case I need to replace something in the future instead of remaking a whole new pc. And lastly I was wondering if I wanted to upgrade my graphical performance would it be better to get a higher end video card or two of the video card I have selected? As I said I'm kind of new to this whole process so I know I have a lot of questions and this is a lot to read through, but if anyone can answer any or all of my questions I'd greatly appreciate the help. Thanks for your time!

 

[batuchka]

To better advise u do elaborate of main usage of rig
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261222-31-build-advice

At 1st glance if u need to render/encode on top of games Nehalem is not value for $$ at all and look to hit a i5 2500k +P67 +OC while if just 24/7 + games even anything from Rana X3 - Deneb 955BE with a decent GPU would suffice ^^

 

[Al Capwn069]

Edit: I've been looking at the COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP Black Steel + Plastic and Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case and it seems to have pretty good reviews. I was wondering if anyone knows anything about this case and if it is quiet as well? It's going for $100 on newegg.

 

[Why_Me]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261222-31-build-advice <-----


http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sandy-bridge-core-i7-2600k-core-i5-2500K,2833.html <--- 1155 Review

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i5-2600k-i5-2600k-and-core-i3-2100-tested <--- 1155 Review

http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i5-2500k-and-core-i7-2600k-review/ <--- 1155 Review

http://www.overclockers.com/intel-i7-2600k-sandy-bridge-review <--- 1155 Review

 

[zooted]

I would not even think about making a build around 1366 atm, Like said above Sandy Bridge beats out the 980x in some applications. This is only the entry level Sandy bridge the 1366 replacement will be out later this year.

 

[Al Capwn069]

Sorry for not quite keeping up on all of this. I'm a little lost and overwhelmed on some of technicalities...with the exception of replacing a graphics card or RAM I havn't really worked a whole lot on the inside of computers. So first off...P67? OC?

 

[coldsleep]

People are recommending that you not buy an i7 processor and go with a P67 motherboard and i5-2500/2600 processor, the newest processor from Intel. On most benchmarks, the new i5s perform better than the last generation i7 (socket 1366) that you were looking at.

OC = overclock.

 

[Al Capwn069]

Thank you! Makes sense now lol. So new processor: Intel Core i5-2500K BX80623I52500 Unlocked Processor. And as for the P67 is there a specific brand or stats I should be looking for?

 

[Why_Me]

Thank you! Makes sense now lol. So new processor: Intel Core i5-2500K BX80623I52500 Unlocked Processor. And as for the P67 is there a specific brand or stats I should be looking for?

Asus, Gigabyte, Asrock....no specific order but all those boards seem to be solid. The $150 Asrock extreme4 mobo has SLI and will get you anywhere from 4.6ghz - 5.0ghz since it got it's new bios update. All these P67 boards have been receiving new bios updates lately seeing how this is a new chip set and there's still a few bugs to work out.

 

[Al Capwn069]

Thanks I'm creating a new post as per the new build format. If you'd still like to help I'd appreciate any input on my new thread.

 

[batuchka]

Oh dear!

Sandy Bridge chipset flaw to cost Intel $1 billion | ZDNet

All 6-series “Cougar Point” chipsets, including H67 and P67, are affected. The issue is a hardware design problem that causes high number of bit errors eventually device disconnection.
There is no software fix for this issue. All affected systems will need a motherboard replacement.

 

[Al Capwn069]

Best answer selected by Al Capwn069.

 

[Maziar]

This topic has been closed by Maziar