My First Build!

[taintisgod]

I'm new to the forum and I know this is one of the go-to places online for hardware discussion So I will place my first build thread here in hopes for some advice and ideas.

*This thread will be ongoing, the what I have and what I need/plan to get will be updated
*I'll share my build plans, choices, etc
*Will probably ask for advice/assistance when all hell breaks loose or can't decide on something


Wish me luck and please give any advice or opinions.


What I have already:

Antec LanBoy Air Case (Blue)

Thermaltake W0319RU TR2 RX 850-Watt Modular Power Supply - 850W, 140mm Fan, ATX, Modular, 80 Plus Bronze

Lite-On IHAP122-19 DVD Burner - DVD+R 22X, DVD+RW 8X, DVD-R 22X, DVD-RW 6X, DVD-ROM 16X, CD-ROM 48X, CD-RW 32X, IDE (OEM)

Seagate ST32000542AS Barracuda LP Hard Drive - 2TB, 5900 RPM, 32MB, SATA-3G (1 of the data drives)


What I Need/Want/Probably going to get:

Intel Core i7-2600K Processor (8M Cache, 3.40 GHz)


I need advice on:

What motherboard should I get?

Whether to put two SSD's in RAID or just one?

Should I get a water CPU cooler like this one OR an air CPU cooler?

 

[WR2]

Hello taintisgod;

What is your budget for this project? When will you be looking to finalize your selections?

 

[taintisgod]

Thanks for the reply WR2, I was getting worried no one was interested in helping me lol!

My budget is not a set number, I'm not Mr.moneybags by any means but I will splurge for performance and speed (like I'm doing buying the i7-2600k). I hope to have everything ready and bought for the build by a few months, I have some things to decide on like motherboard and SSD's and such. Also I think it might be a good idea to wait for another sales time since I will be purchasing mostly everything online.

 

[WR2]

I could not find any reviews of the Thermaltake W0319RU TR2 RX 850-Watt Modular Power Supply. How did you happen to chose this one?

 

[WR2]

Some of the leading candidates for motherboards will be:
Asrock P67 Extreme4 ~$160, Asus P8P67-Pro ~$180 and Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4 ~$180

A single fast SSD boot drive is what most people are going for now.
The new models of fast SSD are starting to arrive. Corsair Performance 3 Series 64GB SATA III $175 and Intel 510 (Elm Crest) 120GB SATA III SSD $290. Plus the soon to arrive OCZ Vertex 3 120GB ~$290

 

[WR2]

After looking over that review of your case I think a good air CPU cooler is a good match for you. No real reason to pay a premium price for the H70.

 

[taintisgod]

I could not find any reviews of the Thermaltake W0319RU TR2 RX 850-Watt Modular Power Supply. How did you happen to chose this one?

It was on sale for one day on tigerdirect and was an impulse buy... it looked like it had ample power and enough slots for multiple configurations.

 

[taintisgod]

Some of the leading candidates for motherboards will be:
Asrock P67 Extreme4 ~$160, Asus P8P67-Pro ~$180 and Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4 ~$180

A single fast SSD boot drive is what most people are going for now.
The new models of fast SSD are starting to arrive. Corsair Performance 3 Series 64GB SATA III $175 and Intel 510 (Elm Crest) 120GB SATA III SSD $290. Plus the soon to arrive OCZ Vertex 3 120GB ~$290

Thanks, I'll reasearch those motherboards.

If I choose to have only one SSD (minimum SATA 3 and 128gb) can I/should I still set it in RAID?

 

[taintisgod]

I looked at those motherboards and I'm pretty sure I'm going with the Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4 , just want to make sure that this is the one you suggested because there are different versions of the same model: GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD4-B3 LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

As for a CPU cooler, I read reviews and I think I'm going with this, tell me what you think: Prolimatech Megahalems Rev.B CPU Cooler


I still REALLY need to know if I can/should run a RAID 2 setup if the two drives (system) are one SSD and one non SSD? Will it degrade performance if I do this?

The motherboard I'm looking at says it is dual channel memory, but with 4 slots for RAM. If I wanted to put 8gb of RAM in it should I do 2x4gb sticks or 4x2gb sticks? Again performance and speed is the mission.

The two RAM choices I'm deciding between are: G.SKILL Ripjaws X + Turbulence II Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory Model F3-17000CL9D-8GBXLD and Kingston HyperX T1 Series 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 Desktop Memory Model KHX2133C9AD3T1K4/8GX

Thanks again for the continued assistance

 

[taintisgod]

anyone around? If I knew there would be so many threads titled just like mine I would've named it differently!

 

[majin ssj eric]

I would go for the Asus board just for the super cool UEFI bios. As far as I know RAID needs to be run on two similar drives (speed and capacity). Running an SSD in RAID with a 5900 rpm HDD would make no sense and would not work. You'll be fine with the single 120GB SSD (don't go any lower than 120GB for your boot drive to allow plenty of space for all of your programs). Also, I highly recommend Corsair Vengeance RAM (2x4GB) with SB. SB likes 1.5V memory and the Vengeance's come in CAS 8 which is a superior latency to CAS 9....

 

[taintisgod]

(fixed the link to the g.skill RAM I was looking at).

The corsair vengeance RAM comes in a max PC3-12800 and from what I've read, wouldn't the RAM that I've picked so far (G.Skill link) be far superior than that because it can run at DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) ?

Would CAS latency make that much of a difference even though the clock speed was that much higher? + The Corsair Vengeance has triple channel RAM, but the G.Skill is dual channel (2 sticks), does that make a difference also?

btw I went with the Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4 B3 for the motherboard, it seemed right. And I bought the Prolimatech Megahalem heatsink as well!

So the big top questions remains:

Is it worth it to get the RAM that has the better clock speed?

Should I bite the bullet and buy 2 SSD's to run in RAID?