Approximate Purchase Date: Hopefully next week, pretty soon anyhow
Budget Range: 1500-1700$, no rebates taken into consideration
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, frequently rather demanding games, don't think watching movies, surfing, studying etc requires special components
Parts Not Required: Already have a decent (if budget) IPS monitor and I don't need mouse, speakers or keyboard
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: No preference at all, though links to sites like newegg are just as good as simple names
Country of Origin: Norway, which means I won't be using US stores, but I believe most components are available here despite some price differences. Please don't be dejected by this, I can still very much use suggestions even if I guess the vast majority of the user base here has no idea of the Norwegian market.
Parts Preferences: I believe some Intel combo is best for budget gaming builds this time around, but I don't really have any company preferences.
Overclocking: Nice to keep options open, though not worth large amounts of money, but not planning to overclock any time soon (even putting a computer together for the first time will be a challenge I expect.)
SLI or Crossfire: Possibly in say 2 years, but I think for upgrading, getting a new budget card (whatever is equivalent to a 6950 or 570 in a few years) will be a viable option.
Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080
Additional Comments: Working with a really noisy PC at the moment, harddisk is slowly killing me, so I really need something more quiet. It's also overheating in games like Dragon Age 2 or Starcraft 2 with highest available settings, so it needs to be cool and powerful as well. Enough to run most games at decent/top settings for the next 2/3 years preferably.
This is the build I've pieced together by checking out the numerous similar threads on this forum and the "Recommended Builds by Usage" thread (though it unfortunately lacks a suggestion in my price range.)
CPU: Intel Core i5 2500 ca. 250$
PSU: Antec TruePower 750W ca. 150$ (listed as simply that in stores, but I'm fairly certain it's "Antec Truepower New 750w" in truth)
GPU: Asus GTX 570 1280 GB ca. 470$ (I think I can squeeze 580 into my budget, but not sure if that's better than simply upgrading in 2 years)
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit ca. 150$ (no brainer I suppose)
RAM: Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1600 CL9 8 GB ca. 130$ or G.SKILL Eco 4GB DDR3 2x2 GB 1333MHz CL7 7-7-7-21, 1.35V ca. 150$ for 4 GB (g.skill is a better brand I hear, and has far better timings, but I hear that timings are hardly noticable, that configuring unusual voltage for ram in BIOS is problematic and buying the g.skill would mean not having enough slots for 8 GB ram + far more expensive, though I hear 4 GB to 8 GB ram is hardly noticable as well)
Case: Fractal Define R3 ca. 125$ (rare in the US I hear, but here it is super popular, looks sleek and minimalistic, pretty quiet, cool enough, and I think a 570 will fit, though SLI or 580, if 580 is as big as 480 was, might be a problem)
MB: Asus P8P67 PRO ca. 235$ (the Asrock Extreme that everyone here is raving about is like 50$ more and rare in Norway)
DVD/CD: Sony AD-5260 ca. 25$ (cheapest DVD-burner)
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB ca. 70$ (extremely popular and cheap, but I remember hearing that Seagate 7200.12 was considered better though I never see it recommended anymore and I've heard complaints about noise from the F3 which is a big no for me, not sure if it's true though)
Heatsink for CPU: This is the big mystery for me. Hyper 212 Plus is either sold out everywhere or has a very inflated price. Mugen 2 rev B is very expensive and rare here (plus I hear a pain to mount.) Any suggestions of budget but decent coolers are very welcome. But since I'm not OCing anytime soon, is it possible to go with the default cooler without it negatively affecting my system and gaming?
Total: To me this comes out to a total of ca. 1600$, though that's without shipping which will probably put it at at around 1700$ at least.
I'm not expecting a whole lot of replies since my country of origin might make this seem somewhat awkward for some of you, but still this is a fairly big sum of money I'm spending, so any criticism and feedback is very welcome. Suggestions about cheaper alternatives, better alternatives, eventual incompatabilities and so forth are appreciated. Thanks, hoping for some reassurance I guess
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