Hey there, I'm currently embarking on building my first PC in about 4 years, and the friend I usually get advice from has since moved to another country so I thought I'd turn to these boards for advice.
Approximate Purchase Date: mid-late May
Budget Range: $1200-$1400
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming (specifically: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, OOTP Baseball, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Fallout: New Vegas, Dragon Age 2)
Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.ca (I have a $250 gift card for it, so something needs to come from there), anything that will ship to Canada
Country of Origin: Canada
Parts Preferences: My last computer had a lot of OCZ and ASUS in it, but if I can be convinced otherwise, I will look elsewhere
Overclocking: No
SLI or Crossfire: If I am correct in assuming this means two or more graphics cards, then no.
Monitor Resolution: 1680x1050 on a 22" display to start, 1920x1080 or 1920x1200 on a 32" display by the time Skyrim is released in November
Additional Comments: Will come after parts list.
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ASUS P8P67 LE (REV 3.0) 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) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
ASUS EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5 Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
Thermaltake V4 Black Edition Gaming Chassis Mid Tower Steel Computer Case Fully Black Powdered Interior VM30001W2Z
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit English 1-Pack - OEM
OCZ ZX Series OCZ-ZX850W 850W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply Compatible with Core i5 & i7
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Essentially, I'm looking for advice in some particular areas:
1) Will the parts I have listed work together?
2) Should I get a different motherboard or is this sufficient for my purposes? Perhaps one such as ASUS P8P67 (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard? Or something different?
3) From reviews, G. Skill seems like a good choice for RAM. Would this be correct? I wanted OCZ, but could not find any 1.5V, was I correct to only look for 1.5V RAM? Is 8 GB too much? It seems as though the 8-8-8-24 vs 9-9-9-24 timing will not matter too much for my purposes.
4) I want a Radeon HD 69xx for my video card. Am I paying too much for the ASUS 6950 when I could have a Sapphire at $60 less or an MSI at $30-$40 less? Should I go for the 6970 instead? I've looked at some benchmarks found on this site, and plan on upgrading from a 22" LG 720p TV to a 32" 1080p display in the next few months, would that make a difference as far as which video card to get? This is the main part that I am beginning to re-think, and would love input as to what brand I should go with here or if it even matters, or simply a brand to not go with.
5) Is the PSU a little much at 850? Would I be fine with say this Corsair at 800? Would I be better off to stick with the 850? I like OCZ, and have never had anything Corsair. I tried a link to the Thermaltake web site that I found in another thread that allowed me to see what I needed, and based upon my understanding of what it was asking me, I seemed to require about 683 W of power for the system I'd like to build. Note that this is assuming I understood what the questionnaire was asking and that I filled it in properly, I very well may have missed something.
6) I have an LG DVD RW drive that is about 6 years old that I would like to continue to use, please let me know if that would not be possible or if you need more information to answer this question. I'm assuming it will work, but have read comments where people cannot get older drives to work with new motherboards. Although, I suppose a new one would only be about $20.
7) Any other recommendations on cases? I guess I just need to make sure it will provide enough circulation so the system does not overheat, and I would like to have a couple USB connections on the front.
8) Is there anything else that I am missing? I read in one link that extra cooling fans would not be necessary due to not overclocking the system, and I did not get anything with my last system build, so I am hoping I can avoid purchasing a new one here.
I set my budget at $1200-$1400 after taxes and shipping charges, but if I can get away with paying less, I'd be quite happy.
Approximate Purchase Date: mid-late May
Budget Range: $1200-$1400
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming (specifically: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, OOTP Baseball, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Fallout: New Vegas, Dragon Age 2)
Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.ca (I have a $250 gift card for it, so something needs to come from there), anything that will ship to Canada
Country of Origin: Canada
Parts Preferences: My last computer had a lot of OCZ and ASUS in it, but if I can be convinced otherwise, I will look elsewhere
Overclocking: No
SLI or Crossfire: If I am correct in assuming this means two or more graphics cards, then no.
Monitor Resolution: 1680x1050 on a 22" display to start, 1920x1080 or 1920x1200 on a 32" display by the time Skyrim is released in November
Additional Comments: Will come after parts list.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASUS P8P67 LE (REV 3.0) 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) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
ASUS EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5 Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
Thermaltake V4 Black Edition Gaming Chassis Mid Tower Steel Computer Case Fully Black Powdered Interior VM30001W2Z
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit English 1-Pack - OEM
OCZ ZX Series OCZ-ZX850W 850W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply Compatible with Core i5 & i7
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Essentially, I'm looking for advice in some particular areas:
1) Will the parts I have listed work together?
2) Should I get a different motherboard or is this sufficient for my purposes? Perhaps one such as ASUS P8P67 (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard? Or something different?
3) From reviews, G. Skill seems like a good choice for RAM. Would this be correct? I wanted OCZ, but could not find any 1.5V, was I correct to only look for 1.5V RAM? Is 8 GB too much? It seems as though the 8-8-8-24 vs 9-9-9-24 timing will not matter too much for my purposes.
4) I want a Radeon HD 69xx for my video card. Am I paying too much for the ASUS 6950 when I could have a Sapphire at $60 less or an MSI at $30-$40 less? Should I go for the 6970 instead? I've looked at some benchmarks found on this site, and plan on upgrading from a 22" LG 720p TV to a 32" 1080p display in the next few months, would that make a difference as far as which video card to get? This is the main part that I am beginning to re-think, and would love input as to what brand I should go with here or if it even matters, or simply a brand to not go with.
5) Is the PSU a little much at 850? Would I be fine with say this Corsair at 800? Would I be better off to stick with the 850? I like OCZ, and have never had anything Corsair. I tried a link to the Thermaltake web site that I found in another thread that allowed me to see what I needed, and based upon my understanding of what it was asking me, I seemed to require about 683 W of power for the system I'd like to build. Note that this is assuming I understood what the questionnaire was asking and that I filled it in properly, I very well may have missed something.
6) I have an LG DVD RW drive that is about 6 years old that I would like to continue to use, please let me know if that would not be possible or if you need more information to answer this question. I'm assuming it will work, but have read comments where people cannot get older drives to work with new motherboards. Although, I suppose a new one would only be about $20.
7) Any other recommendations on cases? I guess I just need to make sure it will provide enough circulation so the system does not overheat, and I would like to have a couple USB connections on the front.
8) Is there anything else that I am missing? I read in one link that extra cooling fans would not be necessary due to not overclocking the system, and I did not get anything with my last system build, so I am hoping I can avoid purchasing a new one here.
I set my budget at $1200-$1400 after taxes and shipping charges, but if I can get away with paying less, I'd be quite happy.