infidus

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May 9, 2011
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Hi, my name is Nick and I am 18 years old. I received news that my parents would be providing my with a nice chunk of cash to build a PC possibly. I am currently using a dumb Gateway NX52 or something and it sucks! I would like to build a computer with the possibility of playing games like Crysis 1 and 2, Metro 2033, Battlefield 3, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.. Stuff like that, I am trying to switch over from an Xbox 360 guy.

This will be my first computer to build and setup myself, and I have been researching things about computers for a few months now and i thoroughly enjoy it.. enough in fact that next spring i will be attending college for a program and hopefully get a degree dealing with computer network security. Enough about my life story and onto the good stuff!

I'm not exactly sure on how much I will be getting but I am sure it will be around $1,000-$1,700 (U.S)

Here are my current thoughts on a pretty solid build.

Too start off here is the case I am pretty adamant on getting:

The NZXT Phantom case which this model is a Newegg exclusive.

DSC_0016_800x600.JPG


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146073

The Power Supply: KINGWIN Lazer Gold Series LZG-850 850W

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121076

1000.jpg


The CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

i5_Sandybridge_2.jpg


The Video Card: Nvidia GTX 570

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0356937

272740_01_angle_comping.jpg


The Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD4-B3

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128478

ga-p67a-ud4-b3.jpg


RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277

41HgCWVtCpL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


HDD: Seagate Barracuda St320005N1A1AS-RK 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148636

22-148-636-Z01


Disk Drive: SAMSUNG Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151222

27-151-222-Z01



I am thinking about going to Micro Center and picking up the Processor this week because its on sale for $180.

If anyone has any suggestions in possible change up in parts feel free to speak up! I do plan to eventually overclock this processor to its full potential.. just not with a stock cooler, in the future maybe in 2 months I will buy a liquid cooler, probably a corsair H70. I'll probably order extra fans in the future and fix this up to be really well cooled. Also further down the line I'll eventually upgrade the video card to another 570 or sell the 570 and get a 580.

Thank you all for reading this and if you have any questions on anything to get a better idea of what I want, ask!
Oh, sorry if I kind of over did this whole thing lol.


-Nick











 
Solution
Hi Nick,
I must say you did a damn fine job formating this post. My post is gonna be sloppy :p

Anway, you did an awesome job! You did your research!

I have a few suggestions. One, Get G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 Why you ask? Because it's in your budget :D
Also, switch the PSU. Kingwin is ok, but you'd be better off with a top tier PSU, such as the XFX Black Edition P1-750B-CAG9 750W ATX12V

One last suggestion. A gtx 570 is fine, allowing you to upgrade down the road. But why not get something that will kick butt now AND then? Check out getting 2 HIS H695FN2G2M Radeon HD 6950 2GB and flashing them to 6970's. Huge performance, huge value.
Next thing I will ask is what about...

striker410

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Hi Nick,
I must say you did a damn fine job formating this post. My post is gonna be sloppy :p

Anway, you did an awesome job! You did your research!

I have a few suggestions. One, Get G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 Why you ask? Because it's in your budget :D
Also, switch the PSU. Kingwin is ok, but you'd be better off with a top tier PSU, such as the XFX Black Edition P1-750B-CAG9 750W ATX12V

One last suggestion. A gtx 570 is fine, allowing you to upgrade down the road. But why not get something that will kick butt now AND then? Check out getting 2 HIS H695FN2G2M Radeon HD 6950 2GB and flashing them to 6970's. Huge performance, huge value.
Next thing I will ask is what about an SSD? An SSD will improve boot times, and make games load up faster. I must say though, they are kind of expensive.

Last thing. Get 2 Samsung Desktop Class Spinpoint F3 1 TB and put them in raid 0 for a cheaper, faster storage solution.
That's all I got! Great job and have fun!
 
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crewton

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Agree with striker! Change the psu. I prefer corsair so I'd opt for the 750HX or 850HX. I also agree on going for the 6950 2GB and flashing the 6970 bios onto it.

I have the gigabyte mobo you have and if you want it for it's blackness then that's great but if you want to go with a fairly ugly color scheme but get 2 more SATA III ports and 30 bucks cheaper go with GIGABYTE GA-P67X-UD3-B3 .

Finally, I'd suggest looking at picking up a small SSD 60GBish as your boot drive/programs. It makes your computer feel faster and saves on electricity (at least for me since now I just turn computer off when not using it instead of leaving it on all the time to avoid boot up).
 

infidus

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Ok, First thing to address I think would be the video card, I don't know much about video cards right now. Could I get a bit of help in explaining what the difference between the GTX 570 I have posted above and the HIS 6950?
 

striker410

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The GTX 570 is an impressive Nvidia card, designed to handle the toughest games with ease. The 6950 is a lower priced competitor, albeit weaker but just as fierce.

The GTX 570 is a better single card, but it's also expensive. The 6950 is a good card, but they are total beasts when it comes to price vs performance. If you want a super good system that will max most games for ~3 years or more. With the gtx 570, it wont be as good upfront, but you can add another one in a few years to squeeze a bunch more performance out without doing a total upgrade.
I personally suggest the 6950's, as in 3 years or more you will most likely need a new CPU to max games anyway.

It's your call man.
 

crewton

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http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card-game-performance-radeon-hd-6670,2935.html

Tom's monthly article is also a good thing to read on video cards. Basically we are saying that if you are going to spend 300 dollars on a graphics card get the best one for 300 dollars. The 6950 2GB has the advantage over the 570 in that it's 30 dollars cheaper but comes with the ability to turn the card into a 6970 2GB by flashing the 6970 bios onto the card. Thus you turn that 300 dollar card into a 350 dollar card. The 6950 2GB also scales really well when you crossfire them as shown here http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crossfire-sli-3-way-scaling,2865-10.html
 

infidus

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I see now what you are both talking about! I think i'll end up going with the 6950 until I can work up a big wad of dough for a gtx 580 or Crossfire 6950s. Thank you all for the real fast replies!
I think I'd also go with the 8 gigs of RAM because It's only about 40 or 50 more for twice the RAM!

Now onto the second thing, The Hard Drive.. The hard drive I have posted that is 6.0 Gb/s and the one you have posted is 3 GB/s and 32Mb of cache.. I am not sure what putting hard drives in RAID 0 does but wouldn't it just end up being 6 GB/S or do I need to do some more reading? =)
 

j2j663

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I will throw my 2 cents in here about the mobo.

Using HDD you will not come even close to saturating SATA II 3 GB/s even in RAID 0. However, I would recommend having at least 2 SATA III 6 GB/s connections simply because SSDs are becoming faster and more popular. If you put 2 SSDs in RAID 0 (not saying you will do that now but maybe someday as an upgrade) you will be saturating a SATA II connection.
 

crewton

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Like he said above. 6Gb/s HDD is a complete waste of money and merely a ploy by hard drive companies to charge you 20-30% more for something that won't increase performance. Now if it were a SSD then yes there is gains in going with a 6Gb/s one since it can use that extra speed.
 

gametstr

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I dont think I have anthing else to add here. Everything's been covered.
Take up the suggestions from striker.
The 69X0 will definitely be a better choice imo.
This will be an awesome build 'm sure. Good Luck.
 

infidus

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Was thinking, Raid 0 provides faster reading if I'm right, but more at risk for data failure. Would getting one of the samsung HDDs and buying a 60gigish SSD be an even better option than going to raid 0? (besides the massive difference in memory amount)
 

striker410

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You can still have the HDD's, just don't put them in RAID 0. 2 Spinpoints are still faster/cheaper then that barracuda. About the SSD, SSD's are there to improve startup times/load times of games. If you put your OS on there, you will have room for only a couple games. So, it really depends on whether you think it's worth it.
 

striker410

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A quick googling showed me this article: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-notebook-portable,1913-5.html
Seems to cover the SSD vs HDD pretty well, albeit it's in a mac pro.
For $99, that's a smokin deal on that SSD. I would personally be hesitant, but I guess try and find some benchmarks and see how fast that particular SSD is.
I personally can't justify an SSD for me, but that's because i would rather put the money into other parts.
 

infidus

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I will say i agree, I am not picky on load times of anything, just as long as its not 5 minutes lol. So i do agree on the spending money elsewhere, i think I will buy a different hdd but not put it in raid 0... Actually maybe put the money gained from cheaper hard drive to a better power supply maybe or more beefy
 

infidus

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Yep i got a 23' LCD monitor from acer. I think i got it back in feburary. Im thinkin about system cooling. Getting a big case now cjoices gor optimum cooling. The H70 is kond of ugly i think but i will search up more options tonight when i get home from school
 


Yeah, I would not bother with all in one type of CPU coolers, they have consistently not shown improvement over similarly priced air cooling solutions. I had one once, it was a Coolit unit that failed after 6 months. The installation alone was not worth the hassle, much less the $70 I spent on it.

The Hyper 212+ mentioned is a good cooler at $40. I've seen it lower, that's the current newegg price. Also recommended are the Thermaltake Frio, and others found at www.frostytech.com.

I would grab 2 HD 6950 in a heartbeat if I had the cash. The HD 6950 is in my opinion the best bang for buck out there right now. It will be a great card for awhile, particularly with the 2 GB memory. Its a wise investment.
I'll be putting at least one 6950 in my new build. And modding immediately. ;)
 
The Ocz Vertex 3 is the fastest desktop drive around. It carries a bit of a premium though:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4316/ocz-vertex-3-240gb-review/8

I like the C300 SATAIII at a decent price, but I'd rather have a crucial M4 now. I think that 120GB is really the sweet spot right now as far as price:performance:real estate. The smaller drives are quite a bit slower, the larger drives are too much to invest in a boot drive. That's my two cents.
 

infidus

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Think I will go with the Hyper 212, You all have been a whole bunch of help! I will probably keep posting things on here as well as putting pictures up of recieved parts (And hopefully a finished product). Does anyone know if there are orange light up LED Fans that i can use? like 120mm fans because i think it'd go great with the orange trim of the case to have the inside be all glowy orange.