Gaming PC for my birthday, Yuum =D

[nerdbird3]

Hello everyone, summer is getting closer. How y'all been doing? Yup, its another thread on building a new PC. Well, my birthday is on 7/1 so I want this new PC to be my 20 years old birthday gift. Yeaah folks, I hand out cookies and cup cakes. Come get some when y'all have time! hahaha

Alright, below is my "ideal" build for my gaming needs. Feel free to comment if this is a overkill system for league of legends.

Approximate Purchase Date: By the end of June

Budget Range: $1000~1200

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Moderate Gaming, Watching movies, basic work processing, web surfing.

Parts Not Required: Monitor, Mouse, Speaker, OS

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg

Country of Origin: U.S.

Parts Preferences: I don’t mind going with AMD CPU as long as it save money and gives most value.

Overclocking: No.

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe (Keep this option open)

Monitor Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Samsung LED 24''(Already owned)

Additional Comments: Please help me cut down costs if you think this build is overkill for what I need right now. I want to max out League of Legends, Dragon Age Origin, Starcraft 2, and DA 2. It’s alright if setting is little low on DA 2 or Starcraft 2, I only want to max out League of Legends at 1920 x 1080 res.

CPU
Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500

Motherboard
MSI P67A-GD65 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Power Supply
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V v2.2 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply

Video Card
XFX HD-695X-CNFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

Ram
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL

For ram, should I go for 4GB now and upgrade it latter if I need? Is there huge differences between rams running at 1300 and 1600?

Hard Drive
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Cases
AZZA Solano 1000 Black/Black Japanese SECC Steel/Metal mesh in front ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Optical Drive
ASUS Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM

OR

LITE-ON Black 4X BD-ROM 8X DVD-ROM 32X CD-ROM SATA Internal 4X Blu-ray Reader Model iHOS104-06 - OEM

P.S. I need special advise on CPU, Motherboard, and Video Card. Please focus on this 3 components since I spend the most money on those and I would like to know if they gives highest value for the money I spend. Every dollar counts!!

Feel free to change any other parts as well, if you think this build is overkill for the games I play.


Thanks,

Matt

5/16/11

 

[dalauder]

Yes, it's overkill for League of Legends.

Not a bad build at all. I would spend less on the case, but that's always a matter of personal preference.

I'd get a 750W PSU (Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, XFX) because it leaves the SLI/Crossfire route a lot more open.

Get the 2500K, just because it's barely more expensive and leaves your computer a ton more headroom for improvement should you decide to overclock down the line.

There's really no reason not to get a Z68 motherboard over P67. The only differences are that if something happens to your video card, you'll be able to use integrated graphics and that if you decide to do video editing, Quicksync with Z68 is much faster. The motherboards cost the same. Here, take a look at this $130 Gigabyte: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128502

FYI: 4GB of RAM is all you need. That said, I'd buy 8GB (2x4GB) 1600CL9, just like you have selected.

I'd also get a cheaper 6950 2GB. Make sure it has reviews where people say they've unlocked it.

 

[nerdbird3]

Yes, it's overkill for League of Legends.

Not a bad build at all. I would spend less on the case, but that's always a matter of personal preference.

I'd get a 750W PSU (Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, XFX) because it leaves the SLI/Crossfire route a lot more open.

Get the 2500K, just because it's barely more expensive and leaves your computer a ton more headroom for improvement should you decide to overclock down the line.

There's really no reason not to get a Z68 motherboard over P67. The only differences are that if something happens to your video card, you'll be able to use integrated graphics and that if you decide to do video editing, Quicksync with Z68 is much faster. The motherboards cost the same. Here, take a look at this $130 Gigabyte: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128502

FYI: 4GB of RAM is all you need. That said, I'd buy 8GB (2x4GB) 1600CL9, just like you have selected.

I'd also get a cheaper 6950 2GB. Make sure it has reviews where people say they've unlocked it.

For $130, this board seems a great deal to me. The bottom line, it still offers the features I need. But how reliable the board is? There's not a single review on this board. Any thoughts on this board? Dang, maybe I should give it a try even its meant to be risky lol...And, would 750W sufficient for 2x 6950 xfire? Thanks for the comment tho.


More advise on mother board, video cards, and cases are welcome. I would prefer a full tower case for the capacity to fit larger video cards in the future.

 

[dalauder]

Newegg reviews do mean a bit in terms of reliability, but they're typically by non-tech savvy people (including people who rank themselves as "high" on tech knowledge there).

Mostly the thing to know is that Gigabyte is a great brand. Asus and Gigabyte are the best and you can trust them with motherboards just like you can trust Corsair with Power Supplies. A cheaper board (means weaker voltage regulation) will limit your overclocking. But since that's second priority, it's really not worth spending $50 so that your i5-2500K overclocks to 4.7GHz instead of 4.5GHz.

A Gigabyte isn't risky--just to be clear.

Full tower--I have an Azza Solano 1000R. I got it for $80 (after $20 rebate). It's quite large and can fit a 12.5" video card, I think. I should remeasure to verify. I just don't really see much of a benefit in cases that cost over $120.

PSU: My estimate says 640W min, 690W recommended for an OC'd i5-2500K w/ dual 6950's, 3 HDDs, 5 fans, 2 USB devices, 15% capacitor aging. You can see what you come out with here: http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp
A good 750W PSU should handle this setup no probelm.

Back to the cheap Gigabyte. Quality matters more than price. I'd rank motherboard brands in this order:
Asus/Gigabyte -> ASRock -> MSI -> EVGA -> Biostar
I pretty much wouldn't get a brand that's not on that list and I'd try not to go below MSI unless I got a crazy deal (which I did for my EVGA mobo). More expensive boards typically have more robust circuitry that can handle higher overclocks (to an extent).

 

[nerdbird3]

Ok, thanks for all the comment dalauder.

So I round up this 3 boards, but which one should I pick?

GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD4-B3 LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $180 after rebate

OR


GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $130

OR

GIGABYTE GA-P67A-D3-B3 LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $110

I don't see huge differences from the last two boards. Thoughts? Which one should I pick and I might need xfire in the future? The $110 is the cheapest board I can think of at this range.

I've updated components at first post.

Thanks

 

[dalauder]

Only the $130 board is Z68, which has the benefits I listed above over P67 (no discrete graphics required if your video card breaks, Quicksync for video transcoding).

The $110 board runs it's PCI-e slots at 16x/4x. That will lose you maybe 3% in Crossfire performance. Also, SLI does not run at 16x/4x, only 8x/8x and higher. So you don't want this board if there's ANY chance you'll want SLI down the line.

The $180 board is great and will probably allow a marginally higher overclock than the $130 board. However, it's not Z68, it's P67 (no integrated graphics or Quicksync), so you'll have to decide whether it's worth it to lose those features AND pay $50 more. And the overclock decrease we're talking about is probably in the neighborhood of 4.7GHz max down to 4.5GHz max or a smaller difference.

This is the only board that offers the features of the $130 board cheaper (I didn't check Foxconn/other garbage brands): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128495

It's the Micro ATX version of the $130 board for $125. At that price, I'd pay the extra $5 though unless I was going for a small form factor.

 

[nerdbird3]

Best answer selected by nerdbird3.
n
n
nFree cookies and cup cakes for you, dalauder.

 

[dalauder]

Sweet. And they're already on the table at my job! Maybe that's just a coincidence that someone's giving out free homemade cookies?

EDIT: I had not realized this was a two person thread until now--a result of keeping 12 tabs open at all times.