First time builder, advice needed!

[david2655]

Hi everyone, im a enthusiastic pc gamer, but have always gotten pre-built systems, so i thought it was time to dive in and really get to understand my next machine better. Ive done quite a bit of research and come up with what i think could be a good system but i need some expert eyes for advice.
As i said main use is going to be gaming, with some net surfing/other general use.

Budget is around £1100(pounds) although this is flexible.

CPU- Intel Core i5 2500k - £164 - heard that anything more than this is overkill for gaming

GPU- Gigabyte GTX560TI SOC - £214 - seems like good bang for the buck, anything over this might be a little overkill for the resolutions im playing at? feel free to correct me

Motherboard- Asus P8P67pro - £140 - concern point here, i know very little about motherboards, and all the technotalk that comes with them confuses the hell out of me. fairly sure its compatable with the rest of the build, but thats what you guys are for

RAM - Corsair vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz - £89 - the sheer amount of choice when it comes to RAM is confusing for a newbie like me, but corsair seem like a good company and i think 8GB will be more than enough for my needs

HDD - Samsung HD103SJ spinpoint (1T) - £41

PSU - Corsair HX 650W - £87 - again, major concern point, not sure how much power ill need, nor how to work out how much ill need, also id like the option of possibly adding another GTX 560 in the future if i ever feel the need, so i imagine that will come into the equation

Case - coolermaster HAF 932 - £105 - looks a little on the large side, but id rather too much space than too little

HDD - Samsung HD103SJ spinpoint (1T) - £41

DVD Drive - sony optiarc 24x DVD/RW - £15 - meh, its cheap, decent company, as long as it works it'll do

OS - Windows 7 Home premium - £70

Monitor - LG W236LV-PF 23" - £150 - probably the least amount of research gone into this, seems like a good deal on ebuyer

Tenda Wireless N300 PCI adapter - £10 - for my internets

Norton Antivirus 2011 - £20 - for my internets 2


so what do you think? (braces for hailstorm of comments.....)

 

[ikyung]

Great CPU for gaming. Yes the i7-2600k is overkill for just gaming. You won't see real world improvements.

560Ti won't really be an overkill, I can't find the LG model monitor so I'm not sure what resolution you are playing at but guessing by the 23inch, 1920x1080? Depending if you want to max everything out or not, also what kind of game, the 560Ti is far from overkill. But it is indeed a great card for the bucks.

Motherboard - Yes the p8p67 pro is compatible with everything you picked out, but you can save money if you don't plan to use both the PCIe x8/x8 slots. If you are going single card with no SLI, then going single slots can shave quite a bit of money.

RAM - 8GB is more then enough. You can go 4GB if you want, but RAM is honestly at such a low price point right now, going 8GB isn't a bad idea.

HDD - Not sure how much 41 is in US dollars, but I suggest looking at the WD Caviar Black 7200RPM SATA III HDD. Samsung Spinpoint isn't a bad HDD or anything. Just suggesting doing price vs price before buying.

PSU - 650W is fine. Corsair is a good brand and going modular is always a plus.

Case - The HAF 932 is HUGE. You should go mid tower and save some money. All your hardware will fit fine in a mid size tower.

I suggest towers like Antec 300 or 900, or Bitfenix Shinobi.

Please don't pay for an antivirus software. Especially Norton. Just get a free antivirus software like Microsoft Security Essentials. £20 is better spent on a better GPU.

 

[Gamer-girl]

You might wan to upgrade to a 750w if you plan on sli in the future

I agree that you should not get Norton. Save the money and get a free antivirus, then spend it on a cpu cooler like the Hyper 212 Plus.

 

[tph15]

Please tell me your shopping on newegg.com. It is really the cheapest place on the Internet. I built a budget gaming rig that would have been around 680$ but since I bought the parts on newegg I spent around 570$(saved 40$ on the gpu alone). Anyway
It seems like you have a pretty solid build there it should run perfectly on most/ all games

 

[Gamer-girl]

Does Newegg.com ship internationally?
Newegg.com does not currently ship internationally; we only deliver to locations within the United States and to Puerto Rico.

 

[david2655]

Thanks for the replies so far!

All the prices are from Ebuyer, ill shop around a bit for the best prices once ive mapped out exactly what i want.

For the motherboard, i really want to keep both PCIe slots in case i want to SLI in the future, with that in mind, is the asus p8p67 pro still the best choice for the job?

I had a look at the antec 900 and really like the look of it, so that will probably be my new choice thanks ikyung

Also ill make sure to get the Corsair HX 750w for the option to SLI thanks for that gamer-girl

The WD caviar black is a fair amount more than the spinpoint, and im not looking for blistering writing speeds, so i think ill stick with the spinpoint, as long as its reliable and works.

oh, and is an aftermarket CPU cooler really needed?

oh and yes the monitor will be at 1920x1080

 

[tph15]

Well dang sorry bout newegg thing....didn't realize they didn't ship in Europe...ugh I feel like an @$$. Sorry bro, great build tho

 

[david2655]

Well dang sorry bout newegg thing....didn't realize they didn't ship in Europe...ugh I feel like an @$$. Sorry bro, great build tho

no worries, i appreciate you trying to get me the best deal

 

[Proximon]

The 2011 Norton is well-reviewed and I have deployed it in business environments on new machines with no problems at all. That said it's only needed by those that don't know how to practice safe computing. Freeware is enough for the savvy, certainly.

 

[Gamer-girl]

oh, and is an aftermarket CPU cooler really needed?

Only if you plan on Overclocking, I figured you were going to Overclock the CPU because you picked a K series.

 

[david2655]

Only if you plan on Overclocking, I figured you were going to Overclock the CPU because you picked a K series.

ah, thanks for clearing that up, and yes its something i want the option to do in the future, so ill stick with the basic cooler for now then i can upgrade later if i want to overclock. Im assuming a cpu cooler is quite an easy thing to upgrade?

 

[david2655]

hmmm, at the moment im running AVG free on my pc and i always thought i was kind of tempting fate a little not having a paid for version. That said i do consider myself relatively savvy online, so i suppose i can go the freeware route, any other must haves in that regard??

 

[Gamer-girl]

Depends it might be a bit tricky if your doing it for the first time, it is arguably the hardest part of putting together the PC if you include thermal paste application. You should be fine if your case has a CPU cutout.

You might want to get some malware scanners: Malwarebytes and "Spybot S&D" for the extra security conscious.

 

[david2655]

Depends it might be a bit tricky if your doing it for the first time, it is arguably the hardest part of putting together the PC if you include thermal paste application. You should be fine if your case has a CPU cutout.

Hmmm, well in that case i may as well just get an aftermarket cooler now i suppose. Theres one on ebuyer with tons of good reviews for only £15 -
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176157
looks like thermal paste pre applied too, which is definatly a plus, what do you think?

 

[alikum]

If you intend to get Norton, make it an Internet Security instead. Norton has been getting good reviews these days and the Internet Security comes with many features. Just my 2 cents

 

[alikum]

The 2011 Norton is well-reviewed and I have deployed it in business environments on new machines with no problems at all. That said it's only needed by those that don't know how to practice safe computing. Freeware is enough for the savvy, certainly.

Actually, that's not always the case. If you do a lot of browsing and research, you'll never know what sites you'll come across. This is where Norton comes into play. Its safe web indicator can at least give you a better idea of whether the site you're about to get into is safe. Accidents happen, even upon the savvy ones. If TS intends to spend on an antivirus program, Norton is a good choice, especially the Internet Security version. Screw the 360 though, loads of bloat.

 

[Gamer-girl]

Hmmm, well in that case i may as well just get an aftermarket cooler now i suppose. Theres one on ebuyer with tons of good reviews for only £15 -
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176157
looks like thermal paste pre applied too, which is definatly a plus, what do you think?

You could get this instead
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cooler-Master-Hyper-212-Plus/dp/B002G1YPH0

Be sure to check ram clearance issues especially if you get ram with tall heatsinks.

Actually, that's not always the case. If you do a lot of browsing and research, you'll never know what sites you'll come across. This is where Norton comes into play. Its safe web indicator can at least give you a better idea of whether the site you're about to get into is safe.

Avast has webrep which is the same thing but free. There is also a downloadable add-on called WOT which is a standalone program which is also free.
http://www.mywot.com/en/download

 

[david2655]

hmmm having thought about it a little i think im going to leave overclocking alone for a bit and just concentrate on building a computer that works ill keep the option open, and i can always upgrade the cpu cooler in the future easily enough once ive got a little more confidence with tinkering. thanks for the help though gamer-girl, its much appreciated

btw, any other thoughts on the Asus P8P67pro motherboard? Is this overkill? worth the price? etc.

 

[MoridinUK]

From what I've read it's a good main board. Asus generally make good reliable boards. However, the question really is future expandability verses money. You could save a packet and get a board that takes one graphics card and wont support overclocking as well. As you are not overclocking from the start you have to ask yourself if you really are going to mess about (possibly having to remove the main board) to put on an after market cooler at a later date.

I expect future expandability will be more important to you, and you are within your budget so why skimp? Main boards are one of the most important components, I try not to skimp on them ever. Having said that, a board with one PCIe slot and less overclocking facilities wouldn't be skimping but you lose the option to sli in the future.

One other thing to remember with the case and the fan for the cpu, If you do hope to sli later then make sure the case is big enough for two graphics cards. Also I don't know how many internal case fans your case comes with, but if you are not upgrading, and even if you are I'd consider it, to an after market cpu cooler, then you need to make sure you have plenty of case fans to get the air flowing...

You may want to throw in a couple more 120mm fans. Bascially I'd make sure you have enough to fill all the slots the case comes with. Be careful to fit them right, so the fans suck air in at the front and out or up at the back/top of the case.

Good Luck and have fun!

 

[david2655]

From what I've read it's a good main board. Asus generally make good reliable boards. However, the question really is future expandability verses money. You could save a packet and get a board that takes one graphics card and wont support overclocking as well. As you are not overclocking from the start you have to ask yourself if you really are going to mess about (possibly having to remove the main board) to put on an after market cooler at a later date.

I expect future expandability will be more important to you, and you are within your budget so why skimp? Main boards are one of the most important components, I try not to skimp on them ever. Having said that, a board with one PCIe slot and less overclocking facilities wouldn't be skimping but you lose the option to sli in the future.

One other thing to remember with the case and the fan for the cpu, If you do hope to sli later then make sure the case is big enough for two graphics cards. Also I don't know how many internal case fans your case comes with, but if you are not upgrading, and even if you are I'd consider it, to an after market cpu cooler, then you need to make sure you have plenty of case fans to get the air flowing...

You may want to throw in a couple more 120mm fans. Bascially I'd make sure you have enough to fill all the slots the case comes with. Be careful to fit them right, so the fans suck air in at the front and out or up at the back/top of the case.

Good Luck and have fun!

After reading some more case reviews i think ill go for the Coolermaster HAF 922, which looks really good coolingwise, especially if i threw a couple more fans in the side panel, also looks really roomy for the 2nd GPU (if needed). Anyways, thanks for all the advice guys! and any more comments are more than welcome