High-End Gaming $1500-2000 Budget

[Kraash]

Hey guys, I am building a gaming PC for a friend but I have not built a high-end gaming PC in a while. Usually I build budget builds (under $1000). Can you please take a look at the parts for me and make sure they're alright? Thanks!
Btw, I'm Canadian so all the prices are in CAD. I'm ordering from NCIX but have lots of price matches (BestDirect.ca and Newegg.ca).
No OC is planned but may do it in the future. Will get a good cooler later if so.

CPU: Intel i5 2500K $199.99
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 $120.74
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X 2X4GB DDR3-2133 CL11 $93.87
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 580 DS Superclocked Fermi 797MHZ 1536MB $484.82 (Before $20 MIR)
SDD: OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SATA3 $249.99 (Before $20 MIR)
HDD: Hitachi 7K3000 2TB 7200RPM SATA3 $119.99
Case: Azza Spartan 102E ATX $54.98 (Before $15 MIR)
PSU: Corsair TX750 V2 $89.65
DVD: ASUS DRW-24B1ST $16.99

Total: $1,556.70 After MIR and tax.

Thanks again.

 

[sadams04]

Good build overall. My thoughts are below...

MEM - DDR3-2133 is a waste. Stick with GSKILL, but go with CL7 DDR3-1600 1.5v. You won't see a measurable difference at those speeds and the lower latency (CL7) is preferred.

HD - While I do like Hitachi these days, I would still recommend the Samsung F4 2TB for its speed and reliability.

Enjoy that build!

 

[Kraash]

Good build overall. My thoughts are below...

MEM - DDR3-2133 is a waste. Stick with GSKILL, but go with CL7 DDR3-1600 1.5v. You won't see a measurable difference at those speeds and the lower latency (CL7) is preferred.

HD - While I do like Hitachi these days, I would still recommend the Samsung F4 2TB for its speed and reliability.

Enjoy that build!

Isn't it possible to underclock the RAM and tighten timings at the same time? I thought I read that somewhere.
The 1600 CL7 is $150.

The only place I can find that hard drive is on Newegg but it's SATA2. It is a lot cheaper though. I advised my friend to put all of the games that he plays most often on the SSD and other games as well as his documents on the HDD. Would there be a big enough difference to warrant a SATA3 drive for this purpose?

Thanks!

 

[monkeysweat]

why 7200 rpm HDD? go with a WD Green for almost half the price. as long as you manage the number of games/programs you have installed, it should all fit on your SSD --- have them match price of hard drives from memoryexpress - they are usually one of the cheapest in Canada for hard drives (I didn't look at other websites to compare, I'll leave it up to you)
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX27815(ME).aspx
i also find antec makes sweet PSUs for example:
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=56790&vpn=HCG-900&manufacture=Antec&promoid=1337

Also (I know you are changing from a single GPU to multiple GPU and the hazards involved) you may want to consider to 560TI in SLI, about same price as the 580, but will run circles around it or downgrade to a single 570 which will play most games close to same level and might not really be a very noticeable difference and SLI them later (or now if you want to spend more money)
unless you game at super high resolutions, the 570 should cover pretty much anything you through at it.
2nd on the comment from sadams -- lower CAS will be better at those speeds (i think its 20$ more than what you have listed)

finally, i think it's a bit of matter of taste, but for the system your building, it almost seems wrong to throw it in a 50$ case
silverstone has 2 sweet cases 135-155
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=60646&vpn=RV03B-W&manufacture=Silverstone%20Technology
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=42480&vpn=RV02B-W&manufacture=Silverstone%20Technology


that being said what you have picked is not bad, just some other considerations given here - you do say you have a budget of up to 2K,, would hate to see you spend 120 on 1 thing but later think, i wish i spent 20 more on the other.

 

[Kraash]

Multiple GPU? I'm just using one card.
Yep, my plan was to buy a great card now and when that card drops to about $200-250, buy another one to SLI. Definitely don't need SLI right now. I've also read that most games don't utilize SLI properly. Is that true?

The case actually looks great. I used it for a different build last month and it looks like a $100+ case. Very well built as well.

I would put in a WD green. They're awesome drives. But my friend has like 40 steam games alone. I'll talk to him about the space but I don't think it's fitting on 120GB. If it does though, I'm going for a cheaper storage drive.

 

[monkeysweat]

I think the "great card" you would want to buy now would be the 570 then,, it will probably drop to 250 within the year,,, I don't know if i would say "most" games don't use SLI properly, however most newer games have driver issues for a few months at least that doesn't apply the SLI profile properly (crossfire same issue)

as for the Green vs Black for games the only real noticeable difference will be level load times, so if you are worried about that, go with the black - 1TB should be fine and add green drives later for additional storage. I have 1 SSD and 6TB of storage on green drives, I don't really have a "waiting" issue when pulling data from the green drives.

 

[nd_hunter]

Kraash, yes you can underclock RAM in order to tighten the timings. The RAM timings you see at the bottom of this post are from factory spec 1600MHz 9-9-9-24-2 at 1.65v. However, I don't know if I got lucky or if this is widespread in the memory world.

As far as adding a second video card later...most people end up not doing this because by the time they would, they either build a new rig or swap that card out for the newest on the market. For the 570 vs. 580 arguement, I say go with the 570. You don't get $120+ worth of frame rates out of the 580. Alternatively, Crossfired HD 6850s get you about the same performance of a GTX 580 for a little over $300.

 

[Why_Me]

Hey guys, I am building a gaming PC for a friend but I have not built a high-end gaming PC in a while. Usually I build budget builds (under $1000). Can you please take a look at the parts for me and make sure they're alright? Thanks!
Btw, I'm Canadian so all the prices are in CAD. I'm ordering from NCIX but have lots of price matches (BestDirect.ca and Newegg.ca).
No OC is planned but may do it in the future. Will get a good cooler later if so.

CPU: Intel i5 2500K $199.99
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 $120.74
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X 2X4GB DDR3-2133 CL11 $93.87
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 580 DS Superclocked Fermi 797MHZ 1536MB $484.82 (Before $20 MIR)
SDD: OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SATA3 $249.99 (Before $20 MIR)
HDD: Hitachi 7K3000 2TB 7200RPM SATA3 $119.99
Case: Azza Spartan 102E ATX $54.98 (Before $15 MIR)
PSU: Corsair TX750 V2 $89.65
DVD: ASUS DRW-24B1ST $16.99

Total: $1,556.70 After MIR and tax.

Thanks again.

That 750w psu won't push two of those 580's ...you want a 900+w psu for two of those cards, and I would look at a full size ATX board instead. Also Best Direct and Direct Canada are free shipping, so price match aside...if you aren't getting free shipping for everything from NCIX I would look at those two outfits I mentioned. They are affiliated and use the same shipping addy out of Richmond, BC.

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11180AC9542&vpn=CMPSU-950TX&manufacture=CORSAIR $143.03
Corsair TX950W 950W CMPSU-950TX 12V 78A 24PIN ATX Active PFC 140M Fan Power Supply

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11830BD4863&vpn=GA-Z68A-D3H-B3&manufacture=GIGABYTE $126.92
Gigabyte Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX LGA1155 Z68 DDR3 3PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 HDMI DVI SLI SATA3 USB3.0 Motherboard

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=15380BD5211&vpn=F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL&manufacture=G.SKILL $57.18
G.SKILL Ripjaws X F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24 Memory

 

[Why_Me]

Kraash, yes you can underclock RAM in order to tighten the timings. The RAM timings you see at the bottom of this post are from factory spec 1600MHz 9-9-9-24-2 at 1.65v. However, I don't know if I got lucky or if this is widespread in the memory world.

As far as adding a second video card later...most people end up not doing this because by the time they would, they either build a new rig or swap that card out for the newest on the market. For the 570 vs. 580 arguement, I say go with the 570. You don't get $120+ worth of frame rates out of the 580. Alternatively, Crossfired HD 6850s get you about the same performance of a GTX 580 for a little over $300.

+1

I would even do dual 560 ti's instead of the 580 route. Dual 560's mop the floor with a single 580, two of those cards cost well under $500, and they over clock better, and use less power. A 750w will push two of those cards. In a few years down the road ...ebay them, sell em, give em away and get what ever is hot atm.

 

[monkeysweat]

The reason I would go for 570 though is that it will run any game with a real decent amount of power without having to worry about chancing of running into SLI issues, IF in the future you think it's not enough power, you can opt to add a second 570 which will be much cheaper by then.