$1250 Gaming Build

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iLouis

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I'm building a new computer primarily for gaming with a budget of about $2000 but that's in New Zealand dollars so when shipping, our sales tax and the exchange rate are accounted for it means about $1250 US (between there and about $1500 really).

Intel i5-2500k $220

ASUS P8Z68-V PRO motherboard and OCZ 60GB Agility 3 SSD $330

Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC12800 RAM $55

Seagate 1TB HDD $55

Cooler Master HAF 912 case $50

Cooler Master 850W PSU $100

LG DVD Drive $19

Ultra ChillTec Black Overclocking CPU Cooler $35

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit OEM $100

Acer 22" LED Moniter $130

And a couple of MegaFlow 200mm case fans for $35

So that leaves me about $150 for a GPU i was thinking about an EVGA GTX 460 for $130 and then maybe a second one later when i can afford it (i do know that that is probably the worst place to skimp out on but i am upgrading from a laptop with integrated graphics so anything above 3fps will be an improvement and it seems like a gtx 460 sli setup can be quite powerful)

That all comes to $1260 US after rebates ($1760 NZ) but before shipping. before rebates its more like $1405 US ($1967 NZ)

I am a first time builder so if anyone could critique this and make suggestions any help would be appreciated

EDIT: Just realised that it is $20 cheaper to buy the Motherboard and SSD separately for $210 and $100 rather than $330 so that brings the total to $1240 ($1736 NZ) so then is it worth getting the P8Z68-V mobo for $10 less and omitting the SSD for a better video card?
 
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iLouis

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Thanks for the feedback. So as I'm on a budget and have already gone over would it be worth taking $5 of the cooler by getting the Hyper 212 instead and spending it on the samsung HDD then?
 
chillin15

chillin15

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Yes, the hyper 212 is a great cooler for the price. I would definitely make that trade off.

Also, be advised that many people are having problems with OCZ SSDs. Look at the following reviews on newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227725

It will cost more but Intel SSDs are more reliable. I also have not heard anything horrible about crucial m4 ssds and so far no bad reviews about patriot wildfire ssds.
 
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iLouis

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Yeah i think i will leave out an SSD for now as i cant really afford it, but i was looking through some reviews of the Samsung HDD and it seems like its boot times are, whilst not comparable to an SSD, really very good. Maybe ill get one later when the prices come down but i think that the money would be better spent on a GTX 570 or radeon 6950 for now.

And i think i will get the Hyper 212 because then i wont have to worry about the rebate
 
ScrewySqrl

ScrewySqrl

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You don't need 850W even for SLI.

An SLI GTX 460 or 560 or 560ti should get by with a 650W PSU (actual use is round 485-525W)

You could also drop down to a Vertex 2 instead of Vertex 3 and save about $80
 
chillin15

chillin15

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I would absolutely not get a 650W PSU to power two 560ti's, an SSD, hard drives, an OC'ed processor.

Two reasons:

1) You don't want to load your PSU at 90% every single time you turn on your computer


2) PSU's also lose wattage every year due to the capacitor aging so even though you might be able to power on your comp and run your sli setup for the first year but you're going to run into trouble later on.

I'm getting all my info from jonnyguru (the guru of PSus) and he recommends this site to calculate how much power you will nead under load.

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine

I entered in your mobo, processor, and figured you would get a ssd, hdd, two 560 ti's in sli, dvd drive, added 2 120mm fans etc. I put the capacity aging to 30% (better safe than sorry), made system load 100%, OC'ed your processor to 4ghz (MILD overclock), and got a recommendation to use at least 710Watts....with a minimum of 656W.

With that, I do not recommend going down to anything under 750W with 850W giving you breathing room to add more drives, maybe water cooling, etc in the future.
 
chillin15

chillin15

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I just want to warn you before you get the hyper 212+ - that thing is loud but if you can deal with noise, it offers tremendous cooling for the price.

Waiting on the SSD might pay off as SSDs are still relatively new and many manufacturers are still working out the kinks...

As far as a GTX 570 or radeon 6950 - go nvidia for slightly better performance on single monitor gaming but go radeon if you are ever planning to game on 2+ monitors. Radeon allows you to use 3+ monitors on one card but nvidia has their whole 3d gaming thing.

If you are getting a radeon card, I would recommend the sapphire 6050 2gb dirt 3 edition (great performance, OC ability, cool and quiet)

 
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atypicallemon

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Check out this combo
It has a different case but it keeps your ssd, good psu antec 750, and gives you a full tower. The only problem that I see with it though is that its a 1.5tb at 5900 rpm. This can be looked past because of the ssd that most of your games and files should be stored on. Just a thought.
 
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iLouis

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That would be a good deal but unfortunately newegg says they don't ship to NZ which is why I've been using tiger direct.

As for the hyper 212 though i was looking for a relatively quiet PC but i think i will be able to manage with it being louder but if there's a quieter cooler that anyone would like to recommend then that would be greatly appreciated and yeah i think the 570 would be the better option as i wont be able to get a multi-monitor setup for a while (mainly due to cost but also because of space limitations on my desk) but what about kelper - how far away is it? Would it be worth getting something cheaper to act as a placeholder like the GTX 460 (which has decent performance and at 1080p) and wait until the next generation of cards come out or just getting a higher end one now and feel bad about it later?
 
chillin15

chillin15

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There are several cpu coolers that perform better than the hyper 212+. Nothing beats the hyper 212+ in terms of price/performance though. Your best bet is to switch out that stock fan that comes with the hyper 212+ and put a nexus 120mm or a noctua 120mm fan on it. Or you can get the following:

Thermalright Silver Arrow
Noctua NH-D14
Prolimatech Megahalems Rev.B CPU Cooler + 2 fans

All three of those options will run you significantly more though but will give you better performance and oc ability
 
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iLouis

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That might be a bit of a problem, and as i don't really have any experience i probably won't be doing more than a mild OC will just using the stock hyper 212+ be fine?
 
chillin15

chillin15

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That will definitely be fine.
 
IntelEnthusiast

IntelEnthusiast

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iLouis

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I have no need to stay with corsair and the ram from Tiger Direct is currently only availible in-store which is a bit of a problem for me. Would something like this Kingston Ram be fine then? (its also much cheaper)
 
ddemon

ddemon

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Is there not a NZ based place you can get your parts?
i would always suggest buying locally so that if you have any problems it's easier for returns etc.

I've just ordered all my parts for a similar build (over here in Australia) including the 6950 that chillin15 recomended, sounded like a great card from everything i've read.
i'd also agree on the 1.5v ram, i'm no expert but i've done months of research ...lol ...had to get my build right before ordering anything
 
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