Advice on MoBos and build in general - $1k budget, gaming

[michaelhyphenpaul]

After looking at some of the builds on this site and getting advice from a friend with more experience than I, this is the build I'm looking at. Again, ~$1000 budget, focus on gaming, ease of assembly, and room for upgrades.

The biggest thing I'm trying to figure out is what MoBo to buy. My friend recommended getting a P67 chipset mother board, socket 1155. From what I've read, this is more of a gaming board than the Z68 (no onboard graphics).

GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128502
$118.99


ASUS P8P67 LE (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131706
$124.99


ASRock P67 EXTREME4 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157229
$149.99

Advice on these or other boards would be greatly appreciated. I have a big old Antec SX1000II case that I plan to re-use as well. Planning to run Windows 7 from a SSD.

Here's the rest of the build:

SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152245
$79.99 - Mostly used for bulk storage


Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-750 750W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE ...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371049
$94.99 - Saw this on another build here and thought it looked good. My friend told me that >650W should be enough for one GPU and a few HDDs


Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model KHX1600C9D3X1K2/8GX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104266
$48.99 - Also found this on here, what an awesome deal!


Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
$219.99 - Friend recommended the 2500K


OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227706
$219.99 - To be used for OS and a couple of games


SAPPHIRE 100315L Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908
$154.99

Any and all advice is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[michaelhyphenpaul]

A bit more general info which may help:

Approximate Purchase Date: Next Couple of Days


Budget Range: Around $950 - 1000 before rebates


System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Surfing the internet, watching some tv programs


Parts Not Required: Mouse, Monitor, Keyboard, Case


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg or Amazon


Country of Origin: US


Parts Preferences: Intel


Overclocking: Not planning on it in the near future, maybe a long term project


SLI or Crossfire: I would like to have the option for future upgrades, but not the most important thing to me


Monitor Resolution: 1280 x 1024 (this is what I'm running on my shitty old PC right now, the current max is 2048 x 1536)

 

[ScrewySqrl]

my suggestion: get a new, higher resolution monitor.

this Acer would be perfect ($119.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009261


You can get the Antec Gamer series 620W PSU for $69.99 that will be enough to run 2 6850s in crossfire if you plan to upgrade to that

If you do plan a crossfire, I reccomment this board:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130583

If you don't, then this board:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157230

 

[Why_Me]

This build allows you to add another one of those cards later on for SLI. Just add a case to it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371049 $94.99 - $69.99 after mail-in rebate FREE SHIPPING
Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-750 750W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128502 $118.99 FREE SHIPPING
GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - Virtu, Touch BIOS, Smart Response SSD, 2-Way SLI, HDMI

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.694804 $266.98 save: $13.00 - $20.00 Mail In Rebates FREE SHIPPING
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
Patriot Signature 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory with heatshield Model PSD38G1600KH

http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Hyper-Sleeve-RR-B10-212P-G1/dp/B002G1YPH0/ref=dp_cp_ob_pc_title_1 $28.57 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler, RR-B10-212P-G1

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Spinpoint-Cache-Desktop-HD103SJ/dp/B001U3S5S0/ref=sr_1_1?m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1313196236&sr=1-1 $59.79 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping
Samsung 1 TB Spinpoint 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.5 inch Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive HD103SJ

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-SATA-Internal-Drive-AD-7260S-0B/dp/B003MRHOQG/ref=dp_cp_ob_pc_title_2 $19.99 Free Standard Shipping (3-5 days)
Sony 24X SATA Internal DVD+/-RW Drive AD-7260S-0B - Bulk (Black)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127594 $239.99 - $219.99 after mail-in rebate card FREE SHIPPING
MSI N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card3

Total: $829.30 *not including mail in rebates

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986 $94.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM