Gaming build core

[balanovich]

Hi

I'm going to upgrade the core of my gaming system.
I will SLI in the futur.
I probably won't overclock.
I'm in Canada, so Canadian Prices.
I buy at Newegg.ca, Tigerdirect.ca , DirectCanada and NCIX.

I'm keeping:
My case
750W OCZ PSU
1 Sata DVD reader
My screen
9800GT Factory overclocked
I know the most important part of a gaming is the GPU, but I don't have the money. And I need to upgrade now.

What I'm buying:
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" 60$

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz 220$

Patriot G Series ‘Sector 5’ Edition 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) 53 $ - 20 Mail-in rebate

MSI Z68A-GD65 (G3) LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX 190$

ASUS Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 8MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner 90 $ -20 Mail in rebate

I know I should look for better prices somewhere else than Newegg, but optimizing shipping prices is a long task. I want to be sure about my components first.

A few questions:

1- Is MSI "military grade" worth it?
2- I care a lot about quality, I want my build to last a long time. But if I pay more, I only get more feature I don't need. Is there a way to now the quality of a Mobo ?


I'm not sure about the motherboard.
PCI-E 3.0 is useless right ? The Sandy Bridge CPU can't handle it.
Is intel planning on releasing a 1155 PCIE 3.0 compatible CPU ?
I like the 5 year warranty.
I want a motherboard that can handle crossfire and SLI.
I want USB 3.0 and Sata 6 GB/s


The Ram is so cheap.... am I getting ripped off ?

Thanks for your input.

 

[jmsellars1]

Ivy bridge comes out in 6 months, that's what the PCI-e 3.0 is for. Also if you don't want to overclock you may want to give up on the idea of SLI/Crossfire too and you can save yourself a lot of money and end up with a better system. Also the i5-2500k is a bit pointless if not overclocking i would get the i5-2400 instead.

EDIT: Also youre not getting ripped off on the RAM, RAM is just cheap generally.

 

[balanovich]

Thanks a lot JM

But why give up SLI and Xfire if I'm not overclocking ? I don't see how they connect.

I just realized that my post is in .co.uk I don't know why, I was in tomshardware.COM .
Anyways, I'm going to rewrite my post in .com

 

[jmsellars1]

Well if you didnt want to OC or SLI/Crossfire you could get a cheap H61 board. If you want overclocking but no SLI/Crossfire you can get a lower end P67/Z68 board but if you want SLI/Crossfire (regardless of overclocking) you need a mid/high end P67/Z68 board.

So what i am saying is if you decide not to SLI/Crossfire you could get a cheaper PSU and motherboard in favour of a good single card. Also your system is likely to be much quieter.

 

[balanovich]

Best answer selected by balanovich.