Building a PC for my Brother! - $800 Budget

[Krovonrock]

Hey there everyone!

As I have found the community here at tom's hardware to be extremely kind and helpful, I thought I would ask for y'alls advice and input on a system I'm planning on building for my brother.

His budget is around $800, so I have done my best to give him the most bang for his buck, and nothing he doesn't need (this will just be a gaming rig, as he does everything else on his macbook pro). This will not be the first PC I've built, but it's been awhile and I just want to double-check with the experts and enthusiasts here to make sure I've got everything right!

So here are the specs that I've chosen:

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K - $219

Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 - $124

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) - $28

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB (Fermi) 1GB - $250

PSU: Power and Cooling Silencer Mk II 650W - $90

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 7200 RPM - $45

Case: COOLER MASTER HAF 912 - $60

Disk Drive: ASUS 24X DVD Burner - $21


Final Price: $810 (with mail-in rebates)

So, what do you guys think? Is this a good and stable build? Is it a good use of the budget? Any superior components you would suggest? Any components I'm missing? Any and all comments or advice is most welcome. Thanks!

 

[008Rohit]

That is a good build. but there are a few better components available.

Motherboard : ASRock Extreme3 Gen3 Z68 - $125
RAM : Gskill Value Series 4GB DDR3 1333 - $20
HDD : Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA III - $40
Case : Rosewill Challenger Black - $50
Graphics : GIGABYTE GV-N560UD-1G GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB - $220
PSU : Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W - $70

* Single 4GB stick as filling valuable RAM slots with 2GB DIMMs isn't a good thing IMO as you cant upgrade later on. He can always add another 4GB for dual channel operation.

* Powerful 650W PSU for 560 Ti SLI.

* Great motherboard with PCIe 3.0 slots and x8/x8 SLI.

* Cheaper and Better HDD.

* Good-looking case with better airflow and cable management.

With the saved money, you can get your brother a CM Hyper 212 Evo ($35).

 

[Why_Me]

http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Tower-Case-RC-912-KKN1/dp/B003ZM7YTA $59.99 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping
Cooler Master HAF 912 Mid Tower ATX Case (RC-912-KKN1)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341049 $99.99 - $74.99 after mail-in rebate card FREE SHIPPING
OCZ ZS Series OCZ-ZS750W 750W ATX12V v2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Performance Power Supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271 $124.99
ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065 $26.99 FREE SHIPPING
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=I5-2500KBX $214.99 Free Shipping
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277 $27.99 FREE SHIPPING
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148697 $54.99 FREE SHIPPING
Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136236 $18.99
LG DVD Burner 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model GH24NS70 - OEM

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0050I1P42/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER $169.99 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping
MSI N560GTX-M2D1GD5 Video Card

Total: $798.91 *not including shipping and rebates

gtx 560ti down below...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004JLNZXU/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER $224.99 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping
MSI GeForce GTX560 1 GB DDR5 2DVI/Mini HDMI PCI-Express Video Card N560GTX TI TWIN FROZR II OC


http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=Z68%20Extreme3%20Gen3 <------ Another look at that Asrock board

http://www.asrock.com/microsite/PCIe3/ <----- PCI-E 3.0 for the new generation vid cards

 

[Krovonrock]

Awesome, thanks you guys!

I'm definitely looking at that ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3, it seems like a great board. Also, I'll check out the case you recommended.

I will definitely switch to single 4GB sticks, because I see what you're saying about the upgrading later on. I'll also get the Seagate Barracuda, because I did more research and it does appear to be faster than the WD.

I think I will stick with the power supply I picked since I've heard very good things about it, and after the rebate it will be the same price as the Antec.

Also, I've had great experiences with EVGA which is why I chose that over the Gigabyte (also the EVGA has a slightly higher clock). Is the Gigabyte a good card? It doesn't have any reviews on Newegg, so I'm unsure (though I've had good experiences with Gigabyte).

Thanks for the suggestions guys, and if there are anymore please post them!

 

[008Rohit]

PC Power & Cooling is now owned by OCZ. I recommend their Fatalty (or something like that) series. That's got hardwaresecrets golden award.

Gigabyte is a decent GPU manufacturer with high market reputations. and you can always change the clock speed of the GPU Core or memory.