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My first gaming rig

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Hello, so i've decided to build my first gaming rig and i have pretty much got everything i think i need.

WD caviar black 1 TB HD
Intel Core i7-2600k processor 3.4GHz 8mb cache
Coolermaster haf x
Asus P8Z68-PRO
Rosewill Lightning Series 800W PSU
Rosewill RCR-IC002 74-in-1 USB 2.0 3.5" Internal Card Reader w/ USB port / Extra silver face plate
ZALMAN CNPS9500A-LED 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler
CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B
HIS IceQ X Turbo H679QNT1G2M Radeon HD 6950
NZXT CB-8P 8-Pin Motherboard Power Extension Premium Cable (Black)
NZXT CB-24P Singled Sleeved 24-Pin Premium Cable for Motherboards (Black)
ASUS Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Drive Model BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM

This totals out to somewhere around $1400. Is there anything you guys think i could do better, or anything you think i'm wasting money on. I'm aware of the not so big difference between the i5 and i7 proccesor but it would be great if someone could elaborate on that a little more. also any motherboard or graphics card suggestions would be appreciated.

Most importantly is it all compatible

Thanks

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Yeah that's what i've been hearing. I think ill end up going with the i5. Now my other main concerns are my power supply and graphics card. Im not sure if im overpaying or not. Also, are solid state drives worth it?

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Daioh said:
Hello, so i've decided to build my first gaming rig and i have pretty much got everything i think i need.

WD caviar black 1 TB HD
Intel Core i7-2600k processor 3.4GHz 8mb cache
Coolermaster haf x
Asus P8Z68-PRO
Rosewill Lightning Series 800W PSU
Rosewill RCR-IC002 74-in-1 USB 2.0 3.5" Internal Card Reader w/ USB port / Extra silver face plate
ZALMAN CNPS9500A-LED 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler
CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B
HIS IceQ X Turbo H679QNT1G2M Radeon HD 6950
NZXT CB-8P 8-Pin Motherboard Power Extension Premium Cable (Black)
NZXT CB-24P Singled Sleeved 24-Pin Premium Cable for Motherboards (Black)
ASUS Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Drive Model BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM

This totals out to somewhere around $1400. Is there anything you guys think i could do better, or anything you think i'm wasting money on. I'm aware of the not so big difference between the i5 and i7 proccesor but it would be great if someone could elaborate on that a little more. also any motherboard or graphics card suggestions would be appreciated.

Most importantly is it all compatible

Thanks






Nice... There are a few things I would personally change. I have just built a pc similar to this so trust me on this.

Firstly go with the 2500k and save yourself 100$ unless your shopping at a microcenter and find a nice deal.

The case is nice personally i LOVE mine so good choice there.

Mobo is also nice i have the same one and love it

Go with a more reliable PSU such as the TX750M

Unless your stuck on the look of that HSF go with a HSF that has a larger fan such as a CM Hyper 212 plus

In the RAM department i would DEFINATELY step down to 8GB and save yourself 50$

That is NOT a 6950 i believe it is a 6970. What is that?!? a near-reference VGA cooler! god damnit. Nice card but go with the GIGABYTE GV-R695OC-1GD Radeon HD 6950 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card. The 3 fan design, although VERY long at 11.4 inches, it is a powerhouse of cooling power i own it and it doesnt ever go above 50C.

Why do you asume you need PSU extensions?
An finally. as MrQ said the only difference is HyperThreading and 100mHz. So go with the i5 unless you find a great deal.
Respond to me of what you think and feel free to email me, at stewood23@gmail.com if you need help!
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The power supply may be a bit high, but if your budget allows it and if it gives you peace of mind then keep it. I think the general consensus is that the 6950 is a great card for its price. SSD's nice to have for boot drives for their speed, but only if your budget will allow it.

stewood said:
Nice... There are a few things I would personally change. I have just built a pc similar to this so trust me on this.

Firstly go with the 2500k and save yourself 100$ unless your shopping at a microcenter and find a nice deal.

The case is nice personally i LOVE mine so good choice there.

Mobo is also nice i have the same one and love it

Go with a more reliable PSU such as the TX750M

Unless your stuck on the look of that HSF go with a HSF that has a larger fan such as a CM Hyper 212 plus

In the RAM department i would DEFINATELY step down to 8GB and save yourself 50$

That is NOT a 6950 i believe it is a 6970. What is that?!? a near-reference VGA cooler! god damnit. Nice card but go with the GIGABYTE GV-R695OC-1GD Radeon HD 6950 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card. The 3 fan design, although VERY long at 11.4 inches, it is a powerhouse of cooling power i own it and it doesnt ever go above 50C.

Why do you asume you need PSU extensions?
An finally. as MrQ said the only difference is HyperThreading and 100mHz. So go with the i5 unless you find a great deal.
Respond to me of what you think and feel free to email me, at stewood23@gmail.com if you need help!



Thanks for your input I will most likely be changing PSU and HSF now. I dont know if you saw the price of the ram or not but its here http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168.... I know you dont need 16gigs but for some reason i felt like this was a deal of a lifetime. Also the graphics card you recommended is very tempting but the one i was looking at is a 6950 and its here http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168.... But yeah if you still think the ram could be improved im open to suggestions on it because im not sure whats the best out there.

you can search this ((HIS IceQ X Turbo H695QNT2G2M Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity))

and this ((CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B))

The RAM your looking at is ,i beleive 99USD, and although that does seem like a nice deal it is not that uncommon but if you want 16GB by all means go ahead. What are you talking about the GPU? email me to respond. I wont be on Toms hardware all day lol

You don't need 16GB of ram, you wouldn't even need 8 in the next 2 years. In fact we've come a long way but we still can do with only 3GB of ram. So just go with 8GB.

Check out the Asrock Gen3 Extreme3 Z68 in the build guide I posted above. It'll be cheaper and perform the same. Plus you get Gen3 support for PCI 3.0 which is going to be the next set of GPUs.

I recommend the Samsung F3 1TB it's cheaper and still performs the same as any other HDD even if they were SATA 3. Hard drives don't get a huge improvement from SATA 3 since they still spin 7200 RPMs no matter what.

As for other recs, the Corsair TX750 is not worth the cost. Go with the OCZ ZS 750 or the Lepa 850w.
LEPA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
OCZ
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

aznshinobi said:
You don't need 16GB of ram, you wouldn't even need 8 in the next 2 years. In fact we've come a long way but we still can do with only 3GB of ram. So just go with 8GB.

Check out the Asrock Gen3 Extreme3 Z68 in the build guide I posted above. It'll be cheaper and perform the same. Plus you get Gen3 support for PCI 3.0 which is going to be the next set of GPUs.

I recommend the Samsung F3 1TB it's cheaper and still performs the same as any other HDD even if they were SATA 3. Hard drives don't get a huge improvement from SATA 3 since they still spin 7200 RPMs no matter what.

As for other recs, the Corsair TX750 is not worth the cost. Go with the OCZ ZS 750 or the Lepa 850w.
LEPA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
OCZ
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...


You make a great point on the motherboard.
would the ASRock P67 EXTREME4 P67 also be a good choice

I honestly don't understand the difference between z68 and p67

-Drop the Rosewill stuff

-Maybe ya wanna consider the newer MoBo (on sale Monday)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

-Get a better cooler like the Mugen 3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

- Drop to the i5-2500k for gaming

-Drop to 8GB of low profile RAM (no tall toothed heat sinks)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

-The Seagate 7200.12, WD Black and Spinpoint F3 trade blows so there's no overall winner there. But they are all last generation HD's. Transfers off the platters won't go any faster on SATA III than on SATA II but transfers off those huge caches do. Also, with the new generation having higher areal densities, since they spin at the same speed, we are also seeing faster transfer rates too.

If ya are not gonna do an SSD consider the Momentus which is hybrid SSD / HD at 500 GB ..... need larger storage capacity and higher speeds compared to last gen drives, look at the Barracuda XT's but they don't come cheap.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_conten...

Quote:
In conclusion, the Seagate Momentus-XT has delivered on it's promise to deliver quick SSD-like performance to the Operating System and installed applications. After months of working with a SSD, my brief switch to the Momentus-XT solid state hybrid for testing purposes brought only a few occasional moments that contrasted the difference. In comparison, my switch from SSD to high-performance hard drive (VelociRaptor) was painfully frustrating and kept me waiting on applications to open. If you're an impatient person who needs the computer to open programs as fast as you can click on the icon, the Seagate Momentus-XT offers an excellent blend of SSD speed with HDD capacity. Performance computer enthusiasts who can't afford a SSD, or require greater capacity than SSDs offer, owe it to themselves to invest in a Seagate Momentus-XT Solid State Hybrid Drive.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_conten...

I would recommend the Asrock Extreme3 Gen3 Z68 Daioh. Don't get me wrong, the board you've selected is a great choice (Extreme4) but it doesn't have Gen3 (Ivy Bridge) support or PCI 3.0. Also it's more expensive which is why the Extreme3 excels, especially at its price.

Z68 vs P67 is Z68 has more features. It can overclock but also make use of the integrated graphics on the SB chips. As opposed to P67 where you must use the dedicated card. Z68 also has SSD caching which isn't THAT important but it's nice to have. Both features are mainly for people who will do Video/Photo work or just use SSDs. But they don't really matter much. Z68 is nice since it's cheaper and many of the Z68 boards support Ivy Bridge.

JackNaylorPE said:
-Drop the Rosewill stuff

-Maybe ya wanna consider the newer MoBo (on sale Monday)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

-Get a better cooler like the Mugen 3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

- Drop to the i5-2500k for gaming

-Drop to 8GB of low profile RAM (no tall toothed heat sinks)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

-The Seagate 7200.12, WD Black and Spinpoint F3 trade blows so there's no overall winner there. But they are all last generation HD's. Transfers off the platters won't go any faster on SATA III than on SATA II but transfers off those huge caches do. Also, with the new generation having higher areal densities, since they spin at the same speed, we are also seeing faster transfer rates too.

If ya are not gonna do an SSD consider the Momentus which is hybrid SSD / HD at 500 GB ..... need larger storage capacity and higher speeds compared to last gen drives, look at the Barracuda XT's but they don't come cheap.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_conten...

Quote:
In conclusion, the Seagate Momentus-XT has delivered on it's promise to deliver quick SSD-like performance to the Operating System and installed applications. After months of working with a SSD, my brief switch to the Momentus-XT solid state hybrid for testing purposes brought only a few occasional moments that contrasted the difference. In comparison, my switch from SSD to high-performance hard drive (VelociRaptor) was painfully frustrating and kept me waiting on applications to open. If you're an impatient person who needs the computer to open programs as fast as you can click on the icon, the Seagate Momentus-XT offers an excellent blend of SSD speed with HDD capacity. Performance computer enthusiasts who can't afford a SSD, or require greater capacity than SSDs offer, owe it to themselves to invest in a Seagate Momentus-XT Solid State Hybrid Drive.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_conten...


Wait so is that motherboard coming out monday the same as the one i have but with gen3 support?
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