Opinion of build / help refining my choices

[firemedic]

Approximate Purchase Date: Three weeks

Budget Range: 1000 - 1500

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming; possibly photo editing in the future.

Parts Not Required: Monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg

Country: USA

Parts Preferences: None (however everyone say's AMD for my price range; comments?)

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire:Maybe

Monitor Resolution: Not sure

Additional Comments: I came up with this build but would not mind seeing if I can shave a few $ off the total. If you see something that isnt much better than a cheaper item please advise. I also would like some general feedback.


Rosewill THOR V2 Gaming ATX Full Tower Computer Case

[MSI 990XA-GD55 AM3+ AMD 990X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

[ORSAIR Professional Series HX850 (CMPSU-850HX) 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

[AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition Thuban 3.3GHz, 3.7GHz Turbo Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDE00ZFBGRBOX

[Kingston HyperX SH100S3B/120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (HyperX Upgrade Kit)

[G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL x2

[Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

[Windows 7 home premium

[Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM

[ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 13 Limited Edition 92mm High Performance CPU Cooler for Intel and AMD

Open for idea's on budget graphic cards ... had thought about moving one over from my pc now that i bought about 6 months ago but I am at work and dont know which one it is.

 

[jmsellars1]

At that budget an i5-2500k is a must for gaming, there really isn't much of an argument against it. Costs a little bit more than that 1100T but would destroy it in games and at least match it in multi threaded stuff.

That PSU looks massively overkill for most set-ups too, you shouldn't really choose your PSU until you know which GPU you want.

Give me a minute and I'm sure I can improve on that build.

 

[firemedic]

Thank you for taking the time to go over it. I am very appreciative.


BTW I love the sig. Can ALWAYS use more cowbell!

 

[jmsellars1]

i5-2500k - $214.99

This is much better value than the 1100T for gaming.

8GB G.Skill Ripjaws 1600Mhz - $37.99

8GB is more than enough and this is a very good price.

ASRock Z68 PRO3 GEN3 - $114.99

Good overclocking and all the features you are ever going to need.

EVGA GTX 570 1280Mb - $339.99

EVGA are a nice safe choice for nVidia cards, this card should be great for gaming at 1080P

Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB - $159.99

Tad expensive at the moment but can't be helped really. This is still the fastest drive in it's class and a good buy.

Crucial M4 128GB - $209.99

One of the most reliable SSD's and still very fast. 128GB should be enough space for programs.

OCZ Fatal1ty 550W Modular PSU - $69.99

A good price and a good rebate on a nice modular PSU with plenty of power. Red light should look cool in the case I chose too

Coolermaster Storm Scout - $69.99

Awesome value for money, good cooling and quiet. Coolermaster are great for cases.

Coolermaster Hyper 212+ Evo - $34.99

Good value for money again, much better cooling than that Arctic Cooling cooler.

Samsung DVD Burner - $18.99

Basic DVD burner to install your OS.


Total - $1271.90 before shipping and rebates

 

[nordlead]

1) figure out what GPU it is. It may be worth keeping.

2) You don't need a full tower case. You'd be better off getting a mid-tower and spending the money on a better CPU/GPU

3) get the OEM version of windows for $100, and put it toward a better CPU/GPU

4) if you can hold off on the HDD, you could wait until prices drop back down. 120GB is a lot of space unless you are also trying to put media on there.

5) If you switch to an i5 and want to spend a comparable amount on the motherboard, I suggest the ASRock Extreme3 Gen3. Has every feature you'd need (unless you need a lot of them) and will overclock the i5 no problem.

EDIT: I like jmsellars1's build, but it might be worth upgrading the motherboard to the extreme3 gen3 since it is a slightly nicer board. Also, I think the OCZ ModXStream 600W is a better buy. Currently it is the same price after rebate. While it won't let you draw more than 600W, it also doesn't burn up. The fatal1ty 750W burnt up when overdrawn. Personally I'd rather have the thing shut down. I couldn't find a review of the fatal1ty 550W, but the forum members on jonnyguru do not like the real manufacturer of it (doesn't mean the real manufacturer didn't make a good unit, just that they typically don't).

 

[firemedic]

I found the GPU : EVGA GeForce GTX460 SE 1 GB GDDR5 PCI-Express


I might just keep this GPU and replace it when I get my taxes back; that will make the build much easier on the wallet!

 

[jmsellars1]

I'd get the GPU now to be honest, seems like you can afford it and a gaming build depends almost completely on the GPU.

If you want to bring it closer to $1000 you could just drop the hard drive and CPU cooler if you can do without overclocking and mass storage for a while.