New System Specs

[winhack]

Time to build a new casual gaming rig. I am not an overclocker, not a modder, not someone who needs more lighting than Disneyland. Based on my experience with the last system I built, I will not need water cooling, advanced CPU/GPU cooling systems, or lots of extra "stuff" in the box. I am not an extreme gamer; I do not play online/multiplayer games like CnC,CoD, MW, BF, Quake, etc. I play RPGs (Skyrim), action games (Assassin's Creed series), MMOs (WoW, Rift, SWTOR) and will play Diablo 3 when that comes out. That should explain my gaming background.

I also use the whole Adobe suite (CS5 MC) for image and video, Sony Vegas, Microsoft Visual Studio for C++/C# development, Eclipse for Java, and winzip. So this system is both for my "work" as well as my "play," and I want it to perform extremely well in both. While this is not a budget system by any stretch of the imagination, it's also not an unlimited pockets build either.

Here are the parts I plan to use. My goal is to give me the speed and power of a somewhat OC'ed system without doing any of the OCing myself (number of reasons behind that). Also have the ability to do some OCing if I decide I really want/need to. I would appreciate any useful comments or feedback if there are better options than what I have selected.

Motherboard: ASRock, Z68 Extreme7 Gen3
CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge, BX80623I72600K
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3 1866, CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B
Hard Disk (Boot): Corsair Force Series 3 240GB SATA III, CSSD-F240GB3-BK
Hard Disk (Data): Caviar Black 1.5TB, WD1502FAEX
Hard Disk (Image): Caviar Blue 750GB, WD7500AALX
Video Card: Single EVGA SuperClocked GeForce GTX 570 HD 1280MB, 012-P3-1573-KR
DVD-RW: Lite-On LightScribe 24X SATA DL, IHAS424-98
BRD-RW: Lite-On BRD, iHBS212
Power Supply: Corsair Gold AX750, CMPSU-750AX
Case: Silverstone Temjin 09, TJ09

The monitors are dual 1600x1200 displays (yes, old school non-HD, but side by side they work very nice). System will be connected to a nice APC BackUPS XS-1500. Keyboard and mouse are inconsequential.

I would appreciate and value any constructive and useful feedback or opinions.

Thank you, in advance, for your time.

 

[pckitty4427]

Will you need all the features of the Z68 Extreme7 Gen3? You should be fine with a Z68 Extreme3 Gen3.

Since you may overclock in the future, you should get a third party CPU cooler. Go with this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099&Tpk=212%20evo

Go for the i5-2500K instead of the i7-2600K - It's $100 cheaper, and the only sacrifices are that it's 0.1GHz slower and doesn't support hyperthreading.

The "K" series CPUs are extremely easy and safe to overclock. I highly recommend you do. You will be able to reach at least 4.2GHz with only a couple of BIOS setting changes.

 

[winhack]

Thank you for your feedback, pckitty.

While I probably don't "need" the Extreme7, the Extreme3 does not quite have enough SATA III ports (I will have at least three drives connected, and probably at least two more in the not too distant future), and I would like for SATA III to be an option for all drives. On top of that, I do not want to have one of my SATA III ports shared with the eSATA port. Additionally, I will also be taking heavy advantage of USB 3.0, and the Extreme3 is pretty short on USB 3.0 ports, and I do not want to use a PCI slot to up that count. Easier to get the Extreme7.

As far as the Proc goes, the 2500K will be fine for my gaming, but for my video and image processing (not to mention my development work), the Hyperthreading feature on the 2600K will be useful to me.

I will definitely look into the cooler. How quiet (or un-quiet) is it? I have been a stock fan user for a while (since I never really have OC'ed regardless of my ability to do so) and the last generation has been very quiet and pleasant for me. I do not want to add noise if I can avoid it. With the case that I have, air circulation is very good and the system stays relatively cool without any excess effort.

 

[pckitty4427]

Thank you for your feedback, pckitty.

While I probably don't "need" the Extreme7, the Extreme3 does not quite have enough SATA III ports (I will have at least three drives connected, and probably at least two more in the not too distant future), and I would like for SATA III to be an option for all drives. On top of that, I do not want to have one of my SATA III ports shared with the eSATA port. Additionally, I will also be taking heavy advantage of USB 3.0, and the Extreme3 is pretty short on USB 3.0 ports, and I do not want to use a PCI slot to up that count. Easier to get the Extreme7.

As far as the Proc goes, the 2500K will be fine for my gaming, but for my video and image processing (not to mention my development work), the Hyperthreading feature on the 2600K will be useful to me.

I will definitely look into the cooler. How quiet (or un-quiet) is it? I have been a stock fan user for a while (since I never really have OC'ed regardless of my ability to do so) and the last generation has been very quiet and pleasant for me. I do not want to add noise if I can avoid it. With the case that I have, air circulation is very good and the system stays relatively cool without any excess effort.

The 212 EVO produces 9-36 decibels of noise - 36 decibels is just a bit quieter than a library.

 

[winhack]

Best answer selected by winhack.

 

[winhack]

After much research, and reading the reviews and opinions of websites and individual users, these are the final components I settled on:

Motherboard: ASRock Z68 Extreme7 Gen3 (Z68 Extreme7 Gen3)
CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge (BX80623I72600K)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3 1866 (CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B)
Hard Disk (Boot): Kingston HyperX 240GB SATA III (SH100S3/240G)
Hard Disk (Data): Western Digital Caviar Black 2.0TB (WD2002FAEX)
Hard Disk (Image): Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB (WD5000AAKX)
Video Card: EVGA SuperClocked GeForce GTX 570 HD 1280MB (012-P3-1573-KR)
Optical 1: Lite-On LightScribe 24X SATA DL (IHAS424-98)
Optical 2: Lite-On BRD-RW w/Lightscribe (iHBS212)
Power Supply: Corsair Gold AX750 (CMPSU-750AX)
Case: Silverstone Temjin 09 (TJ09)
USB front panel card reader: Rosewill 74-in-1 USB3.0 (RDCR-11003)

All the parts should arrive by 24-Dec, so on Christmas day my new present will be fully operational.