PC just died, looking for new build. 800-900$ budget

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This is my first time building a PC from scratch so please bear with me. It is likely I'll have a bunch of newbie questions.

Approximate Purchase Date: Possibly today. I was planning on holding off a few months until the price on the NVIDIA 500 series cards and I5 processors went down but my computer just died. I've got someone coming to look at it now but if I can't save it I'll have to purchase very soon.

Budget Range: 800-900$ before rebates.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, fraps, creating/editing videos, drawing, music, watching movies, etc..

Parts Not Required: Keyboard, mouse, speakers, operating system, monitor.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg, but if there's a better place I'm open to suggestion.

Country: United States

Parts Preferences: by brand or type: I would like a NVIDIA card and an Intel processor.

Overclocking: Maybe in the future

SLI or Crossfire: Yes, but this will be a future upgrade that I don't need right now.

Monitor Resolution: 1440x900, but this will also be upgraded in the future.

Additional Comments: My first gaming PC was my Dell XPS 420 which just died on me. It lasted 5 years, and while it was a decent machine it had almost no upgrade paths available. I want the machine I'm building now to have room for future upgrades. I want to be able to run SLI and be able to overclock in the future. I also want a decent CPU that won't become obsolete anytime soon. I also want to be able to add an SSD in the future as well.

Here is a build I came up with on my own. I have a 40$ off total purchase coupon for newegg so it just barely falls into my budget range after applying the coupon. I had a 1 TB hard drive on there but it was too expensive so I had to downgrade to a 500GB drive. Feel free to work off of this build, and if it's no good feel free to scrap it and come up with something completely new. Thank you everyone for your time.

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=18102665
 
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Raiddinn
It is certainly possible that something will come out soon that makes you really want PCIE 3.0, like the ATI 7000 series graphics cards, for instance.

If you are worried about that eventuality, it might not be the worst idea to find a Gigabyte board with PCIE 3.0.

That being said, PCIE 3.0 is nowhere near the standard right now so anyone that makes anything will generally try to make it backwards compatible with 2.0.

Even if you did want an AMD 7000 series card, you would still have good enough experiences with 2.0 most likely.

Anyway, if you want to find a new gigabyte board with 3.0 then I will compare it alongside the others you have chosen here.
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chulex67

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Like the one on the top said, Go for Antec or Corsair Psus, they are rock solid.

By the way you might want to get a stronger psu right now, u need 850watts for gtx 560 ti, and overclking the i5, with time the chips will start getting old and will use more power, you should go for a 850 or 900 watts psu right now. you could save money in the future.
 
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avieor

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Above +1


If you are not interested in overclocking, the i5-2400 will save you some money. Otherwise, the 2500k cpu is for you, but you will need a third party cooler such as http://www.gelidsolutions.com/products/index.php?lid=2&cid=12&id=46
http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6603
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2011/03/18/be-quiet-dark-rock-advanced/1 is what I use, great cooling but was tricky to install.

Everything else is pretty decent. If you change your mind about SLI, you could skimp down on the psu and get a 600w psu or so.
 
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Thank you all for the replies, I've updated my original wishlist accordingly with the Antec PSU and the 2500K CPU.

Question: How is the case I have chosen? I don't know much about cases and I chose it solely based on the reviews? Would this case have room for SLI, and would it have room for me to add an SSD in the future?

Also, on the previous PSU I had, what does 750W peak capacity mean? I just assumed it delivered 750W of power.

I also should mention that I'm posting from my Dell again. The problem was resolved, apparantly there was a static build up that needed to be discharged, but it turns on and off again now. Should I wait a few months for the new PSUs and GPUs to come out so the prices go down?
 
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digitalzom-b

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As for the Antec, I don't like the case. I owned it, but the cable management is terrible, and the system was pretty loud. I'd personally go with something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197
(comes with 10 dollar off code)
Great cooling, quiet, tons of space for SLI/SSD (which is the same for Antec... but it'll get cramped), and excellent behind-the-board cable routing to keep airflow high.

Also, look into getting combo deals with your parts, you can save a lot of money like that... for example:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.799376
(saves you ~10 bucks over your current setup and gives you a higher-rated PSU)
 
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@ digitalzom-b,

"I'm not sure I understood what you meant by Great cooling, quiet, tons of space for SLI/SSD (which is the same for Antec... but it'll get cramped)"

Did you mean that the case you linked will get cramped just like the Antec will, or that the Antec gets cramped but the one you link doesn't?

Also a friend said I should get a high tower case for running SLI, but that will increase costs even more. What is your opinion on this? The case you linked does look nice though.
 
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avieor

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A Full Tower case is generally not ideal for most people and is very expensive. The corsair 600T is about $150, but one of the best midtowers around. It is a bit over budget, but a good case is a good investment.
 
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I have the potential to wait a little bit before buying a new computer (unless it dies again). Would it be worth it to wait until February or March before purchasing? I think both NVIDIA GPU and Intel CPU prices will drop by then. Also, should I buy items from my wishlist that are on sale now even though I won't be able to use them all until I've bought all of them?

Another question. How is the motherboard I picked out? I picked it based on reviews and compatibility, but I'd like more opinions on it. Thanks to you guys so far I've changed my power supply and my processor, and I may change the case.
 
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digitalzom-b

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I meant that the one I linked would probably be a better choice as it's got more interior room and is much easier to manage cables because of this. My Antec was hard to clean as the drive bays were annoying to take out (lots of screws).

If you're running just two cards in SLI, I don't see full tower being a necessity to be honest. However, I don't run SLI so I may not be the person to go to on that.

Lastly, I'd say the motherboard you picked is fine. 70+ percent 5 star rating tends to point to a quality mobo on Newegg, however the specs on the board are nice as well. Read through some of the reviews if you wish, get an idea of some problems you could run into, but take the with a grain of salt (some people fry their own boards and call it DOA because they don't know what they're doing and rate the board one star--which is unfair to the manufacturer).
 
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Raiddinn

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The Asrock Extreme 4 Gen 3 isn't a bad motherboard. You should be fine with that.

I prefer Asus myself, but once upon a time they were the same company.

You might want to consider my case as well.

It is a mid tower (technically) but it kinda pushes the size limitations to the point that I don't really see how it isn't a full tower.

In any event, there is nothing but room in there.

The case is a PC-K59.
 
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digitalzom-b

digitalzom-b

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Trust you?

You realize your combo lists a shoddy micro-atx board with no PCI slots or PCI Express 3.0, and a PSU that a) doesn't have enough 6pin connectors for SLI, and B) enough power to even think of SLIing 560s...

OP is looking to do SLI down the road and wants a high quality motherboard.
 
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I feel my build is pretty solid now after taking in all the advice and making some changes. I only have a few more questions left.

1. How is the RAM I have chosen? Is it a good value for the price? The cas latency is 9 and I notice other rams have lower values, the lowest I could find was 7. Should I be worrying that the RAM I chose has a cas latency of 9?

2. Can a DVD burner function as a DVD-ROM drive? If so is there any point in getting a DVD-ROM drive? Yes, this is a real question, I honestly do not know the answer to this.

3. It was mentioned that the motherboard I chose was not bad, but how will it hold up in the future? For example, when I bought my Dell 5 years ago or so, when DDR3 ram came out I could not upgrade because my motherboard could only accept DDR2 RAM. Is there any issues like that I could avoid with a different board?
 
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paradoxeternal

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if you're going to be doing video editing/rendering, you definitely want more RAM than normal. go with 12 or 16 gb. amazon always has great RAM prices; this is what i use and i haven't had any problems:

http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Technology-Modules-KHX1600C9D3K4-16GX/dp/B0033BTACM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326001071&sr=8-1

and since you're going to be doing a lot of video editing, i would reccomend the i7-2600k instead of the 2500k, as the 2600k has hyperthreading which helps with multi-threaded applications (like video editing) it's like 100 dollars more but worth it. i know microcenter has them if you live near a store for about $280 right now.
 
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Raiddinn

Raiddinn

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DVD burners can read DVDs too, don't worry.

I am not a fan of the RAM brand, but everyone seems to be picking it these days. The motherboard is also OK. It is a DDR3 board and that is the best thing out at the moment.

You will be limited going into the future on what sort of CPU upgrades you can have, but if you intend to stick with the one you are getting then it is fine.

The 2600k will massively bust your budget if you take it, but it does have some performance advantages in a few areas, video editing included.

As for the RAM, the CAS latency is a measure of how fast it is and 7 is faster than 9 by a good percentage, but the 9 will work just fine. If you had a lot more room in the budget it might be worth it to move to 7, but with no more room you don't need to try to sacrifice all over in order to get down to 7 on this.

 
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Raiddinn

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I wouldn't get a drive that only reads DVDs myself and I wouldn't suggest anyone else do so either.

The advancements kinda went like this
CD Reading
CD Reading + Writing
CD Reading + Writing + DVD Reading
CD Reading + Writing + DVD Reading + DVD Writing
CD Reading + Writing + DVD Reading + DVD Writing + Blu Ray Reading
CD Reading + Writing + DVD Reading + DVD Writing + Blu Ray Reading + Blu Ray Writing

Just reading is basically one technological step backward from reading + writing DVDs. It could come with a reduced cost perhaps to make it worthwhile to use the older technology.

The price difference between dvd readers and writers is so low it doesn't make sense to just read, though.
 
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I

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Thanks, that helps a lot. Any recommendations on a drive I should get?

Also, should I switch out the P67 mobo for a Z68? If so, which one?

EDIT: According to this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_1155

A P67 board does not allow overclocking of the GPU. Did I understand that link correctly?

If this is true I'd rather have a Z68 board since I'll likely want to overclock my GPU in the future. Trying to pick a mobo is getting very confusing. I want one that will allow me to run SLI and have an SSD. I also see that some have PCIe 3.0 and some do not. Is this an important feature to have?

How does this look, it's 20$ cheaper then the current one in my list.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128502
 
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Raiddinn

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PCIE 3.0 will be more important in the future than it is now.

Overclocking the graphics card... usually done in software at the driver level with AMD Overdrive or the Nvidia version of it.

The motherboard doesn't usually have anything to do with it. Any motherboard is basically the same as far as OCing the GPU is concerned.
 
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Raiddinn

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The graphics cards will fit in the PCIE 3.0 slots just fine, so you can get x16/x8 performance out of those two.

They are mostly the same, I would go with the GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3. It is the most expensive, but its also a newer setup than the first one and has more useful features than the 3rd one.
 
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I

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Ahh I did not know that I could put a 2.0 GPU in a PCIe 3.0 slot. So what features does the GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3 have over the ASRock P67 EXTREME4 GEN3 that make the GIGABYTE a better choice?
 
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