$1500 gaming build review

[Wrone]

Approximate Purchase Date: this week

Budget Range: $1500ish

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming/internet

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com

Country: US

Parts Preferences: intel o/w no set prefs

Overclocking: Maybe (would like to have capability in future once I figure out what the heck I'm doing)

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe (future option)

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: 1st build and am looking for a foundation that is potentially upgradeable over the next couple of years. Biggests questions are mobo and GPU choice. GTX 570 vs 580 with potential upgrade cred for 580 in near future through EVGA or SLI 580 when prices drop vs saving $$ for some drop in performance with 570. From a PSU standpoint...750w should be adequate for current build but if I SLI in future is it smarter so go ahead and have some wattage buffer? Thanks in advance for the advice.

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ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271

Corsair Carbide Series 400R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139008

EVGA 015-P3-1580-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130587

vs

EVGA SuperClocked 012-P3-1572-AR GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130595


CORSAIR Professional Series HX850 (CMPSU-850HX) 850W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139011

vs

CORSAIR Professional Series HX750 (CMPSU-750HX) 750W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010


Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

Mushkin Enhanced Chronos 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226236

Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136769

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233196

LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106335

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

 

[azeem40]

Great build! The only thing I would suggest is consider Crucial M4 SSDs.

As for the GPU, I would go with the 580 unless you can fit a 7970 AMD GPU in to your build. I am pretty sure you can because I have.

 

[Crush3d]

Great build! The only thing I would suggest is consider Crucial M4 SSDs.

As for the GPU, I would go with the 580 unless you can fit a 7970 AMD GPU in to your build. I am pretty sure you can because I have.

Is the 7970 actually better than the stock version of the 580? Someone suggested the 7970 in my potential build thread over a GTX 570 2.5GB.. From the forums and stuff that I had browsed I came to the conclusion that (not to start a debate) the nVidia cards were better at the moment..

 

[Wrone]

Great build! The only thing I would suggest is consider Crucial M4 SSDs.

As for the GPU, I would go with the 580 unless you can fit a 7970 AMD GPU in to your build. I am pretty sure you can because I have.

Thanks for the recs