What do you think of this build?

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wyocory

wyocory

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Jan 22, 2012
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Hello there! ^_^

My 1st time here being registered and all. In a few weeks I'm purchasing a new computer and building it from the group up, 1st time doing that as well, YAY! Would like some opinions of what i have setup.



CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core $229.99

Mobo: MSI P67A-G43 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 $114.99

PSU: Thermaltake TR2 RX 750W Bronze W0382RU ATX 12V v2.3 / EPS 12V v2.91 $89.99

GPU: 2x ASUS ENGTX460 DirectCU/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 (friend of mine giving em to me)

Case: XCLIO Windtunnel Fully Black Finish 1.0 mm SECC Chassis ATX Full Tower $69.99

RAM: Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) $39.99

Heatsink: Thermaltake CLP0579 120mm Contac 30 Intel LGA-2011 Ready 160W TDP Heatpipe Direct-contact $34.99

HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" $84.99

Mouse: Logitech G300 Black/Gray 9 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB Wired Optical Gaming Mouse $39.99

Keyboard: Saitek Cyborg V5 CCB44026N0B2/06/1 Black USB Wired Gaming Keyboard $45.99

Monitor: ASUS VS208N-P Black 20" 5ms LED Backlight Widescreen LCD Monitor $122.99

Total $1212.88




I had a budget of $1200 and a friend of mine help me put this list together, any questions, advice or concerns would be appreciated! :D

~Cory :bounce:
 
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wyocory

wyocory

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Jan 22, 2012
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Could you provide me a link to a mobo by ASUS/Gigabyte/Asrock that would fit with my Processor?
Needs to be roughly the same price, or around the same price as the MSI, my wife is alrdy killing me for going overbudget >.<

I'm still pretty new with this stuff, all i know is the Processor has to match the socket on the Mobo.
 
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CaedenV

CaedenV

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Jun 14, 2011
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Welcome! And good job on the build!

My only suggestion would be to either cut out one of the GPUs, or get a bigger (at least 1080p/1200p) monitor. having 2 460s is overkill for 900p, and you would be just as well off with a single 560ti for all practical purposes (the monitor only displays 60fps, so anything over that is wasted, and going slightly under 60fps is hardly noticeable).

Thankyou for not going overboard on the PSU! That is the one mistake almost everyone makes. If you decide to go with a single GPU setup then get a smaller PSU, but for a duel nvidia load-out 750W is perfect.

No doubt someone here will say that you should get a z68 board, but the board you have picked should do well (it was one I almost purchased myself, but then wanted the ability to do SSD caching in the future so I went with the z68 board). If you do not need SSD caching, or Virtu in order to do Intel's super fast video trans-coding, then you do not need the x68, and MSI makes some solid p67 boards!

Check and see if you have a local Microcenter near you as they have killer deals on CPUs, and occasionally have good sales on things like cases, CPU coolers (Just purchased a hyper 212 evo for $30, I dont OC, but silence is my goal), and other random accessories. Not such good deals on other parts though, Newegg is generally best for most things.

Possibly see if you can stretch your wallet for an SSD for the OS and oft used programs (large games and such can go on the 500giger). Hard drives are generally the largest bottleneck in any system these days, and while it will not add to your FPS, they do make the general user experience much more fluid and wonderful. That said I am running the previous gen seagate 500GB drive and have been quite happy with it as my system drive for ~a year now. It's quiet, fairly quick, cheap (lol, a relative term these days in HDD world), and (so far) reliable. What more could you ask for?

Best of luck!
 
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CaedenV

CaedenV

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The ex3 gen3 is a great board (I own it), but unless you are doing video transcoding, or want to do SSD caching down the road, then I would stick with the board you choose on the p67 chipset. MSI is crap on z68 (not sure why), but their upper end p67 boards are great.
 
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wyocory

wyocory

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Jan 22, 2012
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Zomg, all tha computer terms i dont understand! LOL

Again, its my 1st computer ive ever personally built, Currently running some Aspen mobo w/ AMD Athlon x2 5050e.....if that says much.
 
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CaedenV

CaedenV

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Back in the day there was EFI (which Macs used) and there was BIOS (which most of, but not all) for the 'PC' world (linux, windows, unix... generally anything not Mac). UEFI is just the new verion of EFI. It is beautiful, wonderful, very easy to use, and some UEFIs will even run internet browsers and little programs and utilities (though this is very rare at this point).

In layman's terms though, UEFI is just BIOS that lets you use your mouse, and is a little more visually interesting than the good 'ol Phoenix BIOS we have all come to know and love.
 
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wyocory

wyocory

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Jan 22, 2012
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Sooooo, the ASUS mobo i found, the Asrock mobo he found or the original MSI mobo? All of are roughly the same price and i take it its probably all just personal preference? :eek:
 
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CaedenV

CaedenV

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lol, sorry.
PSU= Power Supply Unit
GPU= Graphics Processing Unit
CPU= Central Processing Unit (In this case the Intel 2500K)
SSD Caching= A new technology that allows you to link a Solid State Drive (SSD) to a regular Hard Disk Drive (HDD), so that you get much quicker performance, without having to worry so much about the size (and expense) of an SSD.
SSD= Solid State Drive, basically a Ram drive that acts like a hard drive. They are wicked fast (even RAIDed HDDs cannot keep up), but they are also a bit expensive (a little over $1/GB right now). Most people buy a small 60-120GB SSD and use it for the OS and programs they use everyday. Larger programs (like games), and bulk file storage is then generally kept on a seperate traditional HDD to save on cost.
p67= a chipset for Sandy Bridge processors (like the 2500K), that allows for CPU overclocking, duel GPU setups (crossfire and SLi), RAID, and a great many other wonderful features. You cannot access the onboard GPU with this chipset, which is a downer for video people like myself who occasionally like to harnes the capabilities of the HD2000/HD3000 graphics for their hardware video encoder.
z68= The newest, and last, chipset released for Sandy Bridge processors. It is basically the same as the p67 chipset except that they enabled the ability to utilize the onboard GPU (even when using an aftermarket GPU), and added a new technology known as Rapid Storage Technology (RST) or SSD Caching. Other than these 2 new features the boards are every bit as fast as their p67 brothers, except that as 'high end' boards they tend to be built a little better to cater to a higher end market.
 
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CaedenV

CaedenV

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Pretty much
ASUS, z68 chipset $123 after rebates and shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131781&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=88euplyryxvg

MSI p67 chipset, $95 after rebates, free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130583

ASRock, z68 chipset, $130 after shipping (was $115 a few weeks ago with rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=1odobgwphi6v6

ASUS and ASRock are the same company.
ASUS runs the gambet from cheap to very high end boards, this particular one is 'midde of the road' for them. ASRock is their 'economy' brand, but while being cheap they tend to have other extra goodies (like the cute solid gold capacitors on the extreme3 gen3 board). ASRock tends to be of inferior quality to ASUS (even my ex3 gen3 was defective, thankfully Newegg replaced it quickly and the replacement board looks to be working just fine).

MSI is a good 'middle of the road' company. They do not make any super high end equipment worth writing home about, and their z68 boards have gotten terrible reviews, but many of their other mobos work quite well. I have had and used several of their boards over the years without any problems. They are not big of features or extras, but they get the basics right, and they tend to have an agreeable price for what you are getting.
 
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CaedenV

CaedenV

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The ASRock is also a duel 8x configuration when 2 cards are installed, that will not bottleneck anything except for GTX 580 and above. There are simply not enough available lanes on the CPU to do 2 full 16x slots except for on ultra high end boards where they add them through an extra chip, or SB-E boards which are entirely other monsters.

I do agree that the 16x +4x would be bothersome for the ASUS board, so that ought to go out of the running. But you will get the same exact performance on the other 2 boards, it just comes to lay-out, budget, features, and style :)
 
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