Looking for suggestions for better components on build

[treyvon]

So, i'm decently educated about computers and hardware but feel free to reply to me as if i'm a total noob, it'll prob just be easier that way.
I have a list of components i plan to buy for my next rig and the support and feedback from the users of this forum are great, so... i would just like some feedback on better components for less price, the norm i guess.
But first

Approximate Purchase Date: within the next 3 months

Budget Range:1800-2800 although cheaper is obviously preferred if no hit to performance is made

System Usage: Gaming

Parts Not Required: mouse and keyboard

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Whatever is cheapest, i usually just use amazon

Country: USA BABY!

Overclocking: Yes, definately

SLI or Crossfire: in the future, possibly

Monitor Resolution: I want to run with max setting at least on 1920 X 1080



Case Corsair Obsidian 650D $169.98

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K Processor $229.99 ($399.97)

GPU: Radeon 7970, trying to figure which aftermarket touch up'ed one to get $549.99 ($949.96)

RAM: Corsair Vengeance Blue 16 GB DDR3 (i'll be using almost all this, via unnecessary multitasking and a ____ load of chrome tabs lol $89.99 ($1,039.95)

Cooling: Corsair H100 $103.74 ($1,143.69)

HDD: Seagate Barracuda XT 2000 GB 7200RPM 64MB $239.99 ($1,383.68)

SSD: Corsair Force GT 240 GB (speculating) $354.99 ($1,738.67)


MOBO: ASUS LGA 1155 - Z68 - PCIe 3.0 and UEFI BIOS Intel Z68 ATX DDR3 2200 LGA 1155 Motherboards P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 (highly speculating, mobo's really confuse me) $204.99 ($1943.66)

Monitor: BenQ XL2410T 23.6-Inch (it's pricey but i need something of this caliber as i'll be using it for console gaming too) $445.56 ($2,389.22)

PSU: Corsair Professional Series Gold 1200-Watt $270.99 ($2,660.21)

Optical: Lite-On LightScribe 24X SATA DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive IHAS424-98 $25.99 ($2,686.2)

Then, I'm not sure how amazon does it but i added 6% sales tax, (this could be totally wrong if it is please tell me)
to get ($2,847.372) And i can imagine shipping will bring it up to about $3000
Now, i'm considering building this system via Ncix's website as it seems to be even cheaper by, a few hundred dollars.

 

[ultimabeam]

Check out Newegg, their prices are usually comparable to or lower than Amazon.

The 650D is nice. The 600T is also quite nice, and $20 cheaper. Matter of preference really.

I'd recommend air cooling over water. The i5-2500k overclocks so well on air, and you can easily save $70 by going with something like a Hyper 212 EVO. The only thing to consider is that you may need to get low profile RAM so the heat spreaders don't occupy space you'll need for the heatsink.

Do you really need 2TB of storage? Hard drive prices are at an all-time high right now (factory flooding and such) so you may want to scale back to 1TB, or hold off altogether on the HDD for a few months and use a 256GB SSD in the meantime.

Speaking of solid state drives, the Sandforce controller ones have had some stability issues. I'd recommend the Crucial M4 256GB.

I'm not familiar with the monitor or brand, but if you really think the XL2410T merits $290 more than the ASUS VS247H-P (which to me appears to have very similar specs as far as size and refresh rate are concerned) then I trust you know what you are looking for.

1200 watts is way too much power; even with Crossfired 7970's you'd need 1000W max. The Corsair HX850 or the PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk II 950W would be plenty for your needs.

 

[Lokster1]

^Any chance you live by a micro center?

Since you have some time between now and when you are buying everything would it be possible to buy parts in the mean time? You can scout different websites for daily deals to try and save some cash if you are able to buy today.

But in terms of parts, you could get a cheaper case, less memory, smaller hard drives, smaller PSU, but its up to you. Right now you will have a monster computer =D

 

[boiler1990]

Approximate Purchase Date: within the next 3 months

This is sort of an awkward time to build a PC. I'd personally either buy a PC today or wait the 3 months. There's going to be new hardware releases from Nvidia, AMD, possibly Intel, and along with that price drops. Additionally, the HDD supply might increase so those prices will drop as well.

System Usage: Gaming

Monitor Resolution: I want to run with max setting at least on 1920 X 1080

These two requirements really define the specs of your system.

Case Corsair Obsidian 650D $169.98

Corsair's cases look nice, but are just so expensive. For that price you can get a high-end full tower rather than just a mid. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the 650D had airflow issues with its internal design.

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K Processor $229.99

Pretty standard...

GPU: Radeon 7970, trying to figure which aftermarket touch up'ed one to get $549.99

This is a toughie. The 6970 and GTX 580 put up similar framerates as the 7970 (albeit, lower, but still in the 60FPS range) for the same/less. However, new GPUs are coming out in the coming months, which should drop prices and provide more accurate recommendations. Plus, it's hard to find a 7970 retail.

RAM: Corsair Vengeance Blue 16 GB DDR3 (i'll be using almost all this, via unnecessary multitasking and a ____ load of chrome tabs lol $89.99

I doubt you'll use 8GB. You only need about 4GB for games, but the prices are better for 8GB kits. Plus, "multitasking" isn't strenuous on your system unless you're running multiple virtual machines, a server in the background, etc. Chrome won't even break 500MB.

Cooling: Corsair H100 $103.74

There are a lot of high-end air coolers that can OC cheaper than this one, and at similar temps. The Hyper 212+ and Hyper 212 EVO are very good and are the best at $/degree.

HDD: Seagate Barracuda XT 2000 GB 7200RPM 64MB $239.99

As was mentioned, I'd consider dropping the HDD or getting a smaller drive.

If you do decide on a HDD, buy WD or Samsung - they're much more reliable than Seagate these days.

SSD: Corsair Force GT 240 GB (speculating) $354.99

I'd recommend either a Crucial M4 or Intel 320. Their speeds aren't the highest, but they're easily the most reliable SSDs on the market today. A working drive is always faster than a dead one Plus, the difference in the speeds isn't something you'll be able to tell - my early Gen 2 SSD boots in 30 seconds, while my late Gen 2 SSD booted in about half the time, but nothing ran any differently once in the OS.

MOBO: ASUS LGA 1155 - Z68 - PCIe 3.0 and UEFI BIOS Intel Z68 ATX DDR3 2200 LGA 1155 Motherboards P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 (highly speculating, mobo's really confuse me) $204.99

I prefer Gigabyte boards since they aren't as expensive as Asus but you still get the same caliber of quality. EVGA used to be great but their design team left to go to Sapphire, so their releases are always late.

Monitor: BenQ XL2410T 23.6-Inch (it's pricey but i need something of this caliber as i'll be using it for console gaming too) $445.56

Why bother with a 3D monitor? You can't use it with an AMD card (EDIT: you can, but it's not as good as Nvidia 3D) and it's just expensive for something that's $200 cheaper and looks the same.

If you want a great slightly matted panel, get a Dell Professional (P) series display like the P2412. My P2411 has some of the most vibrant colors while still blocking out almost all glare.

If you want a glossy display, look no further than Asus. I used their 3D monitor for some time, and it look absolutely amazing. Only problem was that I could usually see everything behind me instead of the game.

PSU: Corsair Professional Series Gold 1200-Watt $270.99

Whoa whoa whoa hold on there. You don't need a 1200W PSU. AMD doesn't post power consumption numbers, but judging by the need for 75W + 150W PCIe power connectors, plus the power it draws from the mobo, the 7970 will draw at most ~300W. That means you could run this safely on a 750-850W PSU (leaving headroom so that the PSU runs at ~50-80% load for best efficiency as well as the OCs). If you were looking at two, then I'd be considering 1000W+. I don't think you'll be needing a second GPU for some time.




Keep in mind you don't need to, and IMO shouldn't, buy all of the parts from one place. Depending on where you live you may/may not need to pay tax from Amazon, NCIX, or Newegg, and some parts are generally cheaper on some sites rather than others.

Personally, I've found that GPUs tend to be a bit cheaper on Newegg, but I'll buy CPUs from Amazon because they're the same price and I get 2-day shipping with Prime.

 

[treyvon]

Nice Feedback guys, much appreciated.
For starters,

i'm gonna cut back to around a 1000w
(and if you guys are wondering why i picked a psu so high, I, currently don't have a psu for gaming, so i figured i'd just go all out and buy one that would be enough even far down the future)
but i cant seem to find a gold certified modular one, will that 950 be enough for two 7970's, my h100 and an overclock of around 4.7? (i've also got a couple rad extra fans, but i don't think they draw too much power)

I'll also be cutting back on the HDD
Western Digital Caviar Black 750 GB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB for $125 (- about $95)

SDD I actually cut down to a Crucial 128 GB m4 $179.95 (- about $175)
do you think i should buy a 60gb for my boot? and use the one above for my most used programs and games? because originally i never wanted a240-256 gb ssd, i really only felt i would need about 180gb even with the 60gb included @ $104 ( im still - about $70)

Case: same i really like the 650 d
Cooling: i have 4 gentle typhoons which go really well with this cooling solutions (push pull) rad, and i personally just think the H100 looks really nice so i don't mind spending 100-120$ on it.

MOBO: i guess my MOBO is fine ehh?


Monitor, i actually was picking the Benq because it's 120HZ and a real 2ms response time, so virtually no input lag, all the other monitor i've seen (AND I"VE LOOKED lol, for a long time) have slower response times, despite their manufacturing listed specs, or they arent 120HZ if they really do have a 2ms response.

EDIT: i dont think i live by a micro center, i googled micro center FT. Lauderdale and nothing)

 

[treyvon]

Quick edit button doesnt wanna work for me..
my ram is fine for me too, i will use it, and it's amazingly cheap.

 

[boiler1990]

i'm gonna cut back to around a 1000w
(and if you guys are wondering why i picked a psu so high, I, currently don't have a psu for gaming, so i figured i'd just go all out and buy one that would be enough even far down the future)
but i cant seem to find a gold certified modular one, will that 950 be enough for two 7970's, my h100 and an overclock of around 4.7? (i've also got a couple rad extra fans, but i don't think they draw too much power)

The Silencer 950W is a good PSU. Depending on how many volts you have to pump into the OC, I think it's doable.

SDD I actually cut down to a Crucial 128 GB m4 $179.95 (- about $175)
do you think i should buy a 60gb for my boot? and use the one above for my most used programs and games? because originally i never wanted a240-256 gb ssd, i really only felt i would need about 180gb even with the 60gb included @ $104 ( im still - about $70)

I use a 64GB drive and TBH it gets a bit small. You'll find some stuff you want to throw onto the SSD (I use Office and a few others), and when all is said and done you have about 10GB at most left. You also want to keep empty space to prevent drive errors, etc. So unless you aren't going to put *anything* besides the OS and drivers on the SSD, I'd recommend a 128GB.

Cooling: i have 4 gentle typhoons which go really well with this cooling solutions (push pull) rad, and i personally just think the H100 looks really nice so i don't mind spending 100-120$ on it.

At $120, you're edging in to true (and better) watercooling. Just throwing that out there.

Monitor, i actually was picking the Benq because it's 120HZ and a real 2ms response time, so virtually no input lag, all the other monitor i've seen (AND I"VE LOOKED lol, for a long time) have slower response times, despite their manufacturing listed specs, or they arent 120HZ if they really do have a 2ms response.

Anything from 2-5ms is unnoticeable (most good monitors are 5ms), and the refresh rate doesn't make much of a difference once it's above 60Hz. The only reason the Benq and other 3D monitors are 120Hz is for the stereoscopic 3D (has to send two images each at 60Hz simultaneously).

my ram is fine for me too, i will use it, and it's amazingly cheap.

I'm just saying it's unnecessary, is all.

 

[treyvon]

Yes, i would only use it for boot and drivers.

By true, i assume you mean the big o'l kits with tons of tubing that you set up yourself right?

i want a 120hz monitor cause i can actually see the screen flicker on standard 60hz, not drastically of course, it doesn't impede upon my comfort, but i notice it at times.

know any power supply's of that wattage that are modular?

 

[boiler1990]

Yes, i would only use it for boot and drivers.

You should be fine with 64GB then. Just make sure to disable your pagefile and hyberfile.sys, as those will take up space on the C: drive. The pagefile is set to the amount of RAM you have by default, so it'll hog up 16GB unless you tell it otherwise.

By true, i assume you mean the big o'l kits with tons of tubing that you set up yourself right?

Except they aren't "big ol' kits" anymore, other than the fact that the pumps will generally mount in two 5.25" drive bays as opposed to on the CPU block. The benefit, however, is significantly better flow rates, which directly translate into better cooling.

They're getting easier to set up, but if that's not your cup of tea then the H100 is still a good choice. I was just throwing that out there in the event it did pique your interest - watercooling is generally much cheaper than most people think it is nowadays.

i want a 120hz monitor cause i can actually see the screen flicker on standard 60hz, not drastically of course, it doesn't impede upon my comfort, but i notice it at times.

Have you tried setting it to something other than 60Hz to see if it fixes the flickering issue? Otherwise it sounds more like a bad panel - think of a fluorescent light bulb that starts to flicker as it get closer to dying (not saying the panel is dying, but same defect to some degree).

If you want to drop twice the $$ simply on twice the Hz, that's your prerogative not mine

know any power supply's of that wattage that are modular?

Corsair makes the HX1050 (AX and HX are modular), and there are a number of PSUs in that wattage range that are modular. There are a number of XFX, Seasonic, and Silverstone PSUs (all of them great, and usually OEMed by Seasonic) in that range.

 

[treyvon]

Ya, it's all 60hz screens really, i mean, like i said it isn't too bad, i barely notice it. But, it is noticeable. And thanks, i think i'll go with the HX 1050

 

[treyvon]

Best answer selected by treyvon.

 

[Mousemonkey]

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