$1300 Gaming/Entertainment PC Build Suggestions?

[newlook]

Approximate Purchase Date: This or Next Month

Budget Range: $1300-1500 After Rebates

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming (SC2/SWTOR/TF2/Spore), movies, burning CD/DVD's, photo editing, surfing

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, possibly case (currently have an aluminum Lian Li: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112077)

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com

Country: USA

Parts Preferences: N/A

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: I prefer a fairly quiet pc, with minimal cosmetic lights, that doesn't weigh a ton. I currently live in Hawaii, so heat is a concern, although I am probably going to be moving to a much cooler state in June.

 

[EzioAs]

Intel Core i5-2500K - $229.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

Thermaltake Frio Cooler - $54.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106150

Crucial M4 128GB SSD - $168.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442

Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB HDD - $159.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3P - $189.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128506

ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - $23.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 - $47.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231477

GIGABYTE GV-N570OC-13I Rev2.0 GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB - $329.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125384

CORSAIR Professional Series HX750 (CMPSU-750HX) 750W - $149.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010

Subtotal:$1355.91($1311.91 after MIR)

 

[SingingThroughTheStorm]

Isn't that GTX 570 a little overkill for what he intends to use the PC for?
As a media PC, it will probably be connected to a single 1080P TV.
And it doesn't seem he will be playing graphically intensive games such as BF3.

 

[EzioAs]

Isn't that GTX 570 a little overkill for what he intends to use the PC for?
As a media PC, it will probably be connected to a single 1080P TV.
And it doesn't seem he will be playing graphically intensive games such as BF3.

He did state the most important usage is gaming. I don't think the gtx570 is overkill at all at this point in time, especially with more modern cards coming out and games becoming more graphically intensive quickly

 

[newlook]

Best answer selected by Newlook.

 

[newlook]

I just wanted to do a follow up with this build.

The heat sink is very large and barely fits inside my case. The second fan doesn't really fit well, because the RAM is too tall. A friend and I make-shift-rigged it, but it's certainly crowded in there and the second fan is literally sitting on top of the RAM.

The SSD doesn't come with any screws or anything to mount it with, so be aware of that.

The GPU is also very large/wide. It won't fit in the slot closest to the heat sink, because the heat sink is so large. It also comes with a HDMI cable that is regular on one side, but mini on the other. Slight annoyance, but nothing major there.

The MB has 4 spots to plug in your fans, so if you have a lot of fans in your case (as I did), you should take that into consideration.

I did get this instead of the DVD burner, because, hell - bluray>dvds: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135247

All that said, I am very happy, overall, with this so far. Aside from the fantastic gaming, it's very quiet and stays very cool.

 

[EzioAs]

Great job on the build. Hope it performs as well as you'd hoped. What case did you get?

 

[newlook]

Great job on the build. Hope it performs as well as you'd hoped. What case did you get?

Thanks. I used my existing Lian Li case, because, why the hell not? It's aluminum and has lots of air flow. So far, so good.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey