I'm looking to put together a machine that is a good value and will last me as long as possible. While I list a ~1500 budget, I can easily go more/less than that, but am looking bang for my buck. Future proofing is a big goal, but I don't want to chase it at an unreasonable cost.
Appreciate any input/suggestions on what I'm considering! I know how busy everyone is with their own lives so I've tried to lay out my request and information as coherently as possible
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Approximate Purchase Date: Within 1 month
Budget Range: Around 1500, but have a lot of flexibility
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Visual Studio (or other IDEs), Gaming, Extracting Blu-Ray
Parts Not Required: No external parts or Monitor
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Not tied to any specific site and willing to look across sites. Have been finding Amazon pricing good in the past 24 hours.
Country: USA
Parts Preferences: With the exception of an Intel CPU, I'm pretty open to suggestions.
Overclocking: Yes - nothing crazy here, but will take the low hanging fruit available with the 2500k.
SLI or Crossfire: Maybe - I will pay a small premium for simplicity of a single GPU and potentially expanding in the future.
Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080
Additional Comments: While I will only be using a single monitor immediately, will be purchasing a second one when I see the right price.
============
What I've got so far
CPU : Intel Core i5-2500K ($224.54) http://www.amazon.com/Intel-BOX8062...1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1329020708&sr=1-1
CPU Cooling : Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus ($24.39) http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master...1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1329021626&sr=1-1
PSU : Corsair Enthusiast Series 650-Watt 80 Plus Bronze Certified Power Supply - CMPSU-650TXV2 ($79.99) http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Enthusiast-Certified-Compatible-platforms/dp/B004MYFODI/ref=pd_sim_e_6
Memory : Corsair 8 Gig (2 x 4 gig), 1600 Mhz ($44.99) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145345
Case : Cooler Master HAF 922 ($89.99) http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master...CI2U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329060076&sr=8-1
Motherboard : ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 (~$130.00) [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product...-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=nvlzj39z91vj [/url]
Operating System : Windows 7 - Home Premium (99.99)
What else I need
1) Video Card - the elephant in the room. I've been out of the 'home build' game for awhile, but this used to be the best place to plow some money and future proof your machine. Not against spending good chunks of money to do so.
2) Optical drive - Looking for a good (fas) blu-ray drive. Burning is a bonus, but not my primary goal. This is one area I had trouble doing a lot of research.
3) Boot Drive - I have a 1 TB green WD drive to use for mass storage, but would like a fast SSD for booting. It doesn't need a ton of storage as I'm willing to offload my apps to secondary storage.
4) Anything else I'm missing?
Specific questions/concerns I have
1) Looking for motherboards makes my head spin a bit. I pulled the ASRock from a few other posts as a good value, but would want some room for expansion later. Any significant flaws on sizing? I'm not as worried about squeaking out the extra few clock cycles by buying a better OC board.
2) If anyone has suggestions on Blu-Ray software, that will need to be part of my equation at some point.
3) Is the HAF 922 overkill? I also looked at the 912 for a bit. If there's a good package of fans to fill out my case, I'd be open to buying them up front. I hate to leave empty fan bays and negatively impact the air flow/pressure situation.
4) Research on VCs so far have me leaning a bit towards a Radeon solution for power/noise savings, but performance is #1.
Appreciate any input/suggestions on what I'm considering! I know how busy everyone is with their own lives so I've tried to lay out my request and information as coherently as possible
===========
Approximate Purchase Date: Within 1 month
Budget Range: Around 1500, but have a lot of flexibility
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Visual Studio (or other IDEs), Gaming, Extracting Blu-Ray
Parts Not Required: No external parts or Monitor
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Not tied to any specific site and willing to look across sites. Have been finding Amazon pricing good in the past 24 hours.
Country: USA
Parts Preferences: With the exception of an Intel CPU, I'm pretty open to suggestions.
Overclocking: Yes - nothing crazy here, but will take the low hanging fruit available with the 2500k.
SLI or Crossfire: Maybe - I will pay a small premium for simplicity of a single GPU and potentially expanding in the future.
Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080
Additional Comments: While I will only be using a single monitor immediately, will be purchasing a second one when I see the right price.
============
What I've got so far
CPU : Intel Core i5-2500K ($224.54) http://www.amazon.com/Intel-BOX8062...1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1329020708&sr=1-1
CPU Cooling : Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus ($24.39) http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master...1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1329021626&sr=1-1
PSU : Corsair Enthusiast Series 650-Watt 80 Plus Bronze Certified Power Supply - CMPSU-650TXV2 ($79.99) http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Enthusiast-Certified-Compatible-platforms/dp/B004MYFODI/ref=pd_sim_e_6
Memory : Corsair 8 Gig (2 x 4 gig), 1600 Mhz ($44.99) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145345
Case : Cooler Master HAF 922 ($89.99) http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master...CI2U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329060076&sr=8-1
Motherboard : ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 (~$130.00) [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product...-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=nvlzj39z91vj [/url]
Operating System : Windows 7 - Home Premium (99.99)
What else I need
1) Video Card - the elephant in the room. I've been out of the 'home build' game for awhile, but this used to be the best place to plow some money and future proof your machine. Not against spending good chunks of money to do so.
2) Optical drive - Looking for a good (fas) blu-ray drive. Burning is a bonus, but not my primary goal. This is one area I had trouble doing a lot of research.
3) Boot Drive - I have a 1 TB green WD drive to use for mass storage, but would like a fast SSD for booting. It doesn't need a ton of storage as I'm willing to offload my apps to secondary storage.
4) Anything else I'm missing?
Specific questions/concerns I have
1) Looking for motherboards makes my head spin a bit. I pulled the ASRock from a few other posts as a good value, but would want some room for expansion later. Any significant flaws on sizing? I'm not as worried about squeaking out the extra few clock cycles by buying a better OC board.
2) If anyone has suggestions on Blu-Ray software, that will need to be part of my equation at some point.
3) Is the HAF 922 overkill? I also looked at the 912 for a bit. If there's a good package of fans to fill out my case, I'd be open to buying them up front. I hate to leave empty fan bays and negatively impact the air flow/pressure situation.
4) Research on VCs so far have me leaning a bit towards a Radeon solution for power/noise savings, but performance is #1.
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