Need advice on 600-900 dollar gaming rig!

[newschool29]

Hi everybody, so I'm trying to build my very first computer ever and could use some real pointers here. The main purpose of this rig is to be a mid-range gaming machine to play Star Craft II, Eve Online, or pretty much visually demanding games haha.

Approximate Purchase Date: Along the next 4 months.

Budget Range: 600-900

System Usage: Gaming, Surfing, Watching Movies

Parts Not Required: Monitor, mouse, speakers, keyboard,

Preferred Website: Newegg.com, Tigerdirect.com

Country: America

Parts Preferences: I've always been more partial to Intel than AMD, otherwise N/A

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Monitor Resolution: 1440x90

Additional Comments: I'm not really going for much style but quietness is a biggie. I've had computers louder than the television...but otherwise I've already come up with a list of parts I THINK should all go together but once again I'm not really sure. I'm also a little bit concerned if the power supply would be enough. Any support you guys could give would be great! Like similar parts but cheaper hahaha.

Case: Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z68AP-D3- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128538&Tpk=GIGABYTE GA-Z68AP-D3

Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz Quad-Core Unlocked- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145347

Video Card: MSI N550GTX-Ti Cyclone OC GeForce GTX 550 Ti- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...=MSI N550GTX-Ti Cyclone OC GeForce GTX 550 Ti

Power Supply: OCZ ZT Series 750W Fully-Modular 80PLUS Bronze High Performance Power Supply- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...p=Cat_Power_Supplies-_-Spotlight-_-17-341-052

OS: I figured I'd just call it good with Windows 7.

 

[termhn]

The PSU is definitely powerful enough for your current build unless you want to overclock and go SLI/crossfire in the future, but I think it should be fine. Also, instead of the 550 ti, the Radeon HD 6790 is the same price and is proven slightly faster, and if you have the extra $30 bucks (I think) to spend, go with the Radeon HD 6850 for the graphics card. Good choice of CPU, but the i5 2400 would be slightly more to the right on the price-performance scale, but the 2500K is great too. My 2 cents.

 

[omega21xx]

Drop to a non-k i5 since you won't be overclocking. You should have enough money saving on the processor to get a better gpu. The money saved could get you a 6870 which is much better than the 550ti

 

[newschool29]

Thank you guys very much for your advice, it actually helped quite alot. But now I got even more questions! The mother board has 2 PCI 3.0 slots for the Video Card. But the Radeon 6870 is a PCI 2.1. Now I heard that 3.0 was backwards compatible, is that right? If it is then I'm going to update my build with these that you guys reccomended:

CPU: [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product...com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115074 [/url]

Video Card: [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product...com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102948 [/url]

Any thoughts?

 

[termhn]

Looks good other than 16 gigs of ram is WAY overkill unless you're an extreme multitasking enthusiast or you want to have extra ram for video/3D editing. It's proven that for gaming, over 4GB doesn't improve your experience.

 

[newschool29]

So 8 gigs would probably be the better of both worlds, alright that'll probably do just nicely. But as for my earlier question, PCI 3.0 is backwards compatible with PCI 2.1 on the video card? I'm about to do some research on it haha. Thanks again!

Probably swap to this instead for memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145345

 

[omega21xx]

So 8 gigs would probably be the better of both worlds, alright that'll probably do just nicely. But as for my earlier question, PCI 3.0 is backwards compatible with PCI 2.1 on the video card? I'm about to do some research on it haha. Thanks again!

Probably swap to this instead for memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145345

Yes, if you wanted you could actually drop a pcie 1.0 x16 in there in be fine or say put a pcie 3.0 in a 2.0 slot. They are compatible (some 2.1 cards don't like 1.0 slots i heard though) The real difference is the bandwidth per lane.

 

[termhn]

Looks good on memory, and PCI-e 3.0 is backwards compatible:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/19/pci-express-makes-the-3-0-leap-doubles-bandwidth-over-pcie-2-0/

EDIT: Ninja'd

 

[newschool29]

I love this site, haha thank you guys. I believe I now have my rig completed and ready to build...once I buy all the parts of course. Wish me luck!

 

[termhn]

Good luck Hopefully all goes smooth