700$ gaming system

[mabreatsh]

Hey all, So this would be my first pc, and i am very excited! With me getting excited I also need to take the time to ask some experts on the issue at hand. The 700 also includes the monitor

I will list my components. If you believe that there is a better alternative for a good price, please do comment

Processor: i5-2400 or i5 2500, is the change from 2400 to 2500 enough to be of importance?

Graphics card: 6870 HD radeon 1gb Sapphire reference. I thought about a gtx 560 ti but the difference is about 100$ in my country because the GTX 560 ti is from asus.

Mobo: I am really stuck on this one. Should I get the p8z68le or the p8p67 mobo? They are both for asus.

Ram: 8 gb 1333 mhz, sufficient i guess?

HDD: 500 gb 7200, that is more than enough for me I think.

Monitor: 22' LED LG full HD

Case: How many fans are enough for my system? The shop I go to has a company called Circle, and for about 100$ it has 4 fans. It looks fancy but I just want it to cool my pc and be sufficient. It's called Tornado or thunderstorm. Do you guys know this company?

Power supply: 750w silverstone


I dont want to overclock, I just want a gaming pc that can run witcher 2 on high at 1920 by 1080. Is this possible by this build? Is there a bottleneck in this setup?

I would be very grateful for your answer.

 

[Pezcore27]

The 750w power supply is way overkill for that system. You only need a good quality 500w power supply to more than comfortably run everything you have listed.

 

[jmsellars1]

The i5-2400 is usually cheaper and the difference would be so small you would struggle to notice it even in a benchmark. I'd go for the 2400.

The motherboard, RAM and PSU seem overkill to me. I would go for an H61 or H67 motherboard since the main feature you would be losing is the ability to overclock and you can't overclock that CPU anyway.

Also a decent 500W PSU would be fine for that setup, the GPU's you mentioned are around 150-200W max, CPU is 95W max and the rest of the system would be around 50W max. Realistically your total power consumption would never hit 400W, 500W is fine.

$100 for a case seems a bit overkill at this budget and no, you don't 'need' 4 case fans. Yes you would get slightly better cooling but 2 x 120mm fans is plenty. Just have an intake and an exhaust and your airflow will be fine. The Coolermaster HAF 912 is a good case at around $50-70.

You don't really need 8GB of RAM for gaming but RAM is cheap so I suppose it's up to you, 4GB would be fine though.

I'd save money in those areas and get a GTX 560Ti or HD 6950 2GB

 

[Onus]

Nice to see recommendations urging restraint. A system with an i5-2400 and HD6870 should be able to play games for years to come. You only "need" 2GB-4GB, but RAM is so cheap that 8GB is not unreasonable, and adds a lot of future-resistance. You do not say what country you are in, but I'm guessing it is not the USA. For specific recommendations, you'll need to provide links to the sites you can use to buy your parts.
If you choose a H61 or H67 mobo, you should still look for one with SATA 6Gb/s and USB3.0.
Some Coolermaster PSUs still have liar labels or claim protections that are missing (fact, not opinion; reviews at HardwareSecrets). That's dishonest, and a dishonest company does not deserve anyone's business, for any of its products. For that reason, I'd recommend against the HAF or any other CM case, regardless of quality. Antec, Silverstone, Lian Li, and Rosewill (may not be available in your country) all make nice cases, to fit a variety of budgets. I have an Enermax Hoplite, which is also a nice case.

 

[mabreatsh]

is Gigabyte 500w a reliable power supply? Would the H61 be future proof?
Will the i5 with the GTX 560 ti play most games at high settings?

 

[azeem40]

No, the GIGABYTE 500W PSU is not a good unit. Corsair, Antec, and XFX are one of the best in the business. H61 is not future proof. Yes, high settings will be achieved.

 

[mabreatsh]

I live in dubai, and there I hardly see the name Corsair, XFX and antec are non existent in any shop I went to. I will have to dig deeper then. Since the asus p67 is about 110 dollars, its cheap enough I guess.

 

[diec4st]

if you go for a p67 board, get a 2500k since you can overclock it beyond easily later

 

[azeem40]

How about OCZ and PC Power and Cooling?

 

[mabreatsh]

I will study in the US after 2 years, so will this spec suffice for the next two years?

 

[guruofchem]

I will study in the US after 2 years, so will this spec suffice for the next two years?

Should easily last 2 years - the only thing you might wish to bump up later would be the graphics card, and that is very easily accomplished...

 

[mabreatsh]

Intel BOXDH67BLB3

is this motherboard any good? Will it suffice?

 

[jmsellars1]

That board looks OK to me, don't worry about it not being 'futureproof'. I think people say that because it may not be great for the new 1155 socket CPU's and overclocking. This shouldn't matter to you though because you can't overclock on the i5-2400 and by the time you will need to upgrade it, you will want to buy something newer than the new Ivy Bridge CPU's.

OCZ are fine for PSU's, I hear that PC Power and Cooling are decent too.

 

[aznshinobi]

That Intel board is terrible, no offense. But Intel boards are really only good for stability, they wouldn't get you anything past that. Performance, overclocking, etc. You go for the other brands IE Asrock, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, etc.

Go with this H61
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157236
Cheap at $70 but should support Ivy Bridge depending on whether or not Asrock puts out a BIOS update for it. However you do get SATA 3 and USB 3 which is a nice plus. So with that said, just go with that board over the Intel one and save some cash.

Wait... I just realized that you're in Dubai, Well, see if you can find any Asrock H61 boards.

As for the PSU, OCZ and PC Power & Cooling are fantastic brands. You may also have... more OEM brands as opposed to renamed PSUs like Corsair and Antec mostly are Seasonics. Do you have Seasonic, Super Flower, Sirtec or Enermax over in Dubai?