Gaming Build | Can I do better than this?

[JUTN]

Approximate Purchase Date: < 24 hours

Budget Range: < $1500

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Streaming Video, Surfing Net, Virtual Machines

Parts Not Required: Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: NewEgg, however I am most likely going to purchase from iBUYPOWER or CyberPower, I do not trust myself with the build... I did price this build at NewEgg and it is close to the purchase price from iBUYPOWER.

Country: USA

Parts Preferences: Intel CPU

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: Below is my build. I am looking for advice on if this is a good purchase. I want to play any game with at least Ultra settings at 1920x1080 resolution. I was debating on the 2500K or 2550K but I think I am going to stick with the 2500K. If I ever upgrade the CPU I would like to be able to use this CPU without a video card. I do not want to spend more than $1500 on this, including shipping. The build below is: $1,449 for everything. I do not want a flashy or white case. Any help/comments would be appreciated. Thanks!

Case | Antec P280 Gaming Case-Black

Processor | Intel® Core™ i5-2500K Processor (4x 3.30GHz/6MB L3 Cache)

Motherboard | ASUS P8Z68-V LX -- Lucid Virtu Technology

Memory | 16 GB [4 GB X4] DDR3-1600 Memory Corsair XMS3

Video Card | AMD Radeon HD 7950 - 3GB-Single Card

Power Supply | Thermaltake 850 Watt W0319RU

Processor Cooling | Liquid CPU Cooling System [SOCKET-1155]-ARC Dual Silent High Performance Fan Upgrade

Primary Hard Drive | 1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 32M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s-Single Drive

Optical Drive | 24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive-Black

Flash Media Reader | 12-In-1 Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer-Black

 

[sonexpc]

If you want to save money ... you can save on the power supply AMD Web suggest a 500W with 8PIN & 6 Pin Connector will be good

This is amd certified http://support.amd.com/us/certified/power-supplies/Pages/listing.aspx

HD7950 suppose use less power than it's pervious series 69xx..

I would suggest a 650W PS should be good enough and you're not plan for Crossfire...

I will just use Air cooling ... something like this is already good ...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

The case is up to you ... that is a good case ... but I don't like have door cover all...

I find you're a person who really want quiet system instead of overclock...

You can order a Coolermaster Silent Pro 700W Ps
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171037

 

[Why_Me]

Approximate Purchase Date: < 24 hours

Budget Range: < $1500

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Streaming Video, Surfing Net, Virtual Machines

Parts Not Required: Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: NewEgg, however I am most likely going to purchase from iBUYPOWER or CyberPower, I do not trust myself with the build... I did price this build at NewEgg and it is close to the purchase price from iBUYPOWER.

Country: USA

Parts Preferences: Intel CPU

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: Below is my build. I am looking for advice on if this is a good purchase. I want to play any game with at least Ultra settings at 1920x1080 resolution. I was debating on the 2500K or 2550K but I think I am going to stick with the 2500K. If I ever upgrade the CPU I would like to be able to use this CPU without a video card. I do not want to spend more than $1500 on this, including shipping. The build below is: $1,449 for everything. I do not want a flashy or white case. Any help/comments would be appreciated. Thanks!

Case | Antec P280 Gaming Case-Black

Processor | Intel® Core™ i5-2500K Processor (4x 3.30GHz/6MB L3 Cache)

Motherboard | ASUS P8Z68-V LX -- Lucid Virtu Technology

Memory | 16 GB [4 GB X4] DDR3-1600 Memory Corsair XMS3

Video Card | AMD Radeon HD 7950 - 3GB-Single Card

Power Supply | Thermaltake 850 Watt W0319RU

Processor Cooling | Liquid CPU Cooling System [SOCKET-1155]-ARC Dual Silent High Performance Fan Upgrade

Primary Hard Drive | 1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 32M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s-Single Drive

Optical Drive | 24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive-Black

Flash Media Reader | 12-In-1 Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer-Black

That motherboard is meant for a single card only...it runs dual cards @ x4 and it's not a Gen3 board which means you have zero upgrade path to PCI-E 3.0. That psu blows big time, and that case is small and has horrible cooling. There's like a million and one vids on building a 1155 build on youtube that take you through it step by step. A lot of people watch those vids on another pc/laptop while putting together their new build at the same time. You can't miss with those vids.

 

[sonexpc]

That motherboard is meant for a single card only...it runs dual cards @ x4 and it's not a Gen3 board which means you have zero upgrade path to PCI-E 3.0. That psu blows big time, and that case is small and has horrible cooling. There's like a million and one vids on building a 1155 build on youtube that take you through it step by step. A lot of people watch those vids on another pc/laptop while putting together their new build at the same time. You can't miss with those vids.

for the GEN3 version is just pretested and certified... is really marketing stuff..

This motherboard can support PCI-E 3.0 thur BIOS Upgard while use with 22nm processor ... not that many people know .. people allways think only GEN3 Motherboard support PCI-E 3.0 but is really not.... We just order 10 Asus P8Z68-V LX last week and already have PCI-E 3.0 Sticker on the box..
You can see more detail here
http://event.asus.com/2011/mb/PCIe3_Ready/

By the way the guy already say no sli or cross fire... why need another PCI-E 16x...

This is a solid MB from ASUS basic component they use is the one they use in the highend version..

and for this size 20.7” (H) x 9.1” (W) x 22.1” (D) of P280 .... I would not say it is small....

 

[Delirious788]

That motherboard is meant for a single card only...it runs dual cards @ x4 and it's not a Gen3 board which means you have zero upgrade path to PCI-E 3.0. That psu blows big time, and that case is small and has horrible cooling. There's like a million and one vids on building a 1155 build on youtube that take you through it step by step. A lot of people watch those vids on another pc/laptop while putting together their new build at the same time. You can't miss with those vids.

Thats not very constructive, and why did you have to repost the WHOLE first post?
Anyways...
Everything looks fairly good for the most part. I would only change your PSU to like a corsair, xfx, or seasonic 600w-750w 80 PLUS certified Bronze PSU. You also probably could save a little money and only get 8gb of RAM. Lastly, at a $1500 budget, I would try to fit in an SSD. Crucial m4 128gb is like $150 and it is a great way to speed up OS startup time and application launch times.

 

[Why_Me]

Thats not very constructive, and why did you have to repost the WHOLE first post?
Anyways...
Everything looks fairly good for the most part. I would only change your PSU to like a corsair, xfx, or seasonic 600w-750w 80 PLUS certified Bronze PSU. You also probably could save a little money and only get 8gb of RAM. Lastly, at a $1500 budget, I would try to fit in an SSD. Crucial m4 128gb is like $150 and it is a great way to speed up OS startup time and application launch times.

So you recommend a 750w psu for a single 7950? Look at the reviews of that card. A decent 500 - 550w will run that card. And yes the case does have bad cooling.

 

[JUTN]

Alright, these posts got me thinking. Do I really need liquid cooling? Will a certified heat sink and cooling fan be enough? I can save about $50 to go from liquid cooling with max push-pull fans to certified air cooling.

I changed the power supply to: 750 Watt - Corsair CMPSU-750TXV2.

I added a SSD: 120 GB ADATA S510 SSD-Single Drive. I forgot I have a 1TB in another system that I want to upgrade. I will swap the 1TB in my gaming PC and purchase a higher capacity HD for the other system.

I also downgraded the RAM to 8GB.

This brings the total to: $1,348.

 

[sonexpc]

Good !

 

[JUTN]

Thanks for all the comments and answers. I went ahead and ordered the system. You can see the full specs here: http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/espec.aspx?eid=156714.

The waiting begins...

 

[JUTN]

Best answer selected by JUTN.

 

[Delirious788]

So you recommend a 750w psu for a single 7950? Look at the reviews of that card. A decent 500 - 550w will run that card. And yes the case does have bad cooling.

Yes, AMD only recommends a 500w PSU, but with overclocking and all, I would recommend something a little bit bigger like 600w. The main point I wanted to say was that 850w was way too much and he could back it down some. Thats it. I agree that 750w is still a bit much.

 

[JUTN]

750w was the minimum I could choose in the configurator from iBUYPOWER. Anything less and I could not complete the build.