New gaming pc build PLEASE HELP FIRST BUILD

[YellarMan]

Hello tom's hardware members i am new to this site and i was looking for some opinions on a new gaming build I'm putting together,its my first so i would really appreciate your thoughts and opinions on it.

Motherboard : ASUS sabertooth p67 Rev 3.0, Sockel 1155, ATX, DDR3

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155

GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD Superclocked, 1280MB DDR5, PCI-Express

EDIT PSU: changed to this Corsair Enthusiast Series TX850 V2 PSU from the original cooler master silent pro 850w

EDIT 2 CASE: What do you guys think about an Antec 900 hundred it looks awesome and only 100 euro

EDIT HDD: changed from Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 3 6GB/s to the Samsung SpinPoint F3 1000GB, SATA II (HD103SJ) as recommended

RAM: 8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz CL9

EDIT Optical Drives: Sony NEC Optiarc DDU1681S Schwarz, removed second optical drive

CPU cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus

I have a few quetions i would like to be anwsered about this build.
Q1 Does have this build the ability to overclock without damaging any of the components.

Q2 Are there any components that are known to have problems in any area like boot up times, BIOS malfunction hardware malfunctions etc

Q3 Will this play games like BF3 and Crysis 2 on high to ultra settings with a high fps, no lag and AA moderately turned up.

Q4 are there any components you know of that are generally cheaper and will do just as good a job as these playing games on the settings stated above.

Q5 Are all these components compatible with each other.

Q6 I'm trying to save as much money as i can on this build do i need the optical drives.

I'm hoping you can Answer my questions.


EDIT by the way i live in ireland so alot of the US store's like Newegg are not available to me but feel free to still use those sites as references to components so i can look for them in Ireland and as my last question;

Q7 what is your personal opinion on this build is it high spec, have you used a similar one before , is it good enough for most games

BTW I'm a NOOB to this whole process so if i ask stupid questions tell me and don't be too harsh just try to answer them

 

[morgoth780]

1)it will overclock, but there's no guarantee something won't be damaged
2)it won't boot as fast if you had an ssd
3)it should be able to play on high or maybe ultra, not sure about AA though
4)i'd get a different psu from antec, seasonic, or corsair, but get one with the same wattage
5)yes
6)do you need 2? and you theoretically don't need 1 at all because you can install windows 7 from a usb drive, but its probably better to get at least one anyways in case you ever do

 

[hellfire24]

what is your max budget?

 

[YellarMan]

My budget is 1400 euros so about 1850 us dollars

 

[Murissokah]

I have a Sabertooth P67 and a i5 2500k, and can tell you this:

1. The system could be overclocked to 4.3Ghz on air. Didn't find it reasonable, though, as there is no use for this much CPU power, so I run it at 4Ghz.

2. The motherboard is solid, no problems on the hardware side. I update my BIOS a while ago, and it has been stable. Boot times are hurt by controlers booting, if you use either the Marvell or JMicron sata controllers (You only need them if you are going to use more than a couple SATA ports). In my case, I use the Marvell controler and a RAID setup, which takes about 15 seconds BEFORE starting to load windows. It's pretty instant after that, since the OS is loaded on a Vertex 3 SSD.

3. Never tried BF3, can't help you there. Crysis 2 is a joke, could easily run on ultra. Will only lag if you use high levels of AA.

4. I'd recommend a Samsung 103SJ 1TB HDD instead of the seagate. Have had drives from both manufacturers, Samsung performs better. SATA 3 is useless for HDDs. Also, take a look at the Thermaltake SpinQ VT for cooling. It can keep the CPU at pretty good temperatures and looks absolutely awesome (if you use this, or any other cooler that is not down-blowing, add a 50mm cooler for the motherboard. It relies on air flow from the CPU cooler).

5. Yes they are compatible.

6. As Morgoth said, why two of them? Add a single blu-ray burner and you are set for the decade.

 

[YellarMan]

1)it will overclock, but there's no guarantee something won't be damaged
2)it won't boot as fast if you had an ssd
3)it should be able to play on high or maybe ultra, not sure about AA though
4)i'd get a different psu from antec, seasonic, or corsair, but get one with the same wattage
5)yes
6)do you need 2? and you theoretically don't need 1 at all because you can install windows 7 from a usb drive, but its probably better to get at least one anyways in case you ever do

ok what do you think about changing the PSU too a Corsair Enthusiast Series TX850 V2

 

[YellarMan]

I have a Sabertooth P67 and a i5 2500k, and can tell you this:

1. The system could be overclocked to 4.3Ghz on air. Didn't find it reasonable, though, as there is no use for this much CPU power, so I run it at 4Ghz.

2. The motherboard is solid, no problems on the hardware side. I update my BIOS a while ago, and it has been stable. Boot times are hurt by controlers booting, if you use either the Marvell or JMicron sata controllers (You only need them if you are going to use more than a couple SATA ports). In my case, I use the Marvell controler and a RAID setup, which takes about 15 seconds BEFORE starting to load windows. It's pretty instant after that, since the OS is loaded on a Vertex 3 SSD.

3. Never tried BF3, can't help you there. Crysis 2 is a joke, could easily run on ultra. Will only lag if you use high levels of AA.

4. I'd recommend a Samsung 103SJ 1TB HDD instead of the seagate. Have had drives from both manufacturers, Samsung performs better. SATA 3 is useless for HDDs. Also, take a look at the Thermaltake SpinQ VT for cooling. It can keep the CPU at pretty good temperatures and looks absolutely awesome (if you use this, or any other cooler that is not down-blowing, add a 50mm cooler for the motherboard. It relies on air flow from the CPU cooler).

5. Yes they are compatible.

6. As Morgoth said, why two of them? Add a single blu-ray burner and you are set for the decade.

I'm sorry but for question 2 i didn't understand anything after '' i update my BIOS a while ago'' don't know what controllers are do i need one ? i don't know what SATA is , what a RAID setup is what down blowing means and what a 50mm cooler is (im assuming its a water cooler)

sorry if im frustrating but like i said I'm a NOOB

 

[azeem40]

ok what do you think about changing the PSU too a Corsair Enthusiast Series TX850 V2

Yes, TX is made by Seasonic, the best PSU company in the business.

 

[Murissokah]

I'm sorry but for question 2 i didn't understand anything after '' i update my BIOS a while ago'' don't know what controllers are do i need one ? i don't know what SATA is , what a RAID setup is what down blowing means and what a 50mm cooler is (im assuming its a water cooler)

sorry if im frustrating but like i said I'm a NOOB

I am sorry for not being clear. I'll try to elaborate:

1. Sata controllers are the components that deal with anything connected to a SATA port. There are 3 SATA controllers on this motherboard. The first one is integrated on the motherboard chipset and is made by Intel. The second one is made by Marvell and the Third by JMicron. The purpose of it all is to provide as many SATA ports as possible. If you don't need a lot of SATA ports (for HDDs, SSDs and Optical drives), you can disable the second and third controllers and forget about it.

2. RAID is a means of setting up a bunch of HDDs so they perform better in a certain aspect. You can make them more reliable, faster, or a combination of both, by adding more hardware (more HDDs). If you don't know about it, you probably don't need it.

3. As for updating the BIOS, I just meant to say the motherboard is currently stable.

4. A down-blowing fan is the kind of fan that comes with your CPU. It blows air down, in the direction of the motherboard. Other coolers, such as the SpinQ VT or the Coolermaster TX2 blow air sideways through a heatsink, perpendicularly to the motherboard. The P67 Sabertooth has a plastic cover, intended to keep airflow underneath. It relies on the CPU fan to blow air into it, cooling the motherboard components. If your CPU fan does not blow air downward, you will need another fan, a 50mmx50mm (small, cheap fan) to do the task. If you don't add that fan, your motherboard will get hot. And no, there is no water cooling involved.

 

[YellarMan]

YellarMan, where are you purchasing from?

At present i have found only two shops which have the parts I'm looking for outside the US, cant order from newegg or tigerdirect cause the money i would save buying from them i have to spend on shipping across the Atlantic to Ireland. One is called the digistore.ie but it has very limited selection and only a few of the parts I'm looking for ,all of which are overpriced cause Ireland is still in the mindset that all their customers are clueless when it comes building a PC and the other is a German site, hardwareversand.de which doesn't have overpriced parts but the shipping is still only ok. I'm ok with shipping cost i can pretty much afford to get them from wherever as long as its not ridiculously overpriced but i just wanna make sure their not faulty and that shipping isn't a hassle (ohh and please if anyone does recommend any shops it would make the deal ohh so sweeter if they had good customer support).

 

[YellarMan]

Changed the case too an Antec nine hundred it has 4 fans built in just wondering if anyone has had any experience with this case and knows if cpu or gpu fan is necessary with the built in case fans.

Also i have found an online shop in Ireland with the majority of my parts its called Dabs.ie if your going to recommend parts i would ask you to check if its available on this site if you want...it would help me alot.

 

[hellfire24]

not personal experience but i heard a lot f good things about it.

 

[YellarMan]

and what about fans

 

[azeem40]

No, you didn't. You actually ruined it. Seasonic IS the best in the business.

 

[fuc]

hardwareversand.de this site is cheap and they have all !!!

 

[YellarMan]

i know hardwareversand.de is cheap but shipping an entire computer here costs like 200 euro in shipping cost so i dont save money and it would take longer to get here compared to ordering from somwhere like Dabs.ie who are based in Ireland.

EDIT im wrong its actually not that expensive for shipping i was getting shipping cost mixed up with their monthly finance plan by which you end up paying like 200 euro more.