Help with building gaming PC, $800-ish budget.

[SlickSe7en]

Approximate Purchase Date: This Week/Month

Budget Range: Somewhere around $800

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, surfing internet, etc.

Parts Not Required: mouse, monitor, DVD drive, OS(Win7), CPU(have i5 2500k), RAM(have G.SKILL Sniper 8GB).

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Any if it has some kind of deal

Country: United States.

Parts Preferences: Wish to get a Z68 mobo, and quality parts.

Overclocking: Yes.

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe in the future.

Monitor Resolution: 1440x900 at the moment, might upgrade in the future.

Additional Comments: Can wait on Video Card, and use onboard graphics for the moment. Also want a nice roomy case so it's easier to put in the parts with my huge hands

Currently Bought:

Intel Core i5 2500K Quad Core Unlocked Processor LGA1155 3.3GHZ Sandy Bridge 6MB

G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR

 

[neal0790]

Well first off you need a cpu cooler if you plan to overclock right away. The hyper 212 is a great one and will only run your about 30 dollars. If you dont plan to overclock to can wait and use the stock cooler but with some cases its alot easier to just put it in right away.

I use the antec 1100 and love it. Got the room of a full tower, with the size of a mid tower. Its an inch taller and 2 inches longer than a midsize tower, nice in between. Runs about $110, but has pretty much everything you will ever need in a case at a fair price. But either way what ever case you buy has to be what you like, considering your going to be staring at it. Just make sure it has good wire management, cooling, and can fit every upgrade you might purchase in the future. The storm trooper, antec 900, and haf22 are great cases to take a look at.

For motherboards, take a look at asus and gigabyte. The got a board for almost every price range from $100-$250. There both great boards and are on par with each other. I personally prefer the Asus ones, they have a few extra programs to make the bios easier, and feature auto overclocking. Plus give you an extra year under there warrenty. They have ivy bridge support and pci 3.0. You can go wrong with either.

The PSU is a little tricky considering you dont know which card you want to get in the future. They all have different power consumtion for single and sli cards. If you got a estimate on what your looking to spend take a look at the cards in your price range and buy a psu accordingly. It better to buy one that will be enough now, then buy one and buy a 2nd when you get your card. Evga and sapphire are great brands.

HDD prices are high now because of the floods but seem to be going down. You could save some money by going for a 500gb HDD now and when you fill it up just grab another. Western digital and seagate are great brands to take a look at. There both equally quality HDD, seagates tend to be a few bucks cheaper though.

 

[SlickSe7en]

Well first off you need a cpu cooler if you plan to overclock right away. The hyper 212 is a great one and will only run your about 30 dollars. If you dont plan to overclock to can wait and use the stock cooler but with some cases its alot easier to just put it in right away.

I use the antec 1100 and love it. Got the room of a full tower, with the size of a mid tower. Its an inch taller and 2 inches longer than a midsize tower, nice in between. Runs about $110, but has pretty much everything you will ever need in a case at a fair price. But either way what ever case you buy has to be what you like, considering your going to be staring at it. Just make sure it has good wire management, cooling, and can fit every upgrade you might purchase in the future. The storm trooper, antec 900, and haf22 are great cases to take a look at.

For motherboards, take a look at asus and gigabyte. The got a board for almost every price range from $100-$250. There both great boards and are on par with each other. I personally prefer the Asus ones, they have a few extra programs to make the bios easier, and feature auto overclocking. Plus give you an extra year under there warrenty. They have ivy bridge support and pci 3.0. You can go wrong with either.

The PSU is a little tricky considering you dont know which card you want to get in the future. They all have different power consumtion for single and sli cards. If you got a estimate on what your looking to spend take a look at the cards in your price range and buy a psu accordingly. It better to buy one that will be enough now, then buy one and buy a 2nd when you get your card. Evga and sapphire are great brands.

HDD prices are high now because of the floods but seem to be going down. You could save some money by going for a 500gb HDD now and when you fill it up just grab another. Western digital and seagate are great brands to take a look at. There both equally quality HDD, seagates tend to be a few bucks cheaper though.

Thanks for the reply,

I plan to get a cooler right away, and the CM hyper 212 was the one I had in mind to get.

As for the case, I'll go ahead and take a look at the ones you mentioned. Case is probably the one thing that I'm unsure on what to get, since I feel like I don't want to waste too much on one, and don't really care for looks, but I also feel that if I just go with a cheap one it will just cause me headaches with cooling and what-not.

Motherboard is something that's been giving me some headaches, mainly because I haven't actually bought one before, just used what came bundled with other parts I've been looking at them on newegg and they all seem quite similar to me, This seems like a relatively good one Although this ASrock mobo seems pretty spot-on for what I need. since I've always been a fan of Asus myself. But perhaps I should keep a look out for a deal on one? Not sure.

As for PSU, it's one thing I don't want to skimp out on, and get a quality 500W+ one preferably over 600W, heard good things about corsair and coolermaster PSU's.

As for video card, one I would love to find a deal on is probably an unlockable 6950, but those haven't come up in a while for me. Was looking at a 560Ti for $189 after MIR that comes with BF3 on newegg, but it seems like a weak card that runs pretty hot and would only run well in SLI.

HDD is actually the least of my worries at the moment, could probably get a brand new 3TB Hitachi for about $180 or so from a family friend, but I would like to see if maybe I can find one that has less space, but is cheaper, since 3TB seems way too much for me since I've been living with 500GB up to now.

 

[SlickSe7en]

Would this case work out just fine for my PC build? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147060

I can get it for $39.99 with a promo code.

 

[azeem40]

Any mid tower will fit an ATX motherboard.

 

[SlickSe7en]

Decided to pull the trigger on the Rosewill case, seems like a pretty good case and the price seems even better. Just need mainly the mobo and PSU now.