GAMING BUILD $1225 MAX

[Xtremeskill]

Approximate Purchase Date: (3/22/2012) for GTX 680

Budget Range: 1225, i dont care if its before or after rebate

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming

Parts Not Required: PSU, CD drive, monitor, keyboard, mouse.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: New egg (tiger direct shipping on parts to my house is 50 bucks a piece)

Country: USA

Parts Preferences: The best parts!

Overclocking: Not now but later

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe later

Monitor Resolution: 1920x 2080

Additional Comments: Sound does not matter, I have tons of fans.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



CASE: Coolermaster Elite 430 60$ (40$ with rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119227

Hard drive: Western digital caviar blue 500 GB 75$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136814

GPU: GTX 680 $550
Not out yet but specs: http://videocardz.com/nvidia/geforce-600/geforce-gtx-680

CPU: i5 2500k $219
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

Heatsink: Coolermaster 212 $35
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB $67 ($32 with rebate and combo)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233170

MOBO: ASROCK Z68 Extreme3 Gen3
ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

OS: Windows 7 home premium 64 bit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

Total cost= $1215

 

[PureGXx]

You can't really say those are the specs of the 680 just saying and the price might be higher. Considering the 580's just dropped from 500 to 400. I'm in the same debate but most of it has been lies. If you can wait for the Kepler then wait. If your looking for it now then I would go with 580 IMO the price is right on right now. Also I would take that 500GB HDD out of there for a 1.5TB for a bit more. If you are also looking for a decent CPU check the 2550k its clocked a bit higher for about $10 more.If you want more room for your MoBo I would suggest looking at this below aswell it will be quilter and takes less room up. I would also consider looking at a FULL ALX case for more room to upgrade. I got the LanBoy Air its great and all but its tiny as hell. Only nice thing is that I can run graphic cards from the back to the front of the case so no problems with the big cards. Also what PSU do you have. Most of the newer cards are taking more to power and especially Nvidia not saying its bad just their competitors take over for running less power. Just a reminder that Vengenace are larger so be careful if you are using a heat sink because they will run into problems with height. I have rip jaws and they are really close to touching my heat sink.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181015
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115230&Tpk=2550k
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136892

 

[g-unit1111]

You can't really say those are the specs of the 680 just saying and the price might be higher. Considering the 580's just dropped from 500 to 400. I'm in the same debate but most of it has been lies. If you can wait for the Kepler then wait.

Why wait for Keppler when the new Radeon 7800's are out tomorrow and they're getting incredibly rave reviews?

Also I would take that 500GB HDD out of there for a 1.5TB for a bit more. If you are also looking for a decent CPU check the 2550k its clocked a bit higher for about $10 more.

But then you also forfeit onboard video with the 2550K and it's a slightly slower clock, it's kind of a moot point if you ask me.

Try this build:

Case: Fractal Design Arc MIDI - $99.99
PSU: Corsair TX750 V2 - $104.99 ($15.00 MIR)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3H - $149.99
CPU: 3.30GHz Intel Core i5-2500K - $229.99
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo - $34.99
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB 1600MHz 1.5V - $44.99
SSD: 64GB Crucial M4 - $99.99
HD: Samsung Ecogreen F4 2TB - $149.99
Optical: Lite On DVD Burner - $17.99
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 - $320 (approx)

Total: $1254.89

 

[azeem40]

What is the difference between the Z68X-UD3H and the Z68XP-UD3?

 

[Xtremeskill]

I do agree with you that the 2550k is pointless. However the reason i dont have 1.5 tb hdd is because 500 GB is enough until i can buy a new one when prices go down, also the 7800's are expose to be a lot slower the gtx 600's, as well in your build there is no OS as well as i dont want a SSD. I also have no need for a PSU or an optical drive as i have a few of them myself.

You can't really say those are the specs of the 680 just saying and the price might be higher. Considering the 580's just dropped from 500 to 400. I'm in the same debate but most of it has been lies. If you can wait for the Kepler then wait.

Why wait for Keppler when the new Radeon 7800's are out tomorrow and they're getting incredibly rave reviews?

Also I would take that 500GB HDD out of there for a 1.5TB for a bit more. If you are also looking for a decent CPU check the 2550k its clocked a bit higher for about $10 more.

But then you also forfeit onboard video with the 2550K and it's a slightly slower clock, it's kind of a moot point if you ask me.

Try this build:

Case: Fractal Design Arc MIDI - $99.99
PSU: Corsair TX750 V2 - $104.99 ($15.00 MIR)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3H - $149.99
CPU: 3.30GHz Intel Core i5-2500K - $229.99
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo - $34.99
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB 1600MHz 1.5V - $44.99
SSD: 64GB Crucial M4 - $99.99
HD: Samsung Ecogreen F4 2TB - $149.99
Optical: Lite On DVD Burner - $17.99
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 - $320 (approx)

Total: $1254.89

 

[sinthoras]

You can't really say those are the specs of the 680 just saying and the price might be higher. Considering the 580's just dropped from 500 to 400. I'm in the same debate but most of it has been lies. If you can wait for the Kepler then wait.

Why wait for Keppler when the new Radeon 7800's are out tomorrow and they're getting incredibly rave reviews?

Thumbs up if you are excited about 7800s tomorrow !!!

 

[g-unit1111]

What is the difference between the Z68X-UD3H and the Z68XP-UD3?

I'm not a big fan of the blue / white proprietary Gigabyte color scheme - I like the black / grey of their higher end boards a lot better.

Thumbs up if you are excited about 7800s tomorrow !!!

Oh. Yes.

I do agree with you that the 2550k is pointless. However the reason i dont have 1.5 tb hdd is because 500 GB is enough until i can buy a new one when prices go down, also the 7800's are expose to be a lot slower the gtx 600's, as well in your build there is no OS as well as i dont want a SSD. I also have no need for a PSU or an optical drive as i have a few of them myself.

First off you're not going to get a better bargain than that Samsung 2TB HD I linked to even if/when the prices drop. If you don't want an SSD that's fine. You can always reuse parts - that's something I definitely recommend doing.

Second - I'm not buying NVIDIA's PR noise about the 6XX series untilt the actual cards are out and benchmarked. If the 78XX are slower than the 6XX, I'll believe it when I see it - until then that's what I'm recommending. They're out (or almost out) where we might be several months out before the 6XX drops. The numbers that the 78XX and 79XX are producing are quite amazing. And that's what I'm sticking with. If NVIDIA produces a better product, I'll believe it when I see it, but for now I'm not recommending it.

 

[badjad05]

Yeah that 580 is complete overkill.