Ivy Bridge First Gaming Build Version 2.0 $1400-$1900 CAD

[Gbay31]

This is hopefully my final revision of the list I'm putting together to build my first high end gaming machine. (High end to me that is ). I'm pretty noob with alot of this stuff but I'm learning quickly and I know building my own is the best way to do this. I've never built a computer before and I'm excited to do it for the first time.


Purchase Date: I hope to have this all ordered and together by May sometime. Wondering if I should start ordering most of these parts now in prep for the Ivy Bridge release.


Budget: $1400-$1900 CAD after shipping etc.


System Usage from Most to Least Important: GAMING, watching movies etc, photoshop, music,


Country: I live in far northern Canada


Parts Not Required: I'll be gaming on my TV and I have a monitor, but I may buy a new HD 3d monitor if I can afford it now or later down the road. I have a decent keyboard and mouse but if budget allows I'm up for upgrading and I have a decent speaker system. I also have a 1TB portable hard drive and a 2TB portable hardrive with USB 3.0 for all my movies, music, and shows. So I don't need much storage space.


Overclocking: Most likely once I learn more about it. I don't have too much help in my vicinity.


Case: I'm pretty sold on: Zalman Z11 Plus Mid Tower ATX Case Black 4X5.25 1X3.5 5X3.5INT No PS Front USB3.0 & Audio
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=69199
price: $84.99 CAD


Motherboard: Most likely: ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional Motherboard: http://pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=19871



ASRock Z77 Extreme6 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813157295

or ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] vl35apv6rz

price: $154.99


ASUS P8Z77 ? http://usa.asus.com/Motherboards/I [...] /P8Z77_WS/


Open to all advice.


CPU: i5-3570K Ivy Bridge http://www.anandtech.com/show/5626 [...] i7-3770k/9 http://pcper.com/news/Processors/I [...] ch-23-2012
price: $225.00


CPU Cooler: Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink AM2 AM3 LGA1366/1155/1156/2011 120MM http://www.directcanada.com/produc [...] OLERMASTER
price: $31.05

Coolermaster Blade Master 120 Black 120MM PWM Case Fan 600-2000RPM 21.2-76.8CFM http://www.directcanada.com/produc [...] OLERMASTER
price: $8.05


GPU/Video card: EVGA GeForce GTX 680 SUPERCLOCKED+ 1058MHZ 2GB 6.2GHZ GDDR5 2xDVI DisplayPort HDMI PCI-E http://www.ncix.com/products/index [...] omoid=1067
price: $529.99 CAD


Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws X F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24 Memory http://www.directcanada.com/produc [...] re=G.SKILL
price: $48.87 CAD

I really know nothing about timings and so forth. A little help with the best RAM option for this build?


PSU: XFX 850W PRO850W XXX Edition Single Rail ATX 12V 70A 24PIN ATX Modular Power Supply 80PLUS Silver http://www.directcanada.com/produc [...] acture=XFX
price: $135.65 CAD


SSD: Crucial M4 SSD Micron C400 128GB 2.5IN Solid State Disk Flash Drive SATA3 6Gbps http://ncix.com/products/?sku=6044 [...] TECHNOLOGY
price: $175.18 CAD


HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM 64MB Sata 6GBPS 3.5IN Internal Hard Drive - Oem http://www.directcanada.com/produc [...] re=SEAGATE
price: $111.30 CAD


Blu Ray Drive: LG BH12LS38 12X Blu Ray Rewriter SATA Black Lightscribe 3D Playback http://ncix.com/products/?sku=6287 [...] omoid=1263
price: $84.99 CAD

or ASUS DRW-24B1ST 24X SATA DVD Writer OEM Black http://www.directcanada.com/produc [...] cture=ASUS


OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64BIT SP1 DVD OEM http://ncix.com/products/?sku=45271
price: $119.98 CAD



Total before rebates and shipping: $1710.04




I'd like to know if I should go ahead and start the ordering process. If I'm missing anything. If I should change anything, or wait for anything.
Will everything be compatible?
Is the cooling system going to work well?
Will it stand the test of time? Is it worth it? lol
How do you like the build?


I appreciate any and all input as this is a big purchase for me and I've been putting it off a long while. Also any direction to good sites or videos to help me assemble everything could help as this is my first build and I have little experience with this type of thing. I'm not too concerned tho. How hard can it be?

 

[azeem40]

Everthing is great!

 

[Kamab]

Looks great, your SSD/HDD choices are very good. This is almost the exact build I would do if building a system for gaming.

Don't bother OCing your RAM or FSB or anything if this is your first build.

The HSU you picked is great for ocing.

TBH I would just buy the SSD for now and wait until HDD prices drop or you find a good deal. 1TB is super overkill for most people (I'm using like 5% of mine after 2 years with a 80GB SSD / 1TB HDD setup). 120GB will get you very far (unless you are saving HD videos on your machine)

 

[azeem40]

How will he learn to OC if he never does it?

 

[Gbay31]

the case looks really cool but i hope that wasnt the reason you chose it, i dont have to time to look for reviews about it but this is a great case (cool in both ways)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112323

I chose the case because I looked at a bunch of them and I felt that it had great specs and reviews on top of it looking pretty cool. Seems like it has enough cooling and etc, but I am open to suggestions. Just seems like it will be good enough.

I'll look into your other suggestions

 

[Kamab]

How will he learn to OC if he never does it?

My point is he won't notice a performance difference if he OCs his RAM. Compared to OCing your CPU/GPU the benefits are very slim in most applications.

Increasing noticeable performance is usually achieved by eliminating bottlenecks. IMO it's more important for a system with an APU

 

[azeem40]

I thought you were talking about not OCing CPU. My misunderstanding.

 

[Gbay31]

get this SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227791

this HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185&Tpk=samsung%20f3%201tb

this PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139016

and if you can fit it in your budget get the ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional motherboard

oh and...get this cooler: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118091 is a bit expensive but it will let you overclock the hell out your cpu, PM me if you need advice in doing that

and for extreme overclocking, you need good, dense, and fast ram
try this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148540
1 stick will be better for high overclocking

The SSD, PSU, Mobo, RAM and Cooler you suggested are intriguing. I'm not sold on the Samsung HDD though. I need to learn more about RAM timings and what 1600-1866-2100 etc. means as well. Someone told me I should be using something above the 1600s?

Looks great, your SSD/HDD choices are very good. This is almost the exact build I would do if building a system for gaming.

TBH I would just buy the SSD for now and wait until HDD prices drop or you find a good deal. 1TB is super overkill for most people (I'm using like 5% of mine after 2 years with a 80GB SSD / 1TB HDD setup). 120GB will get you very far (unless you are saving HD videos on your machine)

I was thinking the same thing but somebody had told me I need both. And as far as video storage etc, I have the 2 portables already. There are so many different SSDs to chose from. I really just want the fastest 120G SSD I can get for gaming. Thanks for the input!

How will he learn to OC if he never does it?

I definitely plan on OCing once I've learned more about it and get over my fear of putting it all together for the first time.

 

[Kamab]

If you want the FASTEST ssd, the recommendation for the Vertex 4 might be your best bet. However, its brand new and if it has any problems they havent surfaced yet(though im betting the new controller they are using is going to be an improvement). On the other hand, crucial's SSDs are known to be very solid and very fast, plus the noticeable difference between top end SSDs is VERY slim (not talking about benchmarks). Your probably talking about ms differences in load times.

Make sure your controller is set to AHCI when you are installing Windows for the best performance.

 

[Gbay31]

Ic I'll look into this. Thanks! RAM is the only other area I feel completely grey on. Are the ripjaws my best bet here and if so which ones?

 

[Gbay31]

Excellent rundown Frozo. I thank you for your input and I'll probably take you up on that in a PM some time soon!

 

[Gbay31]

Best answer selected by Gbay31.