First gaming pc

1: i7 3820 is a LGA 2011 cpu and will not fit in a LGA 1155 board that you have picked. i would recommend a i5 3570k and a gigabyte z77x-ud3h cpu and board. you do not need a i7 to game as i5 are the same in gaming situations.

2: why not get hx750 when its only like 30 bucks more and you get 80+ silver and modularity

3: i recommend getting a seagate barracuda 1tb drive with 64mb of cache because ts cheaper and faster

4: i recommend getting a crucial 128gb drive because its faster and more reliable

What is your budget? Are you overclocking? If you could use the sticky, it would help us help you!

Sorry about that!

Approximate Purchase Date: within the next month
Budget Range: <2k
System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, surfing, downloading
Parts Not Required: speakers
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: tigerdirect, directcanada, ncix
Country: (e.g.: India) we need to know where these parts are being assembled
Parts Preferences: I'd rather Intel than AMD, and I would really like to have the graphics card listed in the build
Overclocking: Yes, I wouldn't mind trying it
SLI or Crossfire: Not at the moment, but maybe later if a few months
Monitor Resolution: no preference, but I'd like to have dual monitors
Additional Comments: need all the parts to be compatible!

Based on TheBigTroll's comment, I changed a few things, let me know what you think!


Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) 240$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink AM2 AM3 LGA1366/1155/1156/2011 120MM 31$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11130AC0554&v...

Gigabyte (GV-N670OC-2GD) nVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 Chipset 420$
http://canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_55...

CORSAIR Professional Series HX750 (CMPSU-750HX) 750W ATX12V 2.3 147$
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681...

Corsair CC-9011013-WW Carbide Series 500R Mid Tower Gaming Case 130$
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/ite...

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 130$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard 190$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Seagate ST1000DM003 Barracuda 1TB Hard Drive - 1TB, 7200RPM, 64MB, SATA 6Gb/s 100$
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item...

Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) 150$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Pioneer DVR-219LBK (Black) SATA 24x DVD-Writer OEM 26$
http://canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=3_61&...

If someone can help me find dual monitors compatible with my graphics card too that would be great!  
I also read somewhere it is good to have a water cooling system if I was going to overclock? can anyone comment on that please?

I'm not good with monitors, but I'll subtract $500 so that we can account for them.

Going down the list:

CPU: I'd recommend SB (i5-2500k) because it overclocks better, doesn't have worse performance, and is cheaper.

GPU: I'd switch to MSI twin Frozr II OC if possible, or ASUS

PSU: I like the PC Power and Cooling 750W Silver rated PSU... it's like $80

RAM: 16GB is unnecessary. You'd be perfectly fine with 8GB (2x4GB).

Mobo: I'd suggest the ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3

Everything else looks good!

ok thanks for the advice!
but if I weren't to overclock, can I leave my pc the way it is atm?

Hoooold on. If you're not overclocking, then we can take some of the components down.

Anyway, your build is good. It would be a great build that you would enjoy. Most of the things I would change make very small improvements (though they may save you money). If you left it, you would be very happy with this PC. You'd probably be a bit happier with the changes I suggested, though  

get ivy bridge. it performs better than sandy clock for clock

Benchmarks or nothing  

Thanks for the help guys!
just a few more questions and I think I'll be set
if I were to change my ram to vengence memory DDR3, would it still be compatible?
and can someone tell me what inputs my graphics card has so I can see what monitor I should get?

go ahead it will work fine.

Same with you. It does perform better clock for clock.
http://vr-zone.com/articles/ivy-bridge-vs-sandy-bridge-...

Ah. Okay. I'm appeased   Problem is, the clock itself can't go very high

It doesn't need to go high. 4.2 GHz IB is 4.5 GHz SB, which is the balancing point.

I guess all I'm left with is that SB costs less  

A $20 difference for the ability for an OC to be 10-20% better than an equivalent SB OC is worth the price.

Not to mention the ability to utilize PCI-E 3.0 which is nice to have.

SB OC IS better. SB gets up to 5GHz fairly easily, while IB can barely get to 4.5 (with the same ease). I don't think it makes up for 500MHz that easily. IB doesn't OC better.

If I get the EVGA GTX 680 do I have to upgrade my PSU or will the 750w hx750 be enough?

It'll be enough

What use is there to go to 5 GHz? Max you should ever go to on SB is 4.5 GHz. Using a higher OC, even if it is impractical, to sway others away from IB, is not a good way to give advice.

+1


Direct Canada and Best Direct Canada are affiliated (both ship out of the same warehouse in Richmond, BC) and both offer FREE SHIPPING. Any order over $50 @ Direct Canada is FREE SHIPPING and any order over $80 @ Best Direct Canada is FREE SHIPPING.

http://www.directcanada.com/

http://www.bestdirect.ca/

This build allows you to add another one of those cards later on in SLI


http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11180AC6193&v... $86.52
Corsair Carbide Series 400R Mid-Tower Case ATX 4X5.25 6X3.5INT USB 1394 No PS

or...

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11180AC6196&v... $113.56
Corsair Carbide Series 500R Mid-Tower Gaming Case ATX 4X5.25 6X3.5INT USB 1394 No PS Black

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=15180AC1911&v... $120.44
XFX 750W PRO750W XXX Edition Single Rail ATX 12V 62A 24PIN ATX Modular Power Supply 80PLUS Silver

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=16950BD6547&v... $150.12 MIR. $130.12
ASUS P8Z77-V Lk ATX LGA1155 Z77 DDR3 3PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 3PCI SATA3 DVI HDMI DP USB3.0 Motherboard

or...

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10530BD6646&v... $193.40
ASUS P8Z77-V ATX LGA1155 Z77 DDR3 SLI 3PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 2PCI SATA3 DisplayPort USB3.0 Motherboard

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8Z7... <----- another look at that board

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=12200BD0768&v... $244.40
Intel Core i5 3570K Unlocked Quad Core Processor LGA1155 3.4GHZ Ivy Bridge 6MB Retail

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11130AC0554&v... $31.05
Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink AM2 AM3 LGA1366/1155/1156/2011 120MM

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=15380BD5211&v... $50.59
G.SKILL Ripjaws X F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24 Memory

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10530DR5213&v... $17.79
ASUS DRW-24B1ST 24X SATA DVD Writer OEM Black

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=16950AC0275&v... $74.20
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB 3.5IN 16MB Cache SATA3 Internal Hard Disk Drive HDD

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=16950BD6407&v... $439.79
ASUS GTX 670 DirectCU II 1137MHZ 2GB 6.0GHZ GDDR5 2xDVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Video Card

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=16950DR5419&v... $111.76
Kingston SVP200S3/120G 120GB SSDNow V+200 SATA 3 2.5 Solid State Drive

or...

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=16950DR7773&v... $217.46
Kingston 240GB SSDNow V+200 SATA 3 2.5

http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/NVIDIA_Series/GTX670... <----- another look at that Asus card

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10530MN1490&v... $137.28
ASUS VS228H-P 21.5IN Widescreen LED LCD Monitor 1920X1080 5ms 50M:1 250CD/M2 HDMI VGA

1. Whats the difference between the ASUS GTX670 and the EVGA GTX670?
2. Will i be able to put two of those ASUS VS228H-P monitors in that graphics card?

1. Just coolers and possibly clocks.
2. You should be fine

The EVGA is a reference card, which means the exhaust is directed out of the case. With non-reference, the exhaust goes back into the case and is released through the exhaust fan.

non-reference usually has a better cooler, though. As well as higher clock speeds.

I never said it didn't. I was just explaining the differences in non reference and reference design.

ah ok thanks for your help guys so this will be my final build. please let me know if i missed anything!


Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) 240$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink AM2 AM3 LGA1366/1155/1156/2011 120MM 31$
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11130AC0554&v...

EVGA GeForce GTX 680 2048MB GDDR5 540$
http://canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_55...

CORSAIR Professional Series HX750 (CMPSU-750HX) 750W ATX12V 2.3 147$
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681...

Corsair Carbide Series 500R White Steel 140$
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681...

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 49$
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1682...

GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD3H 160$
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681...

Seagate ST1000DM003 Barracuda 1TB Hard Drive - 1TB, 7200RPM, 64MB, SATA 6Gb/s 100$
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item...

Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) 150$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Pioneer DVR-219LBK (Black) SATA 24x DVD-Writer OEM 26$
http://canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=3_61&...

Looks good! Have fun!

will i be able to sli or crossfire with this build?

two way xFire/SLI yes. Anything over that and I don't think so.

However, if you're going over 2-way SLI/Crossfire, then I'm not sure why you're spending this amount on a PC. I understand upgradeability, but you're talking like... $500 easy for a 2-way SLI/Crossfire setup

im sorry i don't really understand your question, so it would be better to do a 2-way sli/crossfire? 1 more thing is it better for me to get low profile ram? can someone recommend one for me

Okay, so basically, SLI/Crossfire is putting two GPUs side by side. I wouldn't recommend it unless you want to upgrade later on. Basically, you buy a GPU now. You put it in. Later on, if you want to upgrade the performance, instead of buying a whole new GPU, you could just buy another of the GPU you already have and run BOTH of them simultaneously.

Low-profile RAM is only necessary if you have a large heatsink... which you don't. It's just lower in height.

aah okay thank you very much ddan49! you've been very helpful