My 1st gaming system build. Opinions?

[yellow]

Sadly my old comp wasn't cutting it when playing D3, so I decided to build a new, up to date computer for gaming instead of trying to upgrade. I am a total noob, but I knew enough to be able to buy parts that were compatible (thankfully). Thanks to newegg.com, I was able to find the parts I needed and pick them up the same day (local for me). Everything was chosen based on reviews and price. My budget at first was $1k, but that quickly went up to $1.2k and ultimately ended up at $1500. I already have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, so that kept the price down.



Power Supply - CORSAIR Professional Series HX750 (CMPSU-750HX) 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS SILVER Certified

Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Processor - Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor

Heatsink - ZALMAN CNPS9900ALED 120mm 2 Ball Low-noise Blue LED CPU Cooler

RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

Optic Drive - ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner

Case - COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Advanced RC-932-KKN5-GP Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case with USB 3.0

Graphics - EVGA 01G-P3-1561-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support

OS - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM




I spent more time than usual. I read that most people could put together a computer in 40 mins to 2 hours if they spent time cleaning up the cabling. All in all I probably spent 3 hours. Partially due to a small workspace and the fact that I am so impatient that I opened every single box and had parts and manuals everywhere. Much to my surprise I had not one issue. It started up just fine and Windows installed properly. After all the disks where installed and the drivers were updated, I was ready to play

I am sure I could have built it for a little cheaper and that I may have went overkill on a few things, but again, I'm a noob. I don't think I will mess with trying to OC at all, but maybe after some extensive reading I may give it a try.

Any opinions? TIA (thanks in advance).

 

[willard]

1. 16GB of memory is 8GB too much. There is no performance benefit to having more memory than you need. Unless you're doing serious rendering work, that much memory is a waste.

2. 750W PSU is overkill unless you're using multiple video cards. 550W would have been plenty.

3. I would have gone with a Z77 motherboard. Z68 carries no benefits over Z77 whatsoever, while Z77 gives you more USB 3.0 ports, more SATA III ports and PCIe 3.0 support.

4. 2600k paired with a 560 Ti in a gaming system is lopsided. You need a powerful video card, not a powerful processor, not to mention hyperthreading does almost nothing for games (the only difference between the 2500k and 2600k is hyperthreading).

Could have gotten much more bang for your buck if you'd asked about the build before you bought it.

 

[yellow]

1. 16GB of memory is 8GB too much. There is no performance benefit to having more memory than you need. Unless you're doing serious rendering work, that much memory is a waste.

2. 750W PSU is overkill unless you're using multiple video cards. 550W would have been plenty.

3. I would have gone with a Z77 motherboard. Z68 carries no benefits over Z77 whatsoever, while Z77 gives you more USB 3.0 ports, more SATA III ports and PCIe 3.0 support.

4. 2600k paired with a 560 Ti in a gaming system is lopsided. You need a powerful video card, not a powerful processor, not to mention hyperthreading does almost nothing for games (the only difference between the 2500k and 2600k is hyperthreading).

Could have gotten much more bang for your buck if you'd asked about the build before you bought it.

This of course is the downfall to being impatient. Had I taken the time to post my potential build in a thread for feedback, I could have saved a couple hundred I imagine and, as you said, could have had more bang for my buck.

Aside from buying parts that I don't really need and spending more than I could have if I had been more patient, will this setup last me a while with the way technology keeps advancing?

 

[willard]

The video card is pretty weak, but everything else is fine. You can add a second 560 Ti for an SLI setup later, which will give you good performance.

 

[yellow]

The video card is pretty weak, but everything else is fine. You can add a second 560 Ti for an SLI setup later, which will give you good performance.

Thank you very much for your input, willard. I have a lot of reading/learning to do, and definitely need to learn patience. Had I waited, I could have used the money I would have saved and bought a better vid card. I'll probably wait a few months and go with SLI as you suggested. I'd rather spend another $200 on a vid card to go SLI than buy a card in the $400 range after already spending $200.

 

[willard]

Good idea. 560 Ti in SLI is actually a very good performer, you just have the higher power requirement and microstuttering.

 

[cranked]

Yeah, you could have built a much much more powerful gaming pc for $1500.

It's unfortunate that you didn't ask before you bought.

You could have easily fit a 670 in a $1500 budget.