Gaming PC

[astroman86]

Hi Folks.

First, thanks in advance for your help. I've always wanted to build my own gaming PC (Civ V, here I come!) and I've decided to take the plunge. Could you let me know what you think of the following components and if I overlooked any compatibility issues?

Cooler Master Storm Enforcer USB 3.0 Mid Tower ATX Case ($85)
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler ($32)
PSU: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series 750W Power Supply ($95)
RAM: Kingston Technology HyperX 16 GB Kit (4x4 GB Modules) 16 Quad Channel Kit ($100)
Motherboard: ASUS LGA 1155 - Z68 - PCIe 3.0 and UEFI BIOS Intel Z68 ATX DDR3 2200 LGA 1155 ($205)
GPU: ASUS HD7870-DC2-2GD5 Radeon 2GB DDR5 VGA/DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort ($330)
Intel Core i5-2500K Quad-Core Processor 3.3 GHz 6 MB Cache LGA 1155 ($215)
Crucial 128 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s ($110)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (Retail; $160)
Lite-On LightScribe 24X SATA DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive IHAS424-98 ($30)

Total cost would be about $1360.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[rwayne]

I would go wtih a Core I-5 3570 instead with a Z77 motherboard.
The HD7870 is rather power efficient. You can save money going with a 650Watt PSU
You can also save money going with 8GB of ram instead of 16GB. (8GB is plenty.)

The DVD drive is a bad deal at $30
You can get this 5 egg rated LG DVD Drive (with 87 reviews) for $16 and free shipping with promocode EMCNCHD43 (expires 8/1)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136247&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL072612&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL072612-_-EMC-072612-Index-_-CDDVDBurners-_-27136247-L09B

 

[nekulturny]

Theres really no reason to go with the 3570K for gaming. It costs more, the lower power it uses would take at least a year, probably two to justify the savings on your electric bill for the extra up front cost you paid for the 3570K.

Other than that, yea, 8GB is enough and so is the Corsair TX650 v2. As far as the optical drive, do you *really* need LightScribe???? Get a sharpie pen like the rest of us. Make sure the RAM you get (a lot of the Kingston Hyper series is 1.65v) 1.5V is absolutely mandatory for warranty purposes on an Intel CPU, this applies to both Sandy and Ivy. Warranty aside, it seems like people have stability issues with 1.65v RAM.

 

[astroman86]

Thanks nekulturny. Amazon is selling the 3570K for the same price as the 2500K, so I assume all things being equal I would go with the 3570K for the reason you gave (slightly smaller power consumption). I didn't realize the LightScribe etched the label on the disc but yes, I'll just write the labels on with a sharpie and go with a cheaper drive.

Theres really no reason to go with the 3570K for gaming. It costs more, the lower power it uses would take at least a year, probably two to justify the savings on your electric bill for the extra up front cost you paid for the 3570K.

Other than that, yea, 8GB is enough and so is the Corsair TX650 v2. As far as the optical drive, do you *really* need LightScribe???? Get a sharpie pen like the rest of us. Make sure the RAM you get (a lot of the Kingston Hyper series is 1.65v) 1.5V is absolutely mandatory for warranty purposes on an Intel CPU, this applies to both Sandy and Ivy. Warranty aside, it seems like people have stability issues with 1.65v RAM.

 

[rwayne]

If you live near a microcenter you can get a Core I-5 2500k for $169 in-store.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0354589

If you can't the site claims that Tiger Direct has it for $189.

 

[astroman86]

Thanks rwayne. I'll drop it down to 8GB and use the 650W PSU. I'll also go with the Z77+i5 3570. Unfortunately the nearest microcenter is on LI and they're out of stock there, so I'll have to get it online.

I would go wtih a Core I-5 3570 instead with a Z77 motherboard.
The HD7870 is rather power efficient. You can save money going with a 650Watt PSU
You can also save money going with 8GB of ram instead of 16GB. (8GB is plenty.)

The DVD drive is a bad deal at $30
You can get this 5 egg rated LG DVD Drive (with 87 reviews) for $16 and free shipping with promocode EMCNCHD43 (expires 8/1)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136247&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL072612&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL072612-_-EMC-072612-Index-_-CDDVDBurners-_-27136247-L09B

 

[nekulturny]

Thanks nekulturny. Amazon is selling the 3570K for the same price as the 2500K, so I assume all things being equal I would go with the 3570K for the reason you gave (slightly smaller power consumption). I didn't realize the LightScribe etched the label on the disc but yes, I'll just write the labels on with a sharpie and go with a cheaper drive.

You're welcome, if they're the same price on Amazon, then go for it. Generally I've seen the 3570K typically runs about $20 bucks more, its really not worth any more than $1 for gamers.

Yea the lightscribe thing is a neat little feature, the trade off is, you need special blank disks that can be "scribed". Which cost more, and then we come back to the Sharpie pen argument lol. 3.49 for a pack of 5 at your local walmart!