First lean, mean, gaming machine

[nick5511]

Approximate Purchase Date: e.g.: A week give or take.

Budget Range: 900-1000 (not counting rebates/shipping)

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming only. I have a laptop for school and internet.

Are you buying a monitor:No

Parts to Upgrade: Basically everything that goes into a tower only.

Do you need to buy OS: Yes, and I am not planning on buying OEM

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg, or amazon if shipping is not free.

Location: Michigan, USA.

Parts Preferences: Anything with the best deal

Overclocking:No

SLI or Crossfire:No

Additional Comments: Just basically looking for a decent gaming rig with a budget. What primarily concerns me is the small details which I might have missed about my build, such as having enough connections for the PSU ect. This is new ground for me, so I am bound to make newbie mistakes.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading:Laptops are less than ideal for gaming, and mine is far outdated.

Components:

Tower Case: Rosewill BLACKHAWK Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case (5 fans included)
RAM:Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
Graphics Card:SAPPHIRE 11188-22-20G Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP
CPU:Intel Core i5-3570 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core
Motherboard:ASUS P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
SSD:Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2CCA 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) with Transfer Kit
PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W Modular
DVD Drive: Sony Optiarc 24X DVD Burner

Any help is greatly appreciated guys. Thanks!

 

[FinneousPJ]

Downgrade to B75 chipset and i5-3450 since you're not overclocking. Use the saved money to get a HD7850.

 

[nick5511]

Downgrade to B75 chipset and i5-3450 since you're not overclocking. Use the saved money to get a HD7850.

I actually upgraded my CPU since I thought that would be my bottleneck, but if the lower grade i5 is good enough, I could very well do that (as well as downgrading the MOBO) and get a better graphics card.

My concern with the B75 is that it doesn't accept the 1600 RAM. Is this even noticeable then?

I suppose I don't know much about the b75 chipset as opposed to the Z77. Any advice?

 

[FinneousPJ]

Yes, the lower grade mobo and i5 are good enough. RAM speed is quite meaningless these days. For gaming the Z77 has overclocking and Xfire both of which you were uninterested in.

 

[nick5511]

Actually the CPU I have listed has a 15% off for today, so I'll just get that one anyway.

Phew! Glad I checked up on that at the last minute.

One of my biggest concerns, though, is the fact that with my tower case which has 5 fans, will I have enough connectors for everything or will I have to buy extras?

 

[djscribbles]

I would recommend swapping the PSU to http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028
OCZ doesn't have the greatest reputation.

 

[g-unit1111]

Downgrade to B75 chipset and i5-3450 since you're not overclocking. Use the saved money to get a HD7850.

Why would you go B75? Then you're stuck with 15 year old parallel and serial ports that you'll never use. Go with H77 instead. Much more up to date.

 

[nick5511]

I would recommend swapping the PSU to http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028
OCZ doesn't have the greatest reputation.

Okay, sounds like a plan. Does it have enough connections for my build though? I am in the dark here on this one, to be honest.

 

[FinneousPJ]

Why would you go B75? Then you're stuck with 15 year old parallel and serial ports that you'll never use. Go with H77 instead. Much more up to date.

I would go with whatever's cheapest, doesn't matter really.

 

[djscribbles]

Usually the connectors are chain-able, so each doesn't need a dedicated connector. It's probably a good idea to limit it to 2-3 fans per branch of wires though.

A few can also be plugged in to your mobo usually, I would plug the smaller ones into the mobo so that if they are able to be slowed down, your motherboard will slow them down when not needed, leading to a quieter computer (though I'm not sure if mobo's will actually do that, never really bothered to find out).

(In short, I wouldn't worry about it, but the absolute worst case scenario is one of your fan's isn't connected, 5 is probably way more than needed anyhow)

 

[nick5511]

Usually the connectors are chain-able, so each doesn't need a dedicated connector. It's probably a good idea to limit it to 2-3 fans per branch of wires though.

A few can also be plugged in to your mobo usually, I would plug the smaller ones into the mobo so that if they are able to be slowed down, your motherboard will slow them down when not needed, leading to a quieter computer (though I'm not sure if mobo's will actually do that, never really bothered to find out).

(In short, I wouldn't worry about it, but the absolute worst case scenario is one of your fan's isn't connected, 5 is probably way more than needed anyhow)

I suppose there are worse tragedies in this world than not having ALL 5 fans going, lol. Thanks a lot for the help then!

 

[g-unit1111]

I suppose there are worse tragedies in this world than not having ALL 5 fans going, lol. Thanks a lot for the help then!

I think what he's trying to say is that three fans hook directly to your motherboard, the rest will run off the power supply through an adapter.

 

[nick5511]

I think what he's trying to say is that three fans hook directly to your motherboard, the rest will run off the power supply through an adapter.

Ah, gotcha. Thanks for the clarification. Good to know that all my fans should be...quite...operational

 

[g-unit1111]

Ah, gotcha. Thanks for the clarification. Good to know that all my fans should be...quite...operational

Yeah I ran into that problem on my build. Turned out that the motherboard was only rated for two of the case fans I was using, I had to go purchase an adapter to get the third to work.