Need input on first build

[tmmccloud]

I am trying to get a good desktop gaming build keeping under 800$ budget. I have never built a desktop before so need to get some opinions on this possible build. I play games mostly like Elder Scrolls Skyrim, WoW, Diablo II, Starcraft II, Modern Warfare. Hopefully I didnt mess this up to bad or miss a bunch!!

GRAPHICS CARD: SAPPHIRE 100355LCL RADEON HD 7850 200.00
CPU: INTEL I5 2500K 200.00
MOTHERBOARD: ASROCK Z77 EXTREME4 134.99
MEMORY: G.SKILL ARES SERIES 8GB 240-PIN DDR3 1600 FREE
HDD: WD CAVIAR BLUE WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 69.99
PSU: RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-530SS 530W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V 39.99
CASE: ROSEWILL CHALLENGER BLACK GAMING ATX MID TOWER 49.99
OPTICAL DRIVE: ASUS 24X DVD BURNER 19.99
TOTAL: 711.00

 

[malbluff]

I would recommend changing CPU to i5-3570K. Whilst the motherboard will work with the 2500K, it is designed to get the best out of the 3570K. There is very little difference in price, and the 3570K is better, in most respects.
Raidmax aren't very good PSU's. You should change that. If budget will allow, either Seasonic 530W, or Corsair Builder Series 500W, are reasonable choices (Seasonic is better). A rubbish PSU is quite likely to die, and kill half your other components, with it!
Graphics card is pretty good for your games, certainly for reasonably high settings, as long as you don't have to have "ultra". More is always better, if you've got the budget, but that's more than adequate.

 

[g-unit1111]

I would recommend changing CPU to i5-3570K. Whilst the motherboard will work with the 2500K, it is designed to get the best out of the 3570K. There is very little difference in price, and the 3570K is better, in most respects.

Actually on that kind of budget I would not get an unlocked CPU. I'd go for an i5-3450 and H77, then put the money into upgrading your GPU to a Radeon 7870 or 7950.

Raidmax aren't very good PSU's. You should change that. If budget will allow, either Seasonic 530W, or Corsair Builder Series 500W, are reasonable choices (Seasonic is better). A rubbish PSU is quite likely to die, and kill half your other components, with it!

They're not just bad - that's an understatement. They're among the absolute worst in the industry. I've got a few that have blown up on me and are sitting on my desk as expensive paper weights. Not to mention their cases are of the absolute poorest quality imaginable - cheap plastic, sharp edges, and ports that can easily break and doors that fall off after a few months of use. Raidmax is a company that no one should ever patronize, and I'm serious about that. :lol:

On that kind of build I'd try something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3450 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.98 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($87.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($41.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($62.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($317.86 @ Newegg)
Case: Antec One ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($65.17 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $825.51
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-09-07 14:51 EDT-0400)

If you want to stay in budget use the i3-2120 or Radeon 7870.

 

[malbluff]

PS Forgot. Don't you forget, you will need aftermarket cooler, for CPU, if you want to overclock it. The cooler provided, with CPU, is not adequate, if overclocking. Something like Cooler Master Hyper212 EVO, is quite good and cheap.

 

[tmmccloud]

The reasoning behind the 2500k was that I had read that the ivy bridge i5 ran a lot hotter when OC'd and the 2500k was very easy in comparison to OC. (Mind you, I have never OCd anything, and dont know anything about how to do it,.....yet!)

As far as the PSU 500Watts will be plenty?

Once you plug everything into mobo, and the thing is literally put together, when you turn it on is there a lot of technical stuff to set up or just kinda turn on and install windows type deal?

 

[g-unit1111]

The reasoning behind the 2500k was that I had read that the ivy bridge i5 ran a lot hotter when OC'd and the 2500k was very easy in comparison to OC. (Mind you, I have never OCd anything, and dont know anything about how to do it,.....yet!)

As far as the PSU 500Watts will be plenty?

Once you plug everything into mobo, and the thing is literally put together, when you turn it on is there a lot of technical stuff to set up or just kinda turn on and install windows type deal?

That's a huge moot point - I know the benchmarks tell otherwise but every system is different in terms of cooling - I'm running that exact same CPU - and I've never seen any of the heat problems that people are talking about.

500W is plenty for a single, you'll need 600W or higher for dual GPUs.

As far as installing Windows goes - it's pretty much plug and play, Windows will handle all the formatting for you.

PS Forgot. Don't you forget, you will need aftermarket cooler, for CPU, if you want to overclock it. The cooler provided, with CPU, is not adequate, if overclocking. Something like Cooler Master Hyper212 EVO, is quite good and cheap.

That's why I'm not recommending the 2500K or 3570K on a budget, there's a lot more costs associated to overclocking than people realize, and even then you're better off putting that money in the GPU.

 

[malbluff]

I shouldn't worry about 3570K temperatures. That only becomes a real issue with extreme overclocking. The 3570K is just a better chip, and performance gap more than makes up for not being able to overclock, as drastically. G-unit1111 does make a valid point about possibly sacrificing the overclocking, in favour of better of better graphics card. Obviously, if funds allow, do both. 500W is adequate. If you want to overclock, and to give a "bit in hand" it can be a good idea to allow extra 10%-20%. Don't want any more, unless to are planning to add 2nd graphics card, or it starts to become inefficient.

 

[soldatz]

Once you plug everything into mobo, and the thing is literally put together, when you turn it on is there a lot of technical stuff to set up or just kinda turn on and install windows type deal?

After a build I spend about an hour in the BIOS, looking through all the settings and making tweaks based on my hardware and personal preferences. I often need to look up a few settings that I don't understand.

If you're not into that kind of thing the BIOS usually has some kind of "optimized defaults" settings that you can engage--fire and forget. That said, though, I think it's educational to go through the BIOS line by line and learn what everything does.