Blackjanek

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Nov 17, 2012
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I am planning to do my first PC build, and I wanted to ask, is this a good setup?

Graphics Card - ASUS GF GTX 560Ti 2048 MB DDR5

Processor - INTEL CORE i5-2500K

Mother board - ASROCK Z77 EXTREME4

RAM - DDR3 CORSAIR 8 GB / 1866 (2x 4 GB), CL9, XMP, Vengeance

Boot Drive - SSD ADATA Premier Pro SP600, 64 GB, 2.5", SATA3, 360 MB/s, 130 MB/s

Main Storage - I have a HP hard drive that i can use, 1 TB

PSU - OCZ ModXStream-Pro, 700W, modular

Optical Drive - SAMSUNG SH-224BB, I really dont plan on using it much...

CPU cooling - CORSAIR Hydro H80i

Case - AEROCOOL Xpredator X3 Devil Red Edition

Would this thermal paste be good? - THERMALTAKE TG-3

Thank you for your replies ^__^
 

excella1221

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Aug 23, 2012
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Get the latest generation, Ivy Bridge, i5-3570K. It's only $10 more.

1600MHz and 1866MHz have virtually no difference in real life play, just get the cheaper one.

You'll find in the long run that 64mb is a bit too small since the OS itself will take up more or less half that capacity. The sweet spot for SSDs is 128gb.

ModXStream isn't that great, please consider the more reliable brands/series. We wouldn't want any components frying because of a cheap PSU.

560 Ti is too expensive for its performance. The 7850 easily outperforms it.

Dunno much about the H80i, but if you're not gonna OC that much or even at all for a long while, just get a cheap one like the 212 EVO, then put the saved cash onto a better video card.

Stock thermal paste is fine unless you'll be doing high overclocking.
 

BreadWhistle

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Sep 21, 2012
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Whoa there! Most of your parts are mismatched (Some parts new, some parts old) I'll modify your build just a bit

CPU: i5 3570K
It's Ivy Bridge, performs a bit better than the 2500K, and can take advantage of certain features in a Z77 board that a 2500K cannot.

CPU Cooler: I wouldn't recommend any pre-built liquid cooling loop. Just get a CM Hyper 212 EVO or if you really want to overclock a lot, get the water cooler, though I still don't advise it.

GPU: The 560ti is bleh. Get a HD 7870

RAM: No need to get 1866MHz, just get 1600MHz

PSU: I don't know why everyone bashes on OCZ for having bad PSU's. I own a 550FTY and it works fine.
 

excella1221

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^because OCZ has had a reputation of having high failure rates, loud fans, and mediocre performance especially the -Stream series.

Not all of their PSUs are bad though, the Z- series are quite well done.
 

Blackjanek

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Nov 17, 2012
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What i heard, and also see is that the ATI cars have problems in real life, graphics glitches like stuttering, etc
 

excella1221

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^ATI stopped being in the scene a couple of years ago. AMD bought them off and is calling the shots now and there are no big problems I know of that nVIDIA doesn't have either.
 

Blackjanek

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Well, its still ATI in my mind xD, but i know that my dad, (hes over 50 but a gamer xD) bought himself a gaming pc from hp, which i told him not to, with a amd gpu, dont know exactly which one, and in every game that requiers a little more power, his screen stutters and sometimes gets huge fps drops
 



Agree with all this, except the part about OCZ power supplies, and although they may be okay, I would prefer something else.
Also, seen the OPs remark about ATI, there is absolutely nothing wrong with ATI video cards, nothing at all. In your searches for hardware, it is easy to run across someone who has had a problem with some particular item for some obscure reason, so they jump onto the web and start raving about "so-and-so's products are crap!" Do extensive research from reputable hardware sites, and pay very little attention to user reviews you see on retail sites.
 


That may or may not have anything to do with video card. Also, since this is prebuild, it is very likely that the "gaming" card installed is very minimal. That is why we build our own gaming machines. Prebuilds are built with 1 thing in mind, making money, which means no matter what they tell you or are promoting, they skimp in important areas with lower end hardware. This is a prime example of how exactly what I just posted, and means nothing at all about ATI (now made by AMD) quality or performance.
 

BreadWhistle

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Sep 21, 2012
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7870 hands down. Even though it's back and forth in benchmarks between the two, the 660 will struggle to handle heavy anti-aliasing in games because of it's tiny 192bit interface, opposed to the 7870's 256bit bus width.