What do you think of this gaming build

I assume you are ordering this PC to be built for you from a web service. Everything looks compatible, but not a great value at all. A custom built system with comparable performance would probably cost you around $800 to $1000.

I'll point out a few quick things:

1. You are likely paying quite a bit for that self contained liquid cpu cooler when an air cooled heat sink fan would perform almost if not just as well, especially for only a 10% overclock.

2. The 800 watt power supply is way overkill for that system. Even if you wanted to SLI that GTX 660 down the road, a 600w unit from a good brand would be more than enough.

3. A sound card is probably unnecessary as most higher end motherboards like that one have solid on-board audio.

Overall, if you were to custom build a system yourself with that budget, you could get a great deal more performance for the money. It's not hard at all and can be quite fun if you have a little extra time.

There are guides such as this one that make it very easy by explaining every step:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL291F84A80CA32304&fe...


If you decide to go that route, one of us here can budget out a build for you that would be much better.

Agree with JD88. The 3.8Ghz for turbo boost isn't even overclocked. The liquid cooling is way too much for this unless you start talking 4.5Ghz and above.

The "standard" power supply would scare me. There are plenty of quality and junk power supplies out there.

A 660 card for a $1800 system. The 660's run $200-250. That means you are spending 12-14% on your video card. I would double that percentage. You need to get a HD7970 or 680 for that system.

Thanks for the quick responses guys. Your correct this will be an ironside build. But what if I want to overclock it more down the road? You think air cooled would still be sufficient? I'd rather err on the side of caution since I don't think you can cool anything too much. Plus it's on sale at ironside so it's coming free with all their pc in feb.
When I price out everything on newegg with taxes and shipping it's $1,560.10. For things that newegg didn't offer or I didn't know which brand I selected the cheapest option. Newegg carried everything except the cooler so I priced with the comparable corsair h60 which is only 8 bucks more on ironside. That doesn't include a 3 years parts and labor warranty, life time tech support, or the know how to make it "sparkle" if you will with professional wiring. Add that to the fact I don't have the time to learn. I know it's not that hard my brother built his comp last year. However he also built his twice! Rofl from what I remember his power supply had an unshielded wire end that somehow touched a case screw and fried everything. Not saying that would happen to me but my point is *** happens. I'm far more comfortable being able to ship it somewhere to someone who's job it is to know what they're doing then learn myself. Newegg only offers a 2 year warranty on parts and only on some selections plus the added expense.

I know I already had the same thought when I see standard anything. I'm typing this on a cyberpowerpc. Don't get me started     This POS is why I first looked into building my own but like I said above I don't want to do this build myself. Ironside has a good rep plus the with the 3 year I was hoping it would be fine but since you guys think it's overkill anyways I'll go with a lower w name brand. The sound card was picked cause I need a card with an optical toslink to hook up my triton headset. The triton is nice but I didn't research it well enough and ended up with a nice headset that couldn't use the amp it comes with cause my sound blaster xfi only has the normal 5.1 3mm.

I think I'm going to go with this


Case - Antec Twelve Hundred V3 (Full Tower)
Custom Painted Case (Any Color) - None
Custom Airbrush Logos & Emblems - None
Custom Airbrushed Gamertags - None
Additional Case Fans - 1 x 120mm Blue LED Cooler Master Sickleflow High Performance Fan
Internal Lighting - None
Intel Processor - [Overclockable] Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz, 3.8GHz Turbo Boost (Quad Core)
CPU Cooling - Asetek 550LC High Performance Liquid Cooling
PC Liquid Coolant - None
Liquid Cooling Tubing Color - Clear / None
Kink Coils - None
Intel Motherboard - [x-fire, SLI] ASRock Z77 Extreme4 [VGA DVI HDMI] SATA 6Gb/s USB3 {4 DDR3 Slots}
Overclocking Processor - [FREE] Overclock Processor up to 10%
Overclock Protection Warranty - None
Overclocking Graphics Card - Stock Speed
Memory - G.Skill Ripjaws 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz
Memory Cooling - None
Primary Hard Drive - Samsung 840 Series 250GB SSD Read: 540MB/s Write: 250MB/s
Hard Drive Cooling - None
Secondary Hard Drive - 2TB 7200 RPM
Secondary Hard Drive Cooling - None
1st Optical Drive - DVD Writer
2nd Optical Drive - None
Graphics Card - Nvidia Geforce GTX 660 2GB (Min. 600 Watt Power Supply)
Liquid Cool Graphics Card - None
[SLI / X-fire] Second Video Card - None
[SLI / X-fire] Liquid Cool Graphics card - None
[3-way SLI / X-fire] Third Graphics Card - None
[3-Way SLI / X-fire] Liquid Cool Graphics Card - None
Power Supply - Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650 650 Watt 80 Plus Bronze
Operating System - Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
Networking - Internal Wireless N 300Mbps
Fan Controller - None
Media Card Readers - None
Sound Card - ASUS XONAR DG 5.1
PC Games - None
TV Tuners - None
Office Software - None
Antivirus Software - None
Monitor - None
Second Monitor - None
Mouse - None
Keyboard - None
Speakers & Headsets - None
Packaging - [FREE] Advanced Packaging System - Custom foam to protect and secure internal components from shipping abuse
Wiring - Advanced Pro Wiring - Individually Sleeved Cables (Blue)
Technical Support - Life-time U.S. based technical support and customer service by our own in-house technicians
Rush Service - [Standard] Shipped Out in 2 - 10 Business Days
Video Demonstration - None
Warranty - Standard 3 Years Parts and 3 Years Labor

$1,710.42

Aside from how much more it is then if I built it myself what do you think?

You can cool with air up to 4.5Ghz usually pretty easily. The DH14 will do it fine. On the cheap the CM Hyper 212EVO will take you to 4.3Ghz usually and it cost $29

The money is distributed in the wrong places.
You are getting things for an OK retail price,but it's parts that make you go "why pay more for a case then a motherboard"?

If you spent 1770$ and you only got an extrem4, a bronze PSU, and a gtx 660 you got ripped off.

that, is one very, very sad build for the price.

skip the sound card unless you're a massive audiophile or are professionally involved with it. onboard sound are usually enough for a majority of people.

stick with a Hyper 212 EVO, or whatever's the cheapest they have to offer beyond the stock cooler. if you ever need to OC more than 4.3ghz, and heat is a problem, you're better off with a custom water loop than an all-in-one closed loop water cooler, if you're ready for the effort.

if you're open to building one yourself; http://pcpartpicker.com/p/G36J

Solid build looking at only the parts and not the price. My only suggestion might be to cut back in a few places (cooler, PSU, Sound Card) and put the savings towards a stronger graphics card. It would make for a more balanced rig and I don't think you would regret it long term. That card will run most games well at 1080 but will likely struggle as newer titles are released.

whoops started to reply then left and had diner. Was only 2 responses when I started my post so I don't think you guys saw my explanations or the new build