First Ever Gaming Rig

[abhijayluthra]

HI guys,
Ok so this is the first time ever I'm building a PC... only because my laptop cant handle any games
And I'm from India.. and the prices for components here are skyhigh
So basically this is the config I've built up till now... and I'll convert their prices to dollars just to help you understand my plight :lol:

Case: NZXT Phantom Original Full Tower w\ USB 3.0 (and the window side panel) 190$
Mobo: Asus Maximus V Formula 420$
Intel i5 3570K 270$
RAM: G-Skill RipjawsX 8GB 2133Mhz 95$
Samsung 840 Pro 128GB 115$
WD Caviar Black 2TB (I need help on this!) 190$
Seasonic SS-650 KM3 150$
LiteON BlueRay Drive 120$
GPU Sapphire HD 7950 Vapor-X 3GB GDDR5 415$

You guys need to suggest some good mPCIE Combo Wi-Fi Bluetooth cards coz I cant decide on any

Liquid Cooling:

Block: XS-PC Raystorm
Reservoir/Pump : XSPC res-pump 750 combo
Rad: XSPC RS240
Total :270$

Plus I'm getting a few NZXT fans as I heard only those fit

Btw I'm coming to USA next month so I don't mind getting these products from there as long as they have international warranty

Plz guys any suggestions are invited as I'm still a noob.. what with still being 16 and funded
Thanks for all your help

 

[ssddx]

Case: NZXT Phantom Original Full Tower w\ USB 3.0 (and the window side panel) 190$
--i would suggest something with a very open design if you can such as products like these. your temps will be better. of course there are other brands to pick from but this kind of style as opposed to the solid front designs are ideal.
Mobo: Asus Maximus V Gene 270$
--why are you buying a microatx board in a full tower case? it would be better if you went with an atx board like this
Intel i5 3570K 270$
--should be fine with this for gaming. if you dont want to overclock you can buy a non K suffixed chip.
RAM: G-Skill RipjawsX 8GB 2133Mhz 95$
--make sure you buy 2x4gb so you can use dual channel. personally i would go with corsair or mushkin memory instead. 2133mhz is impressive though but i'm not sure about the brand g-skill.
Kingston V+200 120GB SSD 115$
--a ssd will not give you better gaming performance. your boot times will be less and windows will be snappier but thats it. the only drives i would buy are the samsung 830, 840, 840pro or intel ssd. keep in mind that you only want to fill to 80% capacity as well so with os you are left with only 70gb free space.
WD Caviar Green 3TB (I need help on this!) 150$
--dont buy a high capacity drive as they are prone to early failure. buy a 1tb or 1.5tb drive instead. i would go with a wd caviar black, samsun spinpoint or seagate barracuda.
Seasonic SS-750KM3 180$
--a 650w is likely good enough. go with a corsair hx........ or if you prefer something from xfx or pc power & cooling.
LiteON BlueRay Drive 120$
--do you absolutely need this? remember you did not allow for a gpu in your budget.

You guys need to suggest some good mPCIE Combo Wi-Fi Bluetooth cards coz I cant decide on any
--connecting up via cat5e hardwire is better since you get a better connection speed. if that isnt an option then i dont have an answer on which cards would be good.

Liquid Cooling:

Block: XS-PC Raystorm
Reservoir/Pump : XSPC res-pump 750 combo
Rad: XSPC RS240
Total :270$
--dont buy any of this crap. remember you did not select a gpu which is an expensive part of your budget. go with a large air cooler or perhaps a lower end corsair cpu loop.

Plus I'm getting a few NZXT fans as I heard only those fit
--you wont need them if you go with the alternative.

--you seem to have completely forgotten about the gpu. depending on what games you play this can be rather expensive. i would suggest to start looking at the gtx660ti or gtx670 range and comparing gpu charts with the type of games you want to play.

 

[abhijayluthra]

Case: NZXT Phantom Original Full Tower w\ USB 3.0 (and the window side panel) 190$
--i would suggest something with a very open design if you can such as products like these. your temps will be better. of course there are other brands to pick from but this kind of style as opposed to the solid front designs are ideal.
Mobo: Asus Maximus V Gene 270$
--why are you buying a microatx board in a full tower case? it would be better if you went with an atx board like this
Intel i5 3570K 270$
--should be fine with this for gaming. if you dont want to overclock you can buy a non K suffixed chip.
RAM: G-Skill RipjawsX 8GB 2133Mhz 95$
--make sure you buy 2x4gb so you can use dual channel. personally i would go with corsair or mushkin memory instead. 2133mhz is impressive though but i'm not sure about the brand g-skill.
Kingston V+200 120GB SSD 115$
--a ssd will not give you better gaming performance. your boot times will be less and windows will be snappier but thats it. the only drives i would buy are the samsung 830, 840, 840pro or intel ssd. keep in mind that you only want to fill to 80% capacity as well so with os you are left with only 70gb free space.
WD Caviar Green 3TB (I need help on this!) 150$
--dont buy a high capacity drive as they are prone to early failure. buy a 1tb or 1.5tb drive instead. i would go with a wd caviar black, samsun spinpoint or seagate barracuda.
Seasonic SS-750KM3 180$
--a 650w is likely good enough. go with a corsair hx........ or if you prefer something from xfx or pc power & cooling.
LiteON BlueRay Drive 120$
--do you absolutely need this? remember you did not allow for a gpu in your budget.

You guys need to suggest some good mPCIE Combo Wi-Fi Bluetooth cards coz I cant decide on any
--connecting up via cat5e hardwire is better since you get a better connection speed. if that isnt an option then i dont have an answer on which cards would be good.

Liquid Cooling:

Block: XS-PC Raystorm
Reservoir/Pump : XSPC res-pump 750 combo
Rad: XSPC RS240
Total :270$
--dont buy any of this crap. remember you did not select a gpu which is an expensive part of your budget. go with a large air cooler or perhaps a lower end corsair cpu loop.

Plus I'm getting a few NZXT fans as I heard only those fit
--you wont need them if you go with the alternative.

--you seem to have completely forgotten about the gpu. depending on what games you play this can be rather expensive. i would suggest to start looking at the gtx660ti or gtx670 range and comparing gpu charts with the type of games you want to play.

Actually the Phantom quite caught my eye and I can't seem to get over it.

Mobo: The Sabertooth costs around 400$ here in India.. and Asus doesn't offer International Warranty on Mobo's.. so seriously out of the budget

Ram.. I'm pretty confident about G-skill.. besides its cheaper than Corsair here

SSD.. It's not going to be only a Gaming PC.. I can get samsung 840 series here easily too.. would you suggest I go for that?

HDD.. I'll look into the Caviar Black

PSU.. Heck I'll fo for a Corsair HX if its cheaper than this.. I just didn't want the rig to be underpowered.. I'll look into the 650 if you say so

Sorry I'd forgotten to write about the GPU before :lol:
That's included in my budget.. the Sapphire HD7950 Vapor-X 3GB.. is that okay?
Besides that do you think I won't need liquid cooling.. I am looking into OC'ing..

Thanks for your help man. Really appreciate it

 

[abhijayluthra]

And also I've decided to maybe upgrade the Gene to the Formula ^_^

 

[ssddx]

you can pick whatever case you want however i'm telling you that a case with good airflow may be a better choice especially considering how hot it can get in india.

upgrading to the asus maximus v formula would also work. you shouldnt need a wireless card either since it supports 802.11.

keep the invoice when you buy the gkill since although it says lifetime warranty they want to see it. kind of silly if you ask me since lifetime is typically 50-100 years.....again, your choice of ram.

go with a samsung 840

do a power calc with 100% load (google "psu calc" its the first link) and add 100w to the number for a good estimate.total draw should be a little under 500w which makes the 650w a decent overhead. you dont want to buy a cheap psu as it can take out your whole system if it fails.

what is okay for a gpu depends on what you intend to do with it. a 7950 is good for mid-level gaming but isnt going to win any awards in the performance category. you may want to upgrade to a better card if you want to play on ultra high details for a few years. as i said take a look at some gpu charts anandtech.com has a nice benchmark area for you to look at.

liquid cooling done properly is very expensive and can run 30-40% of the cost of your computer. even if you watercool the cpu you still need to cool the rest of the components. you could get away with a corsair cpu cooling loop as i said before but a large air cooler can handle overclocks of 4ghz on the i7 chips without too much of an issue.

meet the noctua nh-d14... at full load i7 oc to 4ghz 68c temp

 

[abhijayluthra]

So the samsung 840 it is, and also I've decided to go along with the Seasonic SS-650KM3.
I'm getting liquid cooling for 160 bucks for both the processor AND the mobo (Thermo Fusion), so I thought it was good enough a deal for OC'ing. Besides the NH-DH14 will cost me around 140 dollars here.
Nearly the same.
Which GPU would you suggest? A 7970? On the reviews they say that the 7950 can overtake 7970 stock on over-clocking.
Thanks a lot sir