Building my first PC, just looking for opinions

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

Gaming, 3D modeling, internet, etc.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

Roughly $1400-1500 without tax/shipping

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

Boston, MA, USA

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc.

Case, CPU, Mobo, RAM, GPU, Optical w/ Lightscribe, PSU, SSD, HDD, Monitor, Webcam, CPU Cooler, Keyboard

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

Logitech G500 Mouse, brand new
Altec Lansing Expressionist Plus 2.1 Speakers, 1 yr old


6) Will you be overclocking?

At some point, yes

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?

Will buy 23" Asus 1080p LED

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

Hopefully before end of September

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.

UEFI, SATA III, PCI 2.0 x16, Intel Z68, USB 3.0

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

I have Win 7 Professional 64 bit through MSDNAA. Can I transfer that license?

I'm pretty sure that I'm happy with all of the parts I've chosen so far. I've run it by a few people, and they all think it's good.

CPU: i5 2500k
Mobo: MSI Z68A-GD55 (B3)
Case: NZXT Guardian 921 RB
GPU: MSI R6970 Lightning
PSU: Corsair GS800
SSD: 64GB Crucial M4
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3
Memory: G.Skill 8GB DDR3 1600
Optical: Lite-On iHAS424-98 w/ Lightscribe
CPU Cooler: CM Hyper 212+
Monitor: Asus VH238H
Webcam: Logitech C310

The only thing I'm really still unsure about is the PSU. I've had several people tell me that its overkill, but others say it's not enough. Of course, if you have any suggestions on alternative parts, those would be appreciated. I also haven't chosen a keyboard yet, but I'm relatively indifferent on keyboards in general. I would prefer wired over wireless, a high number of maximum simultaneous key presses, and a backlight. Thanks!

rphillipps16 said:

I have Win 7 Professional 64 bit through MSDNAA. Can I transfer that license?

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Are you still in College? If so, yes I believe. If not, from what I understand, no. Might want to ask that question over in the OS subforum just to make sure.

rphillipps16 said:

PSU: Corsair GS800

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While the PSU is a tad overkill, the problem is taht this PSU is a pretty crappy buy considering that the higher quality 850TX V2 costs only $5 more:
$135 - Corsair 850TX V2 850W PSU

The 850TX V2 PSU has power on the +12V rail (70A VS 65A on the GS800), is of better quality and has better performance. Still overkill for your needs but if you have money to burn, get the 850TX V2.

In fact, there's a combo deal right now with the video card you chose and the above 850TX V2 that knocks off $32:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.731677

The only part left I have an issue with is that case: Not sure if it'll be able to cool a HD 6970 well.

Unless you really like the Lightning 6970, you could save $20-$30 and get a standard 6970, which will have plenty of performance for 1080p. Even a 6950 would probably be okay at that resolution, depending on what games you play. If you like the Lightning because of the cooler, here's an Asus with a similar dual fan cooler that is $25 cheaper:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121430

I second what Danny said, but I also wanna add that you can save a few bucks going with this RAM instead. You'll see no real world performance increase going with DDR3 1600 over DDR3 1333, so save the bucks and get the cheaper set.

$47.99 - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333

Although gaming will not benefit from more than about 4GB right now, depending on what 3D Modeling program you use and other programs you use that deals with 3D Modeling (Such as Photoshop for texture creating) you might be able to benefit from having 16GB of total RAM so getting two of those kits would probably be best but that depends on how serious you are with 3D Modeling.

While it's true that there isn't much performance difference now between 1333 and 1600, no one really knows what IB will bring, so why not spend $4 more and get the original set, since prices are so low? It's worth $4 to be a little more future/resell proof, at least in my mind.

Danny Bui said:

Are you still in College? If so, yes I believe. If not, from what I understand, no. Might want to ask that question over in the OS subforum just to make sure.

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Yes I'm still in school. I'll go ask them.

Danny Bui said:

While the PSU is a tad overkill, the problem is taht this PSU is a pretty crappy buy considering that the higher quality 850TX V2 costs only $5 more:
$135 - Corsair 850TX V2 850W PSU

The 850TX V2 PSU has power on the +12V rail (70A VS 65A on the GS800), is of better quality and has better performance. Still overkill for your needs but if you have money to burn, get the 850TX V2.

In fact, there's a combo deal right now with the video card you chose and the above 850TX V2 that knocks off $32:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.731677

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Thanks for that! By the way, is there any way to check what the combo deals are at any time?

Danny Bui said:

The only part left I have an issue with is that case: Not sure if it'll be able to cool a HD 6970 well.

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I'll be honest, I picked that case because of looks. I really like blue LEDs. The Newegg picture doesn't do it justice This picture is much better. Is there a case that has them and has improved airflow over the Guardian?

Skillz said:

Although gaming will not benefit from more than about 4GB right now, depending on what 3D Modeling program you use and other programs you use that deals with 3D Modeling (Such as Photoshop for texture creating) you might be able to benefit from having 16GB of total RAM so getting two of those kits would probably be best but that depends on how serious you are with 3D Modeling.

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I'm gonna be doing light to medium SolidWorks, mainly for school and work. RAM is so cheap nowadays, so I might as well get the 8GB DDR3 1600. It's only a $4 difference anyway. I definitely won't need 16GB.

rphillipps16 said:

Thanks for that! By the way, is there any way to check what the combo deals are at any time?

Click to expand...

http://www.newegg.com/Special/Combo.aspx?listType=combo&name=Combo-Deals

rphillipps16 said:

I'll be honest, I picked that case because of looks. I really like blue LEDs. The Newegg picture doesn't do it justice This picture is much better. Is there a case that has them and has improved airflow over the Guardian?

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Check out these cases instead. Not all of them have blue LEDs but they might float your boat nonetheless:
$70 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58W ATX Case
$70 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56 ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$100 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$110 - NZXT Whisper WHI - 001BK ATX Full Tower Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7FN ATX Case
$110 - Lian Li PC-60FN ATX Case
$113 - Velocity Micro GX2-W Silver Classic Aluminum Case with Side Window
$110 - Fractal Design Arc Mini Tower
$120 - Corsair Carbide Series 400R ATX Case
$130 - Fractal Design Define R3 Black ATX Case
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - Lian Li PC-9F ATX Case
$140 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$140 - Antec Performance One Series P183 V3 ATX Case
$143 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-002OR Black Finish w/Orange Trim Full Tower ATX Case
$160 - Corsair Graphite Series 600TM ATX Case
$170 - Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$160 - Silverstone RV02B-W ATX case
$178 - Silverstone RV02B-EW ATX case
$190 - Corsair Obsidian Series 650D ATX Case

rphillipps16 said:

I'm gonna be doing light to medium SolidWorks, mainly for school and work. RAM is so cheap nowadays, so I might as well get the 8GB DDR3 1600. It's only a $4 difference anyway. I definitely won't need 16GB.

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RAM is stupid cheap at this point and might be raising in price over the next year so if you have spare cash, go for 16GB of RAM right now while it's cheap. Believe me, plenty of people got screwed back in the DDR2 days when they only bought 2GB or 4GB of RAM when DDR2 RAM was cheap. Then DDR2 prices started rising and rising to the point that a new system with DDR3 RAM was more cost-effective.

How does anyone feel about this case? It's surprisingly cheap, has good cable management (one of my problems with NZXT cases), looks great, and is good at cooling.

rphillipps16 said:

How does anyone feel about this case? It's surprisingly cheap, has good cable management (one of my problems with NZXT cases), looks great, and is good at cooling.

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Doesn't look like it has good cable management at all. It doesn't have any of the typical cable management features. I.e large oval openings/holes , opening near the PSU bay to route PSU cables through, openings directly behind the motherboard, openings above the motherboard tray, etc. You can see what I'm talking about with the Coolermaster HAF 912 or the Lian Li PC-K58W cases

In addition it appears to have a very cramped interior. Cooling does appear to be good however. But the only big thing going for that case is that 190mm fan. Remove it and that case has little else to offer over similarly priced cases. The 190mm fan isn't a fair trade off for cramped space and really poor cable management IMO.

$5 more for the Lian Li PC-K58W gets you significantly better cable management, larger space, and a larger case.

Take a trip up to the Microcenter in Cambridge. They have some cheaper CPUs than Newegg. $180 for a 2500k (before taxes.)

tonytnnt said:

Take a trip up to the Microcenter in Cambridge. They have some cheaper CPUs than Newegg. $180 for a 2500k (before taxes.)

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Any idea if that comes with the free copy of Trackmania 2? Deal's all over the internet, like here on Newegg

No idea, you'd have to call them.