new build for christmas. help please.

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herfalerf

Gawd
Joined
Jul 17, 2010
Messages
698
well the time has finally come to upgrade the old c2q. thanks for the help.


1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
gaming and schoolwork. i would like to be able to play the newest and most high end games. bf3, swtor, lol, and anything else that comes out in the next 2 years.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$800 is my limit including taxes and shipping.
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
fort worth, tx. there is a fry's in irving and i have heard there is a microcenter in dallas.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU, mobo, ram, SSD, cpu cooler, case
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
evga gtx 460 1gb (for now, i dont see any reason to upgrade my card until i make the switch to 1920x1080), 500gb hdd for storage, optical drive, seasonic s12 II 620w psu.
6) Will you be overclocking?
YES. this will be my first system that i have oced, so make it easy on me.
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
20" 1680x1050
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
sometime in the next 3 weeks.
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.
usb 3.0 and sata 6Gb/s would be great, anything else is just gravy as i have no future plans for multi gpu.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
this i am not sure about. i have windows 7 ultimate 64bit that i got from my university a couple years ago. i have the licence and everything, but im not sure if it is reusable. in any case i would like to exclude it from my budget.

so far this is what i have


Fractal Design Arc Mini Black High Performance PC Computer Case w/ USB 3.0 and 3 Fractal Design Silent Fans
Item #: N82E16811352008
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$99.99


G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL
Item #: N82E16820231428
Return Policy: Memory Standard Return Policy
$44.99


ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813131759
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
Protect Your Investment (expand for options)
-$10.00 Instant
$179.99
$169.99


Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 ...
Item #: N82E16819115072
Return Policy: CPU Replacement Only Return Policy
Protect Your Investment (expand for options)
$224.99


COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel ...
Item #: N82E16835103065
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
-$4.00 Instant
$29.99
$25.99


OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTX80G 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Item #: N82E16820227685
Return Policy: Limited Replacement Only Return Policy
Protect Your Investment (expand for options)
-$45.00 Instant
$179.99
$134.99
Subtotal: $700.94


The only thing i really know for sure about this build is that its intended purpose is gaming and i want an SSD. i dont know much about ivy bridge or if it would be worth waiting for that to release to upgrade (something i would consider) otherwise i think i will be going for the 2500k. i also really like the form factor of that fractal case. i will be picking up either that one or the fractal define mini so any mobo needs to be mATX. i may decide to hold off on the case for now just to save some money, though.
 
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Depending on how far you are from Microcenter, grab the 2500K + mobo bundle, e.g. with an Asus P8Z68-M Pro (which is mATX) it will be only ~$270. You cannot beat this deal. if you go on BF, the cpu is $150 but that would involve a long line.

For SSD I'd recommend a Crucial M4.

For the rest I defer to Danny.
 
im not seeing that deal on the microcenter website, although the 2500k is $179.99 by itself so thats $45 less than newegg. its gonna cost me around $15 round trip to micocenter and dallas has an 8.25% sales tax that i wouldnt have to pay at newegg. i think its still cheaper though. please link that combo deal if you can find the page for it. i could probably do that in a couple weeks. would it be better to buy during holidays or wait for ivy bridge?
 
herfalerf said:
im not seeing that deal on the microcenter website.
please link that combo deal if you can find the page for it.
Click to expand...
Right here:
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/33e9daac#/33e9daac/27

Do note that the particular sales that MrCrispy mentioned and the above ad shows will expire at the end of the month.
herfalerf said:
i could probably do that in a couple weeks. would it be better to buy during holidays or wait for ivy bridge?
Click to expand...

Whether or not to wait for Ivy Bridge largely depends on whether or not a 20% performance increase is worth the 3-4 months long wait.

Oh and SSD wise, I concur with MrCrispy's recommendation for a SSD: The Crucial M4 is more reliable and has higher performance than that OCZ SSD. That particular OCZ SSD is fairly slow despite what the specs say.
 
what about the corsair force gt ssd? its also sata 6.0gb/s and has similar read/write speeds to the m4. also i think i should note that that i do have an amazon prime membership.
 
herfalerf said:
what about the corsair force gt ssd? its also sata 6.0gb/s and has similar read/write speeds to the m4. also i think i should note that that i do have an amazon prime membership.
Click to expand...

Still Sandforce based so a little uneasy about recommending that.
 
i dont know much about ssds. whats wrong with sandforce? is there anything out there around 80-120gb that is under $200 and a good buy? that crucial m4 seems a bit pricey. i think im gonna head out to microcenter on monday. does anyone know if fry's price matches competitor sales? there is a fry's in arlington and that would save me some gas. i plan on picking up the 2500k+ asus p8z68 m-pro and a 8gb dual channel kit. gonna put the rest of the parts on my christmas wishlist, but i will be able to install the new stuff in my current case and run it at stock clocks until then.

i could really use a recommendation on ram. id prefer 8gbs at least and i want good ram for overclocking. someone said 1600 ram wasnt necessary, but the asus board supports up to ddr3 2200, arent higher numbers usually better?
 
For Sandy Bridge processors, there is extremely little performance benefit from RAM faster than DDR3-1333, but since DDR3-1600 is so cheap it is kind of in the sweet spot right now. No reason at all to go faster than that.

Not sure what the current pricing is like, but the Intel 320 is another solid SSD choice.
 
herfalerf said:
i dont know much about ssds. whats wrong with sandforce?
Click to expand...
Well the OCZ SSD you originally chose uses an older Sandforce controller that couldn't provide anywhere near its stated performance under real world conditions at first. And then OCZ went and updated that model line to a different SSD NAND flash type. That actually made the already slow OCZ Vertex 2 SSDs even slower.

The Corsair uses a newer Sandforce controllers which has this random BSOD issue. Last I checked this issue wasn't resolved.

herfalerf said:
is there anything out there around 80-120gb that is under $200 and a good buy? that crucial m4 seems a bit pricey.
Click to expand...
Well that's the price you pay for good quality and performance. You can often find the Crucial M4 128GB SSD for under $200 if you shop around.

The Intel 320 series is definitely better than the OCZ Vertex 2 series but it's a fairly dated design at this point in time and is actually half the performance of the Crucial m4 IIRC.
herfalerf said:
Does anyone know if fry's price matches competitor sales?
Click to expand...

They do pricematching but fairly sure they won't pricematch Microcenter's sales on the mobo and CPU:
http://www.frys.com/onlineads/0001507075
herfalerf said:
i could really use a recommendation on ram. id prefer 8gbs at least and i want good ram for overclocking. someone said 1600 ram wasnt necessary, but the asus board supports up to ddr3 2200, arent higher numbers usually better?
Click to expand...
The RAM you originally chose is fine.
 
I saw a review that showed very little gain from high speed ram. Since there is no bclk increase. The only gains that worth the money was ddr3-1600 cl9 performed the same as ddr3-1333 cl7, which in most games was a few fps faster than ddr3-1333 cl9. So with prices bouncing around if you can get a different model of ram with a little tighter timings or some ddr3-1600 for the same price, do it. It's only worth 2-4 fps, but why not if your not paying extra
 
ok im starting to realize that i should just bite the bullet on the crucial m4. as for the ram i was hoping for a recommendation of something that was available for sale at microcenter so i could just pick it up while im there getting the mobo and cpu. however upon closer inspection it appears that their prices are much higher than online retailers for ram so i think i will just order the ram now in preparation for getting the cpu/mobo on monday. im looking at these three options and im not really understanding the differences between any of them.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231426
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231417
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311

any other ram suggestions? id like to spend around $40 including shipping on the 8gbs of ram. looks like there are a bunch of choices in this price bracket.
 
i went to fry's....

picked up the 2500k, p8z68 pro and 8gb of kingston hyperx blu ddr3 1300. now i just have to figure out what im going to do with that g skill ram that i ordered from newegg. i bought the hyperx so that i could build my pc now, but if the gskill is a lot better i will just use that and sell the kingston ram.

still need some help with the SSD. things get a little bit tricky here as my mother is now involved in the purchasing of said SSD. basically shes going to be upset if i just give her a part number for a website and tell her to buy it so i would like to give her a few options to make her feel like shes picking it out.

are there any other 120GBish SSDs that are on par to the crucial m4? i saw the kingston hyperx drive had good ratings on newegg, but it was $235 or so before a MIR that expires in 2 days. id really like to keep it at our below the price of the crucial drive. come on people give me some choices.
 
Thanks for listening to us.... :rolleyes:

If you can cancel the order for the G.Skill RAM, do so. (What's the model number number of the HyperX RAM that you bought?)

We've been recommending the Crucial m4 for two good reasons: it's a good performance SSD and the others (save for the Intel 510, which is just as good but a bit more expensive) have the potential for performance (or quality) issues. If your mother makes the final decision, there's nothing we can do to sway her as she'll probably look towards the cheapest SSD she can find while believing that all SSDs perform about the same.
 
I'd imagine the Intel 510, Crucial M4 and Samsung 830 are the big SATA III contenders that aren't Sandforce-based controllers.
 
While the Intel 320 scores lower in benchmarks, I really don't think you would notice any difference in real world use. I went from an Intel X-25M to a Crucial M4, and the difference is only noticeable in large sequential transfers, which are fairly rare in normal desktop use. They are both so much faster than traditional hard drives that the difference between them is small in comparison.

For example:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4244/intel-ssd-320-review/10
 
tiraides said:
Thanks for listening to us.... :rolleyes:

If you can cancel the order for the G.Skill RAM, do so. (What's the model number number of the HyperX RAM that you bought?)

We've been recommending the Crucial m4 for two good reasons: it's a good performance SSD and the others (save for the Intel 510, which is just as good but a bit more expensive) have the potential for performance (or quality) issues. If your mother makes the final decision, there's nothing we can do to sway her as she'll probably look towards the cheapest SSD she can find while believing that all SSDs perform about the same.
Click to expand...

na shes not really making the final decision, i just want her to feel like she is =P. looks like the samsung 830 and the plextor pxm2p series both use the same controller as the m4. the plextor is a bit cheaper than the other 2, is it any good?

the model number on the hyper x is KHX1333C9D3B1K2/8G . its listed on their website as entry level gaming/enthusiast.

also i noticed i said i went to fry's. i meant microcenter. got the cpu/mobo/ram for $281.42 =P.
 
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