Seeking build advice

[SinShiva]

A few questions: I had to sell my sig desktop, but things are looking up in my life and I intend to build again soon.

Have a mATX Lian Li pcv350 and an 800w corsair psu still. I also have the LG w2363d 120hz monitor. For this reason, I'll be gaming at 1920x1080. No desire for multimonitor gaming. I prefer nVidia over ATi, for the moment.

I've decided on the following, more or less:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127696 (660 ti)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148555 (crucial 2x4gb 1866)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157303 (asrock 1155)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072 (2500k)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147164 (samsung 256gb)

as of 19oct, totalling 815usd.

1.) I'd have gone with a phenom to save ~100usd, but I was concerned with the pci-e limitation of 2.0 rather than 3.0, at least for the mATX boards I was looking at. Would pcie2.0 bottleneck a 660ti ? Would an i3 bottleneck a 660ti ? The i3 seems pretty equivalent in performance to a phenom x4, but of course with far less oc potential, at least for now. I chose the ram specifically to give me more headroom with a 2500k, as ram definitely limited my OC with my 920. (I sure would like to try out an unlocked i3. I'd disable HT. Love you Intel, but not a fan of hyperthreading.) My prime concern with cpus is maintaining a high minimum framerate.

2.) Trying to trade off cost/performance for a ~250gb ssd. that samsung ssd my best choice for staying under 200usd ?

3.) Cuda, falling in favor of OpenCL? @ nVidia fanboys, is there any reason to go with a 7950 instead? in the past, ATi was generally great bang for the buck, but nVidia always seemed more 'solid' to me. (had a 9800 pro back in the day.) I generally lean toward more nVidia-supported apps. Also, I love 8x CSAA. WAY better than this FXAA bs. Hate MSAA, but not as much as the uglified FXAA. I know ATi has a CSAA alternative, but I've never used it. I don't expect it to run as magnificently on their cards as CSAA does with nVidia, but I'm probably wrong. I've seen some low end nvidia cards get slightly better performance than with aa off, lol. i assume this is because it moves some load off the cpu.

4.) I've probably got ~6 months, give or take, before I can spring for this. Up and coming tech I should wait for? If not, I might consider eating less and building sooner. lol

Seems like a pretty solid build for what's available on newegg. wish it could have been 100-200usd cheaper, but shooting for 4.4ghz 24/7 with the 2500k sounds mighty appealing and good future-proofing. my i7 920, i ran 24/7 at 191x21 (ht off), like i said, pretty sure because of the 1600 ram i used. Highest I could get stable was 4.1ghz, so I gave up in favor of less power consumption. It would post as high as 4.4, though.

Haven't decided on cooling, but I know i'm pretty much limited to a noctua or a corsair closed loop. had their first, H50 or h60? Are the newest ones better? I ended up moving the old desktop to a lian li full atx with a thermalright cooler for nicer temps, which is what I sold it off in.

An aside, by the time i start building this, I may spring for an asus mobo. I've had an asrock before and it was pretty solid. definitely not a fan of gigabyte.

I believe this covers all my questions and concerns. i'm excited to have a reason to build something new, even if it meant losing the former beasty.

 

[Dangman]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148555 (crucial 2x4gb 1866)
.....
I chose the ram specifically to give me more headroom with a 2500k, as ram definitely limited my OC with my 920.

Current Intel platforms do not benefit from higher speed RAM like this. In fact, you do not touch the RAM at all when overclocking the SB and IB CPUs. As such, you could OC that 2500K to 5GHz and still have RAM rated at DDR3 1333.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157303 (asrock 1155)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072 (2500k)

If you're planning onoverclocking, you need to go with a mobo with the Z77 chipset as that will actually have options for overclocking whereas H77 and B75 chipsets won't. If you're not overclocking, that H77 mobo will be fine.

Would pcie2.0 bottleneck a 660ti ?

No.

Would an i3 bottleneck a 660ti?

Depends on the game. BF3 and Skyrim will show lower performance with an i3 over an i5.

The i3 seems pretty equivalent in performance to a phenom x4, but of course with far less oc potential, at least for now.

Actually the i3 outperforms the Phenom X4 while using significantly less power and heat.

2.) Trying to trade off cost/performance for a ~250gb ssd. that samsung ssd my best choice for staying under 200usd ?

It's an excellent deal for a 256GB SSD. Considering that the 840 and 840 w/e have just been released, the low costs of the Samsung 830 won't last for long.

4.) I've probably got ~6 months, give or take, before I can spring for this. Up and coming tech I should wait for? If not, I might consider eating less and building sooner. lol

You're planning this build too early then as prices and availability can change within a month let alone 6 months from now. Not to mention that Intel's Haswell CPUs is coming out in March to June 2012. If you want an up-to-date build without having to constantly check and re-check if the parts are still good or available, just wait until you're actually 1-2 weeks away from buying the parts of the PC to start planning.

Haven't decided on cooling, but I know i'm pretty much limited to a noctua or a corsair closed loop. had their first, H50 or h60? Are the newest ones better? I ended up moving the old desktop to a lian li full atx with a thermalright cooler for nicer temps, which is what I sold it off in.

The newer liquid cooling kits are just higher-end versions of the first released liquid cooling kits. As such, they do perform better but cost significantly more.

 

[SinShiva]

Thanks, as always, for the concise reply. I know i'm jumping the gun planning the build, but half the fun is anticipation. lol

[edit] so, i guess the most important change will be to a z77 chipset. the ram i picked may be overkill, but i like the idea of fast ram. I'll be building this sooner than march, i hope. thanks again, this is the best way to get current on hardware for me.[/edit]

[edit2] after doing some more research, i think i may just go for an i3, after all. i can live with not ocing. [/edit]

 

[SinShiva]

alright, new question. if i go with an ivy bridge i3, is there an optimal chipset to use with it?

 

[Dangman]

alright, new question. if i go with an ivy bridge i3, is there an optimal chipset to use with it?

The Z77, Z75, B75, and H77 are the best chipsets to use with that IB i3 since it means native USB 3.0 support and better chance of supporting that new CPU.

 

[SinShiva]

thanks, again. I am very impressed by the ib i3s. Gaming pcs have gotten so much easier.